The Next 50 Years

Have you ever seen those retro photographs where a current snapshot is put in front of an older one? They are a cool way of seeing the connectedness of the past while showing how much things change. Sometimes, we feel nostalgia for what’s been lost. Other times, we feel glad for what’s been gained.

“Remember” is used 167 times in the Bible (at least in the NIV). We see it both in the Old Testament and the New. Usually, it has to do with remembering events in order to remember that God was at work in the midst of those events.

“Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.  Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  

 He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock.  He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.  

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”  But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.”  Deuteronomy 8:11-18

 In Deuteronomy 32, God warns Moses that the Israelites will break their covenant with him. He tells Moses to write down a song of God’s presence (with all the interaction, faithfulness, and blessings and cursing of the covenant) and teach it to all the people so it will be a witness. One portion of the songs says:

“Remember the days of long ago; think about the generations past. Ask your father, and he will inform you. Inquire of your elders, and they will tell you.” Deuteronomy 32:7 

Here’s a daunting verse: 

“Remember and never forget how angry you made the LORD your God out in the wilderness.” Deuteronomy 9:7 

This is not a verse we see on coffee mugs or taped on bathroom mirrors. That’s a reference to the whole Golden Calf Episode, though Moses promptly lists four more places where they really made God angry because of their disobedience (“You also made the Lord angry at Taberah, at Massah and at Kibroth Hattaavah…Kadesh Barnea.” 22-23). This was hardly a shining moment in Israelite history, but there it was. Nobody was allowed to dodge it.

When Jesus and disciples participated in what we call the Last Supper, Jesus said, “Keep doing this to remember me” (Luke 22:19).  

There are times we read about forgetting the former things, but this idea is often misunderstood. Here are the two verses I hear quoted the most:

·       “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:18-19

·       “…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

The writers were not urging people to develop amnesia. In both cases, it meant, “Don’t be distracted or become complacent because of previous success and blessing.” Isaiah was referring to good things, not bad ones (and actually tells them several verses later to “review the past for me”). Philippians is referring to good things in Paul’s life that could lead to self-righteousness, pride in personal accomplishments, and complacency.

Remembering the past is important for at least two reasons: our past clearly forms or informs who we are today, and our past, when carefully studied, will reveal that God was present and faithful (and He is worth remembering).

I’ve been reflecting on CLG’s 50 years. I have only been a part of 27 years of it, but I’ve been a part of many conversations about church history from those of you who lived it. Like all things, there are good and bad things that have made us who we are today.

·      Founded in the heart of the charismatic movement, CLG drew people who longed for a faith that felt alive, exciting and transformative. There was a freshness, a vibrancy, a sense of anticipation that perhaps they would tangibly see God at work through his Holy Spirit. For many whose faith felt dry and whose God felt distant, this was a game-changer. Who knew the Kingdom could be this alive? While our belief about the ongoing reality of the gifts of the Holy Spirit has not changed, the way in which these gifts are integrated into the corporate life of the church has. And we’ve seen spiritual fruit and growth then and now, because in then end, the Holy Spirit continuously moves in the children of God  

·      There was a time CLG was the church for holiday programs. We knew how to do a concert with all the bells and whistles, and I mean that in a good way. We were past the peak when Sheila and I moved here, but I got to play in the mall, and on a stage in the Open Space on Sunday morning during Cherry Festival, and here with not just a stage packed with people but a full orchestra pit as well. It was big, and beautiful, and loud, and God was glorified, and people worshipped through the gift of music. That has changed over time, because we have changed. New wine has found new wineskin.  And we learned that, bigger or smaller, the Lord inhabits the praise of His people.

·      There was a season where we did a lot of out-of-country missions: Mexico, Ukraine, Haiti, Nagaland, Jamaica. We helped to found churches, many of which are still going today. Some of you in here have been on a lot of mission trips and have supported missionaries from 30 years ago to this day. CLG’s legacy will ripple through generations and into eternity. For that matter, this church ran an elementary school for a long time as a ministry to the church families but also in the community. If you haven’t already, check out the pictures in the hallway. When the economy and our budget changed, we moved our focus more local: Touching Hearts, Thomas Judd, Single MOMM, Goodwill Inn, letting church plants begin in our building (4 so far), as well as others. There is something beautiful about being a part of the Kingdom in other countries and experiencing the global nature of the church. There is something beautiful about living out the Kingdom in our own communities, being the hands and feet of Jesus where we live. If God blesses us with another 50 years, I’m sure we will continue to see the ebb and flow of near and far.

·      We’ve had people attend here who have attended and never left, and we have had those for whom CLG was where God placed them for only a chapter or a couple chapters in their life.

·      We’ve had wonderful church business meetings and some not so wonderful.

·      We’ve had bulging bank accounts and empty ones.

·      We’ve had multiple services and one service, longer services and shorter services, baptisms, weddings, funerals, baby dedications, attempts at membership, revivals, concerts, chili cook offs, youth group overniters, banquets, garage sales, fundraisers, retreats, potlucks, fires…

·      And we’ve always been human. Image bearers who are works in progress, children of the Heavenly Father who are sometimes child-like and sometimes childish, placed  in a church community that is good, and difficult, and life-giving but sometimes draining, and it’s all part of God’s plan for our flourishing in His kingdom.

And what is the thread that runs through all of this? The constant, faithful presence of God.

·      The God who gives good gifts to His children, and He has given many of those gifts to and through this church over the years.

·      The God who takes the ashes of our firebombed lives and replaces them with beauty; we have seen many become spiritually beautiful within this community over the years.

·      The God whose strength is perfected in our weakness.

·      The God who continually transforms his children into the image of Jesus, working maturity and growth in us for our good and the good of those around us, to the glory of God. That is a long, hard, and beautiful process.

·      The God who takes what Satan intends for ill and turns it to His good purposes, over and over again.

·      The God who has sustains us and loved us just as we are and too much to leave us that way. He often uses His people to as his voice in that process. That balance of when to listen and when to speak, when to just be present and when to intervene, when to absorb and when to confront. It’s just messy and unpredictable, and we pray for Holy Spirit to guide us, and pray that God’s love covers a multitude of not just sins, but an abundance of stupidity.

·      The God who will never leave us or forsake us.

On this God, our hope rests.

On a personal level, CLG has played such a vital role in the life of my family. Sheila and I are grateful beyond words for what we found here – well, not everything we found here in our 27 years, - but this is the cool thing: God used this church, through the people in this church, to minister to us in profound ways. And for that we are profoundly grateful.

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As pastor, I follow in the footsteps of pastors who loved God, loved His word, and shepherded this church in their own unique ways based on their skills and passions. Most recently it was Ted, who has been so vital in teaching and modeling for me what service in this role looks like.

And for those who are here, the further back your attendance goes, the more memories you have of things that you feel defined CLG over the years. If you’ve been here for a while, you have navigated a lot of changes, some that have felt good and some that have been hard. However,  there’s probably something that sticks in your mind about your experience with these first 50 years. That leads me here:

50 years from now, what do I hope people remember about CLG from  2023 - 2073?

I’ve had lots of things banging around in my head on this one, but I kept coming back to the idea that it’s not as much about what we will do as who we will be.  

So, what kind of people does God intend for us to be?  As I was thinking about that this week, I kept coming back to 1 Corinthians 13.  Paul concludes the chapter by saying,

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

So, let’s chart a course built on faith, hope and love.

FAITH

This is a trust in Jesus that changes our life. This starts with believing the truth about who Jesus is as seen in the biblical ‘creeds’ about Jesus.

55 AD: “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are
all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” (1
Corinthians 8:6)

·55 AD “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third
day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to
Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five
hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive,
though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-7)

·62 AD “Though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 
And being found in human form he humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has
highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” (Philippians 2:6-11)

·67 AD “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of  our
religion: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit,
seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the
world, taken up in glory.” (1 Timothy 3:16)

Faith starts with believing the biblical ‘creeds’ about Jesus, but it’s not just thoughts in our head. It’s reordering our life with the help of the Holy Spirit so that who we are demonstrates the life-changing reality of who Jesus is.  We are not children of empire; we are children of God. Our culture does not get to tell us who we are or how we are to be. The Kingdom does.

The Bible calls us ambassadors: representatives, icons on the world’s computer screen so that when people ‘click’ on us, we reveal that Christ in us is the hope of glory.

FROM THIS FAITH COMES HOPE

·      that sin does not master us

·      that forgiveness and grace are real things

·      that all that is sick in us can be healed

·      that our history is not our destiny

·      that God can bring beauty from the ashes of our lives

·      that we can be made well, and (!) even whole!

·      that there really is a community of people united in Jesus who can both know us and love us

·      that evil will never have the last word

·      that there will be a new heaven and earth

·      that for the children of God, all that is bad will be undone

·      that one day, God will wipe away all tears from our eyes

·      that one day we will see Jesus face to face

HOPEFUL FAITH IS EXPRESSED IN LOVE

How does God plan for who you are in Christ to be expressed? There are a lot of details, but one core value.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.“ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15: 8-12)

We looked at the last verse in 1 Corinthians 13. Here’s famous verses from the  beginning of 1 Corinthians 13 (from multiple translations and word studies).

·      Love patiently endures 

·      Love is gentle and consistently kind

·      Love is not envious when others are blessed

·      Love does not strut or boast; it is not proudly inflated by its own importance.

·      Love is not unshapely (unseemly or improper); it takes on a form that is compelling and attractive

·      Love does not dishonor others with shame or disrespect

·      Love does not selfishly seek its own honor or attempt to “get what’s mine”

·      Love does not fly off the handle with anger or quickly take offense

·      Love does not keep a punch list of wrongs it has endured

·      Love does not delight in unrighteousness or injustice

·      Love does not cheer when others are harmed (doesn't revel when others grovel)

·      Love celebrates honesty, truth and righteousness. 

·      Love always gives a safe place of shelter, bearing or covering[1] the baggage of others

·      Love entrusts people to God (“always trusts/believes all things”)

·      Love remains hopeful and faithful during difficult times[2]  

·      Love bears incredible loads without breaking

·      Love never stops loving well.

This, I hope, is what someone 50 years from now says about CLG: “See how they loved God and others.”

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[1] but not enabling

[2] even if that happens from a distance

Harmony #41: Clean and Unclean (Mark 7:14-23; Matthew 15:10-20)

Last week, we read how Jesus called out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. They were offended at the disciples’ ceremonial uncleanliness because they didn’t wash their hands before they ate; meanwhile, they dishonored their parents by exploiting loopholes in their traditions.

The first thing Jesus did was to address their hypocrisy. Now he returns to the question of what it means to be clean or unclean.

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. There is nothing outside of a person that can defile him by going into his mouth. Rather, it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles him.”

Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, the disciples came to him and said, “Do you know that when the Pharisees heard this saying they were offended?”

And he replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted.  Leave them! They are blind guides. Someone who is blind cannot lead another who is blind, can he? Won’t they both fall into a pit?”

Peter said to Jesus, “Explain this parable to us.” Jesus said, “Even after all this, are you still so foolish? Don’t you understand that whatever goes into a person’s mouth from outside cannot defile him? For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.”[1] (This means all foods are clean.)

“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder,  adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, false testimony, slander, pride, and folly. These are the things that defile a person; it is not eating with unwashed hands that defiles a person.”

* * * * *

I have two points today. The first has to do with evangelism.

“Jesus’ replacement of ritual purity with purity of the heart prepares the way for his ministry in impure Gentile regions. In the book of Mark, this is the last story before Jesus begins to reach the Gentiles. He is going to be in impure places with impure people… he is not going to be made impure by being in ceremonially unclean places.”[2]

I love this aspect. Jesus was breaking down barriers of judgment and disdain for the “other.”

Before, to be ritually pure, there was no way a Jewish person could have spent any kind of meaningful time with a Gentile. There were just too many ways that one could become impure by touching so many things, or eating particular food, or not washing properly. Not only was it a huge barrier to meaningful connection, it must have surely sent a message about the status of the other person as a human being. “I can’t be around you. You’re gross.” There’s no way to soften that blow.

But Jesus, and then the writers of the New Testament, made it clear that the “us vs. them” mentality needed to stop. The original plan was for the children of Abraham to bless the entire world.  They were pretty good at letting immigrants and foreigners into Israel (they didn’t have to join Judaism as a faith, but they had to leave their idols and obey the civil laws and cleanliness laws). But… they were not good at all at going into all the world and telling the good news of Yahweh. Over time, the traditions that arose made it almost impossible.

So, that needed to change. Here’s Paul.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, [Wolverines or Spartans, locals or fudgies, natural born citizen or immigrant, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, no Baptist or Reformed or Pentecostal,] for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth… were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside… the [ceremonial] law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  

17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.   21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22)

 I love how Jesus and Paul are knocking down snobbery or superiority. There will be no “turning up our nose” when we go into all the world and preach the gospel. What we will see instead is that every person is a potential member of this household, a potential part of the church that rises to become a dwelling whose cornerstone is Jesus and in which God lives by his spirit.  That is a message of hope for those without hope in the world.

* * * * *

The second point is a basic point of correction for Jesus’ listeners: what does not enter the heart cannot make a person unclean. Food does not enter the heart. It might make you unhealthy, and there are good reasons to consider the ethics involving what we eat, but that’s different from being spiritually unclean.[3] Adam Clarke summarizes well:

In the heart… the principles and seeds of all sin are found. And iniquity is always conceived in the heart before it be spoken or acted.

In other words, what comes out of the mouth reveals what’s in our hearts. And if our words are full of sinful corruption, it reveals a heart that is full of sinful corruption as well. 

Why would our hearts be in this state, especially if we claim to be followers of Jesus? I think it’s because our diet is a problem. Remember, Jesus is still riffing on the narrative that started with him doing miracles with physical bread, then telling his audience He is the bread they need to eat, and now coming back to the diet analogy again.

Our spiritual diet matters. A lot. We are constantly feeding our hearts and minds. We can’t go through the day without that happening. And we get to make choices about what we are going to feed it.

An old Cherokee said to his grandson, “A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

That not a quote from the Bible, but it’s a pretty good biblical principle. To go back to last week’s sermon on hypocrisy, this is why his audience needed the bread that was Jesus. Our hearts need the Bread of Life. We need spiritually pure and perfect nourishment for our heart, soul, and mind, so that what comes out from our heart, soul and mind is good.

God’s Word is described often as various kinds of nourishment:

·      milk (1 Peter 2:2)

·      meat (1 Corinthians 3:2)

·      bread (Deuteronomy 8:3; Job 23:12)

·      sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103).

Biblical writers had a lot to say about consuming God and His Word.

“When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, LORD God Almighty” (Jeremiah 15:16)

“Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

“I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:12)

“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work” (John 4:34).

“Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you …” (John 6:27)

I like this summary from Abigail Dodds:

He has prepared food for us. The food he has prepared is himself. He serves us himself through his holy word—the Bible. The feast he’s invited us to is not a potluck. We do not bring a side dish to share, rather the Son of Man came to serve, not be served. We bring nothing but our hunger, our deep need for him. And the Lord says to us, “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps. 34:8)[4]

So how do we feast on Jesus? David Nasser, in his devotional "A Call to Die," states that spiritual eating requires "intention, selection, and effort".[5] I want to build from his material to talk about this a bit more.

Intention: When we don’t eat well or we skip a meal, it can have an impact on how we fell. We might feel nauseous, shaky, bloated, light-headed, maybe depressed, or get ‘hangry’.  It's the body's way of letting us know that we either didn’t choose the right nourishment or didn’t choose enough. For optimal health, you need optimal nutrition.

If I want to eat well, then I must go places where nutritious options exists and avoid places in which junk food abounds. If I am hungry, I can’t go to Billy’s Deep Fried Burgers and Twinkies and think that I will eat well.  Likewise, if I want a spiritually healthy diet, I must go to places or be with people who offer me spiritual healthy options and avoid people and places that offer me junk. Paul wrote,

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

Notice he didn’t limit this to Scripture. While Scripture is the core of our diet, through common grace God has put good things all around us all the time.

It’s impossible for us to live in the world and not ingest things that are anywhere from junky to toxic. But we can choose a lifestyle that immerses us into spiritual food forests where food is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and grounded on a foundation of the truth of God’s Word.

Selection: We have to make conscious choices. If we are not purposeful, we will wander further and further from true nourishment. I’ve noticed that the more fried chicken I eat, the more I want fried chicken. The more I snack on Cheetos, the more all other lesser snacks fade into the background. I didn’t drink pop for a long time; when I had a couple Coke Zeros, they started calling to me with their sweet, bubbly song. And, yeah, I responded.

But that’s the way it’s supposed to work, right? I don’t think it’s a secret that the food industry knows how to create cravings in us for salties and sweets.

If we are not purposeful, we will increasingly ignore healthy but overlooked broccoli because it doesn’t trigger desire like an Onion Blossom does. If you are like me, I select vegetables because I know that they will lead to better health, not because I necessarily want them. But the more we keep them in the rhythm of our diet, the more we begin to desire those instead.

I’ve noticed this with salad. I was driving back from downstate the other week and I stopped at Ponderosa in Clare - FOR THE SALAD BAR. How did this happen? After my heart attack, I started eating salad not because I wanted to but because I had to. Lo and behold, I picked up a hankerin’ for salad. With ranch dressing, obviously.

In the same way, once you begin to "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8) it changes your palate. You develop a spiritual dietary momentum that allows you desire more and more of the healthy while avoiding more and more of the unhealthy.  

One more thing about selection. We need variety. Biologically, if we only eat a small variety of food we will deprive our bodies of necessary fuel. We need a range of carbs, fats and proteins to get everything we need for a healthy body. The same is true with how we study Scripture. We need to read the depth and breadth of the Bible. It tells a unified story.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

In addition, I think it’s important to study widely in church traditions throughout history and across nations and denominations. I have been challenged and enlightened so many times as I have broadened the community input in my study of the Bible.[6]

Effort: Fast food is a microcosm for a reality in the United States: convenience in king. It’s easy (and delightful) to swing by Pizza Hut to get a deep dish thin garlic-coated cheese-filled crust with all the meats.  It takes work, time, and commitment to make a healthy meal at home.

This is just as true in the spiritual sense.  The classic disciplines are the spiritual foundations for health:

·      Worship (not just a lifestyle, but focused times of praise)

·      Studying God's Word (in depth, in community)

·      Prayer (don’t overthink it. Just do it J)

·      Service (setting aside time to practice agape love)

·      Fellowship (honest, transparent life together in Christ)

These are the staples of the spiritually healthy diet. 

These things take effort.  The nourishment is life-giving, but it takes purposeful effort on our behalf.  And since God will equip us for what that to which He calls us, God's spirit will empower this effort (II Timothy 3:16-17).

The Word you read has to "become flesh" in you. It has to become part of you. As it nourishes you, it will change you by changing the way you see yourself and the way you see others.

This, I think, is the path to freedom from hypocrisy. If we really consume the Word of God, it will change us.

 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (James 1:22-25)

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[1] “A variant reading, however, has a… participle that would modify the noun “latrine” immediately preceding it. If this is the original reading, the statement affirms that the food has become clean in the process of elimination. This reading surprisingly fits the rabbinic laws of clean and unclean. According to the Mishnah, excrement is not ritually impure. Rabbi Jose is said to ask: “Is excrement impure? Is it not for purposes of cleanliness?” This startling judgment may be the key to Jesus’ argument. Jesus, with droll humor, may be exposing the illogic of the Pharisee’s arguments. If food defiles a person, as the Pharisees claim, why do they not regard it as unclean when it winds up in the latrine? Defilement must come from some other source than food.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament)

[2] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[3]  “Jesus will keep using the image of food to talk about what feeds our hearts; soon, we will see his warning to avoid the impure “yeast” that defiles the hearts of Herod and the Pharisees.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[4] “What Our Physical Diet Says about Our Spiritual Appetite.” Abigail Dodds

[5] I found this at “The Healthy Spiritual Diet.” http://www.newhopefree.org/viralfaith/2011/06/healthy-spiritual-diet.html

[6] Start with Reading While Black by Esau McCauley for a great example of how this works, or Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes: Patronage, Honor, and Shame in the Biblical World, or Misreading Scripture Through Western Eyes, both by E. Randolph Richards and Richard James. If you use Bible Gateway to study, be sure to check the Orthodox Study Bible or the Africa Bible Commentary for some global variety.

Harmony #40: Hypocrites (Mark 7:1-13; Matthew 15:1-9)

By the time Mark and Matthew wrote their gospels, the new followers of Jesus had already spent some time wrestling with the changes in how they now should relate to God and live righteously in His world.  For the Jews in particular, who were very concerned about being pure in line with the Old Testament’s guidelines, they had questions about things like clean and unclean foods (see Acts 10:9-16; 11:5-10; Romans 14:13) and meat offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8-10) and the necessity of doing the rituals of ceremonial cleanliness.

We will see here two of the gospel writers record how Jesus made it clear that being spiritually pure or clean was not about following the ceremonial laws for physical cleanliness; it was about the status of their hearts.[1]

Now the Pharisees and some of the experts in the law who came from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus. And they saw that some of Jesus’ disciples ate their bread with unclean hands, that is, unwashed.

(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they perform a ritual washing, holding fast to the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They hold fast to many other traditions: the washing of cups, pots, kettles, and dining couches.)

The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with unwashed hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’

Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition. You neatly reject the commandment of God in order to set up your tradition. For God said through Moses, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever insults his father or mother must be put to death.’

But you say that if anyone tells his father or mother, ‘Whatever help you would have received from me is corban’ (that is, a gift for God),  then he does not need to do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like this.”

If something was corban, it was an offering devoted to God. That’s a good thing. However, these Pharisees would declare their money to be corban in order to avoid giving financial help to parents who were in need so that they could give it to the temple instead. This would impress people with their apparently generous support of God’s work, when actually they were cheapskates avoiding family obligations, which in the Jewish community was one of the highest obligations God commanded. You honored your father and mother by taking care of them.

In Jewish tradition, those who forsake their parents deserve the same penalty as blasphemers. Basically, dishonoring one’s parents was like dishonoring God.[2]

In addition, they could keep the money and use it in business until they decided to give the initial amount to the temple.[3] So….greed, hypocrisy, dishonoring of parents, pride. The list goes on.

Keeping traditions are not markers of holiness. We can keep traditions that look righteous to everybody else and be terribly corrupt inside. We can find loopholes in our humanly generated systems of that can allow us to indulge the worst parts of our nature instead of challenge us to grow in Christ-likeness.

If we were in the Orthodox or Catholic family of churches, here’s where I would talk about liturgy and symbolism (like making the sign of the cross or using incense). We are not that kind of a church, so I will leave that message for the preachers in those places. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of traditions I grew up with that were not necessarily bad but were not revealed truth from heaven. Then, I ‘m going to look at CLG’s history before we get personal.

Traditions I Had Growing Up

·      Keeping the Sabbath holy meant we didn’t work at all on Sundays; we were encouraged to do as little as possible, even when it came to recreation.

·      We weren’t supposed to play cards, drink, go to movies, own TVs, listen to music not made by Christians. These were all associated with being worldly.

·      We carried a physical Bible. The kid who won the Sword Drill was impressive.

·      Women wore head coverings (churches split over this issue); men didn't wear ties.

·      We sang acapella hymns (though that changed over time) because instruments were too worldly for worship.

·      Church went like this: opening devotion for everybody, age-specific Sunday school, singing, then sermon. Always. 10:00 to 12:00.

·      The offering was public – we passed the plate.

·      We dressed nicely for a Sunday service.

·      Services three times a week: twice on Sunday and then Wednesday evening.

·      We saved altar calls for week-long revivals, which needed to happen at least once a year, ideally with other churches in a tent.

·      We dressed modestly (boys wore long sweats to play basketball; girls wore long coulots to play sports).

·      We weren’t big into patriotism (we would never have talked about the Revolutionary War on the 4th of July, or talked about Memorial Day or Veterans Day. There were no veterans in my church, as we were pacifist Mennonites.)

·      We celebrated Christmas but did not participate in Halloween festivities even to hold an alternative party. For many, having a tree at Christmas was too secular.

·      We didn’t dance at weddings. We didn’t dance at all. It was too likely to inflame the passions.

There’s nothing in that list that is bad or wrong in and of itself. My only point is that they were traditions, not biblical mandates.

I wasn’t here for half of CLG’s 50 year life, but I know there were traditions embedded here at CLG, and as they have changed over time it’s been hard to see the change of traditions  (the way we are supposed to do things) as just that: the change of traditions.

Changing Traditions At CLG

·      Style and length of musical worship has changed over time and probably will again at some point.

·      The time and place in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit are exercised has changed over time.

·      Bringing a physical, well-worn Bible – reading the screen – bringing a phone to look up the Bible.

·      Dress up - dress down – just be dressed.

·      Altar calls every week – altar calls occasionally

·      Extravagant programs on holidays – much simpler gatherings

·      Changing focus of small groups: discipleship, friendship, Bible study…

·      2 hour services - 1 hour service with classes.

·      We’ve never had Sunday evening services here like I just assumed everybody did growing up.

As far as I can tell, nothing in these lists was inherently less holy or more holy. It was a way of doing things, and when done properly in a way that matched who we were (or are) as a church, it’s great. There is a beautiful range of flexibility in things like this in the Kingdom of God.

It’s when these things became markers of holiness or treated as if they were sacred writ that traditions becomes a trap. Looking good by the markers of church traditions can begin to subtly become the thing by which we gauge our holiness, our spiritual progress, or our standing before God. Looking good must mean we are good. And when that happens, it also becomes a thing by which we judge the spiritual progress or maturity of others.

·      I won Sword Drills more than once because I was fast, not because I loved God’s word.

·      I carried a physical Bible to church for years simply because somebody would call me out or look at me with judgment, not because it was precious to me.

·      I worked for years to say publicly impressive prayers so that people around me would be impressed, because surely spontaneous prayers that roll off my tongue are a sign of deep faith.

·      I’ve had break myself of thinking, “Oh, a great worshiper looks like that person!” when we are singing, especially as I’ve realized that the least involved person may be full of far more godly character than the most expressive one.

It turns out that, like the Pharisees, we can go through all of the currently approved motions of religiosity and have a deeply wicked heart.

Jesus called this hypocrisy. Think of hypocrisy as “the distance between one’s heart and one’s hands.” The Pharisee’s outward appearance of faithful piety was a lie, because it was not accompanied by a life and a heart committed to loving God and loving others. Matthew records another time Jesus criticized the Scribes and Pharisees for the same thing:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!”

You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (23:23-24; 27-28)

There is a famous passage in Isaiah 58 in which the prophet spoke on behalf of God and gave a very specific example:

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’ Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

The prophet Amos didn’t pull any punches either:

There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground…There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth…You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain…

There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts… Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy…

I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.

Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (Amos 5)

Holiness involves integrity: the consistent integration of our lives in the service of Christ, from the little things to the big things.

Jesus’ 2,000 year old warning is timeless. Hypocrisy has plagued the church throughout its history.

John Dickson wrote a book called Bullies and Saints. As you might guess by the title, he addresses both the bullies and saints in church history. It’s a sobering and hopeful book, and I highly recommend it. Close to the beginning, he summarizes where he is going this way:

It is clear that “love of enemies” and “the image of God” drove much of what was unique in the history of Christianity, as even the most begrudging historians and philosophers will acknowledge. The church is at its best, in history and today, when it performs these melody lines contained in its founding documents.

Reminding ourselves of the moral logic of Christ and the New Testament makes the story I am going to tell all the more tragic. The bigotry, selfishness, and violence of the church, whether in the Crusades, Inquisitions, wealth accumulation, or the horrors of child abuse, are not only departures from broad humanitarian principles. They are a betrayal of the specific mandate Christ gave his movement.

His book covers church history in general. I’ll just note just a few things we have seen in our own country’s history as a warning of how easily we can slide into hypocrisy.

·      The Puritans journeyed to America in pursuit of religious liberty — but only liberty for their very particular exercise of faith. They were very harsh to those who disagreed, including fellow Christians.

·      Christians in the antebellum South engaged in passionate worship and showy revival meetings while owning other people and then later denying basic rights to people they wished they still owned.

·      The church has often called out sexual exploitation in the culture - and too often covered it up at within the church.

·      We have stressed the importance of truth, honesty, kindness and godly character but have endorsed and even applauded American leaders of deeply sinful character who lie boldly, cheat freely, and constantly attack and belittle others.

God forbid we be “whitewashed tombs,” appearing externally “righteous” while being internally “full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:25-28). Holiness involves integrity: the consistent integration of our lives in the service of Christ. God forbid that our assemblies are a stench rising to God rather than sweet incense.

And now, for the part where I step on our collective toes.

Signs of Hypocrisy

·      You talk a lot about generosity and how the church should be taking care of the poor, not the government, but you give money to God and his kingdom begrudgingly or not at all.

·      You denounce human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of those trapped in it while using pornography, which is founded on the sexual exploitation of people.

·      You love the Great Commission when we get to go there and do ministry on our terms and our schedule, but get really uncomfortable when they come here and need ministry on their terms.

·      You fast with your belly to honor God but won’t fast with your budget.

·      You call out the coarseness, rudeness and vulgarity of culture while supporting public figures who are course, rude, and vulgar.

·      You say ‘all lives matter’ and then don’t care about or do anything for the lives of people who are in groups you fear or dislike.

·      You talk about how amazing grace is while constantly rendering judgment on those around you.

·      You say you don't worship money but you give a way as little as you think you absolutely have to and order your life around financial security.

·      You loudly denounce the sexualization of society while clicking on those articles with pictures that objectify men and women.

·      You say you love God but don’t love others. All the others. “ Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20) 

·      You sing with gusto Sunday morning and go home and ridicule your spouse and demean you kids.

·      You take communion in memory of a God who has forgiven your offense and refuse to forgive those who have offended you.

·      You denounce the after school clubs run by Satanists but do the work of the Father of Lies by spreading gossip, lies, and slander on social media.

·      You love to quote Scripture that you never apply to your own life.

·      You prepped this sermon thinking, “Thank God I’m not part of the problem. I hope everybody listens this morning!”

·      You are sitting here thinking, “Thank God I’m not part of the problem. I hope everybody else is listening this morning!”

I don’t want to resolve this today. Next week we are going to talk about an antidote to hypocrisy, so think of this as Part 1 of 2. I want us to take a week to pray and seek God about this. Are there areas of our life in which we are honoring God with our lips but our hearts are far from Him? And if so, let’s take a week to repent and mourn, and regather next Sunday to move forward more in tune with the melody line of Christianity.
________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[2] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[3] Thanks for the context, Believer’s Bible Commentary!

Harmony #39: Bread of Life (John 6:22-71; Matthew 14:34-35; Mark 6:53-54)

 After they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and anchored there. As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized Jesus. The next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the lake realized that only one small boat had been there, and that Jesus had not boarded it with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.

Other boats from Tiberias came to shore near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

“When did you get here?” There’s some FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) going on here, but not so much about Jesus as the goodies he apparently hands out.

I feed my chickens snacks that they love. As a result, they follow me around the yard and up onto the deck and hang out with me. It’s adorable. But…I know it’s not because they want to be around me because they like me so much. They like the treats they get in my presence. Now, because they are chickens, I don’t care. If that’s what it takes to get them to hang out with me, cool. I am not bothered by the sincerity of my chickens’ hearts toward me. But if my kids did that, that would feel different. If AJ only invited me down to Grand Rapids because I was going to bring BBQ ribs and leave $50 bucks on the table when I left, that’s not a relationship. That’s a transaction.

Jesus ignores the spoken question and cuts right to the heart of the issue: you’re here because you’re selfish and you simply want me to satisfy your appetites.

Jesus replied, “I tell you the solemn truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted.  Do not work for the food that disappears, but for the food that remains to eternal life—the food which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has put his seal of approval on him.”[1]

So then they said to him, “What must we do to accomplish the deeds God requires/approves?” Jesus replied, “This is the deed God requires—to believe in the one whom he sent.”

 “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” sounds a lot like the question Nicodemus asked: ”What must I do to be saved?” Jesus answered that there is only one work, so to speak – to believe that Jesus had been sent by God, which would mean He is the Messiah, and that has implications for our lives.

The “work” is not something we typically associate with doing as ‘work.’ Biblically speaking, the work is kneeling before Jesus in wholehearted surrender. One of the hardest pieces of advice to accept when you want to so something to fix yourself is  “Don’t do. Just rest.” I’ve become something of an expert on spraining and straining things. One of the worst ones was a calf muscle tear. What could I do? Nothing. No PT. No stretches. I had to rest. It was in the rest that I found healing.

 Jesus didn’t need people who tried to do something to impress him or earn their salvation – he needed people who were ready to rest in him, who were looking to give their lives to him because they believed he was the Messiah, and that His Way was the path to life.  The ‘work’ a surrender, letting go our autonomy and receiving the Holy Spirit. It’s tapping out in a spiritual struggle. “What must I do to be saved?” Give up. Let Jesus not only take the wheel, but own the title to the car that is your life.

So they said to him, “Then what miraculous sign will you perform[2], so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”[3]

Then Jesus told them, “I tell you the solemn truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but my Father is giving you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. ”So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!”[4]

This was an image not unknown to Jesus’ Jewish audience.

 "Many affirm, says Rab. Mayemon, that the hope of Israel is this: That the Messiah shall come and raise the dead; and they shall be gathered together in the garden of Eden, and shall eat and drink and satiate themselves all the days of the world. There the houses shall be all built with precious stones; the beds shall be made of silk; and the rivers shall flow with wine and spicy oil.

He made manna to descend for them, in which was all manner of tastes; and every Israelite found in it what his palate was chiefly pleased with. If he desired fat in it, he had it. In it, the young man tasted bread, the old man honey, and the children oil.

 So shall it be in the world to come, (i.e. the days of the Messiah.) He shall give Israel peace, and they shall sit down in the garden of Eden, and all nations shall behold their condition; as it is said, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry.”[5]

It’s in their own literature, this vision of the Messiah’s kingdom being characterized by delicious food. They are just stuck on the literalness of it.  When Jesus said he was the bread, he was using symbolic language. Think about how Jesus said he was a “door”. No one tried to oil his hinges. In the same way, no one should try to take a chunk out of him.

 “The ideas of eating and drinking are here borrowed to express partaking of and sharing in. Spiritual happiness on earth, and even in heaven, is expressed by eating and drinking (Matthew 8:11; Matthew 26:29; Luke 14:15; Luke 22:30; and Revelation 2:17.) Those who were made partakers of the Holy Spirit are said by Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, to be made to drink of one Spirit. (Adam Clarke)

Jesus was simply identifying himself as the point of the symbolism:

o  In the past, the bread was manna – now the bread is Christ.

o  Neither group deserved this gift, but God gives abundantly.

o  In both cases, the bread comes from heaven.

o  In both cases, the bread nourishes them.

o  In the past, the food would satisfy them temporarily – now the food will satisfy them eternally.

Back to the text.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.[6] But I told you that you have seen me and still do not believe. Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.[7]

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. Now this is the will of the one who sent me—that I should not lose one person of every one he has given me, but raise them all up at the last day. For this is the will of my Father[8]—for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

Jesus replied, “Do not complain about me to one another. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me. (Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God—he has seen the Father.)

“I tell you the solemn truth, the one who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.[9] This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began to argue with one another, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.[10] The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.[11] For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ate, but then later died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

What did the Israelites do with the bread Moses gave them? They ate it. That’s what you do with bread. Studying the recipe is not going to do it. Watching the Great British Bake Off episode on bread is not going to do it. The only way to take advantage of the benefits of bread is to internalize it.

When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Satan brought up how God fed his people wandering in the wilderness and told Jesus to basically do it again right there. Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD”. What did John call Jesus in the opening of his book? The Word. Jesus was the very Word of God. Our flesh needs the food that goes in our stomach, but our spirit needs the nourishment that comes from God.

“To eat of this bread means to appropriate Christ as one's life. It is a figure of speech for believing, for no one will eat what he or she cannot trust as edible. Eating a meal implies that it is wholesome, nourishing, and real.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

Jesus was not suggesting cannibalism. He was describing wholehearted commitment. “Don’t just watch my tricks. Don’t just listen to my teaching. Do it. Be it.” There was some movie about ants that I used to watch with my kids where the ants made a ball to bust out of something, and they were supposed to “Be the ball.” That’s the idea. “Be the disciple.”

James would later say that anyone who listened to (or read) Jesus’ words and didn’t do what he said was like someone who stared in the mirror endlessly and forgot what they looked like. Jesus was saying the only way you will benefit from me is if you stop being a consumer and internalize what I’m telling you. And in your “eating”, you will become like me in your actions and motivations.

 Jesus said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples, when they heard these things, said, “This is a difficult saying! Who can understand it?” When Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining about this, he said to them, “Does this cause you to be offended?"

Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.”

(For Jesus had already known from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) So Jesus added, “Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come.”

After this many of his disciples quit following him and did not accompany him any longer. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!”

I want to finish this morning by reminding us all of what we mean when we talk about salvation. If you want the fancy theological word, it's the doctrine of soteriology. The final point is going to be “we are nourished by the bread of life,” but we are going to have to work our way there.

 The person who is saved is:

Drawn by the Father (who draws everybody)[12].  Jesus said, “If I am lifted up, I will draw all people to me” (John 12:32), he’s referencing an incident in the Old Testament where Moses was instructed to make the image of a serpent to put on a pole, so that all the Israelites who were being bitten by a swarm of snakes could be healed. They just had to look up. It’s an odd story, but in literature it’s called foreshadowing. The Old Testament constantly uses physical events to foreshadow important spiritual truths in the New Testament.

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

God initiates or reaches out to everyone so that they have an opportunity to respond. This is through His Word and/or his Holy Spirit, though we often have the privilege of being the vehicle of His word (think of the disciples passing out the bread and fish). God draws all people to himself through Jesus by the Holy Spirit so that they can see what God has to offer to them.

God, through what is called prevenient grace[13], enables every person to choose to come to Christ or not. God breaks through to us when we are dead in our sins.[14] God enables all to see him through the revelation they receive from Him. Then, they can choose to either reject the truth or embrace it.

“For this is the will of my Father--for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life…." (John 6:40)

 “…people who suppress the truth…” (Romans 1:18)

Like when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, all who chose to look to the source of their salvation would be healed; not all did. Because Jesus has been lifted up on the cross, all can see and be saved; not all do.

 If we accept the truth of Jesus and his offer of salvation, we are justified. There’s a TV show called Justified in which a law enforcement officer named Raylan is put in situations over and over in which the viewer is supposed to wrestle with whether or not he was justified in responding the way he does. Ideally, Raylan’s choices would defend his integrity. Realistically, they often didn't.

All our lives, we are put in situations where we hope our choices defend our integrity such that we are justified in doing what we do. Unfortunately, that’s not working great for us. However, there is good news.

Justification is the doctrine that God pardons, accepts, and declares sinners to be "just" on the basis of Christ's righteousness, which makes them right with God (Romans 3:24-26; 4:25; 5:15-21).

“God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.” (2 Corinthians 5:18)

This results in us being at peace with God (Romans 5:1).[15]

Because of Christ, we are saved from the penalty, power, and eventually the presence of sin. We are saved from the eternal PENALTY of sin when we surrender our lives to God. This doesn’t mean we won't reap what we sow in this life; God and others can forgive us for our sins, but that’s different from a very practical harvest that involves penalties. We are talking here about what is happening spiritually. A debt we build all our lives can be covered because the Lawgiver has taken the penalty for Lawbreaking upon himself in the person of Jesus.

Because of Christ, we are being saved from the present POWER of sin. Because the Holy Spirit is now in us, we have God’s power to break what the Bible calls the bondage of sin. We will struggle with temptation, but the Holy Spirit at work in us has given us the power to withstand. The sin which defined us or formed us does not need to continue to define or control us.

One day, we will be saved from the PRESENCE of sin. In heaven, the peace of shalom will be restored.  The New Heaven and New Earth will not be broken, and neither will we. 

God begins a process of regeneration. Regeneration is the spiritual transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit that moves us from spiritual dead to spiritual life. Regeneration is a reminder that salvation is more than what happens in a moment; we are being saved[16]. God has begun a good work in us. It’s ongoing. It will be complete in the world to come. You’ve probably seen the memes: “Be like the roads in Detroit. Never stop working on yourself.”  Think of us as the roads, and God as the one who continues a good work in us. And yes, it’s a lifelong construction project :) Maybe we should all be wearing “Under Construction” T-shirts to remind each other what’s happening.

God also begins a process of sanctification. This literally means "to set apart" for special use or purpose, which is very similar to what it means to be holy. It’s both a state and process that begins at the point of our surrender (salvation) and continuing throughout our life.

“God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won't stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns.” (Philippians 1:6)

We are doing baptisms in two weeks. Maybe think of the act of baptism as a public proclamation that these people have been set apart for God’s good purposes. The old self has been put to death; a new self is arising. That symbol reminds us of a truth about the life of follower of Jesus. We are always set apart and being set apart for God’s good purposes.

We are nourished by the bread of life. This means our spiritual nature finds sustenance in the person of Jesus and all the truth that comes from him, specifically with what has been revealed in Scripture. Once again, this is more than just head knowledge. It’s more than just observing and giving a formal assent to the truth about who Jesus is. Is allowing the entirety of our lives to be changed.

It’s interesting: modern food studies are talking about how our diets affect our epigenetics; that is, how our food changes how the genetics we have are expressed. In other words, what we eat changes us. It’s not a neutral force in our bodies. Our lives change because of what we eat.[17]

This is true spiritually as well. Our lives change because of what our souls consume. Nothing lands in us neutrally. We know that we have eaten the bread of life when who we are changes. It might be slow, it might be fast, but we cannot eat the Bread of Life without becoming something new. 

This sustenance enables us to persevere in the faith, so that in the end we are made a partaker of eternal life.[18]

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[1] Similar to the reply given to the Samaritan woman at the well, who needed water “so that I may never thirst again.”  Here, we have "food that endures to eternal life." 

[2] “Even miracles are lost on persons whose hearts are fixed on the perishing things of the world, and whose minds are filled with prejudice against the truth.” (Adam Clarke)

[3] Implying that bread from heaven was more impressive than multiplying the boy’s lunch.

[4] “Jewish expositors had already often used manna as a figure for spiritual food, God’s law, or Torah/Wisdom/Word. Ancient writers also often used water or drinking figuratively (including Jewish teachers using it for Torah or Wisdom)...Sirach 24:19 portrays Wisdom as saying, “Come to me . . . and eat your fill of my fruits”; in Sirach 24:21, Wisdom cries, “Those who eat of me will hunger for more, and those who drink of me will thirst for more.” But Jesus… shows himself greater than Wisdom; he emphasizes the satisfaction of those who eat and drink from him (John 4:14).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Of The New Testament)

[5] As cited by Adam Clarke

[6] This should sound familiar. Remember he said the same thing to the woman at the well?

[7] “Shall come to me — All that are drawn by the Father, John 6:44, i.e. all those who are influenced by his Spirit, and yield to those influences: for as many as are LED (not driven or dragged) by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God, Romans 8:14… And though Christ would have gathered them together, as a hen would her chickens under her wings, yet they would not. Matthew 23:37. Those who come at the call of God, he is represented here as giving to Christ, because it is through his blood alone that they can be saved... I will in no wise cast out. — The words are exceedingly emphatic - I will by no means thrust out of doors… Our Lord alludes to the case of a person in deep distress and poverty, who comes to a nobleman's house in order to get relief: the person appears; and the owner… receives him kindly, and supplies his wants. So does Jesus. Never did he reject the suit of a penitent, however grievous his crimes might have been. He is come to the house of mercy… the Master not only grants his suit, but receives him into the number of his family: he alleges his unfitness, his unworthiness, his guilt, his crimes, his ingratitude: no matter, all shall be blotted out through the blood of the Lamb, and he be put among the children, and on none of these accounts shall he be put out of the house.” (Adam Clarke)

[8] “Far from any person being excluded from his mercy, it was the will of God that every one who saw him might believe and be saved. The power, without which they could not believe, he freely gave them; but the use of that power was their own. God gives the grace of repentance and faith to every man; but he neither repents nor believes for any man.” (Adam Clarke)

[9] “It was an opinion of the Jews themselves that their fathers, who perished in the wilderness, should never have a resurrection. Our Lord takes them on their own ground: Ye acknowledge that your fathers who fell in the wilderness shall never have a resurrection; and yet they ate of the manna: therefore that manna is not the bread that preserves to everlasting life, according even to your own concession.” (Adam Clarke)

[10] Figuratively, Jesus could be identified with the Passover lamb (Ex 12:8). Because the law forbade drinking blood, including that of the Passover lamb (Lev 17:10), a stronger analogy is with divine Wisdom.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[11] “By comparing this verse with verse 47, it can be definitely shown that to eat His flesh and to drink His blood means to believe on Him. In verse 54, we learn that whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life…. To eat His flesh and to drink His blood is to believe on Him.” (I lost track of my source here L.)

[12] Revelation 22:17; John 12:32

[13] Grace that precedes and prepares for conversion. Prevenient is from Latin, meaning grace that comes (venire) before (prae).

[14] Ephesians 2:5

[15] Thanks, Theopedia, for that helpful summary of justification.

[16] 1 Corinthians 1:18

[17] Check out Scientific American’s article “How Diet Can Change Your DNA.”

[18] A paraphrase of Adam Clarke’s words.

Baptism

I have a short list of things in the Bible that seem unusual to us today that need a context in order for us to understand.

The woman washing Jesus’ feet with a tear bottle (Luke 7)

Context: In the first century, tear bottles were sealed shut and kept prominently, then buried with you as a sign of how hard your life was. Some of the wealthier Romans would even hire mourners to cry and fill bottles. In death, there was finally peace. So when she washed Jesus’ feet with her tears she was giving up her hard earn right to be pitied, and in a sense was saying she had found the peace for which she longed.

Salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13-15)

Context: Salt was a precious commodity for money (Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt); it obviously also gave flavor to things which were otherwise bland.  Pure salt never loses its flavor, but salt like the salt from the Dead Sea could, because the salt was impure. It was often then thrown on roads because it was useless except to be trampled on.

John records an interesting promise from God: “He who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.” (Revelation 3:12)

Context: At the time of the early church, Asclepius was the god of healing.  In many cities were asclepions, or hospitals. One daughter was Hygieia (hygiene) and another Panacea.  They would only accept people they thought they could heal, then put an inscription on a tablet or a marble pillar that described the cures and the healed parts of the bodies.  These were testimonies to the apparent power of the gods.    John may well have been saying, “Your lives will show God to be the true healer, the Great Physician.”

I think baptism needs a similar context because it’s not something for which our culture has a shared story around which to unite. It’s a symbol that still haunts our culture – there are baptism scenes in the Matrix and Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie – but it’s not embedded into our lives, and when we see it symbolized in our cultural stories there is only some vague sense of change, not a real concrete idea of what this means. Then people come to church, and we say, “Hey, you know you are going to need to let someone dunk you under the water.” Hmmm…

The ancient world was full of ritual of baptism of water and blood, even among the pagans.[1] No one needed an explanation about why one should be baptized when they joined a religious group. They grew up in a world that understood this was the public pledge of allegiance to that being you worshipped.  No one joining the church was surprised.

Jesus himself was baptized (Mark 1: 4-9)

“And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  

And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.

Jesus Taught The Importance Of Baptism

Jesus then says to his disciples, “Go into all the world, preach the gospel, and baptize…” (Matthew 28:19-20) [2]

Paul commanded it. He wrote in Hebrews 10:22: 

"Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

Paul also wrote that Jesus sanctified the church, “having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”(Ephesians 5:26). Note how one washed by water with the word.  There is clearly something symbolic happening that is not connected to some specific magical property of the water itself. 

Over time, baptism become one of several sacraments that the Protestant churches practice. A sacrament is an outward sign of an inward seal that reminds of what God has done and what God intends to do to help us grow in grace.

• Sign: I’ve seen it compared to the Batsignal: by our participation we are sending a message to God: “We need you. We are in a situation in which we cannot succeed without your help.” Obviously, God is already there, but it’s a reminder to us.

•  Seal: An ancient king would use a ring to put a seal on a glob of wax on an important letter as a way of saying to everyone who saw it, “Property of the King.” In observing sacraments, we publicly accept the seal of Jesus: “I am the property of Christ the King.”

Sacraments humble us by reminding us of our need for God, yet at the same time they encourage us by reminding us that God has placed His seal on us, and we are under His protection, guidance and Lordship. And when we ask God for help and accept his seal, that humility and surrender is fertile ground for God’s ongoing work of grace in our life.

I want to focus on baptism this morning so that when we do baptisms next Sunday we understand the rich history of this sacramental symbol (we Protestants typically call these ordinances, but I’m riffing off the original Roman term). To do that, I need to talk about a story involving water that began at the beginning of time and has been retold for all of human history.

WHY BAPTISM? WHY THIS PARTICULAR ACT?

Genesis 1, Creation  Jews were desert nomads; they were not at home on the water. And ancient cultural stories depicted the sea as a monstrous beast and a place where Baal would battle with Yam, the sea god (Yam is the Hebrew word for “sea”). 

• Leviathan lives there (Job 9.13; Psalms 89.8-10; Isaiah 27.1)

• Those in distress feel like they are being drowned in deep water (Psalms 69.1,2; Lamentations 3.54)

• Being saved from an enemy is like being pulled out of the waters of death (Psalms 18.16)

The ocean before creation, the “tehom” or the deep, was unsettled and chaotic. Even the pagans thought that. It was to be feared. But out of the water of chaos and death and formlessness God brought life, and it’s good.

The Flood, Genesis 6-9  The same word used Genesis 1, “tehom,” refers to the waters of the deep that flooded the earth. Once again, on the other side of chaos and evil is new life.  All ancient cultures recorded this. Peter late compared the water of baptism to the waters of the great flood that God used to save Noah and his family (1Peter 3:20 – 21) 


"In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ…”

The Exodus and Promised Land  (Exodus 14) 

 “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. (1 Corinthians 10: 1-2)

Note here that they didn’t actually get wet as they passed through the waters that saved them; there was something about the experience of this ‘baptism’ that placed them into the life and legacy of Moses.

I should add here that under the covenant with Moses, baptismal ceremonies were a huge part of becoming ritually purified. It was a well known practice with particular significance among the Jewish people.

The priests had to be ritually clean (tahor) in order to serve at the tabernacle, and Israelites who had become ritually unclean (tamay) had to… bathe their whole body in fresh, ritually clean (tahor) water, according to Leviticus 15.
Later, when the temple had been built, it was necessary for everyone to be immersed in a mikveh to become ritually clean before entering the temple… there area set of steps going down to the mikveh in an impure (tamay) state on one side, and on the other side, steps where the pilgrim will emerge fresh and ritually clean (tahor).[3] 

In 1967 war, archaeologists excavated parts of the upper city of Jerusalem and found that many had ritual baths in the basements. It is likely that the pools of Siloam and Bethsaida were used for ritual bathing in the Second Temple period. 

In addition, “sacramental” acts carried a deep significance in Roman culture.[4]

Caesar required certain individuals as well as nations to make a public vow of faithfulness. This oath of allegiance was called a sacramentum. Julius Caesar was the first to use sacramentum  as a voluntary oath taken by soldiers upon entering the Roman army.   Livy (ca 59 BCE‒17 CE) wrote that sacramentum was a soldier’s oath of obedience which obligated a soldier to obey his superiors and not to abandon his comrades-in-arms.  A sacramentum was considered sacred and taken in front of witnesses—both humans and deities—and it was irrevocable.

 Christ-followers borrowed the term sacramentum and used it to express their loyalty to Christ and his kingdom.  Tertullian (160 CE‒225 CE) identified baptism specifically as the Christian sacramentum and contrasted it to a Roman soldier’s pledge of loyalty to the Emperor and Empire. Just as a soldier upon his oath of allegiance was inducted into Caesar’s army, so a believer was initiated by the sacrament of baptism into God’s kingdom. Each vowed faithful service to his god and kingdom.  Through baptism, Christ-followers joined a movement that rejected Rome’s public narrative, ideology, hierarchical social order, and Caesar’s claim to be Lord over all. 

When Jesus commanded his loyal apostles to “go and make disciples of all nations” he was sending them to nations controlled by Rome. They were to call them to make a sacramentum to God as their King: “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt 28:20)

A public testimony to our salvation. Baptism is not a marker that we have arrived spiritually and now worthy of being initiated into the kingdom because we are so awesome. It’s a public alliance with the only one who can and has saved us.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:5) 

A declaration of hope-filled unity with Jesus.[5] The Hebrew word for a ritual bath (mikveh) shares the same root as the word for hope (tikvah), for line (kav) or alignment, as well as the idea of hoping or waiting on God (kiviti l’). If you think of twisting them together like you might do with yarn, it gives us a picture of what it means to align ourselves with God. We intertwine ourselves with him, we rest in for him in confidence and hope. In Jeremiah 17:5-6, the prophet wrote:

Lord, you are the hope (mikveh) of Israel; all who forsake you will be ashamed (or dried out). Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

A “Mikveh” is the living water represents the bounty and resources of the new life that we can enjoy in God. Those who put their hope in God, choosing to align their lives with him, will never be dried out, but will always have fresh life in him.

 A spiritual uniting with Christ into His death and resurrection.    

“Remember that all we who are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ are baptized into death with him?  We are buried with him by baptism, for to die, that likewise as Christ was raised up from death by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in a new life.  For if we are like him in death, even so must we be in the resurrection.” (Romans 6) 

Colossians 2:12 - "Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."  

If we are going to walk in new life, we have to die first. In baptism, we see the death of the old as we go under the water, and the arrival of the new as we come up. Now we publicly bear the seal of Christ. (I wish there was someway we could stamp you when you come up: “Claimed by Jesus.”) 

“We may never be martyrs but we can die to self, to sin, to the world, to our plans and ambitions. That is the significance of baptism; we died with Christ and rose to new life.” - Vance Havner 

The beginning of a life-long immersion in Christ.

Historians have found a recipe for making pickles that dates back to 200 B.C.  In order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be 'dipped' (bapto) into boiling water and then 'baptised' (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. The first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, takes longer, and produces a permanent change. Genuine baptism ‘pickles us’ into the life of Christ.

• “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 1:5).

• “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38).

• “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 11:16).

This, I think, is what we must remember. We don’t walk away from a sacramental moment and forget about it. They are moments that pledge our lives, and in that outward sign we have participated in the reality of an inward work of the Holy Spirit that is part of our life constantly.

We have publicly said, “I give myself to you,” and that means we are in a process by which God transforms us for the rest of our lives into the image of Christ.

Here, by the way is where the community aspect of baptism comes in. Baptism is more than just you and God; it’s a public alliance with God and His people, specifically the church you are in.

• It’s an act that gives permission: “You may now hold me accountable as a child of God and a brother or sister in Christ.”

• It’s an act that states responsibility: “And I will do the same for you.”

• It’s an act of identity: “I encounter such constant and widespread lying about reality each day and meet with such skilled and systematic distortion of the truth that I’m always in danger of losing my grip on reality. The reality, of course, is that God is sovereign and Christ is savior. The reality is that prayer is my mother tongue and the eucharist my basic food. The reality is that baptism, not Myers-Briggs, defines who I am.” (Eugene Peterson)

A FEW RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

 “Water Baptism In The Early Church.” http://www.churchhistory101.com/feedback/water-baptism.php

“Sacraments” (Theopedia) http://www.theopedia.com/sacraments

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[1] “Baptism: A Pre-Christian History.” http://www.bible.ca/ef/topical-baptism-a-prechristian-history.htm

[2] The Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:36-38) is a great example.

[3] “The Jewish Roots of Baptism.” https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/was-baptism-originally-jewish/. The information that follows in this point also comes from that article.

[4] “Baptism as a Politically Subversive Act.” https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/baptism-politically-subversive-act

[5] Information in this section comes from “The Jewish Roots Of Baptism.” “https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/was-baptism-originally-jewish/ 

Harmony #38: Jesus Walks On Water (Matthew 14:22-36; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:15-21)

Then Jesus, because he knew they were going to come and seize him by force to make him king, immediately made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, [past] Bethsaida, while he dispersed the crowds. Now when evening came, after Jesus said good-bye to them and sent the crowds away, he went up the mountainside by himself to pray.

Those who started out believing he was a prophet like Moses (he fed people in the wilderness like Moses had) decided it might be time to make him king. I wonder if this is one reason Jesus kept telling people not to speak publically about the miracles. He wasn’t interested in that kind of Kingdom.

The Messiah was never intended to come with a physical sword like they were hoping. If you were here for our Revelation series, you may remember that when Jesus is portrayed with a sword, it’s in his mouth: it’s His words, the gospel message, that will challenge evil in the world before God ultimately bring an end to evil.

His disciples started to cross the lake to Capernaum. (It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.) By now strong wind was blowing and the sea was getting rough. Meanwhile the boat, already far from land,  in the middle of the sea, was taking a beating from the waves. Jesus was alone on the land, and saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.

Has anyone else noticed that Jesus keeps sending his disciples into storms? More on that later…

Then, when the night was ending and they had rowed about three or four miles, they caught sight of Jesus walking on the lake, approaching the boat, for he wanted to pass by them. When the disciples saw him walking on the water they were terrified and said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out with fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them: “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.” Peter said to him, “Lord, if it is you, order me to come to you on the water. ”So Jesus said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind he became afraid. And starting to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they went up into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

They were completely astonished, because they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hard [#hardsoil]. They were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat came to the land where they had been heading.

In all their hours (6?) rowing against the wind, they had covered 1/2 to  2/3 of their journey by the time that Jesus caught up to them. Sometime between 3am and 6am, Jesus followed the disciples without a boat. The Bible does not record they were frightened of the storm, even though they had been fighting it for hours. They were, however, frightened by what they thought was a ghost walking toward them on the water, as one would be. They relaxed when they saw it was him, but Peter basically says, “Prove it.”

By this time you would think they would be starting to wrap their heads around Jesus ability to do the miraculous. During the last storm, he calmed everything with a word. He just fed 10,000 people by turning something into nothing. Don’t get me wrong - there is no doubt seeing him walking on the water would have been shocking. But the soil in Peter heart was hard, and he wants another sign.

Only one gospel records Peter attempting to join Jesus on the water. It’s a good reminder this story is primarily about Jesus, not Peter. And what we learn about Jesus is that he will, in fact, give Peter yet another sign. Jesus relentlessly reveals himself. Those of little faith are not abandoned by the Savior.

When Jesus asked the disciples how to feed the 5,000, I suspect he wanted them to wrestle with the impossibility of the situation. Kind of like with the raising of the dead child when he said, “Nah, she’s just asleep.” He wanted the observers to confirm the impossibility of the situation and insist that she was, in fact, dead. He wanted them to recognize he was asking them to do something that could not be done. He was prepping an opportunity to show his Messianic credentials.

So here’s Peter asking to walk on water. I don’t know if Peter had considered Plan B if it was a ghost deceiving him, but Peter wasn’t really known for his thoughtful consideration before he did things. In another incident, he jumps out of the boat and swims to shore to see Jesus, so maybe he was a really good swimmer and figured if it didn’t work out, he’d just swim back. I don’t know.

So Peter tried to walk on the water, and he failed. I’m not sure why it took until that moment for him to consider how strong the wind was, and I don’t know what it looks like to walk on water during a raging storm, but I’ve been down to the Open Space when it’s windy, and it’s awesome and terrifying. If I were to walk on the water at that moment, either I am on a crazy rollercoaster as I stay on top of the waves, or the waves are crashing over me if I’m somehow walking on a level path. So, yeah, Peter is overwhelmed. I get it.

Something we don’t often see stressed is that when he is sinking, he does the right thing. He calls out to Jesus to save him. And Jesus does, of course. Saving is what Jesus does. Then he gently rebukes Peter: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Many of the commentaries I read and sermons I have heard focus on Peter’s lack of faith as an explanation for why he couldn’t walk on water, usually with the idea that if he had kept his eyes on Jesus, he would not have sunk. I like that image. It’s a practical way to think about worship. I’m not so sure that’s the primary point of the story, though,so I want to focus on what I believe to be the primary thing Jesus is addressing.

The book of John is famous for focuses on Jesus as the Messiah. All the gospels have a different primary focus as they recount the life of Jesus; John is the most messianic.

This Gospel stands out structurally, as it lays out its thesis in the first chapter. It also emphasizes the signs and wonders performed by Jesus during His ministry on earth, rather than just outlining the totality of it.  Seven of these signs are changing water into wine, healing the royal official’s son, healing the paralytic, feeding the 5,000, Jesus walking on water, healing the man blind from birth, and raising Lazarus from the dead. Each of these signs either fulfills a prophecy, demonstrates Jesus’ authority, or demonstrates His deity. John focuses on Jesus as the Son of God, the Word at the beginning, and the right ruler of all things. Jesus makes seven I AM statements, invoking the name God gave to Moses and to the Hebrew people centuries before.[1]

So this story is one of the 7 signs recorded in John, and John doesn’t include the part about Peter at all. It’s a story that’s meant to make us focus on Jesus, not Peter, because it’s one of the 7 signs of the Messiah. After all, only God “treads on the waves of the sea.” (Job 9:8; Psalms 77:19) The Exodus echo that began with the miraculous provision of food continues in what is one of the clearest revelations of Jesus’ divine nature: his authority over the sea. He doesn’t just part the sea and walk through on dry land; he walks on the sea itself.

There is something else happening here that modern English translations capture well. When we read that Jesus meant to ‘pass by them’, he wasn’t going to cruise on past and leave them behind. This is language for how God revealed himself to His people in the past.

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence… Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.” (Exodus 33: 18-23) 

 “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart… but the Lord was not in the wind.. the Lord was not in the earthquake…the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. (1 Kings 19:11-13)

Jesus walked on the water to show his glory and proclaim his name. Jesus did this to get them to understand what they did not understand the day before: that he was God in the flesh, the promised Messiah.

The more I considered this story in its broader context, I am not so sure Jesus was rebuking Peter for failing to walk on the water as much as he was rebuking him for not trusting that Jesus was who he said he was.

Much like the crowds that keep demanding signs, Peter tested him again after all the signs he had seen already. Jesus allowed it to happen, but notice that Jesus did not float the idea the Peter should walk to him. This wasn’t God’s calling for Peter. This was Peter’s calling for Peter. If Jesus planned for Peter to walk on water, Peter would have walked on the water.

So Peter said, and I paraphrase, “Can I walk on the water to see if it’s you? Because if I can do that, I will know it’s you.” And Jesus said, “Come on over and I’ll show you it’s me.” And you know what? Peter found it was Jesus for real even though his walk wasn’t successful for more than a moment. In fact, he experienced the saving power of Jesus up close and personal. This experience confirmed to him that Jesus was, indeed, a messiah who is strong enough to save and kind enough to do it.

I’ve also been wondering about what it would have done to Peter to be able to make it to Jesus and back into the boat without sinking. Can you imagine life with Peter if he hadn’t sunk?

·  “Hey John, remember that time I alone of all of us walked on the water?”

·  “Hey Thomas, who wants to go storm chasing on the Sea of Galilee? Nobody? Maybe I’ll just walk out there then.”

·  “Who wants to play boat/water/Peter? Boat takes water, and Peter takes boat and water.”

I wonder if sinking might have been a really important part of Peter’s spiritual formation. Very publicly, he failed. No doubt he was impressive for at least a little bit, but then he was publicly frightened and failing. Sometimes that’s a gift not only to the person Jesus rescues, but to those who have to live with that person.

Peter will go on to be called the Rock by Jesus himself. I really hope at least one of the disciples was like, “Yeah, he sinks like a stone.” Then they all giggled while Peter turned red. Peter didn’t have to actually nail the walking on water gig to be used powerfully in the Kingdom of God. Why? Because it was always about the power of Jesus.

“Every moment we stand in need of Christ: while we stand-we are upheld by his power only; and when we are falling, or have fallen, we can be saved only by his mercy. Let us always take care that we do not consider so much the danger to which we are exposed, as the power of Christ by which we are to be upheld.” (Adam Clarke)

After Jesus identifies himself, Mark describes the astonishment of the disciples, their lack of understanding, and the reason for that lack: their hearts were hardened. I don’t think the writers mean to convey that they were actively hardening their hearts as much as that God had called a group of disciples to him whose hearts were the hard ground of the Parable of the Sower, at least to some degree. They had been through a storm he controlled, saw him heal people and even raise them from the dead, had hand-collected the leftovers at the Feeding of the 5,000, and the truth of Jesus’ message about himself was still was not taking root in their hearts.

We will circle back to this next week. I want to finish by focusing on our attempts to walk on water, and Jesus’ faithfulness in pulling us out.

* * * * *

Once the watery storms ended for the disciples, others began. There are always storms. This has been true as long as humanity has existed:

· “In this world, you will have trouble.” – Jesus, John 16:33

· “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” – David, Psalm 23

· “Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.” – James, James 1:2

· “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” – Paul, Romans 8:18

· “Do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” - Peter, 1 Peter 4:12

So there will be storms. I want to talk about Peter and us in the storms of life, not because this story was about Peter, but because it involved Peter even as it pointed toward Jesus. Let’s look at how the storms in our lives involve us even as they point us to Jesus.

There are storms of the sin that impact us. Things that others do to us that threaten to take us under emotionally, mentally, spiritually, relationally. Sin has a terrible ripple effect, and the greater the sin done to us, the more traumatically it lands in our lives. And there are so many good things that help to keep us afloat: therapy, counseling, spiritual formation, good community, sometimes medication – those boats can keep our heads above water a lot of the time (that’s a good thing). A gracious God has given us boats of common grace (gifts of grace accessible by all) that are for our good. More on this later. But we can row into that storm for years, and finding solid land feels like an unobtainable dream, and we’re exhausted. 

There are times when, like Peter in his first moments. “I think I’ve got this!” And then we realize the winds of the sins done to us are still taking us down even though we have fought so hard. And it’s in the prayer of helpless desperation that his strong right hand, which was there all along, saves us from drowning and guides the boat to shore.

I have this image in my head of what it must have been like in the boat after Peter and Jesus got in. (It’s just my image; it’s not Scripture.)

Peter, after a while, through tears: “I tried.”

Jesus, gently: “I know.”

Peter: “I couldn’t do it.”

Jesus: “You didn’t need to.”

And that’s it. That’s the conversation. Jesus puts his arm over his shoulders and then they just sit quietly until they get to the other side. And Peter has to process the humbling reality that he wasn’t enough on his own along with the comforting reality that the one who saves him is.

I think of relational storms we go through. Since my closest relationship is with Sheila, I’m thinking of what this looks like in marriage, though your relational storms may look different. There were times we were going under, even when we tried so hard. We got water wings and lifejackets and snorkeling gear (we read books, went to counseling, attended marriage retreats – all good things). They kept us afloat for a time, but the wind of our brokenness was strong, and the waves of our baggage daunting. Our most important, transformative moments were those times when all we could do was cry out as we were going under, and Jesus pulled us up.

I distinctly remember a time we looked at each other and said, “What do we do? We are out of ideas. Nothing has worked. This brokenness in us and between us is impossible to fix.” All we had left was prayer for the miraculous intervention of God.

Us, through tears: “We tried.”

Jesus, gently: “I know.”

Us: “We don’t have the tools to do it.”

Jesus: “You don’t need to.”

We went home from that supper, two people in despair. The next day we had lunch just to be together. Then we sat in the van and listened to a comedian to laugh together. We didn’t talk about life or marriage. But we realized in a week or two that everything had changed. There was something about that drowning moment, in which we cried the desperate cries of the drowning, for which Jesus was waiting.

And then I have been in storms where I find that while I am praying for deliverance from that storm, I am a lot like Peter. I know that Jesus is the one who rules the storms, but I am secretly hoping I look amazing too as he goes about rescuing me.

When Covid hit and we were trying to navigate our way through it as a church, I was trying to provide pastoral leadership. I knew it was going to take a miracle, but honestly, I wanted to look amazing as God’s work unfolded. I wanted my wisdom, compassion, truth-telling, and just overall “for such a time as this” persona to shine like bright beacon in a dark world. Bring on that wind full of masks and social distancing and shutdowns: I was ready to walk on that stormy Covid water.

And you know what? That is not at all what happened. I managed to make everybody mad at some point. Even me – I was mad at me. When I stepped out into the storm, I made have gotten a couple steps in, but then down I went. Don’t get me wrong. I was praying passionately what Jesus offered as a model: “Lead us not into the time of testing/storms, but if you do, deliver us from the evil one.” I really knew that was the answer. I just wanted to walk on water while He was working.

Me, through tears: “I tried.”

Jesus, gently: “I know.”

Me: “I couldn’t do it.”

Jesus: “I can.”

And where was Jesus as I – and you - were flailing about in the rising wind? Right there with us. Reminding us that we would get through Covid not because we are great, but because He is great. He pulled me up (and he pulled you up). He kept us disciples in this CLG boat after he carried us back in and dried us off. He brought us to the other side, with better heart soil than when we started.

This church has gone through storms in its 50 years, some minor gales and some hurricanes. Did we bust out onto the waves and impress everybody by owning that storm and tromping on it? No need to make a way through it. We are on top of it!! That’s…not how it went. By God’s good grace, we’ve gotten in some good steps throughout our history, but you wouldn't want your Fitbit to count them. We always ended up treading water in a whirlpool that threated to pull us down – which forced us to cry out to Jesus to do what we, in our own wisdom and power, could not. And he did. He has pulled us back into the boat again and again, dried us off, and taken to where he had in mind for us to go.

And he puts us back in a boat. Jesus didn’t pull an Oprah and say, “You know what? Walking on water for all! You don’t need this boat!” He uses the boat to get them to where they were supposed to go. All the things I mentioned earlier - therapy, counseling, spiritual formation, good community, sometimes medication –those, too, are provisions of his loving grace. Those, too, can be the means God Himself uses to get us to where he wants us to go. We just need the author and finisher of our faith to be the one told us to get in that particular boat, and then be the one who guides that boat to where he plans for us to go.

 And this brings me back to what I love about Jesus. He establishes himself as a Messiah who does not abandon us in the midst of storms. He does not reject us when we fail to see him clearly. He does not despise us when we are too weak to calm the storm. He is always there, holding out his hand, offering to save us, putting us into the boats his common grace provided for us, and showing us the glory of his love and faithfulness.

Recommended Music: Third Day: “Cry Out To Jesus”

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[1] “What Makes Each of the Gospel Accounts Unique?” Biblestudytools.com

Harmony #37: Feeding the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-14)

I am skipping a conversation between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders recorded in John 15. I posted it as a bonus entry online, with footnotes to help explain and contextualize the text. In this passage Jesus basically keeps saying, “I’m God; I’m one with God the Father.” And the Pharisees keep saying, “But are you though?” And Jesus says, “Yes, indeed.” And they say, “I don’t think so.” The last thing he says to them, in John 15:46-47, is this:

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?”

We will come back to the importance of those parting words after we look at today’s text.

When the apostles returned, they gathered around Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come with me privately to an isolated place and rest a while” (for many were coming and going, and there was no time to eat).

So they went away by themselves in a boat to some remote place near a town called Bethsaida, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee (also called the Sea of Tiberias). But a large crowd was following Jesus because they were observing the miraculous signs he was performing on the sick.

Many saw them leaving and recognized them, and they hurried on foot from all the towns and arrived there ahead of them. As Jesus came ashore he saw the large crowd, welcomed them went on up the mountainside and sat down there with his disciples.

Jesus taught them many things about the kingdom of God, and cured those who needed healing. When it was already late, Jesus’ disciples came to him and said, “This is an isolated place and it is already very late. Send them away so that they can go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy something for themselves to eat and find lodging.”

But Jesus answered them, “They don’t need to go. You give them something to eat.” He said to Philip,[1] “Where can we buy bread so that these people may eat?” (Now Jesus said this to test him, for he knew what he was going to do.)

Philip replied, “Two hundred silver coins[2] worth of bread would not be enough for them, for each one to get a little. Should we go and buy bread for two hundred silver coins and give it to them to eat?”

Jesus said to his disciples, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” One of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother found out and said, “Here is a boy who has only five barley[3] loaves and two fish, but what good are these for so many people - unless we go and buy food for all of them?”

Then he directed them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) So they did as Jesus directed, and sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves.[4]

He gave them to his disciples to serve the people, and he divided the two fish among all who were seated, as much as they wanted. When they were all satisfied, Jesus said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces and fish that are left over, so that nothing is wasted.

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets[5] with broken pieces from the five barley loaves and fish that were left over by the people who had eaten. Not counting women and children, there were about five thousand men who ate.

 Now when the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus performed, they began to say to one another, “This is certainly the Prophet who is to come into the world.[6]”

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First, Jesus relentlessly reveals himself.

Remember what Jesus said right before this to the religious leaders?

“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?”

This is primarily a sign to show the people once again that this is the long awaited Messiah, the “prophet who is to come into the world” that Moses had told them about. But rather than just leave them with the words of Moses, he does a miracle of miraculous provision of food, similar to what God enabled Moses (and Elisha) to do.

“The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, which signals its importance. Jesus appears as a new and greater Moses, who fed the crowds with supernatural bread in the wilderness (Exod 16), and as a new and greater Elisha, who fed a hundred people with 20 hand-size loaves of bread and still had leftovers (2 Kgs 4:42–44).” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

So, once again, we see an episode in the life of Jesus where he displays his credentials. He’s been doing this over and over. I suspect he knew that, even in a hopeful and expectant people, his claims to be the long awaited Messiah was going to take some backing up.  After all, plenty of people claimed they were this promised Messiah.

1.    Judas Maccabeus 160's BC, entered Jerusalem at the head of an army, purified the temple, destroyed altars to other gods, but was eventually killed in battle.

2.    In 132 BC, Simon Bar Kokhba (“Son of the Star” in Aramaic) tried again to bring down the Roman occupation of Palestine. For two and a half years, following a successful guerilla insurgency, Bar Kokhba ruled over an independent Jewish nation in the land of Palestine. The rebellion was ultimately crushed. The Talmud writes that the Romans killed so many Jews that the blood seeped into the nostrils of their horses and flowed forty miles to the sea.

3.    Judas (of Galilee), founder of the Zealots, led a revolt against Romans AD 6 (Acts 5). He was crushed brutally.

4.    Athronges (4-2? BC) led a rebellion with his four brothers against the Romans after proclaiming himself the Messiah. He and his brothers were eventually defeated.

The people were going to need to be sure about this new man making messianic claims. As hopeful as they were, I suspect they were becoming a bit cynical.

And maybe this is why, in front of his largest recorded crowd (10,000?), this miracle escalated. This is his first recorded miracle where he created something out of nothing, which reminds us of what God did in the act of creation in Genesis. He simply spoke, and from nothing, something began to exist.

I love that Jesus, over and over, provided signs to the people who needed signs. The Bible records Jesus commending those who don’t need them, yet he kept giving them to those who needed them. There is patience here, and gentleness, and a willingness to meet people where they are, not where they aren’t.

Second, we see something about how God works in the world.

“God often used what people had to perform wonders.”[7]

We don’t all have to bring the same thing to Jesus. We don’t even have to bring something impressive. When we give to Jesus what we have, he will do miraculous things with it. Little is much, when God is in it.[8]

I think there is a tendency to compare ourselves to others when it comes to what we bring into the Kingdom. We look around and see people doing things that we consider impressive, and then we look at ourselves and think, “Well, I can’t do that. All I can do is….”

And this is where I note that all you can do is all you can do, and that’s okay, because God will multiply it for your good, the good of those around you, and his glory. I really doubt this kid showed up thinking he had anything to offer that Jesus could you to minister to people.

Francis Schaeffer wrote a book called No Little People. It’s full of good quotes about the importance of every individual. This quote captures the heart of his book.  

We must remember throughout our Christian lives that in God's sight there are no little people and no little places. Only one thing is important: to be consecrated persons in Gods place for us at each moment. Those who think of themselves as little people in little places, if committed to Christ and living under his Lordship in the whole of life, may by God’s grace change the flow of a generation. -  Francis Schaeffer

If you are the kind of person who gains a massive following or builds the next big megachurch or global ministry, more power to you. Do it with integrity and holiness to the glory of God. But I have grown weary of Christian celebrityism (and I’m not blaming the celebrities). I’ve grown weary of the idea that bigger must be better when it comes to churches, ministries and platforms.

It’s not just that higher pedestals make for bigger falls; it’s that those who don’t reach a certain level of fame or reputation and places that don’t create massive footprints are seen as “less than.” 

How many times have I heard, “My testimony is boring. It’s not a big deal. I wasn’t saved from addiction, I didn’t lead a gang, I didn’t survive anything too traumatic. I don’t have that much to offer. I am unimpressive.”

Please hear me. In God’s sight, there are no little people or little places.

“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” - Henry Van Dyke

Your life is profoundly significant. Your life ripples into your family or community in ways that echo through eternity.  If you think you are just too small or insignificant, remember that in the Kingdom of Heaven, a mustard seed grows into a massive tree. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are in Kingdom territory, and the King has a vital role for you in the building the Kingdom.   

Third, we see that it is often through the followers of Jesus that the blessings from Jesus spread.

“Jesus challenges the disciples to provide for the crowd; [when they can’t, he does, and then] makes them ministers of His provision.” (ESV Reformation Study Bible)

God often uses His people to distribute His divine blessings to those who need them. Jesus did what only Jesus could do; he asked his disciples to do what they could do. In this case, the disciples were the hands and feet of Jesus. Huh. That language sounds familiar. Almost as if this story is an image of the church in action.

I love that God ministers to us internally and privately through the work of the Holy Spirit. May we never stop praying for that miraculous and life-changing power. But while we do that, let’s remember that God often ministers to us through others – and will use us to minister to them in turn.

That’s why we never just pray when we are positioned to be an answer to that prayer. Think of the disciples as asking, “Lord, meet the needs of these people!” And Jesus said, “Sure!” And then did it by miraculously multiplying the initial gift of a poor man’s snack and distributing it through the hands of the disciples.

·      Me: “God, my friend needs help paying her bills.”

·      God: “I would love to help her. Use your hands to give what little (or lot) of money you can to her.”

·      Me: “God, my friend is need of some reliable transportation next week.”

·      God: “Yes he is. I have a plan. Hand him the keys to that car you don’t have to have next week.”

·      Me: “God, there is this group of people who is so far from you. Please help them feel the love and hope you have to offer.”

·      God: “Absolutely! When would you like start building a friendship with them on my behalf?”

We are designed to live in our community and broader community in gospel-oriented and Christ-centered relationship; it’s no surprise that God tightens the connections by having us take to others what is coming from Him: not just love, truth, grace, justice, and mercy, but comfort, provision, and care. 

Fourth, God is really good at making much out of little.

This is Mustard Seed image again, but with a different focus. When God is in the midst of it, not only our faith but our talents, gifts and provisions have the potential to grow into a huge tree that fills the landscape and provides safety and hope.

“The hungry multitude is always present. There is always a little band of disciples with seemingly pitiful resources. And always there is the compassionate Savior. When disciples are willing to give Him their little all, He multiplies it to feed thousands.” (Believers Bible Commentary)

We here at CLG are a little band of disciples in the overall scheme of things. Our financial resources aren’t grand – in the eyes of the world. But in the economy of the Kingdom, this church is full of tremendous resources – you - ready to burst into the world and offer what we can, no matter how insignificant it might feel to us, to be multiplied by God to the glory of God and the good of the world.

·      “I can’t put $1,000 in the offering, or even $100. I only have $5 what’s the point?” Besides the character-building practice of generosity, know that God has a plan for how that money will further His kingdom. “What if it’s only a dollar?” Still good. God has a purpose. It will be more impactful and important than you realize.

·      “I don’t know what my gifts or talents are, but… (and this is just one example of something that might feel insignificant to you) I like to play games.” Fantastic. Play games with people. Do you know now many people are lonely, disconnected, bored? Do you know how many people long to have someone set aside time and spend it with them? Play games to the glory of good and the good of those around you. Show them they are valuable, that they matter. God will multiply your expression of care and honor. It will be more impactful and important than you realize.

·      “About all I have to offer is that I can cook.” Excellent. Sign up for a meal train and let someone know God sees them and cares about them by you, in whom God has taken up residence, seeing them and caring about them. God will multiply the hospitality that you offer. It will be more impactful and important than you realize.

·      “About all I can do anymore is pray.” That’s all you can do? That’s hugely important. Keep track of our prayer request page and pray. Read the news and pray. It will be more impactful and important than you realize.

Remember what happened at Asbury a couple months ago? One guy gave what he thought was a mediocre message in chapel. He was certain he had whiffed it. Just a handful of kids stayed afterward. God multiplied it.

Little is much when God is in it. Do not despise the mustard seeds you have, the seemingly insignificant skills or interests, the parts of your life that feel mediocre. Just offer it to God for his use. He will do the multiplying. All you have to do is be ready to hand him your loaves and fishes when it’s time.

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[1]  It’s likely that Jesus asked Philip because he was one of three disciples who came from Bethsaida (John 1:44). He knew the area.

[2] About $1,500 in today money.

[3] The grain typically used by the poor.

[4] “An old tradition recounts that Jesus placed the five loaves and two fish on a large piece of rock and then gave the common Jewish Berakah: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who bringest forth bread from the earth” (m. Ber. 6:1). (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[5]  "By the number here particularized, it should seem that each apostle filled his own bread basket." (Adam Clarke)

[6] Deuteronomy 18:15; Acts 3:22

[7] ESV Reformation Study Bible. Think of Moses and his staff in Exodus 4:1 – 3; 14:16, and the widow whose olive oil never ran out in 2 Kings 4:1 – 7).

[8] There is a great song by that title sung by the Gaither Vocal Band.

Jesus Claims to be the Son of God, Equal with God (John 5:15-47)

I did not do an entire message on this passage, but you can read the passage and the footnotes that help to explain and contextualize what is happening as Jesus insistently stakes his claim to be the Messiah.

Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him. So he told them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative (and act independently of the Father). He can only do what he sees the Father doing, (such that I see the Father’s hand and purpose in every event in this world).[1]

For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes[2]. Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father.[3] The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.[4]

“I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from from death (eternal separation from God) to life (eternal relationship with God)[5]. I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father (was never created and was never given life by anyone else),[6] He has life in himself; thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

“Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out—the ones who have done the (good deeds that follow salvation) [7] to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation. I can do nothing on my own initiative. Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.[8]

“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.[9] There is another who testifies about me, and I know the testimony he testifies about me is true. You have sent to John, and he has testified to the truth. (I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved.) 35 He was a lamp that was burning and shining, and you wanted to rejoice greatly for a short time in his light.

“But I have a testimony greater than that from John. For the deeds that the Father has assigned me to complete—the deeds I am now doing—testify about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You people have never heard his voice nor seen his form at any time, nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent. You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me, but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

“I do not accept praise from people, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me. If someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe, if you accept praise from one another and don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God?

“Do not suppose that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope.[10] If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 47 But if you do not believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe my words?”

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[1] ESV Global Study Bible

[2] “Jesus’ statement that the Son also gives life to whom he will is another claim to deity. It shows that Jesus does what only God can do: raise the dead and give life. This “life” is both the new “life” now given to believers (v. 24; 11:25–26; 2 Cor. 5:17) and the resurrection of the body at Christ’s second coming (1 Cor. 15:42–57; 1 Thess. 4:13–18; see Dan. 12:2).” (ESV Global Study Bible)

[3] Jesus offers another proof of his deity, since only God renders final judgment.

[4] “The authority to judge on the last day entails the authority to give resurrection life (cf. the connection between vv. 26–27). judges. A prerogative of God alone (Gen 18:25; Matt 25:31–33; Acts 10:42; 17:31). One of the rights and responsibilities of the king, whether the king is God or someone in David’s line, is to judge impartially and perfectly (see, e.g., Ps 72; Isa 11).” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[5] As explained in the Tony Evans Study Bible

[6] “Jewish sources in the wider Greek-speaking world held God to be the only one with life “of himself” (“uncreated,” “self-begotten,” etc.). As in some Greek writings, they described the supreme God as existing without any source outside himself.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds) 

[7] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[8] “The divine will is common to the three Persons of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—for all fully share the same divine nature. When the Son is said to obey the Father, this refers to His human will, which Christ assumed at His Incarnation.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[9] Moses wrote that the establishment of truth required 2-3 witnesses at minimum. “Jesus names several witnesses concerning himself: the Father (vv. 32, 37–38), John the Baptist (vv. 33–35), Jesus’ own works (v. 36), and the Scriptures (v. 39), especially Moses (vv. 45–47).” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[10] “Various early Jewish texts present Moses as a continuing advocate or intercessor for Israel, as he had been in the Bible (Ex. 32:32; 34:9; Jer. 15:1). Some scholars argue that these Jewish leaders view Moses as an advocate, the way the Fourth Gospel presents the Spirit on behalf of believers (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) and 1 John presents Jesus (1 John 2:1). If so, Jesus challenges such hopes, declaring that Moses will be their accuser (5:45).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

Harmony #36: Sending Out the Twelve (Matthew 9:35-38; 10:1, 5-15; 11:1; Mark 6:7-13; Luke 9:1-6)

 Then Jesus went throughout all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.[1]

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.[2]  Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.” Jesus called his twelve disciples[3] and gave them authority over unclean spirits so they could cast them out and heal every kind of disease and sickness.

Jesus sent out these twelve two by two[4] to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is near and to heal the sick.[5]He instructed them as follows: “Do not go to Gentile regions and do not enter any Samaritan town.[6] Go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near!’

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Take nothing[7] for the journey except a staff,[8] and put on sandals. Do not take gold, silver, or copper in your belts[9] – no bread, no bag for the journey, or an extra tunic, or sandals or staff,[10] for the worker deserves his provisions.

“Whenever you enter a town or village, find out who is worthy there and stay with them until you leave the area.[11]As you enter the house, give it greetings. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.[12]

And if anyone will not welcome you or listen to your message, as you leave that house or town, shake the dust off your feet[13] as a testimony against them. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for the region of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town![14]

When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their towns. Then the disciples departed and went throughout the villages, proclaiming the good news and preaching that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed sick people everywhere with oil and healed them.

A few comments on some dynamics at work here.

• The disciples would do the things that Jesus had been doing to prove their power and message were from him. They were given Christ-like credentials to confirm their message.

• They were to stay in the first house that welcomed them —no rejecting poor accommodations or working toward getting to a nicer place. The value of their host and their relationship with their host was more important than the comfort of their bed. 

• They were not to pressure those who refused to be hospitable to them or their message, but were to shake off the dust from their feet (hospitable hosts would have cleaned their feet for them) and move on.[15]

• This was not to be a means to accumulate wealth. Jerome (347-420) wrote, “Spiritual gifts are defiled if connected with rewards.” He was very concerned that it would look like “they were preaching not for the sake of humanity’s salvation but for the sake of their own financial gain.”[16] They had received their blessings without cost and were to pay it forward on the same basis.[17] Neither the miracles of the Kingdom nor the good news of the free gift of grace in the Kingdom were intended to make one wealthy by earthly standards.

This passage could be mined pretty deeply. There is a lot of treasure here below the surface. I am going to offer six points to ponder in hopes that at least one will challenge or encourage you.

1. The transformative reality that “the kingdom is near” needs to take root here before we take it there.  Jesus wasn’t telling them to only go the Jewish people because he disliked the Gentiles and Samaritans. He had already spoken to the woman at the well  in Samaria (who brought the whole village to see him), so the Kingdom tree was growing in Samaria. He had been healing Gentiles (we read last week that an entire household was converted), and the former demoniac was telling people about Jesus in the largely Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee, so it’s not as if the Gentiles had been ignored.

I suspect he steered the 12 toward the Jewish people for two reasons.

First, the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” are his children, his family. His sheep are wandering around like sheep without a Shepherd because they don’t know who the shepherd is. The Father loves his children, and he begins with them. He has not given up on them. His ministry will not end with his family, but it will begin with His family.

I’ll just note: if God has given you the gifts and talents to do ministry for the Kingdom on his behalf, begin with your family. It probably won’t end there, but it should start there. Trust me, as one for whom it took a long time for this to sink in. This is important.

Second, I wonder if it has something to do with the development of truth and character in those who will spread the message before they spread the message. There was some work that needed to be done so the ambassadors could represent the King well. For example, his disciples will soon ask him to call down fire on a Samaritan town.[18] Yeah, you might not want to send those guys to the Samaritans just yet. They might have known the message of Jesus, but they didn’t understand the heart of Jesus.

There is a lesson here :) It is important that we not neglect our spiritual formation as we build the reach and impact of the Kingdom. We don’t have to be perfect, obviously. We can a mess, in fact, as God is working to heal all the many ways we are broken. But we need to understand the heart of God for people, and we need to be committed to the ongoing serious discipleship that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, increases our likeness to Jesus. If we are planning to head out and beg God to call down fire on those who are lost, we aren't ready. When we see them as lost and confused sheep who need to meet the Shepherd, we are.

2. The crowds were like sheep without a shepherd, a ripe harvest with no one gathering. Is that how we view the lost or wandering crowds around us? It’s worth noting that it’s likely at least some of these people eventually clamored for Jesus’ crucifixion. Perhaps being able to view even hostile enemies this way is how, Jesus, while on the cross,  could say, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

When we see news coverage of THAT group marching for THAT issue, how do we see them?  Do we see sheep without a shepherd? When we walk downtown during Cherry Festival, do we see a field ripe for harvest, needing to have someone who an ambassador for Jesus enter into their lives with the good news of salvation? And what does your response motivate you to do: retreat in fear, lash out in anger, take an eye for eye, get a hostile bumper sticker that’s sure to trigger somebody? Or are we moved to prayerfully seek them out to share the message - and show with our lives-  that the good news that the Kingdom of heaven is here?

3. What does it look like to live prophetically? “Biblical prophets had to live simply in times of widespread apostasy, not dependent on decadent society (1Kings 17:4 – 6; 18:13; 2Kings 4:38; 5:15 – 16,26; 6:1).”[19]

Do we live in times of widespread apostasy (followers of Jesus falling away from the faith)? Yes, at a record pace for the United States. Is our culture decadent?  Almost 50 years ago, Francis Schaeffer argued vigorously that it is, and I don’t know of anyone who disagreed then or now.

We often talk about speaking prophetically, which 80+ percent of the time in the Bible meant proclaiming God’s word and plan boldly in what called forthtelling as opposed to foretelling about future events (that’s the other percentage points).

We talk about speaking prophetically in both of those ways (as we should), but we don’t so often talk about living prophetically. Why? It’s a lot easier to say some words than it is to change a lifestyle.

I wonder what it looks like for us to live prophetically? I’m not sure where to go with this: maybe… it’s this?  Or that? These are just ideas. I’m spitballing. There is something important here, and I feel like I’m nibbling at the edges. Maybe in Message+ we can get to the core. These are things I thought of this week.

• We refuse to support the destructive nature of greedy consumerism by reigning in our consumption and from our savings, practicing generosity.

• In an age of indulgence - often at the expense others - we practice self-restraint so that we are better able to serve others.

• We refuse to live in luxury when those around us live in squalor. Where is that line? I have no idea. But it’s somewhere.

• We fight the culture’s objectification and exploitation of people sexually and financially by determining to honor the intrinsic value of people with our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

• We refuse to go about our daily life as if everything is okay when it’s not okay. We commit to holy disturbances in the rhythm of our lives to spread the Kingdom.

I’m sure there’ more here. I hope this inspires us to think about it.

4. It is just as important to receive hospitality as to give it. In Jesus’ time, people honored others by showing hospitality. But it works both ways. Hosts were honored when people received their generosity, as simple as it may be. Imagine if a disciple had stayed one night at a house and the next day said, “Hey that was really nice, but I’m going to THAT house.” (Points toward the mansion up the block). Imagine how the poorer host would feel. I love that Jesus’ instructions required his disciples to appreciate people rather than the things that they had.

Also, there is something very, very important about receiving hospitality that affirms the value of the person giving. From a reddit post:

"I heard my mother asking our neighbor for some salt. I asked her why she was asking them as we had salt at home. She replied: 'It's because they're always asking us for things; they're poor. So I thought I'd ask something small from them so as not to burden them but at the same time make them feel as if we need them too.'"

5. The messenger of the Kingdom are purposeful, but not pushy. Notice that the disciples did not hound, berate, yell, march, picket, boycott those who were inhospitable to them or their ideas. They tried, and then moved on to those who were hospitable. I suspect, given enough time, they would have tried again or at least encouraged others to give it a shot. It’s not that they didn’t care. But they had a message of good seeds that needed to be sown in good soil, and there was only so much time.

There’s something here about discerning the moment. Of all the points, this might be the one that most obviously requires a sensitivity to whether the Holy Spirit is pushing you toward or pulling you from someone. The best explanation I have in my life is that there have been times when I’ve been talking to both Christians and non-Christians and it was clear they had heart soil ready for truth about all kinds of things, from who Jesus is to how to love others well or be honest about themselves…you name it, they were ready to have truth planted in their hearts.

In other conversations I’ve had, it became clear after a while that they were only in this to show me how smart they were, or to try to humiliate me, or to defend themselves from any and all attempts to help them see themselves as God and others saw them.

I don’t have a template or a scientific explanation about how you know the difference, but when you know, you know.

I don’t believe for a minute God was done with those villages when the disciples moved on. The Holy Spirit, the Hound of Heaven, will pursue them through someone else. When we feel nudged to move on, remember that just because we aren’t the messenger doesn’t mean there will be no messenger. I suspect God will send other people into their lives who will be far more effective than you or I ever would have been.

6. I wonder what signs are ‘credentials’ in our culture? What things would lay out our credentials as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God? For the disciples it was those specifically miraculous things, many of which directly pointed back to Old Testament prophecy concerning what the awaited Messiah would do. In many times and places throughout history, that kind of miraculous work has been like planting a flag in the ground and saying, “This is Kingdom territory,” and everybody got it.  

In increasingly secular cultures, where all miracles are explained away as unknown science, I wonder if the signs and wonders are sometimes something different. It’s not like God can’t be creative with how He displays His power and goodness to the world.

• In the book of Acts, miracles were the primary credentials. That continues today in many parts of the world, especially in countries where the supernatural world clashes very publically.

• In the first few centuries of the early church, miracles didn’t stop, but it was their love for everybody that awed the Gentiles more than anything else.

• Throughout history, faithful martyrdom has caught the attention of those far from Jesus.

• In the Middle Ages (when things went well) it was hospitable communities and the preservation of schools and libraries that shone like a city on a hill.

• In the Great Awakenings, it was repentant, transformed individuals, who often led the charge to address social issues (poverty, racism, alcoholism, orphans).

• In the Asuza revivals, it was the gifts of the Holy Spirit being used in power and love for the building of the church.

• The 2000s began with a proliferation of apologetics, philosophical, historical and theological arguments in defense of the faith that for many skeptics removed the hurdle of feeling like faith was not for the intellectual or scientific.

• Now, I think the most powerful credentials in the United States is increasingly returning to 1) the testimony of transformed lives, and 2) the witness of church communities characterized by embodied truth, love and grace displayed in the family, church and broader community. As has often been noted, people don’t care what we know until they know that we care.

 None of these are never not important. What is important is “understanding the times,” and entering into what God is doing at a particular time in a particular place for a particular people.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Ezekiel 34:5

[2] “The state of things suggested two pictures to His mind: a neglected flock of sheep, and a harvest going to waste for lack of reapers. Both imply, not only a pitiful plight of the people, but a blameworthy neglect of duty on the part of their religious guides—the shepherds by profession without the shepherd heart, the spiritual husbandmen without an eye for the whitening fields and skill to handle the sickle.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary) 

[3] “The Twelve were evidently not together all the time (some had homes and families).”

(ESV Reformation Study Bible)

[4] “[This] satisfies the requirement of two or three witnesses and provides them a measure of protection.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[5] “[This] is not appointment to a permanent office but commissioning for an immediate task.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[6] Jesus had already been to Samaria. Also, “That Jesus felt it necessary to mention the Samaritans at all presupposes John 4. The disciples, happy in the exercise of their ability to perform miracles, might have been tempted to evangelize the Samaritans when they remembered Jesus' success there. Judging by Lk 9:52-56, however, the Twelve were still tempermentally ill-equipped to minister to Samaritans.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary) 

[7] He will send out others where the instructions are different (Luke 22). Don’t think of the specifics as a timeless command. The specifics are for this group of people, at this time.

[8] “According to Mark 6:8, the disciples were allowed to take a staff. Here in Luke’s account, Jesus is probably not prohibiting a staff altogether but prohibiting taking an extra one, as Luke 10:4 prohibits extra sandals.” (ESV Global Study Bible)

[9] “Biblical prophets had to live simply in times of widespread apostasy not dependent on decadent society (cf., e.g., 3:1,4; 1Ki 17:4 – 6; 18:13; 2Ki 4:38; 5:15 – 16,26; 6:1).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[10] Remember how John the Baptist was likely an Essene, or at least heavily influenced by the Essene community? “When Essenes (members of a strict Jewish sect) traveled, they traveled light, depending on hospitality from other Essenes.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible) Then, consider how all of Jesus disciples either followed John or were influenced by him. In other words, these instructions would not have felt unusual.

[11] “Rather than moving from house to house, perhaps in a quest for better housing, the apostles were to establish their ministry headquarters in one home. (ESV Global Study Bible) “They would rely on hospitality, but staying in one house limited the time they spent in any one place.” (ESV Reformation Study Bible) “The disciples should receive hospitality graciously. Hospitality was important as well as necessary in days of difficult travel conditions and poor accommodations at inns. The disciples were not to move about from house to house, a practice that might gain them more support but would insult their hosts.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[12] “The conventional Jewish greeting was shalom, “May it be well with you.” This was a blessing, i.e., an implicit prayer to God.” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[13] “Proper hospitality included offering water for guests to wash their feet; here the travelers’ feet remain conspicuously unwashed. Jewish people sometimes shook profane dust from their feet when entering a more holy place (Ex 3:5) [or] leaving pagan territory to enter the Holy Land.” (NIV Cultural Background Study Bible)

[14] Note that this is not a judgment on Gentiles. This is a referendum on God’s people, those who have the Law and are not practicing hospitality. The prophets said that one of the prominent sins of Sodom was inhospitality (Ezekiel 16:49). The people of Sodom were (in a sense) Gentiles who didn’t know any better. What they did was bad, but God’s people knew better. It’s worse.

[15] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[16] As found in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Matthew 1-13

[17] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[18] Luke 9

[19] NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible

Harmony #35: Faith, Frailty And Miracles

As Jesus traveled to Cana (the village in Galilee where He transformed the water into fine wine), he was met by a government official, a Gentile, from Herod’s court. This man had heard a rumor that Jesus had left Judea and was heading to Galilee, and he came in desperation begging for Jesus’ help because his young son was near death.

 He was fearful that unless Jesus would go with him to Capernaum (20 miles away), his son would have no hope.

 Jesus said, ”My word is not enough; you people only believe when you see miraculous signs and wonder.”[1]

The official replied, “Sir, this is my son; please come with me before he dies.”

 Jesus said, “Go home. Your son will live.”

He believed the word of Jesus and returned to his home. Before he reached his village, his servants met him on the road celebrating his son’s miraculous recovery.

The official asked, “What time did this happen?”

His servants replied, “Yesterday about one o’clock in the afternoon.”

At that moment, it dawned on the father the exact time that Jesus spoke the words, “He will live.” After that, he believed; and when he told his family about his amazing encounter with this Jesus, they believed too. This was the second sign Jesus performed when He came back to Galilee from Judea.

Jesus led His followers to Jerusalem where they would celebrate a Jewish feast together. In Jerusalem they came upon a pool by the sheep gate surrounded by five covered porches. In Hebrew this place is called Bethesda. Crowds of people lined the area, lying around the porches.

All of these people were disabled in some way; some were blind, lame, paralyzed, or plagued by diseases; and they were waiting for the waters to move.[2] They believed a heavenly messenger came to stir the water in the pool. Whoever reached the water first and got in would be healed of his or her disease.”[3]

In the crowd, Jesus noticed one particular man who had been living with his disability for 38 years. He knew this man had been waiting here a long time.

Jesus said to the disabled man,  “Do you want to be healed?”[4]

The man replied, “Kind Sir, I wait, like all of these people, for the waters to stir. But I cannot walk. If I am to be healed in the waters, someone must carry me into the pool. Without a helping hand, someone else beats me to the water’s edge each time it is stirred.”

 Jesus replied, “Stand up, carry your mat, and walk. ”At the moment Jesus uttered these words, the man was healed—he stood and walked for the first time in 38 years. But this was the Sabbath Day; and any work, including carrying a mat, was prohibited on this day.

The Jewish Leaders said to the man who had been healed, “Must you be reminded that it is the Sabbath? You are not allowed to carry your mat today!”

The formerly disabled man replied, “The man who healed me gave me specific instructions to carry my mat and go.”

 “Who is the man who gave you these instructions?” The Jewish leaders asked,  “How can we identify Him?” The man genuinely did not know who it was that healed him. In the midst of the crowd and the excitement of his renewed health, Jesus had slipped away. Some time later, Jesus found him in the temple and again spoke to him.

”Take a look at your body; it has been made whole and strong. So avoid a life of sin, so that nothing worse will happen to you.” The man went immediately to tell the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the mysterious healer. So they began pursuing and attacking Jesus because He performed these miracles on the Sabbath.

But Jesus said to them, “My Father is at work. So I, too, am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 

As I said last week, I think the main purpose of these miracles is to show the deity of Jesus. In the verses that follow this passage, Jesus and the Pharisees have it out about this issue. Today I am going to use these miracles to look at four topics embedded in these miracle stories. I think you will find that I’m only scratching the surface, and I encourage you to read, pray, and meditate on this passage on your own.

God’s good law was never meant to hinder or obscure grace.

The Pharisees completely ignore the lame man’s comments about his healing. All they see is that Jesus broke the law – specifically, their traditions added to the laws that defined how to use God’s law on their terms rather than God’s terms.[1] Jesus heals a man who had been sick for apparently decades, and they don’t realize they are in the presence of the Lord of both the Sabbath and of sickness. All they can say is, “How dare you help him on God’s day. You are working!”

We must be careful. Like the Pharisees, we can create our own set of laws that add to the Bible’s teaching and then use our standard as a measure of not just our righteousness, but the righteousness of those around us. If we begin to so value our additional moral definitions and constraints that we can’t see the goodness of God at work, we are in trouble.

I don't mean we should discard God’s good Law as it applies to us today. Jesus came to fulfill or perfect the moral heart of the Law (Matthew 5:17). The Law is a good thing when rightly understood and followed (it’s a schoolmaster, says Paul[5]), but it’s not the ultimate thing. It is meant to guide us toward a Savior.

So the Law is for our good and God’s glory. If we use it to undermine our good or obscure God’s glory, we have misunderstood the Law. We have to be really careful that we don’t add to it and by so doing make it something it was not meant to be. There’s a point where Jesus says of the Sabbath, “You thought you were made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for you.”[6] As in, you missed the point of this Law.

In the situation with the lame man, Jesus did not break the law of God. He revealed the heart of God. In so doing, he broke an add-on that should not have been added on. The Pharisees heard “work on the Sabbath” rather than “lame man made whole.” Norma McCorvey (of Roe v Wade) came to Jesus while smoking with a pro-life dude in a parking lot. The Pharisee hears “smoking”; grace hears “came to Christ.”

Jesus responds to both our faith and our frailty.

I know we talked about this last Sunday. It’s not my fault that the next stories just keep making the same point. I had a list of six different incidents last week in which faith and frailty were both on display. Here’s two more.

The royal official sought Jesus and asked for his help. When Jesus told him that his son would be okay, it seems that the best translation would be to say the official trusted his word. He had faith in Jesus’ power, which was at least a start. After he found out about his son’s healing, he ‘believed’ again, but this time he and his entire household appear to believe Jesus was Lord. He went from believing in Jesus as healer to believing in Jesus as Lord. 

The lame man didn’t even know who Jesus was. This man made no cry for help.[7] He didn't grab Jesus and say, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" like the blind men did. When Jesus asked if he wanted to be healed, he basically dodged the question (more on that later). The text doesn't record that he ever worshipped Jesus as a result of being healed, yet Jesus healed him, encouraged him, and equipped him to give a testimony.

If you wonder if you have enough faith for God to act on your behalf, take heart. Don’t assume that God has given up on you, even if other people have – or if you have. Pray; ask God to move and work in you to build your faith, follow the disciplines that the Bible says will strengthen the faith you have been given (prayer, scripture reading, obedience, fellowship with God and others), but don’t forget - God moves in in our faith and in our frailty. He brings us life and hope not because we are strong enough and good enough, but because He is.

“Do you want to get well?” is a question we must all answer.

The Bible does not unpack the lame man’s personality or life story, but that has not stopped commentators from speculating for 2,000 years J Many have offered the following observations, and my thoughts will build on this.

·      The rabbis said, "The sick arises not from sickness, until his sins be forgiven."[8] Clearly Jesus didn’t think that was always the case, as this is the first time we see Jesus mention sickness in connection with sin. When Jesus told the lame man to avoid sin so that nothing worse would happen to him – something he doesn’t say to anyone else he healed - it makes me wonder if this man chose to do something sinful that made him lame. If so, that’s a stigma that will follow you.

·      Interestingly, he was probably taken care of decently by the Jewish community. A story in the Talmud gives us some insight[9]:

"A beggar once came to Rava who asked him 'What do your meals usually consist of?' 'Plump chicken and matured wine' answered the beggar. 'Do you not consider this a burden on the community?' asked Rava. The beggar retorted: 'I do not take from them – I take what God provides.' At that moment Rava's sister, who had not seen him for 13 years, appeared bringing him a fat chicken and matured wine. 'Just what I told you!' said the beggar."

That story is one of many in Jewish literature that captures some of the tension in the Jewish community, God commanded them to take care of the poor and lame; sometimes they did a bad job (read the Old Testament prophets), but sometimes they took care of them so well that it was advantageous to be poor or lame, and the broader community became resentful.

·      When Jesus asked if he wanted to be healed, many commentators note that the lame man dodged the question.[10] He didn’t say ‘yes’.  He basically responded, “I don’t have any friends.” Perhaps he has given up hope; perhaps he’s actually not ready to be healed. Either way, after decades of being lame, he’s at a public site used by Jews and Gentiles as they await an event more based on superstition than anything else. He has no family or friends who care enough to get him to the front of the line. That’s not a good sign.  

James Baldwin wrote, “Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.”  Why? Because with great healing comes great responsibility (sorry, Spider-Man.).

·      If he became well, the community provision would go away.

·      He couldn’t complain about his circumstances.

·      He couldn’t resent those who didn’t care enough to help him into the water.

·      He may need to address sin in his life (if that’s what’s going on here).[11]

·      Perhaps the pity of others mattered more to him than he cared to admit.

Jesus’ question is loaded with insight into human nature. It reminds me a bit of God’s question to Adam and Eve:  “Where are you?”[12] I can envision Adam thinking, “Where am I!?!? Hiding from… oh. I’m hiding from you. What have I done?” If my reading of the lame man is correct, I suspect this question was meant to take the man into the rabbit hole of his own heart and mind. “Do I want to be healed?!?! Of course I…well…? How on earth is that not an easy answer?”

 If we aren’t careful, we can begin to want to keep our sickness.

·      Have you ever avoided doing something you didn’t want to by stretching that cold or flu out one more day?

·      Have you ever used a stressful day at work to get out of some chore at home that you could have done?

·      I found pretty quickly that “I had a heart attack” was a really easy way to not do something I could do because everybody will give me the space. 

·      Have you ever used something from your past as a crutch, a way to justify something you are doing now that you know you should change? (“I know I’m really fixated on money and things, but I grew up poor!” ) And you like being able to justify, so you avoid prayer, counseling – you know, the things that might help.

·      Have you found that the attention and care you get when life is not going well has started to translate into life never going well because you’re afraid that you won’t get the same attention and care?

If we are not careful, our physical, spiritual, or emotional illnesses can become such a core part of our identity that we can’t imagine life without it – and aren’t sure we want to imagine life without it. I am not saying we will automatically do that, or there’s not times that life is relentlessly hard. I’m saying we have to be careful.

Sometimes, we don’t really want to get well because where or who we are feels like home, or we have learned how to leverage our inability or brokenness or weakness to our favor. Being healed will involve an upsetting of the status quo. It may even mean we have to take ownership of some things in our life that had been out of our control.

A practical example: I have dealt with tiredness for years since my heart attack. At times, it was significant enough that my productive time of day was over by noon. I had to nap for hours, and my concentration when I was awake wasn’t good. If I avoided napping, it didn’t help, because I was miserably tired. So, the rhythm of my life changed. It had to. I didn’t like that rhythm, but I learned to be comfortable in it.

A couple months ago, I began to have trouble napping. I just wasn’t as tired as I used to be. Then I got some new meds for a different issue, and my sleepiness went away even more. You’d think this was good news, but it was unsettling. I had my schedule figured out. Now, suddenly, there might be hours more per day where I was not sleepy, and what would I do with my time? And I had started to like a couple hours of downtime. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be less sleepy. It took a while to adjust.

A more serious example: I want to be free of self-righteousness. I can get into the habit of seeing the headlines of the scandalous things that happen to other pastors, and I can adopt the attitude of the Pharisee: “Thank God I’m not like that.”[13] I want to be free of that. But…..I deal with a fair amount of self-doubt and self-criticism. And it’s in those moments of self-righteousness that I feel good about myself comparatively. It’s my time to pat myself on the back. Do I want to be healed? Yes? No? (Just so you know, this issue has been added to my prayers. “Help me be free of self-righteousness. Help me want to be free.”)

Jesus is offering an observation that is of eternal importance then and now: some people love their sin so much that they would rather remain spiritually sick than be made well. “Do you want to get well?” is a question that must be answered honestly.

·      Do you want your marriage to be better even if that means when Jesus begins to heal the sinful dysfunction that you bring to it, you might have to do the hard work of repentance, and counseling, and accountability?

·      Do you want Jesus to heal you of your addictions even if the means he uses include rehab and accountability?

·      Do you want Jesus to fix your relationship with your kids (or parents, or family, or friends) even if that means owning the damage you cause with your sinful words and attitude and doing the hard work of character development?

·      Do you want Jesus to free you of that anger, that lust, that pride, that bitterness that has been such a close friend for so long?

·      Do you want Jesus to free you from constantly living in fear that the sky is falling because of whatever the current culture war is in the headlines?

If you go to Jesus and he heals you, you are surrendering the right to always and relentlessly blame your kids, your parents, your spouse, your family of origin, the economy, your friends and use them as excuses for what you give yourself permission to do.[14] You may need to address the fallout from sins others have committed against you and/or the fallout from the sin you have done to others. It will be disruptive and unsettling. Do you want to be healed?

What I love about Jesus is that he healed the man even though Jesus got a somewhat evasive answer. I wonder if the question was meant to challenge something in the mindset of the lame man.  Almost as if Jesus was going to not only heal his lameness, but he was going to begin a process in the lame man to confront his heart. In my imagination, I can see this man leaving healed (yay!) while also hearing Jesus’ question in his mind. “Do I want to be healed?” He has to challenge himself. Maybe he didn’t. And if that ‘s the case, and he’s honest, there is healing on the other side of that of a different kind.

God intends for our past to point others to Jesus.

Jesus told the lame man to pick up his bed and walk. What better conversation starter was there to point toward Jesus?  I can see people who knew him saying, “What on earth happened? How is this possible?” It’s a guaranteed way for this formerly lame man to point to Jesus. That now unnecessary bed was meant to be a sign pointing to Jesus, an opportunity for others to hear about what Jesus can do – and so point to the Jesus as Lord.

We don’t carry our beds, but we have equivalent opportunities. One of the best ways to point toward the awesome majesty of Jesus is to let people see what God has done in our lives. It’s one thing to say that Jesus saves and heals; it’s quite another to show that Jesus does these things.

·      People need to know that God can deliver from pornography – which means people like you have to tell them how he delivered you.

·      People need to know that God can heal and transform people with destructive personalities and habits– which means people like you have to tell them how God has healed or is healing you from your destructive personality and habits.

·      People need to know that arrogant, judgmental fools can be refined and matured – which means people like you have to tell them how he has turned or is turning the arrogant, judgmental fool that you were into a humble, grace-filled ambassador for Jesus.

·      People need to know that those who are spiritually dead in their sins - hurting those around them, imploding through bad choices, ignoring or shaking their fist at God – can be forgiven, restored, and transformed into the likeness of Christ. And that means people like you have to tell them about you.

An author named Asia Mouzone said, "Never silence your testimony. It's meant for someone else; not you." God’s plan is for even the most broken parts of our past to point toward Jesus. ‘Believing’ and ‘trusting’ includes surrendering our shame, our guilt, our pride to the only one who can heal us.

The Father is at work. We are meant to take up the beds to which our brokenness had condemned us and carry it with us to a world that needs to see that Jesus saves.

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[1] “Jesus detects in the royal official a faith that desires a miraculous cure but that does not truly trust him.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible) 

[2] “The temple authorities undoubtedly did not approve—after all, sacred pools at healing shrines characterized Greek cults like that of Asclepius—but popular religion often ignores religious contradictions that seem clearer to official religious leaders.” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary of the New Testament)

[3] I changed the order of this verse for our reading to make it more clear that this is what the people believed; this does not mean it was true. “The material about an angel of the Lord stirring the water and bringing healing appears in some early manuscripts, but not the earliest. Thus v. 4 should not be considered part of Scripture. Still, v. 7 (which is in all manuscripts) shows that people believed something like what v. 4 reports.” (ESV Global Study Bible) “See NIV text note, which includes text that does not appear in the oldest and best manuscripts; but v. 7 shows that it matches a popular belief at the time. Intermittent springs that fed the pools may have stirred the water. But how the pool worked is not essential to the story.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[4] “Sadly, some may prefer to remain infirm in order to have license to complain, to avoid responsibility for their lives, or to continue exciting the pity of others.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[5] Galatians 3:24-27.

[6] Mark 2:27

[7] “It is not stated that faith in Jesus was required of the man, as was the case in many of Jesus’ miracles (Matt. 9:22; 13:58; Mark 6:5, 6). The focus here is on Jesus’ power.”( ESV Reformation Study Bible)

[8] Barclay’s Bible Commentary

[9] “Begging and Beggars,” http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_02291.html

[10] Other commentators see his response as one of faith, but he had no idea who he was talking to, so that doesn’t make sense to me.

[11] Commentators have different opinions on this. That seems to be implied by the text. However, Jesus may be telling him that if he thought being physically sick was bad, it was nothing compared to the sickness and result of sin. Or both J

[12] Genesis 3:9

[13] Luke 8:9-14

[14] I am NOT saying these things have no influence on us. They absolutely do. I’m talking about settling into a place where we avoid asking God for healing, and then using our agency to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead to get the help we need.