Java and Jesus

Crossing the Line - Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:10:00 +0000

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matt 12:33-37)

The passage above is actually the tail end of Jesus' comments regarding the 'unforgivable sin', but I decided to include them here because there is a connection between the two passages.

Jesus' builds on his condemnation of the Pharisees by pointing out the source of the accusations they have been making against him. It is a truth he will return to on more than one occasion - what defiles us comes from inside us. Just as a bad tree cannot produce good fruit a person whose fundamental heart condition is evil cannot be a fundamentally good person. Our world view is formed by our spiritual foundation, what Jesus calls our "treasure". When this treasure is corrupted how we perceive the world around us will be shaped by that corrupted treasure. It is why the Pharisees suggested Jesus was working by the power of Satan, and it is why they come up with this next brilliant request.

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:38-42)

On the surface, this seems like a ridiculous request. They've seen the sight restored to the blind, hearing to the deaf, demons cast out and many other miraculous events; there is a temptation to ask,"What more of a sign do you need?" And this is the take most commentators make on this passage. But I think we take this attitude because we regard this question as a separate event. But what if it is actually a part of the preceding conversation?

Let's sum up the sequence. (a) The Pharisees accuse Jesus' of casting out demons by the power of Satan. (b) Jesus' responds by pointing out that Satan can't do that because he'd be opposing himself, and the Pharisees should know this. (c) He then warns them about the danger of blaspheming the Holy Spirit and points out that this kind of thinking can only come from a heart that is inclined towards evil. (d) Then as if to punctuate Jesus' point, the Pharisee's come back with, "Give us a sign" or in a more modern vernacular "Prove it!"

I think the Pharisees request for a sign is not a failure to recognize the miracles as 'signs', but rather it is their response to Jesus declaration that only God could be empowering the miracles Jesus has been performing. If they just accept his argument on it's own merits then they also have to accept what he has said about themselves, that their motives are fundamentally evil. This of course is not an option. So they resort to an age old method of philosophical debate; they ask for proof!

In a more verbose edition of the request the Pharisees are saying, "Prove to us that what you are saying is true. Give us a sign! Your argument that Satan can't cast out Satan is an interesting one, but how do we know you're right? Maybe you're just trying to turn this argument back on itself to put us on the defensive. So... give us a sign! Prove to us that you are from God!"

If it were coming from an honest place of inquiry this would not be an outrageous request, but Jesus knows that the Pharisees are responding from fear; fear of losing their position and power. It is for this reason that it is an evil and adulterous generation that seeks for a sign. They seek signs not to prove that God is at work in the lives of men, but to prove that he is not. Those who believe require no proof; their faith is all the proof they need. It is only those who hold to a godless world view and want to see it stay that way who ask for proof.

And so Jesus offers them a sign, but not the kind of sign they were looking for. The sign of Jonah - three days and nights in the belly of the earth. He is of course referring to his death and resurrection. Those same individuals who ask for a proof they don't really want to see, will make much of the fact that Good Friday afternoon to Easter Sunday morning don't add up to three days and nights. They can't handle the idea that Jesus is simply making use of metaphor because again they are splitting hairs because they don't want to believe.

If Matthew chose the more poetic "three days and nights" to the more precise "two days, two nights and a bit" - what of it? The resurrection is not rendered null and void if it happens a few hours earlier than expected. An honest heart does not say, "Well, you are here Jesus, a few days after your death, as you promised, but the timing was off and so I have to question whether you actually came back to life at all." Such logic comes from a very empty place which is the subject of the final portion of this passage.

“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 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 12:43-45)

There is a saying that goes, "Nature abhors a vacuum." So, it would seem, do demons. But seriously, this entire line of conversation is summed up in this one paragraph. The entire position of the Pharisees is one borne, not out of faith in God, but out of a moral vacuum that leaves them open to all the temptations of power and position.

When one's moral code is founded only on what will maintain the status quo, or what will benefit me the most, then there is no limit to the hateful and even evil things we might say in defense of our position. Many times I have seen those desperate to defend an indefensible position dig themselves deeper and deeper until there is simply no way out.

The worst part is they often are fully aware that their position is untenable, but their fear of admitting to being wrong is so great that they will go to their deaths defending something they don't truly believe. And this I think is the greatest tradgedy of all. For when our fear of being wrong is greater than our fear of eternal damnation, then where is forgiveness to be found?

A Word from our Sponsor

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Some of you may have noticed lately that the Bible quotations here have been coming from the ESV - English Standard Version. I've been using the ESV since October, when, out of curiosity more than anything else, I accepted an email offer to check out sample opf a new study Bible online from Crossway Books & Bibles. I have to admit - I was impressed.

Well for the month of March, Crossway Books and Bibles are offering a free one-month trial of the on-line version of their new ESV Study Bible. I was impressed enough I bought the paper version back in November. Lifetime access to the on-line resources (which are more extensive than what's in the paper version) is included when you buy the hardcopy.

So why am I promoting this?

There are three basic kinds of translations scripture: Literal translations (best for in depth studying where the word choice matters), thought-for-thought translations (an excellent preacher's translation favoured for church use), and paraphrases (a popular choice for everyday devotional reading). Over the last few years each of these has had a standard bearer that was considered by many, though not by all, to be the best of each genre. The NASB (New American Standard Bible) is a literal translation; the NIV is thought-for-thought, and The Message is a paraphrase. Each is an excellent Bible that serves it's own role in Bible study.

As a storyteller I have always looked to use a translation that adheres well to the original text but it easily readable in English. This usually requires a balance between a literal and a thought-for-though approach; the standard for the NBS (Network of Biblical Storytellers) has been the RSV (Revised Standard Version).

In the new translation of the ESV however, the Crossway people have come up with a translation that works hard to keep to the original while gaining a higher level of readability than the NASB (IMHO*). Which I really appreciate because often thought-for-thought translations lose a little something in their desire for readabilty. I'm not an expert in either Hebrew or Greek, but have often been surprised when I research the origins of a word in the NIV only to discover that that word doesn't exist in the original text.

The list of contributors to this study Bible reads like a who's-who of Biblical archealogy and theological thought. 80,000 cross-references, 20,000 notes and hundreds of maps, charts, and illustrations. Yes, the commentary is heavily evangelical, but they do a better than average job of presenting multiple sides of the any arguments that arise. In addition I love the feature that lets me add my own notes and refernces to the relevant passages. There's also a digital high-lighter with multiple colours and you can listen to an audio-recording of any passage.

But what I really like is the effort they've put into explaining the culture in which Biblical events take place. Here maps and illustrations can make a world of difference in helping understanding and the Crossways new study Bible has the best I've ever seen. The drawings of the Temple Mount at the time of Jesus is astounding. The image shown is a typical 1st century synagogue.

As a believer in personal Bible study I think it is important to have the best tools available and I like to tell people when I find a good one. I'm not saying evereyone needs to by one of these Bibles, but if you're likely to consider buying a study Bible in the next year or so, I think this one deserves consideration.

So check it out - it's absolutely free for one month. They've had my email since August and they've never tried to plug another product to me. So I have no hesitation is recommending the free trail. Have fun.

ESV Study Bible Free Trial

ESV Online Bible Home Page

Until next timew ... Shalom.

*IMHO - In My Humble Opinion

I'm Moving...

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 01:13:00 +0000

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that starting Sunday, March 1st, 2009 I am moving 'Myriad Shades of Gray' to Wordpress. The same title but with a different look and a little more content. I'm afraid those of you who are subscribers will have to re-subscribe, but it is just as simple as before so I hope you will stay with me.

The reason for the move is simple enough; Wordpress offers a few more options and I am looking to do a little more with the blog. Java and Jesus will stay here at Blogger for the time being but will likely move sometime later this spring or summer.

After today all new posts will be at the new 'Myriad Shades of Gray' the address for which is..

http://dennisgray.wordpress.com

So please drop by soon and comment on the new look and additional pages.

Thanks for your support everyone.

Dennis

A Last Minute Invite...

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:19:00 +0000

So, what are you doing on Sunday morning?

If you're going to be in the Guelph area then I'd like to invite you to drop around toWestminister-St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. The regular Sunday service starts at 10:30am.

If you do you'll get a chance to hear yours truly give a little presentation called "At the Marriage Feast with Mordecai ." What is it? I'll let the church bulletin explain...

"The presentation Dennis will do, offers a midrash (a Jewish story amplifying a biblical text) on the text of John 2: 1-11 (the wedding feast at Cana, where Jesus performs his first miracle – turning water into wine). The story is told from the perspective of a participant at the marriage feast, specifically one, Mordecai, uncle of the groom. This original presentation, researched, written and recounted by Dennis Gray, fills in much of the cultural detail around Jewish marriage that John’s first readers would, of course, have known, but which most readers of John’s gospel today do not."

I'm not a big fan of blowing my own horn, but hey, one needs to get the word out somehow. Besides, I'd like to get the chance to meet some of you and that's only going to happen if you know where I'll be. So please, drop on by and introduce yourself.

Here's a map showing where to find WSP.

Map to Westminister-St. Paul's

Until next time... see you in church.

Crossing the Line

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:22-32 ESV)

A number of years ago I was privileged to be the regular teacher at a midweek service in my home church. It was our custom to offer prayer and counseling after the service, and one night a woman came forward who wanted very much to believe but felt she wasn’t able to because she had “committed the unforgivable sin.” As we talked over the next half-hour or so it became clear that somewhere along the line a preacher had told her that anyone involved in witchcraft was beyond the redemption offered by God. That was his interpretation of this portion of Matthew’s gospel. She had once been involved in a Lucifer worship cult and was, as a result, firmly convinced that she was beyond even God’s help. No amount of counsel to the contrary would allay her fears. She left in the same hopeless frame of mind as when she arrived.

It was this event that began my personal examination of the passage above. It is a hard thing to reconcile a gospel of God’s limitless love with the notion that there is a line that one must not cross, that it is possible to step outside of His seemingly boundless willingness to forgive.

It is for this reason that a great many preachers today will tell you that what Jesus is talking about here is dying as a non-believer. We are told that the only way to blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to reject God’s offer of salvation, because while the offer is made by God the Father, and the price for it was paid by the Son, it is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that the offer is fulfilled. And so the only unforgivable sin is to die without having accepted the offer of salvation and arriving in the next world without the righteousness of the Lamb to speak for you.

It is a reasonable and comfortable interpretation. But at the risk of being branded a heretic, I think it is an interpretation that may also be in error. This is an important issue so I ask your indulgence as I explain. I think this interpretation may be in error because of the last statement made by Christ in this passage: “whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

There are two things to notice here: 1) “whoever speaks” is not about failing to make a decision, it is about making a statement, a proclamation, 2) “in this age” clearly indicates that the offense can be committed this side of the next world, while we are still of “this age.” These then are the characteristics of the “blasphemy” that has been committed against the Holy Spirit. The key to understanding this passage must reside in the meaning of this word.

It should be noted that blasphemy is not a translation of the Greek, it is a transliteration. The word was adopted from the Greek with only a change in pronunciation. According to Strong’s the word is “blasphemeo blas-fay-meh'-o ; to vilify; specially, to speak impiously:--(speak) blaspheme(-er, -mously, -my), defame, rail on, revile, speak evil.” So then, even the definition of the word used by Christ would indicate that he is referring to the things being said by the Pharisees. This calls to mind his words in Mark 7:15-16, “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

But there seems to be more to it than simply speaking ill of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ discourse to the Pharisees points out the flaws in the logic of their argument. He makes it clear that the notion that Beelzebul (Satan) would seek to deceive the people by casting out his own demons is ridiculous. Think about it a moment. What profit would there be for Satan in this? If he were to cast out demons, would people praise him and abandon God? Of course they wouldn’t; rather they would give God the glory for the event and Satan’s kingdom would fall even further.

It would also appear that Jesus knows the Pharisees know this (“Knowing their thoughts, he said to them”), which is what adds the incredible weight to their sin. If they know in their hearts that such healing could only come from God, by the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that moved upon the face of the waters at the moment of creation, then why would they suggest that Satan is the one who is at work? The answer is two fold: pride and envy.

At this point the Pharisees are beginning to show their desperation. Jesus has beaten their arguments at every turn. Even those totally unversed in the scriptures can see that there is something remarkable going on, that God is doing a new thing. Indignant at the popularity of this Galilean upstart, fearing that their position of power among the people is threatened, and even facing the possibility that everything they thought they knew about the messiah is about to be proven wrong, they make a desperate ploy to preserve the status quo – they attack the very God they claim to serve.

This is the depth of the sin involved here. They know that such healing can only come from God. They know that Jesus’ interpretation of scripture is entirely valid. They know that God is at work in His ministry and something new and remarkable is about to happen. But they no longer care about what it is God wants to do! Such is their desperation, they attempt to derail God’s plan; they are willing to condemn the acts of God Almighty as works of evil rather than risk losing their position of authority or alter their own world view!

How much envy has to live in one’s heart to come to such a place? How much pride does it take to believe that your world view is more important than God’s plan for Israel? In speaking this way the Pharisees engage in the sin of Lucifer. They set themselves above God and His will, and seek to impose their own will on the universe.

But I think the true weight of their error lies in it's consequence for the innocents. Consider Jesus' words in Matthew 18: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Matthew 18:5-6 ESV The Pharisees denial of God's Messiah held the potential to put the salvation of others at risk. By deliberately declaring that the work being done by the Holy Spirit was being done by Beelzubul, they were running the risk of leading others astray, and Jesus' words concerning their fate are quite sobering.

So this then, I believe, is the sin that God will tolerate only so long. To simply reject His plan of salvation is one thing; to openly revile it and seek to impose your own world view when you know the truth is quite another. To continue down this path will put the salvation of others at risk and will eventually take one to a place where your heart is hardened beyond repentance. And if you have crossed the line to a place where you are no longer capable of repentance, then how can God forgive?

Understand that I am not talking about simply bad mouthing someone’s ministry here, or even being simply mistaken about what is God's plan. I’m talking about something far more sinister; something akin to setting yourself up as the arbitrator of salvation. This is about someone who knows the truth, acknowledges the reality of God’s plan, but seeks to discredit it in the eyes of others to forward their own agenda. As I said, this is a sin that rivals the sin of Lucifer. For this reason, I am convinced very few people will ever be this far away from God’s saving grace!

In fact, I doubt more than a handful of people down through the centuries could possibly be guilty of such a sin. Not that I am qualified to judge. But that said, I do not think even this group of Pharisees had crossed that line. Jesus’ words hold the flavour of a dire warning rather than a final judgment. He is letting them know, in no uncertain terms, that He knows exactly what is going on in their hearts. He is letting them know that they will not succeed, and that if they press the issue too far, the ramifications will be far greater than they might have imagined.

I think also this is why we are commanded not to judge others but only the condition of our own hearts. Because it is the passing of judgment on the works of others, especially when our opinions are more our own than founded in God's word, that will start us on such a path.

Until next time... Shalom

Palace of Time - a Place of Healing

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:09:00 +0000

I know - it's been almost a year. I said there would be a next time, it just took a lot longer than I thought. I'm not going to explain my absence other than to say I needed the rest. But now I'm back. Matthew's story still calls to me and I can no longer ignore it. So let's just pick up where we left off, shall we?
--------------

In our last episode, I talked about the Sabbath being a Palace of Time, a place where we could escape the hustle of the daily agenda and find time to spend with God exploring who He is and who we are in Him. But the Sabbath is not just about getting some rest. There's more to it than that.

He went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse him. He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

(Matthew 12:9-14 ESV)

Now, the Pharisees actually have a point to make here. You see the prevailing wisdom of the day was that while it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath, it was only in the case of life-threatening situations. They acknowledged that allowing a living thing to die by inaction was no way to honour God on His Sabbath; but the man with the withered hand was in no danger. His healing could wait a day and the sanctity of the Sabbath would be maintained. In some respects it was a reasonable argument.

But Jesus doesn't see the argument as reasonable at all, because to Jesus suffering is suffering and needs to be relieved. He points out the flaw in the Pharisees reasoning, because even they themselves would rescue an animal on the Sabbath, "of how much more value is a man than a sheep?"

Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, makes it clear that to end suffering, to help the helpless, to do good, is lawful at anytime, even on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not just a Palace of Time, it is also a Time of Healing. An opportunity to relieve the stress that withers our spirits during the week and allow ourselves to reach out to God and be restored. It also calls us to reach out and be a source of healing as we gather with those we care for and let them find restoration in a time of fellowship.

It is, as Jesus made clear, a time to do good. The most acceptable form of work on the sabbath was the ministrations of the priests in the temple as they offered the showbread in recognition of God's provision. (Jesus makes reference to this in the previous section.) In like manner I believe the sabbath is a time for us, and as citizens of a priestly kingdom, to offer ourselves to the benefit of others; to use the time to participate in the healing of the community provided by the fellowship we experience in the Palace of Time.

But the episode doesn't end there.

Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory;
and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

(Matthew 12:15-21 ESV)

Jesus withdraws to another place. Some would look upon this as a retreat, but rather I think He is looking to avoid letting the confrontation escalate until the time is right. He withdraws because the Gospel of the kingdom is not about confrontation, it is not about winning a theological Battle Royale. Rather it is about hope.

And who is the hope for? Oddly enough it is for us, the Gentiles. Those who until this point in history have been excluded from the Gospel Kingdom. I mentioned at the beginning of the process that I felt Matthew was writing not to a Jewish audience exclusively as others have suggested, but rather to a mixed audience. A church of Jewish believers and Gentile converts likely struggling to get along. It is passages such as this one that re-enforce my feelings on this.

The Jewish believers needed to understand why they were worshiping God in fellowship with Gentiles. They needed to understand, and still do, that it was God's plan from the beginning to heal the rift that started in the days of Abraham.

And the Gentile converts among them, these new Christians, they needed hope. They needed to know that God had never abandoned them. They needed to know, as do we, that the gift of salvation, that citizenry in the Gospel kingdom is not about race, or nationality, or how well you can slice and dice the scriptures until they resemble the Word no more than french fries resemble a potato. No... it is about faith, and faith alone.

Faith in the one who gave the Sabbath to mankind that in it we might find refreshment and renewal. A moment in which we might find a fresh start, an opportunity to put the past behind us and begin a new week, revived by fellowship with God and with each other.

Until next time... Shalom.

A Palace of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:48:00 +0000

It is sometimes a remarkable thing the way God points me in a particular direction in my life. The other night I was at my friend Gord's place, with a number of other people and we found ourselves having a very meaningful conversation about how we need to 'experience the moment' more. The next day I sat down to consider the following passage of Matthew's gospel in preparation for this article and was a little taken aback because, in a manner of speaking, the passage is about the same thing.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:1-8 NKJV

When someone mentions the Sabbath, what comes to mind? A day of prayer? A day for church? Synagogue? It is certain that these things have their place in our Sabbath observance, but to truly appreciate the depth of the relationship between Jesus and the Sabbath we need to understand that above all else, the Sabbath is - a gift!

Think about it for a moment. The first thing that God chose to declare as sacred forever, was not a piece of land for people to make pilgrimage to, not a building where one would seek His presence, or even an artifact, some carving or golden idol that would be the object of our worship. No, the first thing that God chose to make scared forever was a day (Ex. 20:8-11), a period of time, a collection of moments set aside for the purpose of being with His people. The most sacred thing to God, after ensuring we knew who He was, is to spend time with us.

The Sabbath is a gift - a gift of time. In a world that, even in Jesus' day, called upon the individual to spend every waking moment struggling to survive, God seeks foremost to ensure that we are rested. In the world of the Bible the only ones who reclined at dinner were the masters, the oppressors, the idle rich, most of whom had achieved their wealth and power on the backs of others. To His people God offers a taste of equality with the upper classes; what Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel calls, "a Palace of Time," a place where the servant and the slave, the fisherman and the carpenter, the handmaid and the midwife, come to recline at table with their Creator.

In a life of hardship and stress God gives his people the greatest gift of all - time! It was a completely foreign concept for the culture of that day. No one outside of the Jewish community could fathom it at all. Consider the words of Roman historian and orator Tacitus on the subject...

"In order to secure the allegiance of his people in the future, Moses prescribed for them a novel religion quite different from those of the rest of mankind. Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral. ... We are told that the seventh day was set aside for rest because this marked the end of their toils. In course of time the seductions of idleness made them devote every seventh year to indolence as well."

In fact most cultures considered the Jews lazy, shiftless, and undisciplined because of their habit of taking a "holiday" every seven days. It was one more thing that contributed to the general public's distrust of all things Jewish.

Of course, as usual, the Pharisees and the priests had turned it into another way to burden the backs of the people with layers and layers of legalism. In the strictest terms they were right to challenge the actions of Jesus' disciples. Picking the heads of wheat could be interpreted as work. Since there was good reason for the Sabbath laws, they had to be observed. The problem was the Pharisees had forgotten the reason.

The laws of the Sabbath were designed to slow down God's people enough so that they could enjoy God's gift. Even in the first century, life often was racing around at such a pace that people didn't see what was right in front of them. Picture it this way...

Imagine that the moments in your life are like the telephone poles at the side of the road. If you're driving down that road at 60 miles an hour then the poles are going by at about one per second. Not much time to notice either the poles themselves or the spaces between them. But if you are going from pole to pole, from moment to moment, at the pace of a Sabbath walk, then you get to enjoy it all. You can see the flowers God has planted along the road between the poles. You can hear the singing birds which God has housed in the trees - trees that need to be pruned to make room for the wires to pass from pole to pole. And yes, you can even see the pop cans and McDonald's containers that litter the way, making note to come back the next day when work resumes and clean up the highway of your life just a little bit.

The laws of the Sabbath were not designed to restrict us, as some Pharisees might think. They were designed to grant us access to the Palace of Time, where matters of the soul, the heart and the mind can be examined without the tyranny of the agenda to distract us. It's hard to love God with all your soul when your soul is so badly in need of rest.

Jesus came to take us back to that palace, to reunite us with the gift that God chose to give us first above all others - the gift of time with Himself. A time for us, as my friend Gord would say, "to carry eternity in our hearts... to dialogue freely with an inner expanding universe... and to catch the truth in a net."

How He did that we'll talk about next time.

Shalom.

P.S. The pic below is of an artwork that Gord created some time ago. It depicts the poem he wrote that the above quote comes from. I hope you don't mind Gord, it's too good not to share. (click to see larger version)

The Burden of Obedience

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:32:00 +0000

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11: 27-30

You've heard me say a few times that there are passages in the gospel of Matthew that are often misunderstood, well, at least from my perspective. I'm fully willing to admit that I have likely misunderstood a great deal as well. So when I make this claim that something has been incorrectly interpreted I have to be careful. It's easy to get caught up in your own ego and start spouting human wisdom instead of God's. And so I ask you dear reader, to examine things carefully when I say such a thing and make sure that my explanations are valid. If they are not I ask you to challenge me in the comments section so we can debate these things together and by so doing come to a more perfect understanding of God's message to us.

I say this because I have always thought this was another passage that is often used incorrectly. I've heard more than a few preachers over the years use this passage to tell people how easy it is to follow Jesus because we are no longer under an obligation to obey the law. But that's not how I read it.

Jesus doesn't say he's giving us a deck chair on which we can lie back and watch the world go by; he says he's giving us a yoke. Granted, it's a different yoke from the one we've been carrying, but it is a yoke just the same.

When I first started examining the gospels from the Jewish perspective, one of the first things I looked at was the Tallit or prayer shawl. The Hebrews were commanded in the Law of Moses to wear tassels called tzitzit (shown in picture at right). These tassels must be tied in a very specific way that utilizes 613 knots and wrappings to represent the 613 tenets of the Hebrew law. Over time these tassels moved from being attached to tunics and cloaks to being worn on a shawl that was specifically for the purpose. This shawl came a symbol of the Jewish culture (the flag of the modern country of Israel is patterned after the traditional prayer shawl) and would be worn by Jewish men (and in modern times by women as well) across the shoulders and then raised over the head during times of prayer.

What has the tallit to do with this passage? Well, in Jesus time both the Pharisees and Sadducees ran schools designed to instruct people in how to go about obeying the Law of Moses. For each of the 613 tenets of the law these teachers would have an expansive commentary on what it meant to obey that particular rule. Most of these teachings have been collected in a very large document known as the Talmud. Because of the great burden placed on the people by these laws regarding the Law the prayer shawl soon became known colloquially as "the Yoke of the Law." The yoke, the device used to hitch oxen to their loads, had long been a symbol of obedience to God, but the rabbinical schools were making it a symbol of how burdensome it was to follow God.

Knowing this, it becomes very important to note that Jesus is not removing the yoke from our shoulders! He is replacing it with "His yoke." The obligation to obey is not being removed, only the burden the people had come to associate with obeying God. Jesus is trying to help us understand that obeying God should not be a strain on us. The Law of Moses was never intended to oppress the people of Israel, the Pharisees and Sadducees used it for that purpose. The Law was intended to protect the people from the consequences of sin by helping them to avoid it.

Jesus words are designed to guide the people back onto the path of righteousness. The yoke that Jesus offers us is not bound to the complexities of trying to obey 613 rules that tie us up in knots as we try to obey them. His yoke binds us to only 2 rules...

Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:37-40 NKJV)

This is the rest we are given in Christ Jesus, rest from the burden of legalism. To obey God is not a labour of oppression, it is a labour of love. The yoke of Jesus is easy and the burden is light because it born/borne in the love of and for God. To pull this yoke effectively we need to allow Jesus to teach us gentleness and humility, for they will aid us in the task better than legalism and being judgemental. The yoke of Jesus is the way of God, and like being in love, is profoundly satisfying to the human soul.

Talkin' About My Generation

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:09:00 +0000

It's been a while since I made any overt pop culture references on these pages, so let's start with a video shall we. It's from the BBC's 1981 version of Douglas Adam's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy" and while it's a bit long (9 minutes) it does relate to the topic at hand. It also takes a great shot at philosophy in general. If you don't have a high speed connection, don't worry, it's not essential to understand my point, it's just a bit of fun. While you watch the video - see if you can find the John the Baptist reference.

Now let's look at the scriptures: Matthew 11:16-30. This first passage is usually associated with the last episode, but I've decided to include it here.

“But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying:

‘ We played the flute for you, And you did not dance;
We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”

The relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth is, for me, one of the most compelling in all of scripture. Cousins by birth, they are also inseparably linked in the Kingdom of Heaven - the Herald and the Heir. John is the last of the Old Covenant prophets; living the life of an ascetic, challenging the motives of prince and pauper alike he calls the nation to repentance. He is the mourner mentioned in Jesus' brief parable of the children in the marketplace, calling the people to wail a lament for the spiritual condition of Israel.

Jesus, on the other hand, though proclaiming exactly the same kingdom, comes across as radically different. He is the flute player, inviting the people to dance with him. He shares their table, drinks their wine (and provides his own), tells them stories and gets in the occasional zing at their oppressors. There is no place for mourning in his ministry as he heals the sick and sets the captives free. His compassion knows no bounds, extending the kingdom to all who will receive it - prince and pauper alike.

And yet, despite their differences, Jesus and John have one thing very much in common; 'this generation' isn't listening to either one of them. A little 'market analysis' reveals the reason for this, neither Jesus nor John fit the public's expectations of a Messiah. Israel was indeed looking for the "coming of Messiah." It could be said to have occupied their every waking moment, but the Messiah they were expecting was neither a locust-eating, camel-hair wearing prophet nor a good-talking, party-going miracle worker. They were expecting a general!

Actually, Israel was looking for King David. They wanted the glory days of Israel back, the days when Israel was a force to be reckoned with. The hope was that David, the Warrior King, would return in the person of the Messiah, and with an army of "mighty men of valour" defeat the Romans and drive them from their land. Neither John the Baptist nor Jesus of Nazareth met these expectations, and so it is no wonder that the people had a hard time making the connection. Basically, like the people in the video, the Jews were asking the wrong question.

For those of you who haven't watched the video, a race of beings, realizing their own philosophical short-comings, built a great, sentient computer to answer the 'ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything'. After seven and a half million years of thinking the computer, named "Deep Thought" came up with the answer - "42". The computer goes on to explain that this is indeed the answer, it's just that the people did not properly understand the question they were asking.

For a hundred years the Jews had been asking the question, "When will Messiah come and save us from the Romans?" This question served to shape all of their perceptions concerning the Messiah. What they should have been asking, if they wanted to keep on track, was, "When will the Messiah come to save us from sin?" or at the very least, "When will Messiah come to save us from ourselves?" And make no mistake, they should have been able to figure out the right question. Throughout Israel's history God uses oppression by other nations and empires to correct the people after they have strayed from following God. Anyone who "had the ears to hear" what the scriptures were saying should have realized that if Israel was under the boot of another people it was because Israel itself had strayed from the true path.

Then He began to rebuke the cities in which 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 which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

That is why Jesus doesn't stop at just pointing out to a generation that they missed the point. He goes on to warn the three communities where he has been performing his ministry that they are in particular peril. That we are not told what happened in Bathsaida and Chaorazin is testimony to John's declaration that there were many more things Jesus did that haven't been written down. But more importantly, these towns are now declared to be without excuse. Tyre, Sidon and even Sodom could at least claim some level of ignorance--there was no Torah, no prophecies, nothing to give them concrete instruction. But these three, with the testimony of scripture and the witness of the miracles that he performed, have no opportunity to make such a claim.

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

And then Jesus, as per usual, turns the whole thing on its head. Having just lamented the spiritual condition of this generation, he then goes on to thank God that the truth has been hidden from them. This is yet another paradox in Jesus' approach to promoting the Kingdom of Heaven. At least so it seems at first, but as you think about it, it starts to make sense.

Just as time and time again Israel has failed to get the point, time and time again the truth is eventually revealed through those we would not expect. Remember, King David started out as a simple shepherd. Gideon didn't want the job of saving Israel. Jonah ran to the ends of the known earth. It is not those who profess themselves as wise that God seeks to use, but rather those who, knowing their own limitations, simply hope to do the best they can before God. They are not great thinkers, leaders or statesmen, they are just hard working everyday people whose oppression comes not from governments and princes, but from the everyday burdens of survival and conscience.

And this is the oppression that threatens more than the Romans or anyone else ever could. These are the oppressors that Messiah has come to save us from; our own sins, our own doubts, our own fears.

Until next time... Shalom.

The Herald Questions the Heir

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 20:53:00 +0000

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?"

Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

As John's disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings' palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: 'I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 11:1-15)

It seems more than just a little strange to us that Jesus' cousin John would be the one to broach this subject. After all, wasn't it John who declared to all present on the shores of the Jordan River, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!" And yet now he sends two of his disciples to ask, "Are you the one? Or should we look for someone else?"

And yet, there is something oddly comforting about it as well. Who among us has not wondered, especially when things seem to be going badly, if maybe we got it all wrong. I'll be straight with you dear reader, there have been more than just a few times when I have faced stiff opposition, especially well-read, articulate opposition, that I have found myself wondering if it might not all be just some great ancient legend after all. Yes indeed, I have!

And before you get out the candles and Holy water let me say that not all doubt is the result of demonic influences and the workings of the evil one. To doubt oneself, to question the validity of one's own beliefs is all too much a part of what it is to be human. This is most often the case when things don't play out the way we expect. And prophet though he was, walking and preaching in the spirit of Elijah, John was one other thing as well -- human.

He had his expectations of the Messiah just like anyone else. When he read the prophecies found in the Torah, the Writings and the Prophets, he looked for the conquering Messiah who would bring into reality the long awaited Kingdom of God and "if any nation will not listen, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it, says the Lord!" (Jeremiah 12:17 ) But that is not what he sees happening. There is no fire, no brimstone, no nations being brought to their knees for disobedience. What else is an old school, campaign weary, fundamentalist baptist going to do but ask questions?

And how does Jesus respond? Is he frustrated? Angry? Does he throw his arms up in despair and rend his garments?

No. He answers the question, gently but authoritatively reminding John of what else is written among those prophesies. "Go back" he says, "tell John what you see and hear." (Remember John's been in prison since chapter 4) "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, (can you see him counting these off on his fingers?) the deaf hear (Isaiah 35:3-6 ), the dead are raised (Isa 29:18-19 ) and the poor receive the good news (Isaiah 61:1-3 )" Jesus knows full well that in John's present situation he doesn't need rebuke because he's harbouring a doubt or two; he needs reassuring that what he saw that day at the Jordan was no hallucination. That Jesus is indeed The One.

Then, after the two men leave to take Jesus' message back to their teacher, he turns to the crowd. You can bet that those nearest to him heard the two disciples ask John's question. It would have spread through the crowd in a matter of moments - I can picture them all looking to see what Jesus will say about his cousin's "unbelief." I can also picture the looks on their faces when he asks two satirical, almost sarcastic questions.

"Who did you go out to see? A reed swaying in the wind?" Hmmpf! Hardly! John was no reed! A thorn in the side of Herod and the Sanhedrin maybe, but no reed. I mean, John was a tough man, and not afraid of anyone. He stood up to Herod time and time again; why do you think he's in prison?

"Okay, then maybe you went out to see a man dressed in fine clothing?" Oh come on, Jesus! A camel hair tunic and a leather belt? Eating locusts? Okay, the wild honey's not too bad, but locusts! Get real!

Finally Jesus gives them the answer that likely sprang into their heads the moment He asked the question - A Prophet! "Yes," says Jesus, "and more than a prophet!"

We don't really know if John tried to play down who he was or if he just didn't realize the full scope of his role in history, but Jesus makes it clear that despite his denials, John was indeed the Elijah that Israel had been waiting for; the empty seat at the Passover table was John's!

But that is not all he says. He pays John the greatest compliment that anyone had likely been paid up until that moment. John, son of Zachariah and Elizabeth, cousin to Jesus, baptizer of sinners, and conscience of puppet monarchs, is declared to be the greatest human being that has ever lived since Adam and Eve! "Among all those born of a woman, there is none greater than he..." Remarkable! But even more remarkable is the last half of that sentence, "But the one who is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he!"

There are many who will tell you that this is an indication of just how great Jesus thinks you are! It's a very egocentric and arrogant way to interpret this passage and I will admit that I fell into the trap myself for a while. But I have come to realize that it is really a far more remarkable statement than that. It is not about Jesus' opinion of me, or you or anyone else. In fact, it's not even really about John. It's about the Kingdom!

The kingdom of God, the kingdom that the Heir will establish when he takes his rightful place upon his Father's throne, will be so unlike anything that has appeared before, there will be no comparing it. Everything that has gone before, from the day when Creation was finished until the present moment, will seem like Nothing compared to the Kingdom founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It will be so great, so mind boggling, so far and above all that we could imagine, that the smallest, most insignificant citizen of that kingdom will be greater than John the baptist simply by virtue of the fact they are invited to be there at all!

And if that is true, then what can be said of this generation? Or of the one that witnessed John's ministry? We'll look at Jesus comments on that - next time.

Till then - Shalom.

---

Persecution 101

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Last time we sat in on the apostle's first missions training session. Their class continues as Jesus points out the downside of preaching the Kingdom.

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." (Matthew 10:16-23)

Why does there always seem to be a down-side? Try to imagine what is going on in the minds and hearts of the twelve as they hear these words. Jesus has just told them they will have the power to heal the sick, cast out demons, even raise the dead! But even this will not be enough to satisfy some people. They will be hated, put on trial and scourged! Scourging is no slap on the wrist! Metal shards woven into the strands of the whip tear the flesh away from the bone. This, they are told, is what it will cost you to declare the arrival of the Kingdom of God.

No wonder they are encouraged to walk such a fine line - "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." Even in this Jesus turns the world upside down. Since the garden of Eden the serpent has been looked upon as the lowest of the low, but now Jesus declares that in the new kingdom there is even something to be learned from such as this. But don't learn too much, lest the adversary hold us to account for that. The shrewdness we learn from the serpent must be tempered with the peace of God, represented by the dove, lest any should declare we mean them harm.

But there is hope even in this, "he who endures to the end will be saved." We will hear him say this again before the gospel is over; it will be echoed in John's Revelation in the phrase "to him who overcomes..." Paul will echo the same in his first letter to the Corinthians - we must finish the race to win the prize. Endurance, it would seem, is the key. It is not enough to simply begin - we must finish, we must endure. But not on our own strength, for on our own we could not succeed. He gives them more hope - the Spirit of your Father will speak through you. Our heavenly Father does not give us a task without giving us the means to accomplish it.

Even so, the task is never ending. "When they persecute you in this city flee to another." Don't stop, don't give up, move on - endure; because "you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." This enigmatic statement has troubled believers for two millennia. Was Jesus referring to His resurrection? Or are there even today cities in Israel that have never heard the Kingdom Gospel from the very beginning? Or are the cities of Israel any city, anywhere, that Jews call home? Whatever it's meaning, one thing is for certain - the task started by the heir is not complete, and will not be complete until He himself returns, and so we continue for the one "who endures to the end shall be saved."

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 10:24-33)

There is a scene in one episode of the science fiction series Babylon 5 in which Vir, an aide to one of the alien ambassadors, is being dissuaded from seeking an audience with a group called the Techno-mages by the spectre of a house-sized monster with extremely large fangs and claws. The rotund diplomat holds his ground, refusing to be intimidated. Eventually the illusion is removed and a spokesman for the group says, with a hint of respect, "You do not frighten easily", to which Vir replies, "I work for Ambassador Molari; nothing much frightens me anymore."

So it is with the fear of the Lord; it is a matter of perspective. The curse of small minded people is to be obsessed with the details. They are so busy focusing on the object of their fear they cannot pull away to see the bigger picture. Here Jesus encourages the twelve to do just that. If they are to be the heralds of the Kingdom of God they must learn to see beyond the immediate, to pull their gaze from the purely physical and catch a glimpse of the heavenly. They must learn that death is not an end in itself, as final as it may appear to be. What are the threats of those who oppose the kingdom compared to the majesty of the one who rules it? This then is how we conquer the fears that assail us in this world - with the fear of God - which is the beginning of wisdom. (Psalm 111:10)

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10: 34-30)

I had a terrible time with this passage when I first became a Christian. Likely because I was reading a more literal translation which reads, "Unless a man hates his mother and father he is not worthy of me." Tough to wrap your head around that, especially when you consider how important family was in the cultures of the 1st century. Eventually I figured out that what Jesus was talking about was a love so great that all other loves appeared as hatred by comparison - hard to imagine a love that strong. And yet, we see this happen time and time again. My own mother never understood why I followed God in any way other than the way she taught me. She never once came to hear me preach, or tell stories, or sing. In her mind rejecting the tenants of her faith meant I had rejected her. It is this that Jesus warns us about. The greatest enemies of the kingdom will often be those we love the most.

“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

'Nuff said. Till next time - Shalom.

---

The Heir Sends Out the Twelve

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:26:00 +0000

Happy New Year Everyone! The play has finished its run, (thank you for your support), the trappings of Christmas are packed away for another year; what say we get back to work...

These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.
“Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!

Matthew 10:5-15 (NKJV)

As I mentioned last time, in this second session of teaching Jesus lays out some ground rules for how the twelve should conduct themselves while they are out on the first ever missions trip. As with most of Jesus' teachings what He has to say seems counter-intuitive, starting with His target audience.

So far we have seen that the most remarkable examples of faith have come from the Gentiles that Jesus has encountered along the way. And yet, Jesus is very clear to his band of followers that they are to focus on the "lost sheep of the house of Israel." Even 1st century market analysts might be inclined to suggest that since the focus groups showed a better response among the Gentiles, then maybe, in order to ensure better success with this inaugural campaign, it should target Gentile communities. Jesus' admonition to seek out the lost sheep of Israel makes it clear that popular response is not what He is after. He is the 'Son of Man' to be sure, but he is also the Son of the Father, and for millennia God has desired to see the people He has called come into fellowship with Himself.

After 400 years of silence the kingdom Gospel is finally being offered to the people and it must be offered to the People of God first! God made a promise to Abraham, to Moses, to David and to all their descendants that the new covenant would see Israel made complete in her relationship to the Creator of all things - Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. "To the Jew first and then to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)

Jesus' next instruction must have taken the twelve aback to at least some degree. "Heal the sick?" "Cleanse the Lepers!?" "Raise the dead?!!" The twelve had seen Jesus do all these things and, as far as we are told, were never given step by step instructions as to how to do any of them. So incredulous does this sound that down through the centuries scholars of all stripes have debated their "real" meaning. As one commentator put it...

"To be sure, Jesus healed people, cast out demons, raised the dead, and performed many other mighty deeds, but we are not Jesus. So how, in the name of heaven, is the church supposed to do what He did? ... We do not, in fact, have the power to touch lepers or cancer patients and cause them to be healed in an instant; we cannot shout "Be gone!" at the raging forces afflicting a diseased mind and expect the illness to flee; we are not able to stride into a funeral home and, with a word, raise the dead from their caskets." (1)

And yet, from the gospels to the journeys of Paul, and until the present day we have heard testimony after testimony of disciples of the Heir to the kingdom doing just these things. What then are we to make of Jesus instructions? How do apply them equally to both camps?

It seems to me that the key point here is that the mission of the twelve is not a new mission. It is, in fact, the same mission upon which Jesus Christ Himself was sent. A mission that was set out in the words of the prophet Isaiah...

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD

Isaiah 61:1-2a (NKJV)

Wherever there is suffering, wherever there are those who have been beaten back by their circumstances, by illness, by oppression, by their own short-comings, the mission of Jesus Christ continues. It matters not whether that suffering is relieved by miraculous intervention or the hard work of dedicated individuals driven by the love of Christ in their hearts. Actually, Paul went so far as to say that motivation wasn't even an issue: "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." (Philippians 1:18 NKJV)

And so Jesus' mission is to continue through the twelve. And what is more, just as they were not charged for the blessings they have received in the capacity to do these things, so too they must freely distribute the blessings of the kingdom. One cannot help but wonder if Jesus is engaging in a little hyperbole here; can you imagine for a moment walking across the barren Judean wilderness in bare feet?! Without food or extra clothing!? Even if we take into account that the word "provide" ("take" in some translations) in this passage can also mean "acquire", we are still left wondering. Judas, we are told, held the purse strings for the group. Could the disciples not do what it would seem that Jesus did, at least in some fashion?

I would suggest that the point here is dependency. Take a look at the kind of men that Jesus has gathered about Him; fisherman, tax-collectors, zealots. Men who by their very nature are self-reliant in the extreme. Ostracized from society by their trade, politics, or lineage they have had little choice but to learn to rely on themselves alone. This, it would seem, they must unlearn if they are going to be of any use to the Kingdom of Heaven. For in the Kingdom strength and ability comes from one place only - the Father.

It is a lesson we too must learn, for in our society as well, self-reliance is regarded as a virtue to be admired. It is all too easy to get the task done on our own strength, in our own time, by our own means. Reliance on God and God alone does not come easy, it is so counter to what we have been taught most of our lives.

Jesus' instruction regarding those who reject the message also seems counter to what we would think the gospel requires. In the time of Jesus so great was the disdain of the Jewish people for the Gentiles that when forced to pass through a Gentile town by need or circumstance, they would upon leaving, stop and shake the dust from their sandals so as not to contaminate the rest of the country with Gentile dirt. In making this admonition, Jesus, in the minds of the twelve anyway, levels this kind of contempt on those who reject his message. And as if that were not enough, He goes on to give Sodom and Gomorrah a better shot on the day of judgment than these who refuse the twelve their hospitality.

What are we to make of this? Have we not always thought that we must never give up hope for the salvation of our loved ones? And even that of strangers? Here too, I think, is a lesson to be learned, even for us today. The Kingdom Gospel does not coerce or bulldoze its way into peoples lives. It does not hound, or badger, or insinuate itself into their thinking like an inquisitor trying to extract a confession, or worse yet, a salesman trying to secure a contract. Instead it relies on a sense of responsiveness in the individual. It goes where it is welcomed and bides its time where it is not. It is not a matter of racking up another successful strike, stamping a little cross on the side of our plane like some WWII dive bomber. It is a matter of allowing the Holy Spirit to prepare the hearts of those who would receive him and reaping where the harvest is ripe.

By instructing the disciples to "shake the dust off their feet" Jesus seeks to prevent them from making the mistake far too many Christians make today - taking possession of the spirit's responsibility. We too easily accept the lie (and a lie of the enemy it is) that we have failed God and Jesus if those to whom we preach the gospel do not readily embrace it. We convince ourselves that if that person dies tonight without the assurance of salvation in their hearts it is our fault for not being better preachers of the kingdom message. Down-trodden we berate ourselves and shy from the task at hand, fearful that we are doing more harm than good.

But we are not responsible for how others respond to the message, any more than the apostles were to blame if no one in the village would offer them a place to stay. And if they do not listen to us, often we need to move on and allow the Holy Spirit to continue His work so that another might come along at another time when the harvest has ripened a little more.

But sometimes, those who reject the kingdom Gospel do more than just refuse to respond. Sometimes they take offence and seek to prevent the message from being delivered. Jesus has words on this matter for the twelve as well, which we shall look at next time.

Until then... Shalom.

Footnotes:
(1) "Matthew" Thomas G. Long, Westminster John Know Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1997 - page 117.
...

Enter Apostles (stage right)

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 05:21:00 +0000

I mentioned last time that we would get to finally meet the twelve this week. Let's do that shall we...

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

Matthew 9:35-10:4 (NKJV)

Matthew sets up the next phase of Jesus ministry with a common literary device - repetition. (Compare verse 9:35 with Matt. 4:23) This has a dual function for the storyteller; it not only catches the listeners attention thus marking a change in the direction of the narrative, but it connects the soon to be launched ministry of the apostles with the early days of Jesus' ministry. This will help reinforce in the listeners mind that what the apostles are about to engage in, is not some creation of their own, but rather an extension of their master's own work.

This is also re-enforced by the choice of the word 'apostles' (meaning 'sent ones') to describe the twelve. It sets these men aside from the rest of Jesus' disciples, an unnumbered crowd of followers some of whom have fallen by the wayside, others will still be around for His death and resurrection. But these twelve are the inner circle, the ones in whom Jesus will invest himself personally.

It should also be noted that his calling of the twelve would seem to be in response to his own prayer request. I can picture in my mind as the crowd heard Jesus lament the lack of workers in the harvest, that quite a number of the collected throng would brashly call out, "I'll go!" and "Pick me!" Was it from such an enthusiastic group that Jesus added to the five we have seen him call personally?

If so, it is an interesting group to be sure. I remember a war film from my youth where military prisoners and ne'er-do-wells were conscripted for a suicide mission. It was called "The Dirty Dozen", and by 1st century social standards the name might apply to this motley crew as well. First in the list we have two sets of brothers, fisherman all. Ranked only slightly higher than shepherds (because fish smell better than sheep I guess) they were hardly regarded as scholarly types. Just look at the reaction to them by the Pharisees in the early chapters of the book of Acts.

Many of them we know little about before their encounter with Jesus, but one pair is particularly interesting - Simon the Cananite and Matthew the tax collector. Many translations call him 'Simon the Zealot' and to be sure the two terms are almost synonymous as the vast majority of the Zealots were indeed Cananites; but regardless of what you called them, they were without doubt the portion of society whose hatred for all things Roman knew no bounds. Imagine, for a moment, his reaction when he discovers a tax collector among the followers of this remarkable rabbi. Before Simon met Jesus he would have considered Matthew the worst traitor possible (I wrote on Matthew's calling here), considering him a Roman lapdog at best. I have often wondered how long it took these two to settle their differences and become brothers under the Son.

And so our compound character "The Apostle's/Disciples" has now arrived on stage, twelve individuals who for the purpose of the Gospel Story act as one. They will, in the remaining chapters, give us some insight into the deeper reactions of the common man to Jesus' works and teaching.

Apostles Exit (stage left)

In the classical Greek theatre of Jesus' day, when an actor exited the stage on the same side from which he entered (they were all male back then) it signified a return from whence they came, back to the old life and the old ways. To exit by the other side of the stage was symbolic of moving on to new things, to new adventures. So it is with our little troupe of apostles. No sooner do they come on stage when they are directed off again - in a direction they themselves have never taken before.

These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.

Matthew 10:5-10 (NKJV)

Since they first encountered Him they have marveled at the things Jesus has done and said; now they are sent out into the world to do the very same things themselves. Can you hear them swallow as they try to deal with the lumps in their throats as he says these words? "You want us to do what? Heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead!!!"

That Jesus entrusts them with this mission is indicative of how far they have come in a short period of time. They have not yet graduated, this too will be a learning experience; it is kind of a co-op semester in kingdom expansion.

And yet, there is an odd limitation. Odd in that when so many of the encounters we have seen so far have been with Gentiles who showed remarkable faith, the apostles are warned not to go to them on this trip; not even to the Samaritans. They are to limit their activities to those cities and towns populated exclusively by the Jews, to the 'Lost sheep of Israel."

I'm pretty sure upon hearing this, the more "fundamentalist" of Matthew's congregation would have jumped on it, and reiterated their belief that salvation is for the Jews alone, or at least that Gentiles must become Jews before they can become Christians. But Matthew, I'm also sure, doesn't take the bait. He knows full well that there is a divine order, "to the Jew first, then to the Gentile."

But where they are going and what they are going to do when they get there is not all Jesus has to say. There are five main teaching discourses in Matthew's gospel. In this second one he gives the apostles a 'manual for missions' if you will. A set of rules and guidelines for while they are away. We will look at it in detail next time. Until then...

Shalom.

---

Bursting Wineskins

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:40:00 +0000

A day or two ago I was pleased to be afforded the chance to watch a talented actor (Rob Gray - no relation) and a gifted author/director (Deb Briggs) work on a scene from "The Missing Piece/Peace." (For details on this play please click on the link at right.) It is interesting for me to watch as the two individuals work in concert to explore the reality of the character. This sounds a little odd when talking about a totally fictitious person, but if a character is to be believed by the audience then there must, in fact, be an underlying reality to everything the character says and does.

It is helpful to me to watch this process happen in others because as a story teller I find myself often alone in this process, having to play, in my mind at least, both actor and director. What makes this process even more interesting, is that as a storyteller I am in fact neither actor nor director, rather a third entity altogether that is unique unto itself. Part one, part the other, but at the same time neither. It is the paradox of the storytellers art.

What has this to do with the Kingdom Gospel? Let's find out.

When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.” And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, “See that no one knows it. ” But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a man, mute and demon-possessed. And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke. And the multitudes marveled, saying, “It was never seen like this in Israel!” But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.” (Matt. 9:27-34 NKJV)

Again we see people who come to Jesus having come to the conclusion, by whatever means, that He is the solution to their problem. Their opinion of him is reflected in the titles they use to address him.

"Son of David" is in fact a subversive statement to be sure. In the first century Hebrew mindset it can mean one of two things - rightful heir to the throne of Israel, or promised Messiah come to deliver Israel from their oppressors. Some would argue that they are one and the same, others believe there may, in fact, be two saviours of Israel; regardless, in either case to ascribe this title to Jesus is to challenge the authority of Herod, and of Rome.

"Lord" is less subversive, but no less telling. Again Jesus' authority is recognized; recognized in a fashion that acknowledges his power of things ordinary men cannot influence. The blind men have followed Him for an unspecified time, all the way to His home in Capernaum. There, not content to wait outside, they come in where Jesus, perhaps seeking to confirm their usage of the title, asks them plainly, "Do you believe I can do this?" And once again it is their faith that makes them well.

Here too we see the reactions of the two great witness to these events. The crowds respond with hyperbole, "Never has anything like this ever happened in Israel!" Well, the fact is, lots of things like this have happened in Israel before, they have simply never witnessed it for themselves. What was for most of them a legend, perhaps even a fable, has now become reality before their very eyes. It is somewhat akin to waking up on Christmas morning to discover the real Santa Claus asleep in your LazyBoy®. The Pharisees, predictably, go on the defensive, casting doubt on the miracles by suggesting they are accomplished not by the spirit of the living God, but by the machinations of His long time enemy. For them the carpenter/rabbi who at first was a mere curiosity has now become a viable threat to their position.

Which brings us back to the subject of my opening - character development. In these last two chapters we have seen these two characters steadily gaining depth. The crowd/multitudes are assuming their role as the friends/supporters of Jesus; the townspeople who were at first suspicious of the new stranger who has come to town are quickly warming up to him. The scribes/priests/Pharisees have taken the first steps to being identified as the black-hatted villains. This is about as far as their development is likely to go. As I mentioned a year ago when we started this journey (I warned you it would be a long process) I mentioned that the crowds and the religious leaders are flat characters. They are there to fulfill their roles, but never become truly rounded.

I mentioned another group in that article as well - stock characters; and in these last two chapters we have seen a number of them. And while these characters have left the story almost as quickly as they came, they have performed a vital function to the narrative. They have demonstrated quite clearly the truth of Jesus' words to the disciples of John the Baptist. "Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst..."

The touching of the leper, the faith of the centurion, the calming of the sea, the freeing of the demoniacs, the forgiving of the paralytic, the calling of the tax gatherer, the raising of the dead girl, the touch of a menstruating woman, the blind men following what they cannot see but by faith, the mute given back his voice - bursting wineskins - all of them!

In each case Jesus tears down another barrier to the Kingdom of God, corrects a misguided view of the Law of Moses, shifts another paradigm until it rightly lines up with the will of the Father. By reaching out to these outcasts of Hebrew society He makes it plain for all to see that there is no place in the kingdom of heaven for the alienation of strangers, the devaluing of women, or the dehumanization of the "unclean." The wineskins have indeed burst and the new wine of the kingdom flows freely for anyone who has the stomach for it.

But there is still one character we have not mentioned.

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” (Matt. 9:35-37)

Up until now Jesus' disciples have been many and diverse. Some have fallen, others are still unsure. But the semi-rounded compound character that is the twelve has not yet come into existence. This character we will meet next time. Until then...

Shalom.

--
Photo credit: Large wineskins and a water barrel, palestine early 1900s - courtesy dghall
--

Your Faith has Made You Well

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:20:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay (see last post). Let's get back to it shall we....

During dinner with Matthew and his friends, Jesus' relaxation is interrupted by the business of the Kingdom...

While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples. And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour. When Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing, He said to them, “Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.” And they ridiculed Him. But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went out into all that land. (Matthew 9:18-26 NKJV)

Mark and Luke tell us that this "ruler" is the leader of the local synagogue (likely in Capernaum) named Jarius. That he also kneels before Jesus is of no small significance. It's hard for us in Western culture to fully appreciate the nuances of interaction between classes. As leader of the synagogue Jarius would be a man accustomed to other people showing him such deference; for him to kneel would be an uncharacteristic recognition of Jesus' divine authority. Of note also is his statement of faith. To this point Jesus has not performed a resurrection miracle, so Jarius' belief in the power of Jesus touch is an extrapolation - "If he can do what we've seen him do then he can also raise the dead." As has always been His habit, Jesus responds to faith.

On the way the call that interrupted Jesus relaxation is itself interrupted. Again Matthew wants us to understand that it is the faith of the individual that is key to Jesus' response. Our faith cannot heal, but it is the impetus that stirs the power of God into action. In this case the woman reaches out and touches the hem of Jesus' garment. In the New American Standard Bible (NASB) the word 'hem' is more literally translated "fringe". (Personal Note: The NASB is more literal yes, probably one of the most accurate of the modern translations. I consider it a great study aid, but for storytelling purposes it's not quite as readable as other versions.)

Some scholars rightly point out that this refers to the tzitzit, tassels that Jewish men were required to wear as a reminder of God's law by the Law of Moses. However, many incorrectly make a connection between this garment, or the prayer shawl, and God's healing power. The prayer shawl is a reminder for the individual, and a symbol of the temple but nothing in scripture gives it any more importance than that. To believe there is a connection to God's power turns the tassels into some kind of mystical talisman rather than the simple reminder they were intended by God to be. The power to heal comes from Jesus' himself and the divinity He shares with the Father. The tassels do however, show us once again that Jesus honoured the Law of Moses. He did not ignore it but rather strove to demonstrate its true meaning.

This does mean however, that there might well have been some connection in the mind of this woman. Being Jewish she would have held in her mind some kind of connection between the tzittzit and the God of Moses; it might be why she chose to touch this particular portion of Jesus clothing. But all that is beside the point; regardless of why she chose to touch the fact remains she was taking a chance. Her condition rendered her unclean according to the Law. She was an outcast, forbidden to have contact with any other human being. The act of touching Jesus would have rendered him unclean; this should have been enough to keep her from even thinking of touching him.

Here then, is the true demonstration of her faith. She not only believed that Jesus could heal her, but that the power within him was able to overcome her uncleanliness. Maybe she witnessed the healing of the leper, maybe she only heard of it. But she knew in her heart she could not contaminate the Son of David, that the spiritual power of this rabbi could only travel one way - outward. This is the faith Jesus recognizes when he turns to her and says,“Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.”

Again the faith is hers, the power is Christ's.

So it is with the ruler's daughter, but here we learn something else as well. When Jesus arrives the flutes and the wailing are in full swing. In first century Palestine flutes and professional wailers were as common as flowers and organ music is today. Gundry and Carson observe that "Even the poorest families hired at least two flute players and one female wailer for funerals" (Gundry, 175); and the noisy crowd was "made up of friends mourning, not in the hushed whispers characteristic of our Western funerals, but in loud outbursts of grief and wailing augmented by cries of hired mourners" (Carson, 231). Given this was the daughter of a synagogue "ruler" it's safe to assume the "crowd" was substantial.

This actually explains a few things. When Jesus makes the declaration that the child is only asleep, He is ridiculed by those in attendance. It seems to me that the family, following Jarius' lead, would find some hope in these words. The fact that Jesus' was ridiculed is confirmation that most of those present were professional mourners with no emotional investment in the situation. It also explains why he ushers them out of the room. I don't think it's so much that He doesn't want an audience as He doesn't need the nay-sayers looking over His shoulder.

I also find Jesus' statement that 'The girl is not dead, but sleeping,' an interesting one. Throughout his letters to the churches the apostle Paul uses this same term for those who have died while waiting for Christ to return. Is Jesus offering comfort, as the worldly might claim, reassuring the crowd that everything is alright? Or is He making comment on the nature of death? Could it be that He is, in His subtle way, pointing out that death is but a transitory thing for all of us? That one day we will all awaken from the grave to face the Lord and account for the way we have lived our lives? Personally, I think so.

Until next time.. Shalom

Image : Raising of Jairus Daughter 1871. Vasiliy Polenov
---

A Bright Light shines no more.

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:12:00 +0000

I had fully intended to write the next episode of 'Exploring the Kingdom Gospel" this week, but then something unexpected happened. Late Wednesday night a man walked out of a local bar, got into his truck and drove off. Because he was drunk, instead of taking the on-ramp to Hwy 6 south, he took the off ramp and wound up driving south in the North-bound lanes. A few minutes later he drove head on into a car, killing the driver. That driver was a wonderful young woman named Anna Graham.

I first met Anna about a year ago. Her uncle asked me to work on a production of "Death of a Salesman" that he was directing for Guelph Little Theatre. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and Anna was no small part of it. Anna, along with Anthony "Pooch" Brown, was designing the lighting for the production. You didn't have to watch her work for long to know that this woman not only knew what she was doing, she enjoyed it immensely and had a real gift for creativity. You also didn't have to watch for long to see just how proud her uncle, my friend Lloyd, was of her.

And now she's gone!

As you scan the status lines of her friends on Facebook you can see the range of emotions. One person "is sad", another "is numb", one more is "trying to come to terms." The most vocal of the lot is "Really mad....and hurt...and not understanding why this life has to be so f**kin unfair!!!" (the asterisks are mine). I know how he feels. I felt the same way when James died a year ago (I wrote about it here.). But somehow, I don't feel the same pain about Anna, not the same way.

I know part of the reason is the simple fact Anna and I weren't as close as James and I were. It's no reflection on Anna; we worked together on 'Salesman' and then went our separate ways, her to her circle and me to mine. Most of the pain I feel is for her uncle Lloyd. Him I do consider a friend, and as both actor/director and human being, have a great deal of respect and admiration for the man. I can only imagine what he is going through. He's never far from my thoughts.

But the biggest difference in this case is there was some good to be found in Jame's death. He had been sick for a long time. In many ways his passing was a relief. His suffering is over and the spiritual part of me can at least begin to wrap my head around the idea that God decided it was for the best.

But in Anna's case this logic does not apply. The hard cold fact is Anna died because someone couldn't find anything better to do with a Wednesday night than get drunk watching naked women dance on stage. And even that might not matter except he then compounded things by making the selfish decision to drive himself home, and no one, not the bartender, not the servers, not his friends, nor the big burly guy at the door took the necessary steps to stop him. Anna is gone because human beings made selfish and wrong choices! Plain and simple!

Do I sound like I'm ranting? Of course I am. I'm angry! Because the simple fact is THIS IS WHY WE NEED GOD!!

Every day on the news and in other media I hear people trying to tell me how outmoded a concept God is. How human beings don't need some invisible being in the sky, they are quite capable of conducting their own affairs. Morality is a flexible concept and changes from day to day, what's good for you is bad for me, etc. etc. etc. Religion is no longer required because we can run our own affairs quite nicely thank you.

But the fact is, human beings, generally speaking, as a species, are no where near smart enough, wise enough, deep enough or insightful enough to be their own moral compass. When push comes to shove each of us, left to our own devices, will make a decision based not on the common good, or the welfare of others, but on our selfish wants and desires. The only hope for us is to have a moral guide that comes from outside of ourselves. A culture of accountability which holds us personally responsible for our actions on a level above and beyond the human trappings of law and order. This is the role religion fulfills.

And before you get started on the evils of organized religion, let me say it's not the institution of religion I'm talking about. Rather it is the ground level, day-to-day belief that God is watching, and that someday we will have to face Him one-on-one and He will say, "Explain it to me again why you were a complete and total moron" - or words to that effect. For thousands of years the love for and fear of God has kept human beings from acting out of selfish motives and inspired us to think twice before we act, even if the only reason is the slim possibility that if we don't behave we might find ourselves spending eternity roasting on a spit over a lava-fed barbecue. Though personally I have always suspected the lake of fire in Revelation is a metaphor for something far worse.

I know - I'm preaching. I'm taking advantage of Anna's death to get on my soapbox and call down fire and brimstone. Well, I make no apologies for it. I'm not trying to be comforting, I'm trying to stop this kind of thing from happening the only way I know how.

I know full well that if it were not for the work of God in my life, I could well be that same moron getting drunk watching naked women dance. Or possibly something much worse. This is why Jesus came to earth as a child and sacrificed himself as a man - to save us from ourselves. To give us an option other than hopelessly trying to be our own moral compass. He is God's response to our insistance on doing things our own way.

The hard cold fact is that this world is the way it is because human beings, collectively and individually, have said "Sorry God, we don't need you any more. We are totally capable of making our own decisions. We are the captains of our own fates. Thanks for all your help in the past - we'll take it from here." And like it or not - this fractured, faulty, unfair world we live in is the result. I don't like it either, but that's the way it is.

The good news is this; when we said that, God responded by saying, "Fine. Have it your way. But when it all falls apart, when the unfairness of it all gets to you and you just can't take it any more - please, please, PLEASE! Come crying back to Me and I promise - I WILL HELP YOU GET THROUGH IT!"

Good-bye Anna.

Shalom everyone.

Using or Receiving?

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:23:00 +0000

If you watch enough news video from the Middle East, you will eventually see an interesting custom play out. Some people, immediately after speaking a particular name (often George Bush) will emphatically spit on the ground before they continue with their sentence. The thinking behind this custom is: This person is so vile and repugnant to me I want to get the bad taste left by saying their name out of my mouth immediately. It is a most vile comment on an individual, reserved only for those for whom the individual feels the greatest hatred.

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9)

It doesn't take a lot of research to discover that, in Jesus' day, this spitting custom was widely practiced whenever anyone said the word nagas or in Greek telones - tax-collector! Only lepers were given a wider swath than the tax-collector. This was largely due to the fact that most tax-collectors were regarded as traitors, Jews who, for financial reasons (they got a commission on the money they collected), decided to cooperate with the Roman occupiers of Israel. In the first century Jewish mindset, the only thing more remarkable than Jesus asking Matthew to follow him is the fact that Matthew left his tax booth and followed!

Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” - (Matthew 9:10-13 NKJV)

The Pharisees, as usual, have a valid point to make when they ask why Jesus is keeping company with people who engage in sin as part of their lifestyle, even their livelihood. The Old Testament admonition not to follow the crowd into evil (Exodus 23:2 ) and the declaration that "sinners will not stand in the congregation of the righteous" (Psalm 45:6-7 ) were, in their minds, validation for creating a social barrier between the two groups. This is the danger of legalism in Christian practice.

Righteous practices are supposed to be expressions of the love for and of God that resides within us. But all too often they can become an end in themselves, with no foundation in love or even faith, but rather just an expression of our own self importance as we strive to prove to ourselves and others that we are more religious. It was this trap the Pharisees had fallen into.

Jesus however, sought to turn this idea on its head. He fully understood that the righteousness and justice of God is not complete unless it also incorporates His love and compassion. This Son of David, who had never sinned in his life, never-the-less understood the cry of David's repentant heart when he declared "Restore to me the joy of your salvation... Then I will teach transgressors of your ways, and sinners will return to you." (Psalm 51:12-13 )

What appeals to me most about this exchange though, is the subtlety of his comment. I'm sure his declaration that the righteous would have no need of his ministry would have massaged the egos of the Pharisees. I can picture them thinking to themselves, " Oh! All right then, that makes sense. We are righteous and good in God's eyes, so it's no wonder he ignores us and talks to them. They certainly do need someone to show them the error of their ways. But it is a lost cause however, so better him than me." The irony is, of course, Jesus didn't consider them righteous at all. Jesus understood that the lowliest sinners who throws themselves upon the mercy of God is closer to the Kingdom of Heaven than the self-declared righteous will ever be.

This is the point behind his quotation of Hosea 6:6, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." The Pharisees considered their interpretation of the scriptures as being a sacrifice that all people should make to demonstrate their obedience to God. Their zero-tolerance philosophy served only to make themselves look good; it did nothing to draw those who had fallen by the wayside back into the embrace of God's love. Jesus' ministry is not about keeping people out of the Kingdom, it is about welcoming them in.

And while it doesn't seem so on the surface, Jesus words to John's disciples are part of this same exchange.

Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often,but Your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved. (Matthew 9:14-17 NKJV)

Have you ever noticed that in this question John's disciples group themselves in with the Pharisees? "We and the Pharisees fast often.." A strange comment from the disciples of a prophet who had challenged the validity of the Pharisees repentance. (Luke 3:7-9 ) It demonstrates just how ingrained the idea of pious acts equating with righteousness was in their culture. With the metaphors of the cloth and the wineskins, Jesus tries to help them understand that if the Kingdom that is coming is going to take hold, then the old way of thinking about the Word of God must be set aside. His words must be examined with fresh spiritual eyes, better enabling them to see the truth of God for what it really is rather than for what they had been told it was for generations.

In his essay An Experiment in Criticism, C.S. Lewis makes an interesting observation about the nature of reading. He observes that there are two kinds of reading. In the first kind we read a book so that we can "use" it. We are looking to endorse or enhance our own existing world view. The second is when we read a book to "receive" the message that the author is trying to convey. As an avid cyclist I like his explanation of the difference...

"The one [receiving]... is like being taken for a bicycle ride by a man who may know the roads we have never yet explored. The other [using] is like adding one of those little motor attachments to our own bicycle and then going for one of our familiar rides."

This is what happens to all too many of us when it comes to the Word of God. It happened to the Pharisees. They "used" the Law of Moses to their own ends, interpreting it to shore the social/political structure they thought was best for them and for Israel. Jesus recognized that, in truth, it was good for neither and sought to teach people how to "receive" the Word once again by receiving Him - the Word made flesh.

I challenge you, dear readers, to examine your own hearts and ask yourself, "Do I believe what the Holy Scriptures say? or do I believe what I have been told they say?" Ask yourself, and be as honest as you can be, "When I read the Holy Scriptures, am I looking to "receive" the message God has for me, or to "use" it to support my own theology?"

Until next time... Shalom.

Treat the Disease, Not Just the Symptoms

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:03:00 +0000

A while back a close friend of mine was having trouble with his vision. A trip to the opthamologist revealed that he was suffering from iritis, basically an inflammation of the iris. Further investigation however, revealed that the real problem was not in his eye, it was in his back. He also had what is known as Ankylosing Spondylitis, a member of the arthritis family of conditions that causes inflammation of the vertebrae. It was complications from this condition that was causing the iritis.

All too easily in medicine, and other areas of life, we can find ourselves treating just the symptoms and not the real disease. Jesus finds himself facing the same situation in Capernaum.

So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men. (Matthew 9:1-8 NKJV)

One of the hardest concepts to explain when discussing the Gospel Kingdom is the nature of sin. We are fundamentally uncomfortable with the notion that there may be a connection between how we behave and the illnesses that rack our bodies. Occasionally we can live with the idea if we can make some sort of clinical connection. Smoking is a sin, and smoking is why my lungs are full of tar and a hundred other chemical compounds that have turned my lungs coal black, and that is why I have lung cancer; therefore, sin caused me to have cancer. It's a nice tidy clinical line that fits comfortably into our theology. The idea however, that lying on my tax return might somehow be connected to the brain tumour in the back of my head doesn't fit so comfortably.

And well it shouldn't, because it isn't connected, not that way. For generations the people of Israel, like Job's companions, believed that illness was a curse brought on the individual as a direct result of sin. But in John 9:1-5 Jesus corrects this misconception of sin and disease in the minds of the scribes and pharisees. There is indeed a connection between sin and disease, but it is not one of simple cause and effect. It is more properly likened to a polluted environment.

The link between AIDS and HIV has long been understood. HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) pollutes the human body making it susceptible to all kinds of conditions including AIDS. People don't die from HIV; they often don't even die from AIDS so much as they die from something else AIDS removed their ability to resist. But HIV, the virus lurking deep in the body's systems is the real culprit.

So it is with sin. Sin is like a virus that has infected all of creation. It does not directly cause disease and illness, but it has so corrupted God's creation that they not only exist but thrive. Sin is the reason nature turns on itself and ravages the land with storms and droughts. Sin is the reason as soon as medical science cures one condition it mutates and infects the population all over again. Sin is the reason plagues of insects and other vermin ravage the landscape destroying crops and forests turning paradise into a desert.

God did not intend things to be this way; His plan was for nature to exist in total harmony, disease free, with the lion and the lamb sharing the same garden as humankind, naked and unashamed. But sin changed all that. Because of sin people act out of selfish desire instead of mutual compassion and destroy the very thing they desire most - relationships, with their family, their friends, with God. Once again, sin did not create these things but so changed creation that death and destruction could not be resisted for long.

This then is the reason for Jesus words to the scribes whose thoughts accused him of blasphemy. Not to draw a line between the man's paralysis and his sin, but to demonstrate that he can heal the body because he has the power to cleanse the world of sin itself.

"Which is it easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven' or 'Arise and walk'?" On the face of it, it's an absurd question. To heal a limb is to drain the pond in my backyard, to deal with the impact of sin on a fallen world is to try and drain the Atlantic Ocean. But not for the Son of Man - there's that phrase again. For the one who stood before the Ancient of Days and received dominion over the Kingdom of God the two acts are, in fact, one and the same. Jesus does not just deal with the symptom of disease, but with the virus/sin that lies at its root.

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men... if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many." (Romans 5:12 - 15 NIV)

Until next time... Shalom.

---
Exploring the kingdom Gospel - episode 19

The Other Kingdom

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:22:00 +0000

Last time we looked at why Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee; now let's consider what happened when he did.

Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” Matt 8:23-27

As always, let's start by setting some context. The Hebrew attitude towards the sea is best described as a love/hate relationship. It was viewed at one and the same time as a source of life and death. While they were grateful for the food provided by the sea and recognized that Genesis declared life was first brought forth as the Spirit of God moved upon the face of 'the Deep', they also regarded it as being the place where Sheol (Hell) was located.

All through the psalms and the prophets the 'Deep' is regarded as a place of abandonment. It is the place where the soul sinks when God has forsaken those who have forsaken him. Consider Psalm 69...

But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.

Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters.

Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me, O LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. (vs 13-16)

So great was this association between the sea and the depths of Hell that many fisherman and sea-faring types never even learned how to swim. To do so would be to set their souls at even greater risk than they endured in a boat. With this in mind, let's continue on the western shore....

When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water. Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region. Matt 8:28-34

On the surface these two events seem to be separate, but spiritually they deal with the same forces.

The Sea of Galilee has a reputation for being a quick tempered bit of water, due in part to the fact it lies 600 feet below sea level. Storms come up quickly and unannounced and with great ferocity. It is also quite deep and when a ship is lost it is rarely discovered again. When you add in the reputation of the sea as being the entrance to Sheol, then the concern of the disciples is fully understandable. What is not so readily understood is what they expected of Jesus when they awaked him that night.

Consider, first that Jesus was able to sleep through all this. Such I would suggest is the sleep of the innocent, with no guilt or fear to disturb it. In Mark's account the disciples mistake this supernatural calm for uncaring. But what, one wonders, did the disciples expect Jesus to do about the storm? Their response to his actions would indicate that they were surprised he was able to end it, so what was it they expected of him?

"Lord, save us! We are perishing," is the cry. But save them from what? If they expected him to do something about the storm, then why did they marvel so when he accomplished it? Could it be they simply did not want to die alone? How often do we, when faced with inevitable consequences turn to family and friends as if we expect them to solve the problem, knowing full well there is nothing they can do, simply because we need to face the inevitable with someone? We need to be held, we need to have someone tell us everything is going to be all right even when it isn't. I suspect the disciples of Jesus were no different. Afraid of the worst, they sought comfort from their teacher.

But instead of comfort, they get rebuke! He calls them men of 'little faith' and then, once again, he does the unexpected. After rebuking his disciples for their lack of faith, he rebukes the wind and the waves, possibly for disturbing his sleep. I know, it sounds flippant, but it is how I've always imagined this scene because of the word 'rebuke'. If the winds and waves had remained calm, the disciples wouldn't have panicked and prepared to face the end, and Jesus would have slept undisturbed through the entire crossing.

But what's really important is that in the minds of the disciples on board that boat they have not only been saved from death, they have been saved from the depths of Sheol. They have avoided being confined to the underworld. It matters not whether theologically their perception is accurate, what matters is that likely that was the way they saw it.

Now, on to the Gadarene graveyard. Here Jesus meets two men (other gospels say there was only one, but that is beside the point) and we see the demons challenge Jesus asking him why he wants to hassle them before the appointed time. Many commentaries have been written on Jesus' interplay with the demons. I won't belabour that point here, but I do want to consider the imagery found in what happens to the demons after they are transferred to the herd of pigs. They run down the hill in a mad frenzy and throw themselves into the sea.

What significance would this have for the disciples gathered around him? Think about it for a moment. The sea is the gateway to the underworld, demons are the denizens of that world. In the minds of the disciples and the others gathered there that day Jesus has just sent the demons back where they came from! Jesus in the course of a night and a day clearly demonstrated that the kingdom of God will not just supplant the kingdom of men on this earth, but it will conquer the kingdom of darkness as well.

This was new! Miracle workers have come and gone before; even false prophets had managed to give sight to the blind and deal with the odd fever or two; but to exert power over hell itself. To be able to control the storm is to challenge the powers of darkness that roused the waters to begin with; to strike fear in the heart of the demons and not only cast them out of a possessed man but to send them packing back to the depths from which they came; this was unprecedented. Not even Moses was credited with this much power, and he had stood in the very presence of God.

This then is the significance behind Jesus' excursion to the eastern shore, to demonstrate clearly that the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven extends everywhere, even over the kingdom of darkness. Sheol in all it's terror cannot stand in the face of the authority God had given to Jesus. The Son of Man is the embodiment of the 23rd Psalm, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil." Rather, evil fears him.

But demons and storms are just the beginning; there are greater manifestations of evil in the world. And Jesus will deal with it as well, as we shall see in our next episode when he travels back to his home town of Capernaum.

Shalom

Photo: Slopes near Kursi, likely site of the swine incident.

---
Exploring the Kingdom Gospel - episode 18

To Get to the Other Side

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 04:12:00 +0000

Why did Jesus cross the Sea of Galilee? To get to the other side? Maybe, but I think He also had something else in mind.

And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” Matthew 8:18-22

Some of you may think I'm being flippant with the title and opening line of this episode, but in actual fact this was the first question I asked myself when I read this section of Matthew's gospel. Why did Jesus cross the Sea of Galilee? What was there on the eastern shore that attracted him so much? The answer is found in the encounter he has with two young men.

The first to approach Jesus is a scribe, a person who is versed in the law of Moses, by some accounts - a lawyer. His declaration to Jesus upon his approach is, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." The teacher/student relationship was very different in Jesus' day than what we think of today. As I mentioned when we looked at the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, it was not unusual for a teacher to visit or even live with one of his students. In some schools the situation was reversed, the students would take up residence in their teachers home and learn from them day in and day out.

It is likely the scribe had this in mind when he approached Jesus. He might well have been expecting to gain a living situation that would allow him to spend his days in debate and discussion, living off the generosity of the sponsors who customarily supported a respected teacher. He would benefit from his teacher's contacts and earn a place in society based on the reputation gained by being the student of a renowned rabbi.

But Jesus responds with a remarkable declaration, "The Son of Man has no where to lay his head." In other words, "If you are looking for a relaxing life of scholarship, debating with the elders at the temple and impressing younger scribes with your knowledge and wisdom, you've come to the wrong place." Jesus is not that kind of teacher. He will spend very little time at his home base in Capernaum; he has a message to deliver and rather than wait for Israel to come to him, He is going to Israel.

But there is a more subtle message in his words as well. This is the first time Jesus uses the phrase "Son of Man." He will refer to himself this way 32 times in the Kingdom Gospel. If the scribe was paying attention he might of remembered the use of the phrase in Psalm 8 or even in the book of Daniel. The question is, did he pick up on the reference?

"I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed." Daniel 7:13-14

Behind the scribe, another man, already counted among those regarded as disciples, has a request to make, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." To which Jesus responds, "Let the dead bury their own dead." Scholars usually comment on Jesus' statement either by declaring the young man wanted to procrastinate, or by saying that Jesus was referring to the spiritually dead. But I would like to offer another idea.

This is not a simple request to show up for the funeral. Laying one's parents to rest was a solemn responsibility, it was also considered to be an act of great piety. This was because in order to bury the deceased one had to touch the dead body, and this rendered the individual unclean for a period of seven days (Numbers 19:11). Thus a person who volunteered to bury the dead was seen as making a sacrifice, ostracizing themselves from Jewish society for seven days in order to pay honour to the departed. The high degree of importance this act of piety (good works) held among the Jewish people can be observed in the apocryphal book of Tobias.

With this in mind, Jesus' statement now takes on another connotation. The young disciple, as did many of his day, believed that acts of piety were required to enter into God's kingdom. He sought not to procrastinate, but rather to fulfill his obligations under a salvation of works mentality. But Jesus indicates that works, here represented by the act of piety, do not lead to the kingdom of God, but rather to a spiritual dead end. If he seeks the kingdom, it is accessible only through the Son of Man, though the grace of God, manifested in the man Jesus.

In his responses to these two people, Jesus makes it plain that in order to enter into the fulness of the kingdom of God there are choices to be made. We must decide if we can face a life of uncertainty, never entirely sure where God will lead us next. We must also decide what our priorities are; will we keep with the traditions, hoping to one day earn our way by acts of piety, or will we follow after the Son of Man, even if that means abandoning obligations and belief systems we once held dear.

This then is why Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee. Seeing the great multitude he had to begin the process of separating the serious seeker from the casual on-looker. So he orders the crowd to cross to the eastern shore knowing that only the serious would make the effort. He knew that like these two men there would be many who had to face the decision to follow or be held back by the traditions to which they so earnestly clung.

It is interesting to note that we are not told how the men responded to Jesus' challenge. We are not told if they followed or returned to the lives they knew. But then again, it is not important. The important decisions are not the ones made by the scribe and the disciple; the important decisions are the ones we will make as we face these self-same challenges in our struggle to attain the Kingdom of Heaven.

Until next time... Shalom

--
Photo credit: www.christiananswers.net

The Healing of a Woman

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:50:00 +0000

We have seen two examples of those who recognized Jesus' authority - a leper and a centurion. Now let's look at the third in our trio - a woman.

Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served him. When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “ He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” Matt. 8:14-17

In true storyteller fashion, let's look at the setting first. We are in Peter's house in Capernaum. Since there is no mention of Peter's invitation for Jesus to come and dine with his family, it is not a stretch to believe that Jesus has been here before, and often. It was not uncommon for a teacher to frequent the homes of their students, and some have even suggested that Jesus might have lived with Peter and his extended family. We can't be sure, of course, but such a thing would not be out of step with the customs of the time.

Another clue to his familiarity with the people involved is his response to Peter's mother-in-law. In the previous two incidents Jesus is requested to deal with the afflictions of the leper and the centurion's servant. In this case however, he simply acts. He walks in, sees the need and without a word to anyone, he touches her and she is healed. No intercession is required; it is as if his ministering to her is a forgone conclusion.

Nevertheless, she is still a woman, and for an unrelated Jewish male to reach out and touch a woman (unless he is dragging her off to be stoned) is a rare thing. Like lepers and Gentiles, women existed at the fringes of Jewish society, though admittedly their circle was a little closer to the centre than the Gentile centurion, who would have been more welcome than the leper. Even within their own families there were rules as to which men with whom they could and could not interact. Outside the family ties, the restrictions were even worse. Jesus' actions demonstrate that the woman's relationship with him, with this Son of David, supersedes all other relationships. He is here to heal her and mere custom will not prevent that from happening.

Interesting too, is her response to his touch. The leper recognized Jesus' authority but was unsure of His willingness to help a leper; keeping his distance while at the same time holding onto hope. The centurion sees things more clearly. He has no doubts about Jesus' ability to command, so much so he does not require the physical connection for his faith to bear fruit. But this woman, who is healed without intersession, without preamble, responds to Jesus' authority in the deepest way possible - she serves him.

There are some who will tell you that her servitude is a trademark of her position in society, that this woman is so beaten down she has been conditioned to serve. But I think not. In Mark's account of this event the language is such that one might draw that conclusion; "she served them," a generic plurality that could easily be taken to refer to all the males present. But Matthew's language is more precise, "she arose and served him." This man is her son-in-law's teacher. She has heard his words, she has seen his character, and now she has felt the power in his touch. For those who live in close contact with the Son of David, service is the only fitting response.

And so she serves, and she opens her home to those who would find what she has found - healing. Well into the night they come; the sick, the demon-possessed, all those that society is ill-equipped to deal with. In these three incidents Jesus puts into action the fundamental truths he spoke forth on the hillside. The kingdom of God is not restricted to those who fit the pattern. The kingdom is offered to all who are in need. The leper, the Gentile, the woman -- the outcast, the stranger, the marginalized; these are the ones for whom the Kingdom of God was created.

On a tablet within the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands, familiar words are carved...

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Many nations have sought to emulate the kingdom of God here on earth, with varying degrees of success. Most have failed to do so because the Kingdom of God is not a kingdom in time and space, it is a kingdom that lives in the hearts of those who would be its citizens.

And make no mistake, while one cannot earn that citizenship, there is a price to be paid if one seeks to fulfill it. As those who approach Jesus in our next installment will learn.

Shalom.

Exploring the Kingdom Gospel - episode 16.

A Man Under Authority

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:33:00 +0000

Last time we looked at Jesus' encounter with the leprous man. It was actually the first in a trio of encounters that we are witness to in the period immediately following his midrash on the Mount. We now examine the second of these:

Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour. Matthew 8:5-13 (NKJV)

Jesus now returns to what has become his home town since his ministry began. I find it interesting that he chooses to live not in an exclusively Jewish community but in one with a mixture of cultures. Capernaum (formerly Kefar Nachum, "Nahum's hamlet") was a town that had been extensively rebuilt by the Romans. It was a garrison town, an administrative centre, and a customs station; a far more central location than the mountain village of Nazareth. Given the Roman tendency to use local labour in their construction, it is possible that Joseph the carpenter worked in Capernaum from time to time, maybe even bringing young Jesus with him.

Among the structures built under Roman direction is a synagogue; built, we are told by Luke, by the very centurion who approaches Jesus in this passage. Pictured at right is a 4th century synagogue in the ruins of Capernaum that stands on the same site as that synagogue. (This has been confirmed by Franciscan archaeologists who found the remains of a 1st century synagogue underneath it.) The centurion, it would seem, has experienced something that happens to many soldiers stationed in foreign lands. He has developed an appreciation for the local people, maybe even a love for them and their culture. He has found enough of a home here to be moved to invest in its spiritual well-being by erecting this place of worship for them. And they, Luke says, have developed something of a love for him.

In the light of this, it may be not quite so surprising that when his beloved servant falls ill, beyond the help of Roman medicine, that he turns to this remarkable Jewish rabbi. What is surprising however, is his recognition of Jesus' authority. A man keenly aware of his own place in the hierarchy of things, he instantly recognizes that Jesus, not unlike himself, not only answers to a higher power, but speaks for that power in the same breath. As surely as he knows the orders he gives his own men will be carried out, because his words bear all the authority of the Roman Empire, he knows what this rabbi commands will happen.

Like the leper before him, this man is a product of his circumstances. Finding himself in the military, possibly not even of his own accord, he has learned a lesson in humility that few people comprehend - humility is as much about knowing what you can control as it is about what you can't. He sees in Jesus a man who takes no more credit than he is due, who fully acknowledges his power and authority come from the Father. But at the same time he sees that Jesus wields the authority he has been given with absolute confidence; there is no doubt in Jesus' mind about his mission and what he is to accomplish. It is this authority the centurion understands and to which he readily submits.

And it is this man, this humble centurion, this Gentile, who catches Jesus unawares. This Jesus, who knows the hearts of the pharisees, who sees into the life of the woman at the well, marvels at the humility of this centurion, so much so that he credits it to him as faith.

I am reminded of the words of the writer of Hebrews, who tells us that Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness. How do we know Abraham had faith? Because, we are told, he submitted himself to the authority of God and did not withhold his only son Issac. In short, he obeyed. Like Abraham, this centurion submits to the authority of Jesus, and in so doing demonstrates that while salvation is won by faith alone, faith has its roots in obedience, in submission to the authority of the Kingdom of God.

The result - healing - "as you have believed, so let it be done to you." But also, for those watching these events unfold - a warning. Don't think that just because you were born a Jew that your place in the Kingdom is assured. Others, from outside the tradition, will actually gain entrance before many who think of themselves as privileged. It is a warning to which many in the church should also pay heed.

A leper, and a centurion; one more member of the trio remains to be heard from - next time.

Shalom.

Exploring the Kingdom Gospel - episode 15.

---

Jesus and the Leper

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:28:00 +0000

In the movie Philadelphia, Andrew (played by Tom Hanks) who is stricken with AIDS says, "Look. I'm no different from everyone else who has this disease: I'm not guilty, I'm not innocent. I'm just trying to survive."

This same line could well have been delivered by the man whom Jesus meets in the next passage of Matthew's gospel. Having finished his sermon Jesus goes out into the towns and villages of Judea to continue spreading His message, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Matthew 8:1-4 (NKJV)

As usual, there is more here than meets the 21st century eye. This man was a leper - unclean. The word holds a connotation that we can only imagine. In Jesus' day such people we not just openly shunned, they were feared. Mothers with babies took them up in their arms and ran, others covered their faces for fear of contamination, full-grown men ran in terror, while others would throw stones to drive the lepers from their midst.

The storyteller in me wonders how this man managed to get so close to Jesus. It is likely he took advantage of the pressing crowd, their attention focused on the remarkable teacher, each of them vying for his attention to the point where they were oblivious to the others around them. I picture him standing near some bushes at the back of the crowd listening to this man as he delivered his midrash, hearing words that held out some vague hope that this was no ordinary rabbi.

As he approaches he bends low touching his head to the ground in front of Jesus. We can infer this from the verb 'worship' used to describe the lepers approach. His words confirm the inference as he makes it clear he understands that all the authority lies with the teacher, "Lord, if you are willing..." His fate is not his to control, the disease took that from him. Other people told him he was a leper, other people told him he could no longer live with his family or even sleep in the towns and villages; ever since the disease came upon him, his fate, indeed his very survival has lain in the hands of other people. Leprosy has taught him humility in a way nothing else could.

And so he comes to Jesus, humble, broken by the hand that life has dealt him. And yet, there is a spark of hope. A spark fanned into life by the words he heard on the hillside. No doubt he's heard others make grandiose claims of prophet-hood before, no one would blame him for a small voice of doubt echoing in the back of his mind. Still he comes, not really knowing what to expect, and he gets the unexpected. Jesus touches him.

I tell you a truth; though the scriptures do not record it, at the moment that Jesus touched the leper the crowd gathered around him, large or small, would have gasped and recoiled as one man. Fear and shock would have grasped them by the throat and stolen their breath away. For two reasons: one - Jesus, this rabbi of unimagined authority and eloquence, has broken the law of Moses, two - and this is the more shocking - would now be considered unclean - as much an outcast as the leper himself.

Leviticus 5 makes it clear that in this act Jesus takes on the sin and guilt that made this man unclean to begin with. For all his words of the coming of the Gospel Kingdom he has now performed the one act that would prevent that kingdom from ever coming to fruition. No one would ever follow a leper in search of spiritual fulfillment, Yehweh would never chose a man carrying the guilt of sin to usher in His kingdom. In this one moment Jesus has seemingly undone everything his midrash hoped to accomplish. And in the next moment the unexpected happens again.

The laws of physics tell us that heat only travels in one direction, from its source to a place where it does not exist. Heat moves from the warm place to the cold place, cold does not move the other way. In Jesus' world the laws of spiritual physics work the same way. The curse only moves in one direction, from the unclean to afflict the clean. And yet, miraculously, when Jesus touches the leper the forces of nature themselves are turned on their heads and cleanliness moves in to displace that which is unclean. The lesions that covered the man's face, arms and hands fade from view, leaving only clean, healthy skin in their place. The revulsion of the crowd is halted in mid-gasp leaving them staring in a state of utter amazement.

Shocked, amazed, elated, the former leper himself stands there not knowing what to do next. So Jesus tells him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” The rabbi who moments ago broke the law of Moses, tearing the fabric of reality in the process, now tells this man to honour that same law. His words on the hillside come back to our consciousness, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." (Matt. 5:17)

The priests, the pharisees, and the scribes, all desired the same thing as did Jesus; to see the kingdom of Yehweh manifested in reality on earth. But these three groups took a very different view of how that might come to pass than the Galilean preacher. While they focused on Leviticus 13, and how those who are unclean should be cast out of the Kingdom, Jesus sought to fulfill the promise of Leviticus 14, and see the unclean made whole and reconciled back into the kingdom. Where their approach brings condemnation, Jesus brings life!

All through the Midrash on the Hillside Jesus turned conventional thinking about the Law and God's kingdom on its head, seeking to fulfill its spirit and intent, rather than just focus on observing the letter of the law. This first encounter with Jesus among the people demonstrates that his physical ministry will be no different.

Until next time ... Shalom.

-
Exploring the Kingdom Gospel - episode 14
Photo credit: MSNBC
-

The Golden Rule - Matthew 7:12-29

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:25:00 +0000

In the Kingdom of Id the Golden Rule states, "He who has the Gold Makes the rules!". In the Gospel Kingdom things are a little different.

Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (New King James Version)

With this oft-quoted phrase we reach the end of the "Kingdom Midrash", the Sermon on the Mount. We know it is the beginning of Jesus summation by the presence of one simple word - therefore. In the tradition of this rabbinic teaching style, we can take this one word to mean "keeping everything I have just said in mind, consider this... do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

For the last three chapters Jesus has been seeking to turn the world on its head. Time after time he has taken the basic truths of past teachers of the Torah and revolutionized their meaning by taking things up to the next level. Should we assume he is doing any less here? What then does it mean, this simple, seemingly obvious phrase that so many take for granted.

If we are to treat others as we would expect to be treated, then maybe the question we first need to ask is how do we expect to be treated? Jesus has been telling us that we are citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom. That the restoration of earth as God had intended it to be is not in some far off distant future but is happening right here where we are, right now. If then we are members of that kingdom and the Kingdom is at hand, then it would follow that we are being called to treat those around us as if they too are part of the kingdom and the full restoration of the earth is a reality, for on the spiritual plane - it is!

Little wonder then that Jesus follows this call with the following advice...

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

For to truly treat everyone around us in such a manner will prove hard work indeed - straight forward, but hard. Hardest of all it means that we can no longer just write off those we don't agree with as being beyond hope because the spirit of God does not reside within them, for we are called to treat them as ourselves! To treat them as we would those who are anointed of God for a higher calling. Jesus has taught us that no one in the kingdom is to be written off, that even the least of us is to be held in high regard because of the price that has been paid for their redemption. Such treatment leaves no room for judgment, no room for abandonment, only room for love and understanding as we ourselves would desire to be loved and understood.

And if this is the case, then the Golden Rule also calls for us to be extremely careful in the choosing of our leaders...

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

A number of years ago a good friend of mine invited a pair of young Mormon gentlemen into his home when they arrived at his door. I fully expected him to set about fully dissecting their theology and leaving them in a heap. He didn't. Instead he listened to what they had to say, answered their questions truthfully, asked a few of his own and warmly invited them back to enjoy his hospitality any time they chose. After they left I asked him why he didn't show them the error of their ways. His reply was, "Because that wouldn't be very loving." That was not what he would want them to do to him.

I have come to understand that this more than anything else defines Christian leadership. It is not about who can one-up the opponents of the kingdom, racking up points on the debating scoreboard. It's not about name calling, and branding as 'evil' any who disagree with God's moral code. It is about who can best follow Christ's example, winning over the enemies of the kingdom with love and compassion; giving this simple phrase more than just lip service.

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Those who honour Christ with their mouths only will discover all too soon the true meaning of these words. And even in this we cannot allow ourselves to depart from the narrow path. If we were less than genuine in our walk what would we want the response of others to be? Ponder this for more than a moment and it becomes apparent why Jesus said judgment is God's purview and God's alone. We are not equipped to properly handle the task. Only those without sin can cast the first stone.

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.

The word appears again... "bearing all this in mind", consider these two men. The solid foundation of the Christian life is found in one place and one place only - obedience. The love of Christ, that is, grace alone has bought for us our citizenship in the Gospel Kingdom, but life in the kingdom finds fulfillment in obedience; "he who hears these sayings of mine, and does them."

The Kingdom Midrash is complete. Jesus walks down the mount leaving behind him a people stunned not so much by the content of his words, but by their impact. They are astonished by the authenticity of his voice and manner, the authority with which he speaks. His wonders and miracles do not factor into their response, because there have not yet been any signs and wonders. But that is about to change.

-
Exploring the Kingdom Gospel - episode 14
-

The Distraction of Timidity

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Alan Gray) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:26:00 +0000

First my apologies to those of you who have been wondering where I've been. Though in the middle of a series I simply felt the need to take a break, so I took the summer off. I hope you can forgive me. But the breaks over, time to get back to work. If you would like a reminder of where we left off you'll find the last article here. Now let's get to it.

In the last article we examined the first two of three distractions to faith found in the closing passages of the "The Sermon on the Mount." Jesus tells the people of one more thing that will hamper our spiritual lives - timidity; specifically the drawback of timid prayer.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being 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! - Matt. 7:7-11 NKJV

In the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" there is a scene where King Arthur (played by the late Graham Chapman) receives a vision of God. Immediately he hides his face and God questions him on it. The exchange goes like this...

GOD: Arthur! Arthur, King of the Britons! Oh, don't grovel! If there's one thing I can't stand, it's people groveling.
ARTHUR: Sorry--
GOD: And don't apologize. Every time I try to talk to someone it's "sorry this" and "forgive me that" and "I'm not worthy". What are you doing now!?
ARTHUR: I'm averting my eyes, oh Lord.
GOD: Well, don't. It's like those miserable Psalms-- they're so depressing. Now knock it off!
ARTHUR: Yes, Lord.

Irreverence and editorial comment on the Psalms aside, the movie actually makes the same point as Jesus. The prevailing view of God in Jesus' day was that of a punitive overseer just looking for a reason to withdraw his blessing and start handing out the curses. Sackcloth and ashes, a traditional sign of repentance and grief, became the standard garb required to get God's attention and the better one's groveling, the more likely one was to be heard. Lost on the scholars of the day was the example of Moses and Abraham, who boldly not only made their requests known but actually had the audacity to call God out when they had questions about his decisions. They lived out the offer God later makes in Isaiah 1:18 - "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool." (NKJV)

Jesus flies in the face of common opinion which said that such boldness was reserved for only those with a special calling from God. Instead of the overseer, Jesus portrays God as a loving Father who, like any earthly father, knows and understands the needs of his children and will readily provide them. In the Gospel Kingdom such boldness is not just for the prophets and priests, but for everyone, because we are all priests in the heavenly kingdom. Once again Jesus turns conventional thinking about God on its head.

But this is not all that he does. He also, in three rhythmic and succinct phrases, captures three distinct moods or attitudes of prayer. Ask - seek - knock; receive - find - open.

Words beyond number have been written over the years about the materialistic nature of modern prayer. Worship leaders express concern over the idea that every public prayer experience ends up a shopping list of things we want from God. And to be sure, in the context of corporate worship, there is a definite need for more prayer that seeks only to exalt, lift up and bless the Lord God for He alone is worthy of our praises. But in the privacy of the heart, in the intimacy of the gathering of two or three in his name, Jesus calls us to be bold and ASK. When we do He says, we shall receive. There is no timidity, no second guessing of our motives. If we know what it is we need - ask for it.

But some times we don't know. Sometimes we only know that we are in need. We lack the wisdom to specify what it is we would like God to do for us. When this is the case, Jesus calls to boldly SEEK the Lord's face. This is the time when, like Moses and Abraham, we can question God about what it is that He is doing in our lives. Not out of impudence, or arrogance, but in the bold surety of a child seeking to understand. "With all thy getting, get understanding" says the proverb (4:7), and where better to seek understanding than at the throne of God Himself.

On still other occasions we come to God in desperation. We feel distant from God, shut out. Left alone in the night with no one to protect us from the wolves that howl at the moon or the shadows that lurk in the doorways. In my mind it conjures up the image of the woman on the porch in the horror movie, pounding on the door of the farm house, begging to be let in before it's too late. Prayer becomes a desperate cry for salvation, a calling out for refuge from circumstances that would destroy us. But Jesus would have us know that we are never without a safe refuge. We have only to KNOCK on the door of the house of the Lord, knowing that when we knock in such desperation the door will always be opened in time.

Such timidity in our prayers comes from the mistaken belief that we are in control when we pray. Like the spells cast by the boy-wizard Harry Potter, if we can just get the words right and hold our tongue just so while we wave the wand called prayer then God will be obliged to give us what we desire. We don't think this way consciously of course (well, most of us anyway) but never-the-less there is still an attitude that the effectiveness of prayer depends on how we do it.

Boldness in prayer comes from the understanding that it isn't about us at all! Answers to prayer are God's and God's alone to bestow. He gives to each and every one according to His will, knowing what we need before we even ask it. And yet He still desires that we ask, because like a loving father he delights in the sound of our voices calling out to Him. Nothing develops the parent/child relationship more than just talking together and it is no less so with our heavenly Father.

Like a child secure in the knowledge that his/her father loves them and will never let them come to harm, we can ask whatever we will without fear, knowing that if we ask amiss he will not push us away, but will draw us into His embrace and help us to understand why what we want isn't best for us. But like a little child, we often won't truly understand until we get older!

Until next time... shalom!

Exploring the Kingdom Gospel - episode 13