What Does a Healthy Spirit-Filled, Spirit-Empowered Church Look Like?

(This message was given by Julie Eickenroth. Thatnks,Julie!)

Key scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12, 13 & 14 

Other scriptures: Ephesians 4:16, 1 Peter 4:10, Luke 11:11, Matt. 7:9-11 

🖉

Good morning, dear family! Thank you, Anthony, for offering me the honor of  sharing with you guys today. So let’s jump right in ... Let’s talk today about what a healthy Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered church  looks like. 

I grew up in this church when it was the leading “Charismatic” worshiping  church in the area - cutting edge, contemporary worship (my husband Dave was  a forerunner in worship).  The baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit were emphasized and  practiced.  Some of you were here then. Some of you are new to our history.  

We were all young and on fire and passionate about the Holy Spirit and  the gifts and worship. It was wonderful.  We were also young and immature.  Truthfully, at times we kinda sucked at relationships. ☺ Sometimes we were pretty hard on each other.  

You’d think that “healthy” and “Spirit-filled/ Spirit-empowered” are automatically  synonymous, right? My experience has been “not necessarily”.  We just didn’t know much yet about healthy spiritual community and healthy  relationships. And babies make messes. ☺ We -- leaders, everybody -- all did what we were taught and what had been  modeled for us. Probably most churches are like that.  Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. You know?  

We have grown SO much since then.  A lot of that growth has been through painful experience ... painful mistakes - and we made a lot of them ...  But over time, thank God, we grew from those painful mistakes.  I am super proud of our leadership here - not all of whom were here back then  - but who took the lead in helping us grow up - because they personally committed  to it - they humbled themselves and have worked hard at it.

And gradually what they were learning and teaching us and modeling for us  began to permeate the atmosphere and culture of our community. It’s a much healthier place now, where authenticity, vulnerability and  commitment to growth and to each other are a real priority.  We are truly becoming a beautiful spiritual FAMILY.  

So lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what would it really look like for a  community of believers to function in the Spirit’s power and gifts ~ AND ~  be relationally healthy - a safe place full of kindness and love. Reflecting the heart of Jesus in all we do together and in our community.  

Our Christian faith is at its core a deeply relational faith.  Because GOD is a relational God.  Therefore His Book is relational book.  The core doctrine of Christianity IS relationship.  LOVE. Healthy love in all its forms.  I believe God wants to bring correction and balance to our perspective on the  Holy Spirit and His gifts in the context of healthy spiritual community life - as it always should have been.  

Today we’re going to ground our discussion in 1 Corinthians 12, 13 &14,  as well as a few other scripture passages. 🖉 These three chapters in 1 Corinthians will give us a broad & brief overview or  framework, then we’ll home in on several specific passages that will address what a  healthy, Spirit-filled, Spirit-empowered church can look like.  

There are two main purposes for the gifts of the Holy Spirit as outlined in  Scripture:  

1. To empower the preaching of the Gospel and endorse it with signs and  wonders. (REF: Matt 28:16-20, Luke 24:44-53, Acts 2:1-13)  In Jesus’ own ministry, miracles, signs and wonders followed His  preaching the Gospel. He actually functioned in ALL the gifts. Everything  He did in His life and ministry on earth, He modeled for US. I love that. ☺ 

2. To empower the church to help each other heal and grow up into mature love.   (REF: 1 Cor. 12, Ephesians 4:16, 1 Peter 4:10)

Today we’re going to focus on the second, but definitely not lesser purpose of the  gifts - the body building itself up in love. ... but more importantly, to put the gifts and the Holy Spirit’s work among us  in the proper context of our community life together.  

First, a disclaimer ... I am aware there is a lot of controversy over whether the gifts  of the Spirit are for today - a doctrine or belief known as cessationism. There is a  good deal of fear, ignorance, and unbelief surrounding the gifts, not to mention  abuse and misuse. However, establishing the context like that will take too long to get to my main  theme today so I have put some comments about this into an addendum at the end  of the notes. Perhaps we can have more conversation on these things in MessagePlus or  maybe even have a future class on this topic.  

Because it’s definitely a conversation worth having, to revive our proper  understanding of the Holy Spirit’s gifts in the life of the church, and in the  Great Commission.  Now - back to the overview of our texts in 1 Corinthians. Let’s look at the themes of chapter 12, 13, & 14 ... we’ll go back and forth  between them a bit in our discussion.

Picture the three chapters as a group, like a HINGE ...  

• 1 Cor 12: A list of the Holy Spirit’s gifts and a picture of the beautiful body  of Christ, and how we are to regard and treat one another in community. These themes are very tightly linked by Paul in this chapter. 

• 1 Cor 14: This chapter outlines the proper, orderly and responsible  function of the gifts in the context of corporate worship.  (We won’t spend any time in ch. 14 today other than to note it, because it’s more  important to establish the main points I want to focus on.) 

• 1 Cor. 13: the famous “love chapter”, I call this the “hinge” chapter - -- the critical chapter upon which chapter 12 and 14 turn.  

We’ll come back to ch. 13 in a minute.

CHAPTER 12 

Paul starts ch. 12 with: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want  you to be uninformed.” (be ignorant, misunderstand, be unaware)  

V. 4-6 says there are “varieties of gifts, service, and activities” that are given and empowered by the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God.  

V. 7 - then clearly links “the manifestation of the Spirit” in the various gifts to  serving one another, saying they are for “the common good” of the body. 

Then he lists the various kinds of gifts (NOT an exhaustive list of the gifts here): 

• the word of wisdom  

• the word of knowledge 

• faith 

• healing 

• working of miracles 

• various kinds of tongues (there are several) 

• interpretation of tongues  

... and says these are all empowered by one and the same Spirit, Who gives  these gifts AS He wills, to WHOM He wills. 

Next is Paul’s description of how critically important each person in the body  is to the whole body, to our family life together. 🖉[SLIDE] (1 Cor. 12: 12-21)✂ 

2 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For  we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we  were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part, but of many. 

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to  the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in  the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need  you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 

• we are all baptized by one Spirit 

• we were all given one Spirit to drink 

• we cannot reject/dismiss ourselves - “I don’t belong to the body!” • we cannot reject/dismiss others with contempt - “I don’t need you!” 

Now before we look at the next passage, vs. 22-26 ... I’m going to pause here and go back to 1 Cor. 13 for a minute.After discussing the Holy Spirit and His gifts to the Body of Christ, Paul then  points us to what he calls “the more excellent way”,with LOVE being the “more excellent way”.  

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 was written some 2000 years ago, yet this list actually represents  many of the doctrinal emphases we see in the body of Christ today.  

• speaking with tongues 

• prophecy 

• spiritual knowledge of mysteries 

• other kinds of knowledge 

• faith – we see a lot about the word of faith movement these days • serving the poor 

• sacrificial martyrdom 

These could be characterized as “open hand” issues ... things about which we  personally can feel passionate and convinced, but are not central to the core of our  faith (“closed hand” issues). Paul says of all these things - they are nothing without LOVE.  Even faith, serving the poor, and martyrdom are nothing WITHOUT LOVE! 

The rest of Ch. 13 then tells us how each of us should look as we grow up and  begin to bear the fruit of mature love over time. 

Faith, hope and love ... and the greatest of these is LOVE. 

Because you can have faith - and not have love.  

And you can have hope - and not have love. 

But when hope and faith falter or fail, God’s love is what will carry us. 

And now we’ll circle back to my favorite passage and the other main point today.  

Paul talks about how we are to treat each other ... specifically, “the weak among  us”. 

1 Corinthians 12:22-26:  

22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary [indispensable]. 23 And the parts we regard as less  honorable [immodest] are those we clothe with the greatest care [modesty].  So we carefully protect [cover] those parts that should not be seen, 24while the  more honorable [presentable] parts do not require this special care.  

So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to  those parts that have less dignity [honor]. 25 This makes for harmony among the  members, so that all the members care for each other [have the same concern]. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the  parts are glad. 

“Weak” here doesn’t mean weak morally ... it simply means infirm, feeble, more  easily fatigued or injured, more easily affected with disease, etc.  God does not have contempt for weakness, so neither should we. (And honestly, sometimes our greatest strengths can become our greatest weakness  ... so there’s that. ☺) 

I love this passage ... the idea of adding honor to those who aren’t typically  honored, but instead marginalized, while those who are more gifted, talented,  attractive, charismatic, etc., need no special honor added to them. So what does that love look like? Now we come to the main point: 

Who might be “the weak among us”? Just a partial list, I’m sure you could think of more ... 

• The elderly - treasures stored up in their hearts that they could still be offering  to the body of Christ with just a little support  

• People who struggle with mental illness, depression, personality disorders • Women / children - certain interpretations of doctrine have marginalized and  degraded women ... and we all know what Jesus had to say about causing  little ones to stumble 

• The poor 

• The abused, traumatized, people with PTSD  

• The orphaned, abandoned, and lonely 

• Single parents 

• Women who’ve had abortions or are being pressured to have an abortion • Unmarried for whatever reason (single, widowed, circumstances, wounding) • Folks who live with chronic illness or disability  

🖉What do you do when a person’s illness or disability doesn’t yield to  our strongest, most faith-filled prayers? Too often I have seen people discarded marginalized or treated with contempt or distain and accused of   not having enough faith. I experienced this myself when I was diagnosed with breast cancer years ago.

Obviously we are to treat EVERYONE with kindness and honor.  But for the gifted, the strong, the attractive, etc. = “No extra honor is needed” Instead, we can add honor to “the weak among us”  So how can we add honor to “the weak among us”? A few suggestions: (There could be a LOT more -- MessagePlus?): 

• Ask the Holy Spirit to examine our own heart for judgments that would  cause our heart to grow cold/distant, to move away from people we don’t agree  with, or may have hidden pockets of fear or contempt for. 

The Holy Spirit will happily point out these areas if you ask Him.  Sometimes He’ll point them out even if you don’t ask Him. ☺

• Sit with people. Ask them, “What’s your life like? What’s it like to be you?”  Then listen -- and listen some more. Don’t preach, don’t scold, don’t cheerlead  -- sometimes even our most enthusiastic encouragement and cheerleading isn’t  what’s needed so much as LISTENING.  

To loosely quote from Dr. Dan Allender: “You don’t need five letters after your name to sit with people and hear their stories.” 

You guys know me. I love to teach, to exhort, build people up, to cheerlead. But sometimes my “coach” or “teacher-y vibe” isn’t what’s needed.  A dear friend taught me that some years ago. She shared her deepest heart  and pain ... I started teaching her about judgments ... and watched her deflate  and crumple in on herself. “Too many words, too many words”, she whispered.  In that moment, when she was being triggered in her pain, WORDS wre not  what she needed. She needed me to LISTEN.  

I could have been offended, but the Holy Spirit caught my heart in that  moment. Was this about her pain and her need in the moment - or my ego? So I asked her to teach me how to listen to her.  Since then she has honestly, courageously, and faithfully taught me how to  listen, to attune to what she needs. In return, she has been a great friend to me  as well. 

• Educate yourself. Read up on trauma and its long term effects on people.  Study up on autism. Go to an AA or NA meeting with a friend in recovery.  Volunteer at Thrive. You get the idea.  

• Then walk along with them. Go to them, don’t wait for them to call you.  Include them. Invite them. Invite yourself.  

It’s not always easy to sit with or walk along over the long-term with people  who have been abused, traumatized, marginalized, judged and dismissed for  various reasons. Sometimes we don’t know what to do or say. We don’t know  how to relieve or heal their pain and loss. Press in, anyway.  This stretches our love. But without exposing our hearts to opportunities to  grow with each other, our love remains thin and weak. All relationships require  RISK.  

Ultimately, the true measure of the Holy Spirit’s gifts and work among us is  defined best by our love and service to the weakest among us. 

1 Peter 4:10: "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve  others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms."

Ephesians 4:16: “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part  does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is  healthy, growing, and full of love.” (NLT) 

The Lord gave me a word years ago.  “I WILL pour my Spirit out on this church again,  but I’m teaching them to love first.”  That’s happening now. There is a powerful move of the Spirit at work in our  midst RIGHT NOW. The Holy Spirit is moving -- lives are quietly, but powerfully  being transformed RIGHT NOW. Is it happening on the platform or at the altar  every Sunday? Not so much as it’s taking place in our check-in groups ... I’m  seeing people being transformed in these groups right before my very eyes.  

The mighty Holy Spirit doesn’t need platforms ... He needs PEOPLE. 

Addendum Notes 

1. The gifts are for today.  

I am aware there is a discussion in the church whether the Holy Spirit’s gifts are for  today or whether they ceased with the establishment of the early church. This belief  is called “cessationism”. If you’re not familiar with it, you can read up on the  controversy, there’s lots of info online about this controversy.  

Personally, I see much evidence in Scripture that the endowment of the Spirit’s gifts  on the church are for today.  

Here are just a few Scriptures that point to that fact:  

• Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever . • 1 Cor. 12:11 says “the Holy Spirit gives His gifts as He wills, to whom He  wills”, as we saw in our text today.  

• 1 Cor. 12:7 states the gifts are given “for the common good” .  • If the Spirit’s gifts are given for “the common good” of the body of Christ, then  why could that have ceased with the early church? If anything, we need His  gifts now more than ever. 

• Romans 11:29 says “His gifts and callings are without repentance  [irrevocable]”, which means He hasn’t revoked the giving of His gifts after  the founding of the early church.  

• The Holy Spirit is our Advocate, Comforter, Counselor, and Helper.  He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and the coming judgment. He  will teach us everything He hears from Jesus and lead us into all truth (John  16.7–15). 

2. We need not be afraid of the Holy Spirit’s gifts.  

Matthew 7:9-11 - For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and  to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him  for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how  much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask  him! 

Luke 11:9-13:9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will  find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and  the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What  father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, 

know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly  Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” 

The Holy Spirit is "the good gift" the Father has given us! 

Therefore the Holy Spirit is the “Good Gift” Who gives good gifts! 

~ bread vs. stone: God will give us something to nurture and feed us,  not something cold, hard, and dead 

~ fish vs. snake: He will not give us anything that will lead us into deception. ~ egg vs. scorpion: He will not give us anything stinging or deadly. 

The gifts of the Spirit are just that: GIFTS. They are not to be dishonored, ignored,  shamed, marginalized. Many are ignorant or fearful of the gifts due to misuse or  abuse. Some is simply due to immaturity and lack of training and experience.  

I love what Graham Cooke says: 

“The answer to abuse or misuse of the gifts 

is not NON-use, but PROPER use.” 

We are to grow in the gifts just like we grow in anything else - in our faith, our  knowledge of the Word, in love - WITH PRACTICE.  

Wrong use of the gifts:  

• to promote people and give them a platform 

• to monetize ministry and enrich them 

• to control and abuse others (God forbid!)  

The Holy Spirit and His gifts are not meant to be merely displays of the Spirit's  power to impress others (each other and the world), or to puff ourselves up, or to  monetize their use to enrich ourselves (like in many platform ministries). 

Again, GOD FORBID. 👓 

The Holy Spirit’s beautiful, mighty gifts were given to serve God’s people, to help  us grow up into mature love, and to help us bring the lost to Jesus Christ.  

With our natural gifts and talents, the Holy Spirit’s gifts are meant to help us serve  one another so we all grow in love and wisdom as the living, breathing expression  of God's love in the world.  

All power - whether the immense power given to us by God in the form of free will,  or whether His mighty supernatural power, must be rooted and grounded in love or  it will inevitably be misused or abused.  

Then the Holy Spirit adds His empowerment to our lives to help us do what we  cannot do in our own strength. But always, always, always, ALL power must be  rooted and grounded in love.

Harmony #78: Mary, Martha, and Jesus (John 11:55-12:11; Matthew 26:6-16; Mark 14:3-11; Luke 10: 38-42)

Have you heard the phrase, “Can’t see the forest for all of the trees?” Today’s passage has a lot of trees. We will look at them first, because those trees have something to offer, and then the forest, because the Big Picture matters.

Now the Jewish feast of Passover was near, and many people went up to Jerusalem from the rural areas before the Passover to cleanse themselves ritually. Thus they were looking for Jesus, and saying to one another as they stood in the temple courts,“What do you think? That he won’t come to the feast?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should report it, so that they could arrest him.

Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom he had raised from the dead. While Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, they prepared a dinner for him there. Lazarus was among those present at the table with him. Martha was serving, distracted with all the preparations she had to make, while her sister Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he said. Martha came up to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work alone? Tell her to help me.”

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the best part; it will not be taken away from her.”

This incident apparently happens after Lazarus was raised from the dead. Martha is doing what anyone would do who had a distinguished guest: seeking to honor him by taking care of him. I mean, HE RAISED HER BROTHER FROM THE DEAD.

This was crucial. When Jesus talks with her, his approach suggests he is not mad or scolding. He may even be saying, “I see how much you are worried about honoring me well.” Mary “chose the best part,” as if what Martha chose was good, but not the highest good in that moment.[1]

Today, we might reference a personality test or a love language test to explain their different responses to Jesus. “Oh, Martha is acts of service. Mary is quality time.” Jesus, who knows how to love well, speaks their love language.  What did Jesus give Mary? Quality time. What did and will Jesus give Mary in raising Lazarus and dying on the cross? Acts of service. So I don’t think this is a blanket criticism of Martha. There’s something about the moment, the timing, the opportunity right in front of her.

I wonder if this has something to tell us about “be with” Jesus contrasted with “do for” Jesus. Both are good, but neither is a template for every moment. In that moment, it was better to “be with.”

We must remember that there is a place for “be with” and “do for” as we follow Jesus. Both honor Jesus. Both have an important place. We want to be with Jesus and live for Jesus, right? He’s going to give all the disciples marching orders when he leaves; he’s already sent them out on short missions. “Do for” is a good thing, but it’s not the only thing, and it can’t be isolated from “be with.”

It’s hard not to judge when we see others leaning into one approach when we really like the other. Martha thinks Mary should be “doing for” Jesus just like her, but that wasn’t true. Mary was in the right place. It’s easy to think the focus we choose (doing or being) is THE RIGHT WAY FOR EVERYBODY, but…we don’t know that to be true.

Sometimes, I need to do things for my wife: the dishes, put away my laundry, fix that sink, make smoked wings for the Ohio State game, give her my receipts from Menards so we can get that 11% back. Sometimes, I need to just be with her: watching The Great British Bake-off together, going on a date, collecting rocks at Point Betsie, going to the fair, watching Florida State football so she has a shoulder to cry on.

Both matter.

“Be with” and “do for” are intertwined when you love somebody. So, I think Mary and Martha show us two legitimate responses to Jesus. I wish I knew where to land this plane, but I don’t. Maybe this is a good topic to pursue during lunch today.

Then Mary came with an alabaster jar[2] of three quarters of a pound of expensive aromatic oil from pure nard.[3]After breaking open the jar, she poured it on his head[4] and anointed his feet, as Jesus was at the table. She then wiped his feet dry with her hair. (Now the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfumed oil.)

The Jewish people put nard on those who died to mask the smell, because there was a process of interring the body that lasted long enough to make you want to use nard. In the next paragraph, Jesus will affirm that she was, indeed, preparing him for his burial.[5]

Worth noting: nard in an alabaster jar like this was shipped in from a place that harvested (?) the nard before bottling it and sealing it. This bottle cost a year’s average wages. This bottle represented a plan for someone in the family of Mary. I wonder if it was what they had planned to use for Lazarus, but then didn’t need to. Or… Jesus will say shortly of Mary, “She did what she could.” I wonder if this was set aside for her?

And wiping his feet with her hair? It was unheard of for a Jewish woman to let her hair down in public, let alone wash the feet of a man not her husband, let alone with her hair. There is something going on here, but I am still working on this. This is the second time a woman has dried Jesus’ feet with her hair. (Luke 7)[6]

Whatever the case, Mary communicated something important: she believed Jesus when he said he was going to die. I doubt she anticipated crucifixion, as Jesus was not a Zealot, but she may have been connecting the dots and concluding that she wouldn’t be able to do this later. As Jesus points out, she was honoring him while she could.

Out of love, honor and the knowledge that “the end” was near for Jesus, she offered the lock of her hair with willing abandon to the one who is about to die in order to win the battle on behalf of a world that God loves. Bless the Lord.

But some who were present indignantly said to one another, “Why this waste of expensive ointment? It could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor!” So they spoke angrily to her. Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was going to betray him) said, “Why wasn’t this oil sold for three hundred silver coins and the money given to the poor?” (Now Judas said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. As keeper of the money box, he used to steal what was put into it.)

When Jesus learned of this, he said to them, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good service for me. For you will always have the poor with you,[7] and you can do good for them whenever you want. You will not always have me! She did what she could. When she poured this oil on my body, she did it to anoint my body beforehand and prepare me for the day of my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

In Matthew’s account of this story, Jesus had just taught them about reward and punishment related to caring for the needy (25:31–46). He concluded with, “Whatever you do to the least of these you do to me.” So it makes sense this was in the front of the disciple’s minds.

Jesus’ response pointed them back to the Torah. They were commanded to take care of the poor; Deuteronomy 15 uses the exact phrase Jesus used. This would probably remind them of not just all the teaching in Deuteronomy 15, but of all the times God told his people to care for the poor. It was baked into the rhythm of their lives. In fact, if they did everything the Old Testament commanded, it would be difficult for someone to remain poor in Israel.

• debts were forgiven every 7 years (Deuteronomy 15)

• land was returned every 50 years (Leviticus 25)

• food was shared (Proverbs 22:9)

• indebted servants were set free with provision after 7 years (Deuteronomy 15)

• the edges of their fields were left for the poor to harvest (Leviticus 23:22)

• fields were unplanted every 7 years so the poor could harvest volunteer plants (Leviticus 25)

• they were to “open their hand wide” to the poor (Deuteronomy 15:11)

• they were to practice generous giving (Psalm 37:21; Proverbs 14:21)

Bottom line: the disciples were not wrong in principle,[8] but in this moment they were wrong in practice. If Mary was preparing him for burial, she should not be criticized any more than we would criticize someone for purchasing a coffin for a loved one, even though there are poor that could be fed with that money.

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

This is when Judas snaps. Different people have offered different reasons since the text leaves space to fill in the blanks.

• I noted last week that I suspect Judas was looking to spark an insurrection. Jesus has apparently resigned himself to die. Dead men can’t be kings. Let’s get this king on the throne before he dies!  Time to start the fight!

• Or….Judas knows Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Huge crowds were there because the word had gotten out. Maybe Judas thought there was nothing to worry about. Get the fight started; Jesus will be fine!

• Or… Judas betrayed Jesus because he had stopped believing in him. Something about what happened here convinced him not to back Jesus anymore.

 Whatever the reason, it’s interesting that this is incident that is the last straw for Judas. Meanwhile, the 30 pieces of silver he received has precedence.

• Exodus 21 demands this as payment if a slave is gored to death by a bull. So, perhaps we could think of this as the Sadducees giving Judas recompense for the person they are about to kill.

• 30 pieces of silver was also the wage paid to the reliable shepherd of God’s people in Zechariah 11,[9] a passage that also talks about throwing the money to a potter. Hmmm. 

These Old Testament connections are, in fact, both true.  Jesus is a duolos, a servant or slave depending on the translation you use. 

[Jesus], being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant/slave (duolos), being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross! (Philippians 2) 

And, Jesus is a shepherd. 

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15) 

Alright, let’s step back from the trees and look at the forest. There is this nagging voice in my head that insists there is a contrast going on, not of a good and bad thing but of a good and better thing. I’m not quite sure how to put words to it.

• The place for the practical (Martha) and the prophetic (Mary)

• The practice of stewardship by fasting (taking care of the poor) and feasting (honoring and celebrating)

• The ‘do for’ (Martha) and the ‘be with’ (Mary)

• Prudence (provision budgeted for charity) and extravagance (provision budgeted for honoring)

I wonder if we are supposed to be reminded that in the midst of a discipleship that is often characterized by prudence and the stewardship of fasting that includes setting up a budget from which we give generously from our resources to those in need, there is always going to be a place in the Kingdom of God for extravagant honor.[10] 

In this case, we see it bestowed on Jesus, and rightfully so. In Mary’s case, it’s an act of worship for Jesus. The King will be honored as a King. Bless the Lord with the best that you have. We can’t honor the physical Jesus like Mary did, but surely this challenges us to ask ourselves if Jesus is honored by the worshipful sacrifices that we do give.

I wonder if we are supposed to be thinking about how to honor the children of the King, too. We can become so caught up in fixing what’s broken in the world that we forget to celebrate what’s right in the world. Like Mary and Martha, this is not either/or. It’s both/and.  

God wants his people to learn how to honor what is good through celebration. God wants his people to know how to throw a righteous party that reminds people that they are precious, valuable and loved, not only by God but by God’s people.

• When I turned 50, friends threw me a party that was wonderfully extravagant. I still think about it. I have posters on my wall from it.

• I have helped friends with projects this summer, and they paid me wages that made me consider that I had undervalued myself.

• I have friends who bless us from their abundance by letting us stay for free in a wonderful Air B and B that brings us rest.

Helping those who are financial impoverish matters. Generous charity should be baked into the rhythm of our lives. But at times, extravagant celebration can be huge for those who are emotionally and mentally impoverished, struggling with all kinds of inner battles, desperately needing provision and rest of a different kind.

It’s the one to whom Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The Holy Spirit ministers in ways we never could; sometimes, gifts that cost time and money remind people that they matter not just in God’s eyes but in the eyes of God’s people. And some days, that’s a game changer, maybe even a life saver.

During our potluck, let’s feast together today in a way that shows the depth and breadth of God’s provision. Let the abundance of food remind us that we all need to experience an abundance of honor, or friendship, of community that reminds us constantly of the value of the imago dei, the image of God in us all.

_________________________________________________________________

[1] “Chosen the good part—not in the general sense of Moses' choice (Heb 11:25), and Joshua's (Jos 24:15), and David's (Ps 119:30); that is, of good in opposition to bad; but, of two good ways of serving and pleasing the Lord, choosing the better.” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary)

[2] “The vessel is likely a long-necked flask made of translucent, finely carved stone standing some five to ten inches high. The perfume is pure nard (see Mark 14:3; John 12:3), an oil extracted from the root of the nard plant grown in India. This is not a typical household oil for anointing, but an expensive perfume oil used for a solemn and special act of devotion. By breaking the flask Mary…is performing the highest act of consecration to Jesus, even to the anointing of his feet (cf. John 12:3).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[3] An average year’s wages.

[4] “Such long-necked containers have been found in tombs from this period near Jerusalem; people apparently lavished the ointment on deceased loved ones. This expensive perfume may have been planned for a funeral, either a future one or one canceled because of Jesus’ healing ministry. Providing a guest with oil to anoint his head could be simple courtesy, but one could also anoint a king in this way (2Ki 9:6).” (NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible)

[5] “The anointing…"prepares" him for his burial after dying the death of a criminal, for only in that circumstance would the customary anointing of the body be omitted.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary) 

[6] Because so much of Jesus’ life and teaching refers back to the Old Testament, here’s a thought. Judges records that after a woman named Jael killed the Canaanite general who was attacking Israel, the Israelites defeated Canaan. The judge at the time, Deborah, and her general, Barak, wrote this song: “When the locks of the women are long in Israel, when the people offer themselves with willing abandon - bless the LORD!  –Judges 4:18–5:2”  Read more at “Extravagant Worship: Mary Washing Jesus’ Feet.” Fruitfullywomen.com

[7] “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11)

[8] This is how one of the early Church Fathers thought of this scenario. “If anyone had asked Christ before the woman did this, He would not have approved it. But after she had done it, He looks only to the gift itself. For after the fragrant oil had been poured, what good was a rebuke? Likewise, if you should see anyone providing a sacred vessel or ornament for the walls of the church, do not spoil his zeal. But if beforehand he asks about it, command him to give instead to the poor.” (John Chrysostom, quoted in the Orthodox Study Bible)

[9] I told them “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.” (Zechariah 11: 12-13)

[10] I’m thinking now of Ecclesiastes: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born, to die, to plant, to uproot, to kill, to heal, to tear down, to build, to weep, to laugh, to mourn, to dance, to scatter stones, to gather them, to embrace, to refrain from embracing, to search, to give up, to keep, to throw away, to tear, to mend, to be silent, to speak, to love, to hate, for war and for peace.”

Harmony #77: Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-28)

While the people were listening to these things (“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”), Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

Note that he told a parable because a) he was near Jerusalem and b) the people had some thoughts about the Kingdom of God appearing. We will come back to that.

Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’

When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. So the first one came before him and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’

Then the second one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’  So the king said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’

The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ And he said to his attendants, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’

But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!” He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!’ “ After Jesus had said this, he continued on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

This parable just sits there between the calling of Nicodemus and the entrance to Jerusalem starting the final week of Jesus’ life. It feels awkward and disjointed. But, since Luke committed to writing “an orderly account,” there must be something here that’s an important part of an ongoing bigger story.

On the one hand, there’s a practical reading that looks at stewardship: If God gives you provision and talents, use them to multiply the kingdom. That’s a common teaching taken from this parable. I agree with the principle of that teaching, though I’’m not sure I would take it from this parable.

First, though it’s popular to see Jesus as the king figure in this parable, it is hard for me to conceive that Jesus would be the ruler who has left and then returns. His character and nature are not like the third servant describes (“a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow).

Second, if that ruler is Jesus, the parable suggests that when God gives the gifts of the Kingdom to his children, if they don't double what he gives them, God gets so angry that he destroys them. If Jesus is God in the flesh – so, God is like Jesus - that doesn't track with anything we have seen about Jesus so far.  We just read Jesus saying to Zacchaeus, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” not punish the fearful. 

Third, I'm not sure what to think about the teaching of those having much getting more and those having little losing what they have. Didn’t we just hear about the lost sheep, and lost coin, and the two lost sons, and God pursues and loves them? If the ruler is Jesus, this is joltingly the opposite. He has kept calling his disciples “you of little faith,” and he didn’t throw them away. He discipled them.

The best explanation I have found involves a historical event that happened around the time of Jesus. When Herod the Great died (this is the Herod the Sadducees convinced to be the “King of the Jews” and who controlled the Temple priests), he willed his kingdom to his three sons. The three sons sailed to Rome on three different ships to bring gifts to Caesar and ask him to honor their father’s will. The Jewish Pharisees sent a delegation on a fourth ship to plead with Caesar not to make Antipas king. 

As a result, Caesar decided to name Anitpas a “tetrarch” (just lower than a king).  Antipas blamed the Jews for the decision; when he got back, he made an example of the Jews who were left at home and slaughtered them by the thousands. When Jesus stands in front of Herod in the final week of his life, he is standing in front of (drumroll) Herod Antipas.

I am leaning heavily toward the notion that Jesus is challenging how those who “thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately” expected the kingdom of God to appear. I think they wanted him to take it like a Herod would take it, and Jesus is having none of it.

Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem for Passover. He has a huge crowd of disciples, and they lead the adoring crowds in welcoming him into Jerusalem as a king. All the kingly symbols are there:

• the cloaks on the ground (what the people did for Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13–14)

• palm branches (1 Maccabees 13:51 records the use of palm branches in a celebration of Judas the Hammer, a Zealot who led the Maccabean Revolt)

• crying Hosanna (“Help us!”)

• saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (also what they said of Jehu)

• Jesus riding donkey (Zechariah 9:9)

They thought they might finally be getting a King, a deliverer who would set up an earthy kingdom by copying Rome’s pax romana (“peace by the sword”). They didn’t like Rome, but they had no problem with THEIR guy using the tools and method of Rome to bring about THEIR own kingdom. But…this is the thing about Rome.

• Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks. #parablereference

• Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them. #parablereference

• Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery. #parablereference

When Jesus sees his people welcome him with a not so subtle reference to take out Rome with Rome’s methods, here is how he responds:

Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Why is this going to happen? They have the wrong idea about what will bring peace because “they did not recognize the time of their visitation from God.” The visitation of God is Jesus; Jesus is telling them what will bring peace, and they are not picking up what he is laying down.

History had shown that, at the end of the day, the Jewish people kept defaulting to the path of the Zealots. When Jesus read from Isaiah in his hometown and declared the year of the Lord’s favor but left off the line about God’s vengeance,[1] his hometown tried to kill him because they knew what he was saying. God’s favor was going to become available to all, and they were not okay with that. God was going to bring peace by reconciling everyone first to Himself and then to each other, and that meant nobody was going to pay for the crimes done against them. 

For many of them (the Zealots for sure), the kingdom of God would arrive by taking the sword to those who hurt them. And that's what a Caesar or a Nero would do. That’s what happened in Jesus’ parable. That’s what Antipas did to those who displeased him. And this is the approach the Jewish people kept revisiting over and over. Even the non-Zealots seemed to keep rallying around the sword to solve their problems and usher in the Kingdom of God.

We've got good biblical reason to believe that this Zealot thread kept running through Jesus’ disciples no matter how often he taught and lived differently.

I’ve noted before that that Judas and Simon were both zealots. Judas had a nickname “Iscariot,” a nickname that seems to place him among the sicarii, one of the "dagger-men" of the Zealots who had committed to killing Roman soldiers whenever he could with his dagger that shared his nickname. I'm leaning more and more toward the idea that when we get to the last week in the life of Jesus, Judas was intending to be the spark that started the revolution.

Judas knew that if he went to the high priests, they would come for Jesus. Remember, the high priests are the Sadducees. They love Rome, and they have been trying to kill Jesus because Jesus is putting their status with Rome in jeopardy. At one point Caiaphas tells the Sanhedrin that it’s better to kill one person, Jesus, than to have them all killed.[2] Judas knows that the Sadducees’ private army of bodyguards will have no problem pulling a sword on Jesus. They had a reputation for doing that kind of thing to those who crossed the Sadducees.

It’s an odd collaboration. The Zealots hated the Sadducees because they were such compromisers. Clearly, Judas is just using them. The text doesn't say this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were Zealots hiding nearby, waiting for the fight to begin. What a shock it must have been when Peter - who brought a sword to a garden prayer time? - starts the fight and Jesus promptly stops it.

Let's fast forward to the trial where Herod does what Herod always did at Passover, which was to offer a released prisoner to the Jewish people. He gives them the option of Jesus the Christ or Jesus Barabbas. The crowd chooses Barabbas, who had been arrested because he had already engaged in violent insurrection.  They want their Zealot who knows how to fight on their terms.

I suspect part of the reason Jesus wept was because he knew what would happen when God’s people try to bring about the Kingdom of God at the edge of a sword. He warned Peter: “You live by it, you die by it.” Why are the Jewish people slaughtered and the Temple destroyed in AD 70? The Zealots keep pushing and pushing and pushing until Rome snapped.

So, full circle back to the parable. I think Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he reminded them of what Herod was like, and how empires work. He will never be that kind of King, and his kingdom should never be that kind of Kingdom.

* * * * *

I've been thinking a lot this week about what principles we take away from this. If you recall, the Jewish people wrestled with three responses to the question, “What do we do with Rome?”

• Compromise, embrace it, learn to love it (Sadducees and Herodians)

• Retreated and just focus on being holy (Essenes and Pharisees)

• Fight Rome with the weapons of Rome (Zealots)

Jesus has challenged all of these approaches throughout the course of his ministry. He doesn't retreat from the culture around him; instead he goes to the Gentiles (Samaritans and Romans). He doesn't embrace the culture; he embraces the people in the culture as individuals and calls them to follow him. He doesn't pick up a sword – unless it’s the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which he seem him wielding in Revelation. Let’s go back to what characterized Rome and Herod Antipas.

• Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks.

• Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them.

• Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery.

  How is Jesus a different kind of King?

·Those outside the kingdom were not destroyed in the process of expanding the kingdom. They were literally still alive to have access to the Kingdom. Jesus just kept inviting himself to the home of the sinner, the Samaritan, the tax collector. He kept inviting people. The banquet table has enough seats for everybody.

On the cross, he asks God to forgive those who crucified him rather than asking him to smite them. He will restore Peter, who might have betrayed him more than Judas when he called down curses and said, “I don’t know my own rabbi.” Okay, important trivia (?) When Jesus rose, the women at the grave were told to take the news “to the disciples and Peter.”[3] It’s only been three days. Why isn’t Peter just assumed to still be a disciple? Because he denied and cursed his rabbi. He was done. There was no coming back from that. When Jesus sees him again, where is he? Back to fishing. He was done. AND JESUS RESTORES HIM. This is not an earthly kingdom; this is a heavenly kingdom.

Jesus was not about rewarding the competent and punishing the incompetent #peteronceagain. Remember the Parable of the Two Brothers (Prodigal Son). Remember the Parable of Workers working all day vs. one hour. Jesus is excited about giving everyone the spiritual spoils of the Kingdom, whether they are crushing it or floundering or lost like that sheep. Everybody sits at the banquet table. Surely there is reward in walking in the Path of Life as we harvest what we have planted, but God is not a stingy and petty God, turning his nose up at the Samaritan and tax collector and prodigal. He came to seek and to save the lost, after all. That’s what he loves to do.

Let's see if we can make this practical for our situation today.

We are not living in a nation that brings a sword against followers of Jesus like Herod Antipas. We do, however, live in a culture that will at times challenge us on aspects of what we believe or how we believe we should live our faith. How do we respond to living in spiritually occupied territory of Babylon/Rome (to use Revelation’s imagery)?

I'm hearing rumbles in some circles that we might be looking at a time that is ripe for a second Civil War. It's often accompanied with the stated desire to get America back to Judeo/Christian roots even if it requires violence, as if we can spread or solidify the Kingdom of God at the point of a sword. That just doesn't sound like Jesus. That sounds like Judas.

But there's also a level to this that stops short of violence physical violence. I'm thinking now of emotional, verbal and maybe even spiritual violence. When we talk about the culture wars, we can mean one of two things.

• We can mean that there is a clash anytime Christians live in spaces with non-Christians simply because we are going to value different things for different reasons,  and we are going to offer our worship and allegiance to different gods or idols. In that sense, yeah, there's going to be a war in the sense that there is conflict and tension. Legit. This has always been true.

• We can also use Culture Wars to mean it is time for us to get out there and fight fight fight – but…. it's not usually accompanied with language asking what it looks to fight like Jesus. It's usually much more pragmatic Zealotry, with a physical or symbolic peace by the sword in that the ends will justify the means if we aren’t careful. A public figure who aligns with Christians noted recently, in reference to the aforementioned culture wars, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing…”

But here's the reality. The means determine who we are in the end. If we fight like Rome to further the Kingdom of God, the society we usher in will just be Rome by another name. And if this is our hope, we will constantly be searching for peace and not finding peace because we didn't fight like Jesus as we pointed toward Jesus. The apostle Paul – who knew a thing or two about fighting battles in the wrong way - reminded us how to fight like Jesus, for Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God. Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood alone.   No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places. And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground. Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate, and feet protected in preparation to proclaim the good news of peace. Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, prayon behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.  (Ephesians 6:10-18)

 ____________________________________________________________________

[1] Luke 4

[2] John 11:45-57

[3] Mark 16:7

Harmony #77: Parable of the Ten Minas (Luke 19:11-28)

While the people were listening to these things (“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”), Jesus proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

Note that he told a parable because a) he was near Jerusalem and b) the people had some thoughts about the Kingdom of God appearing. We will come back to that.

Therefore he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. And he summoned ten of his slaves, gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to be king over us!’

When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. So the first one came before him and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And the king said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.’

Then the second one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has made five minas.’  So the king said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ Then another slave came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.’

The king said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! So you knew, did you, that I was a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow? Why then didn’t you put my money in the bank, so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’ And he said to his attendants, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has ten.’

But they said to him, ‘Sir, he has ten minas already!” He replied, ‘I tell you that everyone who has will be given more, but from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and slaughter them in front of me!’ “ After Jesus had said this, he continued on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

This parable just sits there between the calling of Nicodemus and the entrance to Jerusalem starting the final week of Jesus’ life. It feels awkward and disjointed. But, since Luke committed to writing “an orderly account,” there must be something here that’s an important part of an ongoing bigger story.

First, though it’s popular to see Jesus as the king figure in this parable, it is hard for me to conceive that Jesus would be the ruler who has left and then returns. I recognize that I am in the minority view here. But H=his character and nature are not like the third servant describes (“a severe man, withdrawing what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow).

Second, if that ruler is Jesus, the parable suggests that when God gives the gifts of the Kingdom to his children, if they don't double what he gives them, God gets so angry that he destroys them. If Jesus is God in the flesh – so, God is like Jesus - that doesn't track with anything we have seen about Jesus so far.  We just read Jesus saying to Zacchaeus, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” not punish the fearful.

Third, I'm not sure what to think about the teaching of those having much getting more and those having little losing what they have. Didn’t we just hear about the lost sheep, and lost coin, and the two lost sons, and God pursues and loves them? If the ruler is Jesus, this is joltingly the opposite. He has kept calling his disciples “you of little faith,” and he didn’t throw them away. He discipled them.

The best explanation I have found involves a historical event that happened around the time of Jesus. When Herod the Great died (this is the Herod the Sadducees convinced to be the “King of the Jews” and who controlled the Temple priests), he willed his kingdom to his three sons. The three sons sailed to Rome on three different ships to bring gifts to Caesar and ask him to honor their father’s will. The Jewish Pharisees sent a delegation on a fourth ship to plead with Caesar not to make Antipas king. 

As a result, Caesar decided to name Anitpas a “tetrarch” (just lower than a king).  Antipas blamed the Jews for the decision; when he got back, he made an example of the Jews who were left at home and slaughtered them by the thousands. When Jesus stands in front of Herod in the final week of his life, he is standing in front of (drumroll) Herod Antipas. 

I am leaning heavily toward the notion that Jesus is challenging how those who “thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately” expected the kingdom of God to appear. I think they wanted him to take it like a Herod would take it, and Jesus is having none of it.

Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem for Passover. He has a huge crowd of disciples, and they lead the adoring crowds in welcoming him into Jerusalem as a king. All the kingly symbols are there:

• the cloaks on the ground (what the people did for Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13–14)

• palm branches (1 Maccabees 13:51 records the use of palm branches in a celebration of Judas the Hammer, a Zealot who led the Maccabean Revolt)

• crying Hosanna (“Help us!”)

• ·saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (also what they said of Jehu)

• ·Jesus riding donkey (Zechariah 9:9)

They thought they might finally be getting a King, a deliverer who would set up an earthy kingdom by copying Rome’s pax romana (“peace by the sword”). They didn’t like Rome, but they had no problem with THEIR guy using the tools and method of Rome to bring about THEIR own kingdom. But…this is the thing about Rome.

• ·Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks. #parablereference

• ·Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them. #parablereference

• ·Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery. #parablereference

When Jesus sees his people welcome him with a not so subtle reference to take out Rome with Rome’s methods, here is how he responds:

Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Why is this going to happen? They have the wrong idea about what will bring peace because “they did not recognize the time of their visitation from God.” The visitation of God is Jesus; Jesus is telling them what will bring peace, and they are not picking up what he is laying down.

History had shown that, at the end of the day, the Jewish people kept defaulting to the path of the Zealots. When Jesus read from Isaiah in his hometown and declared the year of the Lord’s favor but left off the line about God’s vengeance,[1] his hometown tried to kill him because they knew what he was saying. God’s favor was going to become available to all, and they were not okay with that. God was going to bring peace by reconciling everyone first to Himself and then to each other, and that meant nobody was going to pay for the crimes done against them.

For many of them (the Zealots for sure), the kingdom of God would arrive by taking the sword to those who hurt them. And that's what a Caesar or a Nero would do. That’s what happened in Jesus’ parable. That’s what Antipas did to those who displeased him. And this is the approach the Jewish people kept revisiting over and over. Even the non-Zealots seemed to keep rallying around the sword to solve their problems and usher in the Kingdom of God.

We've got good biblical reason to believe that this Zealot thread kept running through Jesus’ disciples no matter how often he taught and lived differently.

I’ve noted before that that Judas and Simon were both zealots. Judas had a nickname “Iscariot,” a nickname that seems to place him among the sicarii, one of the "dagger-men" of the Zealots who had committed to killing Roman soldiers whenever he could with his dagger that shared his nickname. I'm leaning more and more toward the idea that when we get to the last week in the life of Jesus, Judas was intending to be the spark that started the revolution.

Judas knew that if he went to the high priests, they would come for Jesus. Remember, the high priests are the Sadducees. They love Rome, and they have been trying to kill Jesus because Jesus is putting their status with Rome in jeopardy. At one point Caiaphas tells the Sanhedrin that it’s better to kill one person, Jesus, than to have them all killed.[2] Judas knows that the Sadducees’ private army of bodyguards will have no problem pulling a sword on Jesus. They had a reputation for doing that kind of thing to those who crossed the Sadducees.

It’s an odd collaboration. The Zealots hated the Sadducees because they were such compromisers. Clearly, Judas is just using them. The text doesn't say this, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were Zealots hiding nearby, waiting for the fight to begin. What a shock it must have been when Peter - who brought a sword to a garden prayer time? - starts the fight and Jesus promptly stops it.

Let's fast forward to the trial where Herod does what Herod always did at Passover, which was to offer a released prisoner to the Jewish people. He gives them the option of Jesus the Christ or Jesus Barabbas. The crowd chooses Barabbas, who had been arrested because he had already engaged in violent insurrection.  They want their Zealot who knows how to fight on their terms.

I suspect part of the reason Jesus wept was because he knew what would happen when God’s people try to bring about the Kingdom of God at the edge of a sword. He warned Peter: “You live by it, you die by it.” Why are the Jewish people slaughtered and the Temple destroyed in AD 70? The Zealots keep pushing and pushing and pushing until Rome snapped.

So, full circle back to the parable. I think Jesus knew what was in their hearts, and he reminded them of what Herod was like, and how empires work. He will never be that kind of King, and his kingdom should never be that kind of Kingdom.

* * * * *

I've been thinking a lot this week about what principles we take away from this. If you recall, the Jewish people wrestled with three responses to the question, “What do we do with Rome?

• Compromise, embrace it, learn to love it (Sadducees and Herodians)

• ·Retreated and just focus on being holy (Essenes and Pharisees)

• ·Fight Rome with the weapons of Rome.  

Jesus has challenged all of these approaches throughout the course of his ministry.

• ·He doesn't retreat from the culture around him; instead he goes to the Gentiles (Samaritans and Romans).

• ·He doesn't embrace the culture; he embraces the people in the culture as individuals and calls them to follow him.

• ·He doesn't pick up a sword – unless it’s the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, which he seem him wielding in Revelation.

 Let’s go back to what characterized Rome and Herod Antipas.

• ·Rome destroyed those would not help them expand their empire and the Hellenism of the Greeks.

• ·Rome was violent and merciless to those who betrayed them.

• · Rome was all about the winners getting more winny and the losers getting more losery. 

 How is Jesus a different kind of King?

·Those outside the kingdom were not destroyed in the process of expanding the kingdom. They were literally still alive to have access to the Kingdom. Jesus just kept inviting himself to the home of the sinner, the Samaritan, the tax collector. He kept inviting people. The banquet table has enough seats for everybody.

• ·On the cross, he asks God to forgive those who crucified him rather than asking him to smite them. He will restore Peter, who might have betrayed him more than Judas when he called down curses and said, “I don’t know my own rabbi.” Okay, important trivia (?) When Jesus rose, the women at the grave were told to take the news “to the disciples and Peter.”[3] It’s only been three days. Why isn’t Peter just assumed to still be a disciple? Because he denied and cursed his rabbi. He was done. There was no coming back from that. When Jesus sees him again, where is he? Back to fishing. He was done. AND JESUS RESTORES HIM. This is not an earthly kingdom; this is a heavenly kingdom.

• ·Jesus was not about rewarding the competent and punishing the incompetent #peteronceagain. Remember the Parable of the Two Brothers (Prodigal Son). Remember the Parable of Workers working all day vs. one hour. Jesus is excited about giving everyone the spiritual spoils of the Kingdom, whether they are crushing it or floundering or lost like that sheep. Everybody sits at the banquet table. Surely there is reward in walking in the Path of Life as we harvest what we have planted, but God is not a stingy and petty God, turning his nose up at the Samaritan and tax collector and prodigal. He came to seek and to save the lost, after all. That’s what he loves to do.

 Let's see if we can make this practical for our situation today.

We are not living in a nation that brings a sword against followers of Jesus like Herod Antipas. We do, however, live in a culture that will at times challenge us on aspects of what we believe or how we believe we should live our faith. How do we respond to living in spiritually occupied territory of Babylon/Rome (to use Revelation’s imagery)?

I'm hearing rumbles in some circles that we might be looking at a time that is ripe for a second Civil War. It's often accompanied with the stated desire to get America back to Judeo/Christian roots even if it requires violence. That just doesn't sound like Jesus. That sounds like Judas.

But there's also a level to this that stops short of violence physical violence. I'm thinking now of emotional, verbal and maybe even spiritual violence. When we talk about the culture wars, we can mean one of two things.

•  We can mean that there is a clash anytime Christians live in spaces with non-Christians simply because we are going to value different things for different reasons,  and we are going to offer our worship and allegiance to different gods or idols. In that sense, yeah, there's going to be a war in the sense that there is conflict and tension. Legit. This has always been true.

• We can also use Culture Wars to mean it is time for us to get out there and fight fight fight – but…. it's not usually accompanied with language asking what it looks to fight like Jesus. It's usually much more pragmatic Zealotry, with a physical or symbolic peace by the sword in that the ends will justify the means if we aren’t careful. A public figure who aligns with Christians noted recently, in reference to the aforementioned culture wars, “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing…”

 But here's the reality. The means determine who we are in the end. If we fight like Rome and get our way, we'll just be Rome by another name. And if this is our hope, we will constantly be searching for peace and not finding peace because we didn't fight like Jesus as we pointed toward Jesus. The apostle Paul – who knew a thing or two about fighting battles in the wrong way - reminded us how to fight like Jesus, for Jesus.

 Finally, brothers and sisters, draw your strength and might from God. Put on the full armor of God to protect yourselves from the devil and his evil schemes. We’re not waging war against enemies of flesh and blood alone. No, this fight is against tyrants, against authorities, against supernatural powers and demon princes that slither in the darkness of this world, and against wicked spiritual armies that lurk about in heavenly places.

 And this is why you need to be head-to-toe in the full armor of God: so you can resist during these evil days and be fully prepared to hold your ground. Yes, stand—truth banded around your waist, righteousness as your chest plate, and feet protected in preparation to proclaim the good news of peace.  Don’t forget to raise the shield of faith above all else, so you will be able to extinguish flaming spears hurled at you from the wicked one. Take also the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Pray always. Pray in the Spirit. Pray about everything in every way you know how! And keeping all this in mind, prayon behalf of God’s people. Keep on praying feverishly, and be on the lookout until evil has been stayed.  (Ephesians 6:10-18)

 ________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Luke 4

[2] John 11:45-57

[3] Mark 16:7

Harmony #76: Zacchaeus - In The Apple Of God’s Eye (Luke 19:1-10)

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. Now a man named Zacchaeus was there; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to get a look at Jesus, but being a short man he could not see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, because Jesus was going to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, because I must stay at your house today.” So he came down quickly and welcomed Jesus joyfully. And when the people saw it, they all complained, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I now give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much!” Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this household, because he too is a son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

We are going to come back to this story. Meanwhile,

Psalm 17:8: "Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings."

David asked to literally be the "little man of the eye,” the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people’s pupils because you are being watched so closely by that person. David was asking God to be close, to keep an eye on him, to keep him safe. David wanted God to be near him, to focus on David such that his eyes were full of him, and to be for him. Deuteronomy 32:10 uses the phrase this way:

“In a desert land he found him (Israel), in a barren and howling wasteland. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye…”

We land here first. I can’t stress this enough. God is that close to his children. Whether that’s just those who follow Jesus or all of humanity (Paul said at Mars Hill that “we are all his offspring/children/ descendants“ ), God is near and God sees us. You might feel like you are overlooked, ignored, or unseen, but God is “apple of the eye” close. You are not alone. You are seen. You are loved.

It’s got me thinking about an implication of being God’s ambassadors, God’s representatives. We land here second.

We talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus, going places and doing things on behalf of God that reveals that the Holy Spirit has taken up His dwelling in us so that when people experience us they experience “Christ in us” (Colossians 1:27). I wonder, then, if we are meant to represent God by going into the “barren and howling wasteland” around us to guard and care for the “little people in our eyes” as well. If people are wondering, “Does God even see me and care?” that question is often answered when God’s people see them and care.

I’ve been thinking about this recently because of some realities of life that have highlighted the Christian burden of caring. When we are so close to people that they are the “little man in our eye,” we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15) as we move through this barren and howling wasteland – and everyone weeps at some point. We will help each other carry burdens (Galatians 6:2) - and everyone carries burdens.

Doing this for everyone is an impossible task that only one person in the history of the world was able to do (let alone do perfectly) and that’s Jesus. But we, who as humans are God’s image bearers, and who as believers are ambassadors indwelt by God’s spirit; members of God’s body, the church – we must go into the wasteland and weep for more than our own sorrows and carry more burdens than our own.

But really engaging this can feel…unsettling. There was a reason Jesus’ audience wanted clarification on whom their neighbors were (Luke 10:25-37). The Bible says the man asking this question of Jesus was “seeking to justify himself.” I mean, it was one thing to consider your Jewish friends and family to be the neighbors to whom you extended the kind of love Jesus talked about when he summarized the Law, but….

• that Samaritan (Luke 10)?

• that Roman centurion (Acts 10)?

• that prostitute (Luke 7)?

• that tax collector we read about this morning (Luke 19)?

Yes indeed. That’s what “friends of sinners” do (Matthew 11:16-19). Those using that label thought they were mocking Jesus, but Jesus embraced that term: he was and is a friend of sinners.

So this tension of the Christian call to genuinely care about others including “the other”, to be so close that they take up that “apple” spot in our eyes, often places us in tense spots.

• Samaritans were aligned with blasphemy, and caring about them as neighbors made it look like Jewish people supported blasphemy.

• Roman centurions were aligned with the political oppression of God’s people; accepting them into the church could look like overlooking Roman sin.

• Tax collectors like Zacchaeus were traitorous enablers of economic oppression. Having a meal with them could easily look like enablement.

• Prostitutes were an obvious face of sexual immorality (and often fertility cult worship at that time). Spending time with them looked like you were minimizing or even overlooking their sin.

Yet God has his eye on them; he “came to seek and to save the lost.” And if he was in they eye of Jesus, he should have been in the eyes of God’s people. Wastelands have never been meant to stop Christians, no matter how barren and howling they are.

The God who created us, loves us, and offers salvation to us has a vested interest in His world. It groans because of the devastation that sin has wrought in everything. We are called to collectively groan as a church as we recognize the brokenness that has infiltrated everything God has created. In that shared weeping we represent the Immanuel part of how God is described - God with us, felt strongly because God’s people are with people in whatever wilderness they find themselves.

I have been thinking about this a lot since the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Parts of it were beautiful and entertaining; parts of it were a celebration of Dionysian or Bacchanalian revelries; a part of it (at least initially) seemed to parody Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, whether that was the organizers’ intent or not (they claim it wasn’t; some of the actors claim it was).

And I found in my reaction that I was not drawn to think of how I could get closer to people who live in a worldview that to me looks like an extravagant and howling wilderness so that they could see the love of God for them through me.

How do I want to see them? Like God sees them: with the kind of love Jesus showed Zacchaeus. With the kind of love that wants to invite them to leave the wilderness and join the banquet feast of the kingdom.

Where will I have to go? Into even barren and howling wildernesses, places that are uncomfortable and maybe even hostile.

How close will I have to get? Apple-of-the-eye close.

I think of Jesus looking at Jerusalem and weeping that the people keep looking for peace and not finding it. The organizers of the Olympic opening ceremonies have said they were trying to send a message that violence was foolish. It was apparently their (confusing and vulgar) attempt at a call to peace. Yet there will be no peace when the exploitative and even violent legacy of Dionysian revelries sets a moral compass.

So what did Jesus do when the Jewish people got their search for peace all wrong? He invited them to the banquet table.

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:10-13)

We also see the heart that motivated him.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:37-38)

He wept for those living in desolation. In fact, He gave His life so they could have access to the peace that eluded them and take their place at the banquet table of the Kingdom of God.

What should we do when cultures or individuals get a search for peace all wrong, perhaps even shockingly so? Weep, and offer our lives to God as ambassadors engaged in a ministry of reconciliation as recorded in 1 Corinthians 5:11-21.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others…For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all who are dead, which is all of us. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…

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

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

That, I think, should have been my first thoughts and emotions. I should have seen an opportunity for a ministry of reconciliation, and prayed that the Dionysian fields within my sphere of influence would be ripe for harvest.

* * * * *

I have been the apple in the eyes of many, thank God. I have had many people be the “little people in my eye.” Some dwell in the land of promise, some in the wilderness. I must choose not to look away. Lots of people should be reflected in my eyes, because they are in the eyes of Jesus. I was writing a list this week at stuff that came into my mind. There is plenty more that could be added.

• God’s people should be able to see those in poverty and sickness in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those fighting mental and emotional battles in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the reflection of those rejecting Jesus and accepting Jesus and wrestling with Jesus in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those who love the church and those who have been traumatized by the church in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the immigrant and refugee in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the reflection of those dying of starvation, natural disasters, persecution, and wars in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those who think Dionysian revelry will bring peace in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see those who support Trump and Harris and any third party candidate in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should be able to see the reflection of those who are broken or confused or even defiantly sinful as they wrestle with questions of sex and gender in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should work to see the reflection of their neighbors in this church in the apple of their eye.

• God’s people should work to see the reflection of their family members in the apple of their eye.

Why? Because we want to be like Jesus.

Who is my neighbor? Everybody.

We start with family, then friends and church family, but eventually anybody we know is fair game. We are just looking at the world and asking what breaks God heart. We pray. We intercede. We petition God to heal us and our broken land. We move closer to those who are hurting, because it’s hard to carry a burden from a distance.

This is not limited by party, organization, religion, nationality, social status…. I went through my list and color coded the people in my eye: red and blue for situations that, fairly or unfairly, are associated with the Right or Left; purple for stuff everyone agrees on. It’s a mix, because everybody is my neighbor.

Who needs to be “the little people” in a Christian’s eye? Everybody.

We know the power of the gospel. We understand salvation, and healing, and renewal, and grace, and hope, and peace and joy, and the beauty of righteousness. We are outposts of the Kingdom: wherever we go, we take the presence of Jesus and set up camp. And that camp is full of truth, love, and the message of a Creator who is in the business of redeeming broken things. And we can’t do that from a distance.

Choose your analogy: we run to the battle; we go to the fields in need of harvest; we sow the seed of the gospel in every soil we encounter; we love our broken and fallen neighbors just like Jesus has loved us.

Now….we can’t be equally invested in all of these things. God has placed us in certain places or with certain people or given us certain gifts and oriented our broken hearts in certain directions such that some things will move front and center in our attempts to bring gospel healing to the world. We will gravitate more towards specific causes (with the hope that as the church body works together we're covering our ground as a whole fairly well).

We should be careful not to dismiss those in whom God has place a different weight of gospel mourning. Not everybody can or will be in ‘your’ eye they way they are in someone else’s, but everybody should be in the eye of somebody in the church who sees the world with the eyes of Jesus.

Let’s start with us, here, in the church. Can we commit to being engaged with this church family so that everybody here has the privilege of is in the apple of someone else’s eye?

I know we are in that privileged position with God; I also know it feels practically real to me when I experience from the image bearers of God. We can’t possibly engage with everybody in the same way, but we can be praying and watching for opportunity to make sure no one is being overlooked or ignored.

We talk about being the hands and feet of Jesus. Let’s be the eyes of Jesus too. Simply caring for each other is a really, really practical way to embody the presence and love of Jesus.

#75 A Ransom For Many (Mark 10: 35-45; Matthew 20: 20-28)

Once again, we are going to need to remember the context surrounding the section we will be looking at today in Mark 10 and Matthew 20. This context is from Mark’s account, starting in Mark 9.

·  The disciples try to cast out a demon but can’t. This apparently leads to some arguments among them.

·  On the way to Capernaum, they argue about who the greatest one is. Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

·  Then, Jesus gives the example of becoming like a child. ‘Whoever welcomes one of these in my name welcomes me.”

·  Then: “We saw someone actually being successful in driving out a demon and we told him to stop because he was not one of us.” Jesus: ““If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” 

·  Then he is challenged about divorce laws (an ongoing argument between Shamai and Hillel). “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife so he can marry another woman?” I’ll summarize Jesus response: No, and focus on serving, not being served. Your hearts are hard if you are wondering what your rights are rather than your responsibilities.

·  Children show up again, and he blesses them. “The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”

·  Then the Rich Young Ruler shows up (that was the sermon last week), and Jesus finishes his teaching with, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first,” and tells the parable about the workers in the field

We are hitting two themes. First, in the Kingdom of God, there should be no one overlooked and marginalized. Jesus elevates the cultural “lasts” to show their value and dignity. Second, God loves to be generous to all, especially to those who have been overlooked, abandoned, taken for granted, or considered undeserving. We should not be surprised if the next events and teachings continue on this theme.

James & John: Serving vs. Ruling (Matthew 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-45)

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, and kneeling down she asked him for a favor[1], saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” He said to her, “What do you want?” She replied, “Permit these two sons of mine to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in the glory of your kingdom.”

But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” They said to him, “We are able.”

Then Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I experience,[2] but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give. It is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

Now when the other ten heard this, they became angry with James and John. Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them.

But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the servant of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.[3]”

HE GAVE HIS LIFE

Empire leadership principles have two main pillars: the ones who are ‘first’ lord your power over others (throw your weight around) and exercise authority - literally, play the tyrant. Kingdom leadership principles have one key pillar: the ones who are ‘first’ take the lead in serving others.[4]

Among the unconverted, great men are those who rule with arbitrary power, who are overbearing and domineering. But greatness in Christ’s kingdom is marked by service. Whoever … desires to be first should become a [servant] to everyone. (Believer’s Bible Commentary)

We live in a world that tells us it is important to be in charge, to be first, to have power, and to wield it. It starts when we are kids and the place of privilege is to be the line leader. Nobody privileges letting everyone else go first. True followers of Jesus learn to love the beauty of humble service.

We must, must resist the urge to fall in love with exercising power. I think Scripture presents power similar to how it presents money: the love of power and money are the problem, not the things themselves. When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek,” that word means power under control. The image is that of a mighty ox yoked into service.

And let’s face it: we all have some degree of power in that we have an impact on the world. You have physical power and could hurt people or protect and help people. Your words have power; you can hurt people or heal people. Your facial expressions have power; you hurt people or give them hope with a well-placed expression.

We are called to be people who love to use whatever kind of power we have in the humble service of others. In our role as salt and light, we can and should encourage in the church and in our culture those who know how to manage their strength, their words, their presence in such a way that whatever power they have is used in humble service of others to protect, to heal, and to give hope.

Even Jesus, God in the Flesh, was not exempt from the rule of humble service in the kingdom. He is, in fact, the ultimate example of it, especially in his redemptive mission. He did not come as a strongman to demand and control; he came as a servant, giving "his life as a ransom for many."

AS A RANSOM FOR MANY

·  The word translated "ransom" relates to the "redemption" or "release" of Israel's from slavery in Egypt.

·  The phrase "for many" is an Aramaic expression meaning “for all.”[5]

In his death, Jesus pays a ransom. Among different theories of atonement, this is called Ransom Theory. It is a way of looking at what happened on the cross. What happened on the cross if far too complex and deep to be captured in one theory. Ransom Theory was quite popular in the early church and into the Middle Ages, though other ways of thinking of the atonement emerged that displaced its popularity.

However, any way of looking at the Cross that has a biblical foundation has value, and since the idea of Ransom shows up here, let’s look at it more deeply, beginning with Isaiah’s reference to the Jewish people being ransomed from Egypt.

Isaiah 51:10-11  “Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage could cross over? Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return; they will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.” 

“For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you…” (Is. 43:3, 4). 

Concerning their return from captivity in Babylon we read,

"For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he." (Jer. 31:11)

On a more theological note,

"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death" (Hos. 13:14).

 “But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me.” (Psalm 49:15)

Ransom theories focus on the fact that people are enslaved to the wrong master until, through Jesus’ death, they are set free. The dominant image here is “manumission”—the act of setting slaves free.[6] Notice how the Old Testament pairs redeem and ransom in parallel, so we can use them interchangeably.

The Hebrew word for 'ransom' never appears in the New Testament because, well, the NT was not written in Hebrew J However, it uses other words to refer to the same principle. Jesus uses the phrase anti lutron (lutron belongs to a family of words which convey the concept of redemption) to describe his death; Paul uses antilutron for the same purpose.

“The Son of man came ... to give his life a ransom for many.”

“Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all.” [I Timothy 2:6][7] 

The writer of Hebrews uses apolýtrōsis: “redemption – literally, "buying back from or winning back what was previously forfeited or lost."[8] 

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:15) 

There are other allusions to the idea of ransom or redemption without naming it specifically:

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28) 

“You were bought [9] with a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23) 

And they were singing a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and bought people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation, and made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9–10)

When we see this term used for what Jesus does, it has to do with a dispossession where someone frees a person from the control of master or owner and brings them into a new place under the Ransomer’s protection and care.

A classic example from the Old Testament involves Boaz and Ruth. When Ruth asked Boaz to be her guardian/redeemer, he had to ‘dispossess’ another in order to bring her under his protection and care as the Kinsmen Redeemer.

I prefer the language of redeemer because the English word 'ransom' brings an image to mind that creates some tensions. A ransom is what we pay a kidnapper in exchange for releasing the kidnapped. This creates a problem: to whom does Jesus pay the ransom?

Is it paid to God? It’s not a good look for God to be a kidnapper needing to pay Himself to release people from Himself back to Himself. The early church never suggested this possibility: they primarily thought it was paid to Satan after Adam and Eve fell into the control of “the god of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Is it paid to Satan? That suggests God had to frustratingly pay Jesus to Satan to cover the cost. Yet Hebrews 2:14 tells us that “through death he destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil , and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” It sure doesn’t seem like a ransom would have to be paid to someone who has been destroyed.

Is it paid to death or sin? That seems the most likely because that is clearly stated in those two OT verses I quoted, but…those aren’t even ‘things’ that could accept a payment.

Bottom line: To whatever degree it’s a ransom, it’s not an exchange. It’s a deliverance from one kingdom to another. Notice that in the examples I gave, when God ransomed His people, there was a payment, but nobody is listed as receiving a payment. The ransom happened, but nobody was paid off.[10]

 This suggests to me that’s we are meant to focus on the change of possession as God’s people are moved from life in the land of the enemy into life in the land of God. It was costly – really costly – but now they have a new King, a new Lord. They are now children of God.

In the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Redeemer lawfully and properly paid the ransom so we could be His. Jesus dispossessed the owner (Satan, sin death, hell, the grave?), secured us into God’s possession, an dprovided a permanent place of safety

This constitutes the “ransom” aspect of redemption as it is set forth in scripture.[11] A church Father named Eusebius wrote,

The Lamb of God . . . was chastised on our behalf, and suffered a penalty He did not owe, but which we owed because of the multitude of our sins; and so He became the cause of the forgiveness of our sins, because He received death for us and transferred to Himself the scourgings, the insults, and the dishonor, which were due to us… And what is that but the price of our souls?

1 Peter offers a wonderful chapter that captures the beauty and power of what has happened as a result of Jesus paying our ransom.1 Peter 1:3-23

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials.

Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold—gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away—and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, because you are attaining the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who predicted the grace that would come to you searched and investigated carefully. They probed into what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand about the sufferings appointed for Christ and his subsequent glory.

They were shown that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things now announced to you through those who proclaimed the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things angels long to catch a glimpse of.

Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, “You shall be holy, because I am holy.”

And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence. You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed—not by perishable things like silver or gold, but by precious blood like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ...

You have purified your souls by obeying the truth in order to show sincere mutual love. So love one another earnestly from a pure heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.
____________________________________________________________________________

[1] If mom is asking, the odds are pretty high that James and John had not yet had their Bar Mitvah, the official entrance into adulthood.

[2] The cup, symbolizing trouble and suffering, is found in the OT (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 49:12; Eze 23:31-34 [see comment on 14:35-37]. Baptism is a symbol of a deluge of trouble (cf. Pss 18:16; 69:1-2). Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[3] “The phrase ‘for many’ is an Aramaic expression meaning “for all.” (Orthodox Study Bible)

[4] HT Africa Bible Commentary

[5] “The expression ‘the many’ is not to be understood in the sense of "some but not all" but in the general sense of "many" as contrasted with the single life that is given for their ransom (cf. Isa 53:11-12).” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

[6] “Thinking About The Atonement.” Mennonite Brotherhood Herald

[7] Elsewhere in the New Testament, the phrase is used to describe things like John being unworthy to remove his shoes and Jesus dismissing a crowd after preaching. It is sometimes described as 'loosing' or delivering.'

[8] HELPS Word Studies

[9] “Agorázō is properly, to make purchases in the marketplace ("agora"), i.e. as ownership transfers from seller to buyer. Agorázō stresses transfer – i.e. where something becomes another's belonging (possession). In salvation-contexts, agorázō is not redeeming ("buying back"), but rather focuses on how the believer now belongs to the Lord as His unique possession.” (HELPS Word Studies)

[10] The top possibility, as I see it, is sin, but sin’s not a being to pay off. It’s more like “the wages of sin is death,” and Jesus absorbed that cost to free us from it.

[11] From a post in the Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange

Harmony #71: Always Pray, And Don’t Lose Heart (Luke 17:11- 18:8)

Now on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. As he was entering a village, ten men with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, raised their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

When he saw them he said, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went along, they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.)[1]

Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to the man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has saved you.”

Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

This narrative stresses several themes we have been seeing in Luke’s gospel.

·  Jesus has mercy on social outcasts. Jews did not travel between Galilee and Judea by going close to Samaria. Jesus had no problem doing so.[2] Meanwhile, foreigners (allogenēs) were warned not to enter the temple past the outer court.[3] Jesus is sending a pointed message: you stop foreigners from entering the Jerusalem temple, but here is one of them worshipping Jesus, the Son of God.

·  On their way to the priests, the lepers were healed. File away somewhere that Jesus did not require saving faith from them to heal them. He just healed them without commenting on their faith.  So they were healed, but the returning Samaritan was saved: “used principally of God rescuing believers from the penalty and power of sin – and into His provisions (safety).[4]Literally, his response of faith (trust) brought him salvation from his fallen state.[5] He received the greater healing - that of his soul.

·  The Pharisees wanted a grand political upheaval or signs in the heavens – some impressive display of public power. Jesus said, “It’s not like that. The Kingdom doesn’t come with an outward show. It's not a visible, earthly, temporal kingdom which could be pointed out as being here or there.[6]  The kingdom of God, “the dominion of righteousness”[7] was being manifested in Jesus among them, right in front of their eyes. Ten lepers had been cleansed of leprosy, and they basically yawned.[8]  Do you remember Marvin the Martian? “There was supposed to be a kaboom!” They wanted political or cosmic fireworks that unleashed the power of God while failing to see the unleashing of power of God right in front of them.

So, Jesus told them the Kingdom of God had arrived. He followed this up with a cryptic warning/encouragement. This passage has been widely debated, along with the harmony passages in Luke 21, Mark 13 and Matthew 24 - 25. Jesus is talking to his disciples about how to prepare themselves for what’s to come, but his language is highly symbolic while referencing the Old Testament and Jewish colloquialisms.

Commentaries wrestle with whether or not Jesus, when referencing what will happen in “this generation,” was talking about spiritual realities, upcoming events within the lifetime of his audience, future events that usher in the end of history, or all three. I am increasingly of the opinion that he was prepping them for what they and the Jewish people would personally would face spiritually and physically,[9] so that’s how I’m going to approach it this morning.[10] I will include plenty of footnotes. Luke seems to focus on the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection (spiritual realities), while the other gospels land more heavily on the coming destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.  We will reference both.

To be cIear, I could be wrong :) . This is a great passage that should lead us into discussion as we strive to understand God’s word together. No matter what, this message would end with the same timeless encouragement, so let’s work our way there.

* * * * *

 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.”

Already, I have questions. Jesus just said the Kingdom is here. Then he told them they were going to long to see the days of the Son of Man, but they won’t, so that must be something different. Clearly, the disciples to whom he is speaking are going to go through a lot of difficulty as they wait for something in the Kingdom that has not yet happened. And yet…

‍Matt 10:23: "But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes."

Mark 14:62, Jesus tells the high priest, “From now on you shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

And here, I think is the interpretive key. Son of Man is a term Daniel is famous for using. Most commentaries will tell you Jesus is wanting his audience to remember this passage from Daniel 7:13-14: 

“I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”

When the Son of Man comes in Daniel, he’s not coming to earth. He’s coming to the throne room of God to take his place at the Father’s right hand and establish his heavenly Kingdom. This is not what people expect of a King taking his place on a throne.

People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. 

• In Acts 5, Rabbi Gamaliel speaks of two such messianic pretenders: Theudas, and Judas the Galilean, who led a revolt against the Romans.

• In Acts 21:38, Paul is suspected by the Roman temple guard of being the Egyptian who led four thousand Jews to the Mount of Olives.

• Josephus wrote of such prophets and messiahs as dangerous criminals bent on leading the nation to destruction. Josephus claims Felix executed imposters almost every day.[11]

For the Son of Man in his day[12] will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

That lighting imagery makes me think of the newly arisen Jesus.

“There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:2-4)

Back to the text. Jesus must suffer many things and be rejected by the generation of people who crucified him. What will be happening in the world as these things happen? Nothing like some good Old Testament imagery to give them some hyperlinks.

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

 It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

People will be doing ordinary things, going about life, not aware that everything is about to change. In the two examples he gives, a judgment is rendered on the sinfulness of the world. This will happen on the cross. The ultimate judgment is rendered: the wages of sin is death. Of course, the ultimate salvation is offered at the same time: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)[13] Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, he shows that He has conquered the devil, death, hell, and the grave (1 Corinthians 15:55-57; Revelation 1:18; Hosea 13:14; 2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:14-15). He takes captivity captive and gives good gifts to mankind (Ephesians 4:8-10). He crushes the serpent’s head (Romans 16:20).

 On that day no one who is on the housetop, with possessions inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife!  Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. 

Choices will need to be made. What matters most: the things of this world, or the things of Heaven?  If you try to hang on to this world, you will lose your life. If you let go of this world, you embrace life in the most profound way possible.

I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.” “[Taken] where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the eagles[14]/vultures will gather.”[15]

Those being taken are going somewhere with dead bodies and vultures. This is clearly a reference to judgment; the image is certainly not of “heaven.” Commentaries will tell you this is likely the valley of Ben-Hinnom (Gehenna), the city dump used for incinerating garbage, dead animals, and executed criminals. This is also where the poorest of the poor lived, having been denied housing in the city or the outlying villages connected with the city.

“On that day” during the days of the Son of Man, they will have to choose an empire of material things or a kingdom of spiritual things. “On that night,” the consequences of that choice begin. Some will stay and live within the provision of the Kingdom; those who reject the Kingdom will live outside the Kingdom, much to their grief (weeping) and frustration (gnashing of teeth).

The parallel section of Matthew 24-25 ends with the Parable of the Sheep and Goats by concluding, “And [the goats] will go to the chastening/pruning of the Age, but the just [sheep] to the life of the Age.” (Matthew 25:46, DBH translation).  That translation suggests there is something that happens now, in this age, that is a consequence of our choice of whether we want to enter the Kingdom or not. Jesus elsewhere (Mark 9)[16] described Gehenna as a place where “the worms that eat [the corpses] do not die, and the fire is not quenched.”[17] Then he adds,  “Everyone will be salted with fire,” which seemed to include something relevant to present reality if everyone gets it.

I wonder if there is some sense in which we choose our fire. We can accept the fire of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to purify our hearts and minds – and that will be a fire. Repentance and reconciliation when we have sinned against others; practicing humility; embracing truth even if we don’t like it; extending grace even when we don’t want to; practicing the sacrificial lifestyle of agape love; being relentlessly honoring and kind. That will burn through wood, hay and stubble like a fire.  

Or… we can endure the wages of sin, reaping the consequences of sinful choices as we weep and grind our teeth. We can be the prodigal stuck in a sin-filled pig sty eating pig food until we come to our senses. That, too, is a fire. Everyone will be salted with fire.

Lk 18:1 Then Jesus told them a parable to show them they should always pray and not lose heart.

They need this right now. Following Jesus is going to be hard. Remember, they will be longing for a glimpse of God at work, to feel God’s presence, to know in the midst of trials that God is with them and for them. History tells us (and the parallel passages break it down more) how brutal life was for the Jewish people leading up to the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70: wars, famine, persecution, natural disasters. For Jewish people following Jesus, they are going to suffer for being Jewish and for following Jesus. Almost all of the disciples will be killed for their faith. They are going to need hope.

  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. There was also a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

 For a while he refused, but later on he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, yet because this widow keeps on bothering me (“gives me a black eye”), I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out by her unending pleas.’ “

And the Lord said, “Listen to what [even an] unrighteous judge says! How much more will God give justice to his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night.[18] [Like a farmer waiting for a ripe harvest, he will not delay long[19] to help them when the harvest time has arrived]. I tell you, he will then vindicate them speedily.[20]

 Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes,[21] will he find [the kind of persistent] faith(fullness) in this land[22] that trusts God to [bring justice and vindicate his people]?”

“To show them they should always pray and not lose heart.” The lesson of the parable is not that God is reluctant to be bothered with our needs, so we should keep pulling on his arm going, “Dad, dad, hey dad, daddaddaddaddad” until he annoyingly yanks his arm away and says, “WHAT!?!?” His point is that if an unjust judge would answer the request of a widow he doesn't even know, how much more will a loving, righteous, generous God hear the prayers of his children?

Have times been tough throughout history for followers of Jesus? Have there been times when we have been tempted to lose heart, to wonder why on earth God is not showing up NOW in ways we want God to show up? Will we contribute to the persistent faith(fullness) in our land that trusts God to bring justice, to be faithful, to never leave or forsake us?”

Can we live in prayer-filled hope? The whole section we read this morning tells a crucial message: the Kingdom has arrived; Jesus is Lord; don’t lose hope. Keep praying. Stay in “constant involvement with God as we interpret and deal with the world in which we live.”[23]

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Romans 12:12)

_________________________________________________________________

[1]  “It echoes Elisha’s healing of a Gentile (2 Kgs 5:1–19a), which Jesus notes at the beginning of his ministry.” (NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible)

[2] As noted in the NIV Women’s Study Bible

[3] NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

[4] HELPS Word-studies

[5]  ESV Global Study Bible. “They all had faith to be healed but only one out of the ten turned back to thank the Lord… Your faith has made you well” suggests that whereas the nine were cleansed from leprosy, the tenth was also saved from sin!” (Believers Bible Commentary)

[6] Believer’s Bible Commentary

[7] Asbury Bible Commentary

[8]  Now, “The kingdom of God is a spiritual reality present within the Christian believer and within the community of the Church.”  (Orthodox Study Bible)

[9] Check out Adam Clarke’s commentary on Matthew 24. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/matthew-24.html

[10]  Jesus constantly references “this generation,” and it’s…that generation J Matthew 24:34  “Truly, I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.”  Matthew 11:16 (cf. Luke 7:31) “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates.” Matthew 12:39 (cf. Mark 8:12; Luke 11:29) “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” Matthew 12:41 “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it…  Matthew 12:42 “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it….”Matthew 12:45 “Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” Matthew 16:4 “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign…” Matthew 17:17 (Mark 9:19; Luke 9:41) “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? ” Matthew 23:36 “Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” Luke 11:50-52 “…so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.”

[11] Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament

[12] ‘Notice that in this passage, the "coming" of the "son of man" is not a coming here, but rather a coming before the throne of God in heaven: he is "presented" before God and found worthy of authority. The “coming” described in Daniel 7 is not a descent or “return” from heaven to earth, but the opposite: the “son of man” is carried by clouds into heaven and enters into the holy presence of God, whereupon he receives an eternal kingdom.’ (“What Is The Coming Of The Son Of Man? https://www.mercyonall.org/posts/what-is-the-coming-of-the-son-of-man)

[13] I like David Bentley Hart’s translation: “For sin’s wages are death, but God’s bestowal of grace is the life of the Age in Anointed, Jesus Christ.”

[14] “Sometimes a reference is supposed to the eagle-standards of Rome. (Comp. Deuteronomy 28:49-52; John 11:48.) This is very possible especially as the Jews were very familiar with the Roman eagle, and so strongly detested it that the mere erection of the symbol in Jerusalem was sufficient to lash them into insurrection (Jos. Antt. xvii. 6, § 3).” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds of the New Testament)

[15] We find this phrase in Matthew 24 also, which concludes by saying “this generation will not pass away” before seeing the signs of the Messiah. As the Good News translation puts it, “Remember that all these things will happen before the people now living have all died.” 

[16] See notes from that sermon here: https://www.clgonline.org/sermonblog/2023/12/10/harmony-53-who-is-the-greatest-mark-933-50-matthew-181-14-luke-946-50-171-3?rq=salted%20with%20fire

[17] Isaiah 66

[18] Revelation 6:9-11

[19] “In James 5:7 it is applied to the husbandman waiting for harvest. Here it is applied to God’s…coming to the help of tried saints.” (Expositor’s Greek Testament)

[20] Habakkuk 2:3 “For the vision points ahead to a time I have appointed; it testifies regarding the end, and it will not lie. Even if there is a delay, wait for it. It is coming and will come without delay.”

[21] “This probably refers to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem - the coming of the Messiah, by his mighty power, to abolish the ancient dispensation and to set up the new.” (Barnes’ Notes On The Bible)

[22] “The discussion had particular reference to their trials and persecutions in that land. This question implies that "in" those trials many professed disciples might faint and turn back.” (Barnes’ Notes On The Bible) 

[23] Stories With Intent: A Comprehensive Guide To The Parables of Jesus, by Klyne Snodgrass

Being People of the Word: Essenes, Zealots and Pharisees

Last week, I noted I’ve been listening to the Bema Podcast with Marty Solomon. Once again, this week’s material borrows heavily from his podcast, specifically episodes 73-81, which can be found at bemadiscipleship.com.

We started to look at what happened to the Jewish people before the arrival of Jesus, when they had returned from exile and splintered into 5 groups, all of which had reached different conclusions about how best to live as people of God in Greek/Roman culture. Jesus had a plan to build a group of disciples – that will become the church – from a potentially volatile mixture with representatives from all approaches. If we can learn from all of them, perhaps we will find a way forward during divisive political times that reflects the teaching and life of Jesus.

* * * * *

LAST WEEK

The Sadducees, the priests in the Temple, became corroborators with Hellenism, enablers who believed Alexander the Great’s euangelion: “Good news!  The Kingdom of Greece had arrived!” They loved the focus on self, wealth, power, and comfort. When their insider privilege was threatened by Roman advance, they invited the wealthiest man they knew (Herod) to keep Rome happy with his money and them happy with their continuing status quo by naming him the King of the Jews. They turned into corrupt bullies who were wiped out when the Temple fell. The encouragement: embrace the priestly role God has given to all of us. The caution: not like the Sadducees, whose love of the Empire corrupted their leadership in the Kingdom.

The Herodians were more the cultural version of the Sadducees. They liked the goodies of the self-centered Hellenism, and what had been a community of generosity for the poor and powerless became a community focused on all the pleasures this world had to offer. We said the good thing they brought was that they knew the culture. They were perfectly situated to have a Kingdom impact in Greek and Roman culture. However, they fell in love with the very worldview that conquered them and lived not only in the world, but as the world.[1]

This brings us to the Essenes, Zealots and Pharisees.  

Essenes

They thought the corrupt system of the Sadducees was inviting God’s judgment, so they went to the desert to spend what time they had left preparing. Well, most of them did. Priests like Zachariah, who likely had Essene connections,[2] stayed in the system and did his duty. Maybe this is a Group #6: those who believed the temple system was completely corrupt but felt like they couldn’t give up on the call that God gave to priests. Let’s call them the Zachariahns.

The Essenes liked Jeremiah 6:16: “Stand at the crossroads, ask for the ancient past, ask where the good way is, and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.” The Essenes wanted to be ready for the day when God’s people would again ask about the good way. They went out to the desert to know the path and to walk the path by devoting themselves to knowing, writing, and living the text.

They were serious. Writing the text was a four-person job. One person recited the word from a scroll while another person stood behind that person make sure they got it right. The scribe writing the word had a person looking over his shoulder to make sure he wrote the right word in the right way. Every time they got to the name of God, they all would take a break for a ritual bath in a mikvah before they wrote what they were allowed to write for the name of God just to be sure they were clean enough to do so.[3]

The mikvah was done in a baptistry filled with ‘living water’, water that came from God and moved of its own accord, which meant from either an underground spring or rain. The minute they carried it in a bucket, it was no longer living water. So, they channeled rainwater from the local wadi (a dry streambed that would flood during rainy season) through a plastered canal that ran to the village. They needed to be clean. They were serious about responding to God properly (as they understood it). They were all in.  They also liked Isaiah 40:

“Comfort, comfort my people, speak tenderly to Jerusalem…tell her that her sin has been paid for… A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every mountain brought down and every valley raised up. The rough places made smooth and the rugged places a plain and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.’”[4]

So, what is the upside of the Essenes? They were all in when it came to knowing and walking the path. They would not put up with corruption in the Temple. They were preparing themselves to stand at the crossroads and speak tenderly to the people when they arrived so the glory of the Lord would be revealed, and they could help people find rest for their souls.

What’s the downside? They’re not talking to anybody. They wanted to stand at the crossroads, but they were not at the crossroads. They were in the middle of the desert waiting for the crossroads to come to them.

ZEALOTS

Remember, the Zealots are part of the Hasidim, the pious ones, who headed to Galilee with the Pharisees as they rejected the compromise of the Sadducees and dedicated themselves to a righteous, uncompromising life. To the Zealot, it was going to take bloody violence to solve their problems and pave the way for the Messiah as God saw how committed they were and responded to their zeal.[5]

They were zealous not only against the Romans but also against the corrupt temple leadership. At one point, a Zealot went into the Temple courts and stabbed a sitting High Priest to death in the Temple courts.

They became insurgents who often used the tactics of terrorists. #sicarri They attacked Hasmonean dynasty (both the priestly class and the Greeks) for an entire century. Jesus will warn his disciples prone to violence that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. The way the Zealot movement ended will prove his point.

A Zealot named Hezekiah led a revolt in 43 BC. Rome came after them. At first, they were just looking for the Zealots fighters, but those Zealots would just hide. So, Rome went after the women and children. In response, the Zealots hid their families in the Caves of Arbel.

The Roman army went to Arbel, set up scaffolding on the cliff face, then lit fires and blew the smoke into the cave so that everybody hiding inside had to come out. They grabbed them with pitchforks and threw them off the scaffolding to their death.

To give you an idea how this story arc ends, let’s skip to AD 66. Rome decided to put statues of Caesar in the Sadducee-led Temple. A bunch of Pharisees met the ships as they sailed into Caesarea and lay in the road to stop this from happening. Tensions were high. Eventually, a revolt that began outside of Caesarea ended up with 20,000 Jews executed in the countryside.

This started a revolution. At one point, several Roman legions found themselves trapped by the Zealots in a fortress in Jerusalem, so they negotiated a settlement to march out of the city to safety if they laid down their arms. As soon as they laid down their arms, the Zealots slaughtered every Roman soldier in the Fortress.

Eventually, Rome pushed them back to a city/fortress called Gamla. A Zealot fighter named Joseph told the residents how to fortify the city before going out to fight Vespasian. He got captured in Galilee[6] and apparently told them how to take Gamla. 4,000 Jews died in the fighting; 5,000 Jews jumped to their own death rather than be conquered.

Masada will be their last stand around AD 70, where close to 1,000 Jewish people led by the remaining Sicarri killed themselves rather than be taken alive. That will be the end of the Zealots.

So, what’s the upside for a Zealot? Zeal. Fire. They care enough about the cause of the Kingdom to give their lives. If God’s people were always committed to give their lives for the cause of Christ, our lives would serve as a powerful witness to the glorious truth for which we live.[7]

What’s the downside? They are fighting for the King the wrong way. There are killing people to expand and/or protect the Kingdom of God, and that’s not the way of the kingdom. The Messiah’s way happens when crooked paths are made straight, not when they are paved in blood. Zealots need to channel their zeal into holiness not expressed in ways that destroys the people who need to hear the message of the Kingdom.

PHARISEES

The Pharisees were Hasidim who decided to respond to the corruption of the priests by enticing the Messiah to come and cleanse the Temple thanks to their absolute devotion to the way of God. They were full of zeal for obedience, not attacking Rome. They were committed to the text, but they did not retreat from society. They lived in the culture, but did not think Hellenism was a euangelion. They were focused around the Galilee Triangle, which I only point out because it will come up later.

The Pharisees believed God would deal with Rome when God was good and ready. They had the entire Old Testament as proof. When God decided it was time to judge or reward a nation, God would make it happen. Meanwhile, they focused on absolute obedience to His commandments. They would develop the Mishnah, thousands of laws that acted like a fence around the 613 laws of the Torah. Surely, that much fencing would keep them safe from breaking the Torah’s laws! I found a PDF online. It was 780 pages long.

This is why the Pharisees were so hard on those who broke even the most minor law. If they could all just be obedient enough, God would save them. If they weren’t, He wouldn’t.

We see this once again in the architecture. Remember Zippori, the Herodian town with mosaic sidewalks and floors? Not so in the towns of the Galilee Triangle (Chorazin, Capernaum, and Bethsaida). Their synagogues have big, roughly cut stones. You won’t find mosaics on their floors or in their courtyards. They were not there to enjoy the luxury of Hellenism.

In the Herodian Quarter, we saw the outline of a Sadducee house with 17 bedrooms. The Pharisees, in contrast, lived in insulas, multifamily dwellings of up to 10 families. They weren’t trying to have their own house, or courtyard, or their own stuff. That was the siren call of Hellenism. The Pharisees believed God called them to share if they were committed to each other as a community. Insula living is a practical example of this.[8]

Jesus critiques the Pharisees, and rightly so. Yet they are his ministry focus for three years.He generally avoided the Sadducees.[9]He called and worked with Herodians, Essenes and Zealots. However, he only pronounced woes on the Pharisees. “Those whom the Lord loves, He chastens.” (Hebrews 12:6) He’s purifying one segment of Judaism: the Pharisees. As odd as this may sound, they have gleaned the best from the other groups. They are, however, missing two crucial things that really, really matter. Here, he addresses the Galilee Triangle to highlight what they still need.

Then He began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon and than for you. And for Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? Will you be brought down to Hades? For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day, but I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment in the land of Sodom than for you.” (Matthew 11:20–24)

 The Tyre and Sidon reference goes back to a passage about arrogance in the book of Isaiah.[10]The Sodom and Gomorrah reference has to do with a failure of compassion and hospitality.[11] Two groups of people epically condemned for their pride and hostility are going to judge the Pharisees, the Hasidim, the “pious ones.”

The Pharisees had the Text; they had devotion; they had at least a stated commitment to obedience; they had zeal for the way of God and longed for the Messiah to arrive. What they didn’t have was humility/repentance and compassion.

• When we won’t eat with sinners like Jesus did; when we lack a life-orienting compassion for the poor, the outcast, the sick, the immigrant, the tax collectors and Samaritans in our midst, we are Pharisees who need to learn mercy and compassion.

• If we claim the name of Jesus and insist the 10 Commandments be posted so that American can learn Judeo/Christian morals, and we break those commandments consistently and even boldly, we are hypocritical Pharisees need to learn repentance and humility.[12]

* * * * *

So, disciples of Jesus, “What do we do with the United States?” How do we learn from and value each other in the midst of the different responses represented in this room? Is there a way to find unity in our diversity? Jesus thought so; we should too. Let’s focus on what was of value from the different approaches. Perhaps in piecing them all together we can find wisdom.

We need zeal, but it needs to be zeal for the written word of God and Word made Flesh, not a zeal for civil war and violence of any kind.  We don’t want that holy, zealous fire to go out, but we don’t want it to flare up such that it burns others. Zealotry requires observation, supervision, self-reflection. It requires us to see if we are scorching those around us. It’s probably going to take a community that cares about each other to help us figure out how to keep the embers from going cold and from starting a destructive wildfire.

We need to be committed to the Word, both written and made human in Jesus. We need Essenes whose love of the Word written and incarnate inspire all of us to love the Word as well.[13] If we all valued what God had to say as much as they did, and if we all let it order our lives like they did, that in itself would be huge. It’s probably going to take a community that cares about each other to make this a labor of love and not legalism, a community where we see the exciting Christ-like transformation that the Word brings to our lives.

We need to know the culture. The early church did not isolate. They boldly redeemed culture Hellenistic images.

• The church took the iconic kriophoros, or lamb bearer, and used it to portray Christ as the Good Shepherd.

• The church used the praying figure of the pagan orant to symbolize Christian piety.

• The classic image of Jonah under the withered vine was based on the story and popular pictures of Endymion, a young man who fell in love with a goddess.

• A fresco of Christ as Orpheus in the Catacombs of Peter and Marcellus in Rome dates from the 4th century. Clement wrote, “Orpheus pacified wild beasts by the power of his song…Jesus’ new song tames ‘the most intractable of all animals – man.’”

The first Christians didn’t move out of the neighborhood once they became disciples of Christ. They saw a broken and dying world often odds with their new citizenship – and it broke their hearts. They stayed there and sought to bring the reality of new life in the Kingdom of Heaven to earth. How do we do this without becoming Herodians? It’s probably going to take a communitywhere a lot of thoughtful conversation, prayer and study help to keep us in the world but not of it.

We must understand the effectual power of obedience.[14] The Pharisees were wrong to believe that they had to earn God’s return by being good enough. They were not wrong about the importance of a consistent, obedient walk in the path of God. When faithful obedience becomes the consistent rhythm of our life, we are free from the controlling power and the terrible harvest of sinful choices; we will increasingly understand why Jesus said God’s path brings life; and we will impact others in life-giving ways.[15] But…obedience can be hard, both knowing what to do in hard/confusing situations and acting on what we know. It might take a community of accountability, truth and grace with which to link arms so we can find the path and walk in it.

* * * * *

It turns out we need each other to mature and grow into the kind of church community that looks like a “new humanity” Jesus talked about in Ephesians 5. We are united in Jesus and filled with His Spirit so that this ‘body’ with many parts works together as God intended (1 Corinthians 12).

• We want Essenes with the Herodians to remind them to stay true to the Word; we want Herodians with the Essenes to get them out of their ineffective isolation.

• We need the Zacharians and the Essenes to be in communication: “You might need to get out of that corrupt system of politics and religious institutions.” “You might need to stay in it.”

• We want Pharisees with the Zealots to remind them to be zealous for obedience, mercy and holiness, not violence, antagonism, and revenge.

• We want the Zealots and Pharisees with the Sadducess to remind them that the Empire is not the Kingdom, and that the urge to compromise must be resisted.

 We need Jesus to remind us all that a lifestyle of repentance, humility and mercy must go with love of the word and The Word, so that we will be able to stand in the crossroads of the world with truth, grace, and integrity, preparing the way so that the glory of the Lord will be revealed.

We can do this. We have the text (Bible), the Word (Jesus), the Holy Spirit. We are equipped to be a new kind of humanity whose Jesus-centered community displays the loving power of God by demonstrating the miraculous power of a transforming Savior, who breaks down barriers and reconciles us to Christ and

____________________________________________________________________________

[1]We have to watch out for what Michael Gorman calls a set of myths that we can begin to believe about the empires in which we live. A “myth of righteousness” sets values of the Empire on par with the values of the Kingdom (in which both are seen as part of the euangelion, the good news of God’s plan for the world). A “myth of greatness” becomes defined by the standards of Babylon and Rome: financial, political, and/or military strength as the markers of success. A “myth of innocence” sees the power, prosperity, and peace of the (apparently) righteous and great Empire as achieved by and sustained by thoroughly righteous means and people. A “myth of worthiness” demands an appreciation of and allegiance to the state as a profoundly moral responsibility for Christians. (from Reading Revelation Responsibly)

[2] If his son, John the Baptist was trained by Essenes, Zechariah would have been the one to make that happen. “Everything about John the Baptist smacks and rings of Essene theology and worldview, except for the way that he engages the populist…The Essenes separated themselves and wanted culture to come to them when the end times came.” (Marty Solomon, bemadiscipleship.com)

[3] They had an error rate over a large amount of time of 2%. It’s remarkable.

[4] They believed that if they would stay true to their call, God would show up. Interestingly, the Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea less than three miles away. That’s where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Hmmm.

[5] This inspired them to buy into what some have called the ‘myth of redemptive violence,’ the belief that that evil can only be defeated by good people violently wielding power “Redemptive violence gives way to violence as an end in itself. It is no longer a religion that uses violence in the pursuit of order and salvation, but one in which violence has become an aphrodisiac, sheer titillation, an addictive high, a substitute for relationships. Violence is no longer the means to a higher good, namely order; violence becomes the end.” (Walter Wink, “The Myth Of Redemptive Violence.”)

[6] Vespasian adopted Joseph as a son, changing his name to Josephus Flavius, famed Jewish historian.

[7] The early church is going to be full of this kind of zeal. The blood of the martyrs, not the blood spilled by Zealots, will be seed of the early church.[7]

[8] Peter and Andrew, James, John, and possibly Philip were from Bethsaida.

[9] Generally. He cleanses the Temple at the beginning and end of his ministry.

[10] Isaiah 23-24

[11] “Ancient stories give hints about the evil in Sodom. Travelers who came into the city would be robbed, stripped, and held captive within the city. They would wander the streets slowly starving to death, to the great amusement of the citizenry. One account relates that visitors to Sodom were offered a bed according to the Middle Eastern laws of hospitality, but it was a bed of torture. Short people were stretched. Tall people had their legs cut off. If a traveler had no money, he would be given bricks of gold and silver with his name on them! But nobody would sell him bread and water, even for all that gold and silver, so the traveler slowly died of starvation. The Sodomites gathered around the corpse and took back the gold and silver.” http://www.susancanthony.com/res/dennis/canaan.html

[12] Another example is the (proper) denunciation of sexual abuse, grooming, human trafficking, etc. So… In a nine-week  period ending in April of 2023, attorney Kristen Browde kept track of all people arrested in the US for charges of child sexual abuse. Out of 308 cases…39% were in Christian ministry positions. In 2022, the SBC released a list of 700 pastors accused of sexual abuse. Over 7,000 claims of sexual abuse by church staff, congregation members, volunteers, or the clergy were made to just three insurance companies over a 20-year period (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2007). Add to it what happened in the Catholic church. Woe to those who call out the sexualization of our culture and the grooming of children in others when they do the same. It will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for those in Sodom and Tyre.

[13] 45%  of people who claim to be Christian in the US read their Bible at least once a week? 45%. Everyone else is once a month or less. 35% say they seldom or never read it.

[14] We also need to value the role we have as priests. We talked about this last week, so I’m going to refer you back to those notes J

[15] Add to that the idea that our life, not just our words, becomes a witness. When we say, “Good news! The Kingdom of God is here!” people will look at how our lives have been impacted to reach some conclusions about whether it’s good news or not. 

Being People of the Word: Sadducees and Herodians

Some of you have been asking if there is some way to talk about Christians and politics in preparation for what is sure to be another volatile election. A podcast I have been listening to covered some ground this week that I hope can lead us into introspection and discussion.

This involves what happened to the Jewish people before the arrival of Jesus, when they had returned from exile and splintered into 5 groups, all of which had reached different conclusions about how best to live as people of God in Greek and then Roman culture. I don’t usually do history, but this particular window of time seems relevant to where we are now.

* * * * *

 In 586 BC, the Jewish people headed into Babylonian captivity. While in exile – lacking a temple - the synagogue took root.[2] Synagogue was about an entire lifestyle centered around Torah symbolized by the very architecture of the synagogue. Yes, they had it before exile, but this is different. They assumed their exile was because they didn’t obey the Torah. This would not happen again. So text-centered synagogues developed in exile and continued when they returned to their land in 538 BC to rebuild, as recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah.

In 332 BC, approximately 200 years later, Alexander the Great began to conquer the West as a warrior/evangelist with a euangelion, the Greek word for gospel or “good news.”  This euangelionwas Hellenism, a worldview that is all about me. Previously, every worldview centered around the gods: what made the gods happy, or angry; what were the gods were doing? Hellenism changed all that. Pythagoras said, “Man is the measure of all things.” People are the new rulers; the gods bear their image, not the other way around. It’s no longer about what the gods  want; it’s about what I want. Ask not what you can do for the gods; ask what the gods can do for you.

Alexander’s “good news” was not always at the point of the sword. There were easier ways to conquer a culture. He asked for four things.

• Education: He can control what people learn, think and know.

• Healthcare: Everyone wants to be healthy, and the Empire will be their doctor.

• Entertainment: Distraction brings complacency as they are (once again) being educated

• Athletics: Competition and tribal identity will keep the adrenaline flowing.

Notice, none of those things are bad things. It was just that under Alexander’s Hellenism, it was easy to begin to love your conqueror, because he gave you comfort, leisure and luxury. His euangelion was simple: “Good news! The Kingdom of Greece has arrived!” and people believed it.

When he died, he handed this Greek empire over to four different rulers. Ptolemy ruled the area of Judea where the Jews had resettled. Much like Alexander, he didn’t need a big military show of force. He said, “Here’s Hellenism. I think you will like it.” They did, for the most part.

By 167 BC, the Seleucids (another of Alexander’s predecessors) had taken over Judea. Eventually they entered Jerusalem, and…..disaster. Seleucus sacrificed a pig on the temple altar. A group that will eventually be known as the Zealots were furious so they led the Maccabean Revolt (which is the story of Hanukkah).

They defeated the Seleucids in Jerusalem and got the temple back. When deciding who was going to rule now, they went back to the text (because they were people of the text) and decided God’s original plan was for priests to rule, not kings.  So, they handed the kingdom over to the priests – the Hasmoneans (167-63 BC = the Hasmonean Dynasty.)

Within 20 years, the Hasmoneans had became completely Hellenistic. They loved the power, money, luxury and entertainment. Josephus wrote that there weren’t enough priests to run temple services because the priests were at the Empire’s entertainment spectacles. This is the priestly class that will become known as the Sadducees. (The Herodians will be those who share their views to a large degree but are more of a political party.) The Sadducees are the one party that does not appear to be represented in Jesus’ disciples.

The Maccabeans did not care for this turn of events at all, and they and a lot of others headed to Galilee. These Hasidim, the ‘pious ones,’ intended to build a devoted Judaism totally committed to the way of God. Two groups emerged: Zealots and Pharisees. Both are devoted to following God, but Zealots were devoted with the sword, and Pharisees with absolute obedience.

Paul was a Pharisee, and likely Jesus and most of the disciples as well. Jesus had two followers who were Zealots: Simon the Zealot and Judas “the” Iscariot (sicarii, "dagger-men," a group of Zealots who carried a knife with them at all times and vowed that if they ever found a Roman soldier alone they would kill him.[3])

Meanwhile, the Essenes were a group of disenchanted priests who couldn’t stand the corruption. They moved to the desert and set up a places like Qumran. #deadseascrolls They were the Jewish Amish. John the Baptist was likely Essene; Jesus was baptized by him, which suggests Jesus trained at times under his teaching.

Rome eventually conquered Judea. Rome, by the way, loved Hellenism. They just added to it the “pax romana,’ the peace by the sword (an idea that the developing Zealots will embrace). Their euangelion was similar to Alexander’s: “Good news! The Kingdom of Rome is here!”

 When the Sadducees saw Rome on the horizon, they started working on a solution to stay in power because they didn’t want to lose all that stuff that the built up over the last century: buildings, luxury, power, advantage, privilege, comfort.

Enter Herod the Great, the son of the king of Idumea.  His people, the Nabataeans, owned the spice trade. The whole thing. Think of one people group owning all of the oil in our world.  Herod was by far the wealthiest man to ever walk the face of the earth.

The Sadducees knew they could never combat Rome’s power. But…Rome needed money. They went to the wealthiest man on the planet, and said, “If you’ll marry one of our daughters, you’ll be kind of Jewish? And you can be the king of the Jews.” So, Herod married into the priestly line and offered his wealth as an asset to Rome – specifically, to Julius Caesar – in exchange for being the King of the Jews. Julius liked that idea a lot. Herod’s reign lasted from 37 BC to 4 BC, approximately two years after Jesus was born.

When Herod died, he split his kingdom among his three sons: Philip got the north, Archelaus got southern Judea, and Antipas got central Judea (Galilee). Archelaus in southern Judea is a horrible ruler who almost immediately gets replaced by Rome with…. Pontius Pilate. 

That catches up the historical dynamics that led to the splintering of the Jewish community. They were all trying to grapple with, “What do we do with Rome? How do we live as people of God in this context? How will we usher in the age of the Messiah?”  Do you….

• run from it and focus on learning in order to be faithful (Essenes)

• ignore it and focus on obedience to entice the Messiah’s return (Pharisees)

• become a part of it and enjoy what it has to offer while waiting for the Messiah (Sadducees and Herodians)

• attack it and pave the Messiah’s way in blood (Zealots)

 This is the world into which Jesus is born. Galatians 4:4 says,

“ When the right time arrived, God sent His Son into this world (born of a woman, subject to the Torah) 5 to free those who, just like Him, were subject to the Torah. Ultimately He wanted us all to be adopted as sons and daughters.”

Of all the points in human history, this was just at the right time. Perhaps one of the reasons is because of the tension within God’s people. This was the time to unite them around the Word become flesh, the Text in bodily form. Fascinatingly, Jesus seems to have called disciples who represented all four of the approaches[4] with the plan to make them a team centered around The Living Torah, the Word in the Flesh.

 That sounds like a terrible idea to me, but not to Jesus. This would be a sign of the power of the Kingdom and its King. Jesus will show them how making peace with God will lead to making peace with others, breading down every barrier and creating one new humanity (Ephesians 2).

This sounds like a message we need in today’s political and religious climate. So, we are going to look more closely at these groups, try to find ourselves in them, looking at their strengths and weaknesses, and discern how to unite around Jesus. Today we will cover two groups that had a lot in common: Sadducees and Herodians. Next week, Pharisees, Zealots, and Essenes.

SADDUCEES[5]

When the now thoroughly Hellenistic Sadducees convinced Herod to be their king, he offered the high priesthood to the highest bidder from the 7 main families. Annas won the bidding. The Chief Priesthood will not leave his family until the temple is destroyed in AD 70. When we read about Caiaphas and Jesus clashing, Caiaphas is a descendant of Annas.

These seven families became a corrupt religious mafia. Josephus talks about the priesthood gathering in tithes and offerings and then not paying the other priests, just getting and more and more financially secure while their fellow priests suffered. They had their own Temple Guard, their muscle (think of Jesus’ arrest). They were corrupt bullies who used the cover of the temple to indulge in the power, prestige and luxury Rome offers at the expense of all those they exploited.

To give you an idea of the luxury of the priests, in the Herodian Quarter in Jerusalem archaeologists discovered a priestly home with17 bedrooms and 21 mikvah baths. In another priestly home they found a wine cellar full of bottles valued (when adjusted to our dollars today) at about $5,000 to $10,000 per bottle of wine.

Meanwhile, there were two Sanhedrins (the ruling body), a formal and informal one. The formal Sanhedrin was 70 or 72 people, half Pharisees and half Sadducees, to balance the Jewish leadership. The informal one met in the high priest’s house where this Sadducee Deep State made decisions that WOULD BE RATIFIED (#wink) by the formal Sanhedrin if the voters valued their lives. There corruption was so bad that some biblical scholars wonder if the “abomination of desolation” referred to in Daniel was not, in fact, the sacrificing of a pig on the altar (as is commonly assumed), but is this time of ruling by the Sadducees in which God’s house was profaned in more serious ways than pig’s blood.

Jesus spent three years with the Pharisees, and in spite of all their conflict they tried to save his life twice. He spent one week with the Sadducees before they kill him. I wonder if the many times Jesus told people not to report being healed was to avoid getting on the radar of the High Priests of the Sadducees.

So, what should we think of this group? The wrong is obvious: They are corrupt bullies. The power and luxury of Empires are corrosive partners with leadership of the people of God. It destroys the true faith, it creates terrible cynicism and frustration in those trying to do true worship, and it ultimately fails. When Rome destroyed the temple in AD 70, that Empire they tried to partner with wiped the Sadducess and the Herodians off the face of the earth.

The Bible describes Zachariah as a “righteous” priest, adding an adjective that shouldn’t have been necessary. Unfortunately, many in the role of priest weren’t righteous. To be a priest was a good thing, but to be a corrupt priest who loved the means and methods of Empire was horrible, and it goes against everything that the priesthood is supposed to represent and stand for. When those who claim Jesus and are supposed to embody holiness, servanthood and love become morally compromised, arrogant and selfish, we have lost the plot of God’s story.

The positive is they deeply desired to be in a role that was a God-ordained role. God has a role for priests. 1 Peter 2:9 reminds us, 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation..that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

That’s us. There is a God-ordained role that we need to serve in well. What are you doing in your life right now? You are doing it in a priestly role as part of the priesthood of all believers, and God plans to use you where you are. What do we priest have to watch out for? The allure or power, luxury, safety, and comfort, especially when the means to get it involves collusion with the Empire.   

HERODIANS

If you weren’t a priest, but your approach to Hellenism was very similar to that of a Sadducee, you were a Herodian. This was almost more of a political party that said, “I can have a little bit of Rome – maayybe a lot of Rome - and I can have a little bit of God and Hellenism, and I can put the two together quite comfortably.”

To be sure, the core things Hellenism offered (education and healthcare, entertainment, athletics) were not in and of themselves problematic. The wealth available through the Empire was not the problem. The things aren’t necessarily the problem. However, Hellenism used good or neutral things to tell the wrong story: life is ALL ABOUT YOU.

This feels like it hits close to home. America has historically liked a definition of freedom that says it’s all about me. We love rugged individualism: “don’t tread on me”; “nobody puts baby in a corner”; “It’s my life, I can do what I want.” The right to pursue my happiness how I define it is right there in key American texts. We want to be able to sing “I Did It My Way,” and sing “I will Follow You, Jesus” without there being a conflict. Let’s not look away from how close this is to us as we talk about the Herodians.

Zippori is our poster city for what happened to Herodians. Zippori was a Jewish village that led a revolt against Rome. Rome destroyed it, then one of Herod’s sons rebuilt it as a Herodian colony inhabited almost entirely by Jews, who quickly embraced the goodies of Rome.[6] For example:

• Instead of giving their excess to the poor, they had sidewalks paved with mosaics, which would have been an unheard of distraction and waste of resources in a traditional Jewish village.

• The Jewish homes were full of beautiful mosaics in geometrical patterns (you weren’t supposed to make images of people) which would have been seen as selfishly lavish 50 years prior.  

Once again, it’s not that art is bad. Surely one can appreciate art and have money and love God. But to the Jewish population historically, this flourishes went against the ethic found in the text on how to use money and resources with an eye for the poor and powerless. And that compromise, though small, opened the door to some more compromising rooms. Literally.

• The geometric mosaics were in the public-facing area of the house. In the same house, in more private spaces, we see not just images (!) but images of Greek and Roman gods like Pan, the god of sexual fertility. Perhaps they were thinking, “I don’t worship that. I don’t go to the temple of Pan. I worship the God of Israel. It’s just a story.”

• Meanwhile, in the main living area, the centerpiece on the floor is a mosaic of the Egyptian mythology of the Nile.[7] Egypt. The nation that enslaved their ancestors and whose gods Yahweh humiliated.

• In the same town, different house, we find the Mona Lisa of the Galilee. This mosaic has 22.5 million pieces (!) in it. In the center is the lady of the house, but the spiral path around her tells the Greek mythology, with scenes of daily life connected with the rites of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and orgy. The story ends with Dionysus drinking Zeus under the table.

It’s in a Jewish home that’s supposed to be centered around the biblical text that is instead centered around the Roman story. What may have started as a relatively innocent compromise spirals toward serious spiritual compromise. Paul later writes to the churches about this very issue.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces (Galatians 4:8-9) 

The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord’s jealousy? (1 Corinthians 10:19-22)

“Anthony, that reference is dated. Give us something more modern.” Can do. In the rotunda of the US Capitol building has a mural called The Apotheosis of Washington (1865). It depicts Washington as having ascended into the heavens and becoming exalted or glorified. He wears the colors of Roman emperors, with a rainbow arch at his feet, flanked by the Roman goddesses of Victory and Liberty. There are six scenes around him, 5 of which have Roman gods/goddesses:

• Science, Minerva, surrounded by inventors.

• Marine, Neptune, with warships in the background.

• Commerce, Mercury, giving a bag of gold to a financier of the Revolutionary War.

• Mechanics, Vulcan, with cannons and steam engines.

• Agriculture, Ceres, with a mechanical reaper.

• War, Columbia, the personification of America, aka Lady Liberty

 Can you feel the dissonance if we would ask to make sure a copy of the 10 Commandments or the Beatitudes were posted there along with a dare I say blasphemous image of Washington doing what Jesus did, surrounded by Greek gods and a freshly minted American god of war? That dissonance has not ended. We still put side-by-side thinks that don’t fit comfortably together. Methinks the Herodian urge remains alive and well.

Now, the positive. Jesus loves Greeks and Romans as much as He loved any person that’s ever been a part of this story, and He wants to redeem their story. Citizens of Herod mattered very much to God, and who knew this world better than the Herodians? They are perfectly placed for God’s mission.  

• You wanted to redeem theater? Who better than the Herodians?

• You wanted to use athleticism as a platform to tell God’s story? Who better placed to be an athlete than Herodians?

• Who was better placed to impact the Herodian world for the God narrative than the educator, doctor, artist or a mosaic maker?

 They are perfectly placed to impact the world around them because they understand it, they are in the middle of it, they engage it every single day. The challenge is not falling into it and letting it consume and compromise you. The danger is idolatry, serving Mammon rather than God.

We have to watch for the subtle shift in values that tripped up the Jewish people and the first Christians. Enjoying life can become indulging in life, which can become a gluttony of pleasures (feasting every day like the Sadducee in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus), which can become exploitation. “You’re heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,” the prophet Isaiah scolded in Isaiah 5, and it’s not a compliment. It’s a timeless warning.

That this is the danger of the Herodian. We want to talk about our worship of God while remaining comfortable in our wealth. We want privilege, influence and control while being able to think of ourselves as following in the footsteps of the one who came not to be served, but to serve. We want to feast on safety, comfort and pleasure without even thinking about what it costs to get what we want, who might be hurt in the process, and what we might be keeping for ourselves that the early church described as belonging to the poor.

Here, I think, is the bottom line dilemma for the Sadducees and the Herodians: They were gathered around the Roman mosaics rather than the biblical text. They forgot about the point of synagogue as a lifestyle, where their lives spiritually and practically centered around the text. Rome now guided their imagination and thoughts. Rome told them what the good life was like. Rome told them how to think about people, about God, and about themselves. They took their eye off the text.

One very important lesson we learn from them is that, as aliens and exiles sojourning through the life in the United States of America, the text that centers us is the Bible. It’s not the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. It’s not college professors or TV talk show hosts or politicians or conference speakers.

The church community is centered around the Word - both the text and the Word become Flesh – and like-minded followers of Jesus. The answer to “What do we do with Rome/the United States?” will not be found in the texts of the Empire. It’s found in the Word. We gather and study and pray week after week after week 1) to learn the Word of God so that we can walk in the life-giving path of God, and 2) to experience the life-changing reality of the Word made flesh.  

For the disciples, their goal was to know what their rabbi (Jesus) knew, in order to do what their rabbi did, for the reasons that the rabbi did them, in order to be just like the rabbi in their walk with God. 

Nothing has changed for disciples today. The goal is to know what Jesus knows, in order to do what Jesus does, for the reasons that the Jesus does them, in order to be more and more like Jesus in our walk with God.[8]

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[1] I am deeply, deeply indebted to Marty Solomon at Bema for almost all of today’s information. I am borrowing heavily from his podcast and printed notes, which can be found at bemadiscipleship.com, episodes 73-81.

[2] There are seven elements commonly found in synagogues. A mikvah was a ritualistic cleansing bath. The basilica, the pillared section of the synagogue both held up the roof and allowed for high windows, because “You read God’s Light by God’s light.” The bema seat was a slightly raised platform in the center of the room to stand on when reading the text for discussion. The chief seats were benches around the outside of the synagogue reserved for the more seasoned in the community, those who knew Torah best. The Torah closet held the few scrolls in each synagogue. The Seat of Moses is where a reader sat to give an introductory read to the text. Finally, every synagogue had a study room.

[3] There is a theory “that Judas, when he betrayed Jesus, was not just giving Jesus up for the sake of the money, not because Satan made him do it, not because he was possessed by a demon, and certainly not because God made him do it. Rather…Judas was trying to initiate a confrontation between Jesus and the authorities so that the war could begin.” https://revkevnye.com/2010/04/27/the-judas-theory/

[4] The Herodians represent the Herodians/Sadducees. There were no Sadducee disciples.

[5] The Sadducees came from line of priestly families that date all the way back to the time of David and Solomon. They get their name from being in the line of Zadok whose descendents are Zadokim in Hebrew. In English, we say “Sadducee.”

[6] Zippori is three miles away from the Nazareth of Jesus. In between Nazareth and Zippori is a stone quarry. Joseph was, in the Greek, a tektōn, likely working with stone more often than anything else. It is likely that Joseph worked in a stone quarry between Nazareth and Zippori that was owned by Herod. It is likely Jesus was raised in a household for whom Herod wrote the paycheck. There’s also good chance that Jesus was raised with Herodian exposure. Jesus at one point quote Euripides from a play called Trojan Women. “Troy, Troy, how I long to gather you as a hen gathered its chicks…” He talks about hupokrites, the word for actors. If he was Jewish and attended Roman theater, there was some Herodian influence there. It’s a good reminder that the things themselves (like plays) were not the problem. It’s the story you believed about them.

[7] “Now, again, do they worship the Egyptian gods? No. I can almost guarantee you, this family doesn’t worship the Egyptian gods, but this is what they put in their dinner table. By this point, most of my group is like, “Yes, they are compromising.”  I love to just lay it on my listeners and say, “Wait a minute, is this not exactly where you and I live?”  We watch (insert name of show or movie or song list here). Our centerpiece is a little different, but I have figured out in my mind, I can appreciate and think critically about art over here and I don’t worship this. What do we do with that? Most everybody that says, “Oh yes, they’re definitely compromising here,” will immediately have to backtrack when asked, “Wait a minute, isn’t this exactly what you do when you go back home?” And the answer is, “Absolutely.” This is where we live. We are Herodians.” (Marty Solomon)

[8] Once again, I am deeply indebted to Marty Solomon at Bema Discipleship for this material.

He, Too, Saved Israel (Judges 3)

We’ve been hearing in the past few weeks from Luke about how Jesus stressed the importance of valuing people who seem unimportant, unvaluable, maybe even bad. We have talked about the Great Reversal:

“Those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” (Luke 13) 

“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14) 

This is kind of the flip side of the coin, but it reminds me of other places where Scripture gives a really, really low priority to seeking earthly glory. 

“Do you think I care about the approval of men or about the approval of God? Do you think I am on a mission to please people? If I am still spinning my wheels trying to please men, then there is no way I can be a servant of the Anointed One, the Liberating King.” (Galatians 1) 

“That’s why it is hard to see how true faith is even possible for you: you are consumed by the approval of other men, longing to look good in their eyes; and yet you disregard the approval of the one true God.” (John 5:44) 

I’ve been thinking about this because it’s graduation season.

When I started teaching, I realized pretty quickly that graduates were often flooded with messages about how amazing they are supposed to be now, with “amazing” typically meaning that they chase after cultural markers of glory, value and importance. “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!” I actually like that Dr. Seuss’s poem acknowledges the ups and downs and life, but the ending seems inevitable: you’ll move mountains that everyone will notice and applaud you for.

I’m not sure that’s the best message. It’s rare to hear a message that one of the most important “places you’ll go” is being a good friend, or volunteering to help those in poverty, or simply being a good parent or employee, or leading a small group at church, or being part of Big Brother/Big Sister, or babysitting kids for overwhelmed parents, or offering free help in your area of expertise, or simply being kind.

And yet there are mountains that need moving in someone’s life for which those are the tools. The Empire might not think it’s important, but I promise you the Kingdom does.

One of the books of the Bible that fascinates me is the book of Judges. It shows a cycle of God’s faithfulness to his unfaithful people, but that’s not what I’m thinking of today. It gives such different coverage to the Judges in a way that I think is meant to be revelatory about how God intends for us to think about our lives. It’s Old Testament – we don’t have time to unpack how to hear these stories like the original audience would have heard them – but some day we’ll get to these. But, here’s the story as found in Judges 3. 

“Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD [they were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years), and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud… The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.  Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing.

He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it.  At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king."  The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.

Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat,  Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly... Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.  Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them. 

While [the servants assumed Eglon was taking his good old time in the bathroom], Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived there, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down with him from the hills, with him leading them. 

"Follow me," he ordered, "for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands." So they followed him down and, taking possession of the fords of the Jordan that led to Moab, they allowed no one to cross over. At that time they struck down about ten thousand Moabites, all vigorous and strong; not a man escaped.  That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years.

Y’all, give it up for Ehud. Three cheers and a whole bunch of paragraphs for Ehud!

After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. He too saved Israel. (Judges 3: 15-31)

For some context:

Judges 4-5 – Deborah gets two chapters and a song (Shamgar gets, like, a ‘shout out’.)

Judges 6-8  - Gideon gets three chapters

Judges 9 - Abimelech gets a chapter (and he killed his own brothers, which seems like it should count against him)

Judges 11 and 12 – Jepthah gets two chapters (he made a terrible oath he should never have kept and ended up sacrificing his daughter)

Judges 13-16 – Samson gets 4 chapters, and he was hardly a role model.

Judges 3 - Shamgar gets one verse that almost sounds like it should be read with a yawn. 

Then we get some other references similar to the reference to Shamgar:

Judges 10: 1-5 “…a man of Issachar, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, rose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the hill country of Ephraim. He led Israel twenty-three years; then he died, and was buried in Shamir. He was followed by Jair of Gilead, who led Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons, who rode thirty donkeys.”

Tola rose to save Israel (cool!) and apparently did (?) and then the next guy had a lot of donkeys. Hmmm. Keep in mind, the beginning of Judges notes this:

“Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them.”

If you were a judge at all, God himself had raised you up to save His people, and He was with you as long as you lived. And some of them have their stories recorded for all the world to read, and some of them got a nod and a retirement watch.

Let’s say you’re Shamgar; you saved your nation by killing 600 enemy warriors with a big stick with a pointy end, and you basically get an “atta boy.” That’s like...

• giving a history of the NBA, and then saying, “And Michael Jordan also played basketball.” 

• or discussing a history of music, and saying of Beethoven, “He too wrote music.” 

• or saying of Ohio State, “They too had a football team.”

Tola and Jair were raised up by God himself, and all they get is that they lived, they died, and their sons rode donkeys from town to town, which seems like bit of really unnecessary trivia.

Today, when people are treated like this, they go on TV and say things like, “I’m being disrespected.”  We are a culture that increasingly seems to think that we all deserve our 15 minutes of fame, and if it doesn’t happen naturally, well, there are always reality shows, and YouTube, and blogs. Ashleigh Brilliant once wrote, “All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance.”  To whatever degree that’s funny, it’s probably because it is an accurate reflection of the natural human condition.

I think the Biblical narratives of stories like these point us toward a hard reality in the Christian walk:  Sometimes, God will raise us up, and use us mightily, and it will not be noticed, and we will never get the credit we think we deserve.   

Unsung Heroes, by Riva Pomerantz 

I was delighted when my husband bought a beautiful name plaque for our front door... until I noticed the door. Years of fingerprints, remnants of gummy tape, stickers, and I don’t even want to think about what else, had etched themselves onto the once-white door. A quick glance from beautiful nameplate to horrifying door brought me to the only possible conclusion: clean the door. 

So two hours later, the door was sparkling white and the nameplate was handsomely ensconced in its center. When my kids got up in the morning and saw the complete metamorphosis of the front door, they were—of course—awed.“Look Daddy!” they told my husband. “They cleaned the door.” My husband told me of their reaction with some amusement. 

“They cleaned the door?” I practically yelled. “They is me! I cleaned the door! What do they think? Magic fairies come while we all sleep and clean the furniture, put away the toys, bake cookies...” So in the grand scheme of door-cleaning, I remain an unsung hero.

Unsung heroes. One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is this role of unsung hero, because we have in us a drive to be noticed, to stand out, to be somebody in the eyes of other people.

For one, it’s hard for us to watch other people around us be ‘successful’ (by whose standard?) when we aren’t.

• Have you ever been playing a sport, and you are really struggling, but the rest of your team isn’t, and your team is still winning, but you have a hard time being excited because you personally aren’t doing so well?

• Have you ever gotten upset when the person who shares a testimony about God saving them from a particular sin or overcoming a tough circumstance in life, and everyone cheers and affirms them, and then invites them to speak in front of other groups, and they become a widely-known role model everyone admires, and you think, “Hey, that’s my story too, but no one knows…” 

• Or…there is a lot to feel good about in your life, but it’s not, “I was in a gang of cannibal human traffickers,” so you never get the spotlight. It’s more like, “I have struggled most of my life with low self-esteem – maybe even self-loathing – and I think I am finally starting to see myself as Jesus sees me.” And it’s hugely important. It’s life-changing. This healing is not only changing you, it’s changing how you are a friend, a child, a parent, an, employer, a sibling.

There are two equally subtle and dangerous temptations: to think you are just not important and no one can benefit from learning what God has done in our life, or that you are super important and everyone should know about what YOU have done in your life Both thoughts are toxic.

But the Bible is clear: In the Kingdom of God, God’s validation is the only validation we need.  

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.  

I tell you the truth; they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4) 

The point is not that you should never do good deeds in public, and the point isn’t that people who do charity out of selfish ambition are going to hell. The point is that if you do good things in a really public way for the reward of the praise of people, you will get your reward. It just won’t be that great. It feels good in the moment, but it feeds an addiction for validation. Someone once said,

“None are so empty as those who are full of themselves.”

The applause of people is nothing compared to the rewards of the Father. An example from the Apostle Paul:

 “The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth.” (2 Timothy 4:17) 

If Paul were alive today, we would all clamor to read the book or see the movie about his deliverance from lions, we would ask him to be on GodTube for an interview about the lions…but I suspect Paul would quickly lose his “celebrity” status, as he would ignore the lions and talk about the Lord who gave him the strength to fully proclaim the Good News to the world.  If he ever mentioned it, there would be one small comment or one small footnote that would start off,“Around the time I was delivered from lions...”

My hunch is that Paul knew that a story about Paul being delivered from the lions was going to become a story about Paul, not about the One who delivered Paul.  And in the kingdom of heaven, if the story glorifies us, why tell the story? 

Back to Paul. When Paul does talk about himself in the Bible, it is because his audience had become so caught up in Christian Celebrity Worship that Paul basically said, “Okay, if you want to play that game, I win. Here are my credentials.  Now settle down and get back to the things that matter most.” (See 2 Corinthians 10 and 11) Here’s a practical example of something Paul wrote in Philippians 4:22.

All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.” 

Who converted a lot of Caesar’s household after Caesar threw him into jail in the Preattorian barracks attached to the palace? That would be Paul. How easily Paul could have written, “All the saints send you greetings, especially those I converted from Caesar’s household in spite of intense persecution to my personal self.”  But the story is not about Paul. There was no need for him to worry about whether or not people knew about what he did.  God knew, and that was enough.[1]

So the question today is this,

Can I live my life with no regard for the glory and recognition of others, but with complete focus on faithfulness and obedience to Christ wherever He leads me?

Are we willing to take the time to let God help us build our character –to address sin in our lives, and character flaws, and quirks that are maybe hindering our relationship with God and others – are we willing to do that when maybe no one will ever really notice?

Are we willing to work really hard to be a godly spouses and parents – setting priorities on our time, putting the needs of our spouse and kids above our wants, doing whatever we can to steward our household – are we willing to do that - and see it as part of our high calling in Jesus which has immense importance?

Can we go out of our way to volunteer – in kid’s ministry or nursery or committee work or cleaning the building or in the community - can we do that cheerfully even if nobody sees and applauds the way those moments are changing lives in ways that ripple into eternity?

Can we love the people who seem unlovable, embrace the people who seem unembraceable, forgive those around us who have done things that seem unforgivable…that’s hard enough, but can we do it knowing we might never get a pat on the back on this side of heaven?

Can we be broken, and spilled out, in the service of Christ, for our spouses, and our kids, and our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, those people who make us take up a cross…Can we do that even if the only time we hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” is on the other side of the grave?

What does a life look like…what does the world look like…when we embrace this view of the kingdom of God?

Maybe your life will be written in lights. And if so, and it was God who wanted your story known, then tell your story to the glory of God.  It’s not like Deborah and Gideon were bad people because their story was told. And I’m not suggesting we don’t try to give people honest recognition for their kindness and service.

It’s just that that won’t happen to everybody, and maybe the record of your life will be of the “He too saved Israel” variety.

Maybe “She, too, wrestled with/overcame addictions,” will be the most people say about you, which will never capture why that started in the first place and how profoundly hard the struggle was .

Maybe “He, too, had a family,” is the most that will register with people, which will never capture the self-sacrificial love that was necessary to make your family a success.

Maybe “She, too, overcame a difficult past,” is the most people will know about you, which will never do justice to the pain you experienced, and the long, slow process of healing that God has taken you through.

Maybe “They, too, were in ministry,” is all that people will note about you someday, which will never reflect the years of your life spent in quietly helping those who so desperately needed Jesus.

Maybe, “She, too, got out of bed yet again and did the next thing right,” is your legacy, and it will be profound by Kingdom standards.

Maybe, “They, too, didn’t know what to do with their life, but they knew how to live the day well,” resonates with you, and you are heroic in your faithfulness.

Maybe, “He, too, was such a good friend” is the primary eulogy at the end of your life, and that short sentence will capture a lifetime of kingdom witness that the Holy Spirit used to move mountains in people’s lives. Maybe “the places you’ll go” was too the side of other people, and all of heaven rejoiced.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, we have a Heavenly Father who is waiting for the day when we will enter into His presence.  And on that day, millions of unsung heroes will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your reward.”

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[1] Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:5-6: “You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else…”