Harmony #98: Who Is Our King? (John 19, Mark 15, Luke 23)

When Pilate heard what they said, he was more afraid than ever, and he went back into the governor’s residence and said to Jesus, “Where do you come from?”[1] But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know I have the authority to release you, and to crucify you?”

Jesus replied, “You would have no authority over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of greater sin.” From this point on, Pilate tried to release him. But the Jewish leaders shouted out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar![2] Everyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar!”

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judgment seat in the place called “The Stone Pavement” (Gabbatha in Aramaic). (Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover, about noon [or nine o’clock]) Pilate said to the Jewish leaders, “Look, here is your king!”

Then they shouted out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your king?” The high priests replied, “We have no king except Caesar!”[3]Because he wanted to satisfy the crowd, Pilate decided that their demand should be granted.

He released, Barabbas, the man they asked for, who had been thrown in prison for insurrection and murder.  But he handed Jesus over to their will, to be crucified. [4]So they took Jesus, stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

In "Avinu Malkeinu" in the Talmud, a rabbi prays to God for rain (a metaphor for God’s provision) with these words:

“Avinu Malkeinu, our father, our king, we have sinned against you. Our father our king, we have no king other than You. Our father, our king, for your sake have mercy upon us.”[5]

Soooo….. we have a problem. The Jewish people knew that they had one King, God. They should have said, “We have no king but Yahweh.” Unfortunately, this misplaced allegiance is not new. It began with,

“Give us a king! Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” (1 Samuel 8:19-20)

God granted their request, with some guidelines:

“The king must not acquire great numbers of horses… for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” (military aggression) He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray (political alliances that introduce idolatry). He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold (greed and corruption). (Deuteronomy 17:16-17) 

But all of Israel’s kings, at least until Israel and Judah split, pursued at least some and sometimes all of those things. When the kingdom split, there was a wild rollercoaster of kings who followed God’s instructions and those who did not.

If you remember, the Sadducees asked Herod, the richest man in the world, to become the King of the Jews to act as a buffer from Rome. I suppose at that time they were acknowledging they had no king – or at least no trust in a king - but Herod. This led to a remarkable amount of corruption as the religious leaders got intertwined with Roman power and luxury.

When the Sanhedrin (the ruling body of the Jews) got concerned that Jesus was going to get them in trouble with Rome (John 11:48), they arrested him. Then they ask for the way of the Zealots when given a choice between a King of Peace and a King of War for protecting the children of God and advancing the Kingdom of God.  

“The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar! Our Messianic hope is dead, our national independence is at an end, our witness as a people to truth, our listening to the voice which would have gathered us together, are over. As before they had shouted, "Not this Man, but Barabbas!" so now, "Not the Lord of glory, but the demon lord of Rome; not this King of kings, but Tiberius Augustus." They elected Caesar to be their king; by Caesar they were destroyed. The kingdom of God, by the confession of its rulers, has become the kingdom of this world.” (Pulpit Commentary)

I have been thinking of different places in the Bible where we get a vision for what it looks like when Jesus - and only Jesus - is our King. Two passages came to mind: The Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13. I’m going to try to combine the two of them. It’s not a perfect overlap, but as you might expect, the Bible has themes that are revisited a lot. Here is a sketch of 1 Corinthians 13 with some other biblical passages offered as support – most from the Sermon on the Mount. Also, this is a sermon not a book, so there a ton of nuance that is missing. Try not to get distracted by that. Soak in the main point before unpacking the complexities of life that are also relevant.

When we have no King but Jesus, we will have a love that is patient, especially while enduring difficulty or suffering (see also Matthew 5:38-42). We are going to need to define love. The agape love of the cruciform Christ has been defined this way:  

“[Agape love] devotes total commitment to seek your best no matter how anyone may respond. This form of love is totally selfless and does not change whether the love given is returned or not.” [6]

In other words, it’s about a posture of the heart that is for others, always. We never stop praying and desiring for the righteous flourishing of everyone, even those who bring us difficulty and suffering, and we participate in that as appropriate. When we can’t, we pray and hope that others will.

When Caesar is our king, we will be aggressive and hostile in the face of difficulty. We will be quick to give up and wish ill on others. When our King, Jesus, leads us, we are able to patiently endure through suffering as Jesus modeled for us, and we will never stop hoping and praying for the healing and righteous transformation of those who have brought us difficulty and suffering.

When we have not King but Jesus, we will have a love that is gentle and consistently kind in service to others (see also Matthew 5:7). Gentleness is not weakness; gentleness is using our strength and resources mercifully in service to others. It’s using our authority carefully.

When Caesar is our king, we will want to “lord it over others,” flex our authority and be served (Matthew 20:25). When our only King, Jesus, leads us, our love is determined to show a pattern in life that exhibits strength and authority under control such that those around us learn why it is the kindness of God that leads us to move closer to God. (Romans 2:4)

When we have no king but Jesus, we will have a love that is not envious or jealous when others are blessed. Someone is healthy when we are not? Someone has great vacations when we barely make it paycheck to paycheck? Someone eats anything they want and never exercises and looks like a model, and I can’t have tofu without it going right to my belly? When others are flourishing in true health and righteous blessing, we can rejoice for them no matter our own circumstances.

When Caesar is our king, our envy will want the good others have so much that their success will become our idol. We will do anything to get what they have, and if we don’t, we will hate them all the more. When our only King, Jesus, leads us, we can truly say, “Good for you. I’m happy for you,” because we trust that God can and does provide what we truly need from His glorious riches given to us through Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

When we have no king but Jesus, our love of God and others does not allow us to be proudly boastful about our own importance. (see also Matthew 6:1-8) Over and over, Jesus talks about those who pray and give alms in secret, who don’t let the left hand know what the right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3-4), and who are not like the Pharisees, who “loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” (John 12:43)

When Caesar is our king, it is all about us: our accomplishments, our success, our comfort, our self-importance, much to the frustration of those around us. (It’s exhausting to pat the arrogant on the back sufficiently.) When our only king, Jesus, leads us, we don’t need to position ourselves to get noticed or applauded to find our validation, because, Jesus has grounded our value, our identity, our worth, and that is enough. We are able to release people from the need to admire us with sufficient awe, because we are humble, consistently focusing on bringing honor to others rather than ourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

When we have no king but Jesus, our expression of love is not dishonorable or improper; it takes on a form that is compelling and attractive (see also Matthew 5:3-10).In other words, our lives will offer a compelling witness to the hope of Christ in us, transforming us into the image of cruciform love. Acts 2 tells us of how the first Jesus followers found a way to do this in their context:

The community continually committed themselves to learning what the apostles taught them, gathering for fellowship, breaking bread, and praying. Everyone felt a sense of awe because the apostles were doing many signs and wonders among them. 

There was an intense sense of togetherness among all who believed; they shared all their material possessions in trust. They sold any possessions and goods that did not benefit the community and used the money to help everyone in need. They were unified as they worshiped at the temple day after day. In homes, they broke bread and shared meals with glad and generous hearts. 

The new disciples praised God, and they enjoyed the goodwill of all the people of the city. Day after day the Lord added to their number everyone who was experiencing liberation. (Acts 2:42-47)

When Caesar is our king, we are radically independent rather than inter-dependent. My stuff is mine; your stuff is yours; tough luck if you’re struggling. You should have pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps and made better choices and worked harder and, well, been more like me (is what it really boils down to). When our only King, Jesus, leads us, we will display God’s generous heart by displaying glad and generous hearts as we use the provision God has given us for the benefit of those in need.

When we have no king but Jesus, our love does not allow us to dishonor others with shame or disrespect (see also Matthew 5:27-30) Truth-telling? Yes. Shaming? No. Honesty? Yes. Disrespect? No. Remember: it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance, not the meanness of God. There is a godly sorrow that is good, but a shame-filled sorrow is not from God, and is not the fruit of love. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

When Caesar is our king, bullying, gossip, insults and derision are the tools we use to get our way and promote ourselves. When our only King, Jesus, leads us, we will pray, ‘O Lord, keep watch over the door of my lips!’ (Psalm 141:3) so that the righteous treasure in our heart put there by Jesus is revealed in how we say what we say. (Luke 6:45)

When we have no king but Jesus, our love does not allow us to selfishly seek our own honor or attempt to “get what’s mine” (see also Matthew 6:19-25). This is not about guarding our reputation, which is a good thing to do as much as is in our control. This is about greed for honor, fame, and things. When Caesar is our king, we are interested in taking rather than giving; having rights for ourself over having responsibilities toward others; thinking more about building our own honor and prestige than building up others.

When we follow Jesus and walk in love, “What do I owe others as image bearers of God?” will always be more important than, “What do others owe me?” When our only King, Jesus, leads us, we will be consistently asking how we can serve and honor others rather than how we can be served and honored. Ideally, we will create a community in which everyone buys in, so there is plenty of affirmation and honor to go around as we are all consistently offering it to those around us.

When we have no king but Jesus, our desire to love like Jesus loves does not allow us fly off the handle with anger quickly or take offense easily (see also Matthew 5:21-26).We will be slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and mercy, just like Jesus. (Exodus 34:6) We will practice hospitality of the heart and head, thinking the best of and feeling the best about others unless we are forced to think otherwise.

When Caesar is our king, we will look for perceived offenses and go ballistic to get what we are now owed (in our minds): an apology; an assurance that they were wrong and we are right; maybe just the satisfaction of getting someone to fight or take flight. When our only King, Jesus, leads us, we will not take offense easily. We will be hospitable in our heads and our hearts; if we take offense, we will ask questions (maybe we misunderstood?), and press in conversationally and relationally (maybe this says more about me than it does about you?), with a goal of truth, peace and restoration made easier by navigating our way there with grace and love.

When we have no king but Jesus, our love for others does not allow us to keep a punch list of wrongs we have endured (Matthew 5:43-48. I don’t think this means we have to erase what happened from our memory as if it didn’t happen, because that would be dishonest. It did happen. Memory can be really important so we learn from history. I think this means we won’t keep playing the “wrongs card” over and over as bitterness grows within us. Bengal’s Gnomen translates this phrase as,

“…does not meditate upon evil inflicted by another, with a desire to avenge it.”

There is a secondary meaning that pops up a lot. This is from Barne’s Notes On The Bible: 

“Thinketh no evil - That is, puts the best possible construction on the motives and the conduct of others. It means that a person under the influence of love is not malicious, censorious, disposed to find fault, or to impute improper motives to others. It is not disposed to "think" that there was any evil intention even in cases which might tend to irritate or exasperate us.

It is not disposed to think that there was any evil in the case; or that what was done was with any improper intention or design; that is, it puts the best possible construction on the conduct of others, and supposes, as far as can be done, that it was in consistency with honesty, truth, friendship, and love. 

We desire to think well of [those] whom we love… until we are compelled to [not] do so by the most unbreakable evidence. True religion, therefore, will prompt to charitable judging; nor is there a more striking evidence of the destitution of true religion than a disposition to impute the worst motives and opinions to [others].

When Caesar is our king, the offenses of others are always in our back pocket. We assume the worst of intent right out of the gate, then refuse to back down when we might be wrong. We will keep track, and not let it go. When our only King, Jesus, leads us, we will put the ‘best possible construction’ on the conduct of others until we have unbreakable evidence otherwise; we will practice forgiveness when genuine hurt has been done to us; and we will pursue restoration and fellowship as a hopeful goal.

When we have no king but Jesus, our love does not allow us to delight in unrighteousness or injustice and does not cheer when others are harmed (doesn't revel when others grovel) (see also Matthew 5:3-10). When we see people being harmed by sin or just by life; when we see abuse of any kind - dehumanization, exploitation, cruelty, people using other people, people being denied the dignity they deserve as image bearers of God - we are not okay with it and we certainly never applaud it. Ideally, it breaks our hearts.

When our king is Caesar, we will not only do unrighteous things, we will approve of those who do unrighteous[7] things (Romans 1). When our only King, Jesus, leads us, we won’t want to excuse or applaud that which breaks relationship with God and others, because it will break our heart. When we have no king but Jesus, our love causes us to celebrates honesty, truth, justice and mercy. We will seek first and foremost the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33), and applaud the pursuit of righteousness wherever we see it.

When we have no king but Jesus, our love gives a safe place of shelter for those bearing burdens (see also Galatians 6:2) When we love with the love of Jesus, we want people to be free of their burdens, be they of sin, or sickness, or a hard life.  We do not want the to feel they have to just get used to them, and we certainly don’t want to add to them. While we help them on this journey, we are called to be a safe place of shelter in a world that too often shames, dismisses or even punishes burden carriers.  

The opening lyrics from a song called “Gimme Shelter” say: “A storm is threatening my very life today. If I don't get some shelter, I'm gonna fade away.” Those with Jesus’ love in them say, “No, that is not okay. You will not fade away. I will bring the kind, loving shelter that Jesus has provided for us all.”[8]

When Caesar is our king, not everybody deserves shelter. Some people matter more than others. In the time of Jesus, the Romans left deformed or unwanted babies out to die, and women and slaves just didn’t matter as much as free men. In Judaism, it was free vs. slave, male vs. female, Jews over Gentiles (Galatians 3:28). Caesar will always have hierarchies of who matters, who deserves our investment, who we must classify as “our neighbor” to determine if they get our love and provision (Luke 10:29)

When Jesus is our king, we say, “Hey, you matter,” to everybody, and we mean it. We will want to not only protect human life from the moment it begins until the moment it ends, but also to help people to flourish, with a Christ-like focus on “the least of these.”  And if they matter – they really matter – they are never just a statistic, or irrelevant, or unimportant. They should matter deeply to us because they matter deeply to Jesus.

When we have no king but Jesus, our love and trust remains hopeful and faithful during difficult times (see also Matthew 5:31-32).

Hopeful (full of hope): believing that God really is Love, and that God is at work in the world in all people and places, and that miracles are real, that history is not destiny, that the Lamb’s cruciform love has overcome death, evil, pain and suffering, and God will restore all things to himself in the end. (Colossians 1:20)

Faithful (full of faith): doesn’t stop believing that and demonstrating our belief through faithful practices.

If we remain hopeful and faithful, God’s love will enable us to bear incredible loads without them breaking our ability to love. In other words, our love will never stop. No matter how near or far away from someone I am, whether relationally or physically (because sometimes boundaries and distance are necessary and healthy things), a love that looks like the love of Jesus is devoted to seeking and praying for God’s best for others no matter how they respond, and no matter if that kind of love given in return. This kind of love is good for others, but it might be just as important for the one giving it. This kind of love kills the root of bitterness; it calms anger and unforgiveness.

When our king is Caesar, that kind of love will always seem strange. Caesar’s love will have an expiration date because it’s dependent on our ability to be lovable or desirable on Caesar’s terms. When someone makes Caesar unhappy, whatever ‘love’ they experienced easily turns to either not caring if they suffer, or wanting them to suffer. This leads to those around Caesar living in fear of falling out of favor, but that’s the point. The fear of Caesar drives them to beg for the fickle love of Caesar.

When we have no king but Jesus, we will love him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19) not because we were good enough to love, but because God is love. It’s what God does. “We will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” (Psalm 46:2) Perfect love casts out fear, which is why cruciform love is never going to have a place in Caesar ’s palace. Nothing will separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39), so nothing can stop our love, which sends us relentlessly to others for their good on behalf of Jesus.
___________________________________________________________________________

[1] Likely not a question about earthly geography, but a question of divine origin.

[2] “Friend of Caesar” was a political honorific title bestowed by the Roman Empire. Coins of the realm depicting Herod the Great bore the Greek insignia “Philokaisar” meaning “Friend of Caesar.” (“The Chief Priests Answered, ‘We Have No King but Caesar.’ Beyondthesestonewalls.com)

[3] “Sooner than acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah they proclaim that a heathen Emperor is their King.” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges) “This utterance is "the formal abdication of the Messianic hope." (Vincent’s Word Studies)

[5] I believe I got this info from Adam Clarke.

[6] https://www.ezilon.com/articles/articles/7675/1/God-is-Agape-Love

[7] Righteous: doing right in the eyes of God, which will mean we do the right thing for others.

[8] I used to sing a hymn, “Under His Wings I Am Safely Abiding.” “Under His wings I am safely abiding; Though the night deepens and tempests are wild, Still I can trust Him, I know He will keep me; He has redeemed me, and I am His child. Under His wings—what a refuge in sorrow! How the heart yearningly turns to His rest! Often when earth has no balm for my healing, There I find comfort, and there I am blest. Under His wings, under His wings, Who from His love can sever? Under His wings my soul shall abide, Safely abide forever.

Harmony #96: Which Jesus Would We Choose? (Matthew 27:15-31; Mark 15:6-20; Luke 23:13-25; John 18:39-19:16)

Then Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, who came up and began to ask Pilate to release a prisoner for them, as was his custom.

(During the feast the governor was accustomed to release one prisoner to the crowd, whomever they requested. At that time they had in custody a notorious prisoner named Jesus Barabbas, who had been thrown into prison with other rebels for an insurrection started in the city, and for murder.)

Pilate said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. When I examined him before you, I did not find this man guilty of anything you accused him of doing. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, he has done nothing deserving death. It is your custom that I release one prisoner for you at the Passover.

I will therefore have him flogged and release him. ”But the chief priests and the elders stirred up the crowd and persuaded them to ask for Barabbas to be released instead and to have Jesus killed. So they all shouted out together, “Take this man away! Release Barabbas for us!”

 Pilate addressed them once again because he wanted to release Jesus, for as he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent a message to him: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man; I have suffered greatly as a result of a dream about him today.”[1]

Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ, the king of the Jews?” (For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because of envy.) Which of the two do you want me to release for you?”

Then they shouted back, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” So Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you want me to do with the one you call king of the Jews?” They all shouted back, “Crucify him!” and kept on shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!”

A third time Pilate said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done wrong? I have found him guilty of no crime deserving death. I will therefore flog him and release him.” Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the palace (that is, the governor’s residence) and called together the whole cohort. They stripped him and flogged him severely.

Then they put a purple cloak on him, and after braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, and kneeling down before him they mocked him, paid homage to him, and saluted him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” They spat on him and took the staff and struck him repeatedly on the head and face.

Again Pilate went out and said to the Jewish leaders, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no reason for an accusation against him.” So Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Look, here is the man!”

But when the chief priests and their officers saw him, they were insistent, demanding with loud shouts, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” And their shouts prevailed. [2]

* * * * *

PILATE AND HIS WIFE

This is a church history footnote which could be an interesting study if you feel like it.  The view of Pontius Pilate split into Western and Eastern traditions. The Western tradition sees Pilate as a villain, plain and simple. At minimum, he is complicit in evil by his lack of backbone.

In Eastern traditions, however, Pilate and his wife (Procula, or Claudia) will eventually become Christians themselves. Origen taught that Claudia became a Christian after the Resurrection because of that dream. Tertullian wrote that soon after the crucifixion, Pilate converted to Christianity and tried to convince Tiberius to follow suit. Irenaeus said there was even an icon of Jesus painted by Pontius Pilate.

Some traditions claim that Claudia died as a martyr. In the Ethiopian and Coptic church, Pilate and his wife are revered as saints. [3] The Ethiopian tradition even has a feast day for them on June 25.

One reason I like this tradition is because I like being hopeful. I don’t need a villain in Jesus’ story to die a villain. I don’t even want that to be true. I love that part of church history that takes one of the most widely condemned people in the story (Pilate) and closes the story with redemption. Even if it is just tradition, it reminds us of why Jesus died, and who Jesus died for, and what God offers to all of us: salvation, redemption, hope.

JESUS AND BARABBAS

Barabbas, a Zealot, was guilty of murder and insurrection (Mark 15:6; Matthew 27:15; John 18:39). I think we might be sympathetic to some degree if we had been Jewish at that time.

He grew up under the boot of Roman Empire. How much humiliation had he and his family gone through? How many Zealot friends did he see crucified (as that was the punishment for insurrection)? He was going to fight these oppressors.[4] The people probably saw him as a man who acted on his convictions. Turn the other cheek? No, thank you. [5] It was time to pick up a sword and fight.[6] That’s what a Savior would look like.

And we get it to some degree, don’t we? Braveheart? Rob Roy? The Patriot? There is an appeal to hero who rides in (on a horse, in those three movies) to free people from tyranny and oppression, to stop injustice, to make things right. Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ depicted Barabbas as a crude, almost beastly man. I doubt that’s what was happening. Barabbas was likely much like William Wallace to many of them.

So, standing in front of the crowd, on a stage filled with Roman oppressors who had already killed thousands of their Jewish family, are two people named Jesus.

The first is Jesus Barabbas, literally “son of the father.” (‘bar’= son and ‘abba’ = father). He is the alpha male; the fighter; the zealot, the embodiment of Jewish nationalism and patriotism, one who raged against the Roman machine.

The second is Jesus, the Christ, also a Son of the Father: advocate of turning the other cheek; promoter of the power of love over the power of the sword, insisting that in his kingdom, love was the weapon that defeated enemies. To many of them, Jesus Christ must have seemed weak, maybe even cowardly. “If the Roman soldier asks you to carry his load one mile, carry it two.” (Matthew 5:41) What? That’s not the way to promote the Jewish cause!

The differences between the two could not have been more glaring.

• Barabbas promised a victory for God’s people on the world’s terms and in the world’s way. We will look at where that goes.

• Barabbas was committed to waging war against Rome with the tools of Rome: the pax Romana, peace by the sword. They hated it when it was used against them and loved it when they could use it against others.

• Barabbas’ creed was likely something like this: “Hate your enemies and do anything it takes to defeat them.”

Meanwhile,

• Jesus promised an everlasting victory for a spiritual kingdom that would transform the world with the power of Heaven. The means – love -  might not feel comfortable or powerful in the moment, but it will bring Jesus’ vision of Kingdom life as we participate in God’s plan to reconcile all things to himself. (Colossians 1:20)

• Jesus would “overcome the world” (John 16:33) not by taking the lives of others, but giving his life for others. “This is my body, broken for you.” (Luke 22:19) The cross is not just the source of our salvation, it is the shape of our lives in and for the world. We followers of Jesus are a cruciformed people called to display cruciform love.

• Jesus, on the cross, asked God to forgive those who killed him rather than directing his followers to get their vengeance. He was fighting – and winning - the greatest fight of all on their behalf already.[7] And – get this – something far more important would happen to their enemies then vengeance. They would be transformed into brothers and sisters in Christ.

But…it’s so easy to default to the world’s terms and the worlds’ way. Consider God’s chosen people in the Old Testament.

They had the 10 Commandments. They had the tabernacle. They had the prophets, judges and kings. They were equipped to be a ‘holy’ (set apart) group that demonstrated what an ‘abundant life’ looked like when with God’s image bearers aligned their hearts and hands with His plan. This was God’s plan for revealing Himself to the world! Yet they kept failing to live as God’s holy people because they kept embracing the idolatrous ways of the cultures around them. Read the prophets. Not only did their witness crumble; the community of God’s people fell into ruin.

When Jesus showed us God’s plan for God’s community of people should be present in the world, he was showing us the path of life. The problem with the way of Barabbas is that it doesn’t lead to life.  

 Remember, we harvest what we plant. (Galatians 6:7) If the way of the world’s order is what we plant – if we follow Barabbas and follow a template established by the Empire - we shouldn’t expect a different harvest. The root determines the fruit. If wise choices are justified by “her children” (her legacy, Luke 7:35), surely foolish and destructive choices is revealed by its legacy as well.

This is what happened with the way of Barabbas/Rome. Rome wiped out the Zealots and the people around them and destroyed the Temple when the Zealots used the way of Barabbas one time too many.

“The Great Revolt of 66-70, followed some sixty years later by the Bar Kokhba revolt, were the greatest calamities in Jewish history prior to the Holocaust. In addition to the more than one million Jews killed, these failed rebellions led to the total loss of Jewish political authority in Israel until 1948.”[8]

That’s the fruit of the Barabbas root. I was reading an article called “Why We Still Choose Barabbas Today.” A phrase stuck with me.

“Every time we choose Barabbas, some innocent soul somewhere ends up on a cross.”[9]

The author was not suggesting that when innocent people die they are just like Jesus. The author’s point was that the way of Barabbas always leads to innocent people paying the price. This is often referred to as “collateral damage.” In times of actual warfare, the unfortunate reality is that innocent people get hurt. Even the best and most well-intentioned attempts to keep civilians safe often fall short. Those who fight guided by Just War Theory seek to avoid this at all costs.

But in spiritual warfare – when Kingdom and Empire clash with ideas, and ideologies, and politics, and culture wars -  if we are truly following the path of Jesus, there will be no collateral damage. If every gift that comes from God is good (James 1:17), and we pass on the gifts that are given to us, then everything we pass on will be good. That’s part of the beauty of Jesus’ way. Here’s an easy test to see if we are following Jesus Barabbas or Jesus the Christ.

If the way in which we engage with people on behalf of the Kingdom results in collateral damage, we have strayed from the way of Jesus and into the way of Barabbas.

But if what we are doing is helping people to get out of the suffering or harm they are experiencing and protecting them from new damage, both practically and spiritually, that’s going to be the way of Jesus.[10]

The transforming, overwhelmingly powerful truth that Jesus revealed was the way to and of God the Father. The revelation of God as Jesus showed us the way God desires His people to be present in the world. The lesson culminated when, on the Cross, Jesus revealed definitively what God’s love and identity looks like: cruciform (“cross”), kenotic (“emptying”) love.

“It means God, in Christ, humbled himself, emptied himself of all status, safe places and physical power to selflessly reach out to the lowest levels of human existence. In an act of downward mobility he never used physical force or power in bringing the gospel to all, even to slaves, and in doing so he was crucified.  

The gospel of mercy and love, of downward empowerment, caused havoc in the worldly empires simply because it contradicts the value system of this world. Leaders and crowds can't take it. They prefer to crucify it or send it away!”[11]

Jesus entered our world and showed us the way his power should be used: he served others, ate meals with outcast sinners, empathized with the poor and the powerless, sought for and saved the lost, refused to break a bruised reed, challenged hypocrites who burdened others and distorted people’s view of God, healed the broken in body and soul, forgave and restored repentant sinners, and searched for every lost sheep until he found it.

Jesus’ power is seen in things Barabbas dismissed. It is the power of love, the embrace of grace and mercy, the emptying of self, the working for the good of others. For followers of Jesus, being "in Christ" means that this cruciform shape takes shape in us.

The secret to being present like Jesus in the world is likely going to mean being the kind of people considered weak in the eyes of the world:

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Following Jesus means joyfully and relentlessly serving friends and enemies with sacrificial love in response to how Jesus served us.[12]

 * * * * *

We get the same question that the Jewish people got 2,000 years ago: who do we want? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus the Christ?[13] Charita Goshay has an interesting perspective on how embracing the way of Barabbas allows us to avoid the Kingdom of Truth in which Jesus is King.

They chose Barabbas because he demanded nothing from them; no self-examination, no repentance, no acts of mercy or forgiveness. Jesus, on the other hand, made folks uncomfortable. He was a radical who stood religion on its head by publicly exposing the religious hypocrisy while treating women, the poor and the powerless as people worth loving. He ate with crooks, talked to Samaritans and had the effrontery to heal on the Sabbath and forgive people of their sins. 

The crowd shouted for Barabbas that day because truth demands certain things from us. It calls us to grow up, to stretch and reexamine our innermost motives and to make sacrifices when we’d rather not…We might be required to change some things, and well, who needs that?

 We want a truth that doesn’t require anything of us. We prefer Barabbas because he doesn’t call us out. He lets us do what we want. Truth points out things that we’d rather not hear. It makes us defensive, angry and irrational until the next thing we know, we’re rooting for Barabbas with no idea how we lost our way.[14]

 We must love Gospel truth, because Christianity was designed to be the conscience of the culture, speaking truth to power, backed up by a witness in words and actions that is consistently faithful to the way of Jesus. Christians are meant to bring the salt of truthful, just and merciful love to keep the culture from decaying into deceit, injustice and mercilessness. Christians are meant to live in such a way that everything we do shines a gospel light of self-giving, cruciform love into the self-centered, unloving darkness of the broken empires in which we live.

When Satan tempted him with that power of earthly thrones, Jesus flatly rejected it. He had a better plan. He offered a vision in which power serves others out of cruciform love: the ‘haves’ (with finances, reputation, resources, etc.) take care of the ‘have nots’ (just like God gives us provision from His abundance); the healthy of all kinds take care of the sick of all kinds (just like God has done for us); the strong use their strength to take care of the weak (you see the pattern here), and the truth-tellers speak healing and hope-filled words that first illuminate and then dispel the darkness of deceit.[15]

So that we don’t get confused about which path we are on, let’s look at the truth of Jesus’ Kingdom so that we are clear about the difference between the way of Jesus Barabbas and the way of Jesus the Christ.

Barabbas was a violent revolutionary on behalf of God’s people; Jesus is the suffering servant so that all people may become God’s people (Isiah 52-53).

Barabbas hated his enemies enough to kill them to bring about God’s kingdom; Jesus loved his enemies enough to die for them to expand God’s kingdom. (John 3:16)

Barabbas wanted to destroy the lost (Romans); Jesus came to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

Barabbas wanted to condemn and punish the world around him; Jesus did not come to condemn the world (it stood condemned already): he came to solve that problem and save it. (John 3:17)

Barabbas chose a solution where power bullies and coerces; Jesus chose a solution where power invites and beckons. (John 1:39)[16]

Barabbas decided that the Kingdom ends justified using Roman means; Jesus showed that the means of bringing about the Kingdom of God are inseparable from the end result of the Kingdom of God. (#sermononthemount, Matthew 5-7)

When the disciples wanted to call down fire on Samaria, they were following the way of Barabbas. (Luke 9) When they were sent there to evangelize instead, that was the way of Jesus. (Luke 10)

When Peter pulled a sword to protect Jesus and fight for the kingdom of God, that was the way of Barabbas. (Luke 22) When Jesus died on the cross to further the kingdom of God, that was the way of Jesus. (Matthew 27)

When we demand honor and prestige, that’s the way of Barabbas. When we stop pursuing honor and prestige and instead eagerly ‘esteem others better than ourselves,’ that’s the way of Jesus. (Philippians 2:3, for example)

When our priorities are formed by the demands of the powerful, that’s the way of Barabbas. When our priorities are formed by the needs of the powerless, the “least of these” found in the highways and byways and from which Jesus invites them to feast at his table, that’s the way of Jesus. (Luke 14:23)[17]

Whenever we abandon cruciform love as the heartbeat of everything we do, that’s the way of Barabbas. Whenever we embrace cruciform love as the heartbeat of everything we do, that’s the way of Jesus.[18]

There is a price to doing this. It’s not for the faint of heart. We will have to take up a cross and know the fellowship of Jesus’ suffering to know the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10). The cross testifies to the price of following Jesus into a life of cruciform love.

But, the way of Jesus is the only way for followers of Jesus.

When God wanted to confront the powers and principalities of this world, He died as an act of love. It was the most powerful thing that has happened in the history of the world. Evil, death, hell, the grave: all of it defeated through the power of Jesus’ cruciform love.

And if the power of the cross is the greatest, most profound, most sweeping power in the world – well, then being like Jesus to present Jesus to the world is the most powerful thing we can do to in a world groaning under the weight of sin-filled brokeness as it awaits God’s redemption. (Romans 8)

And because the most powerful act in human history is a man laying down his life for his enemies in an act of cruciform love, every time I am led by the Holy Spirit to respond in worship with my cruciform presence in the world, that is the most powerful thing I can do as I join in Jesus’ mission.[19]

The all-powerful God in Christ has leveraged His power for us, by his love, so that our love for our enemies would be stronger than our desire to destroy them, and thus reveal the cruciform love of Jesus.

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we proclaim. This is the way of Jesus.

 ________________________________________________________________________
[1] From Pulpit Commentary: “In the whole history of the Passion of Christ no one pleads for him but a woman, the wife of a heathen governor, the deputy of the emperor of the world."

[2] “The most that we can say for Pilate is, that he was disposed to justice, but was not inclined to hazard his comfort or safety in doing it. He was an easy, pliable man, who had no objection to do a right thing if it should cost him no trouble; but he felt no disposition to make any sacrifice, even in behalf of innocence, righteousness, and truth.” (Adam Clarke)

[3] An author wrote on The Byzantine Forum: “I attended an Orthodox icon blessing in a private home once where there was also an Ethiopian Orthodox priest. So I took that opportunity to ask him if he and his Church really venerated "St Pontius Pilate?" To which he answered enthusiastically, "Yes, of course - don't you?"

[4] This section is considerably influenced by “Jesus or Barabbas – which “son of the father” are we following?” from One Lord One Body Ministries.

  https://onelordonebody.com/2013/08/10/jesus-or-barabbas-which-son-of-the-father-are-we-following/

[5] I’m thinking of a recent hockey game where the Canadian fans booed our national anthem because of the tension between the U.S. and Canda, and the American hockey players promptly started a brawl with the Canadian hockey players. Social media loved it. “America is back!” That may be, but it’s not looking like the way of Jesus.

[6] In 2021, a prominent speaker at a Turning Point USA conference said, in reference to how Christians should be fighting the culture wars, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. OK?” In his report for Relevant, Senior Editor Tyler Huckabee wrote that [the speaker] “is more correct than he probably knows here. Christianity is a poor device for gaining worldly influence.”

[7] I am passing on things I learned in “Who do you want: Barabbas or Jesus? Power and empowerment in theological education.” Stellenbosch Theological Journal

[8] https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-great-revolt-66-70-ce

[9] Thanks to thoughtful insight found “Why We Still Choose Barabbas Today” at https://goodfaithmedia.org/why-we-still-choose-barabbas-today-cms-15823/

[10] I am borrowing thoughts articulated well “Jesus Barabbas or Jesus Christ?” at  https://www.thebanner.org/departments/2015/12/jesus-barabbas-or-jesus-christ

[11] “Who do you want: Barabbas or Jesus? Power and empowerment in theological education.” Jurgens Hendriks.

[12] A theologian and author named Marva Dawn says that the "tabernacling" (dwelling) of God that takes place in our weakness creates the openness for the power of the Holy Spirit to operate through us. "Dying to ourselves, dying to our attempts to use our own power to accomplish God's purposes are all part of the gospel of grace - the end of ourselves and therefore the possibilities of new life with Christ, in vital union to him."

[13] HT to “Why We Still Choose Barabbas Today.”  https://goodfaithmedia.org/why-we-still-choose-barabbas-today-cms-15823/

[14] HT to “Even Today, We Are Still Choosing Barabbas.”  https://www.tmnews.com/story/news/2021/04/04/commentary-even-today-were-still-choosing-barabbas/44030405/

[15] History reveals over and over that whenever Christianity seeks to join the gatekeepers exercising power in Empire culture, it stops being salt and light. (The Sanhedrin were a prime example of this in Judaism in Jesus’ day). Why does this happen? It stops speaking truth to power because it is the power, and self-reflection is uncomfortable.  It doesn’t see the decay embedded in the world order because it is using the tools of the world order, and it’s so easy to let the ends justify the means. It doesn’t effectively shine gospel light into the darkness because its compromised gospel light grows increasingly dim, and it gets harder to separate what’s dark from what’s light.

[16] Google “the invitations of Jesus”

[17] Think of the classic “quarter of the vulnerable” in the Old Testament around which Jewish society banded together to care for: widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor. 

[18] Jesus told two of His disciples who wanted to take action like Barabbas (Luke 9:55, 56) that they didn’t know what “spirit” they are of. Jesus doesn’t want us becoming like the world while challenging the world order.  Martin Luther King Jr. was a minister deeply formed by biblical ethics. He once said, “But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

[19] I am paraphrasing some comments found at https://restorationlex.com/blog/choosing-barabbas-a-response-to-the-capitol-insurrection/. One money quote from the article: “The response to this moment is to remember who we are: the people of Jesus. Together, we are the politics of God in this world. As Stanley Hauerwas has said: “The church…stands as a political alternative to every nation, witnessing to the kind of social life possible for those that have been formed by the story of Christ.”

Harmony #95: A Kingdom Of Truth (Matthew 27:11-14; Mark 15:2-5; Luke 23:2-7; John 18:28-38)

When they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor’s residence, it was very early morning. They did not go into the governor’s residence so they would not be ceremonially defiled, but could eat the Passover meal. So Pilate came outside to them, where Jesus stood before the governor.

He said, “What accusation do you bring against this man?” They replied, “If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate told them, “Take him yourselves and pass judgment on him according to your own law!” The Jewish leaders replied, “We cannot legally put anyone to death.”

Then the chief priests and the elders began to accuse Jesus repeatedly, saying, “We found this man subverting our nation, forbidding us to pay the tribute tax to Caesar and claiming that he himself is Christ, a king.” But Jesus did not respond.

Then Pilate said to Jesus, “Don’t you hear how many charges they are bringing against you?  Have you nothing to say?” But Jesus made no further reply, not answering even one accusation, so that Pilate the governor was quite amazed.

So Pilate went back into the governor’s residence, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  Jesus replied, “You say so. Are you saying this on your own initiative, or have others told you about me?”  Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people and your chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?”

 Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my servants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish authorities. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Then Pilate said, “So you are a king!”

Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world—to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked, “What is truth?”

When he had said this he went back outside to the Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the crowds, and announced, “I find no basis for an accusation against this man.”

* * * * *

“For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world—to testify to the truth..”

This stood out to me as I was reading the text this week. If the language experts in the commentaries are correct, Pilate’s answer appears to be dismissive and derogatory: “A Kingdom of Truth? Seriously? Not a kingdom of money, sex and power?” No wonder Pilate didn’t feel the need to push for Jesus’ death. Truth is not part of the furniture of Empires. Truth is usually one of the first things sacrificed in a world order run by the “father of lies.” (John 8:44)

What Pilate didn’t realize was that this Kingdom of Truth, with a King Who Is True, was about to transform the world.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4)

So, let’s talk about what kind of truth Jesus testified to as revealed in his teaching and life.

1. The Truth About Jesus: Jesus is God revealed. If you have ever wondered what God is like, there are fascinating ways to study that theologically and philosophically. There is, however, a simpler and more accurate way to find out what God is like. Jesus answered that for us definitively. God is just like Jesus.

“If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” John 14:9

 “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His being.” Hebrews 1:3

“He is the image of the invisible God…” Colossians 1:15

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Colossians 2:9

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. “ (John 1: 1-4)

 “Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father… No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known. (John 1:14-15, 18)

“‘The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me, and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me.’” (John 12:44-45)

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6-7)

There is a rule in logic: if A=B, then B=A. If in seeing Jesus we have seen the Father – if Jesus is the fullness of the deity in bodily form - than not only is Jesus just like God, but God is just like Jesus. This has always been true.[1] As I heard one preacher say, “Jesus is perfect theology.” Thinking about Jesus is the foundational starting point for thinking about God. 

Any image or concept, or conviction about God that does not map on to the character and person of Jesus Christ is partial at best. The New Testament does not primarily tell us that Jesus is God-like; it primarily tells us that God is Christ-like. We can know what God is like, because God is just like Jesus.

2. The truth about Jesus’ mission/God’s plan: to bring salvation to the world.

““Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

“Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw/drag all people to myself.” (John 12:31-32)

“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For this is the way  God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish,  but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.” (John 3:14-17)

 “I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness. If anyonehears my words and does not obey them, I do not judge him. For I have not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not accept  my words already has a judge: (the truth in) the word I have spoken will judge him at the last day.” (John 12: 46-50)[2]

3. The truth about the scope of the mission of Jesus/the plan of God: it reaches out to everything and everybody.

“The Father loves the Son and has placed all things under his authority.” (John 3:35)

“Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.”(Romans 5:18)

“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you - just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.  Now this is eternal life - that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.” (John 17:1-3)

“This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God our savior; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (1 Timothy 2:3-6)

“Jesus, was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:9)

 “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should gladly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:10:11)

“God was pleased to have all fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things on earth or in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.”  (Colossians. 1:19)

4. The truth about the impact of the mission of Jesus/the plan of God: it’s transformative and life-changing.[3]

“ I am the door (for the sheep to enter the fold). If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” (John 10:9-10)

 “And although you were dead in your offenses and sins,  in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath…

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved! — and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.” (Ephesians 2:1-9)

5. The Truth About What God Is Like. God is love. (1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16) When Jesus reveals God’s love in words and actions, we see what the love of God is like, because God is just like Jesus.

“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love… My commandment is this—to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15: 11-13) 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:43-45) 

"But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us". (Romans 5:8) 

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him… he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10)

Jesus reveals God’s compassionate love, because Jesus is compassionately loving, and God is just like Jesus.

“Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” (Mark 1:41)

“And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’” (Luke 7:12)

“[The younger son] arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20) 

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

As Jesus was having a meal in Levi’s home, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  When the experts in the law and the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples,

“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this he said to them, “Those who are healthy don’t need a physician, but those who are sick do. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Go and learn what this saying means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’” (Mark 2; Matthew 9)

Jesus reveals God’s gentle love, because Jesus is patiently loving, and God is just like Jesus.

“Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I take great delight. I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed or extinguish a smoldering wick, until he brings justice to victory.” (Matthew 12:18-21)

Jesus reveals God’s serving/helping love, because Jesus modeled a serving, helpful love, and God is just like Jesus. If it sounds odd to think of God as our helper, David was confident that he was, so we will start in the Old Testament.

“Surely God is my helper; the Lord is the sustainer of my soul" (Psalm 54:4)

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example - you should do just as I have done for you.” (John 13:14-15)

“Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)

Jesus reveals God’s protective love, because Jesus displayed a protective love, and God is just like Jesus.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

“If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me - to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.'” (Matthew 18:3-6)

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11)

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’” (Matthew 25: 34-36)

Jesus reveals God’s confrontational love concerning wrongdoing and hypocrisy, because Jesus confronted wrongdoing and hypocrisy, and God is just like Jesus.

All the ‘woes’ of the Pharisees. words Jesus uses to describe hypocrites are blind guides, blind fools, and a brood of vipers (Matthew 22).  

 “Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will devour me.” (John 2:16-18)

“Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:10-11) 

“When the disciples James and John saw (how the Samaritans responded to Jesus), they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them.” (Luke 9:54-55)

“Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.” The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?  Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?” When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.” (Luke 13: 14-17)[4] 

Jesus reveals God’s persistent, faithful love, because Jesus described and embodied his own persistent, faithful love, and God is just like Jesus.

“If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray until he finds it? I tell you the truth, he will rejoice more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones be lost.” (Matthew 18; Luke 15)

“My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” (John 10: 27-30)

“Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.” (John 13:1)

 Jesus reveals God’s relational love, because Jesus entered into personal relationships with humanity, and God is just like Jesus.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 14:1)

  “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him.” (John 14:23)

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever… (John 14:16)

This list could go on and on.

• We know God is not grossed out or pushed away by our sin, because Jesus came to earth and made salvation possible while people were “dead in our trespasses and sins,” and God is just like Jesus.

• We know God cares deeply about all who are suffering both spiritually and physically, because Jesus cared about those suffering spiritually and physically, and God is just like Jesus.

• We know that God forgives even our worst sins, because Jesus forgave even those who betrayed and killed him, and God is just like Jesus.

• We know God understands our grief, because Jesus wept when Lazarus died, and God is just like Jesus.

Maybe this can be a good devotional exercise this week or topic for potluck lunch: add to the list. If Jesus perfectly reveals God, what do we learn about God when we study Jesus?

______________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Keep in mind what else the Bible tells us about God. "I the Lord do not change."(Malachi 3:6) "…The Father of lights with whom there is no change or variation"(James 1:17) Because Jesus is God, God has always been just like Jesus.

[2] Another place Jesus said, “Do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.” (John 5:45)

[3]  “I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)

[4] Jesus warned his disciples against using their status to dominate others. Rather, they were to be servants to all (Matthew 20:25-28).

In Luke 20:45-47, Jesus warned his listeners to beware of the teachers of the law who prided themselves in their religiosity, yet failed to show hospitality to those in need.

The parable of the Pharisee and tax collector illustrates how God sees spiritual pride (Luke 18:9-14).

Harmony #94: Do You Know Jesus? (John 18:13-24; Matthew 26-27; Mark 14-15; Luke 22)

Head’s up: the ‘harmony of the gospel’ approach is going to make it look like there are 6 times Peter denied Jesus. Some thinks that’s what happened (3 before the rooster crowed, 3 times after); others think that the listing of individuals in one account and crowds in a different account just meant the individual asked the question for the groups. I just don’t want you to be confused when we read six denials of Jesus.

They brought Jesus first to Annas, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. (Now it was Caiaphas who had advised the Jewish leaders that it was to their advantage that one man die for the people.) Simon Peter and another disciple followed.

(Now the other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, and he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard.)[1]But Simon Peter was left standing outside by the door. So the other disciple who was acquainted with the high priest came out and spoke to the slave girl who watched the door, and brought Peter inside.

The girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You’re not one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” He replied, “I am not.” (Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire they had made in the middle of the courtyard, warming themselves because it was cold.) JnThe high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.

 Jesus replied, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I always taught in the synagogues and in the temple courts, where all the Jewish people assemble together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said. They know what I said.”

When Jesus had said this, one of the high priest’s officers who stood nearby struck him on the face and said, “Is that the way you answer the high priest?”  Jesus replied, “If I have said something wrong, confirm what is wrong. But if I spoke correctly, why strike me?” Then Annas sent Jesus, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.

Now the ones who had arrested Jesus led him to Caiaphas, in whose house all the chief priests and elders and experts in the law had come together. And Peter had followed him from a distance, all the way to the high priest’s courtyard. After going in, Peter sat down with the guards warming himself by the fire, waiting to see the outcome.

The guards said to Peter, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” Peter denied it: “I am not!” [Meanwhile] the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find anything. Many gave false testimony against him, but their testimony did not agree.

Finally two came forward, stood up and gave this false testimony against Jesus: “We heard this man say, ‘I will destroy this temple of God made with hands and in three days build another not made with hands.’ ”Yet even on this point their testimony did not agree.

Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, “Have you no answer? What is this that they are testifying against you?” But Jesus was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest questioned Jesus and said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God, the Blessed One.” [2]

But Jesus said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, and if I ask you, you will not answer.” So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then? Jesus said, “You have said it yourself, I am. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[3]

Then the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need further witnesses? Now you have heard the blasphemy. What is your verdict?” They all condemned him, and answered, “He is guilty and deserves death.”

Now the men who were holding Jesus under guard began to mock him and beat him. Some began to spit on him, and to blindfold him, and to strike him with their fists. And some slapped him, saying repeatedly, “Prophesy for us, you Christ! Who hit you?” They also said many other things against him, reviling him.

While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s slave girls came by. Seeing Peter as he sat in the firelight warming himself, she stared at him and said, “This man was with him too! You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus of Galilee.”

But Peter denied it in front of them all: ”Woman I don’t know him!” Then he went out to the gateway, and a rooster crowed. When Peter went out to the gateway, another slave girl saw him and said to the bystandersc there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazarene. He is one of them too.” But Peter denied it again with an oath, “I do not know the man!”

Then a little later, one of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the orchard with him? You are one of them too.” Then Peter denied it again and said, “Man, I am not!”

After about an hour, the bystanders again came up to Peter and said, “You must be one of them, because you are also a Galilean—even your accent gives you away!” Then Peter began to curse, and he swore with an oath, “I do not know this man you are talking about!”

At that moment, while Peter was still speaking, a rooster crowed a second time. Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before a rooster crows twice today, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down, went outside and wept bitterly.

When day came, the council of the elders of the people gathered together, both the chief priests and the experts in the law. Then they led Jesus away to their council, the whole Sanhedrin, [where] they plotted against Jesus to execute him. After forming a plan, the whole group of them rose up, tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

* * * * * 

I’m going to do a shapshot approach today. Four snapshots in this story that I hope coalesce into a unified picture. We will start with the Sanhedrin, and end with Jesus.

SNAPSHOT 1: THE SANHEDRIN

Though they were the ruling body for the Jewish people, they did not seem to care about following the law. They didn’t like Jesus. They wanted him gone. They would do what it took to get what they wanted. 

• Trials were supposed to be conducted during daylight, not at night.

• ·Unless they met in the Hall of Hewn Stone, in the temple area, their verdicts were not binding.

• ·They allowed of false/contradictory witnesses. By their own law, the case should have been thrown out.

• ·A death verdict was not to be carried out until a night had ended.

Multiple sources from the period (the gospels, Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, writings from the Pharisees) agree that a corrupt priesthood controlled Jerusalem in collusion with Rome and abused its power against others. Their treatment of Jesus fits their usual behavior toward those who challenged their authority.[4]

A commentator named Poole noted,

“Nothing is more common than for persons overzealous about rituals to be remiss about morals.”[5]

I have a less fancy way of saying it: the Sanhedrin had a very human problem: it’s too easy to let the ends justify the means. It’s too easy to think that if our cause is righteous, we can baptize anything in the service of that cause and call it righteous as well. And that’s just not the way it works.

Even if Jesus had been an imposter and blasphemer, they would not have been justified in the approach they took. Why not? Because not only does the means impact what we achieve in the end, the means determines who we are in the end. Both the means and the ends reveal us for who we really are.

The Sanhedrin can’t be taken seriously as the lawkeeping body of leaders and break the law themselves, because they automatically become a law-breaking body of law-keeping leaders. The Sanhedrin can’t claim a righteous ruling after using unrighteous means like false witnesses and improper means. That kind of leaven spoils the whole loaf.

If the Sanhedrin wanted to truly lead God’s people in God’s ways to fulfill God’s plans, they needed to lead by example in words and actions. If they didn’t commit to that, they would get confused about God’s ways and God’s plan, and just like that they would be leading God’s people somewhere that God did not intend, following a God that is increasingly created in their image.

Our reminder: we must live with integrity. We must stay in the path of Jesus; aligned with the heart, mind, and footsteps of Jesus; so that we can be God’s people leading others in God’s way to fulfill God’s plans.

SNAPSHOT 2: THE SERVANT GIRLS

In Matthew, the first servant girl said, “You also were with Jesus of Galilee.” The second girl said to other people who were standing around, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” John writes that one asked a question to Peter: “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” The Gospel writers did not give unimportant detail. There is something we are supposed to learn about that fact that it was servant girls identifying the followers of Jesus.

The text isn’t clear if they were curious, or accusatory, or even hopeful. Maybe they wanted more information about Jesus and saw somebody who could answer their questions. Maybe they were Sanhedrin spies, looking out for people who might fight for Jesus (like Peter did). Maybe they though Jesus was going to fight, and were wondering where the army was. We don’t know. We just know they asked, and Peter was not about to give away his relationship with Jesus.

But the servant girls are important. So, here’s what I wonder. How would they know who had been with Jesus? They didn’t have Instagram posts or wanted posters or polaroids. How would they have found out?

I’m going to suggest that they had spent time around Jesus. Maybe they were part of the 5,000. Maybe they heard the Sermon on the Mount. Maybe they were occasionally part of the large crowed of disciples that consistently followed him. I don’t know, and the text doesn’t say.

I just suspect they had seen Jesus before, because they recognized His disciples. And this leads me to an interesting thing about the life of Jesus as recorded by the Gospel writers.

Virtually every time the writers record Jesus encountering women, Jesus validates and values women. In a time when both Jewish and Greco-Roman culture did not generally value women, Jesus did. For example, in Jewish culture, women could not testify in religious court because they were considered unreliable narrators, untrustworthy in their perspective.

But here are several servant girls who a) had apparently spent time with Jesus, b) who might not have been as embarrassed as Peter about having been around Jesus, and c) whom readers would have to seek out to ask if this story was true, thus treating them as reliable narrators of the truth. 

Our reminder: over and over, Jesus elevated those in the culture around him that were often overlooked, dismissed, or even despised: tax collectors, Samaritans, the sick and crippled, servants, women and children, those caught in sin, the list goes on. 

Isaiah pointed toward Jesus when he wrote, “A bruised reed he will not break" (Isaiah 42:3). This just means that God will not crush those who are weak or vulnerable; rather, he will gently care for them. Jesus was full of compassion for the weak, the outcast, the powerless, and the hurting. 

May we follow in that path of Jesus on our way to fulfilling the plan of Jesus.

SNAPSHOT 3: PETER

Since we focused on Judas last week to talk about Jesus’ love remaining steadfast throughout the worst things we can do even against Jesus himself, let’s look instead on what it looks like for followers of Jesus to deny that they know Jesus.

How can we communicate that we don’t know Jesus? Through our words and actions. Peter obviously used words. We often say that actions speak louder than words. Peter’s words were plenty loud; Peter’s action in the Garden might have been louder. Using a sword to defend Jesus, thinking His kingdom was an earthly kingdom that wanted us to kill others as a way to usher it in? Yeah, Peter really didn’t know Jesus.

If we use our words to deny our relationship with Jesus, we have betrayed Jesus. But we do this with our actions as well.

• If we refuse to help the needy – the hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, imprisoned, to quote Jesus - we communicate with our actions that we really don’t know Jesus.

• If we use our words to gossip, slander and wound instead of speak life and truth, we communicate with our actions that we really don’t know Jesus.

• If we take advantage of our employees, we communicate with every paycheck and belittling experience that we really don’t know Jesus.

• If we use people sexually, financially, relationally, we communicate with our actions that we really don’t know Jesus.

• If we refuse to love our neighbors as Christ loved us, we communicate with our actions that we really don’t know Jesus.

• If we refuse to commit to honoring, serving and loving our spouse, we communicate with our actions that we really don’t know Jesus.

Our reminder: being truthful and faithful to Jesus – showing people that we know him – includes our words and our lives. We want it to be obvious to those around us that we are following the path of Jesus to fulfill the plan of Jesus.

JESUS

When Jesus ‘turned and looked’ at Peter, the words the writers chose are so great.

“It implies more than a casual glance, suggesting a deeper level of observation or contemplation. In the New Testament, it is often used to describe moments of significant insight or recognition, where the observer perceives something profound or meaningful. The act of looking intently was not merely a physical action but was also linked to mental and spiritual insight.” (Strong’s Lexicon)

Oof. Jesus looked deep into Peter’s soul in the moment of Peter’s greatest betrayal. What will Jesus do? He will forgive and restore Peter, of course. And Peter will love Jesus because Jesus first loved him.

A year or two later, John and Peter healed a lame beggar outside the temple in the name of Jesus. They were arrested and brought before Annas and Caiaphas. By this time Peter was a changed man. He had been teaching and preaching, and bringing in followers of the "Way" of Jesus. Here’s what happens in Acts 4 following the healing of the lame man.

“The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day….[6]

The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!  If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel:

It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.  Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.

So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it… They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened.

Jesus loved Peter until the end. Jesus did not give up on the one who betrayed him so deeply. When Jesus rose from the dead, the angel said to make sure Peter knew. Jesus gave his life so that greatest moments of failure in people like Peter can become their greatest platform for ministry. Don’t ever believe that Jesus has given up for you. He is here to make broken things whole and dead things come to life.

He loves you until the end.

_______________________________________________________________________________

[1] This un-named disciple is likely John. James and John were Jesus' cousins, related to Zacharias, one of the priests who served in the temple, and possibly had been introduced to Caiaphas…John had to intercede with the servant girl and vouch for him. (“Did the High Priest know John the Apostle?” http://rolinbrunoauthor.blogspot.com)

[2] According to Old Testament law, a Jew must testify when put under oath by the high priest (Lev. 5:1).

[3] Jesus likely alluded to a Messianic prophecy from Daniel: “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.” 

[4] HT NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

[5] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[6] Hey! They are following their own law!

Harmony #93 What Jesus Provided For Judas (Matthew 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-52; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:2-11)

Before we read this passage, let’s set the scene. It’s Holy Week. Jerusalem is packed with hundreds of thousands of Jewish worshippers. A ”crowd” is going to appear to arrest Jesus, because there has been a history of violent uprising during this week. Considering the way Jesus was greeted when he entered Jerusalem, this has the potential to be explosive. We will see that the crowd has swords and clubs. The weapons suggest Romans (swords) and the Sanhedrin’s guard (clubs). They do NOT want this to get out of hand.

While Jesus was still speaking, suddenly a crowd appeared, and the man named Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. (Now Judas, the one who handed him over[1], knew the place too, because Jesus had met there many times with his disciples.)

So Judas obtained a squad of soldiers and some officers sent by the chief priests, Pharisees and experts in the law, along with elders of the people. They came to the orchard with lanterns and torches, and armed with swords and clubs.

(Now the one who was handing him over had given them a sign, saying, “The one I kiss is the man. Arrest him and lead him away under guard.”) When Judas arrived, Jesus said to Judas, “Friend,[2] do what you are here to do.” Judas went up to Jesus immediately and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you hand over the Son of Man with a kiss?”

There is a lot of conversation about, “Why a kiss?” Judas could have put his arm around Jesus’ shoulder. He could have stood in front and pointed. He could have led Jesus to the arresting crowd. Instead, he kissed him.

Among all the reasons I studied this week, I am leaning most heavily toward the idea that the answer is found in Psalms 2, a coronation hymn that was sung at the inauguration of each new king in the line of David. Based on Jesus’ reception in Jerusalem, the masses of the people clearly thought that’s who he was. If you remember, it’s why Jesus wept. The crowds thought a king like David – A Zealot Messiah and King – was about to defeat Rome and usher in an earthly kingdom that would bring peace through the sword, and Jesus knew they were so tragically wrong. So, how is this coronation psalm related to Judas kissing Jesus? Here is the psalm.

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”  I will proclaim the Lord’s decree:

He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, or his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

I suspect Judas may have been sending more than one signal with that kiss. I wonder if this was a coronation kiss, a signal to Jesus that he believed Jesus was about to be the earthly king in the line of David who was about to break Rome with a rod of iron. It’s a Zealot’s dream. We’ll come back to this in a bit.

Then Jesus, because he knew everything that was going to happen to him, came and asked them, “Who are you looking for?” They replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He told them, “I AM.” [3](Now Judas, the one who handed him over, was standing there with them.) So when Jesus said to them, “I AM,” they retreated and fell to the ground.

Then Jesus asked them again, “Who are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus the Nazarene.” Jesus replied, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, let these men go.” He said this to fulfill the word he had spoken, “I have not lost a single one of those whom you gave me.” Then they came and took hold of Jesus and arrested him.

 When those who were around him saw what was about to happen, they said, “Lord, should we use our swords?” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, pulled it out and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his right ear. (Now the slave’s name was Malchus.[4]) But Jesus said, “Enough of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

Then Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back in its sheath! For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword.  Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions of angels right now? How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled? Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

Then, at that moment, Jesus said to the crowd, the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come out to get him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me like you would an outlaw? Day after day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, yet you did not arrest me.

But this has happened so that the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled. This is your hour, and that of the rule of darkness!” Then the squad of soldiers with their commanding officer and the officers of the Jewish leaders arrested Jesus and tied him up. Then all the disciples left him and fled.

 I need to add something from an upcoming text to round out where we are going this morning.

When Judas, who had handed him over, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.  “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have handed over innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:3-5)

Let’s talk about Judas so that we can talk about Jesus.

Judas has an interesting history in church lore. There have been sharply different opinions about him in terms of his motivation in both Jewish and Christian history. Let’s start with the question of whether or not he was ever truly a follower of Jesus. 

• Judas left all to follow Jesus (Luke 14:33).

• He picked up his cross (Luke 14:27)

• He loved Jesus more than his own family (Luke 14:26)

• Judas cast out devils, healed, and preached (Matthew 10:1-27).

• John 3:22 notes "After this, Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing." Surely, Jesus would have baptized his disciples if they are baptizing others.

• Jesus said that Judas’ name was written in the Lamb’s book of life (Luke 10:20).

• Jesus said that Judas was one of His sheep who’s Father was God  and whose Spirit would speak through him (Matthew 10).

• Judas would have a throne in Heaven upon which he would judge Israel (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30).[5]

• When Peter said, “WE believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” (Matthew 16:16) that “we” included Judas.

 Judas checks all the boxes for someone who genuinely followed Jesus, at least in the terms that we discuss when we talk about what it looks like to become and be a follower of Jesus.

• A firm belief that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God sent to save humanity by conquering evil and forgiving sins.

• A declaration of this belief (in this case, through Peter’s words of what “we” said about Jesus)

• A baptism in the name of Jesus

• A choice of Jesus over all others

• An evangelistic fervor

• A demonstration of the power of God through the Spirit of God

• An identification of sheep, with his name in the Book of Life.

I feel pretty good saying Judas was a genuine follower of Jesus. Here’s a trickier question: What was the spiritual fate of Judas after he handed Jesus over to death?

PERSPECTIVE ONE

Judas betrayed Jesus because he did not believe or trust that Jesus really was the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the long -awaited Messiah. His betrayal showed his rejection of Jesus. In this scenario, Judas wanted Jesus arrested and killed because Jesus was now a blasphemer, claiming to be God when he was not. Judas’ kiss, then, was mockery of Jesus. Maybe even calling him Rabbi was a pointed message: “That’s all you are.”

 Judas is the super villain in this perspective, one “Satan entered” to make Judas an adversary and accuser to commit murderous sin. His later anguish happens when he is overwhelmed with guilt for the sin he committed when he realized he was wrong. The follow-up question would almost always be, “Could Judas be in heaven?” Or even, “Would it even have been possible for Judas to have been forgiven and saved?”

PERSPECTIVE TWO

Judas believed in Jesus, just the wrong way. He was a Zealot; he believed Jesus really was the Messiah meant to usher in a Zealot Kingdom of God. He is getting the ball rolling by handing Jesus over. It’s holy week; Jerusalem is packed with hundreds of thousands of Jewish worshippers. This was the time. In this scenario, his kiss was sincere, perhaps even loving. Satan entered into him, but Satan’s work was deception about Jesus’ mission and the urging to do a thing that would end up getting Jesus killed, which Satan was all for.

Judas’ remorse is a result of realizing Jesus waas going to let himself be killed rather than ascend to a throne. (“When he saw that he was condemned, he was seized with remorse”). That wasn’t what he envisioned happening at all. When he realized his terrible mistake, he could not live with himself. In this view, when Jesus on the cross said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they do,” this may well have included Judas.

So, two very different views of Judas. Both have been present in the history of Judaism and Christianity. If nothing else, wrestling with this opens up opportunity for discussion about true discipleship, the nature of forgiveness and redemption, the reality of what kind of Messiah Jesus actually is, etc.

 But there’s more that has been part of this discussion.  

The Apostles' Creed states that Jesus "descended into hell" (a reference to Ephesians 4:9). The very Peter who betrayed Jesus in a different later wrote that the "gospel was preached even to those who are now dead." (1 Peter 4:6). Huh. That would mean Judas saw Christus Victor in the flesh. Meanwhile, there are other verses that reference what Jesus did on Silent Saturday.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.”  (1 Peter 3:18-20

"How can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house." (Matthew 12:29) 

“When Jesus ascended up on high, He led captive all that had captured us!” (Ephesians 4:8)

Depending on how you read these passages – and there’s room to rearrange the details – you encounter the question that people have disagreed about for a couple centuries: did Jesus preach to just the righteous dead or everybody? Did Jesus free just the righteous who responded or did he free everybody? Just how thorough was the plundering when he bound the strong man?

This event is referred to in church history as the Harrowing as Hell (technically, the Harrowing of Hades). In life, Jesus plundered Satan’s kingdom (think exorcisms); in his death, Jesus plundered the very heart of Satan’s realm. Like Samson, he did more damage in his death than he did in his life. [6]Colossians 2:15 notes,

“He disarmed the rulers and authorities. He made a public example of them[7], by conquering them in his cross.” (Colossians 2:15)

Eastern teachers such as Clement, Origen, Cyril and John of Damascus said that Christ in Hades preached the gospel to evangelize all the unbelieving dead. Weser, theologians such as Augustine and Tertullian spoke of Christ descending to the lower regions to unite specifically faithful patriarchs and prophets to himself.[8]

The early Christian Church understood that the power of the death of Christ worked backwards in time as well as forwards in time, offering Salvation to all who had ever lived and all who were yet to be born.[9]

The Eastern teachers proposed that Jesus emptied Hades; the Western teachers taught that those already inclined toward righteousness responded. Either way, all heard Jesus proclaim who he was and had a choice to respond to this revelation denied them because they were born too soon.

Next question: Was Judas, who was already there – rescued?  Or put another way, did Jesus’ death make possible a life eternal for even Judas? Was Judas inclined toward righteousness (Scenario B above) or not (Scenario A)?

Depending on how you understand the Harrowing of Hell, you will have different conclusions. I want to point out something that remains relevant no matter where you land. Jesus was on mission to offer a salvation that could save even Judas. Jesus had already told his disciples what God was like as expressed through Jesus.

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders  and goes home.  

Jesus had insisted throughout his ministry that this was true.

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of those He has given Me, but raise them up at the last day.” (John 6:39)

“ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)

“I have not lost a single one of those whom you gave me.” (John 18:9)[10]

Judas forgot that Jesus will search for the one lost sheep until he finds them. Jesus does not give up on his sheep, and he already declared Judas a sheep of his. After Judas handed him over, that rescue mission started almost immediately on the cross, an act of cruciform love in which Jesus took the weight of either Judas’ betraying sin or terrible misunderstanding of Jesus, or both.  Whatever evil that was in Judas and whatever evil he did or caused to happen, Jesus took all of that upon himself - and overcame it. Here’s Paul explaining this in 2 Corinthians 5: 

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

This sounds like trouble for Judas. Let’s keep reading. I’m going to skip to verse 17, but I encourage you to read the whole chapter later.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.  The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:  that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.  

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

Judas had a mission field awaiting him in which he could have told of the unbelievable, grace-filled love of Jesus. That was Peter’s testimony, and he publicly denied that he was a follower of Jesus. That was Paul’s testimony, and he killed followers of Jesus. That could have been the testimony of Judas

Rember, the apostle John establish.ed that “Jesus loved them until the end” (John 13:1). Jesus never stopped loving Judas. Jesus was always the father in the story of the Prodigal Son, eager to run and embrace his lost and wandering child. He never stopped being the Great Physician, there to heal all the sick. He established himself as the true Passover Lamb, showing that neither physical or spiritual death would have the last word. The transformative power of cruciform love never stops being offered to those who would have the love of Jesus write their story. 

Within days after Judas handed over Jesus, Jesus made a way for him to be reconciled to God and to become the righteousness of God. Then, Jesus would rise and go to the disciples, calling back into his service all of them hid, who denied that they knew him, who were convinced he was a failed Messiah. He called them all back and restored them, because nothing can separate us from the cruciform love of God. Then, he sent the promised Holy Spirit, because nothing will separate us from the cruciform presence of God. Then, his church will permeate the world, because the cruciform mission of God will salt and light the world. In His death and resurrection, Jesus broke the back of evil. Nothing from Satan’s realm can have dominion over us.

This does not mean I am right, but I admit that I want to believe that Jesus revealed himself in all his cruciform power and love to Judas in Hades and triumphantly marched him out of the devil’s domain and into the Kingdom. It’s hard to imagine a more thorough conquering of the rulers and authorities. The Bible does not clarify what happened, of course. I hope it’s okay that I want to believe that is true.

I’d like us to learn something from Judas. Judas not only misunderstood who Jesus was in terms of his physical impact as the Messiah, Judas did not understand just how loving Jesus was. He seems to have despaired of recovering from what he did. Friends, never despair at the love of Jesus. Don’t underestimate the power of cruciform love. Paul unpacks it in Romans 8. 

If the Spirit of God is leading you, then take comfort in knowing you are His children… The Spirit you have received adopts you and welcomes you into God’s own family. That’s why we call out to Him, “Abba! Father!” as we would address a loving daddy…If we are God’s children, that means we are His heirs along with the Anointed, set to inherit everything that is His. 

If we share His sufferings, we know that we will ultimately share in His glory. Now I’m sure of this: the sufferings we endure now are not even worth comparing to the glory that is coming and will be revealed in us.  For all of creation is waiting, yearning for the time when the children of God will be revealed… 

And there is more; it’s not just creation—all of us are groaning together too. Though we have already tasted the firstfruits of the Spirit, we are longing for the total redemption of our bodies that comes when our adoption as children of God is complete— for we have been saved in this hope and for this future…

We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan… So what should we say about all of this? If God is on our side, then tell me: whom should we fear? 

If He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on our account, then don’t you think that He will graciously give us all things with Him… Jesus the Anointed died, but more importantly, conquered death when He was raised to sit at the right hand of God, where He pleads on our behalf. 

So who can separate us? What can come between us and the love of God’s Anointed? Can troubles, hardships, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, or even death? The answer is, absolutely nothing… But no matter what comes, we will always taste victory through Him who loved us. 

For I have every confidence that nothing—not death, life, heavenly messengers, dark spirits, the present, the future, spiritual powers, height, depth, nor any created thing—can come between us and the love of God revealed in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord.

_____________________________________________________________________________

[1] I am choosing translations that use “handed him over” instead of betrayed. As best I can tell, it’s a better translation. It does not imply intent; it simply addresses actions. The only time the original word is used outside of the Gethsemene accounts is in Acts 22:4, which is translated overwhelmingly this way: “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering (betraying) into prisons both men and women.” Here, it is clearly a handing over.

[2] Commentaries are really mixed concerning whether or not this is to be read at face value  (Judas is a “friend, a companion or acquaintance”) or if it’s an ironic title highlighting the Judas is not what he claimed to be. This word occurs only three times in the New Testament. The other two places are Matthew 22:12 and Matthew 20:13. You can read how ‘friend’ is used there and see what you think. 

[3] “The use of "εἰμί" in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) often translates the Hebrew verb "הָיָה" (hayah), which is used in God's self-revelation to Moses as "I AM" (Exodus 3:14). This connection underscores the theological depth of "εἰμί" in expressing divine existence and presence.” (Strong’s Lexicon) “he "I am formula (Gk egō eimi)" harks back to God's only name, "Yahweh" (OT/3068, "the lord") – meaning "He who always was, is, and will be." (HELPS Word Studies)

[4] John recorded this detail. Most people assume this was John’s way of letting people know how they could double-check this account. Ask Malchus what happened.

[5] Did he mean Judas, or would that 12th throne be for Matthias (who takes Judas’ place as recorded in the book of Acts). Opinions vary.

[6] https://prodigalprof.com/creed-or-chaos/19-he-descended-into-hell/

[7] That public example seems to reference what Roman conquerors would do when they returned from battle, parading their captives down the middle of the town.

[8] https://billmuehlenberg.com/2018/03/27/he-descended-into-hell/

[9] https://prodigalprof.com/creed-or-chaos/19-he-descended-into-hell/

[10] Then there is this: “I protected them by the power of the name you gave me. I guarded them so that not one was lost, except the one headed for destruction, as the Scriptures foretold.” (John 17:12) I suspect this refers to Judas “disqualifying himself from the race” (as Paul warned about) and then literally ending his life. In the reading of Judas as terribly misguided Zealot who actually did believe Jesus was the Messiah who needed a push to ascend to his throne, no one snatched him out of Jesus’ hand. God gave Jesus that sheep. Jesus never let go.

Harmony #92: The Savior Who Understands Sorrow (Mark 14:32-42; Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46; John 18:1)

Then Jesus went out and made his way, as he customarily did, to a place called Gethsemane, across the Kidron Valley. There was an orchard there, and he and his disciples went into it. When he came to the place, he said to them, “Sit here and pray that you will not fall into temptation while I go over there and pray.”

He took with him Peter, James, and John, the two sons of Zebedee, and became anguished and distressed. Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”

Going a little farther, about a stone’s throw, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour would pass from him. He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. If you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.”

Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And in his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping, exhausted (sleeping like they were dead) from grief.

 He said to Peter, “Simon, why are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake with me for one hour? Get up, stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed the same thing, “My Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will must be done.” When he came again he found them sleeping; they could not keep their eyes open. And they did not know what to tell him.

So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough of that! Look, the hour is approaching and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us go. Look! My betrayer is approaching!”

* * * * *

We are going to talk a bit today about grief.

The disciples were exhausted from grief so much so they could not stay awake after multiple requests. They “didn’t know what to tell him.”  He had told them not to be troubled (John 14:1), and recognized that “sorrow has filled your hearts”. (John 16:6) What Jesus has been telling them has so profoundly saddened them that they are exhausted from their grief.

Jesus was “anguished and distressed…’My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death.’” His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

“God’s beloved Son, leaving the echoes of His cries upon the mountains and the traces of His weary feet upon the streets, shedding His tears over the tombs and His blood upon Golgotha, associating His life with our homes, and His corpse with our sepulchres, shows us how we, too, may be… sure of sympathy in heaven amid the deepest wrongs and sorrows of earth.” - Edward Thomson.

LITURGY OF LAMENT

Jesus entered a world that was broken, suffering, and full of pain. He grieved the loss of his friends; he wept for his people. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.  He entered into a lonesome, weary world in desperate need of the light of hope and peace to bring the promise of God's everlasting presence and love.

God has given us reason to celebrate, but we often find the days cold and our hearts hard.  As we await our resurrection into the new life in the world to come, it’s sometimes hard for us to lift up our hearts. Jesus reminds us that God understands the grief of this world.

READER: “He was despised and forsaken by men, this man of suffering, grief’s patientfriend… Yet it was our suffering he carried, our pain and distress, our sickness-to-the-soul.
We just figured that God had rejected him, that God was the reason he hurt so badly.

But he was hurt because of us; he suffered so. Our wrongdoing wounded and crushed him. He endured the breaking that made us whole. The injuries he suffered became our healing. (Isaiah 53:3-5)

Pastor: Jesus knows the feelings of abandonment, anger, and loneliness we sometimes feel. Jesus knows the depths of our broken hearts, and He alone has the power to bring beauty from the ashes in our lives. We long for the day when His work will be completed in us and in a world that groans as it awaits redemption. Meanwhile, we weep with those who weep, and we mourn with those who mourn.

READER: The Psalmist wrote in the 88th psalm: O Eternal One! O True God my Savior! I cry out to You all the time, under the sun and the moon. Let my voice reach You! Please listen to my prayers! My soul is deeply troubled, and my heart can’t bear the weight of this sorrow. I feel so close to death…

Are You the miracle-worker for the dead?
Will they rise from the dark shadows to worship You again? Will your great love be proclaimed in the grave or Your faithfulness be remembered in whispers like mists throughout the place of ruin? Are Your wonders known in the dominion of darkness?  Is Your righteousness recognized in a land where all is forgotten? But I am calling out to You, Eternal One.
My prayers rise before You with every new sun!

PASTOR: Even when we are tempted to give up, even when we have lost that which brings ‘life’ to our life, even when we feel like we are living in places of ruin, we lift prayers with every new sun to a God who does not abandon us.

READER: “At different times and in various ways, God’s voice came to our ancestors through the Hebrew prophets. But in these last days, God’s voice has come to us through His Son, the One who has been given dominion over all things and through whom all worlds were made.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)

Pastor: God of light and life, you speak even when we do not hear. You are present even when we do not sense you are near. In the midst of darkness and silence, we listen for your voice and long to feel your comforting grace. Open our eyes so we can see you; open our ears so we can hear.

READER: The prophet Jeremiah wrote: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick… For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.  Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there…?  O, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night…”  (Jeremiah 8:18,21-9:1)                       

Pastor: We join with the prophets in freely admitting our pain, our loss, our fear, our sorrow, our anxiety. Because the light of God’s mercy and love illuminates our tears, we mourn without shame. Here, among God’s people, we are welcome even if we're cynical, even if we're angry, even if hope and meaning seem like an unreachable dream. Here we can bare our hearts to those who will help us to bear our burden. 

Congregation: Here we, the followers of a weeping Savior, bear one another’s burdens.

Pastor: Here, in the company of those who follow the Prince of Peace, let us be at peace. 

Congregation: May we, the church, be a sanctuary of God’s peace for those in need of shelter.

Pastor: We will cast our sorrows upon Christ, for He cares for us.

READER: The Psalmist wrote: “My soul is dry and thirsts for You, True God, as a deer thirsts for water .I long for the True God who lives.
When can I stand before Him and feel His comfort?Right now I’m overwhelmed by my sorrow and pain;
I can’t stop feasting on my tears.


People crowd around me and say,
“Where is your True God whom you claim will save?” With a broken heart,
I remember times before
When I was with Your people. Those were better days. 

I used to lead them happily into the True God’s house, singing with joy, shouting thanksgivings with abandon,
joining the congregation in the celebration. Why am I so overwrought?
Why am I so disturbed?
Why can’t I just hope in God?
(Psalm 42:1-6) 

PASTOR: As we wait for all that is dead to be reborn, we remember what David wrote in Psalm 42:

READER:“ I will believe and praise the One who saves me and is my life… in the light of day, the Eternal shows me His love. When night settles in and all is dark, He keeps me company—His soothing song, a prayerful melody to the True God of my life.” (Psalm 42:7-8) 

Pastor: As we lift our eyes toward the only One who can heal us, we symbolically light life’s darkness with these candles. to help us to remember that though our grief is real, our hope burns brightly with the light of the True God of life.

We light our first candle to acknowledge the pain of loss: the loss of relationships, the loss of jobs, the loss of health. We take the pain of the past, offering it to God from whose nail-scarred hands we may receive the gift of peace.

We light this candle for the light of love to illuminate that which was lost in the darkness of our history.

Congregation: Renew us, God of light and joy.

Pastor: We light the second candle to remember those who have died. We remember their name, their face, their voice, the memory that we carry with us. We remember the times we laughed, argued, loved, hugged, smiled, and wept.

The valley of the shadow of death can seem relentless, so we light this candle to commemorate the memories of a life once shared, and to illuminate with comfort the path of those of us who mourn.

Congregation:  May the light of a dying and risen Savior’s eternal love surround us.

Pastor: We light the third candle to our attitudes, our mindset, our hidden, inner times of darkness. We acknowledge the times of disbelief, anger, despair, and frustration, the times we have compromised our integrity and lost our innocence. We bring God’s pure light to the depth of our flawed mortality.

With this light, we also remember the family and friends who have stood with us, and the Savior who is faithful even when we are not.

Congregation:  Let us remember that Christ brings the light of life.

Pastor: We light this fourth candle to remember those who feel alone, who feel isolated from loved ones, far from home, far from friends, far from a God they believe is unconcerned with their suffering.

We light this candle to remember that the God who guided His people through a wilderness with fire can illuminate the way of those captive to the darkness of loneliness and disillusionment.

Congregation:  May Jesus, who was despised and rejected, comfort the lonely and brokenhearted.

Pastor: We light this fifth candle to remember those who are in the midst of hardships that threaten to overwhelm them. For the poor, the persecuted, the hungry, the homeless, the sick. We lift up those who suffer the pain, indignity, and bewilderment that accompany a broken body, spirit or soul. 

We pray that God, who lit up the night to guide wise men to the healing Christ, will light the way today to a Risen Savior. 

Congregation: O God, light our path; bring hope to the hopeless; make us new.

Pastor: We light the sixth candle to remember our faith and the gift of hope. We remember that God promises that one day there will be an age to come with no more pain and suffering. We light a candle for courage in this present darkness as we await the renewal of all things. We confront our sorrow, our loss, our confusion.

With God’s Spirit and the presence of his people, we bring the light of comfort to each other, bearing each other’s burdens, and praying for hope in our broken world.

Congregation.  Let us remember the One who draws beauty from ashes and offers us hope.

READER: The Apostle Paul wrote: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”  (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)

Pastor: It is through the suffering of Christ that we find comfort in the midst of our suffering as well.  On the night Jesus offered himself up for us he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Congregation: Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we have been delivered from the power of sin and death, and we can endure with hope and faith.

Pastor: It was in His parting sorrow that Jesus asked His disciples to remember Him. May we, the church, be united in the fellowship of his suffering so we can experience the power of his resurrection. 

READER: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.

He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’  And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’  (Revelation 21:1-5)

Pastor: In the promise of God’s never-ending love from which nothing can separate us, we claim peace. We long for the day when there shall be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more death. Even when we see only a glimmer, we know the light of your love is overcoming all darkness. Christ himself is with us. 

He is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.  This is the good news: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.  One day, Christ who died and rose again will wipe all tears from our eyes. He will make all things new.

As we wait for Resurrection, we lift up our broken hearts. May the God of Comfort be with us.

Congregation: May the God of Resurrection be with us all.

Harmony #91 Resisting the Archon of this World (Ephesians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; 1 Peter 5:8-9)

C. S. Lewis once wrote,

"There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight."

After a couple weeks of talking about the archons of this world, with Satan as the spiritual super villain, and talking with some friends about experiences they have had lately where they have done battle with “principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places,” I thought it might be worth taking some time to talk more about the significance of this reality in the Christians life.

So let’s talk first about what the Bible unveils about spiritual realities in the unseen realm around us, and second about the ways the Bible shows Christians fighting this spiritual battle.  

First, Christianity teaches a multi-dimensional universe. That is, we are dualists. We believe there are two parts to reality: the physical (or material) and the spiritual (or immaterial) – what I have been calling the seen and unseen. Some worldviews are monistic – that is, they think the ‘furniture of the universe’ is either all material or all immaterial, but the Judeo/Christian worldview rejects that notion. There are two dimensions that overlap, usually without our noticing but sometimes in a way that can be seen. This is the biblical nature of reality.

Just like the seen realm, the unseen realm is populated with beings.  The Old Testament uses language of structure, organization, even courts and forms of government in this realm. Whether this is a down-the-line literal explanation of reality or God’s way of using language to help us understand how things work behind the scenes, it’s an inhabited and ordered world.

At the time the Bible was written, every culture took this for granted. You do not see the Bible taking the time to argue, for example, that God or “gods” or angels and demons existed. There was no need to convince anyone in the world of that outside of a few sporadic philosophers.[1]

For example, Homer (in The Iliad) illustrated another very common Greek belief: there was a class of lesser divinities, intermediate beings between the gods and humans called demons (daimon in Greek), which by the time of Jesus were acknowledged even by the Greeks to be bad news. Some philosophers had even begun to argue that they had gotten the Pantheon wrong: there was no way ‘gods’ would be as bad as the stories claimed, because gods should be good, so they must be worshipping demons mistakenly. More on what Paul has to say about that later….

The notion that there was a ‘divine council’ in the heavens was everywhere in Ancient Near East cultures, including Israel. That Yahweh was The Lord of lords, The King of kings and Most High suggested there was some kind of spiritual lord, or king, or beings lower than God but higher than us. The Old Testament is quite comfortable with this, and often uses the word “elohim”[2] to cover beings in all these categories.

“God [elohim] has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods [elohim] he holds judgment.” (Psalm 82:1) 

For all the gods [Elohim] of the peoples are worthless/vain, but the LORD made the heavens.” (Psalm 96:5) 

“They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known; to new gods who had recently come along, gods your ancestors had not known about.” (Deuteronomy 32:17)

The key distinction that drew a sharp line between God’s people and the surrounding cultures: there is only one truly Divine Being, one True God, One Creator, etc. Yahweh was in a category of his own. No one was like Him. However, a realm of angels both true and fallen, populated with other beings that went by various names was all part of the furniture of the biblical universe.  

As you might expect, people were eager to be on the good side of these beings or recruit them to their side. TONS of literature has survived from the ancient world that references incantations, amulets, spells, wards…anything to use, control or tame this unseen realm.  When God tells his people not to use sorcery or witchcraft to pursue magical powers through contact with or attempted control of these spirits (Deuteronomy 18:10–12)[3] he is probably talking about that kind of thing.

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.”[4]

Note that the writers of the Bible assumed a populated unseen realm, and warned against pursuing involvement with it .

Most of the origin story to these beings is missing from the Biblical text. However, we know a few things.

• They must have been created, as only God is Uncreated.

• God gives them tasks, assignments, and responsibilities.[5] Much like the first humans were given things to do as stewards of God’s physical world, these beings are apparently intended to be stewards of God’s spiritual world.[6]

• Some chose to rebel against God and His plan and fell, and others stayed loyal.[7] So, they must have free will and agency. The good are the servants of God; the evil are hostile to his government and plan. [8]

• The one behind those who fell is Revelation’s dragon: the Satan which is one of several different titles given to this being in the Bible.

• A war has been and is being waged in the unseen realm that spills  over into the seen realm. have been recruited into it, like it or not.

 One of the main tools of those beings hostile to God’s government appears to be deception that leads people away from the true God and toward the lifestyle that followed. Worship of these false gods never ended well in the Old Testament.

"They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood." (Psalm 106:37-38) 

“They build the shrines of the Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom(Gehenna), to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire—which I did not command, nor did it arise in my mind.” (Jeremiah 7:30-31)

 This wasn’t just an issue of people thinking the wrong things. It was about people doing evil things as a result of believing the wrong things. I don’t think there is a story in the Old Testament of God dismantling cultural power structures just because they believed in other gods. God stepped in when things like what I mentioned above started to happen (think of God sending Johan to Ninevah because of their violence).

By the time Jesus arrived, Jewish tradition had a robust body of literature about demons (bad) and angels (good) and how they worked in the world. Think of it as constant commentary being written that filled in the biblical blanks. A lot of the way we think about the unseen realm can be traced back to this more than to simply Scripture.[9] It doesn’t mean those traditions are necessarily wrong, but they are commentary rather than Scripture.

The NT gospels contain fifty-three references to "daimon" (going back to Homer’s words in the Iliad). Think of our word “pandemonium.” It comes from that root word. Chaos is everywhere. Luke uses "pneuma ponera" (evil spirit) or "pneuma akatharta" (unclean spirit), which is pretty much the same thing. [10] Angels make 18 appearances in the NT.[11] I suspect there is less said because there was no need to warn about those 

The human desire to worship these beings remained. Paul echoes the Old Testament:

Therefore, my beloved, stop the worship of idols. I speak as to sensible men; judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread…  

What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.  You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? (1 Corinthians 10: 14-22)

Once again, the primary tool seems to be deception, and concerted effort to pull people into a different kingdom with a different Lord. The churches in Revelation that wrestled with “Satan’s throne” and the synagogue of Satan? False teachers. It’s a pattern of concern in the New Testament.[12]  More often than not, we fight by embracing truth: walking in the light ( 1 Jo 1:5-7 ), putting off of the old and joyful putting on the new ( Eph 4:22-29: Col 1:13 ), being transformed ( 2 Cor 5:17 ) as we grow into the full measure of the stature of Christ ( Eph 4:14-16 ).[13] Those are our primary weapons, as we will see when we finish with Ephesians 6.

The New Testament also talks about “demonization,” a catch-all term that covers the influence of demons on the lives of people. Over the centuries, the church has developed lots of language and categories to describe how this might play out differently depending on the level of demonization, but the NT word is much more basic. It just means demons are influencing or manipulating people to varying degrees.[14]

When Jesus is establishing his power and authority over everything, especially over things the people feared, he has what some have called “power encounters” with the demonic. You see this several different times in his ministry. We are not told how these people got demonized, or why. We are just told that they are, and then Jesus frees them.

The book of Acts only has three incidents involving evil spirits: the fortune-telling slave girl of Philippi (Acts 16:9-21), Simon of Samaria (Acts 8:5-24), and the sons of Sceva (Acts 19:11-17).

It’s recognized as part of reality, and the incidents recorded seem to serve the purpose of establish Jesus’ power and authority. The point wasn’t to go demon hunting or find one behind every tree; the point is that Jesus is stronger than anything you will encounter.[15]

As the early church unfolded, this kind of spiritual reality remained part of the ‘furniture’ of the church.  This link[16] will give a ton of info from the first several centuries, as will the summary and the last few pages of your notes.  It was just assumed by all to be a part of ongoing life in the Kingdom of God.  

This kind of confrontation of spirits eventually worked its way into all kinds of ceremonies, beginning to border on the kind of superstition if not outright attempts at magic at times (especially in the Western church) warned about in the Old Testament.

Part of what the Reformation challenged was the sense that Catholic ceremonies and rites had become superstition and magic rather than a legitimate, Christ-centered exercise of God’s authority over the spiritual powers of darkness. Like other areas of the Catholic church, their desire was primarily to reform it, though for many it looked so ugly they rejected it all together.[17]

Over time, there has been an ebb and flow to how different church branches and denominations in different times and places have handled this supernatural element. Many maintained teaching and structure for ‘power encounters’ throughout their existence (Catholic, Orthodox, Coptic, Anglican); many of the Reformers put it on a back burner. though there is record of ongoing acknowledgment that strange things from the unseen realm intersected with ours. The renewed interest in the 70s of ‘spiritual warfare’ in the U.S. felt new, but it really just connected us with the broader church experience historically and globally.

* * * *

So that brings us to three key passages looking at what the Bible has to say about doing battle in the unseen realm.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) 

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

So what is spiritual warfare based on these passages of Scripture?

• ·the tensions, the conflicts, the ethical options, and the worldview choices which Christians must face

• the spiritual conflict between those who inhabit and/or serve the heavenly and demonic kingdoms

• the fight for truth

When it comes to how spiritual warfare looks (or how we think it ought to look), Hollywood can fill our heads with craziness; some Christian practices and teaching go beyond what Scripture in describing what must be happening in the unseen realm and how it must be influencing us and here’s the only wayto deal with it… It can become frightening, confusing and overwhelming, none of which should follow when reading Scripture on this issue.

Don’t ignore it. It’s real, and it’s happening. “There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” (C. S. Lewis).

Don’t be afraid. Nothing the Bible tells you about this realm is meant to make you scared. It’s meant to have you be sober-minded and on guard.

Pray a lot - “...without ceasing...” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 ) and “...on all occasions...”  (Ephesians 6:18)

Don’t learn more about evil than about good (“Whatever things are good...pure...of good report...think on these things.”  Philippians 4:8)

Study the Bible. Jesus quoted Scripture when tempted by Satan - Matthew 4.

Don’t crave a glimpse into the unseen realm. People have told me they think it would be neat to see a deliverance because they want to see the demonic manifest.  That’s a terrible reason. Don’t be fascinated by evil.

Keep the commandments of God and trust his testimony.

NOTES FROM CHURCH HISTORY ON THE UNSEEN REALM ( I got this wonderful list from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6699044/. “Book Review: Healing in the Early Church: The Church’s Ministry of Healing and Exorcism from the First to the Fifth Century.”

• Justin Martyr (ca. 160 A.D.): “For we do continually beseech God by Jesus Christ to preserve us from the demons which are hostile to the worship of God, and whom we of old time served… For we call Him Helper and Redeemer, the power of whose name even the demons do fear; and at this day, when they are exorcised in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, governor of Judæa, they are overcome. And thus it is manifest to all, that His Father has given Him so great power by virtue of which demons are subdued to His name, and to the dispensation of His suffering” (Dialogue, 30,3).   “He (Christ) said, “I give unto you power to tread on serpents, and on scorpions… and on all the might of the enemy”. And now we, who believe on our Lord Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, when we exorcise all demons and evil spirits, have them subjected to us (Dialogue 76,6).

• Theophilus of Antioch (ca. 180 A.D.) said the Greek poets were inspired by demons. “This is clearly evidenced by the fact that even today demons are exorcised from possessed in the name of the true God, and then the deceiving spirits confess themselves that they are the demons who once worked in the poets…” (Ad Autolycum II,8).

• Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (210-258), was the first to establish an order of exorcists.

• In Hippolytus’ (170-235) conditions for admission for those who want to follow the baptismal instruction we read the following, “If anybody has a demon, then let him not hear the Word from the teacher before he has been cleansed (Apostolic Tradition 16,8). “From the day that they (who are to be baptized) are elected, let there be laying on of hands with exorcism every day. When the day of baptism approaches, let the bishop perform exorcism on each one of them, so that he may be certain that the baptizand is clean. But if there is anybody who is not clean, he should be set aside because he did not hear the instruction with faith. For the alien spirit remained with him.” (Apostolic Tradition, 20,3).

• Tertullian (155-220) tells about a Christian woman who went to the theatre (where people slaughtered and maimed one another as entertainment for the masses) and came back possessed. “In the outcasting, accordingly, when the unclean creature was upbraided with having dared to attack a believer, he firmly replied, “And in truth I did it most righteously, for I found her in my domain””(De spectaculis, 26). 

• When Celsus (ca. 175 A.D.), “asserts that it is by the names of certain demons, and by the use of incantations, that the Christians appear to be possessed of power,” Origen (184-253), responded,“It is not by incantations that Christians seem to prevail (over evil spirits), but by the name of Jesus, accompanied by the announcement of the narratives which relate to him; for the repetition of these has frequently been the means of driving demons out of men, especially when those who repeated them did so in a sound and genuinely believing spirit. (Contra Celsum I,6).  “If then the Pythian priestess is beside herself when she prophesies, what spirit must that be which fills her mind and clouds her judgment with darkness, unless it be of the same order with those demons which many Christians cast out of persons possessed with them? And this, we may observe, they do without the use of any curious magic, or incantations, but merely by prayer and simple adjurations which the plainest person can use. Because for the most part it is unlettered persons who perform this work: thus making manifest the grace which is in the word of Christ, and the despicable weakness of demons, which, in order to be overcome and driven out of the bodies and souls of men, do not require the power and wisdom of those who are mighty in argument, and most learned in matters of faith” (Contra Celsum, VII,4). (11)

•   Athanasius (292-373) “And how does it happen, if he is not risen, but is dead, that he expels the false gods who by the unbelievers are said to live, and the demons whom they worship, and persecute and destroy them? For where Christ is mentioned, and faith in him, all idolatry is eradicated, all demonic deceit is revealed, and no demon even tolerates that the name is mentioned, but hurries to flee, as it hears it mentioned. This is not the work of a dead man, but a living and first and foremost God” (Der incarnatione verbi, 32). “It is clear that if Christ were dead, then he would not expel the demons…, for the demons would not obey one who is dead. But when they obviously are chased away at the use of his name, then it should be clear that he is not dead, especially because the demons who see the things that are not visible for humans – should know it if Christ is dead. Then they would simply deny him obedience. But now the demons see exactly what the ungodly do not believe; that he is God, and therefore they flee and fall down for him and say that which they also said when he was in the body, “We know who you are, you the Holy One of God” (De incarnatione verbi, 32). 

• Lactantius’ (250-325) observed that demons fear Christ but not Jupiter, since Jupiter is “one of them.”

• Eusebius of Caesarea, the “Father of Church History” (260-340) records exorcisms and healings of the time and exhorts against the use of amulets for these purposes.

• Saint Ambrose (339-397) described his personal experience with laying on of hands to produce healings or exorcisms.

  _________________________________________________________________________________
  

[1] Christians were called atheists at one point because they didn’t believe in enough gods, but it was really unusual to find an atheist who didn’t believe in any gods. 

[2] “The term "Elohim" means “supreme one” or “mighty one.” It is not only used of the one true God but is also used on occasion to refer to human rulers, judges, and even angels. If you saw one exhibiting supreme rule and expressed mighty power, the word you would use would be Elohim.” (biblestudytools.com, “What Does Elohim Mean and Why Is This Name of God So Important?”)

[3] https://www.olivetree.com/blog/demons-in-the-bible/

[4] Wikipedia, of all place, does a nice summary footnoted well. “‘The Old Testament description of the "divine assembly" all suggest that this metaphor for the organization of the divine world was consistent with that of Mesopotamia and Canaan. One difference, however, should be noted…Israelite writers sought to express both the uniqueness and the superiority of their God Yahweh.’ The Book of Psalms (Psalm 82:1), states "God (Elohim) stands in the divine assembly; He judges among the gods (elohim)." Later in this Psalm, the word "gods" is used (in the KJV): Psalm 82:6 – "I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High." Instead of "gods", another version has "godlike beings", but here again, the word is elohim/elohiym (Strong's H430).This passage is quoted in the New Testament in John 10:34. In the Books of Kings (1 Kings 22:19), the prophet Micaiah has a vision of Yahweh seated among "the whole host of heaven" standing on his right and on his left…The first two chapters of the Book of Job describe the "Sons of God" assembling in the presence of Yahweh.”

[5] For example, “When the Most High assigned lands to the nations, when he divided up the human race, he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court.” (NLT)

[6] What are we told in the Bible about angels when they appear to people? Virtually nothing. All that mattered was why God sent them to say or do what they said or did. There is also no physical description of demonic creatures.If the Bible didn’t find it necessary to give us details, we probably ought not worry about that kind of information too much.

[7] "And the angels that did not keep their own positions but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day. " Jude 6

[8] Old Testament Word Studies: Angels, etc. Demons. P. A. D. Nordell.

[9] Some of these books (Enoch, for example) are referenced by Peter and Jude.

[10] Why should a spirit be described as unclean? Because not all of them are, such as the Holy Spirit. (Baker Evangelical Dictionary Of Biblical Theology)

[11] https://jesusalive.cc/angels-in-new-testament/

[12] From Possession and Exorcism in the Literature of the Ancient Church and the New Testament. “Tertullian, in his Apologeticum (Defense, written 197 A.D.) notes that “We do not worship your gods, because we know that there are no such beings...” The saying “your gods do not exist” does not mean that the Greek-Roman gods are mere phantoms due only to human projection…They are not gods. They are demons. “And we affirm indeed the existence of certain spiritual essences; nor is their name unfamiliar. The philosophers acknowledge there are demons” (Apol. 22,1). The activity of the demons consists in deceiving human beings, tricking them into worshiping the demons as gods. In this way they lead people away from the true God... “Let a person be brought before your tribunals, who is plainly under demoniacal possession (daemone agi). The wicked spirit, bidden to speak by a follower of Christ, will as readily make the truthful confession that he is a demon, as elsewhere he has falsely asserted that he is a god. Or, if you will, let there be produced one of the god-possessed (de deo pati), as they are supposed, ….if they would not confess, in their fear of lying to a Christian, that they were demons, then and there shed the blood of the most impudent follower of Christ…. The truth is… that neither themselves nor any others have claims to deity, you may see at once who is really God, and whether that is He and He alone whom we Christians own; as also whether you are to believe in Him, and worship Him, after the manner of our Christian faith and discipline. But at once they (the demons) will say, Who is this Christ … is he not rather up in the heavens, thence about to come again… All the authority and power we have over them is from our naming the name of Christ, and recalling to their memory the woes with which God threatens them at the hands of Christ as Judge, and which they expect one day to overtake them. Fearing Christ in God, and God in Christ, they become subject to the servants of God and Christ. So at our touch and breathing, overwhelmed by the thought and realization of those judgment fires, they leave at our command the bodies they have entered… It has not been an unusual thing, accordingly, for those testimonies of your deities to convert men to Christianity (Apol. 23,4-18) (6)

[13] Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary Of Biblical Theology

[14] “Someone once said, ‘Does it really matter whether the demon is tempting me from across the room, sitting on my shoulder, or inside my head?’ And the answer is no, it probably doesn’t matter. What matters is how you respond to it.” (Sam Storms)

[15] The exorcism is a sign event which with evidence for all demonstrates that the house of the strong one has been robbed by the one who is stronger; that Christ has conquered Satan and all his army. It is obvious that Christian exorcism made a deep impression on people in antiquity, both Christians and non-Christians… When Jesus expels demons from tormented people, it is visible evidence that the power of Satan is broken. Satan is bound by Jesus, and Jesus is plundering his house; that is, reconquering and reestablishing that which the Devil has destroyed.” (Possession and Exorcism in the Literature of the Ancient Church and the New Testament, Dr. Oscar Skarsaune)

[16] “Spiritual warfare in early church history.” https://www.trustworthyword.com/sw-church-history

[17] “Although some Protestants stopped exorcising in any way, others continued to do so, but ‘reformed’ their exorcisms. Protestants began to speak of ‘dispossession’ rather than ‘exorcism.’” (https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/a-history-of-anglican-exorcism-deliverance-and-demonology-in-church-ritual/introduction?from=search)

[18] "A strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God." (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon)

[i]

Harmony #90: Christ Victorious (John 16:13-33, excerpted)

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you what is to come.  He will glorify me, because he will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you….”

 “In a little while you will see me no longer; again after a little while, you will see me…. I tell you the solemn truth, you will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sadness will turn into joy…So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you… I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world [order] you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world [order].”

If I were the disciples, I would have questions. If Jesus had conquered the world order, why would they still have trouble and suffering? The Greek word “conveys the idea of triumphing over adversities, challenges, or enemies.”[1]  Yet those things were still present when Jesus said that, and even after he left. So what’s being conveyed here? I think the broad point is that God’s plan will win in the end. His Kingdom will come, and His will will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

So, let’s talk about Christ, The Victor, who has conquered the world.

God, through Jesus, accomplished a lot of things on the cross.  There are numerous atonement theories; collectively, they point toward more than one thing. On the cross, God…

• ·revealed His love (Romans 5:8, John 14:7-10);

• ·reconciled all things to himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; Col 1:20-22)

• ·forgave our sins (Acts 13:38; Ephesians 1:7)

• ·healed us from our sin-diseased nature (1 Peter 2:24)

• ·defeated death, the devil and the devil’s works (Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8; 12:31).

• “disarmed the rulers and authorities…made a public display of them, having triumphed over them.” (Colossians 2:15).

• rendered judgment on the “world order” (John 12:31)[2]

• drew all people to himself (John 12:32)

• ·gave himself as a ransom for the sins of all people (1 Timothy 2:6; Mark 10:45; Hebrews 9:15).[3]

• gave us an example of ‘cruciform’ Kingdom living (Ephesians 5:1-2; 1 Peter 2:21) by overcoming evil with love.

St. John Chrysostom’s (300s) wrote of what was accomplished in Jesus’ death and resurrection I one of his commentaries:

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns…To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.”

That’s the idea. When Jesus told his disciples that he had overcome the world order, I believe he is focusing on a particular aspect of what was accomplished on the cross. This is known as the Christus Victor (“Christ the Victor”) view of the atonement. It is one way to think about what Jesus did on the cross.

“In the New Testament, the saving effect of Jesus’s death is represented primarily through five constellations of images, each of which is borrowed from the public life of the ancient Mediterranean world: the court of law (e.g., justification), the world of commerce (e.g., redemption), personal relationships (e.g., reconciliation), worship (e.g., sacrifice), and the battleground (e.g., triumph over evil).” (Mark Baker)

The battleground imagery is the Christus Victor model.

From the beginning, the Bible records the on-going conflict with enemies visible and invisible (realms seen and unseen).[4] The Old Testament uses common cultural images of the dreaded Deep of the sea and the epic sea monsters in it. It was just an image for evil, pain and chaos. Yahweh stood out among the ‘gods’ of the surrounding nations because the God of the Israelites controlled, and demolished them (Psalm 29:3-4, 10; 74:10-14; 77:16, 19; 89:9-10; 104:2-9; Job 7:12; 9:8, 13; 26:12-13; 38:6-11; 40:-41; Ezekiel 29:3; 32:2; Jeremiah 51:34; Habakkuk 3:8-15; Nahum 1:4). Nonetheless, the conflict was real.

• We also read that when Israel was in conflict with other nations, it was more than just people fighting; there was a war in the unseen realm as well (2 Samuel 5:23-24;  Judges 11:21-24).

• The Prince of Persia delayed the angel Michael in Daniel 10

• The freeing of Israel from slavery in Egypt wasn’t just a conflict between Pharaoh and Moses.  It was between Yahweh and the Egyptian gods.

• When the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant and put it in one of their temples next to Dagon, Dagon kept falling and breaking and the people suffered sickness until they moved it. (1 Samuel 5:2-7)

There is a history of Yahweh’s victory over these forces seen and unseen. When Jesus arrived, he talked about “the archon of this world” (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), which typically referred to those in authority: the king, the local governor, the Sadducees. Behind that “world order” was Satan, a spiritual archon to whom God had granted some kind of power and impact in the world.

• When Satan tempted Jesus, he offered the kingdoms of the world because “it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.” (Luke 4:5-6).

• In Revelation 13, the Beast “was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.” If you remember our Revelation series, I believe the Beast is Rome/Nero, but Satan is clearly depicted as the real power behind it all.

• John wrote that the entire world is “under the power of the evil one” (I John 5:19);

• Paul calls Satan “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and references the “ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” (Ephesians 2:2).

• Paul taught that whatever earthly struggles were a shadow of the real struggle against “the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12)[5]

In the death and resurrection of Jesus, he showed his powerful triumph over evil through self-sacrificial love, and ransomed the spiritual captives of the Unseen Pharoah from the Unseen Egypt (I mean, that observation of Passover at the Last Supper wasn’t coincidental). The result?

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah.” (Revelation 11:15)

God’s became flesh to overthrow the power of the Devil and bring an end to his works (Hebrews 2.14f.; I John 3.8). When Jesus heals the sick and drives out evil spirits, Satan’s dominion is departing and God’s kingdom is coming (Matthew 12:22-29; (Ac 10:38). He came to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” in order to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15). When the disciples cast out demons, Jesus “saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (Luke 10:18).

I have heard Jesus’ death and resurrection compared to D-Day. On that day, the outcome of the war was established. It didn’t mean there was no more battle left to fight. It just meant that the ending was sure. Perhaps we should think of the triumph of the cross as the downpayment on the promised restoration of all things in which, ultimately, God would “put all his enemies under his feet” (I Cor 15:25).  

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,  and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” (Colossians 1:13-23)

Jesus wasn’t here only to solve the problem of our personal sin, though he certainly did that! He was here to overcome the kingdom of darkness, to reconcile all things to himself, to redeem the entire fallen system from top to bottom. Jesus came to….

• “…open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:17-18).

• free Gentiles from “the god of this age” who had “blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

• free us “from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26).

• “set us free from this present evil age” (Galatians 1:4) and from  “enslavement to the elemental spirits of the world” (Galatians 4:3, Romans 6:18, 8:2; Galatians 5:1; Colossians 2:20; Hebrews 2:14-15 ).

• bind the Strong One, “spoil his goods” and “plunder his house.” (Mark 3:27)

• Jesus promised that his disciples would be given authority to trample on snakes and scorpions (#imageryofevil) and to overcome the power of Satan (Luke 10:19).

• set us free by “the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” from “the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2), the “old written code” (Rom. 7:6) that allowed the “law of sin” to place us in captivity (Rom. 7:23, 25).

We often talk about sin as only an issue involving our personal decisions. We certainly do make sinful choices, but these verses remind us that the god of this age blinds us; the Strong One has bound us; a “law of sin” places us in captivity; we have to be freed from the powerful captivity of Satan and the elemental spirits of the world

This doesn’t mean we can simply say “the Devil made me do it,” because even people in captivity can fight to be free. I’m just pointing out that in addition to our own sinful tendencies, there is a systemic problem. The world’s system and the spiritual powers behind them are actively working to deceive, bully, coerce, frighten, allure… whatever they can do to draw us into the chains of sin and the kingdom of darkness.

This is why, in addition to personal rescue, we need a liberation and restoration of the entire cosmos that had been “groaning in labor pains” because it was subjected to “the bondage of decay”  (Romans 8:18-22) This, too, was addressed on the Cross.

* * * * *

Let’s summarize so far. We have been liberated from the bondage of sin and evil and restoreed into the “new humanity” (Ephesians 2:14-15) that God always intended for us to participate in, a humanity filled with His Spirit, united by and in the love of God, participating in His ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) the intends to reconcile all things to Himself.

We are saved from the destruction that would have been the inevitable consequences of our sin, saved from our fallen inability to live in right relatedness with God, saved from the idolatrous, futile striving to find “life” from the things of the world, saved… to forever participate in the fullness of life, joy, power and peace that is the reign of the triune God. (Greg Boyd)

Jesus’ life was dedicated to delivering us from slavery to our sinful nature and slavery to the “world order” with all its spiritual and practical implications. And what is the path to this freedom? Is there a way we can participate in the conquest and the freedom that follows?

The ultimate expression of what this battle looks like happened on Calvary, where Jesus’ self-sacrificial love revealed the way this battle will be won: through a cross-shaped love, a “cruciform” love. So much of what Jesus did expressed the sacrificial servant’s heart. Let’s look back on Jesus’ life.

• When Peter cut off a guard’s ear, Jesus healed the attacker’s ear and rebuked Peter (Luke 22:50-51). #notthatway

• He washed the feet of his disciples, who would abandon him in a couple of hours (John 13:3-5). #thisway

• And don’t forget Judas, whom he loved until the end (John 13:1). #thisway

• Jerusalem welcomes him as a Zealot Messiah, and Jesus weeps (Luke 19) #notthatway

• ·“Can we call down fire on the Samaritans?” (Luke 9)  #nonotthatway

• Instead, Jesus converts the Samaritans (John 4) #thatway

The kingdom of God is fundamentally rooted, grounded, and expressed in cruciform love. This is how we fight our battles. This is how we participate in the conquest of evil that Jesus initiated. Jesus was all about overcoming evil with good. It is the loving reign of God expressed in the loving ministry of reconciliation by his people that will defeat the powers that resist it. The gods of the age are overcome through radical, Calvary-like, self-sacrificial love.

“According to the New Testament as a whole, God sent his Son in the flesh…. as a suffering servant; and the power that Jesus unleashed as he bled on the cross was precisely the power of self-giving love, the power to overcome evil by transforming the wills and renewing the minds of the evil ones themselves.” (Thomas Talbott)

“I’ll remind you of just one beautiful image of God, evident in the Christ of the Gospels: he’s the Restorer of lives. Jesus is the One who sat by the well and restored the Samaritan woman to her place in her community. He restored Zacchaeus’ integrity and offered him friendship. He saved and restored the woman caught in adultery to morality and life. He restored the paralytics, the blind and the deaf to wholeness. He restored outcasts such as lepers and the bleeding woman. He restored the sanity of the demonized. Even harshest rebukes were offers of restoration to the unrepentant. When we see Jesus in action, we are seeing the true heart of God, the Restorer of lives.”  (Bradley Jersak)

We have to make a choice: will we participate in Christ’s victory or not? Because if we want to, it means we will have to not only have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), but the methods of Christ. Not only the heart of Jesus, but the hands of Jesus. We always, relentlessly, overcome evil with good, trusting in the power and provision of our cruciform Savior’s love.

This is why God kingdom can never come by coercion, force or threat. God’s Kingdom invites and compels through steady witness to the transformative, saving power of cruciform love on display in our lives. The Kingdom of God through Christ comes through love, so the kingdom of God persuades by witness of our words and lives, by compassion, by the fruit and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, through sacrificial love.

“For the earliest Christians, the story of salvation was entirely one of rescue, all the way through: the epic of God descending into the depths of human estrangement to release his creatures from bondage to death…to set the captives free and recall his prodigal children and restore a broken creation… We were born in bondage, in the house of a cruel master to whom we had been sold as slaves before we could choose for ourselves; we were born… corrupted and enchained by mortality, and so destined to sin… we were ill, impaired, lost, dying…But then Christ came to set us free, to buy us out of slavery, to heal us, to restore us to our true estate.” (David Bentley Hart)

How do we join the mission of Christ the Victor? Well, we sign up.  I was raised in a church that stressed the importande of the Sinner’s Prayer, a spiritual Pledge of Allegiance to God. It looked something like this.

“Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite Your Holy Spirit to dwell in me. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior.”

But we have to be careful that we don’t think Jesus is calling us to say words and move on with our lives. It’s possible to know and say the right things and not be on mission with God (Matthew 25; James 2). We demonstrate that we truly believe what we said by joining in with the mission of Jesus by learning how to have his heart for the world, then expressing that heart with our hands.

It’s worth noting that not everyone who began to follow Jesus in the Bible are recorded saying just the right words. Maybe they did, but many of the stories focus on their changed lives. They were different. They wanted to be like Jesus, so they followed in his footsteps. They wanted their lives to look like Jesus’ life.

More than once Jesus tell his followers that people will know they are following him when they love like He does. (John 13:35) This translated into obedience, which is just another way of saying that we are committed to doing what Jesus says will help us look more and more like Jesus.

Our words can and should be a consistent testimony, but our lives are probably the testimony that speaks louder. Constantine was famous for using the cross as an emblem of war. “In this sign, conquer.” He could not have been further from the spirit of what Jesus did on the cross.

Jesus conquered sin, death, hell, the devil and the grave with cross-shaped, sacrificial love. He’s in the process of restoring all things.

Let’s join him.

___________________________________________________________________________

[1] Strong’s Lexicon

[2] “Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.” (John 19:13). Who sat in the ‘judgment seat?’ In English—and in many paintings—it looks like Pilate is seated there. But in Greek, John intentionally makes it ambiguous—it could also be Jesus sitting in Pilate’s seat as the governor runs in and out, between Jesus and the crowd (like a servant) seven times! (Brad Jersak)

[3] I don’t think we should get hung up on who received this ransom (Was it Satan? God?). The Bible says God paid a ransom for Israel to be free of Egypt, but God did not pay Egypt a literal amount of money to redeem Israel from slavery. God just liberated them. (Isaiah 43:1) I think it’s just imagery that the people understood: they were in bondage; someone set them free.

[4] I am borrowing my basic outline in this portion of the message from an excellent article by Greg Boyd on the Christus Victor model (https://reknew.org/2018/11/the-christus-victor-view-of-the-atonement/.). I want to be very clear that I do NOT agree with all of Boyd’s theology, particularly his view on Open Theism. However, his explanation of Christus Victor is one of the best short form explanations I have read. Props for compiling all the Scripture references for me to use :) N.T. Wright has a book length explanation in The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion.

[5] “See also passages about “rulers,” “principalities,” “powers” and “authorities” (Romans 8:38; 13:1; I Corinthians 2:6, 8; 15:24; Ephesians 1:21; 2:2; 3:10; 6:12; Colossians 1:16: 2:10, 15) along with “dominions” (Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16), “cosmic powers” (Ephesians 6:12), “thrones” (Colossians 1:16), “spiritual forces” (Ephesians 6:12), and “elemental spirits of the universe” (Colossians 2:8, 20; Galatians 4:3, 8-9).” I got this list from a commentary on BibleHub that I failed to keep track of.

Harmony #89: Being Loved and Hated (John 15:17-16:10)

 This is My command to you: love one another. If you find that the world [order] despises you, remember that before it despised you, it first despised Me.  If you were a product of the world order, then it would love you. But you are not a product of the world order because I have taken you out of it, and it despises you for that very reason. 

 Don’t forget what I have spoken to you: “a servant is not greater than the master.” If I was mistreated, you should expect nothing less. If they accepted what I have spoken, they will also hear you. Everything they do to you they will do on My account because they do not know the One who has sent Me.

If I had not spoken to them and done among them the works no on else has done, they would not be guilty of [this] sin [of despising me]; but now they have no excuse for ignoring My voice.[1] If someone despises Me, he also despises My Father. If I had not demonstrated things for them that have never been done, they would not be guilty of [this] sin. 

But the reality is they have stared Me in the face, and they have despised Me and the Father nonetheless. Yet their law, which says, “They despised Me without any cause,”[2] has again been proven true.

Notice how this portion is for people who “stared Jesus in the face.” I believe this is specifically an indictment on the Sadducees and Pharisees, religious leaders who a) knew their Scripture and b) knew first-hand what Jesus was doing, and they rejected him. Their dismissal of him was not because of ignorance of his words or to lack of miraculous evidence revealing who he was; they willingly and blatantly refused to believe what was made clear to them.

I will send a great Helper to you from the Father, one known as the Spirit of truth. He comes from the Father and will point to the truth as it concerns Me. But you will also point others to the truth about My identity, because you have journeyed with Me since this all began….

16:1 “I have told you all these things so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue[3], yet a time is coming when the one who kills you will think he is offering service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me.[4] But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you will remember that I told you about them.

…But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I am going away. For if I do not go away, the Advocate [Holy Spirit] will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world order wrong[5]concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…

—concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; and concerning judgment, because the archon of this world has been condemned.

When the Holy Spirit arrives (most people assume this is a reference to Pentecost on the book of Acts), Jesus will be vindicated. The original word carries with it the idea of a defense attorney making an argument that will show a client’s innocence.

In all that our Lord says here, there seems to be an allusion to the office of an advocate in a cause, in a court of justice who, by producing witnesses, and pleading upon the proof, convicts the opposite party of sin, demonstrates the righteousness of his client, and shows the necessity of passing judgment upon the accuser. (Adam Clarke)

Concerning sin: This could be a reference to the general conviction of humanity that exposes our sin in order to lead us to repentance and salvation. I think it might be more specific than that in this immediate context because of that “face to face” comment. “They” – the Sadducees and Pharisees – did not believe in Jesus in spite of seeing him in person, hearing his teaching which they could not refute, and seeing his Messianic miracles. Meanwhile, they accused Jesus of blasphemy (a definite sin) because he claimed to be God. But he was correct. He did not sin as they supposed.

Concerning Righteousness: Righteousness is being in right relationship with God and others. Think of “rightness” as a synonym.  It’s internal and external alignment with God and God’s plan demonstrated in life. Jesus rising from the dead showed that He and the Father were one, as he so often claimed. The pouring out of God’s Spirit for the reunification of humanity (all the separated people from the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11) reveals the plan of which Jesus was a part.

Concerning Judgment: the ‘archon’ of the world stood condemned. A couple weeks ago, we talked about a previous use of that word in this same speech in the gospel of John where it seemed to point toward the flesh and blood rulers of the world order (the Sanhedrin and Rome). This could be restating that, or it could be referring more broadly to Satan as a leader of the world order. Either way, they and their ‘world order’ stand condemned. As Jesus will say later in this same speech, “Be of good cheer. I have overcome this world order.”

* * * * *

Re: The world loving and hating Jesus and followers of Jesus

I like the translation of “world order” over just “world.” The latter makes it sounds like everybody who is not a Christian is going to hate Christians. But that’s not true. As history shows, a whole lot of people who weren’t Christians have become Christians because they found Christ compelling, often because of the compelling nature of the Christians around them. “World Order” captures the idea of the cultural power structures the run earthly empires, not every individual.[6]

The World Order reacted differently to Jesus than the masses of the people did. The ones with power, prestige and comfort on the line reacted differently to Jesus than the poor and powerless.

• Rome, the Sadducees/Herodians, Pharisees and Zealots responded differently than did the Essenes – the one group not seeking earthly power positions. 

• The outcasts in Jewish society – tax collectors, prostitutes, the physically sick, the Samaritans, the – they seemed to get along with Jesus really well.

• ·The overlooked and underappreciated – women, children, slaves, the poor – they find Jesus and his path of life really compelling (the early church filled up with them!).

People with a lot of earthly clout, those with a lot to lose by following the Messiah who taught love over coercion, servanthood over power flexing, humility over pride, generosity over materialism – well, they tended to push back against Jesus pretty hard. They have bought in to what Ephesians 2 calls “the course of this world.”

• The world order values coercive power; Jesus values a servanthood that invites.

• The world order thrives on identifying and hating enemies ; Jesus values loving even our enemies and doing good to those who hate us.

• The world order tramples on people to get things; Jesus used things to care for people.

• The world order insists that “greed is good”[7] and plays favorites with the rich; Jesus insisted that the love of money was a trap for our souls, and there should be no favorites in the Kingdom of God.

• The world order admires the Alpha with arrogant pride; Jesus values humility and honest self-reflection.

• The world order controls through fear and manipulation; Jesus compels with hope and invitation.

• The world order values luxury and indulgence; Jesus values generosity and self-control.

• The world order admires those who take what they want; Jesus values those who give to others who are in need, and who look out for others who are in want.

• The world order exploits and belittles others to get to the top; Jesus said it would be the meek who inherit the kingdom of God.

• The world order dismisses “the least of these”; Jesus placed a premium on their worth.

Jesus was here to save the world, but not the world order. He was there for the people in the Empire, not to prop up the Empire’s culture. He was there to upend the order of the world (in Rome and the Romanized Sadducees) and redeem both the sin of the people of the world and the sinful ideals embedded in the systems of the world.

How did He go about doing this?  By changing individuals who then permeated their communities and their cities. It was not a top-down authoritarian coercion; it was a grass roots spread of the Kingdom of God sabotaging the Empire of Rome, one individual at a time, one changed heart at a time, one soul transformation at a time. If we go back to the previous list, that means the church was intended to be a community characterized by:

• Displaying servanthood

• Loving everyone, even our enemies.

• Using the things we have to care for people.

• Not playing favorites based on, well, anything.

• Valuing humility, generosity and self-control

• Offering hope

• Looking out for those who are in want.

• ·Living with meekness (controlled strength) and kindness

• Placing a premium on everyone’s – everyone’s! - worth

The Empire agenda is threatened by that kind of counter-cultural community; I don’t think our average neighbor hates that. Thousands of people were drawn to Jesus. The Jewish communities most vilified sinners were drawn to Jesus. When the early church formed this kind of community, it grew like crazy, but I will get to that in a moment.

I am pointing this out because I worry that we can start to think that being hated is a sign that we are following Jesus correctly. In this view, the more people around us dislike us, the more holy we are. If people outside the church actually like us, well, clearly compromise has crept into our witness.

But that just doesn’t match the ministry of Jesus or the early church. Jesus’ detractors called him a “friend of sinners” because the outcast sinners in their communities were drawn to Him. This trend continued when the Holy Spirit filled his followers. Within 70 years, there were around 25,000 in the church. By 300 AD, it was probably around 20 million.[8] Even in the midst of persecution by the Roman government, even Roman and Greek people filled the church. And why not? So many had grown weary of the exploitation, violence, and debasement the Roman World Order had imposed on them. A Jesus-based vision of community looked pretty compelling.

{Hot historical tip, painting with a very broad brush: church history shows us that when those entrenched in the halls of power – the world order - hate us and our neighbors find us compelling, we are probably representing Jesus well. When those entrenched in the halls of power – the world order – love us and our neighbors hate us, we are probably not representing Jesus well.}

I read a book called The Patient Ferment Of The Early Church. I would like to offer some of the great insights from this book about how the early church changed the world.

People who study shifts in religious adherence pay attention to the “push” and the “pull” that are at play in every conversion. What in the existing religious options so dissatisfied some people that it pushed their adherents to explore new options? And then what was it in Christianity that so attracted people, that it pulled them to explore something that might be very costly? 

The early Christians proliferated… because faith embodied was attractive to people who were dissatisfied with their old cultural and religious habits, who felt pushed to explore new possibilities, and who then encountered Christians who embodied a new manner of life that pulled them toward what the Christians called “rebirth” into a new life. 

Christians, said Cyprian (210 - 258), are to be visibly distinctive. They are to live their faith and communicate it in deeds [to] demonstrate the character of God to the world. “No occasion should be given to the pagans to censure us deservedly and justly… It profits nothing to show forth virtue in words and destroy truth in deeds.” 

According to Clement (35-100), ‘When the Christians talked about loving your enemies, their neighbors had been interested. But when they found that the Christians didn’t do what they said, they dismissed Christianity as “a myth and a delusion.’ From Clement’s perspective, Christians had to embody the message if the churches were to grow.

Justin the Martyr (100-165) noted that his community doesn’t consider people true Christians if they simply quote Christ’s teachings but don’t live them. Jesus himself had insisted on this (Matthew 7:21). Further, Justin believes that the effectiveness of Christian witness depends on the integrity of the believers’ lifestyles.

As an example, Justin points to the area of business. “Many who were once on [Rome’s] side . . . have turned from the ways of violence and tyranny, overcome by observing the consistent lives of their [Christian] neighbors, or noting the strange patience of their injured acquaintances, or experiencing the way they did business with them.”

Christians behaved in ways that their pagan contemporaries found intriguing. In fact, some pagans found the Christians’ behavior unsettling enough to convert to Christianity.

Tertullian (155-220) admonished his readers: “If one tries to provoke you to a fight, there is at hand the admonition of the Lord:  ‘If someone strike [you] . . . on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’ [And if someone] burst out in cursing or wrangling, recall the saying: ‘When men reproach you, rejoice.’

 Let wrong-doing grow weary from your patience. It attracts the heathen, recommends the slave to his master, the master to God. It adorns a woman, perfects a man. It is loved in a child, praised in a youth, esteemed in the aged. In both man and woman, at every age of life, it is exceedingly attractive.”

Tertullian indicates that…the Christian family was not defined by the vertical values of the wider society; it was horizontal in its solidarity, making all its members brother and sisters…The community’s worship was designed to empower all members and to give them a sense of their worth that expressed itself in courageous living and bold testimony.

But what the outsiders saw was not their worship. It was their [habits]. And they said, “Look! How they love one another.” They did not say, “Listen to the Christians’ message”; they did not say, “Read what they write.”

Hearing and reading were important, and some early Christians worked to communicate in these ways too. But we must not miss the reality: the pagans said look! Christianity’s truth was visible; it was embodied and enacted by its members. It was made tangible, sacramental.

The Christians were socially active: they had intensive, embodied forms of care for members and others. The believers, whose dress was often simple and unostentatious, did not immediately reveal their identity to passersby, but their identity could emerge as relationships developed. Sometimes this came as a surprise: “‘A good man,’ they say, ‘only that he is a Christian.’

Scholars have seen the church’s growth as coming about through something modest: “casual contact.” In all relationships, “affective bonds” were formed. The most reliable means of communicating the attractiveness of the faith to others and enticing them to investigate things further was the Christians’ character, bearing, and behavior.

Writing in the 180s, the Roman Celsus noted with distaste that Christians formed groups to which they attracted… “the most illiterate and bucolic yokels.” To him these were people of no account, who in a hierarchical world knew that they were the dregs of society and that they had no views worth expressing or being listened to.

But care for these very people, especially the poor, was another area in which the Christian communities had habits... Outsiders looked at this and were impressed. According to Henry Chadwick, “The practical application of charity was probably the most potent single cause of Christian success.”

In 305 during the Great Persecution, in Cirta in North Africa, imperial officials raided a house church and (conveniently for our purposes) compiled a list of its possessions. On this list the examiners found, along with chalices, candleholders, and other liturgical equipment, a stock of clothing.

The church had what was evidently a clothes store, to which members contributed clothing that other members could claim when they needed it. The clothing included “eighty-two women’s tunics . . . , sixteen men’s tunics, thirteen pairs of men’s shoes, forty-seven pairs of women’s shoes.”

The Didache[9] notes, “bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies,” and goes on to present other ways that the Christian habits differs from “the way the heathen act.”  “Do not hesitate to give and do not give with a bad grace. . . .

Do not turn your back on the needy, but share everything with your brother and call nothing your own. For if you have what is eternal in common, how much more should you have what is transient!” More surprisingly, they loved their enemies: “They comfort such as wrong them, and make friends of them; they labor to do good to their enemies.”

The Didache did not discuss how the life of the community impacted the world or attracted new members, possibly because such discussion seemed unnecessary; the habits of the community were attracting as many people to its life as the community’s catechetical formation could cope with.

Then, there is a sobering turn.

In the 240s in Caesarea in Palestine, as Origen prepared catechumens for baptism he struggled against the unfaithful behavior of the faithful. ‘The Christians’ public behavior belied their convictions: they “agitate the forum with lawsuits and weary [their] neighbors with altercations. They are completely disgusting in their actions and habit of life, wrapped up with vices and not wholly ‘putting away the old self with its actions.

[The people] come to church and bow their head to the priests, exhibit courtesy, honor the servants of God, even bring something for the decoration of the altar or church—yet they exhibit no inclination to also improve their habits, correct impulses, lay aside faults, cultivate purity, soften the violence of wrath, restrain avarice, curb greed.”

According to Clement, when the Christians talked about loving your enemies, their neighbors had been interested. But when they found that the Christians didn’t do what they said, they dismissed Christianity as “a myth and a delusion.” From Clement’s perspective, Christians had to embody the message if the churches were to grow.

By the early fifth century the problem had become so acute that some theologians updated the church’s theology of witness so that they no longer emphasized the Christians’ exemplary behavior.”

* * * * *

There came a point in church history – after Constantine legalized Christianity and intertwined it with the Roman agenda – theologians in the Western church specifically changed the discussion about what it mean to be a faithful follower of Jesus by moving the focus of what it meant to be a good witness away from the witness of an integrated, holy life and moved it into the realm of thoughts and beliefs as the most important marker. In other words, for 350 years, orthodoxy (right belief) was being clarified, but orthopraxy (right action) was the exhibition of faith and the witness to the world – until Christian leaders began moving the orthopraxy markers so Hellenized Christians could more comfortably support Rome’s agenda and fit into Roman culture. 

When we live like Jesus and his first followers, we will feel dangerous to those who control Empire culture. Peace, love, humility, servanthood, generosity, patience, kindness, self-control, repentance, forgiveness – this is not the fuel of Empires. Valuing every person as an image bearer of God worthy of dignity, justice and mercy – that’s not a value of Empires. We ought to expect as Christians to always live in an uneasy tension with the halls of power in our nations.

But our neighbors? It ought to be good news to all those beat up by the values of the Empire’s world order when Christians move into the neighborhood. “Finally! Someone who loves us!” And it is from these good deeds, Jesus said, that they will glorify our Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

__________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Jewish teachers recognized that knowing the truth increased one’s moral responsibility.

[2] Psalms 35:19; 69:4

[3] Without the protection of being recognized as part of the Jewish community, believers could lose their Roman worship exemption and be charged with disloyalty to the state. (Rev 2:13; 13:15).

[4] “Because they have not known the Father — John 15:25; John 15:25. Ignorance of the benevolence of GOD, and of the philanthropy of CHRIST, is the grand fountain whence all religious persecution and intolerance proceed.” Adam Clarke

[5] “Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked.” (Psalm 43:1)

[6] I don’t mean like a deep state New World Order. This is more like “the course of the world” in Ephesians 2.

[7] To quote Michael Douglas’s infamous line from Wall Street.

[8] I have seen very different statistics on this. Hopefully this represents the middle ground.

[9] An early church document compiled over years that reveals church teaching and practice.

Harmony #88: The Vine And The Branches ((John 15:1-17)

Psalm 80:8-19

You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.

Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it. Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.

Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish.  Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

There is an interesting Old Testament verse about the fire associated with God.

“See now, the name of the Eternal is echoing from far away. God is coming with a fury inescapable to set things right again. God is coming like fire and smoke; His lips, indignation—His tongue, consuming fire.”(Isaiah 30:27)

* * * * *

Isaiah 5: The Song of the Vineyard

 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.  He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”

The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

* * * * *

Isaiah 27:3-6

“Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!

I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire. Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.” In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

God would not allow his people to continue to shed blood and bring distress instead of brining righteousness and justice (Isaiah 5). Even though it’s his own vineyard, if the fruit in his vineyard is rotten, that’s not okay. That needs to be dealt with. There is an entire vineyard whose health is at risk. I had a friend who used to say, “If you play stupid games, you get stupid prizes.” Well, when we bear rotten and harmful fruit, we will collect appropriate prizes. 

But…. God also would not give up on this troublesome vineyard because it’s his vineyard; it’s his people. He is still their Father. Not only will he bring about a future in which their good fruit will fill the earth, he wants to make peace with the very briars and thorns that threatened his people.

* * * * *

This brings us to today’s passage.

The Vine and the Branches  (John 15:1-8)

[Jesus said,] “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener.  He takes away branches that do not bear my fruit.[1] He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. You are pruned/purified already because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me – remain deeply, faithfully connected; I will abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains attached to the vine, so neither can you unless you remain deeply, faithfully connected to me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains deeply connected to me while I am deeply connected to him bears much fruit, because disconnected from me, you can accomplish nothing.

 “If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire,[2] and are burned up.[3] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.

As we have already seen, Jesus is not using new imagery. This is all good Old Testament territory, and his disciples certainly knew it. They can bear good fruit when they are connected to the vine; the consuming fire and pruning of God will make for Himself a people – a vineyard - whose fruit is good for the world.

But, Jesus changes something important. It is no longer Israel that is the Vine. It is Jesus. They don’t need to be plugged into a geographical land “flowing with milk and honey” to flourish; they needed a person - Jesus. They didn’t need to be citizens in good standing in the nation of Israel to bear good fruit; they needed Jesus. They didn’t need to “remain” in relationship with the Old Testament law and covenant; then need to remain in Jesus.

Now, about that prayer verse (“ask what you will”). I’ve often heard just this verse quoted, but it has a context. Notice where it is placed. There is a verse about bearing fruit, a verse about asking things of God, then another verse about how God will be honored when we bear fruit. There is something about this particular discussion of prayer that is connected with bearing the fruit God intends for us to bear. So that leads us to an obvious question: what is the fruit?

·      Fruit of the Holy Spirit?

·      Obedience?

·      Good deeds?

·      Signs and wonders?

Since we display this fruit only when we are deeply and faithfully connected with Jesus, it’s going to have something to do with the person and ministry of Jesus. Our fruit is going to match the life-giving source of Jesus. Let’s keep reading and see if can get an idea about what that might be.

“Remain in My Love & Love One Another” (Jn 15:9-17)

“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

I have told you these things so that my joy[4] may be in you, and your joy may be complete. My commandment is this—to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends[5].You are my friends[6], my companions, if you follow my instructions.

The focus is on how following God’s commands is a means of loving those around us. HELPS Word Studies has a really interesting definition of what was implied by Jesus charging his disciples to follow his instructions.

“To command, emphasizing the end objective, i.e. reaching the purpose (consummation, end result) of an order… envisioning how or where it ends up.”

If I am reading this correctly, “love one another as I have loved you” is the ultimate fruit, the consummation of a life connected deeply and faithfully to Jesus. And when this happens…

I no longer call you servants, because the servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends [companions on mission together!] because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father, [and you understand what I am doing].

You did not choose me, but I chose you[7] and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. This I command you—to love one another.”

* * * * *

Fruit is a Christ-like life produced by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23) that results in a lifestyle of consistent, faithful, Christ-like love. We are called to obedience to God – walking in the path of life that God established – as a response of love to a God of love and a means of loving others.  This is the end objective of discipleship. This was always God’s plan: to transform God’s image bearers so that we demonstrate the love of Jesus.

 In Galatians 5, Paul has some things to say to an audience that was still requiring converts to follow OT ritual laws like circumcision.

Brothers and sisters, God has called you to freedom! Hear the call, and do not spoil this gift by using your liberty to engage in what your flesh desires; instead, use it to serve each other as Jesus taught through love.  For the whole law comes down to this one instruction: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” so why all this vicious gnawing on each other? If you are not careful, you will find you’ve eaten each other alive!

Here’s my instruction: walk in the Spirit, and let the Spirit bring order to your life. If you do, you will never give in to your selfish and sinful cravings. For everything the flesh desires goes against the Spirit, and everything the Spirit desires goes against the flesh.  There is a constant battle raging between them that prevents you from doing the good you want to do. But when you are led by the Spirit, you are no longer merely corralled by the [outward constraint of the] law.[8]

It’s clear that our flesh entices us into practicing some of its most heinous acts: participating in corrupt sexual relationships, impurity, unbridled lust, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, arguing, jealousy, anger, selfishness, contentiousness, division, envy of others’ good fortune, drunkenness, drunken revelry, and other shameful vices that plague humankind.

I told you this clearly before, and I only tell you again so there is no room for confusion: those who give in to these ways will not inherit the kingdom (live in the realm) of God.[9] The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There in no law that stops you from bearing fruit like this….

Now since we have chosen to walk with the Spirit [in love], let’s keep each step in perfect sync with God’s Spirit. This will happen when we set aside our self-interests and work together to create true community instead of a culture consumed by provocation, pride, and envy… 6:2 Shoulder each other’s burdens, and then you will live as the law of the Anointed teaches us…

6:9-10 May we never tire of doing what is good and right before our Lord because in His season we shall bring in a great harvest if we can just persist. So seize any opportunity the Lord gives you to do good things and be a blessing to everyone, especially those within our faithful family. (Galatians 5:11-17; 6:2; 6:9-10)

Paul gives the summary of the Law of the Spirit – love one another. Then he contrasts that that looks like and doesn’t look like in a very practical way.

There are things you can do that are NOT loving of others, and when you do that, you will harm others, and you will not enter into and experience the life Jesus offers. It’s almost like you have disconnected from the vine so you can bear a fruit of your own choosing. It reminds me of what God said to Adam after Adams’ sin: “Where are you?” This reads more accurately as, “Where did you go? Why aren’t you where you are supposed to be?” As in, “We were connected. Your place was with me. Why did you remove yourself from that?”

Then there are things we can do that ARE loving to others: displaying the fruit of the Spirit; bearing each other’s burdens; doing good things that bless everyone!

* * * * *

Let’s make it really practical for the disciples. Who, among their group, was a branch clearly disconnected from the vine of Jesus? That would be Judas Iscariot. Who was going to soon seem like a branch disconnected from the vine of Jesus? Peter.

The disciples themselves are going to have opportunity to do the hard work of bearing the fruit of love. To stay connected to Jesus, they are going to have to love Peter like Jesus loves Peter. They are going to have to love Judas like Jesus loves Judas. If you are wondering about that last claim, here’s what John recorded of Jesus before the betrayal by Jesus:

“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)

Jesus didn’t stop loving Judas. Of course he didn’t. He had already told them during the Sermon on the Mount that they were to love their enemies and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their enemies – which Jesus is about to do. Jesus is about to give his life for even the Judas’s of the world.

I wonder if Jesus was trying to point them toward the immediate necessity of learning to love well RIGHT NOW. He will soon warn them (John 16) of their upcoming failure (“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone.”) They are going to wrestle with a group failure. There will be a lot of opportunity to judge, to nurse anger, to traffic in shame and shaming.

Well, it turns out that God still has a plan for pruning and restoration. Paul, of all people, loved to talk about this. He wrote in Romans 11 about how God dealt with Israel in the Old Covenant, then applied it to the church in the New Covenant.

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring... For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

You [Gentiles] will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith… And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. (11-23, excerpted)

Ah, the good news of the Gospel. Our history is not our destiny when Jesus is involved. That is always good news.

* * * * *

Do you want to bear the fruit of love?

Abide in Jesus.

Spend time in prayer, in studying Jesus in Scripture.

Be conscious of the presence of Jesus throughout your day.

Align your actions, thoughts, and attitudes with what you believe Jesus would be doing, thinking, or feeling in those same moments.

Look around to see where Jesus is at work, and join in.

And most of all, be responsive to the Holy Spirit leading us to love more and more like Jesus.

_________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “Exactly what the Lord does to the unfruitful branch depends on how the Greek verb airo is translated. It can mean “takes away”; then it would refer to the discipline of physical death (1 Cor. 11:30). However, the same word may mean “lifts up” (as in John 8:59). Then it would be the positive ministry of encouraging the fruitless branch by making it easier to get light and air, and hopefully, to bear fruit.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary)

[2]  The cast-out branch may be grafted in again (Romans 11:23) and the dead branch may be raised to life again (John 5:21; John 5:25). 

[3] Another perspective. “The subject is about abiding and fruitbearing. But through carelessness and prayerlessness this believer gets out of touch with the Lord. As a result, he commits some sin, and his testimony is ruined. Through failure to abide in Christ, he is thrown out as a branch—not by Christ, but by other people.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary) This makes me think of Paul. ”But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

[4] “xará (another feminine noun from the root xar-, "extend favor, lean towards, be favorably disposed") – properly, the awareness (of God's) grace, favor; joy("grace recognized").” (HELPS Word Studies)

[5] “Agape… denotes unconditional love, philos emphasizes a bond of friendship and companionship.” (Strong’s Lexicon)

[6]  In the OT, only Abraham and Moses are called friends of God (Exodus 33:11; Isaiah 41:8). Jesus extends this privilege to all obedient believers.

[7] Literally. Jesus went to each disciple and asked them to follow him. I don’t think this should be applied to a question of everyone’s salvation. If that’s what this teaching was about, then everybody in Jesus’ life that he did not choose to be a disciple would be lost. And that’s just not what happened.

[8] “Law finds no just occasion against men who are led by the spirit, for they themselves check every wrong desire within them, and so fulfil the whole Law.” (Expositor’s Greek New Testament) 

[9] “[The kingdom (932 /basileía) is constantly used in connection with the rule of Christ in the hearts of believers – which also extends in various stages.]”  (HELPS Word Studies)