Harmony #34: No Faith So Feeble (Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:40-56; Matthew 9:18-26)

When Jesus had crossed again in a boat and returned to the other side, a large crowd gathered around and welcomed him because they were all waiting for him by the sea. Then one of the synagogue rulers named Jairus came up because he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying.

When he saw Jesus, he respectfully bowed low before him and fell at his feet. He asked him urgently, “My little daughter is near death. Come and lay your hands on her so that she may be healed and live.” Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed and pressed around him.

Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years but could not be healed by anyone. She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had.

("Take of the gum of Alexandria the weight of a silver coin; of alum the same; of crocus the same. Let them be bruised together, and given in wine to the woman that has an issue of blood. If this does not benefit, take of Persian onions three pints; boil them in wine, and give her to drink, and say, 'Arise from thy flux.'

If this does not cure her, set her in a place where two ways meet, and let her hold a cup of wine in her right hand, and let some one come behind and frighten her, and say, ' Arise from thy flux.' If these do no good, other doses, over ten in number, are prescribed, among them this:

Let them dig seven ditches, in which let them burn some cuttings of vines, not yet four years old. Let her take in her hand a cup of wine, and let them lead her away from this ditch, and make her sit down over that. And let them remove her from that, and make her sit down over another, saying to her at each remove, 'Arise from thy flux!'"[1])

Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. (In addition, Leviticus 15:25-27 indicates that the woman would have been ceremonially unclean because of her illness. She wasn’t supposed to be around people. She was isolated, alone, and desperate.)

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched the edge of his cloak, for she kept saying, “If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed.” (She likely shared the superstition, common in her day, that the power of a person was transmitted through his clothing.[2])

(“She dimly believes that, somehow or other, this miracle-working Rabbi will heal her, but the cure is to be a piece of magic, secured by material contact of her finger with His robe. She has no idea that Christ’s will, or His knowledge, much less His love, has anything to do with it.”[3])

But at once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.[4]  Jesus knew at once that power to heal proceeding from him had gone forth. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?” (He did it that the woman might confess, so that the power of her faith and the greatness of the miracle might be seen to the praise of God.[5])

When they all denied it, Peter and the disciples said to him, “Master, the crowds are surrounding you and pressing against you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’ “ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I know that power to heal has gone forth from me.” He looked around to see who had done it.

 (Jesus wanted to find her, not to rebuke her, but because she needed to know that it was not her superstitious belief that brought about her healing.[6]) Then the woman approached, with dread and trembling, knowing what had happened to her.

 (She may have dreaded His anger, for according to the Law (Leviticus 15:19) the touch of one, afflicted as she was, caused ceremonial defilement until the evening.[7] But Jesus makes the woman clean by his power instead of becoming unclean himself.)

She came and fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. In the presence of all the people, she explained why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. Jesus said to her, (using a title he uses nowhere else in Scripture), “Have courage, daughter! Your faith and trust have made you well. Go, enter into peace,[8] and be healed of your disease.”

(“He put an end to her fear and gives no cause for her conscience to be harmed, as if she had stolen the gift. He corrects her assumption that she has no right to be seen, and he shows her faith and trust to all to encourage others to emulate her faith.”)[9]

 (“He does not say, ‘Understand Me, put away you false notion of healing power residing in My garment’s hem, or I will not heal you.’ He says, ‘Do you think that it is through your finger on My robe? Then, through your finger on My robe it shall be. According to your faith, be it unto you.’[10])

And the woman was healed from that hour. (Since Jesus, a rabbi, has publicly declared to all that she is healed and cleansed, she can truly be part of the community again.) While Jesus was still speaking, someone from the synagogue ruler’s house came and said to Jairus, “Your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher any longer.”

But when Jesus overheard this, he told him, “Do not be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Now when he came to the house of the synagogue ruler, Jesus did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and the child’s father and mother.

When Jesus entered the ruler’s house he saw the flute players and the disorderly crowd. There was noisy confusion and (professional mourners, who were paid to attend funerals and express grief over the loss of a loved one). They were mourning for her, weeping and wailing loudly. Jesus said to them, “Why are you distressed and weeping?

Stop your weeping and go away, for the girl is not dead but asleep.” (“Just like he asked ‘Who touched me,’ so the woman could profess her healing before everyone, he said ‘She is sleeping’ so the spectators might testify that she was dead.’”[11] Clever.)

They began making fun of him, (insisting she was indeed dead), because they knew that she was dead. (Then Jesus, who was not interested in a grand spectacle of healing), put them all outside and he took the child’s father and mother and his own companions and went into the room where the child was.

 Then, gently taking the child by the hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Child, arise.” Her spirit returned, and she got up immediately and  began to walk around. They were completely astonished at this.

But Jesus strictly ordered that no one should know about this, and told them to give her something to eat (as is recorded happening after Lazarus and Jesus were raised, as if eating proved they were really back[12] and not an apparition[13]). And the news of this spread throughout that region.

Healing Two Blind Men & a Mute Demon-Possessed Man (Mt 9:27-34)

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, shouting, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (They remembered the prophets talked about the descendent of Jesse, David’s father( Isaiah 11:1) who would bring healing (Isaiah 42:6-7).)[14] When he went into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes saying, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”[15]And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus sternly warned them, on pain of his deep displeasure if they did not obey,[16]“See that no one knows about this.” (But the men whose faith brought them to Christ for healing did not stay with him to learn obedience.)[17] 

So they went out and spread the news about him throughout that entire region. As they were going away, a man who could not talk and was demon-possessed was brought to him. After the demon was cast out, the man who had been mute spoke.[18] The crowds were amazed and said, “Never has anything like this been seen in Israel!”  

(The Pharisees could not deny the reality of the miraculous works Jesus had done, so they attributed his powers to Satan.)[19] They said, “By the ruler of demons he casts out demons.” 

(It’s a foolish and shallow accusation. “Not only did he cast out demons, he also purified lepers, raised dead people, reined in the sea, canceled sins, proclaimed the Kingdom and approached the Father. Demons would never choose to do these things and would not ever be able to accomplish them.”[20])

There’s a lot that could be addressed in these incidents. I’m going to have to pick and choose.

I have often noted that I believe many of the physical stories in the Old Testament (Old Covenant with Moses) are meant to point us toward spiritual realities in the New Testament (New Covenant in Jesus). So, the Promised Land is now the Kingdom of Heaven, etc. Many of the early church fathers saw in the actions of Jesus a similar dynamic. Real things happened to real people, but Jesus was making a spiritually significant point (which to them explains who, why, and how he healed).

• Hilary: “The ruler is understood to be the law.”

• Augustine: “The daughter signifies the Jewish people”

• Cromatius: The entire mystery of our faith is prefigured in the girl: raised from spiritual death to life and immediately begin taking communion.

• Chromatius: The mourners are the synagogue rulers.

In other words, this miracle was to show that the law was not strong enough to bring life to God’s people. They needed Jesus. Thus, the faith referenced is faith that Jesus brings salvation. When this happens, the spiritually dead come back to life.

• Jerome and Ambrose: the bleeding woman is the assembly of God gathered from the nations.

• Augustine: the bleeding woman “signifies the church of the Gentiles.”

In their reading, the Gentiles have been spiritually unclean for a long time. The Jewish people had kept themselves separate and pushed the Gentiles away from their temple and community. Now, Jesus is blessing the presence of Gentiles in his Kingdom. He has healed them and saved them. They may enter into his peace.

There may be something to this approach in that there’s no reason to believe Jesus wasn’t doing things that were more significant than just what happened in the moment. Having said that, I’m not convinced that’s the primary reason he did them, and I think it’s possible to read into these events in a way that makes points that are not wrong – the Gentiles were invited into the Kingdom – but goes beyond Jesus’ intention.

So, file the symbolic approach under “Interesting” as we approach it more literally and compare the record of all the miraculous things we are seeing to see what we learn about Jesus and our faith.

First, the miracles the Gospel writers record tend to be times that make it clear that Jesus is the Messiah the Old Testament prophets predicted. Jesus doesn’t just wave a magic wand for fun when He is doing miracles. He’s making a point by establishing his credentials. I’ve mentioned this quite a few times in our series so far. Jesus is doing things that hyperlink to the Old Testament prophets and their prophecies of a coming Messiah.

Second, the Gospel writers make it really, really hard to create a template for how, when and why Jesus did miracles. The more miracles we see Jesus do, the more I will probably come back to this.

• Disciples in the boat: Faith/trust full of fear and doubt. The disciples were amazed when what Jesus did actually worked. It reminds me of the man who said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”[21]

• Demoniac: The demons inside of him had knowledge of who Jesus was, but certainly not faith/trust. The Bible does not record what the possessed man thought about Jesus.

• Bleeding woman: Her (apparently) superstitious faith focused on her healing, not the healer. She thought he could do it, but the text does not record that she had faith because she thought he was the Messiah.

• Jairus: He had faith/trust in Jesus’ power or miracle-working ability; there is no record that he though of him as the Messiah or followed him. Jesus tells him to have faith, but unlike the blind men, Jairus does not respond that he actually does. Like the disciples, he was also completely astonished when it worked.

• Little girl: She was dead, so…

• Blind men: They had faith/trust that the prophesied Son of David could heal them. They are the closest in all of these incidents of people who believed Jesus was the prophesied Messiah.

• Mute man: We don’t know the status of his faith/trust. Other people had to bring him, and we don’t know if they thought of Jesus as the Messiah or just a healer. Nevertheless, Jesus freed him from demonic possession.

Jesus does not use a template. You can’t magic or manipulate Jesus. Please, be free of the shame and legalism that comes from believing that if you scrunched your face and believed harder, God would do more for you. If that’s where you are coming from, everything that goes wrong is because you or others are weak, and everything that goes well is because you or others are strong. As if God will only work if you earn his attention/care or you’ve reached enough spiritual maturity to deserve his blessing.

The Bible is clear, again and again, that the faith we have is a gift; it’s not something we’ve grown on our own power.

1 Corinthians 12:4,9 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them…to another faith[22]by the same Spirit… All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.” 

Hebrews 12:2 “…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”

John 6:29 “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe[23] in Him whom He sent.’"

 Romans 12:3 tells us that God has given every person "a measure of faith." 

You don’t need to have a greater measure of faith than God has given to you. You can’t. I suspect that the faith Jesus commends in the passages today has to do with how people acted on the faith/belief they had been given. It has something to do with doing in response to believing with whatever measure had been given to them. I appreciate this summary from a commentator named Mclaren:

“There can be no faith so feeble that Christ does not respond to it. The most ignorant, self-regarding, timid trust may unite the soul to Jesus Christ. To desire is to have; and ‘whosoever will, may take of the water of life freely.’ If you only come to Him, though He have passed, He will stop.

If you come trusting and yet doubting, He will forgive the doubt and answer the trust. If you come to Him, knowing but that your heart is full of evil which none save He can cure, and putting out a lame hand-or even a tremulous finger-tip-to touch His garment, be sure that anything is possible rather than that He should turn away your prayer, or His mercy from you.”[24]

Let me mess up the template even more. The apostles did miracles, but we know of no instances in scripture where apostles used healing for each other. Paul didn't heal a fellow traveler (“I have left in Miletus sick”)[25], and rather than heal Timothy he tells him to take a little wine for his stomach (1 Timothy 5:23). Paul talks about an infirmity he had that he asked God to heal, and it was not healed. Paul did not beat himself up for a lack of faith; he saw in this a reminder from God that God’s grace was sufficient.[26]  

Perhaps the early church fathers were on to something important in their symbolic readings. In addition to establishing Jesus as the Messiah, perhaps Jesus did physical healings as a way of pointing to power he had to heal people sick and dead in their sin and bring them back to spiritual life. Maybe that was always the point; “by grace are you saved through faith.”[27]This was always the primary message of the apostles, whose miracles established their credentials as ambassadors for a spiritual Kingdom on behalf of Jesus.

 Bottom line: I wonder if the faith/trust Jesus is affirming here has a lot to do with running to God and not away from Him in the midst of the storms of life.[28] The disciples themselves will learn that not every storm in life ends calmly on this side of heaven; all but one were martyred. John the Baptist is about to find that out for himself. And when John asks, “Are you sure you’re the one?” Jesus simply points to his resume. Yes, he is.

An important aspect of faith is believing that, perhaps in this world but surely in the next, God will calm any storm that comes our way. Jesus has shown that all things are under His feet. To quote Tim Keller, there will come a day when all the bad that has been done to us will be undone.

Third, the compassion of Jesus should inform us: “Daughter.” “Child.” This is emotional and relational language. Jesus cares. I believe these miracles were intended primarily to establish that Jesus was, in fact, the long awaited Messiah that the prophets had foretold. In his tenderness, you see the compassion, the gentleness, the love of God on display through Jesus.

Yes, there are other times (particularly with the religious hypocrites) when he was blunt and confrontational. We will get to those incidents. But here is gentle Jesus on full display. People aren’t tools or stepping stones or inconveniences or pawns in his chess game or chemicals running around in a bag.[29] People are profoundly important. He addressed a woman he had never met as his daughter. The young girl is treated as equally important as the temple leader. The individuals in the kingdom matter to the King.

Fourth, notice that what begins with new life culminates in new testimony. For the disciples, it was their mission and lives. For the demoniac, the bleeding woman, the little girl, the blind and the mute, it was telling their neighbors.

It’s the time of year when graduates are pondering or panicking about what they are going to do with their life. What’s their purpose? Why are they hear? How can they live a life with meaning?

I can tell you right now the purpose of your life. Well, a purpose, but it’s more important than all the others. Tell the people around you who Jesus is, and what Jesus has done or you. You can do that with a degree or without, in any vocation, married or single, rich or poor.

You can fail on all the lofty earthly goals you had when you were young and still live a rich, profoundly meaningful life that ripples into eternity. Tell people who Jesus is and what he has done for you.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Quoted from Lightfoot by Geikie, "Life and Words of Christ." Vincent’s Word Studies

[2] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[3] MacLaren’s Exposotion

[4] Like the demoniac, both stories deal with restoring peace and wholeness to those afflicted in ways that made them ceremonially unclean social outcasts.

[5] Barnes' Notes on the Bible

[6] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[7] Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

[8] This is not merely “go with a blessing,” but enter into peace, “as the future element in which thy life shall move.” Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

[9] An edited-for-brevity quote from the early church father Chrysostom.

[10] MacLaren’s Expositions

[11] Ephrem the Syrian (306-373)

[12] So noted the early church father Jerome.

[13] Ambrose (339-397)

[14] CBS Tony Evans Study Bible

[15] “According to Isaiah, the messianic age is signified when ‘the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear (Is 35:5). These healings are a sign that Jesus is the awaited Messiah, as is the use of the title Son of David by the blind men, which expresses their faith in this truth.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[16] Adam Clarke: “He charged them severely… to roar or storm with anger… on pain of his displeasure, not to make it as yet public.”

[17] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[18]  “Since the same ailment… appears elsewhere without suggestion of demonic activity (Mark 7:32-33), the connection presupposes a real ability Jesus had to distinguish between natural and demonic causes.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[19] ESV Global Study Bible

[20] Chrysostom (347-407)

[21] Mark 9:24

[22] “Faith (4102/pistis) is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, 4102/pistis ("faith") for the believer is "God's divine persuasion" – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers, i.e. the persuasion of His will (1 Jn 5:4).” (HELPS Word Studies)

[23] Vincent's Word Studies   “Faith is put as a moral act or work. The work of God is to believe. Faith includes all the works which God requires.”

[24] MacLaren’s Exposition

[25] 2 Timothy 4:20

[26] 2 Corinthians 12:9

[27] Ephesians 2:8-9

[28] https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/explore-the-bible/why-doesn-t-god-heal-every-sickness-disease-and-illness.html

[29] The view of Anthon Cashmore. https://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/cashmore/

Harmony #33: The Wind And The Waves Obey Him (Mark 4-5; Matthew 8; Luke 8)

In the parables about the kingdom of God, Jesus had claimed that his new Kingdom was going to grow from very small, almost invisible beginnings to fill the whole earth. If he claims a kingdom, he better be a king. Now he will show that he has the power and authority to make that happen.[1] Before we dive in to today’s passage, we need to talk about the time and place where Jesus lived.

The Jewish people were not a seafaring people. They liked land. You see throughout the Old Testament that they associated the sea with the fear and chaos.

·      Psalms describes the sea as a dangerous place (30:1; 69:1-3)

·      The sea contained Leviathan, which symbolized chaos and destruction that only God could control (Isaiah 17:12; 27:1; 51:9-10; Psalm 65:5-7; 77:19; 89:9; 93:3-4; Exodus 14-15; Isaiah 51:10; Daniel 7:2-7; Job 7:12).

·      Once, on the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus walked toward them on the water during a storm, they were like, “Yeah, that’s a ghost,”[2] as if, obviously. That’s the kind of thing that shows up in a storm on the sea.

·      The prophets saw God’s ability to control the sea as proof that God was strong enough to redeem his people (Isaiah 63:11–14; Isaiah 10:24–26; 43:2, 16–17; 50:2; Zechariah 10:11).[3]

·      Isaiah 51:9–10 celebrates the deliverance from Egypt in this way: “Was it not you who cut Rahab [Leviathan] to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over?”

The fact that they didn’t like the sea didn’t mean they avoided fishing. In the area where Jesus grew up, the Sea of Galilee was the place to fish. This lake is about 7 miles by 12 miles, so it’s big. Much like the great lakes, strong storms could hit fast. It’s surrounded by hills with openings where a river enters and then exits, and that funnels strong wind. When we read today that Jesus and his disciples went from one side to the other, it wasn’t just a jaunt. And to get hit by a major storm in the middle of the lake was terrifying.

When they get to the other side, they are in an area that is mostly Gentile. The inhabitants apparently came from to the Canaanite nations driven out of the Promised Land by Joshua and the Israelites (Joshua 3:10; Acts 13:19). These nations had worshiped Baal, and they ate (and sacrificed) pigs (Isaiah 65:3-5, 66:3).[4] 

The Jewish people who live there seem have assimilated quite a but into the culture of their neighbors, if for no other reason than they are comfortable living around a herd of 2,000 pigs (the Law forbade Jewish people from having or eating pigs). That’s likely a temple herd, which served two purposes: meat for a Roman legion stationed there (whose standard was a wild boar), and sacrifices for the temple. And in an interesting sidenote, these pigs were sometimes sacrificed by being thrown off a cliff and into the Sea of Galilee.[5]

Here, Jesus will meet a demon-possessed man. Keep in mind that Jews, Romans, and Greeks all believed in a supernatural world inhabited by, among other things, demons that could possess people (though they didn’t agree on what demons were). Demons, though below the gods in their pantheons, were semi-divine beings that often became the local spiritual authority (think of Paul talking about people sacrificing to demons)[6]. When people were freed from a demon, typically some type of physical sign was necessary. Here are two examples from the culture at that time. The first is from the Greeks.

But Apollonius… ordered him to quit the young man and show by a visible sign that he had done so. “I will throw down yonder statue,“ said the devil, and pointed to one of the images that were in the king’s portico… when the statue began by moving gently, and then fell down, it would defy anyone to describe the hubbub which arose. [The account concludes with the young man showing his freedom from the demon by giving up his old way of living and following after Apollonius’ way of life.]

The second is from the Jewish community. Josephus records,

“Then, wishing to convince the bystanders and prove to them that he had this power, Eleazar placed a cup or foot basin full of water a little way off and commanded the demon, as it went out of the man, to overturn it and make known to the spectators that he had left the man. And when this was done, the understanding and wisdom of Solomon were clearly revealed.”[7]

So, the story we will read about demon possession and exorcism was not an unusual story for that time. There is record in all of those cultures of how the people went about trying to get demons out of people.

Jesus Calms a Storm (Mk 4:35-41; Mt 8:18, 23-27; Lk 8:22-25)
On that day, when evening came, Jesus saw a large crowd around him and said to his disciples, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake.” So after leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was. As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him, and other boats were with him.

 Now a violent windstorm[hurricane] came down on the lake and a great storm [earthquake] developed on the sea. The waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was nearly swamped. But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. So they came and woke him up saying, “Lord (Master, Teacher), save us! Don’t you care that we are about to die?”

But Jesus said to them, “Why are you full of fear [fainthearted], you people of little faith [literally, failing to hear his voice][8]? Do you still not have faith [have you still not been persuaded]?” So Jesus got up and rebuked the wind, and said to the raging sea, “Be quiet! Calm down!”[9]

Then the wind stopped, and it was dead calm. But the disciples were overwhelmed by fear [respect, awe][10] and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him!”

Jesus uses the same language to rebuke the wind as God did when he rebuked the waters at creation (Job 26:10–12) and later the Red Sea (Psalms 106:9).[11] Jesus’ power over nature was a sign that God was working again in history, as he had in the exodus from Egypt.[12]

Healing Demon-Possessed Man (Mk 5:1-20; Mt 8:28-34; Lk 8:26-39)

So they sailed to the other side of the lake, to the region of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. Just as Jesus was getting out of the boat and stepping ashore, a certain man with an unclean spirit (demon- possessed) came from the tombs near the town and met him.[13]

He was extremely violent, so that no one was able to pass by that way. For a long time this man had worn no clothes and had not lived in a house, but among the tombs. No one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For his hands and feet had often been bound with chains and shackles, but he had torn the chains apart and broken the shackles in pieces.

No one was strong enough to subdue him. He would break the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places. Each night and every day among the tombs and in the mountains, he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him. Then he cried out with a loud voice, “Leave me alone, Jesus, Son of the Most High God! I implore you by God—do not torment me! Have you come here to torment me before the time?”  (For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of that man, you unclean spirit!”)

Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?”[14]And he said, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” He begged Jesus repeatedly not to send them out of the region into the abyss.  There on the hillside, some distance from them, a great herd of pigs was feeding. And the demonic spirits begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the pigs. Let us enter them.”[15]

 Jesus gave them permission and said, “Go!” So the unclean spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs. Then the herd of pigs rushed down the steep slope into the lake, and about two thousand were drowned in the lake.

 Now the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran off and spread the news in the town and countryside, telling everything that had happened to the demon-possessed man. So the people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus. They found the man from whom the “Legion” of demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid [respect; awe].

Those who had seen it told them how the man who had been demon-possessed had been healed, and they also told about the pigs. Then all the people of the Gerasenes and the surrounding region came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they asked Jesus to leave them alone and begged him to leave their region, for they were seized with great fear [dread][16]. So he got into the boat and left.

As Jesus was getting into the boat the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. But Jesus did not permit him to do so. Instead, he said to him, “Return to your home and to your people and tell them what the Lord has done for you, that he had mercy on you.” So he went away and began to proclaim throughout the whole Decapolis what Jesus had done for him, and all were amazed.

In both incidents we see:

·      Chaos and violence; a physical and spiritual storm that seemingly cannot be controlled.

·      The command to be silent. Literally, be muzzled.[17]

·      The resultant calm.

·      A ‘fear’ from observers that is at one point awe and another point dread, though the order is reversed: the disciples start with dread and end with awe; the others start with awe and end with dread.

* * * * *

The episode with the storm is not a new kind of story in the Bible. We constantly see a God who brings order out of chaos often represented as a turbulent, storm-ridden sea. Psalm 46celebrates the fact that even while the mountains are falling into the sea and the waters roar and foam, God’s people have no need to fear. ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10).

The disciples see clearly that Jesus holds the power that only God has. The same one who can restore peace to a tempest can also restore peace to a demonised life.[18] The King knows how to rule His Kingdom.

As I was studying this week, I found my empathy for the disciples increasing. It’s hard to trust God in the midst of storms. I appreciate this story. Jesus said, “Let’s go to the other side. Let’s go on a trip from here to there.” And the disciples were like, “Fantastic!” They had no idea that before they got to where Jesus intended for them to go, they would fear for their lives a storm hit that threatened to capsize their boat. And as far as they could tell, the King didn’t care that much about his Kingdom. He was asleep at the time they needed him most.

I’m not gonna lie – I would have yelled at him too. I mean, I have. Maybe you have to.

But notice Jesus doesn’t give up on them or leave them. In fact, the only thing he rebukes is the storm. He just reminds them: “If you really understood what I was saying, you would be persuaded to believe I am who I say I am, and you would not be afraid.”

He doesn’t berate or belittle them. He doesn’t shame them. He doesn’t reject them. He does yet another thing that should help them be persuaded to believe his is who he claimed.[19] And then he takes them on his next mission. He takes the ones cowering in the boat to his confrontation of a demon-possessed man who was ripping chains apart. I mean, if I were picking a band of brothers to go with me into that kind of situation, I wouldn’t want the group that had just yelled at me for not caring about them. But it worked out just fine, because Jesus didn’t need their power or their amazing fearlessness to take care of business.

It tends to make stories more meaningful if we can find ourselves in the story. Well, there we are. The disciples. Going from being in awe of Jesus, then wondering why he apparently doesn’t care, then being amazed again. Going from “Life is good!” to, “I might not survive this storm. Wherever we’re going, I’m not sure I’m gonna make it.” Lather, rinse, repeat.

But life unfolds like this story unfolds. There’s calm, then chaos, then calm, then chaos. Hope, then fear; peace, then anxiety; joy, then mourning. The sea of life is at times beautiful and at times not. Meanwhile, the King is in the boat with us.

One thing I know: with Jesus, will get to the other side of the most important journey of all, the one through this life and into the next. The second thing I know is that any storm I face on this of eternity, it will never be stronger than Jesus. He constantly, over and over, “makes a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over.”

The second thing I notice is that these two incidents give a real world example of the parables of the Kingdom Jesus just told.

Parable of the Sower: Jesus said, “Did you fail to hear my voice? Were you not persuaded?” He is pointing out that his word had not take root well at that point. They “received it with great joy,” but it was still shallow, and the cares of the world threatened to choke it out. The truth he had given them was struggling to grow well.

Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds: They are heading to a place with more weeds than wheat. When Jesus gets there, he does not destroy the weeds. Similar to what happened in Samaria with the Woman at the Well, he shows that in the Kingdom, the weeds can still become wheat. As long as there is time, we plant God’s truth.

The Parable of the Farmer: Just like the wheat grew without the farmer’s input, the possessed man was freed through no strength of his own. He was in over his head. Only Jesus could do it. And now the word was going to spread and Kingdom grow not because that man was amazing, but because Jesus is.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed: As the kingdom spreads (in this case to Gerasenes), others, like the demon-possessed man, benefit from it. And just like the evil birds from the Sower end up in the healing branches of the kingdom, so does the demoniac. The Kingdom rightly expressed should make everyone’s life better. If the branches of the spreading tree don’t provide healing to the nations[20] and hope for the brokenhearted[21], and it’s not a place where the weary and heavy-laden can find rest,[22] it’s not the Kingdom.

The Parable of the Yeast: Jesus just sends one man to evangelize the area. It only takes a spark. In the Hunger Games, they encourage each other with, “May the odds be ever in your favor.” That would be nice, but the odds may never be in our favor, and that’s okay. The power of the good news of Jesus Christ has overcome the odds over and over.

The Parables of the Pearl and Treasure. Notice that the inhabitants of the land don’t want what Jesus offers. It’s too high of a price. Their lives were oriented around the worship of the gods they knew. That pig herd = money. Staying on the good side of their god = comfort. Having a Roman legion that depended on them for food = security. I suspect that when Jesus handled Legion so easily, that was unsettling, which is why awe turned to fear. It’s a sobering reminder of the human tendency to look away when Jesus threatens to upend our lives.

* * * * * *

Parable of the Sower: Are the things we have “received with great joy” taking root? How will we know? There will be a crop of that which was planted. Forgiveness =forgiving. Love = loving. Kindness = doing kind things. Patience = actually being patient. Peacemaking = contributing to peace, not contention. Learning about Jesus = leaning on Jesus.

Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds: Take heart: Jesus turns weeds into wheat. He knows which one you are or how much you have of each in your heart, and He plans to do work. He did not come to destroy you; he came to destroy that which is destroying you so that you might have life.[23]

The Parable of the Farmer: Gospel truth will spread and the Kingdom will grow not because we are amazing, but because Jesus is amazing. His strength is perfected – shown in its full glory – in the midst of our weakness. He who ‘began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.’ (Philippians 1:6)

The Parable of the Mustard Seed: The Kingdom rightly expressed should make everyone’s life better both in the Kingdom and around the Kingdom. As our branches spread, there is meant to be nourishment, protection and shade for all. It’s yet another way God makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain to the just and unjust.”[24] How are the branches of this church? Are we growing and flourishing as God intended: as a healing place of truth and love; a grace-filled place of hope for the brokenhearted; an oasis in the desert of the world where the weary and heavy-laden can find rest? I’m not trying to call us out. It’s just a reminder of what the Kingdom rightly expressed looks like.

The Parable of the Yeast: Your life and testimony matter. You might be that one person going into places that might be indifferent at best or hostile at worst. Go. Tell them what Jesus has done for you, and them, and the world. For some of us, it can sound really intimidating to tell people about Jesus, especially if you were raised in an environment that said, “Evangelism will look like this for everybody! There’s a template!” Jesus’ instructions strike me as simple and doable. The man didn’t need a degree or have memorized the entire Bible or be radically extroverted or have any special skills or talents. “Tell them what the Lord has done for you, that he had mercy on you.” Huh. If that’s a way to “give an answer for the hope that lies within,” that’s doable.[25] It’s lovely to have a bunch of people doing this, but it starts with one.

The Parables of the Pearl and Treasure. If there is a tendency to look away when Jesus threatens to upend their lives, this is a reminder to see and process Jesus for who he is. The people in Gerasenes loved the life they had too much to be bothered with Jesus. And it’s not as if the disciples didn’t struggle with this. At one point Peter rebuked Jesus for saying Jesus was going to be killed. “That will never happen to you.” Based on Jesus reply, I get the impression that Peter was trying to reassure himself that there would be no hard times if he stuck with Jesus.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Matthew 16:24-26)

Or, as Paul would later say it:

Whatever I used to count as my greatest accomplishments, I’ve written them off as a loss because of Jesus, the Anointed One. And more so, I now realize that all I gained and thought was important was nothing but yesterday’s garbage compared to knowing Jesus my Lord. For Him I have thrown everything aside—it’s nothing but a pile of waste—so that I may gain Him…  

I am charging on to gain anything and everything Jesus has in store for me—and nothing will stand in my way because He has grabbed me and won’t let me go.  Brothers and sisters, as I said, I know I have not arrived; but there’s one thing I am doing: I’m leaving my old life behind, putting everything on the line for this mission.

I am sprinting toward the only goal that counts: to cross the line, to win the prize, and to hear God’s call to resurrection life found exclusively in Jesus the Anointed.” (Philippians 3:7-14, excerpted)

___________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Mark: A Ransom For Many, Welwyn Commentary Series

[2] Matthew 14

[3] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[4] https://www.thattheworldmayknow.com/a-far-country-decapolis

[5] https://www.mysteriesofthemessiah.net/2016/01/08-06-03-gerasa-in-gadara-demon-possessed-gerasene/ 

[6] 1 Corinthians 10:20

[7] I found both of these stories recounted in “Demon Possession in the Greco-Roman World,” by Alan B. Howell.          

[8] The word used here is used 5 times in the Bible, and it always means failing to listen to what was being said. HELPS Word Studies. https://biblehub.com/greek/3640.htm

[9] ‘He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed’ (Psalm 107:29).

[10] Thayer’s Greek Lexicon

[11] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[12] NIV First Century Study Bible

[13] Matthew records two; Jesus only interacted with the one.

[14] “In God’s name.  This language appeared sometimes in magical exorcisms or often in other magical invocations of spirits…What is your name? Magicians often tried to control a spirit by using its name. If the spirits attempted to magically control Jesus in v. 7, they failed; here Jesus demands their name.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[15] If I am connecting the dots correctly between the locals associating demons with their local gods and the herd being for temple sacrifice, Legion basically says, “Those pigs are ours already. Can we just go into them?”

[16] Why dread? I suspect because their god had been beaten.

[17] “The exercising of authority over demons, in the land ‘under’ another god, was a message. Jesus was saying, (demonstrating) that He had all authority, in any land. And the people there were scared, they recognized this, but more, they realized the significance of this. Centuries earlier, just as God demonstrated His power against the Egyptian gods through Moses and Aaron, so likewise Jesus demonstrated His power against the Greek gods. Little wonder that they asked Him to leave. The Egyptians did the same to Moses.”

 https://www.mysteriesofthemessiah.net/2016/01/08-06-03-gerasa-in-gadara-demon-possessed-gerasene/

[18] Mark: A Ransom For Many, Welwyn Commentary Series

[19] It reminds me a bit of Doubting Thomas, who wouldn’t believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he had more proof, and Jesus gave him more proof.

[20] Ezekiel 47:12; Revelation 22:2

[21] Psalm 34:18; 147:3

[22] Matthew 11:28-30

[23] John 10:10

[24] Matthew 5:45

[25] 1 Peter 3:15

Harmony #32: A Costly, Beautiful Kingdom

Quick review of the 5 parables last week, because these next two participate in the Big Picture story. I would have added them last week but I just didn’t have enough time.

• Parable of the Sower - Ideally, the seed of the Word/Truth of God grows in good heart soil and yields fruit,[1] but that’s not always the case. When the heart is hard, the ‘wild birds’ of the evil one snatch it away. When the heart is shallow, the seed will not take root. When the heart is compromised, the other things that have been sown in it will overpower the seed. So, have a heart ready for the truth.

• The Weeds And Wheat  - But be alert: more than one sower is competing for the hearts of people. In the sower’s field of the world (and the church?), the wheat will grow amidst counterfeits that threaten to ruin the harvest. Don’t panic. The wheat will grow and survive in a mixed field. The weeds can’t stop the wheat from being the wheat.

• The Seeds - Be humble: remember, this good crop of wheat is patiently and steadily flourishing thanks to the work of the Sower, work we don’t understand and wasn’t done in our power.

• The Mustard Seed - The kingdom of God will grow such that it offers safety and shade to all – even the ‘wild birds’ who once sought to stop it from growing (like the Apostle Paul).

• The Yeast - Just a few people can make a huge difference in the growth of the Kingdom.

This all sounds great! What’s not to like about the vision for global change? And his disciples are the yeast in that last parable, so how cool is that to be on the front end of this movement that is going to grow so large and be so compelling that even your former enemies will find rest in the branches of this Kingdom tree?  The Zealots probably weren’t happy – they wanted to fight – but it sounds like followers of Jesus can be a part of this organic growth of the Kingdom into all the world. Woo hoo!

Then Jesus wraps up this section of parables with a sobering and encouraging assessment.

Treasures And Pearls (Matthew 13:44-45)
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he found a pearl of great value, he went out and sold everything he had and bought it.

In other words, the kingdom of Heaven is unparalleled and glorious; also, being a part of it will cost you everything. Both people in the parables sold all that they had in order to have the Kingdom in their possession.

Jesus’ point isn’t that you can purchase your way into heaven. After all, “It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32). Jesus is just using an analogy to make the point that it’s important to count the cost. Luke records in the 14th chapter of his book that once when a large crowd was following Jesus, he gave them a reminder that I suspect thinned the crowd:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate [esteem less; renounce in favor of another][2] father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26-27)

This blunt contrast was a Jewish style of teaching to make a point about preference and allegiance. If we agree to follow Jesus, Jesus gets preeminence. He is the center of that kingdom treasure. But things must be given up to have this treasure. After telling two stories about how people don’t start building projects or go to war without first counting the cost, he says again:

“Those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.”  (Luke 14:33)

 The availability of the Kingdom of Heaven was made possible at great cost – the life of Jesus. The experience of the Kingdom in our lives comes with a costly trade as well: our life surrendered to the King in order to experience life in the Kingdom

[3] So, the Kingdom is a gift we can never buy. No amount of money, power, intelligence, achievement or social status does us any good. But to really live in the Kingdom, we must prize the kingdom more than we prize anything else. The point of selling everything in this parable is simply to show where our heart is, because “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Let’s clarify what this treasure is. It’s the spiritual state where we surrender heart, soul, mind and strength to grace-filled reign of the King, Christ Jesus.

Because it’s a spiritual state, the kingdom of heaven is advanced by the good news of the gospel. The kingdom of heaven Jesus is talking about in these parables can’t and won’t be found among the nations on the earth. It’s not a country or empire.[4] The kingdom of heaven is not in a geographic area where all things have become Christianized. It’s not a vision of Christian nationalism. Jesus said (John 18:36), “My kingdom is not of this world, else my disciples would fight.” 

Side note: I’m not talking about God’s future reign on earth when He wraps up history as we know it and ushers in the New Heaven and New Earth in which His kingdom reigns forever. This is about the kind of kingdom we live in until then, the one Jesus said was here now.

The kingdom of heaven is advanced when those who have been saved, sanctified, and transformed increasingly into the image of Jesus spread the good news of the gospel message of Jesus Christ in word and deed.

When we truly see and experience the treasure that is the kingdom rightly expressed, the loss of all the things we have traded will be an exercise in joy [grace recognized][5], not regret. Paul said it this way:

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7, 8)

What is so great about this Kingdom that the cost is worth it? In addition to things I’ve already mentioned – salvation, sanctification, etc - Peter talks about what should characterize those who are followers of the King:

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 

 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (2 Peter 1:3-8)

Envision, if you will, a community of Christ-followers in which this characterizes life together.

• We participate in the divine nature.

• We are freed of corrupt, evil desires.

• We have, in increasing measure, faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love.

 How would this not add joy [grace recognized] to the response we have already had to being made righteous thanks to Jesus? If this is really what is happening in us and in those who surround us in church community, that’s an oasis of life and hope in the desert of the world.

But it’s not a cheap joy in response to the grace of God: to really live like this is going to cost us. Self-control is hard. So is perseverance. And love. Yet we experience the richness of the Kingdom when are willing to offer what God has given for His kingdom above all else: our gifts, our talents, our resources—they all go on the altar. And as we experience it, the joy of the Lord is our strength.

So, let’s make the cost and benefit practical. What must we ‘sell’ in order to experience the goodness of the Kingdom? What must we put on the altar?

I started making a list this week, and it turned out something like this. I’m sure there’s more to add. I hope this inspires you to think about other ways we trade other treasure for the Kingdom treasure. I also hope it inspires you to talk about more of the nuance in each point, because there’s always more to say.

1.    Control for surrender.  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1) This is trading Kingdom ruled by Self for Kingdom ruled by Jesus.  I willingly and freely agree to transfer the deed of my life to a new owner because I believe that He is a better caretaker and King than I can ever be.

2.    Pride for humility. “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Romans 12:3) We learn to be okay with not being perfect or even amazing. We learn to be okay with not being okay. There is freedom and growth in honest self-assessment in transparent and honest community.

3.    Independence for interdependence. “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12: 4-5) Our individuality is not obliterated like the Borg in Star Trek. We matter as individuals. But we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. I like a puzzle analogy: each piece is its own beautiful self, but it’s made to be part of Big Picture. The Big Picture needs it to be complete, and the piece needs the puzzle for context.

4.     Life hyper-focused on self to a life focused on others. “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.” (Colossians 3:12-17) Similar to my previous point, this does not obliterate our individuality. Part of that involves stewarding our own health so that we don’t burn out. That hurts us and short-circuits our ability to be present with others. This is once again about seeing that we are part of a body. Yes, we seek to keep our part of the body healthy, but remember that staying healthy is about more than just us: it participates in keeping the whole body in perfect harmony.

5.    Rights-based living for responsibility-based living. “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.” (Galatians 5:13) “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 10:45). We have been freed fromthe power of sin so that we are free to be who God has made us to be. Whenever our freedom hurts us or others, it’s no longer being used as God designed freedom to be used. We are designed to offer loving service filled with truth and grace to those around us.

Paul starts off 1 Corinthians 8 by saying, “We all possess knowledge, but knowledge puffs up but love builds up.” He then begins to talk about those who know that eating meat offered to idols is not a big deal.

“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge [about what is sin and what is not], eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols?  

So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.” (1 Corinthians 8:9-13)

6.    Hard-heartedness for repentance. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) In order to confess our sins, we need to own our sins. In the Kingdom, it is honorable and noble to admit wrongdoing and acknowledge weakness. It isn’t weakness to admit it; it’s a display of the power of God at work in you. Yes, it may well be embarrassing and humbling, but there is a purity of heart and (hopefully) restoration of relationship on the other side. That’s a good trade-off.

7.    Vengeance for justice (guided by mercy).  “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone… Do not take revenge [full vindication], my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge [full vindication]; I will repay,” says the Lord.  On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21) “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8) In the Kingdom, we give up the right to take full vindication into our own hands when someone wrongs us. It’s not that we get in the way of true justice: if someone has, say, burnt your house down, it’s a good idea that justice guided by mercy has a say in what needs to follow. But that’s different from you exacting that justice yourself, or demanding a full vindication that looks like what you want it to look like. We give up the right to make people pay like we want them to pay. Instead, we have the freedom that comes from remembering that injustice will not stand. God will have the last word no matter what happens on this side of eternity.

8.    Self-indulgence for self-control. “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... 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 and 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 of God. The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control.”(Galatians 5:16-23). Okay, seriously, which list looks better? Which one looks like a list for a life well lived? God has our flourishing in mind when He gives us Kingdom guiderails for the road of life. When we stay within them, that’s good for us and those around us. A whole community characterized by the fruit of the Spirit? That’s community gold.

1.    Grudges for forgiveness. “Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” (Colossians 3:13) This isn’t saying that we must forget things that have happened, especially if it’s important to remember patterns in people’s lives lest we put ourselves or others in danger. It’s also not saying that consequence shouldn’t play out if that’s part of what justice looks like. One can hold tough boundaries with a gently heart. But there is so much freedom in letting go of bitterness and anger.

* * * * *

In the end, I keep coming back to this imagery of transferring the deed of our life. This is, I think, what we are being called to do: transferr the deed of our life to a better landowner - a King, in fact, the best one there is, who will not only take ownership of our life but invite us into the royal family.

This king is not going to force us; it’s an offer we can take or leave. God will not coerce us into His kingdom. But if we enter in response to His gracious offer, the cost of what we let go will pale in light of the goodness of life lived at the center of His grace.

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[1] “If the goal of the Christian life may be stated as Christlikeness, then surely every trait developed in us that reflects His character must be fruit that is very pleasing to Him. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit in nine terms in Galatians 5:22-23, and Peter urges the development of seven accompaniments to faith in order that we might be fruitful (2 Peter 1:5-8). Two of these terms are common to both lists: love and self-control. The others are joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, virtue, knowledge, endurance, piety, and brotherly love.” https://bible.org/illustration/what-fruit

[2] HELPS Word Studies definition.

[3] A lot of thoughts on the next page of notes I found at https://reformedwitnesshour.org/broadcast/the-kingdom-of-heaven-is-the-treasure/.

[4] “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold the kingdom of God is within you.”  (Luke 17:21)Jesus makes clear to Zaccheus that it’s spiritual: (John 3:3), “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

[5] HELPS Word Studies

Harmony #31: 5 Parables Of The Kingdom (Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8)

Parable of the Sower (Mt 13:1-9; Mk 4:1-9, 23; Lk 8:4-8)
On that day after Jesus went out of the house, he sat by the lake and began to teach.[1] People were coming to Jesus from one town after another. And such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there while the whole crowd stood on the shore by the lake. He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching said to them: 

“Listen! A sower went out to sow his seed.[2] And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path and was trampled on, and the wild birds came and devoured it.[3] Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and because it did not have sufficient root and had no moisture, it withered. 

Other seed fell among the thorns, and they grew up with them and choked it, and it did not produce grain. But other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing; some yielded thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times.”[4]  And he said, “Whoever has ears had better listen!”

Parable of the Sower Explained (Mt 13:18-23; Mk 4:14-20; Lk 8:11-15)
 Now the parable means this: The seed is the word of God and the sower sows the word. When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one (Satan, the devil) comes and snatches away the word that was sown in his heart  so that he may not believe and be saved. This is the seed sown along the path. 

“The seed sown on rocky ground is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. He believes for a while, but he has no root in himself and does not endure in a time of testing. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. 

“The seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but as they go on their way worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth and the pleasures of life choke the word, so it does not mature and produces nothing. 

 “But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word, understands and receives it, clinging to it with an honest and good heart and steadfast endurance. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” 

Parable of Wheat & Weeds (Mt 13:24–30; 36-43)
Jesus presented them with another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the plants sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. 

“So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’  “He said, ‘An enemy has done this.’“ So the servants replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them?’

“But he said, ‘No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.[5] At harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn.” 

 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”  He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom.  

The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks that cause sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.[6] Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. 

Parables of Seeds, Mustard Seed, & Yeast (Mk 4:26-34; Mt 13:31-45; Lk 13:18-21)
 Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like someone who spreads seed on the ground. He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. By itself the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. And when the grain is ripe, he sends in the sickle because the harvest has come.”

Jesus also asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to present it? It is like a mustard seed that when sown in the ground, even though it is the smallest of all the seeds in the ground—  when it is sown, it grows up, becomes the greatest of all garden plants, and grows large branches so that the wild birds can nest in its shade.” 

Again Jesus said, “To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all the dough had risen.”

I think these parables are meant to be read as telling a story, with each one being like a contributing chapter. The Big Story goes something like this:

·      Parable of the Sower - Ideally, the seed of the Word/Truth of God grows in good heart soil and yields fruit,[7] but that’s not always the case. When the heart is hard, the ‘wild birds’ of the evil one snatch it away. When the heart is shallow, the seed will not take root. When the heart is compromised, the other things that have been sown in it will overpower the seed. So, have a heart ready for the truth.

·      The Weeds And Wheat  - But be alert: more than one sower is competing for the hearts of people. In the sower’s field of the world (and the church?), the wheat will grow amidst counterfeits that threaten to ruin the harvest. Don’t panic. The wheat will grow and survive in a mixed field. The weeds can’t stop the wheat from being the wheat.

·      The Seeds - Be humble: remember, this good crop of wheat is patiently and steadily flourishing thanks to the work of the Sower, work we don’t understand and wasn’t done in our power.

·      The Mustard Seed - The kingdom of God will grow such that it offers safety and shade to all – even the ‘wild birds’ who once sought to stop it from growing (like the Apostle Paul).

·      The Yeast - Just a few people can make a huge difference in the growth of the Kingdom.

The Parable of the Sower: Ideally, seed (the Word/truth of God) grows in good heart soil that yields fruit. The first part of the parable is sobering. Our hearts can be hard (the path), shallow (the rocky ground), or seduced/overwhelmed by the pleasures and pressures of the world (the thorns). It’s even possible to receive the word with joy and excitement…and have it come to nothing.[8] So, how do we get the kind of soil in which the truth of the gospel can grow?

First, we surrender ourselves to the work only God can do.

Is not the ground naturally bad in every heart? Undoubtedly. And can any but God make it good? None. But it is your business, when you hear of the justice and mercy of God, to implore him to work in you that which is pleasing in his sight. 

No man shall be condemned because he did not change his own heart, but because he did not cry to God to change it, who gave him his Holy Spirit for this very purpose, and which he, by his worldly-mindedness and impiety, quenched.  (Adam Clarke)

Second, the Bible is full of admonitions to ‘practice righteousness,’[9] to tame our will in accordance with the guidance of God. To the degree that we can influence the soil of our heart – and there can be lots of reasons why it is harder for some than others - I suspect it looks something like this.

·      Soften our heart through humility and honesty.

·      Dig our heart deep through perseverance.

·      Uproot the material cares of the world through generosity.

The Weeds and the Wheat: There is more than one sower at work. Sowers are competing for a stake in the field of hearts (the world? the church? Jesus seems to imply both). The weed is probably something called darnel, which looks a LOT like wheat until it begins to sprout. the counterfeit will look a lot like the real thing. By the time it’s obvious which is which, the roots are intertwined, and pulling up the weeds pulls up the wheat around it. How do we distinguish the real from the counterfeit? Well, when they begin to ripen and expose their grain – their fruit, if you will. It’s our job to discern the difference but not destroy the one who is different.

If this parable applies to both the world and the church, there are two points to be made.

·      First, it’s foolish to think we can create a Christian utopia. Let’s recognize we share the field of the world with others that we are not called to destroy. What we are called to do is flourish as wheat in their midst.

·      Second, this may function as a warning about deception creeping into the church, especially considering how often the writers of the letters in the NT warned people about the counterfeits in their midst. They, too, we are to identify the trouble but not destroy the troublemaker. More on this in a moment.

Considering how many times Jesus calls out the hypocrites around him, and how many times the writers of the NT letters called out false teachers in the church, I don’t think this is meant to be a call to passivity on confronting error and corruption. I think this has more to do with taking the ultimate judgment into our hands. Martin Luther, who had his own set of issues worth confronting, had something important to say about how the church wields its power. 

Again this Gospel teaches how we should conduct ourselves toward these heretics and false teachers…Here he says publicly let both grow together… he who errs today may find the truth tomorrow. Who knows when the Word of God may touch his heart?  

But if he be burned at the stake, or otherwise destroyed, it is thereby assured that he can never find the truth; and thus the Word of God is snatched from him, and he must be lost, who otherwise might have been saved…That is something awful in the eyes of God and never to be justified. 

 From this observe what raging and furious people we have been these many years, in that we desired to force others to believe; the Turks with the sword, heretics with fire, the Jews with death, and thus outroot the tares by our own power, as if we were the ones who could reign over hearts and spirits, and make them pious and right, which God’s Word alone must do.  

But by murder we separate the people from the Word, so that it cannot possibly work upon them and we bring thus, with one stroke a double murder upon ourselves, as far as it lies in our power, namely, in that we murder the body for time and the soul for eternity, and afterwards say we did God a service by our actions, and wish to merit something special in heaven. (Martin Luther)

Luther notes what all the commentators I read note: people can change. Paul says to one of the churches, “All these things you once were.” Weeds can become wheat. There is always hope.[10]Using discernment to make a distinction between true and false wheat is necessary; seeking to destroy the very life of the false wheat is not our calling. We are here to convert, not destroy; to minister, not mangle. We will see this in the wild birds in the branches of the mustard tree, but we aren’t there yet.[11]

The Parable of the Seeds: The good crop grows patiently and gently thanks to work we don’t understand and wasn’t done in our power. Let’s remember to give credit where credit is due – to the Sower/Farmer. I’ve talked before about we invest sweat equity in our walk with Christ. We are exhorted to be “workers who don’t need to be ashamed.”[12] Paul talks about bringing his body (his life) into submission in the service of God.[13] We are not called to be lazy freeloaders. But it’s always true that God is at work in us in ways we don’t understand. The Holy Spirit is constantly bringing holy things out of us that we couldn’t do on our own.

What do I mean by saying it grows patiently and gently? We see in the imagery that the kingdom grows quietly. It is not an apocalyptic or violently revolutionary disruption. The kingdom does not force itself upon people. The seed is planted in order for it to germinate, grow to maturity, and produce fruit.[14]

Here’s where its probably also worth noting that the crops in the first parable were not all the same. There were different levels of production from good soil. Combined with this parable, it’s a good reminder not to judge others or be envious of others when their crop looks different than ours.[15] Good soil can yield different results. We don’t need to try to be somebody else. We just need to let the Sower do his work.

The Parable of the Mustard Seed: The kingdom of God grows miraculously - and offers shade to all. Jesus is using language his audience understood. Ezekiel compared the kingdoms of Assyria and Judah to a magnificent tree:

“All the birds of the sky nested in its twigs,
And under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth,
And all great nations lived under its shade.”
(Ezekiel 31:6) 

On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant [Judah]; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree … (Ezekiel 17:23-24)

It’s worth nothing that mustard plants aren’t famous for being trees. They are considered shrubs. “I will make high the low tree,” said Jesus.  The kingdom of God will become impossibly large. We see this right away in church history, when Christianity exploded into the world. The early church grew about 40% per decade. 35 AD = 1,000. 100 AD, 7,500.  150 AD, 40,000. 350 = 34 million.[16]

In the Old Testament, the birds seem to be Gentile nations benefiting from the blessings of the God’s covenantal community in Israel.[17] When Israel was faithful and true, they weren’t the only ones who benefitted.  

Commentators note Jesus uses the same words for the birds that steal the seed and the birds in the tree. This seems to imply that, just like Saul who killed Christians became a Christian, there are those who were once enemies of the faith who will eventually find shelter in the Kingdom.[18] This takes me back to the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat. This is why you don’t destroy the weeds before the harvest. There is still time. The story isn’t over. Those ‘weed birds’ may yet find rest in the shade of the Kingdom.

5. Like yeast in bread, it only takes a few people to spread the kingdom far and wide. Have you heard of 6 degrees of separation? The idea is that I am 6 ‘people steps’ removed from any random person in the world. I know Bob, who knows Sally who knows….Random Person X. Meta claims to have it down to under 4 among Facebook users. The potential for our lives to have a ripple effect is incredible. When I was in youth group, we used to sit around a fire pit and sing, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going…” That's the idea. The 12 became 1,000 became over 2 billion today. Don’t underestimate the impact of one person sold out to Jesus. Don't underestimate your value in the Kingdom of God.

I’ve was trying to think of how to summarize all this, and this quote caught my eye:

Live in the kingdom of God in such a way that it provokes questions for which the gospel is the answer. - Lesslie Newbigin

I like that. When we live in the Kingdom as children of the King, may God’s goodness displayed in our lives be so intriguing that it brings out questions from those around us that gives us opportunity to point to Sower who planted the gospel seed that started it all.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “The place where Jesus sat beside the sea (13:1–2) is traditionally called the Cove of the Parables. It was a horseshoe-shaped cove that had remarkable acoustics. Anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000 people could fit just along the beach, while twice that many could easily fill the entire hillside.” (ESV Global Study Bible)

[2] “Sowers must sow indiscriminately, but hearers must be careful to ensure that they are rich soil, capable of receiving and nurturing the seed, which is the word of God.” (Africa Bible Commentary)

[3] “The birds are a picture of Satan; he snatches away the seed…He cooperates with them in their self-chosen barrenness.” (Believers Bible Commentary) “Jubilees [likens Satan] to a swooping bird leading a pack of other birds: “…that they might eat the seed which was being sown in the earth in order to spoil the earth so that they might rob mankind of their labors. Before they plowed in the seed, the crows picked it off the surface of the earth” (Jub. 11:10–11). (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the New Testament)

[4] “Fruit here is probably the manifestation of Christian character rather than souls won to Christ. When the word fruit is used in the NT, it generally refers to the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22, 23).” (Believers Bible Commentary)

[5] “Once the wheat was full grown and ready to be harvested, the darnel, now distinguishable from it, could be uprooted and used as cheap fuel. Laborers gathered wheat into sheaves, transporting it (often on donkeys) to a village’s threshing floor, or in this case to that of this large estate. Once threshed, it would be stored in a barn.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[6] Jesus seems to repeat this parable with a different image later in the chapter: “47 “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

[7] “If the goal of the Christian life may be stated as Christlikeness, then surely every trait developed in us that reflects His character must be fruit that is very pleasing to Him. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit in nine terms in Galatians 5:22-23, and Peter urges the development of seven accompaniments to faith in order that we might be fruitful (2 Peter 1:5-8). Two of these terms are common to both lists: love and self-control. The others are joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, virtue, knowledge, endurance, piety, and brotherly love.” https://bible.org/illustration/what-fruit

[8] “Receiving the kingdom with joy is not enough — a message the modern church desperately needs to hear. Faith that is temporary and unproductive is not true faith. As C. Keener observes, “the only conversions that count in the kingdom are those confirmed by a life of discipleship.” (Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus, Klyne R. Snodgrass)

[9] 1 John 3:7-8

[10] “God judges quite otherwise than men of this mixture of good and evil in the world; he knows the good which he intends to produce from it, and how far his patience towards the wicked should extend, in order to their conversion, or the farther sanctification of the righteous… A zeal for the extirpation of heretics and wicked… allows no time for the one to grow strong in goodness, or to the other to forsake their evil courses. The zeal which leads persons to persecute others for religious opinions is not less a seed of the devil than a bad opinion itself is. Let both grow together. Though every minister of God should separate from the Church of Christ every incorrigible sinner, yet he should proceed no farther: the man is not to be persecuted in his body or goods… GOD tolerates him; so should men. God…alone is the judge and punisher of them-man has no right to interfere in this matter. They who burnt Vanini for atheism usurped the seat of judgment, and thus proved themselves to be not less a diabolical seed than the person they… hurried into eternity. Mary, Queen of England, of execrable memory, and the inquisitorial tormentors she employed, were all of this diabolical sowing.” (Adam Clarke)

[11] “The Donatists of North Africa, in Augustine’s day…argued that, in the world, the two grow together but, in the Church, only wheat could be allowed. Augustine countered that both clean and unclean animals were housed in the ark, goats and sheep graze in the same pasture, grain and chaff are stored in the same barn and tares and wheat are found in the same field. The pure were known only to God and would be separated at the end of history…The initial story is a call for patience in the present that allows God to make the final judgment as to what is wheat and what is zizania… On the other hand, to affirm the parable, with its focus on the present, and deny the future judgment recorded in the interpretation is also a grave error…Both patience and warning are canonical themes.” Kenneth Bailey, https://pres-outlook.org/2006/07/the-parable-of-the-wheat-and-the-tares/

[12] 2 Timothy 2:15

[13] 1 Corinthians 9:27

[14] https://shenangopresbytery.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/parables.pdf

[15] “And we must not fail to notice that the soil that produces only a small crop is nevertheless called ‘good.’" (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[16] “The Secret to the Early Church’s Explosive Growth (It’s Not What You Think!)” https://newbreak.church/early-church-growth/

[17] ESV Reformation Study Bible

[18] There are other ideas about how to understand this imagery. I think this one makes the most sense, but I could, of course, be wrong.

Harmony of the Gospels #30: Jesus’ True Family (Matthew 12:46-50; Mark 3:20-21, 31-35; Luke 8:1-3, 19-21)

Some time afterward Jesus went on through towns and villages, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and disabilities: Mary (called Magdalene), from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Cuza (Herod’s household manager), Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.

Now Jesus went home, and a crowd gathered so that they were not able to eat. When his family heard this they went out to restrain him, for the people were saying, “He is out of his mind.”[1] While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and brothers came. Standing outside, they could not get near him because of the crowd, so they sent word to him, to summon him, asking to speak to him.

Someone told Jesus, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside wanting to see you and speak to you.” To the one who had said this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” And looking at his disciples who were sitting around him in a circle, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!

For whoever hears the word of God and does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”[2]

The Jewish people thought that they were spiritually "safe" because they had descended from Abraham. John records at one point they reminded Jesus, "Abraham is our father,” as if this blood lineage was all that mattered.  Jesus’ reply to them lines up with what he said in this passage:

“If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham." (John 8:39)

Their deeds would demonstrate that they were spiritual children of Abraham, just as Jesus is telling them now that his spiritual family will be known by their deeds.[3] As he noted elsewhere,

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21)

“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (Hebrews 2:11)

When we surrender our lives to Jesus as Lord, we become “joint heirs” with Jesus (Romans 8:17; 10:9–10), into whose image we will be continuously transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18). Our heavenly Father wants His children to bear a family resemblance.[4]

We often talk about this as “knowing people by their fruits.” When we are all on the same tree, bearing fruit from the same root, grafted into the same vine (John 15; Romans 11), we are in a new family that takes precedence over any other allegiance or relationship. John Phillips writes of this change of status in this way:

"The natural family was being replaced by the new family. Anybody could become related to Him in a family tie that was nearer and dearer than any forged by natural birth. Natural ties would be swallowed up in spiritual ties. Henceforth, He would regard anyone who had the same relationship with His Father as He had as being in the new family.”

It’s not that we ignore our household, of course. The stark contrast Jesus made in the passage we read was a typical Jewish way of making a point (just like “hating your parents” for the sake of God was about priorities.[5]) It means your obedience as a child of your heavenly Father takes priority over any other kind of allegiance.[6]

In an honor/shame culture that highly prized family loyalty and honor, Jesus makes a very unsettling point: those who follow him receive a new spiritual family, with intimacy and allegiance that transcends even ties to those in our household.[7] His family becomes our family, and our allegiance to him as Father and to his other children as siblings must come before all earthly allegiances.[8]

This isn’t to say those who are not followers of Jesus don’t matter. There is plenty of other Scripture that tells us how to interact with all of humanity, because everyone bears the image of God. All have value, worth and dignity; we are commanded to love all people well. I like how Adam Clarke says it:

“The revelation of God, and of all the ordinances and precepts contained in it - they are all calculated to do man good: to improve his understanding, to soften and change his nature, that he may love his neighbour as himself. That religion that does not [infuse] and produce humanity never came from heaven.”  (Adam Clarke)

So, yes, do good to all people. Jesus is simply making the point here that followers of Jesus are in a unique category, united by Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit. This covenant with God and his family now forms us and orders our lives above all else.

I am reading at length now from Ephesians 2: 11-22. I need to make this point clearly, because we are going to land hard on this.

So never forget how you used to be. Those of you born as outsiders to Israel [Gentiles] were outcasts, branded “the uncircumcised” by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh, a sign made with human hands. 

You had absolutely no connection to Jesus; you were strangers, separated from God’s people. You were aliens to the covenant they had with God; you were hopelessly stranded without God in a fractured world. But now, because of Jesus the Anointed and His sacrifice, all of that has changed. 

God gathered you who were so far away and brought you near to Him by the royal blood Jesus, our Liberating King. He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. 

He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. 

Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body. The Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away. By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. 

And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. 

The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit.

* * * * *

Jesus teaches love for the neighbors within one’s own family (Matthew 15:4–9; 19:19); he also insists that commitment to him and his mission must exceed all others (Matthew 8:21–22; 10:34–39). [9] The reality of this new family has implications.

When we talk about fellow Christians in any variety of circumstances, we are talking about not just our brothers and sisters in the most important sense of the word, but we are talking about the brothers and sisters of Jesus. So we must speak with care. And love. And honor. We must practice hospitality of head, heart and hands.

I’m about to make you uncomfortable as I challenge us to live as family in 5 areas that tend to dominate the cultural headlines. There are surely more issues that could be addressed. I don’t have time; these are the current hot topics.  This same sermon 20 years ago or 20 years from now would be different.

I spent a lot of time this week praying and considering how to say this perfectly, and quickly realized that I won’t. I just need to say it. I pray it’s truth in love, and that the Holy Spirit translates the spirit of my heart and words for you wherever I fail.

We have brothers and sisters in Christ who are Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, etc. We have brothers and sisters in Christ who voted differently than us, who align themselves on the other side of the political aisle. In our building today, this is true. Jesus’ followers ranged from the passive, withdrawn Essenes (John the Baptist) to the militaristic Zealots (Simon the Zealot). Depending on how much his other disciples were influenced by the Rome-cozy Sadducees or the Law-loving Pharisees, they had huge differences. He called them all and loved them all. What or who will primarily disciple us in how we should think, feel and talk about those across the aisle from us; who will tell us how should we act toward them? God forbid Joe Biden or Donald Trump direct my steps any more than the voice of Herod would have held sway in the early church. The voice of Jesus should drown out the voices in the empire; the example of Jesus calling his closest group from the political opposites should tell us something. What does Jesus say and model about how to love each other well in the midst of differences?

We have brothers and sisters in Christ who still disagree about how we should have and are responding to COVID, from shutdowns to masks to vaccines. We have brothers and sisters in Christ who are anti-vax and pro-vax, who still wear masks and who never did. That’s true around the world, and it’s true in this room. This isn’t about policy; this is more foundational than that. What or who will primarily disciple us in how we think, feel, and act toward our brothers and sisters? Jesus gets to set the table about how to love each other well in the midst of our disagreements and differing decisions. Neither the CDC nor that naturopathic health website are my brother and sister in Christ. You are.  And if neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will separate us from the love of God,[10] than it should take more than disagreements about masks or shots to separate us from the love designed to be found within the community of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We have brothers and sisters in Christ who have immigrated to this country legally and illegally. I’m not here to make a political point or recommend policy; it’s just a fact. 61% of legal immigrants identify as Christian, which is about the same of the U.S. population. 83% of illegal immigrants identify as Christians.[11] Regardless of how we feel about it, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are crossing the borders into our nation within the system and outside the system. In addition, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who live in border states that are at times overwhelmed with the needs of immigrants, and even they at time have sharply different views on how to respond. What or who will primarily disciple us in how brothers and sisters of Jesus should think, feel and talk about those in this situation? God forbid politicians and activists from the Right or the Left set the agenda for how we can best be ambassadors for Jesus. There is no way youtube personalities and talk show hosts from the Right or the Left should be taking the lead in shaping how we think about our brothers and sisters in Christ on either side of the border and in or outside of the government’s system. Jesus gets to tell us. Surely there is a rigorous and important discussion to have about policies. Law and order and mercy and grace are not enemies of each other. But I’m not talking here about policies. This is about grounding our hearts and minds before we ever start that discussion in the fact that the blood of Jesus has paid the price to draw all of our brothers and sisters in this discussion into his family.

We have brothers and sisters in Christ who have very different opinions about how to respond to our country’s legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and racism. I have heard Christian voices I respect talk about how unhelpful Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory have been to bringing truth and peace, and I have heard Christian voices I respect tell me how important Black Lives Matter has been and how crucial CRT is to addressing and righting injustice. (A lot of that has to do with how we are defining the terms, but that’s a discussion for another time). We have brothers and sisters in Christ on both sides of this issue.  Are these important discussions to have on the way to discerning what is true and just? Absolutely. But what or who will primarily disciple us in how we should think and feel about those with whom we disagree? Jesus gets the lead in this. Remember: we are part of what Paul called a “new humanity,” members in a family made possible by Jesus overwhelming the very real and daunting social and cultural barriers between His brothers and sisters. This family envelops every tribe, nation and tongue having this discussion, unifying us all without erasing our distinctiveness, which is all part of the beautiful kaleidoscope of humanity that God himself ordained. Jesus at the center is far more important than those with agendas and bullhorns on the fringes.

We have brothers and sisters in Christ who are struggling with gender identity. I’ve talked with them. They love Jesus. They aren’t trying to shake their fist at God or be rebellious. They are bearing a burden they did not ask to bear, yet there it is. What or who will primarily disciple us in how we should think, feel and act concerning our brothers and sisters in this situation? I don’t know everything about this topic, but I know one thing: any voice that pushes God’s people away from those wrestling with this kind of issue is not a voice inspired by the Holy Spirit. I’m watching the battle lines being drawn in our culture and wondering, “Dear God, where are the spiritual medics, the representatives of the Great Physician, the ones walking into tense and confusing situations with sacrificial, loving lives filled with truth, grace, and hope? Our brothers and sisters who need us to be faithfully present are watching us to see if we will be. Based on what they see, they will either hide at best or run at worst, or they will stay in fellowship with thus as we all walk together, following Jesus, to a place of healing and restoration. We represent the Jesus who saves, delivers and heals, not the activists who demand we get our knuckles bloody in the latest culture war front.

Does the mean we all shut up to get along? No. It means we use language in conversation that is like apples of gold on plates of silver. [12] Does this mean we have to act like everybody is right in their opinions on these issues? Of course not. Some things are true and some things are not. But in many cases, the journey to truth is complex and tricky, and it needs to be done in committed, care-filled community.

What is at stake here?

(John 17:20-23) “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

The loving unity of the church is meant to represent the loving unity of God, so that the world may know who Jesus is, and how much he loves us. This isn’t Anthony making this connection; it’s Jesus himself making this connection.

* * * * *

So how do we ‘practice righteousness’[13] for our good and God’s glory even as God continues to do the supernatural work of refining and maturing us? The phrase "one another" occurs 100 times in the New Testament, along with other passages clearly teaching us how to love one another well to the glory of God and the magnification of the love of Jesus.[14]

·      Do not lie to one another (Colossians 3:9)

·      Stop passing judgment on one another (Romans 14:13)

·      If you keep on biting and devouring each other...you'll be destroyed by each other (Galatians 5:15)

·      Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other (Galatians 5:26)

·      Do not slander one another (James 4:11)

·      Don't grumble against each other (James 5:9)

·      Love one another (John 13:34 + 16 more)

·      Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:10)

·      Honor one another above yourselves (Romans 12:10)

·      Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)

·      Build up one another (Romans 14:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11)

·      Be likeminded towards one another (Romans 15:5)

·      Accept one another (Romans 15:7)

·      Admonish one another (Romans 15:14; Colossians 3:16)

·      Greet one another (Romans 16:16)

·      Care for one another (1 Corinthians 12:25)

·      Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)

·      Bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2)

·      Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:2, 32; Colossians 3:13)

·      Be patient with one another (Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:13)

·      Speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15, 25)

·      Be kind and compassionate to one another (Ephesians 4:32)

·      Submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21, 1 Peter 5:5)

·      Consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:3)

·      Look to the interests of one another (Philippians 2:4)

·      Bear with one another (Colossians 3:13)

·      Teach one another (Colossians 3:16)

·      Comfort one another (1 Thessalonians 4:18)

·      Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

·      Exhort one another (Hebrews 3:13)

·      Stir up [provoke, stimulate] one another to love and good works (Hebrews 10:24)

·      Show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)

·      Employ the gifts that God has given us for the benefit of one another (1 Peter 4:10)

·       Clothe yourselves with humility towards one another (1 Peter 5:5)

·      Pray for one another (James 5:16)

·      Confess your faults to one another (James 5:16)

Are we committed to being the kind of family God intends for us to be? The kind of family that shows the world – and the families within our church – what it looks like to love each other relentlessly and well with the love God has shown us through Jesus?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] “They deemed the zeal and daily devotion to His labor of love a sort of ecstasy or religious enthusiasm, which made Him no longer master of Himself. St Paul uses the word in this sense in 2 Corinthians 5:13: “If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God.” Compare the words of Festus to St Paul (Acts 26:24). (At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.)”  - Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges

[2] Many commentators note the absence of “father.” Perhaps it is because only God is his father; perhaps Joseph has died. Perhaps both. We do know that Joseph was not at his crucifixion either, so odds are good Joseph had died. Surely, Jesus understands our loss and grief.

[3] HT to Precept Austin for connecting these verses for me!

[4] Again, good thoughts from Precept Austin.

[5] “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)

[6] ESV Global Study Bible

[7] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[8] IVP New Testament Commentary Series

[9]  As found in the Matthew-Mentor Commentary

[10] Romans 8:39

[11] https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/05/17/the-religious-affiliation-of-us-immigrants/

[12] Proverbs 25:11-12

[13] “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” (1 John 2.28-29)

[14] HT to this site for compiling all these verses! https://www.mmlearn.org/hubfs/docs/OneAnotherPassages.pdf

The Good News Of Easter

“The Lord Is Risen.”

“He Is Risen Indeed.”

It’s a remarkable claim. A man who died – like, really died – brought himself to life again. People were not stupid 2,000 years ago. They knew what it meant to be dead; they knew what it meant that blood and water flowed from Jesus. They knew dead people did not bring themselves back to life.

There is a reason his followers basically embalmed him as part of the ritual Jewish women performed on the dead.  For the second time, he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, though this time they were soaked with pounds of pungent perfume because it was assumed that, like his friend Lazarus, he would stink soon. If Jesus was merely a man, he would lie in state for four days before they would move what they called the now ‘corrupted’ body into a deeper tomb.

He was dead. You would think that the Gospel writers would want to cover over the fact that the followers of Jesus were so convinced he was dead they did this to him. That would have been a nice detail to leave out, that lack of faith of those closest to him. It would have left a glorious record of disciples who had no doubt, no wavering, no despair. They had understood all of Jesus’ hints. But, no. They recorded it. They thought he was dead.

When He revealed His risen self on the third day (so that he “did not see corruption” – Psalm 16 and Acts 2 – on the 4th day), people weren’t just automatically buying it.

• The disciples did not believe the report of the women, the first to see and then report the resurrected Jesus. 

• Peter left his observance of the empty tomb bewildered.

• The disciples didn’t believe the report of the two dudes on the Emmaus Road to whom Jesus revealed himself.

• They thought he was a ghost when he appeared to them in a room.

• Some of them still doubted after a later meeting .

 They were not fools. They had seen false messiahs, and they knew that crucified people did not come back to life. Yet their eventual response to this is telling. They became convinced that is indeed what happened.

• The early Christians claimed Jesus must be God in the flesh because of this resurrection at a time when no one in the Jewish community expected that kind of physical resurrection was a thing.

• They didn’t eventually appoint a successor to Jesus to carry on His messianic mission, which was a normal thing to do when a supposed messiah died.

• The early Christians said they actually had more hope than ever before, which would be an odd thing to claim if Jesus were still dead.

• They claimed that not only was Jesus alive, but the community of the church was now the temple in which a living God’s Spirit would dwell.

• This belief that Jesus was God solidified on the other side of this. They changed their view of God into a Triune one (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). They went from, “The Lord our God is one” to, “The Lord our God is Three-in-One.”

• They continued to worship Jesus at a time when worship of a human was blasphemous to the Jews and traitorous to the Romans. The death of Jesus would have been a good excuse to back out and avoid all the hardship that came with believing in His deity. This had precedence in Jewish history, as their false messiahs kept failing them and the followers denounced him. But they doubled down.

• They accepted and even embraced martyrdom when they could have remained in a tense but rarely fatal co-existence with the Romans (as long as they didn’t start a political rebellion).

• They changed their worship to the first day of the week (Sunday) instead of insisting on the last day of the week (Saturday) because Jesus rose on the first day of the week, which meant that a new day was now the holy day. They didn’t rest from their labors on the 7thday; they rested in Jesus’ completed work on the Cross before the week even got started.

 This belief that Jesus had risen from the dead upended their lives. It changed everything. But there is something else that stands out to me. John wrote an account in which he and Peter run to the empty tomb:

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved,and said, 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!' 

 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. 

 The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first,also went inside. He saw and believed."

 John is recording the RESURRECTION OF JESUS, and he makes sure to note that a) Jesus loved him in particular, b) he won that foot race, and c) he didn’t just see (study and hypothesize) like Peter; he actually was and then believed. Props to John.

John was the last gospel written, and it seemed important to John to add some very important details that the others left out. “He’s alive! And, I’m faster than Peter” – not once, but twice.  

Maybe John and Peter had a running, good-natured argument about this; I don’t know. Maybe this is what first century humor looks like. Based on the disciples’ track record, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that John was just setting the record straight that one of them was more committed to getting to Jesus and more ready to believe.

I am amazed that Jesus died so that even the most appalling acts of evil can be forgiven, that even the criminals we think of as monsters are not beyond the reach of the love and grace of Jesus.

I also love that Jesus died for people like the disciples: the petty, the shallow, the proud. In other words, ordinary people carrying around darker hearts than they want to admit and minds more broken than they know. Look at the “ordinary” people Jesus died for as they are recorded in Scripture (and by this I mean those closest to him).

• The disciples are a mess. They are likely rejects from rabbinical schools. They are not the cream of the Jewish crop. They are petty, jealous, angry, unfocused, and cowardly.

• His cousin John the Baptist and his brother James struggled with doubt even though they saw what he did.

• Jesus called Peter “Satan” one time.

• The Jews in Jerusalem were terribly disappointed that he was not the Warrior Messiah they were looking for. #palmbranches

• The sincerely religious people were busy creating disciples of hell instead of heaven.

• Paul, whom God eventually sends with the Good news to the Gentiles, killed followers of Jesus before he became one.

• Tax collectors, prostitutes, and idol-worshipping Samaritans had a better handle on who Jesus was than the shiny religious people did.

• His best friends can’t seem to stay awake and support him on the worst night of his life in the Garden of Gethsemane.

• They all run away and hide when he gets arrested.

 I love that God’s love pours down from a Cross and seeps into that kind of soil. I love that a gloriously resurrected Jesus appears to that kind of people. Because that means I have hope. That means you have hope.

We have to get over ourselves. Jesus didn’t come to earth because we were so cool to hang out with. He didn’t come because we had finally measured up to God’s expectations and it was time to level up! He came because His good world and His image bearers are dying, “groaning” in longing for the kind of redemption and restoration from sin that only Jesus can bring.

The glory of Resurrection hope is seen in comparison to the hell that Jesus stepped into to redeem. That’s not just the hell of headline-grabbing sins; that’s the hell of our chipping away at God’s good world with our anger, bitterness, envy, greed, lust, and callous cruelty. Some people dig pits of evil with backhoes of sin; those are the ones at which we stand up and point before we bend back to our shovels and slowly dig our way down to join them.

The bad news: Our hearts are darkened; our minds poisoned; our loves and desires distracted and broken. On our own, we tend toward the rot and ruin that follows sin. It’s like a spiritual law of thermodynamics: on our own, entropy and decay increases. Things fall apart. On our own, we continually contribute to the brokenness of the world.

The good news: God has not left us on our own. Jesus can fix the brokenness of his image bearers, and turn that decay into life. In the end, Jesus will say, “Behold, I make all things new.”[1]Now, when we accept the salvation Jesus offers, “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”[2]

The bad news: We have spilled the ‘life’s blood” of others: physically, emotionally, relationally. We deserve to get what we give; in this case, the wages of sin is death. God, the LawSetter and Judge, demands justice.

The good news: It doesn’t have to be my life – or yours. Jesus, the Lawfulfiller and Savior, will bear the weight of His own justice by spilling His blood in our place. He took a punishment He did not deserve so that we can have the righteousness we did not earn.

The bad news: I don’t deserve this gift of grace, and neither do you.

The good news: We don’t need to deserve or earn it. It’s a gift to even the most undeserving. Jesus came to save the world and bring life, both now and in the world to come.

When the Jewish people celebrated the Passover, the one leading the meal would hold up bread and say, “This is the bread of our affliction, which our fathers ate in the wilderness” (a reference to Exodus 6). At the Last Supper, the presenter is Jesus, and here is what he does:

“Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Not, “this is the bread of our affliction which our fathers ate in the wilderness.” Now it’s different. “This is the bread of my affliction as I lead you on the true exodus and free you from the bondage of sin and death.”

The Passover has changed its focus. Now we remember Jesus, who became our substitutionary sacrifice so that the spiritual judgment we deserve will pass over us, and whose mercy will lead us from bondage to life.

“Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, “This is the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many.”

Here is the one to whom the blood of the lamb of the Passover in Egypt had pointed. He will do more than free people from the bondage of earthly oppression; he will, as John the Baptist proclaimed, “take away the sins of the world.”

With “this is my body” and “this is my blood,” Jesus showed himself to be the fulfillment of their longings for a Messiah, a Deliverer. Passover had reminded them that God delivered them from death in Egypt through the blood of the Lamb. Now, we celebrate how God delivered the world from the power of sin and death through the blood of Jesus. His resurrection shows us that He has the power to do what He claimed He can do.

I was reading some reflections on Goodreads this past week about Jesus and Easter, and I ran across this quote by so Francis Spufford. It feels like a fitting way to end.

“The strain of his whole weight on his outstretched arms hurts too much. The pain fills him up, displaces thought, as much for him as it has for everyone else who has ever been stuck to one of these horrible contrivances, or for anyone else who dies in pain from any of the world’s grim arsenal of possibilities. 

And yet he goes on taking in… He is all open door: to sorrow, suffering, guilt, despair, horror, everything that cannot be escaped, and he does not even try to escape it, he turns to meet it, and claims it all as his own. This is mine now, he is saying; and he embraces it with all that is left in him, each dark act, each dripping memory… 

But there is so much of it. So many injured children; so many locked rooms; so much lonely anger; so many bombs in public places; so much vicious zeal; so many bored teenagers at roadblocks; so many drunk girls at parties someone thought they could have a little fun with; so many jokes that go too far; so much ruining greed; so much sick ingenuity; so much burned skin... 

It burns and stings, it splinters and gouges, it locks him round and drags him down…All day long, the next day, the city is quiet. The air above the city lacks the usual thousand little trails of smoke from cookfires. Hymns rise from the temple. 

Families are indoors. The soldiers are back in barracks. The Chief Priest grows hoarse with singing. The governor plays chess with his secretary and dictates letters. The free bread the temple distributed to the poor has gone stale by midday, but tastes all right dipped in water or broth. 

Death has interrupted life only as much as it ever does. We die one at a time and disappear, but the life of the living continues. The earth turns. The sun makes its way towards the western horizon no slower or faster than it usually does. 

Early Sunday morning, one of the friends comes back with rags and a jug of water and a box of the grave spices that are supposed to cut down on the smell. She’s braced for the task. But when she comes to the grave she finds that the linen’s been thrown into the corner and the body is gone. 

Evidently anonymous burial isn’t quite anonymous enough, after all. She sits outside in the sun. The insects have woken up, here at the edge of the desert, and a bee is nosing about in a lily like silk thinly tucked over itself, but much more perishable. It won’t last long. She takes no notice of the feet that appear at the edge of her vision….

“Don’t be afraid,” says Yeshua. “Far more can be mended than you know.”

Far more can be mended than you know. “See,” said Jesus in John’s vision in Revelation, “I make all things new.” This is the hope of Jesus’ Resurrection. He came to mend all things. And it is this Risen Savior who calls us to follow Him, so surrender our lives to the plan He has to make us new - heart, mind, and soul.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Revelation 21:

[2] Philippians 1:6

Three Day Stories

The Bible is full of ‘three day stories”[1]: 

·      Abraham and Isaac’s journey up the mountain

·      Joseph’s brothers in jail in Egypt

·      the plague of darkness in Egypt

·      When the Israelites left Egypt, they traveled three days into the desert before they found water

·      Rahab hid the spies for three days

·      Jonah in the big fish for three days

·      Saul was blinded for three days

·      Jesus was in the tomb for three days

·      “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up.  After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” (Hosea 6:1-2)

On the third day is when the bad stuff ends. That’s the day we celebrate, and rightly so. But third day stories aren’t clear until the third day. On Day One and Day Two, it’s not yet clear how the story will end. The First day of Third Day story is often a brutal one.

It was the First Day -  Crucifixion Friday, or Good Friday -  that Jesus died.  His followers did not know this was a Third Day story. All they had on that Friday was the First Day. They had seen so many failed messiahs by this point[2]. They did not understand the prophecy that pointed toward Jesus’ resurrection. They were afraid and in despair.

Crucifixion Friday reminds us that Jesus knows what it means that all of creation groans (Romans 8:22) and the land mourns (Jeremiah 12:4). When the prophet Isaiah wrote of the coming Christ, he wrote, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; He was stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4)

Jesus understands our First Days. His entrance into the human condition showed that God is not a distant, uncaring and cold God. God understands us.  

Then there is the Saturday before Sunday. It’s not the day when the tragedy occurred; it’s not the day when Resurrection brings hope and life. It’s that troublesome (and often very long) middle day.

Here’s what the Bible records the followers of Jesus were doing between Crucifixion Friday and Resurrection Sunday. (This is a combination of details as they appear in Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20).

At the rising of the sun, after the Sabbath on the first day of the week, the two Marys and Salome came to the tomb to keep vigil. They brought sweet-smelling spices they had purchased to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. Along the way, they wondered to themselves how they would roll the heavy stone away from the opening… 

[They encounter the Risen Jesus] 

They brought this news back to all those who had followed Him and were still mourning and weeping. They recounted for them—and others with them—everything they had experienced. The Lord’s emissaries heard their stories as fiction, a lie; they didn’t believe a word of it until Jesus appeared to them all as they sat at dinner that same evening (Resurrection Sunday). 

They were gathered together behind locked doors in fear that some of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were still searching for them. Out of nowhere, Jesus appeared in the center of the room and said, “May each one of you be at peace.”

There’s not a lot of info, but what is there is insightful. What do we see the closest followers of Jesus doing?

·      Keeping a vigil of mourning

·      Planning how to perfume the body of the dead Messiah

·      Hiding in fear

·      Disbelieving that Jesus was alive

 For the most part, it’s not a great resume builder, really. You would think that the biblical writers might want to put a better spin on what happened here. “As the disciples were praying and rejoicing over Jesus’ impending Resurrection, Mary returned and told them the good news. And they said, “Of course! We knew it all along!” This is one reason, by the way, you can take the biblical writers seriously. They aren’t afraid to show warts and all of even the best people in the story.

No, they were mourning the death of their long awaited Messiah. They thought he was gone. They thought he had failed – and in that failure shown that he was not, after all, the promised deliverer. As far as they knew, he was never coming back.

Crucifixion Fridays are hard, but Silent Saturdays may be even harder.

·      Funeral days are hard, but they are at least full of adrenaline and crisis management and we are surrounded by support. But then the next day, when family drifts back home, and friends go back to their routine…that’s when Silent Saturday sets in. The loneliness and the emptiness…

·      The trauma of a major accident or surgery or abuse is a lot, but the months or years of recovery – or wondering if you will ever recover – that’s a different kind of hard.

·      The divorce, the job loss, the day the prodigal child moves away… all their own kind of hard. They are all days of “death”: death of relationship, death of vocation, death of family unity. All hard. Then there is the time afterward where we don’t know if there will be restoration, or provision, or unity.

It’s hard enough when it involves earthly things. But what about when our relationship with God is best described as a Silent Saturday kind of relationship? What if there is a spiritual loneliness and emptiness, a sense that God is aloof at best and gone at worst. What about the times when the heavens seem empty, and our prayers just seem to drift off into a void? What about the times when God is silent?

ANDREW PETERSON – THE SILENCE OF GOD 

It's enough to drive a man crazy, it'll break a man's faith, It's enough to make him wonder, if he's ever been sane, when he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod, And the Heaven's only answer is the silence of God.
It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart, when he has to remember what broke him apart. This yoke may be easy but this burden is not, when the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God.

And if a man has got to listen to the voices of the mob who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got, when they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross, then what about the times when even followers get lost? 'Cause we all get lost sometimes…

There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll in the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold. And He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a stone, all His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone

And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot, what sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought. So when the questions dissolve into the silence of God, The aching may remain but the breaking does not. The aching may remain but the breaking does not. In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God.

 So what do we do with the Silent Saturdays of our lives? I want to offer a number of suggestions not so that we will be immediately aware of God’s presence, but so we can be purposeful and grow from this kind of season of our life.

Be honest with God. The Bible gives us permission to voice our hearts during Silent Saturday. Look at a few of the Psalms:

• Psalm 6:2–3  “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing. Heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is greatly troubled, but you, O Lord, how long?”

•  Psalm 13:1–2 “How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?”

• Psalm 90:13–14 “Return, O Lord. How long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.”

• “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.” (Job 30:20)

 After my dad died, I kept a journal for years and did my best to be honest before God about my anger, fear, grief and depression. Just getting it out was healing, and learning to trust that God could handle it was vital. Years later I was talking to a friend going through a lot who literally looked to the heavens and said, “Why? What is going on? How are you letting this happen? Where are you?” There is biblical precedent for this. N.T. Wright wrote:

At this point the Psalms, the Bible’s own hymnbook, come back into their own, just when some churches seem to have given them up. “Be gracious to me, Lord,” prays the sixth Psalm, “for I am languishing; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.” “Why do you stand far off, O Lord?” asks the 10th Psalm plaintively. “Why do you hide yourself in time of trouble?” And so it goes on: “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?” (Psalm 13).  

And, all the more terrifying because Jesus himself quoted it in his agony on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22). Yes, these poems often come out into the light by the end, with a fresh sense of God’s presence and hope, not to explain the trouble but to provide reassurance within it.

But sometimes they go the other way. Psalm 89 starts off by celebrating God’s goodness and promises, and then suddenly switches and declares that it’s all gone horribly wrong. And Psalm 88 starts in misery and ends in darkness: “You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness…”

It is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain [why all this is happening]—and to lament instead.”

 God knows your heart and mind; he already knows your deepest internal struggles. Voice them. Lament is okay. God is big. He can handle it.

2. Keep the vigils

In the spite of the pain of their loss, the Marys did what they had always done, which was part of the ritual of living in Jewish community. What Jewish people believed and what they did in almost every aspect of life were so intertwined that it’s hard to imagine that the vigil was not considered part of what God called them to do. There is something to be said for keeping the faith through an active commitment to obedience and faithfulness. I would like to offer four vigils I believe are helpful.

a. Pursue Church community. Don't forsake gathering together (Hebrews 10:25). The disciples did at least one thing right: they hung together in the midst of their grief. It’s important that we remain connected and not withdraw. In community, others came back and reported their experiences with the Risen Christ. Even in the midst of doubt, there was hope. We stay in community so that we can be challenged, encouraged, and held close. We need to feel the nearness of God’s people when God feels distant. We need the hope that lives in others when our sense of hope is gone. The church is God’s body; you and I are parts of that body. Without it we wither away.

b. Pray and Read Scripture. I don’t know that there is a formula for the best way to do this. There are all kinds of cool ideas about how to read through the Bible or how to pray. I don’t think they are bad; I just don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all kind of approach.

·      Listen to or read the Bible.

·      Pray alone - or get together with others online.

·      Pray for a block of time - or throughout the day.

·      Sing. There are theologically rich songs that are good reminders of the hope we find in Jesus.

c. Dive Into Devotionals (podcasts, books, teachings). This is one way to experience the community of the church. It’s also a good way to find clarity about the Scriptures and to hear the testimonies of others. What did they do when they were in the First and Second days of their stories? Biblegateway.com; biblehub.com, preceptaustin.com, The Bible Project, the history of sermons and posts on our facebook page and website and churches all over the world.  

d. Practice Obedience to God. One of the greatest dangers we face is giving up and saying to God, “You know what? If I can’t feel your presence, I am going to live as if you’re not there.”  The Bible describes the way of obedience as “the path of life” (Psalm 16:11). There is something about faithful obedience that is not just healthy; it is wise and stabilizing. Also, I believe obedience is one of the ways we are conformed to the image of Christ – and in that conforming – as we begin to see what it means to ‘be like Jesus’ -  we begin to appreciate the wisdom of the One who guides our life.  

I love a song Ashley Cleveland sings called “Don’t Let Me Fall Too Far.” That sounds like an odd request, but I get it. It starts,

“I know the places where the ice is thin,

too many cracks, you could slip right in…

Don’t let me fall too far.”

She finishes with,

“I will hope for the things that I cannot see,

I know you’ll finish what you started in me,

Don’t let me fall too far…”

 I think it’s an honest request: I feel like I’m falling off the path; O God, in your strength, steady me and keep me going. Practice obedience. One step in front of the other. When you start to stray on to ice that you know is thin, pray and walk toward the thick ice of life even if you can’t see it at the time.

3.  Learn to wait

• Psalm 37:7  “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”

• Psalm 27:14  “Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.”

I’m not good at waiting. I want problem resolution. Give me a task!  Traveling last week, we got stuck in hours of traffic backups. I wanted to take some back roads where I could at least be moving. But according to GPS, it was actually slower. Sometimes the fastest way to the right destination is just sitting there for a while. We so often want to be “human doings” that we forget what it it’s like to be “human beings.” It’s okay to have seasons and rhythms of life in which you are simply present with God and others in the midst of uncertainty and doubt.  

4. Let the desert point you to the oasis. Jon Bloom wrote in an article entitled, “When God Is Silent”:

Why is water so much more refreshing when we’re really thirsty? … Why is the pursuit of earthly achievement often more enjoyable than the achievement itself? Why do deprivation, adversity, scarcity, and suffering often produce the best character qualities in us while prosperity, ease, and abundance often produce the worst?Deprivation draws out desire… Longing makes us ask, emptiness makes us seek, silence makes us knock (Luke 11:9). Deprivation is in the design of this age…We live in the dim mirror age, not the face-to-face age (1 Corinthians 13:12)… It’s the desert that awakens and sustains desire. It’s the desert that dries up our infatuation with worldliness. And it’s the desert that draws us to the Well of the world to come.

David said his soul longed for God like a deer panting for water. That sounds like deprivation and anticipation. Once again, okay to voice it. If that is our situation – we are desperate for something refreshing and life-giving – let’s not forget to turn to Jesus.

5. Don't confuse what we think is real from what is really real 

The followers of Jesus huddled in their homes thought it was over. It wasn’t. They thought God had abandoned them. He hadn’t. It’s important to remember during Silent Saturdays that what we think about God and God’s plans might not be true. What is true is that God may well feel absent, but He is not. God is with us always.

So, why does He feel distant or absent in those times? I don’t know.

·      It could be that we are in rebellious sin and we are trying to hide. #adamandeve

·      It could be that we are exhausted, wounded, numb.

·      It could be that God is allowing deprivation to draw out desire.

·      It could be that we are distracted or depressed.

·      It could be we have been traumatized by God’s people, and the character of the ambassadors of the King becomes hard to separate from the character of the King himself.

I don’t know. But I know that God is near and faithful and goodno matter what we think is happening or how we feel. The despair of Silent Saturday may last for a time, but joy comes in the morning of Easter Sunday. More on this next Sunday.

________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] I got this idea from a brilliant teaching called “Saturday: Living Between Crucifixion and Resurrection,” posted by Richmont Graduate Universityon youtube. I don’t know who the speaker was. You can access the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U90EKNZPKCU

[2] http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12416-pseudo-messiahs

Harmony #29: The Bottle And The Jar Luke 7:36-50

Last week, Jesus called out the Pharisees for refusing to properly mourn when called to repentance, and refusing to properly celebrate when they see the Kingdom of God being offered to all. In the incident which follows, we have an illustration of both the fruit of repentance and the beautiful, life-changing offer of the Kingdom to all.

Jesus Anointed by a Sinful Woman[1] (Luke 7:36-50)
 Now one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.

When a woman of that town,[2] who used to be[3] a sinner, learned that Jesus was dining at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfumed oil. As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. She wiped them with her hair, kissed them,[4] and anointed them with the perfumed oil.[5]

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” So Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He replied, “Say it, Teacher.”

“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed him five hundred silver coins, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.” Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

 44 Then, turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?

I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss of greeting, but from the time she entered she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfumed oil.

Therefore I tell you, because her many sins have been forgiven, she has loved much; but the one who is forgiven little loves little.”[6] Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.”[7] But those who were at the table with him began to say to themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” He said to the woman, “Your faith [the faith I have given you][8] has saved you; go in peace.”

* * * * *

I want to unpack this story, then apply it. Here are some things that stand out to me about this story.

1.    The Bible doesn’t say why she was sinful. Tradition says she was a prostitute, perhaps because when the Bible describes Jesus as eating with “tax collectors and sinners” (as the Pharisees did a couple paragraphs earlier), that seems to be a phrase that typically includes prostitutes. It would make sense that one of the Pharisees’ derided ‘sinners’ would show up in this next event.

2.    If a Jewish woman was a prostitute – and this woman seems to be Jewish - then an entire community had failed to keep the Law of Moses. There was no way a woman should have had to resort to prostitution. The Pharisees, as the teachers and defenders of the Law,should have made sure she was taken care of. They apparently didn't.

3.    When guests arrived for a meal, servants typically washed and anointed them with perfumed oils. This did not happen to Jesus. Simon was not a great host. But, to be sure, Jesus had just compared him to children that don’t know how to properly mourn in repentance or rejoice in salvation, so….

4.    The guests reclined as the ate, lying on one side, feet behind them. That’s how the woman had easy access to Jesus’ feet.

5.    Nobody asked this woman to leave and nobody stopped her from anointing Jesus’ feet, even though it’s clear they knew her and her reputation. That’s intriguing to me.  Simon didn’t rebuke her or remove her when she touched Jesus, an act that a Pharisee should never have let happen to a rabbi.

6.    Simon saw this as a test. Would Jesus know secret information about this woman? He would, if he was truly a prophet. Well, the joke’s on Simon: Jesus demonstrated Simon’s expectation of a prophet knowing private things by responding to Simon’s interior thoughts.[9]

7.    What are these tears? Sorrow? Regret? Joy? Relief? Love? Hope? The Bible doesn’t say. Yes to all?  I remember after watching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and A Monster Calls, I sobbed what I will call beautiful and terrible tears. How can they be both? They just can. It tore my heart and filled my soul. Some of my best soul-cleansing cries not involving movies have been on the other side of repentance when I am overwhelmed first by what I have done, and then by the goodness, grace, mercy and love of God and others who forgive me, love me, and truly believe that my history is not my destiny.

8.    Some think that “washing his feet with tears” was more than just tears in the moment. Keeping tears in a bottle, or a container, was a thing.[10] This bottle was a history of the hardship of one’s life. When a person was buried, the tear bottle was buried with her. If these were tears from her tear bottle, it tells you how deeply this woman was invested in Jesus.

9.      Drying his feet with her hair sounds odd to us, but in that culture, a woman’s hair was her glory. She was indicating to everyone there that her own glory was good enough only to wash Jesus’ feet.[11] I don’t know what the equivalent is today. Whatever it is, it has something to do with laying down our pride and perhaps offering that which the world sees as making our name great and surrendering it for the purposes of making Jesus’ name great.

10.  Kissing the feet of someone was unusual, but not unheard of.

·      When Rabbi Papi (360 AD) got a man acquitted of murder, the man kissed his feet, and paid his taxes for him for the rest of his life.

·      Rabbi Yannai and Rabbi Jonathan (220 AD) were hanging out when a man came up and kissed Rabbi Jonathan’s feet. Jonathan explained that the man was having trouble with his son, so Jonathan told him get some men to rebuke and correct his son. When the matter turned out well, the man had showed his appreciation by kissing his feet.[12]

·      “The kissing of the feet is clearly not a kiss among equals or a kiss of familiarity, relation, or intimacy. It is a kiss of profound thankfulness and indebtedness. It is a kiss used to express that one’s life is much improved because of the one being kissed, or even that one owes his/her life itself to the one being kissed. It is a kiss reserved for a savior.”[13]

11. Jesus seems to have met her before. He says she loved much because she had been forgiven much.  For you grammar nerds, the verb tenses matter in this story. She ‘used to be’ a ‘sinner,’ though Simon clearly thinks she still ‘is.’ Her sins ‘have been forgiven,’ an indication of something that already happened. Her love was the effect of her being pardoned, not the cause of it. The woman’s acts of reverence to Jesus honored him as the one who had brought God’s message of grace to her. The tears and the perfume are a response of thankfulness and love. She is one of His children.

"Thanks to thee, most blessed sinner: thou hast shown the world a safe enough place for sinners - the feet of Jesus, which spurn none, reject none, repel none, and receive and admit all.”[14]

Jesus offers her something the Pharisees never could: hope. If tradition is correct, she became one of his disciples - not the 12, but there were many more that traveled with him, including women (see Luke 8:1-3). In Luke 10:1, Jesus sent out 70! As a follower/disciple of Jesus, she was taken care of in a way she was not before, not just spiritually but practically.

* * * * *

It’s often said of stories that readers connect well to the power of a story when they find themselves in the story. So let’s look at the two characters other than Jesus and see if we recognize ourselves.

THE PHARISEE

How hospitable are we to Jesus? Jesus isn’t going to walk in the front door of our house, but he’s knocking on the door of our hearts. (Revelation 3:20.) Do we let him in to clean house? Do we, like Simon, let him in but refuse to show hospitality, reverence, and humility? “Fine, I guess you can be here. Try not to touch anything.” Jesus isn’t someone to be dabbled with, like a hobby or a pet or a toy. He’s not a curiosity to amuse us. He’s a savior set on saving; a shepherd set on directing and caring for us; a King setting up a Kingdom.

Do we see the greatness of our Debt Forgiver? If I am hiking along the Boardman and I wander off the trail a couple yards, I’m not going to be impressed if someone comes running up to me, grabs me by the hand and says, “I found you!” Yeah, I wasn’t that lost. If I am two days off road into an Alaskan forest, with no supplies and suffering from hypothermia, whoever finds me is going to have my life-long gratitude.

How honest are we about how lost we were or are? How honest are we about our need for a Savior? This incident reveals that our response to Jesus comes from experiencing His gracious love for us, demonstrated by paying the debt for our sins and bringing new life to our dying souls. (1 John 4:19)

When we refuse to take our lostness seriously, we won’t see the value of our Savior clearly. This doesn’t mean we have to beat ourselves up everyday. This could go off the rails and turn into a shame-based life if all we do is walk around telling ourselves on repeat that we are losers.

We don’t have to be pulled out of a pit every day to remember the days we are pulled out of a pit. We don’t have to be undone every day to remember the days we were undone – and restored.  We don’t have to be crushed every day by the weight of our sin to remember the days we were crushed – and Jesus took the weight and lifted us up. Those who know they are forgiven much love much. Let’s not look away from the messy and uncomfortable and crucial process of repentance.

What ‘sinners’ are we refusing to love into the Kingdom of God?

The Pharisee knew about the woman. She seemed more like a tool in his test of Jesus than a human being deserving of love - which would have been demonstrated by taking care of her financially and bringing her into the care of the community of God’s people rather than forcing her to the fringes and ignoring her.

·      What sinners do we think are such great sinners that we have lost our love and concern for their physical and spiritual well-being?

·      With what sinners have we contented ourselves with “othering” them in their uncleanness and sin and keeping them at arms’ length lest they dare get to close to us and make us dirty?

·      Who is it we have stopped loving so much that we have stopped going to them and demonstrating, with our words and lives, the good news of the person of Jesus and the community of His church?

Honestly, as I scroll throught the news, I see such fear, anger and disdain directed toward certain individuals and groups of people right now by Christians. When the people of Jesus put those vibes out, why would we expect others to think Jesus feels any differently about them? And where is the compelling good news of the Gospel in that?

There is campaign right now seeking to boost Jesus’ PR. It’s called “He Gets Us.” I am not here to criticize them; I appreciate their hearts. But you know what? If people already knew that from their interaction with the people of Jesus, we wouldn’t need that campaign. And if someone believes the ads and joins a local church but doesn’t experience from the people of Jesus what the ad promised was true about Jesus, the ad won’t matter.

What sinners are we refusing to love into the Kingdom? If we see ourselves in the story in the person of the Pharisee, we’ve got some repenting to do. To use Jesus’ analogy last week, the music is a dirge, and it’s time to mourn.  

THE WOMAN

What brought her to Jesus? The merciful kindness and love of a Savior. Maybe this is you. You have experienced the grace and forgiveness of God, and perhaps experienced it flowing through others. Her response of love, service and adoration makes sense to you. You were the hiker two days out in the wilderness.

When I get my checkups with the doctor who fixed my heart, I have this unavoidable feeling of tenderness and thankfulness. I’m always like, “Hey, thanks again,” which feels totally inadequate.  And he only saved my physical life, and only once. But the one who saves our souls and continues to save, deliver, and heal? The more we see and understand the profound gift of God’s redemption, the more we live in such a way that our lives give out a constant testimony of “Hey! Thanks again!”

Or…maybe this isn’t you, but it’s who you want to relate to in the story. You haven’t experienced this, and you are desperate to know that you are valued and loved by God, and you want to experience forgiveness, restoration and peace that has been so elusive.

Good news: Jesus offers that to you.[15]  “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

What tears do we bring? Repentance? Weariness? Cynicism? Bitterness? Loneliness? Disillusionment? Pain? Sorrow? Joy? Relief? Beauty? Longing?

I suspect we store up those tears; we just do it in our hearts instead of a bottle.

Sometimes it’s just memories, things we hold close because to lose them, even if they are painful, feels like a loss. Life in its fullness has been beautiful and terrible, and we don’t want to forget who we were and who we are, because the entire story matters. That seems like a good and healthy thing.

But sometimes it looks like this: “Do you know what all I’ve been through? I deserve…” Then that bottle of tears become an identity, an obsession, a prison, an addiction, a card to play to excuse and avoid and defend and demand.

I wonder what it looks like to pour that bottle out at the feet of Jesus.  It’s giving up the right to have the final word, to get revenge, to demand pity, to hide behind our history, to cling to the toxic safety that we know and therefore feels comfortable.

What tears do we bring? How might we pour out those tears to Jesus?[16]

With what acts of adoration do we seek to make his name great?

The perfume was a costly act of adoration. We aren’t going to pour out perfume literally like she did, but there are other ways. In 2 Corinthians 2:14, Paul wrote,

“Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”

He told the church in Philippi that he had,

“…received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God.”

David wrote in the Psalms 141:2,

“May my prayer be like special perfume before You. May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening gift given on the altar in worship.“

It’s in costly but sweet-smelling offering of our lives, our fellowship, and our focus that we best respond to the love of our Savior.[17]  We tell others about Jesus; we offer our testimonies; we live honestly so others can see the ongoing work God is doing in us; we enter into the family and church community rhythms of repentance and forgiveness; we seek, as image bearers, to more clearly embody truth, justice, mercy, love.

We have been forgiven much, and it’s glorious. May we love God and others much in return.

__________________________________________________________________________________

[1] https://www.billmounce.com/monday-with-mounce/bible-contradiction-sinful-woman-luke-7-36-50

[2] “The widespread belief that she was Mary Magdalene has absolutely not a single jot or tittle of evidence in Scripture. Nor can there be said to be anything like even a tradition in its favor. The earliest Fathers of the Church are silent. Origen discusses and rejects it. Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine are doubtful. It first gained general acceptance through the authority of Gregory the Great.”  (Ellicott’s Commentary)

[3] “Refers here to the time past, though lately past; she had lately been infamous and notorious, but it appears by what follows that she was not so now, other than in the opinion…of the people.’  (Matthew Poole’s Commentary)

[4] “Among the ancients the kissing of the feet was a proof of deep veneration, which was manifested especially to Rabbins.” (Meyer’s NT Commentary) 

[5] ‘This was doubtless one of the implements of her guilty condition (Proverbs 7:17, Isaiah 3:24), and her willingness to sacrifice it was a sign of her sincere repentance.”  (Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges)

[6] Jesus emphasized that Simon never understood the depth of his guilt. If he had, he would have viewed Jesus as the woman did.  

[7] “Turning again to the woman, in her deep penitence, and at the same time in her deep joy - joy springing from her newly found peace - he formally renews to her the assurance of that pardon which she already was conscious of…” (Pulpit Commentary)

[8] See an extensive discussion on faith as a gift from God at https://biblehub.com/greek/4102.htm

[9] Jesus had already shown he had prophetic insight into people’s lives. #Samaritanwoman

[10] In Psalm 56, David mentions the tear bottle.

[11] https://confidenceandjoy.com/washed-his-feet-with-her-tears/

[12] https://breadforbeggars.com/2013/06/a-kiss-on-the-feet-a-gospel-commentary-by-nathan-biebert/

[13] https://breadforbeggars.com/2013/06/a-kiss-on-the-feet-a-gospel-commentary-by-nathan-biebert/

[14] Bernard, as quoted in Vincent’s Word Studies

[15] Great song for meditation: “Your Kindness,” by Leslie Phillips

[16] Great song for meditation: “Tenth Avenue North, “Greater Than All My Regrets”

[17] Great Song for meditation: “My Jesus,” Anne Wilson

Harmony #28: Wisdom And Her Children (Luke 7:24-35,16:16; Matthew 11:7-19)

Today’s passage contains a number of statements that can make you shrug you shoulders and go, “Well, they sure had an odd way of saying things back then,” and move on.  I will try to explain them as me go through the passage, but we are going to land on the subject of Wisdom and her children.

* * * * *

 When John’s messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?  What did you go out to see? A man dressed in fancy clothes? Look, those who wear fancy clothes and live in luxury are in kings’ courts!  What did you go out to see? A prophet?

Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ I tell you the truth, among those born of women no one has arisen greater (Authoritative? Excellent? Weightier?) than John the Baptist.

JOHN WAS ‘BORN OF WOMAN’? AREN’T WE ALL?

Think of what Jesus said to Nicodemus: he had to be born a second time, “of water and the spirit.”[1] It’s a distinction between being a child of humanity and a child of God.

* * * * *

Yet the one who has the lower rank and influence in the kingdom of God is greater than he is.[2]

WHAT’S UP WITH THE GREATER/LESSER LANGUAGE?

We aren’t supposed to created hierarchies in the Kingdom, right? “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”[3] The greatest among us are those who serve.[4] So what’s going on here? John introduced a kingdom that he would not get to see inaugurated. And as great as John was, it is greater (think ‘more spiritually formative’) to participate in the kingdom than to announce it. Those who come after John are able to understand and appreciate more fully the mission of the Messiah and participate in this new covenantal community that Jesus’ death and resurrection bring about. To enjoy the blessings of the kingdom is greater than to be the forerunner of the King.[5]

* * * * *

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and forceful people lay hold of it. For all the prophets and the law prophesied and were in force until John appeared; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is pressing into it. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

HOW IS THE KINDOM OF HEAVEN SUFFERING VIOLENCE, AND WHY/HOW DO FORCEFUL PEOPLE TAKE IT?

First, notice the timetable. “From the days of John the Baptist until now.” It’s a very specific block of time. John’s ‘days’ are apparently the time he spent declaring who Jesus was. When he went to prison, that stopped. Also, it’s a little ominous, as if John’s ministry was done (and it was, as he would be executed shortly). Something has been happening in that year or so. Three possibilities, and commentaries are divided on this.

•  First, those opposed to Jesus and His kingdom are doing their best to destroy them both.

• Second, those who were ready for the Messiah and his Kingdom responded vigorously to the announcement and strained every spiritual muscle to enter.[6] Luke 16:16 phrases it,“every one is pressing into it.” It’s as if the Kingdom is being stormed (in a good way). If that’s the case, Jesus may be referring to people who actively followed Jesus rather than waiting for the kingdom to come their way.[7] According to Chrysostom (400s), this is about those who have such earnest desire for Christ that they let nothing stand between themselves and faith in Him.[8]

• Third, it may refer to the Kingdom breaking into the world “violently,” that is, with great power and force. It’s an image from sheep spilling out into the fields when they are released from their pens in the morning.[9]

 I could see making a case for all three; I most favor the idea that “everyone is pressing into it,” which is Luke’s paraphrase. I think the next thing Jesus says, in which he challenges “this generation’s” lack of response to the message of the Kingdom, suggests it’s not about persecution as much as the lack of response to the Kingdom (through Jesus) breaking into the world.

* * * * *

 Now all the people who heard this, even the tax collectors, acknowledged God’s way was just and righteous, because they had been baptized with John’s baptism [of repentance]. However, the Pharisees and the experts in religious law rejected God’s counsel against themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.[10]

[Jesus continued,] “To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.’

“For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated/justified by all her children, [shown to be right] by her deeds.”

WHAT’S WITH THE FLUTING AND WAILING?

The basic point is this: they refused to properly mourn when called to repentance, and they refused to properly celebrate when they see the Kingdom of God being offered to all. [11] 

• It was easier to demonize John than to take seriously his message that they were sinners who had broken God’s law and were in need of repentance. #causeformourning

• It was easier to villainize Jesus than to take seriously his message that God values and loves everyone, and that God offers His Kingdom to the outcasts and the law-breakers. #causefordancing

The Pharisees didn’t like how John was bringing others to God, and they didn’t like how Jesus was living out the values of the Kingdom of God.

• They weren’t happy with the somberness of the kingdom, represented by a self-disciplined lifestyle and rhythms of repentance, which suggested they were failing to keep the Law.

• They didn’t like the joyous grace of the kingdom, represented by Jesus’s fellowship with the marquee sinners of their time, in which he modeled grace to the lawless.

WISDOM IS JUSTIFIED BY HER CHILDREN

This is another way of saying, “By their fruit you will know them.” Those who have been given true, life-changing spiritual insight validate it by their actions—their “children.”[12]Wisdom (God’s way, Luke 7:29-30) is vindicated (shown to be right) by the followers of John and Jesus who embraced God’s way. Jesus is challenging their alleged wisdom by asking what kind of children/disciples/people their wisdom produced.

In Matthew 23, Jesus will tell the Pharisees they are making disciples of hell rather than heaven. In his speech to them, he points out what characterizes them and their deeds - the ‘children,’ as it were, of their way:

2 The Pharisees and the scribes occupy the seat of Moses. 3 So you should do the things they tell you to do—but don’t do the things they do. 4 They heap heavy burdens upon their neighbors’ backs, and they prove unwilling to do anything to help shoulder the load. 

 5 They are interested, above all, in presentation: they wrap their heads and arms in the accoutrements of prayer, they cloak themselves with flowing tasseled prayer garments, 6 they covet the seats of honor at fine banquets and in the synagogue, 7 and they love it when people recognize them in the marketplace, call them “Teacher,” and beam at them... 

13 Woe to you, you teachers of the law and Pharisees. There is such a gulf between what you say and what you do. You will stand before a crowd and lock the door of the kingdom of heaven right in front of everyone; you won’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from doing so. 

14 Woe to you, you teachers of the law and Pharisees. What you say is not what you do. You steal the homes from under the widows while you pretend to pray for them. You will suffer great condemnation for this. 

15 Woe to you Pharisees, woe to you who teach the law, hypocrites! You traverse hills and mountains and seas to make one convert, and then when he does convert, you make him much more a son of hell than you are. 

16 Woe to you who are blind but deign to lead others. You say, “Swearing by the temple means nothing, but he who swears by the gold in the temple is bound by his oath.” 17 Are you fools? You must be blind! For which is greater: the gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, “Swearing by the altar means nothing, but he who swears by the sacrifice on the altar is bound by his oath…”

23 So woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You tithe from your luxuries and your spices, giving away a tenth of your mint, your dill, and your cumin. But you have ignored the essentials of the law: justice, mercy, faithfulness. It is practice of the latter that makes sense of the former. 24 You hypocritical, blind leaders. You spoon a fly from your soup and swallow a camel. 

25 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You remove fine layers of film and dust from the outside of a cup or bowl, but you leave the inside full of greed and covetousness and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee—can’t you see that if you clean the inside of the cup, the outside will be clean too? 

27 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like a grave that has been whitewashed. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you are full of moldering bones and decaying rot. 28 You appear, at first blush, to be righteous, selfless, and pure; but on the inside you are polluted, sunk in hypocrisy and confusion and lawlessness.

29 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build monuments to your dead, you mouth pieties over the bodies of prophets, you decorate the graves of your righteous ancestors. 30 And you say, “If we had lived when our forefathers lived, we would have known better—we would not have joined them when they rose up against the prophets.”  

31 In doing this, you make plain that you descended from those who murdered our prophets. 32 So why don’t you, [the children], finish what your forefathers started? 33 

Yikes. These are some sketchy children.

•  Mean (won’t help other bear their burdens)

• Ignored the heart of the law (justice, mercy, faithfulness)

• Proud

• Hypocritical

• Blind/Confused (not as smart as they thought)

• Greedy/self-indulgent

• Whatever the opposite of love is (Indifference? Hate? Callousness?)

Jesus told them he would send them prophets and teachers to call them to repentance. John the Baptist once called them a brood of vipers who needed to flee from the wrath to come and called them to repent (Matthew 3:7-8). They were having none of it. And… they were known by their spiritual children.

Meanwhile, the writer of Proverbs had already given an image of what Wisdom (and her children) looked like. The book of Proverbs spends a lot time discussing Wisdom and Folly, both personified as women, specifically in chapters 1-9.[13] In Proverbs 31, we see Wisdom personified in its fullness as a woman whose flourishing brings about the flourishing of those around her. Most of her description is found earlier in the book when describing Lady Wisdom. She’s what some have called “Lady Wisdom In Street Clothes.”[14]

Though I grew up in a church tradition that read this as a passage about “the ideal woman,” I don’t believe this is meant to be read that way. See all my footnotes for more information. This is a reminder for all of us to be the groom in this parable, making a covenant to cleave to Wisdom, the wife (and mother) in this poetic image.[15]

[Side note: I suspect a lot of the material imagery functioned as ‘hyperlinks’ to the first audience, as in they often symbolized something more than just the physical thing itself. For example, you will see that she makes different garments out of flax and wool. She knew the Law: “You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together." —Deuteronomy 22:11]

Who can find a truly excellent woman of valor and strength? One who is superior in all that she is and all that she does? Her worth far exceeds that of rubies and expensive jewelry. She inspires trust, and her husband’s heart is safe with her, and because of her, he has every good thing.

Every day of her life she does what is best for him, never anything harmful or hurtful. Delight attends her work and guides her fingers as she selects the finest wool and flax for spinning. She moves through the market like merchant ships that dock here and there in distant ports, finally arriving home with food she’s carried from afar.

She rises from bed early, in the still of night, carefully preparing food for her family and providing a portion to her servants. She has a plan. She considers some land and buys it; then with her earnings, she plants a vineyard.

She wraps herself in strength, carries herself with confidence, and works hard, strengthening her arms for the task at hand. She tastes success and knows it is good, and under lamplight she works deep into the night. 

Her hands skillfully place the unspun flax and wool on the distaff, and her fingers twist the spindle until thread forms. She reaches out to the poor and extends mercy to those in need. She is not worried about the cold or snow for her family, for she has clothed them all in warm, crimson coats.

She makes her own bed linens and clothes herself in purple and fine cloth. Everyone recognizes her husband in the public square, and no one fails to respect him as he takes his place of leadership in the community.

She makes linen garments and sells them in the market, and she supplies belts for tradesmen to carry across the sea. Clothed in strength and dignity, with nothing to fear, she smiles when she thinks about the future.

She conducts her conversations with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is ever her concern. She directs the activities of her household, and never does she indulge in laziness. Her children rise up and bless her. Her husband, too, joins in the praise, saying: “There are some—indeed many—women who do well in every way, but of all of them only you are truly excellent.”

Charm can be deceptive and physical beauty will not last (#LadyFolly), but a woman who reveres the Eternal(#LadyWisdom) should be praised above all others. Celebrate all she has achieved. Let all her accomplishments publicly praise her. (#justifiedbyherchildren)

Wisdom is grounded in reverence for God. And in that reverence, we are guided into a life righteousness and goodness. When we covenant with God and thus his wisdom, we flourish as God intended, which is to say for our good, the good of those around us, and for God’s glory.

And our hope is this: that the unfindable wisdom of God (Proverbs 31:10) has been found. In Proverbs, Lady Wisdom is not one the simple seeks. Instead, she seeks the simple, the fool. She shows up at the markets (Prov. 1:20), at the crossroads (Prov. 8:2). She enters the world of man and summons mankind to walk in her ways.

And it is here that this woman first drives us to Christ. Lady Wisdom is not Jesus. But her personified quality drives us to what Jesus Himself incarnates. For Christ “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24) has “become to us wisdom from God” (1 Cor. 1:30). He is hope incarnate, He is life incarnate, He is truth incarnate – and He is wisdom incarnate...

And now as believers, we drop all our capacity to ever be Lady Wisdom – to ever be infinite or perfect this side of glory. For wisdom has come. Wisdom has come bringing the way of life, the pathway of hope for sinners and fools, like you and me.[16]

__________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] John 3:5

[2] “Those who are in the kingdom, who are brought nearer to God and have clearer spiritual knowledge of God, have higher privileges than the greatest of those who lived before the time of Christ.” (Cambridge Bible For Schools And Colleges)

[3] Matthew 20:16

[4] Matthew 20:26-28

[5] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[6] HT Believer’s Bible Commentary

[7] HT IVP New Testament Commentary

[8] Orthodox Study Bible

[9] Orthodox Study Bible

[10] “The counsel of God toward them was the solemn admonition by John to "repent" and be baptized, and be prepared to receive the Messiah. This was the command or revealed will of God in relation to them. When it is said that they "rejected" the counsel of God, it does not mean that they could frustrate his purposes, but merely that they violated his commands.” (Barne’s Notes On the Bible)

[11] “John wore camel-hair clothes and ate locusts and honey (Mark 1:6). As a lifelong Nazirite, he didn't drink alcohol (Luke 1:15). The Pharisees and scribes rejected him for his extreme asceticism (Luke 7:33). Jesus eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:27–32). The Pharisees and scribes reject Him for being a glutton and a drunkard (Luke 7:34). They reject the message that they're sinners, and instead look for faults in the messengers who tell them the truth.” https://www.bibleref.com/Luke/7/Luke-7-30.html

[12] Tony Evans Study Bible

[13]Wisdom claims an origin with Yahweh before creation (Proverbs 8:22-31). She also offers the tree of life (Prov. 3:13-18).

[14] https://www.theologyofwork.org/key-topics/women-and-work-in-the-old-testament/lady-wisdom-in-street-clothes-proverbs-31

[15] An approach similar to mine is to see the “Proverbs 31 woman as a human model of personified Wisdom…that canonized her as a role model for all Israel for all time.” See “The Proverbs 31 ‘Woman of Strength.’” https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/proverbs-31-woman-strength/

[16] “Proverbs 31, the Incarnation, and Women (and Men) of God.” https://gentlereformation.com/2020/12/22/the-proverbs-31-woman-the-incarnation-and-freedom-for-women-of-god/

Harmony #27: Miracles and Messiahs (Luke 5: 12-16; 7:1-135; Matthew 8:1-13; 11:2-19 Mark 1:40-45)

After Jesus had finished teaching all this to the people and came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him, and he entered Capernaum. 

 A centurion there had a slave who was highly regarded, but who was sick and at the point of death, lying at home paralyzed, in terrible anguish. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. 

When they came to Jesus, they urged him earnestly, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, because he loves our [Jewish] nation, and even built our synagogue.” Jesus said to them, “I will come and heal him.” 

So Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not presume to come to you. 

 Instead, say the word, and my servant must be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 

When Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel! I tell you, many will come from the east and west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

Then Jesus said, “Go; just as he has believed, it will be done for him.” And the servant was healed at that hour. So when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave well.
 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came to him who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell to his knees and bowed down with his face to the ground begging him for help, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!”  

The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean. Immediately Jesus sent the man away with a very strong warning. He told him, “See that you do not say anything to anyone, but go, show yourself to a priest, and bring the offering that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 

But as the man went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely. Such large crowds were gathering together to hear Jesus and to be healed of their illnesses, that he was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still they kept coming to him from everywhere. Yet Jesus himself frequently withdrew to the wilderness and prayed.
 Soon afterward Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the town gate, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother (who was a widow), and a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 

Then Jesus came up and touched the bier, and those who carried it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”So the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Fear seized them all, and they began to glorify God, saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us!” and “God has come to help his people!” This report about Jesus circulated throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

John’s disciples informed him about all these things. When John heard in prison about the deeds Christ had done, he called two of his disciples and sent them to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?’“ 

At that very time Jesus cured many people of diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits, and granted sight to many who were blind. So he answered them, “Go tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news proclaimed to them. Blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

I want to talk today about miracles and Messiahs. First, the miracles.

Last week we talked about there being no templates for how revival must look other than long-term fruit. Here we see a similar point with miracles. There is not template for how to get them.

Did they have to ask for a miracle?

·      A Gentile Roman army officer did on behalf of a servant

·      A Jewish leper did on his own behalf

·      Nobody did

What kind of person got healed?

·      A respected servant (“He is worthy to have you do this.”)

·      An unclean leper

·      A loved son

The person healed:

·      Didn’t ask (someone asked on his behalf)

·      Asked

·      Didn’t ask (nobody asked)

The amount of faith/trust:

·      Really high – from a Roman soldier who did not follow Yahweh

·      High – at least in Jesus as a healer (“Lord” was a term of respect)

·      Doesn’t say, since the widow didn’t know it was going to happen

When you read the accounts in a row, it’s a good reminder that we have to be careful creating templates for when and how God might or must do miraculous things. The common denominator is Jesus. If we get too caught up in “How can I get my miracle?” we take our eyes off of Jesus and focus our eyes on ourselves.

We will continue to see Jesus defy templates as his life unfolds, so don’t be surprised if you hear about this again J Meanwhile, I want to focus on how Jesus’ miracles established his identity.

We see at the end of that section what I think is the main point of Jesus’ miracle working: to establish who He is. He is the Messiah. He showed this by doing things in line with prophetic promises. John asked, “Are you the one?” Jesus responded, “Look. This is what the Prophets told you the Messiah would do.” 

·      the blind receive sight (Isaiah 29:18; 35:5)

·      the lame walk(Isaiah 35:6)

·      lepers are cured (Isaiah 53:4)

·      the deaf hear (Isaiah 29:18–19; 35:5)

·      the dead are raised (Isaiah 26:18–19)

·      the good news is preached to the poor (Isaiah 61:1)

* * * * *

I’ve long wondered if John’s question wasn’t coming from a place of doubt. John himself proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, “[1]but… now he’s in prison. He stood up to Herod, and it didn’t go well. He’s like, “But are you sure you are the Messiah?” Why would John be doubting now? What changed?

I wonder if it has something to do about the expectation for what the Messiah would be like. So, let’s do some history. 

Every king of Israel was known as “anointed one” (a prophet or high priest anointed him); the Hebrew term was “messiah.”  When the line of kings in both Israel and Judah ended with the exile to Babylon, the title “anointed one” gradually began to mean a future king who would save Israel. The Jews believed that

“The covenant will be renewed: the Temple will be rebuilt, the Land cleansed, the Torah kept perfectly by a new covenant people with renewed hearts.” (N.T. Wright)

A lot of hope was placed in this “age to come,” or the messianic age. The ‘salvation’ would be a rescue from the national enemies, the restoration of the national symbols, and a state of peace.

The Jews people waited…. and waited… through captivity and bondage and despair. They were longing for God’s Kingdom to come - and they had a pretty good idea of what it ought to look like.

There were three main Messianic movements around the time Jesus was born (it’s more complicated than my overview will allow this morning. These are very general categories).[2] 

First, the Warrior/Politician Messiah.  For those who wanted to fight, the Messiah would free them from Roman oppression; there would be a physical rule on earth where other kingdoms would bow to them. These were the Zealots. Just to give you an idea of how serious they were, about 100 years after Jesus died a man named Simon Bar Kochba amassed a rebel army of 200,000 men. He was crushed by the Romans; tens of thousands were slain. Some Orthodox Jews still consider him the closest to a real Messiah the Jews have seen.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, people spread coats (a sign of a king – see 2 Kings 9:13) and waved palm branches, a symbol used by the Zealots.[3] The Jews likely greeted Jesus with palm branches because they thought He would be physically fighting for God’s people. (Jesus’ disciple Simon was a Zealot).

Second, the Torah or Temple Messiah. Under this Messiah, the temple and the Law would finally be exalted over all the earth. The Sadducees were pretty big on piety and holiness (“separate, set apart”) though they recognized they had to work with the Greek and Roman culture. The Essenes, on the other hand? Well, their community in the desert[4] exemplified their desire to be separate from everybody else – including the Sadducees. They just wanted have the space to recreate the theocracy of old and follow the Law freely, fully and publicly as they waited for the Messiah.[5] That’s how the Kingdom of God on earth would arrive. (John the Baptist may well have been raised in the Essene community).[6]

Third, the People’s Messiah. This messiah would do those other things, but he would also bring in world peace.  He would bring freedom from economic inequality and class oppression. They were most inclined of all the Jewish groups to long for a day when societal justice prevailed and everybody would get along. The Pharisees were the most closely aligned with this idea, but they were all over the map.

Jesus’ three temptations in the wilderness were loosely connected to these three Messianic hopes (Matthew 4:1-11):

·      to rule the world (Warrior Messiah)

·      to restore the glory of the temple (Torah/Temple messiah)

·      to turn stones into bread (People’s Messiah)

But then Jesus arrived…and he caused significant confusion. He didn’t fit into these Messianic boxes like the people wanted him to. I’ll bet more people than John were wondering, “Are you the one, or should we be looking for someone else?”

The Jews, like John the Baptizer, were in danger of missing the Messiah because Jesus wasn't what they wanted or expected him to be.

Human nature being what it is (and the world being what it is), I think we experience the same dilemma. We need to be careful that when we talk about what we assume Jesus must be like and therefore must do to bring about His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.

We can begin to long for a Warrior Messiah that will lead His people into physically ruling the world.

If we aren't careful, we will begin to believe that political power and societal clout will bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. That means our human enemies must be conquered. It’s usvs them rather than us for them. When that happens, we start to follow politicians, celebrities and influencers inside and outside the church with almost Messianic expectations, as if they are the solution for the problems of the world.  

To be sure, having followers of Jesus in the halls of power and influence isn’t a bad thing. It’s good to have salt and light everywhere.  It’s just that we can’t afford to get confused about who or what is going to save us.

If we aren’t careful, we can begin to justify any means to achieve our ends. We trade peace for violence; gentleness for meanness; tenderness for callousness, truth for deception in the pursuit of establishing a righteous society, forgetting that it’s through the means that we become the kind of people we will be in the end. We will long for a God of Judgment who gives the world what’s coming to it, and we will just buckle up and watch as all the pagans get theirs.

When you hear people talk about Christians who are angry and hateful, using any means to achieve their ends, they are talking about modern Zealots, those who think, like the disciples did in Samaria, that the Messiah can’t wait to burn the world, and they can’t wait to burn it with Him.[7]

Is Jesus the kind of Messiah that fights and wants us to fight? Well, yes, but on a spiritual battlefield. He resisted the devil; he challenged corruption in the temple and the religious leaders who were making “disciples of hell.” He took on death, Hell and the grave on our behalf - and won. He will return to reclaim the world and redeem it from the ravages of sin.  Is Jesus a Warrior? You bet. Just not like the Zealots expected him to be. Are we in a battle? Yes, but it’s a spiritual one. “We wrestle not with flesh and blood.” Our target is spiritual wickedness.[8]

We can begin to long for a Temple messiah, a savior made of Bible knowledge, obedience to God, pious living, and community flourishing.[9] I want to state this clearly: those are good things, not bad things.

But if we aren't careful, we will locate the Temple Messiah only within what becomes defensive and exclusionary walls around the church. The Essenes weren’t exactly known for drawing in converts to Judaism. The focus was almost entirely on themselves and the spiritual and relational health community. In a similar way, we can overflow with Biblical knowledge that never makes its way to those far from Christ; we can put a ton of energy into building a strong church community that never has an impact outside of ourselves.

The Temple Messiah crowd would never say its us vs. them, but if we aren’t careful, we lose sight of the fact that the Messiah has come for them so they too can be part of us, the church, the family of God.

If our Messiah is a Temple Messiah, we’re not angry, hateful or fearful.  We don’t want to see the world burn and we certainly don’t want to help do it. But we end up looking like we just don’t care because we aren’t engaging the world with truth and love.

Does Jesus value personal holiness and the healthy community of His people? Absolutely. All the letters in the New Testament address both of these things. If the church is the “body” of Christ, then the holiness of the family of God, personal and corporate, matters. #represent  It’s just not meant just for us. Salt does no good just sitting in one big heap. Light does no good against the darkness if it’s hidden. The church is never just about the church in the same way that Jesus was never there just for “His people.” He made it abundantly clear that the church is to permeate the world. The Essenes weren’t wrong about what was important, they just weren’t right about what they were supposed to do with it.

We can long for specifically a People’s Messiah, one who will eradicate poverty and injustice, believing that will bringing the world the peace, hope and joy we are lacking. The People’s Messiah is a social justice warrior in the most righteous way, convinced that God’s Kingdom will come to earth in biblical social structures of equality, fairness, and justice. 

Surely the Kingdom of God has practical impact in the world when it is lived out by God’s people, and I would hope justice characterizes the movement. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.

But if we aren’t careful, we can spend all of our energy fixing symptoms while forgetting that the problem causing all these symptoms hasn’t been addressed. Here’s one example. There’s an international organization that goes around the world and buys people out of slavery. It’s an awesome goal. The only problem is that a lot of places are asking them to stop because they are making it worse. Why? Because now there is easy money to be made. The rate of human trafficking is growing in those areas. Free folks are lining up and pretending they are slaves so they can get a quick $50.

Does Jesus care about oppression, poverty, injustice and want His people to care too?Absolutely. Read the Law in Exodus – Deuteronomy, a law which Jesus himself says can be summarized as loving God and loving others. Read Jesus’ teaching about, “When you have done it to the least, you have done it to me.”[10]  God has always showed His people how to enter into those sin-scarred spaces in the world and bring hope and healing. But that is not the Kingdom in its fullness. It helps – that’s a good thing – but cycles will continue without the transformation Jesus brings. 

* * * * *

God care about all the ways in which the world is broken, and we should too. I’m not suggesting that you don’t get involved in social issues, or that you don’t pursue God through knowledge and experience, that you don’t seek to build righteous community, or that you don’t get involved in politics or entertainment or social media. By all means, be involved in the ways God calls you. There are good and just ways to offset the impact of sinfulness in a fallen world and point toward the ultimate salvation found in Christ.

But good things can become idols, false Messiahs. We begin to mold Jesus in our image and assume His Kingdom only flourishes in our framework. I think this is why John the Baptist was struggling. Jesus (and the way Jesus inaugurated his Kingdom) didn’t fit cleanly with how he thought the Messiah would show up in the world.

And if we get locked into just one narrow focus, it’s easy to judge those who don’t have the same expectation we do.

·      The Zealots think the Essenes are weak and the Pharisees are woke.

·      The Essenes think the Zealots are crazy and the Pharisees are wasting their time.

·      The Pharisees think the Zealots are dangerous and the Essenes are irrelevant.

 I have to imagine the disciples had a grand old time sorting that out between themselves. 

So, how to put a bow on this? If we get Jesus wrong, we will misunderstand His character, mistake his Kingdom, and misjudge His people. What’s the solution? Well, it starts with seeing Jesus clearly. I hope this series helps us, but don’t rely on me.[11]

·      Meditate on Scripture. The Bible is the story of God’s work in, with, and through humanity. Study its entirety. One chapter or even one book doesn’t give a well-rounded picture any more than one event from Jesus’ life would give you a healthy view of Jesus.

·      Study Jesus. Read far and wide within the historical and global church. Everywhere Christians live, it can be easy to simply study Jesus through one cultural or community lenses. It’s worth pursuing how “every tribe, nation and tongue” studies Scripture and experiences life in the Kingdom.

·      Pray for wisdom and clarity.  Surrender your perspective at the foot of the Cross. Ask for correction and insight that brings Jesus into an ever more clear focus.

·      Do life together in diverse community.  Within your circle of friends, learn to appreciate (with discernment) how the Holy Spirit is working to illuminate Scripture and reveal the person and work of Jesus.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

[1] John 1:29

[2] I think I got these three categories from N.T. Wright.

[3] Solomon dedicated the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles using palm branches; when Judas Maccabeas, one of the founders of the Zealots, briefly freed Jerusalem from Roman rule and purified the Temple in 165 BC., the Jews celebrated with palm branches.

[4] They lived in towns too. I’m citing the desert community as a symbol.

[5] They were founded by a Teacher of Righteousness a Messiah figure “predating Jesus by roughly 100 years. This figure…had been a priest and confidant to the king. However, he became dissatisfied with the religious sects in Jerusalem and, in reaction, founded a "crisis cult". While amassing a following, the Teacher (and his followers) claimed he was the fulfillment of various Biblical prophecies, with an emphasis on those found in Isaiah. The Teacher was eventually killed by the religious leadership in Jerusalem, and his followers hailed him as messianic figure who had been exalted to the presence of God's throne. They then anticipated that the Teacher would return to judge the wicked and lead the righteous into a golden age.” Wikipedia, “Teacher Of Righteousness”

[6] https://sjvlaydivision.org/john-the-baptist-essenes/

[7] Luke 9:52-55

[8] Ephesians 6:12

[9] The Essenes were pretty radical in this: they held their goods and property in common even more communally than the early church in Acts.

[10] Matthew 25:40-45

[11] Some books to start with: The Jesus I Never Knew, by Phillip Yancey. The Prodigal God, Jesus The King, Encounters With Jesus, all by Tim Keller. Sitting At The Feet Of Rabbi Jesus, Walking In The Dust Of Rabbi Jesus, and Reading The Bible With Rabbi Jesus, all by Lois Tverberg. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, by Kenneth Bailey. Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord. By Rebecca McLaughlin. Reading While Black, by Esau McCauley.  Some books I have not read but that have been recommended: The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views (Spectrum Multiview Book Series) from IVP press. Jesus Without Borders, by Gene L. Green.  The Crucifixion, by Fleming Rutledge.