A Side Note Regarding Salvation:
It is easy for us to accept that the fallen woman in Luke’s account received salvation through her remorse and her acceptance of Jesus Christ as God. The wake from her immoral life may have affected dozens and maybe hundreds of people. For sure there were families hurt by her actions and it is very likely that a lot of the damage was done to her own family in regards to honor and reputation. In fact, there were probably a number of these people who could never forgive her for her transgressions.
Salvation through Jesus Christ is available to all of us, even those who may, in our human opinion have gone too far. A case in point is a fellow by the name of Kaing Guek Eav, AKA “Duch”. Duch was the overseer of the Khmer Rouge’s Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia.
According to newspaper accounts the 65-year-old former math teacher, who was seized by Cambodian authorities in 1999 and held at a military prison until his transfer to the tribunal on July 31, is charged with crimes against humanity over his role at Tuol Sleng. The reconstruction of his actions before tribunal judges was a normal part of the genocide tribunal's ongoing investigation, officials said.
"An on-site investigation or 'reconstruction' is a normal investigative action, the aim of which is to clarify the declarations by each of the participants by gathering photos, audio-visual recordings and creating material for use in 3D reconstructions," the tribunal said in a statement.
Tuol Sleng was the Khmer Rouge's main torture center, where some 16,000 men, women and children were brutalized under Duch's alleged supervision before being murdered during the regime's repeated purges of its ranks. Most of those killed at the prison were dumped into mass graves at Choeung Ek, which is now one of Cambodia's most macabre tourist attractions.
Duch, who has not denied his role at Tuol Sleng, walked court officials through the site, "explaining what happened when he was in power," said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.
At one point Duch knelt to pray before a tree whose trunk was reportedly used to bash out the brains of infants. At the end of the session, Duch -- a born-again Christian -- also prayed before a towering glass-walled stupa containing thousands of skulls dug out of Choeung Ek's burial pits, many of which are still littered with human remains. "He asked to pray for those victims who had died and you could see from his eyes that he was very emotional ... we could see the tears coming down," Reach Sambath said.
Tuesday's re-enactment and a similar reconstruction of Duch's actions Wednesday at Tuol Sleng are not open to the public but are being recorded and could eventually be released, the officials said. The tribunal, which convened in July 2006, is investigating the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge's 1975-1979 rule over Cambodia. Up to two million people died of starvation and overwork, or were executed by the Khmer Rouge, which dismantled modern Cambodian society in its effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia. Cities were emptied and their populations exiled to vast collective farms, while schools were closed, religion banned and the educated classes targeted for extermination.
Now, here is a current and modern face of a sinner who is so severe that there are few that have been on this earth that could match his evil actions. He is certainly worse than you and me, don’t you think? How and why would God offer salvation to this man?
Let’s take a look at a serial killer here in the United States and read an article outlining his redemption.
The Milwaukee Sentinel, front page with color photo, 12 May 94]
by Steven Walters, Sentinel Madison Burear
Madison -- A Madison minister said Wednesday he baptized convicted serial killer Jeffrey L. Dahmer in a state prison whirlpool Tuesday afternoon.
Roy Ratcliff, 47, said he, Dahmer, the prison chaplain and two guards walked from Dahmer's cell area down a long hall about 2p.m. Tuesday to the prison infirmary, where Dahmer was baptized by immersion.
The whirlpool at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, where Dahmer is serving 15 life terms, was filled for Tuesday's ceremony, Ratcliff said.
Baptism by immersion requires that the celebrant be dunked under water, signifying that person's cleansing of sins and new relationship with God.
An assistant to the prison warden confirmed the baptism took place, but said no further details would be released.
"It's a personal matter," the official said.
Ratcliff, minister of the 100-member Church of Christ, said he began making plans to baptize Dahmer after a one-hour meeting April 20.
Ratcliff said he believes Dahmer made a true spiritual decision to be baptized.
Dahmer "was able to convince me this was not just a gag. It was something he felt and believed in," Ratcliff said.
"I was convinced that he wanted God in his life," Ratcliff said of their April meeting.
They met "in a little room with just a table and a couple of chairs," and Dahmer said he wanted his "sins washed away" by renewing his personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Ratcliff said.
Convinced of Dahmer's sincerity, Ratcliff said, he will begin meeting with Dahmer at 1:30p.m. Wednesdays, starting next week, to read and study the Bible together.
Ratcliff said both he and Dahmer were nervous during their first meeting.
"You're a little bit anxious about it," Ratcliff said. "I had no idea what his thinking was."
Ratcliff said he was asked to baptize Dahmer by Mary H. Mott, an Arlington, Va., woman who called him after she sent Dahmer 12 Bible correspondence lessons in mid-March.
After seeing a televised interview with Dahmer and his father, Mott, 69, said she concluded "that young man dowsn't know anything except evil." Dahmer has confessed to killing 17 young men and boys.
Mott said she then called the prison, was told by a guard how to send materials to Dahmer and sent him a Bible and the 12 "World Bible School" correspondence school lessons.
On April 1, Mott said, Dahmer typed her a note, thanked her for the Bible and the study lessons, and added:
"I want to accept the Lord. Would you please try to find someone to bring a baptistry tank to the prison?"
In that letter, Dahmer also signed a statement acknowledging that he wanted to accept Christ, Mott said.
When she got that letter, Mott said, "I got on the phone again."
"God forgives all sins," said Mott, who retired in 1975 after a 32-year career with the Defense Department. "God does not consider one sin greater than the other."
Mott said she first called a Baraboo-area minister, who explained that he was moving from the area and gave her Ratcliff's name.
Mott said Dahmer also sent her the completed Bible study lessons, which she "graded."
"He did very well," she said of the lessons. "He had to miss two or three (questions), out of 12 lessons."
After returning from the April 20 meeting with Dahmer, Ratcliff said, he began working with prison officials on whether a baptistry tank could be shipped into the maximum-security prison.
When prison officials offered the whirlpool, Ratcliff said, he and Dahmer agreed.
Mott said Ratcliff phoned her after Tuesday's ceremony.
"It was just real exciting," she said. "It's all to glorify God."
In his career as a minister and evangelist, Ratcliff said, he has baptized people "in rivers and creeks," but never anyone "so well-known."
Dahmer "seemed to understand very clearly what needed to be done," Ratcliff added.
I don’t know about you, but both of these extreme examples of redemption really challenge my perception of Godly justice. At first blush we can’t see any way that the lives of these two people justify redemption. To take this thought exercise a step further, it is possible that these two could spend eternity in the presence of God while some of their victims, who had not accepted salvation in their life, would not.
It is discourse such as this that can cause people who believe or not believe to stumble when it comes to having a relationship with God. He uses His word to be a teaching tool for us to understand how to live our life in accordance with His will. The example of the sinful woman who is genuinely sorry for her past sins, promises to change her life, attempt to sin no more, accepts Jesus as her Lord and Savior and lives her remaining days as an ambassador of that Savior will be saved. Despite how things look through our human view of justice, if these and other’s who have participated in murder and mayhem in their human lives (think Paul the Apostle or King David) have truly repented and accepted salvation, the word of God says that they will be in heaven.
In the case of Duch, the court that he is currently being tried by, will undoubtably sentence him to death or prison for his transgressions and Dahmer was sentenced to prison for his crimes and was brutally murdered in a bathroom by a man who felt that he heard the voice of God telling him to kill Dahmer. The point is that salvation does not subvert proper or improper justice for our sins on this earth and false exclamations of faith and salvation will not serve us at all when we face judgement.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Bringing chapter seven to a close
The next portion of chapter seven speaks of John the Baptist’s place in the ministry of Jesus. John sent his followers to Jesus to ask if He was the Messiah that everyone was expecting? Jesus answered that they should go back and tell their leader what they saw happen regarding healing, raising of the dead and how Jesus shared the Good News with the poor of spirit and to also tell him that “whoever is not offended by me, God will bless them”.
After the men left to return to John the Baptist, Jesus explained who John the Baptist was and what role he played in the ministry of Jesus. If we think of relating to John’s position from a business perspective we could see him in charge of pre-event publicity or as a marketeer of an upcoming event who’s main job was to prepare the marketplace ahead of time so that the potential customers are informed and ready to make a commitment when the time came to make one. Looking at the ministry of John the Baptist in this simple and realistic way, helps me to appreciate the practical plan of God. Jesus went on to say that as great as He thought John was and how important he was to the ministry, you and I were and are just as great and important to that same ministry.
Jesus went on to describe society as a bunch of whiners and complainers (sounds like me) who despite all efforts made in their direction, were and are, not happy. He also pointed out that there were those who called John the Baptist “demon possessed” because he did not drink wine and he often fasted. Those same people called Jesus “a glutton and a drunkard” because He went to social events where He ate good food and drank wine. This goes on today as people around us can’t wait to be critical of us and we can’t wait to judge them, both believing the impossible, because both can’t be right.
There are Christian churches that are steeped in traditional laws that outlaw drinking of alcohol, dancing, and forms of modern entertainment like movies and music. Jesus never once tells us that we can’t have a drink, play a card game with your friends or take your wife dancing. All He tells us to do is to make sure that He is number one in our lives, for us to share His gospel with the world and to enjoy the life that He has given us. Obviously, if you can’t have just one drink, if the friendly card game drives you to wind you up in an Indian casino for a week or if going dancing puts you into contact with a bad influence, don’t do it. One of God’s greatest gifts to us is, free will. We are to use this gift wisely.
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come to his home for a meal and Jesus accepted the invitation. While at the dinner, a woman, who Luke describes as an “immoral woman” approaches Jesus. Now when we see this description we can be fairly certain that God is speaking of a prostitute. Prostitution is known as the “oldest profession” and because men are men, has always been a common way for a woman to make money. According to information from Charles Stanley’s website, answering the question of whether a prostitute can be saved in Christianity, he states at http://www.gotquestions.org/prostitution.html
The Bible tells us that prostitution is immoral. Proverbs 23:27-28 says, "A prostitute is a deep pit; an adulterous woman is treacherous. She hides and waits like a robber, looking for another victim who will be unfaithful to his wife."
To quote further from this site, God forbids involvement with prostitutes. "For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of hell" (Proverbs 5:3-5).
Prostitution not only destroy marriages, families, and lives, but it destroys the spirit and soul in a way that leads to physical and spiritual death. God's desire is that we stay pure and use our bodies as tools for His use and glory (Romans 6:13). 1 Corinthians 6:13 says, "...But our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies."
Although prostitution is sinful, prostitutes are not beyond God's scope of forgiveness. The Bible records His use of a prostitute named Rahab to further the fulfillment of His plan. As a result of her obedience, she and her family were rewarded and blessed (Joshua 2:1, 6:17-25). In the New Testament, a woman who was known for being a sexual sinner found an opportunity to serve Jesus while He was visiting in the home of a Pharisee.
The woman, recognizing Christ for who He is, brought a bottle of expensive perfume to Him. In regret and repentance, the woman wept and poured perfume on His feet, wiping it with her hair. When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for accepting this act of love from the "immoral" woman, He admonished them and accepted the woman's worship. Because of her faith, Christ forgave all her sins and she was received into His kingdom (Luke 7:36-50).
When speaking to those who refused to believe the truth about Him, Jesus Christ said, "I assure you, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the way to life, and you didn't believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to turn from your sins and believe him" (Matthew 21:31-32).
Just like anyone else, prostitutes have the opportunity to receive salvation and eternal life from God, to be cleansed of all their unrighteousness and be given a brand new life! All they must do is turn away from their sinful lifestyle and turn toward the living God, whose grace and mercy are boundless. "What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
With this kind of prevalent thought, I can only imagine the ruckus that was stirred up when this woman came up to Jesus in this social environment. To make matters worse, she opened an expensive jar of perfume and while tears streamed down she started kissing the feet of Jesus drying her tears with her hair. Now, an account of a woman washing the feet of Jesus and the anointing with perfume is found in Matthew, Mark and John. Conventional wisdom tells us that this is the same account from different apostles in different locations. It may be possible that these are different accounts and they happened at different places and times.
While I read this account today, I try to visualize myself as being at this dinner, watching everything unfold. Enlightened as we are today, we would like to believe that we would have had something wonderful to say to the other guests as the prostitute is kissing the feet of the famous guy, but the truth is that we would be freaking out with everyone else.
Have you ever been put in a position, by someone else, hoping that you would fail just so they could announce to the world just how bad you failed. I am quite positive that the religious leader who invited Jesus probably was waiting for something scandalous to happen and he wasn’t disappointed when this woman showed up to tend to Jesus. We know this to be the case because Luke tells us that the Pharisee used the sinfulness and aforementioned biblical verses to condemn the woman as a sinner and Jesus as a false prophet because He let her wash His feet with her tears.
This religious person didn’t say any of this out loud and before he could, Jesus confronted him, telling him that He had something to tell him. The Pharisee told Jesus to say what He had to say, and it went like this:
“A man loaned money to two people and neither of them could pay him back. One of the people owed ten times the amount of the other and both of the debt amounts were forgiven equally. Who do you think love the man more after this?”
The Pharisee answered, “The one with the larger debt.”
Jesus responded by saying, “Dude, look at this woman kneeling here. When I got here tonight, you ignored me and didn’t offer me water to wash the road dust off of my feet, but she did it with her tears. You didn’t offer me oil for my head and she used an expensive perfume to anoint me. She has many sins and they are forgiven as I speak and because she acknowledges that she is so sinful and she is grateful for the salvation, unlike others who don’t think they are as bad as her”
I guess everyone else at the party started looking at their feet and mumbling while wondering out loud “who the heck does that guy think he is?” And in response to their remarks and comments, Jesus told the woman that she could go in peace and that her faith had saved her. I find a awful lot of the Pharisee in me and my life. I am quick to judge and “know” when someone is a bigger sinner than me. Reading this account helps to smooth the edges of my judgement of others and hopefully I will have a handle on it by the time that I am called home.
Like that woman in this account, our faith is our salvation and Jesus still tells us to “go in peace”. It is up to us to accept it.
After the men left to return to John the Baptist, Jesus explained who John the Baptist was and what role he played in the ministry of Jesus. If we think of relating to John’s position from a business perspective we could see him in charge of pre-event publicity or as a marketeer of an upcoming event who’s main job was to prepare the marketplace ahead of time so that the potential customers are informed and ready to make a commitment when the time came to make one. Looking at the ministry of John the Baptist in this simple and realistic way, helps me to appreciate the practical plan of God. Jesus went on to say that as great as He thought John was and how important he was to the ministry, you and I were and are just as great and important to that same ministry.
Jesus went on to describe society as a bunch of whiners and complainers (sounds like me) who despite all efforts made in their direction, were and are, not happy. He also pointed out that there were those who called John the Baptist “demon possessed” because he did not drink wine and he often fasted. Those same people called Jesus “a glutton and a drunkard” because He went to social events where He ate good food and drank wine. This goes on today as people around us can’t wait to be critical of us and we can’t wait to judge them, both believing the impossible, because both can’t be right.
There are Christian churches that are steeped in traditional laws that outlaw drinking of alcohol, dancing, and forms of modern entertainment like movies and music. Jesus never once tells us that we can’t have a drink, play a card game with your friends or take your wife dancing. All He tells us to do is to make sure that He is number one in our lives, for us to share His gospel with the world and to enjoy the life that He has given us. Obviously, if you can’t have just one drink, if the friendly card game drives you to wind you up in an Indian casino for a week or if going dancing puts you into contact with a bad influence, don’t do it. One of God’s greatest gifts to us is, free will. We are to use this gift wisely.
One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come to his home for a meal and Jesus accepted the invitation. While at the dinner, a woman, who Luke describes as an “immoral woman” approaches Jesus. Now when we see this description we can be fairly certain that God is speaking of a prostitute. Prostitution is known as the “oldest profession” and because men are men, has always been a common way for a woman to make money. According to information from Charles Stanley’s website, answering the question of whether a prostitute can be saved in Christianity, he states at http://www.gotquestions.org/prostitution.html
The Bible tells us that prostitution is immoral. Proverbs 23:27-28 says, "A prostitute is a deep pit; an adulterous woman is treacherous. She hides and waits like a robber, looking for another victim who will be unfaithful to his wife."
To quote further from this site, God forbids involvement with prostitutes. "For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of hell" (Proverbs 5:3-5).
Prostitution not only destroy marriages, families, and lives, but it destroys the spirit and soul in a way that leads to physical and spiritual death. God's desire is that we stay pure and use our bodies as tools for His use and glory (Romans 6:13). 1 Corinthians 6:13 says, "...But our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies."
Although prostitution is sinful, prostitutes are not beyond God's scope of forgiveness. The Bible records His use of a prostitute named Rahab to further the fulfillment of His plan. As a result of her obedience, she and her family were rewarded and blessed (Joshua 2:1, 6:17-25). In the New Testament, a woman who was known for being a sexual sinner found an opportunity to serve Jesus while He was visiting in the home of a Pharisee.
The woman, recognizing Christ for who He is, brought a bottle of expensive perfume to Him. In regret and repentance, the woman wept and poured perfume on His feet, wiping it with her hair. When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for accepting this act of love from the "immoral" woman, He admonished them and accepted the woman's worship. Because of her faith, Christ forgave all her sins and she was received into His kingdom (Luke 7:36-50).
When speaking to those who refused to believe the truth about Him, Jesus Christ said, "I assure you, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. For John the Baptist came and showed you the way to life, and you didn't believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to turn from your sins and believe him" (Matthew 21:31-32).
Just like anyone else, prostitutes have the opportunity to receive salvation and eternal life from God, to be cleansed of all their unrighteousness and be given a brand new life! All they must do is turn away from their sinful lifestyle and turn toward the living God, whose grace and mercy are boundless. "What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
With this kind of prevalent thought, I can only imagine the ruckus that was stirred up when this woman came up to Jesus in this social environment. To make matters worse, she opened an expensive jar of perfume and while tears streamed down she started kissing the feet of Jesus drying her tears with her hair. Now, an account of a woman washing the feet of Jesus and the anointing with perfume is found in Matthew, Mark and John. Conventional wisdom tells us that this is the same account from different apostles in different locations. It may be possible that these are different accounts and they happened at different places and times.
While I read this account today, I try to visualize myself as being at this dinner, watching everything unfold. Enlightened as we are today, we would like to believe that we would have had something wonderful to say to the other guests as the prostitute is kissing the feet of the famous guy, but the truth is that we would be freaking out with everyone else.
Have you ever been put in a position, by someone else, hoping that you would fail just so they could announce to the world just how bad you failed. I am quite positive that the religious leader who invited Jesus probably was waiting for something scandalous to happen and he wasn’t disappointed when this woman showed up to tend to Jesus. We know this to be the case because Luke tells us that the Pharisee used the sinfulness and aforementioned biblical verses to condemn the woman as a sinner and Jesus as a false prophet because He let her wash His feet with her tears.
This religious person didn’t say any of this out loud and before he could, Jesus confronted him, telling him that He had something to tell him. The Pharisee told Jesus to say what He had to say, and it went like this:
“A man loaned money to two people and neither of them could pay him back. One of the people owed ten times the amount of the other and both of the debt amounts were forgiven equally. Who do you think love the man more after this?”
The Pharisee answered, “The one with the larger debt.”
Jesus responded by saying, “Dude, look at this woman kneeling here. When I got here tonight, you ignored me and didn’t offer me water to wash the road dust off of my feet, but she did it with her tears. You didn’t offer me oil for my head and she used an expensive perfume to anoint me. She has many sins and they are forgiven as I speak and because she acknowledges that she is so sinful and she is grateful for the salvation, unlike others who don’t think they are as bad as her”
I guess everyone else at the party started looking at their feet and mumbling while wondering out loud “who the heck does that guy think he is?” And in response to their remarks and comments, Jesus told the woman that she could go in peace and that her faith had saved her. I find a awful lot of the Pharisee in me and my life. I am quick to judge and “know” when someone is a bigger sinner than me. Reading this account helps to smooth the edges of my judgement of others and hopefully I will have a handle on it by the time that I am called home.
Like that woman in this account, our faith is our salvation and Jesus still tells us to “go in peace”. It is up to us to accept it.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
One of my favorite history web sites is Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that is edited by it’s users (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). You can get quick and complete information on just about any topic and you will find it very informative and I have used some of that information in this chapter.
In regards to the seventh chapter of the book of Luke, we get an opportunity to compare historical facts to the actions of Jesus Christ thereby adding cultural, historic color and depth to the image of the living God.
Back in chapter three, when Jesus was teaching in the temple in Capernaum, it turns out that very temple was built by a Roman officer who was probably a Centurion. As a result of his generosity, the religious leaders came to Jesus on the officer’s behalf asking (begging) that Jesus heal the man’s valued servant who was very sick.
During this time period, the Roman army was still growing and had another 300 years before Rome started to decline. This means that this man had some power behind him. He was the representative of Rome’s military in the Capernaum region and it appeared that he was benevolent in his rule and appreciated by his subjects. He probably walked around with silvered armor dress on his uniform displaying a crest on his helmet, his sword on his left side and dressed in chain mail armor and wore decorations and awards prominently on his torso when he went into battle to show his bravery to friend and foe alike. He likely took direct responsibility for the training of his legionaries and while that training could be brutal, in battle it paid off when strict order and discipline could decide the outcome. He would have led his men into battle, fighting along side them giving practical example and encouragement. We know that this man was a man of some influence because in order to qualify for his position he would have to be recommended by influential people like senators or officers of the court of the emperor. We also know that he was at least thirty years old, the minimum age requirement for his position and if he joined the army at the age of sixteen, he would have spent at least half of his life preparing for that position of leadership and would have a great deal of practical military experience. It can also be assumed that he could read and write because he was required to read orders from his superiors and respond back in writing. It is very possible that he was married and may have had a family living with him as he was garrisoned at Capernaum. Lastly, he was probably a physically imposing man because part of the requirements of being a Centurion was to throw his missile weapons effectively and to exhibit dexterity and proficiency with his sword and shield
So, now we have a detailed picture of this military and social leader, calling upon the Jewish hierarchy to use their influence with Jesus, to heal his valued servant. This would indicate to me, several things. First of all, as a secular leader, this Roman officer was well aware of the healing reputation of Jesus and believed that everything he heard was true. Second, he did not see Jesus as a threat to the Roman Empire or to the secular social order of Capernaum, the area of government that he was responsible for. Thirdly, he did not know that the religious establishment was at odds with Jesus because if he did, he would have sent some one else to intercede on his behalf. Lastly, this man had a lot of juice because the enemies of Jesus put their differences aside and petitioned Jesus on this man’s behalf and seemed to have done it without a second thought.
Luke tells us that Jesus heard their request and went with them to see the servant. Before they arrived, the Roman leader sent representatives to tell Jesus that he wasn’t worthy to have Jesus come to his house or to meet Him on the road and if He would just say the healing words where He was, that would be sufficient. His reasoning was that since he was under the authority of superior officers, he transferred that authority to those under him and they basically did exactly as they were told. He understood that Jesus had the healing power given to Him by the Father and all he had to do was say the word and the illness must oblige that word. The irony that this secular leader understood this fact and the religious leaders didn’t should not be lost on any believer.
Upon hearing what the officer said, Jesus praised him for his faith and the servant was healed.
Luke then tells us that Jesus and His disciples were walking to the city of Nain, meaning “beauty” in the Hebrew language, and at the city gates they met a funeral procession coming out as they approached the gates of the city. The funeral was for a boy who was the only son of a widow and many of the village residents walked with her in sadness. When Jesus saw her grief He was overcome with compassion and He walked over to the coffin and touched it and told the boy to “get up” which he did and to the amazement of those present, he did and went home with his mother.
Now, the city of Nain still exists today and is located on the northern slope of the Hill of Moreh, facing the northern arm of the Plain of Jezreel. Nain was plainly visible from Nazareth as it is located nine miles below to the southeast. The Hill of Moreh is important because it is the place that Elisha raised the son of the widow from the dead in 2nd Kings, Chapter 4, Verse 8 through 37. Now, the coincidental facts of the instance involving Elisha before and the instance involving Jesus now, was not lost on those present because the bible says that great fear swept the crowd and they had the good sense to praise God immediately. The account of this miracle act of compassion for one widow, spread throughout Judea and beyond, helping to cement the inevitable fulfillment of prophecy relating to Jesus.
One of my favorite history web sites is Wikipedia, an encyclopedia that is edited by it’s users (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). You can get quick and complete information on just about any topic and you will find it very informative and I have used some of that information in this chapter.
In regards to the seventh chapter of the book of Luke, we get an opportunity to compare historical facts to the actions of Jesus Christ thereby adding cultural, historic color and depth to the image of the living God.
Back in chapter three, when Jesus was teaching in the temple in Capernaum, it turns out that very temple was built by a Roman officer who was probably a Centurion. As a result of his generosity, the religious leaders came to Jesus on the officer’s behalf asking (begging) that Jesus heal the man’s valued servant who was very sick.
During this time period, the Roman army was still growing and had another 300 years before Rome started to decline. This means that this man had some power behind him. He was the representative of Rome’s military in the Capernaum region and it appeared that he was benevolent in his rule and appreciated by his subjects. He probably walked around with silvered armor dress on his uniform displaying a crest on his helmet, his sword on his left side and dressed in chain mail armor and wore decorations and awards prominently on his torso when he went into battle to show his bravery to friend and foe alike. He likely took direct responsibility for the training of his legionaries and while that training could be brutal, in battle it paid off when strict order and discipline could decide the outcome. He would have led his men into battle, fighting along side them giving practical example and encouragement. We know that this man was a man of some influence because in order to qualify for his position he would have to be recommended by influential people like senators or officers of the court of the emperor. We also know that he was at least thirty years old, the minimum age requirement for his position and if he joined the army at the age of sixteen, he would have spent at least half of his life preparing for that position of leadership and would have a great deal of practical military experience. It can also be assumed that he could read and write because he was required to read orders from his superiors and respond back in writing. It is very possible that he was married and may have had a family living with him as he was garrisoned at Capernaum. Lastly, he was probably a physically imposing man because part of the requirements of being a Centurion was to throw his missile weapons effectively and to exhibit dexterity and proficiency with his sword and shield
So, now we have a detailed picture of this military and social leader, calling upon the Jewish hierarchy to use their influence with Jesus, to heal his valued servant. This would indicate to me, several things. First of all, as a secular leader, this Roman officer was well aware of the healing reputation of Jesus and believed that everything he heard was true. Second, he did not see Jesus as a threat to the Roman Empire or to the secular social order of Capernaum, the area of government that he was responsible for. Thirdly, he did not know that the religious establishment was at odds with Jesus because if he did, he would have sent some one else to intercede on his behalf. Lastly, this man had a lot of juice because the enemies of Jesus put their differences aside and petitioned Jesus on this man’s behalf and seemed to have done it without a second thought.
Luke tells us that Jesus heard their request and went with them to see the servant. Before they arrived, the Roman leader sent representatives to tell Jesus that he wasn’t worthy to have Jesus come to his house or to meet Him on the road and if He would just say the healing words where He was, that would be sufficient. His reasoning was that since he was under the authority of superior officers, he transferred that authority to those under him and they basically did exactly as they were told. He understood that Jesus had the healing power given to Him by the Father and all he had to do was say the word and the illness must oblige that word. The irony that this secular leader understood this fact and the religious leaders didn’t should not be lost on any believer.
Upon hearing what the officer said, Jesus praised him for his faith and the servant was healed.
Luke then tells us that Jesus and His disciples were walking to the city of Nain, meaning “beauty” in the Hebrew language, and at the city gates they met a funeral procession coming out as they approached the gates of the city. The funeral was for a boy who was the only son of a widow and many of the village residents walked with her in sadness. When Jesus saw her grief He was overcome with compassion and He walked over to the coffin and touched it and told the boy to “get up” which he did and to the amazement of those present, he did and went home with his mother.
Now, the city of Nain still exists today and is located on the northern slope of the Hill of Moreh, facing the northern arm of the Plain of Jezreel. Nain was plainly visible from Nazareth as it is located nine miles below to the southeast. The Hill of Moreh is important because it is the place that Elisha raised the son of the widow from the dead in 2nd Kings, Chapter 4, Verse 8 through 37. Now, the coincidental facts of the instance involving Elisha before and the instance involving Jesus now, was not lost on those present because the bible says that great fear swept the crowd and they had the good sense to praise God immediately. The account of this miracle act of compassion for one widow, spread throughout Judea and beyond, helping to cement the inevitable fulfillment of prophecy relating to Jesus.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Finishing up chapter six
Chapter six continued ....
In verse 27 of this sixth chapter, Luke chronicles one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity, loving our enemies. Of all of the things that Christ calls us to do, loving our enemies defies our basic human logic. We feel so good when we are righteously pissed off and when we can see a mental picture of the face of our enemy... man, we are on a roll. Jesus tells us to do good for those who hate us, pray for the happiness of those who curse you and hurt you. Turn the other cheek if slapped, if they demand our coat we should offer our shirt also. We are to avoid getting back the things that someone steals from us and we are to treat others as we wish to be treated. Regarding the last one, how many sanctimonious, insincere, manure spreading and disingenuous people have quoted that one to you?
One of the greatest living examples that I could find regarding this section of Luke, was a fellow by the name of George Washington Carver. Although he is famous for discovering a ton of uses for the goober or peanut, Mr. Carver is a living example of how we should live a Christian life.
George Washington Carver was born in 1864 near Diamond Grove, Missouri, on the farm of Moses Carver. When he was a baby, he and his mother were abducted by Confederate night raiders and were believed to have been sent away to Arkansas. Moses Carver, who was the owner of the plantation where George and his family were enslaved, reclaimed George after the Civil War but his mother had disappeared forever. His father was never identified, so Moses and Susan Carver raised George and his brother as their own children. With a natural sense of discovery, George spent a great deal of his childhood keenly interested in plants and rocks. George made every effort to receive a formal education. He worked as a farm hand in the southwest part of Missouri and attended a one -room schoolhouse. Later, he was accepted as the first black student at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where he studied piano and art. He transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in 1891, received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science degree in 1897. He became the first Black faculty member at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanics and taught about soil conservation and related agricultural subjects. In 1897, the founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, Booker T. Washington, invited him to join the faculty as the school’s Director of Agriculture, where he remained until his death in 1943.
George was prolific in regard to the discoveries he made throughout his career. Many of these discoveries are used everyday and include mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder, wood stain, adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee and linoleum. The biggest impact he made on the world was the "crop rotation" method of farming. The economy of the South was directly related to the farming of soil depleting crops like cotton. He proposed the alternate planting of soil enriching crops like peanuts, peas, soybeans, sweet potatoes and pecans. His discoveries and theories were directly related to the recovery of Southern agriculture after the Civil War.
Everything that George Washington Carver accomplished was driven by his love for God and his fellow man. He did not patent or profit from most of his inventions and he freely gave his discoveries to mankind. He would say about his ideas and inventions, "God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?" On his grave is the epitaph:
He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world
The great irony of George Washington Carvers life is that he was born during a period of repression and the very people who repressed him benefitted greatly from his ideas and inventions. Imagine the reaction of the first cotton farmer, involved in a business, decimated by soil depleting farming methods and a war and the general chaos of the times. Along comes George Washington Carver with his theories of crop rotation that could save the farming industry across the entire South. Can you imagine that farmer looking at that black man and wondering, What good could come from him and his ideas? Why should I take the advice of a slave who wants to help me and wants nothing in return? As it turns out, it’s a good thing that the agricultural community listened to the advice because their future depended on it.
If you allowed Hollywood to rewrite this great man’s life, He would have gotten revenge over his enemies by selling his inventions, turned his back on the farmer saying good riddance and laughed all the way to the bank. That’s probably how most of us would do it, but this man followed the word of God completely.
Continuing on in this chapter of Luke, it doesn’t get any easier to follow God’s word. Not only has He told us that we have to be generous, humble, tolerant and loving towards mankind and especially so to those that speak badly of us and who are mean to us, now He tells us that we must stop doing the thing we love the most, judging others.
It is said that we make a decision about others within seconds after we meet them. We all think that when it comes to judging others, we have the best instincts. Judging others, even if we keep the judgement to ourselves, is one of life’s greatest pastimes and when it is done in an unjust manner to us, it is a travesty while we reserve our right to judge as a necessary function of life and in our heart of hearts, only we know just how proficient we are at doing it.
I found a nice website that has a variety of quotes under a wide variety of spiritual and uplifting topics at http://www.hobogirl.com/quotes/index.htm . Here are two of them under the topic of judging others.
"If you judge people you have no time to love them."
-- Mother Teresa
"Sweep first before your own door
before you sweep the doorsteps of your neighbors."
-- Swedish Proverb
I like both of them because they illuminate what Jesus is telling us regarding judgement. In regards to Mother Teresa she seems to be a good example of the judgement of others as it seems that those that love her, judge her to be a saint and those that don’t, judge her to be a heretic or worse. God’s word says that He will judge Mother Teresa and us individually and wether we use good judgement or bad judgement, we can expect it to be the standard when applied, in judgement, back to us.
Jesus goes on to point out that when we notice a splinter in the eye of another, we should be willing to see the two by four that is present in our own eye. That’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
Winding up in chapter six, Jesus makes two more valuable points. The first being, that if we live our lives outside of God we cannot expect Godly and good results to come of it. We can’t say that we follow God and not have God evident in our lives. In our very own country we are seeing this on a broad scale. We claim to be a Christian country but we are suffering through the aftermath of the breakdown of the founding Godly values that have been replaced by the tenants of humanism, secularism and the worship of the natural creation, not the creator. As a result these decisions have given us the appearance of that leafy and green tree that is producing bad fruit.
Secondly, He points out that we are calling Him Lord but we won’t obey Him. We, as Christians, want to do things our way and not His. Jesus talks of the importance of building on a strong foundation and how the structure is only as good as it’s foundation. If you think about it, all of your friends and relatives will want to be there to help you pick out the appliances, wallpaper and entertainment equipment but it is unlikely that they will be equally enthused to come out with you to check the depth and width of the trench where the foundation will be poured. No one, even you, will likely care about the type of concrete or the size of the gravel in the pour or the size of the reinforcements used in that same foundation. That foundation, as important as it is, will never be thought of again unless the house start shifting to the left or right. That foundation will be covered up by the structure on top of it and any cracks in it will not be evident until it is too late.
In verse 27 of this sixth chapter, Luke chronicles one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity, loving our enemies. Of all of the things that Christ calls us to do, loving our enemies defies our basic human logic. We feel so good when we are righteously pissed off and when we can see a mental picture of the face of our enemy... man, we are on a roll. Jesus tells us to do good for those who hate us, pray for the happiness of those who curse you and hurt you. Turn the other cheek if slapped, if they demand our coat we should offer our shirt also. We are to avoid getting back the things that someone steals from us and we are to treat others as we wish to be treated. Regarding the last one, how many sanctimonious, insincere, manure spreading and disingenuous people have quoted that one to you?
One of the greatest living examples that I could find regarding this section of Luke, was a fellow by the name of George Washington Carver. Although he is famous for discovering a ton of uses for the goober or peanut, Mr. Carver is a living example of how we should live a Christian life.
George Washington Carver was born in 1864 near Diamond Grove, Missouri, on the farm of Moses Carver. When he was a baby, he and his mother were abducted by Confederate night raiders and were believed to have been sent away to Arkansas. Moses Carver, who was the owner of the plantation where George and his family were enslaved, reclaimed George after the Civil War but his mother had disappeared forever. His father was never identified, so Moses and Susan Carver raised George and his brother as their own children. With a natural sense of discovery, George spent a great deal of his childhood keenly interested in plants and rocks. George made every effort to receive a formal education. He worked as a farm hand in the southwest part of Missouri and attended a one -room schoolhouse. Later, he was accepted as the first black student at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where he studied piano and art. He transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in 1891, received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science degree in 1897. He became the first Black faculty member at Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanics and taught about soil conservation and related agricultural subjects. In 1897, the founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, Booker T. Washington, invited him to join the faculty as the school’s Director of Agriculture, where he remained until his death in 1943.
George was prolific in regard to the discoveries he made throughout his career. Many of these discoveries are used everyday and include mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder, wood stain, adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee and linoleum. The biggest impact he made on the world was the "crop rotation" method of farming. The economy of the South was directly related to the farming of soil depleting crops like cotton. He proposed the alternate planting of soil enriching crops like peanuts, peas, soybeans, sweet potatoes and pecans. His discoveries and theories were directly related to the recovery of Southern agriculture after the Civil War.
Everything that George Washington Carver accomplished was driven by his love for God and his fellow man. He did not patent or profit from most of his inventions and he freely gave his discoveries to mankind. He would say about his ideas and inventions, "God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?" On his grave is the epitaph:
He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world
The great irony of George Washington Carvers life is that he was born during a period of repression and the very people who repressed him benefitted greatly from his ideas and inventions. Imagine the reaction of the first cotton farmer, involved in a business, decimated by soil depleting farming methods and a war and the general chaos of the times. Along comes George Washington Carver with his theories of crop rotation that could save the farming industry across the entire South. Can you imagine that farmer looking at that black man and wondering, What good could come from him and his ideas? Why should I take the advice of a slave who wants to help me and wants nothing in return? As it turns out, it’s a good thing that the agricultural community listened to the advice because their future depended on it.
If you allowed Hollywood to rewrite this great man’s life, He would have gotten revenge over his enemies by selling his inventions, turned his back on the farmer saying good riddance and laughed all the way to the bank. That’s probably how most of us would do it, but this man followed the word of God completely.
Continuing on in this chapter of Luke, it doesn’t get any easier to follow God’s word. Not only has He told us that we have to be generous, humble, tolerant and loving towards mankind and especially so to those that speak badly of us and who are mean to us, now He tells us that we must stop doing the thing we love the most, judging others.
It is said that we make a decision about others within seconds after we meet them. We all think that when it comes to judging others, we have the best instincts. Judging others, even if we keep the judgement to ourselves, is one of life’s greatest pastimes and when it is done in an unjust manner to us, it is a travesty while we reserve our right to judge as a necessary function of life and in our heart of hearts, only we know just how proficient we are at doing it.
I found a nice website that has a variety of quotes under a wide variety of spiritual and uplifting topics at http://www.hobogirl.com/quotes/index.htm . Here are two of them under the topic of judging others.
"If you judge people you have no time to love them."
-- Mother Teresa
"Sweep first before your own door
before you sweep the doorsteps of your neighbors."
-- Swedish Proverb
I like both of them because they illuminate what Jesus is telling us regarding judgement. In regards to Mother Teresa she seems to be a good example of the judgement of others as it seems that those that love her, judge her to be a saint and those that don’t, judge her to be a heretic or worse. God’s word says that He will judge Mother Teresa and us individually and wether we use good judgement or bad judgement, we can expect it to be the standard when applied, in judgement, back to us.
Jesus goes on to point out that when we notice a splinter in the eye of another, we should be willing to see the two by four that is present in our own eye. That’s funny, I don’t care who you are.
Winding up in chapter six, Jesus makes two more valuable points. The first being, that if we live our lives outside of God we cannot expect Godly and good results to come of it. We can’t say that we follow God and not have God evident in our lives. In our very own country we are seeing this on a broad scale. We claim to be a Christian country but we are suffering through the aftermath of the breakdown of the founding Godly values that have been replaced by the tenants of humanism, secularism and the worship of the natural creation, not the creator. As a result these decisions have given us the appearance of that leafy and green tree that is producing bad fruit.
Secondly, He points out that we are calling Him Lord but we won’t obey Him. We, as Christians, want to do things our way and not His. Jesus talks of the importance of building on a strong foundation and how the structure is only as good as it’s foundation. If you think about it, all of your friends and relatives will want to be there to help you pick out the appliances, wallpaper and entertainment equipment but it is unlikely that they will be equally enthused to come out with you to check the depth and width of the trench where the foundation will be poured. No one, even you, will likely care about the type of concrete or the size of the gravel in the pour or the size of the reinforcements used in that same foundation. That foundation, as important as it is, will never be thought of again unless the house start shifting to the left or right. That foundation will be covered up by the structure on top of it and any cracks in it will not be evident until it is too late.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Chapter Six Continued....
The Beatitudes, as outlined by Luke in the sixth chapter were designed to get the attention of the listener and their message may have been diluted as a result of familiarity. The Irish author James Joyce , the English poet William Blake, and Theodore Dreiser who was a famous American writer all condemned the beatitudes for (what they thought) advocating a life without striving.
How interesting that these very creative and smart men who could write the right words that described the various elements of the human condition but failed to see the hope that God promises in the beatitudes. These wonderful words that tell us that if we are currently poor in either our spirit or pocketbook, not to worry because we will be enriched in both by living our life focused on God, not ourselves. If we hunger for earthly or spiritual food, we will be filled. If we are sad for whatever reason, we will laugh with joy some day. And lastly, if we follow Jesus Christ, we may be treated badly on this earth for our beliefs but in our exclusion we will be blessed.
Now, you may think to your self, I haven’t had anybody treat me badly because I am a Christian. You may not experience it now but the media is priming the masses for the day when you and I will face persecution. Watch television, a recent show called “Cold Case” and the episode title is “That Woman”, an hour of dribble solving a murder of a promiscuous teenager who as it turned out, wasn’t killed by any of the scum bags that were using her for sex. No, the writers managed to have the story line go in the direction of this girl attending a Christian club at her school that promoted sexual abstinence and not only had the youth pastor as the killer but included all the members of the club in a good, old fashioned, old testament prostitute stoning out in the woods. A viewer of this episode wrote the following review of this episode on a website called TV.com:
“I saw an episode of Cold Case the other night. The episode was called “that Woman.” Another cheap shot at Christians particularly those who pledge chastity until marriage. Nasty Christian chastity club members turn on 'worldly' girl and ritualistically murder her. Oh, and the Youth Pastor was a closet pervert too.”
“It went out of its way to smear Christians, virginity pledges, Christian clubs, and youth pastors. The Christians were either psycho, mentally damaged, repressed, perverted, or gay They were all hypocrites of course." - You forgot to mention the mocking and sneering of some of the cast members when talking about 'do-gooders' etc. These episodes don't appear by accident - it's obvious the scriptwriters and Producers are deliberately embodying their own leftist world view into many episodes - some might call it propaganda.”
By the way, the overall ranking for the episode as it was reviewed by other viewers was almost 90% positive and had glowing positive comments as a great storyline.
I, for one, will call it propaganda. Boy, I would have loved to have a transcript of that writers meeting and how they managed to include all of these anti-Christian beliefs in one crushing blow. One reason why the world has no problem offending Christians is because they have nothing to fear from the standpoint of retaliation. Jesus tells us to love our enemy, turn our cheek and if our enemies mock us we are to endure like Christ’s words in the Beatitudes.
I will say this, if those characters on that television show were Muslims and they acted that way, the protests would be seen on the news for weeks and the writers, actors and television executives would be in hiding.
The next life lesson outline written in the book of Luke is called “Sorrows Foretold”. It basically goes like this:
What sorrows await you if money is what you live for.
What sorrows await you if you only live for the comforts of this earthly world.
What sorrows await you if you are not serious about why you were given life to live by God, laughing carelessly now and grieving later on.
What sorrows await you, if you live for fame alone, man has a long history of doing that and it hasn’t worked out all that well.
Many believers feel guilty about living in such a great country and having everything that we need. Even the poorest person in the United States has much more than the poor in other parts of the world. Critics tell us that the United States is the example of this verse and it describes Americans, both Christian and secular alike. On the surface they may be right because we are certainly appear to be a society fixated on money, instant gratification while chasing, at least vicariously, the illusions of fame and stardom. Even though we buy and watch everything that reports on the misfortunes of the latest young celebrity, none of us would seriously want to trade places with them in their most miserable moments.
One of the great things about living in this great and rich country is that we have plenty to share with others. Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks's book, "Who Really Cares", points out that Americans give more than the citizens of any other country. Individually, Americans give seven times more money than people in Germany and 14 times more than Italians give. We also volunteer more. America is a uniquely charitable country. So when you hear that "Americans are cheap," just remember: We gave $260 billion in charity last year. That's almost $900 for every man, woman, and child.
Are Americans Cheap?
by John Stossel (November 29, 2006)
The New York Times and Washington Post editorialize about America's "stinginess." Former President Jimmy Carter says when it comes to helping others, "The rich states don't give a damn." Jimmy Carter just chaps my hide sometimes because he makes statements like this. The facts never seem to get in the way of his class envy approach to criticizing his fellow countrymen and everything he says seems to be designed to help his political position.
Standing outside the White House, Bono (of U2) told the press that America doesn't do enough to help the needy: "It's the crumbs off our tables that we offer these countries." I love the music but must shake my head when I hear stuff like this. Those “crumbs” fill the belly’s of many people who would otherwise starve.
One question that we should ask these critics is why they don’t pick on Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, France, England etc... The answer is that no one would listen to them or respond.
Sme final facts about American generosity. According to the 2001 Generosity Index: Comparing Canadian and American Charitable Giving Jason Clemens and Joel Emes with Karina Wood. Fraser Forum, December 2001. The Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, has compared Canadian and American charitable giving and determined that Americans are more philanthropically inclined. The institute first compared the percentage of tax-filers who donated to charity and found that 25.5 percent of Canadian tax-filers donated to charities, versus 27.9 percent of U.S. filers. A much larger difference appears, however, between the average total donations given by natives of the two countries. The average total giving of Americans was $3,441, compared to the Canadians’ average of $616 (in U.S. dollars). Canadians fared worst of all in the institute’s third measure of comparison, the percentage of income donated to charity.
I am not knocking Canadian charitable giving, just making a point that despite what our critics say about us, and believing that we can do better as a people, we are not all that bad when it comes to sharing the wealth that our country affords us.
Back to the “Sorrows Foretold”, God loves a “cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7) and as Christians, the first place that we are told to give is at the church that we attend and are fed the word of God (Malachi 3:6 through 12). Tithing is not an option and whatever the pastor, church or organization does with your money is between them and God. I remember thinking that there was no way that I was going to give 10% of what I made to some preacher until I realized that I can’t “cherry pick” the word of God. It is all or nothing.
When we give our tithes and offerings, God promises to “open the windows of heaven and you won’t have enough room to store your blessings”. It is also important that we don’t make a big show of giving. When you see people doing things for charity and they bring much attention to it, they need to enjoy the moment of fame and celebrity because God says, that’s all you will receive.
How interesting that these very creative and smart men who could write the right words that described the various elements of the human condition but failed to see the hope that God promises in the beatitudes. These wonderful words that tell us that if we are currently poor in either our spirit or pocketbook, not to worry because we will be enriched in both by living our life focused on God, not ourselves. If we hunger for earthly or spiritual food, we will be filled. If we are sad for whatever reason, we will laugh with joy some day. And lastly, if we follow Jesus Christ, we may be treated badly on this earth for our beliefs but in our exclusion we will be blessed.
Now, you may think to your self, I haven’t had anybody treat me badly because I am a Christian. You may not experience it now but the media is priming the masses for the day when you and I will face persecution. Watch television, a recent show called “Cold Case” and the episode title is “That Woman”, an hour of dribble solving a murder of a promiscuous teenager who as it turned out, wasn’t killed by any of the scum bags that were using her for sex. No, the writers managed to have the story line go in the direction of this girl attending a Christian club at her school that promoted sexual abstinence and not only had the youth pastor as the killer but included all the members of the club in a good, old fashioned, old testament prostitute stoning out in the woods. A viewer of this episode wrote the following review of this episode on a website called TV.com:
“I saw an episode of Cold Case the other night. The episode was called “that Woman.” Another cheap shot at Christians particularly those who pledge chastity until marriage. Nasty Christian chastity club members turn on 'worldly' girl and ritualistically murder her. Oh, and the Youth Pastor was a closet pervert too.”
“It went out of its way to smear Christians, virginity pledges, Christian clubs, and youth pastors. The Christians were either psycho, mentally damaged, repressed, perverted, or gay They were all hypocrites of course." - You forgot to mention the mocking and sneering of some of the cast members when talking about 'do-gooders' etc. These episodes don't appear by accident - it's obvious the scriptwriters and Producers are deliberately embodying their own leftist world view into many episodes - some might call it propaganda.”
By the way, the overall ranking for the episode as it was reviewed by other viewers was almost 90% positive and had glowing positive comments as a great storyline.
I, for one, will call it propaganda. Boy, I would have loved to have a transcript of that writers meeting and how they managed to include all of these anti-Christian beliefs in one crushing blow. One reason why the world has no problem offending Christians is because they have nothing to fear from the standpoint of retaliation. Jesus tells us to love our enemy, turn our cheek and if our enemies mock us we are to endure like Christ’s words in the Beatitudes.
I will say this, if those characters on that television show were Muslims and they acted that way, the protests would be seen on the news for weeks and the writers, actors and television executives would be in hiding.
The next life lesson outline written in the book of Luke is called “Sorrows Foretold”. It basically goes like this:
What sorrows await you if money is what you live for.
What sorrows await you if you only live for the comforts of this earthly world.
What sorrows await you if you are not serious about why you were given life to live by God, laughing carelessly now and grieving later on.
What sorrows await you, if you live for fame alone, man has a long history of doing that and it hasn’t worked out all that well.
Many believers feel guilty about living in such a great country and having everything that we need. Even the poorest person in the United States has much more than the poor in other parts of the world. Critics tell us that the United States is the example of this verse and it describes Americans, both Christian and secular alike. On the surface they may be right because we are certainly appear to be a society fixated on money, instant gratification while chasing, at least vicariously, the illusions of fame and stardom. Even though we buy and watch everything that reports on the misfortunes of the latest young celebrity, none of us would seriously want to trade places with them in their most miserable moments.
One of the great things about living in this great and rich country is that we have plenty to share with others. Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks's book, "Who Really Cares", points out that Americans give more than the citizens of any other country. Individually, Americans give seven times more money than people in Germany and 14 times more than Italians give. We also volunteer more. America is a uniquely charitable country. So when you hear that "Americans are cheap," just remember: We gave $260 billion in charity last year. That's almost $900 for every man, woman, and child.
Are Americans Cheap?
by John Stossel (November 29, 2006)
The New York Times and Washington Post editorialize about America's "stinginess." Former President Jimmy Carter says when it comes to helping others, "The rich states don't give a damn." Jimmy Carter just chaps my hide sometimes because he makes statements like this. The facts never seem to get in the way of his class envy approach to criticizing his fellow countrymen and everything he says seems to be designed to help his political position.
Standing outside the White House, Bono (of U2) told the press that America doesn't do enough to help the needy: "It's the crumbs off our tables that we offer these countries." I love the music but must shake my head when I hear stuff like this. Those “crumbs” fill the belly’s of many people who would otherwise starve.
One question that we should ask these critics is why they don’t pick on Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, France, England etc... The answer is that no one would listen to them or respond.
Sme final facts about American generosity. According to the 2001 Generosity Index: Comparing Canadian and American Charitable Giving Jason Clemens and Joel Emes with Karina Wood. Fraser Forum, December 2001. The Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, has compared Canadian and American charitable giving and determined that Americans are more philanthropically inclined. The institute first compared the percentage of tax-filers who donated to charity and found that 25.5 percent of Canadian tax-filers donated to charities, versus 27.9 percent of U.S. filers. A much larger difference appears, however, between the average total donations given by natives of the two countries. The average total giving of Americans was $3,441, compared to the Canadians’ average of $616 (in U.S. dollars). Canadians fared worst of all in the institute’s third measure of comparison, the percentage of income donated to charity.
I am not knocking Canadian charitable giving, just making a point that despite what our critics say about us, and believing that we can do better as a people, we are not all that bad when it comes to sharing the wealth that our country affords us.
Back to the “Sorrows Foretold”, God loves a “cheerful giver” (2 Cor 9:7) and as Christians, the first place that we are told to give is at the church that we attend and are fed the word of God (Malachi 3:6 through 12). Tithing is not an option and whatever the pastor, church or organization does with your money is between them and God. I remember thinking that there was no way that I was going to give 10% of what I made to some preacher until I realized that I can’t “cherry pick” the word of God. It is all or nothing.
When we give our tithes and offerings, God promises to “open the windows of heaven and you won’t have enough room to store your blessings”. It is also important that we don’t make a big show of giving. When you see people doing things for charity and they bring much attention to it, they need to enjoy the moment of fame and celebrity because God says, that’s all you will receive.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Chapter continued
In the next words of the book of Luke, we find that the crowds followed Jesus everywhere and describing how the disciples stood with Him on large level area with the crowds of people surrounding them. The bible says that the people came from quite a distance including Jerusalem and from the northern cities of Tyre and Sidon. Luke tells us that everyone was trying to touch Him so as to be healed and that Jesus cast out many demons. The graphic description that Luke uses is that he could watch the healing power come of Jesus when He healed. This continues to affirm the humanity of Jesus and how God filled His Son like a vessel so as to dispense healing to those who needed it. We (I) need to remember this example because God will use us in the same manner today.
The people who physically followed Jesus during this period did so for, I am sure, a variety of reasons. I am positive that there were people who understood that He was the Messiah but it is unlikely that they all held this view. It is evident in Luke 9:18 and 19 that the people thought that Jesus might be John the Baptist, Elijah or some other prophet and despite his future actions belying this belief, Peter answered Jesus saying that He thought that He was the Messiah or the Christ of God.
If we look around today, things haven’t changed that much. Thousands of years later we have a society still trying to identify who Jesus was and is. In 1966, John Lennon made a flippant comment that he and his fellow Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” setting off a hailstorm of protest against the Beatles and their music. Lennon went on to say that he felt that Christianity was a dying religion and that Jesus was all right but the apostles were rather “thick”.
In an article on the web entitled “Everybody Loves Jesus : The Culture Cherishes a Counterfeit Christ” by Rev. Todd A. Wilkin, host of a nationally syndicated radio program,
Rev. Wilkin has written a very insightful article that is worthy of being reprinted here.
When anchorman Peter Jennings aired his 1999 television documentary "The Search for Jesus," many Christians were alarmed. The program was promoted as "a journalist's exploration of the historical figure of Jesus." It turned out to be Jennings and a group of liberal Bible scholars deconstructing the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.
Jennings followed in 2004 with "Jesus and Paul: Word and Witness." While this program was more balanced, it still failed to take seriously the historical accounts of Jesus and of the early Church. This time Christian viewers were less surprised. Some were almost convinced. After all, it all sounded so reasonable. Maybe that Jennings fellow was on to something.
Why does Jesus make the cover of Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and even Popular Mechanics? Why is He the subject of best-selling fiction and blockbuster movies? Why is Jesus cited in support of presidential candidates, P.E.T.A., diet books, hybrid cars, and Alabama state tax reform? Everybody claims to know who Jesus was and what He would do. Everybody loves Jesus.
During His ministry, Jesus suffered from what marketers would call "poor consumer awareness." Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say I am?" The survey results at the time were confused: "John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet."
Today, Jesus enjoys almost universal name recognition. The American public seems to have a pretty good idea of who Jesus was. Seventy-five percent of Americans believe that Jesus was a real person; 77% believe that He was born of a virgin; 69% believe that Jesus was the Son of God; 67% believe that He was divine; only 44% of Americans believe that Jesus was merely human and committed sins; and 80% believe that He rose from the dead. Of those who expect His return, 45% believe that it will happen in their lifetime. Jesus is even the public figure most Americans name as their personal hero.
Does this mean that our culture has an accurate picture of Jesus? In 1999, George W. Bush was asked to name the political philosopher that had most influenced him. He answered, "Christ, because He changed my heart." For days afterward the media debated the meaning of this response. Did Bush consider Jesus a political philosopher? With Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Burke, and Paine to choose from, why name Jesus?
The media's reaction was odd. After all, Bush's answer simply reflected the conventional wisdom of the culture. In popular opinion, Jesus is a political philosopher. Jesus is also an animal rights activist, a flag-waving patriot, an environmental crusader, a champion of free trade, a feminist goddess worshiper, an enemy of gun control, and an advocate for gay marriage. Conservatives and liberals, the religious and irreligious, the moral and immoral all claim Jesus. I recently saw a T-shirt reading, "Jesus Is My Homeboy."
Everybody has a place for Jesus. Secularists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, Hindus, Universalists, Wiccans, Baha'i, Sikhs, Taoists, and New-Agers all have some place for Jesus in their ideologies. He was a good man, a prophet, a teacher, a deva, an avatar, a consciousness, an enlightened being, or a divine spirit.
Everybody loves Jesus, but why?
In America's consumer culture everything must be simple. Everything must be accessible to the broadest possible audience. Information, art, morals, and politics must be delivered to consumers in their lowest common denominator.
Religion is no exception. Americans love the idea of religion but are leery of any particular religion. This is especially true of Christianity. Christianity is too particular, too specific. Consumers want vague spirituality.
In American spirituality, "god" is generic, man is basically good, and your problem isn't your sin but your unrealized goodness. In American spirituality, "salvation" doesn't require a savior, just a little self-help.
The Jesus of Christianity won't do either. The Jesus whom Scripture reveals isn't user-friendly. He is too harsh with sinners and too determined to die for them. He can't stop talking about His Cross and why He must endure it. He is too human, too divine, too bloody, too dead, and too alive. So, the culture invents its own "Jesus."
In American spirituality, Jesus is shaped by the felt needs of the culture. At one moment he is telling us to go vegan, at the next he is manning the grill at the 4th of July church picnic. He is cited by Democrats and Republicans, quoted by doves and hawks, and invoked by presidents and anarchists. When one asks, "What would Jesus do?" the Jesus of American spirituality answers, "Whatever you want." No wonder everybody loves this Jesus. What's not to love? This Jesus is everything the Jesus of Scripture isn't.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is obscure. This Jesus, if he lived at all, lived so long ago that no one can know anything about him for certain. But that's good. That way there's no need to delve into the details of his life. Besides, he's more interesting (and useful) as a myth than a man. He is a shadowy figure of the past but not of the present. He is always referred to in the past tense or in the potential optative mood, "What would Jesus do, eat, drive, etc.?"
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is ambiguous. This Jesus spoke in sound bite platitudes and truisms. He didn't have anything to prove; he just wanted to make people think. He was for good and against evil in the most general sense, without defining either one. He held the moral high ground by refusing to choose sides.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is inoffensive. This Jesus was the nicest guy in the world. He never caused trouble; he just loved people. He was universally popular because he never got on anyone's nerves, never overstayed his welcome, and always knew when to shut up.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is affirming. This Jesus accepted everyone as they were. He never told anyone that they were wrong. He didn't judge anyone. He encouraged people to believe in themselves and feel good about themselves. He taught tolerance for everyone and everything.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is pluralistic. This Jesus never claimed to come from God, much less to be God. He never tried to convert anyone. He didn't insist that his way was the only way. He came to show us that you can't put God in a box, and that God is too big for any one religion.
This is why everybody loves Jesus. This is a Jesus shaped by 21st century postmodern sensibilities. This Jesus helps you find your purpose, reach your potential, realize your innate goodness, and achieve self-fulfillment. He was sent by a sugar-daddy god from a country club heaven to help us be all we can be. He said nice things, did nice things, and never hurt a fly. He lived to show us that we are better than we think we are. He died to show us that you can accomplish anything if you just apply yourself. His message fits neatly on a bumper sticker. His spirit is the spirit of the age.
The Jesus of American spirituality might make a good aerobics instructor, but he makes a lousy Savior. In his book, "The Jesus I Never Knew," Philip Yancey remembers the saccharine, obsequious Jesus of Sunday school lessons and asks,
How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo? Thomas Paine said that no religion could be truly divine which has in it any doctrine that offends the sensibilities of a little child. Would the cross qualify?
The problem with the Jesus of American spirituality is he doesn't offend us. The Jesus of American spirituality lacks the offensive message of the Cross. The world needs the Savior, not the Jesus of American Spirituality.
Can we blame the culture for its misperception of Jesus? Should we expect the culture to get Jesus right when the Church doesn't?
Richard Niebuhr wrote that the message of the 20th century Church was that "a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment though the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." Jesus without His Cross may be many things, but He is not the Savior of sinners.
What about the 21st century Church? Some in the Church today seem comfortable with the culture's misperception of Jesus. They say that it is better for a person to believe something about Jesus rather than nothing at all. Thus, the "Jesus" being preached in pulpit after pulpit bears little resemblance to the Christ crucified of the Bible. When the Church preaches Jesus the therapist, Jesus the life-coach, Jesus the lover, and, Jesus the enabler, the Church only reinforces the culture's misperception. This is dangerous. The real Jesus says,
Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you."
Everybody loves Jesus. Many invoke His name. Many want to be associated with Him: "We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets!" But on the last day the real Jesus will respond in effect, "I don't know who that was, but it wasn't Me."
The Church cannot afford to reinforce this case of mistaken identity. In our preaching and public discourse, it is not enough to give Jesus honorable mention and hope for the best. In a world where everybody loves Jesus, the real Jesus must be proclaimed in all of His suffering, crucified, and risen detail. David Adams has written,
At the risk of seeming impious, we must recognize that even the Doobie Brothers can confess that "Jesus is just alright with me." When we use the term God and the name Jesus, we invest those terms with all the proper historic Biblical content. Those around us in our culture do not. We are foolish if we believe that we are giving a Christian witness just because we use the terms god and Jesus in an orthodox way. When speaking in the public square, we must explicitly express the particularity of the Gospel message.
Our culture is infatuated with a counterfeit Christ, and its up to the Church to break the spell. The only way to do this is to preach the real Jesus to every sinner at every opportunity--beginning in our own churches. We must stop preaching Jesus the therapist, Jesus the life-coach, Jesus the lover, and Jesus the enabler, and start preaching Jesus the crucified and risen Savior. We must stop looking for the Jesus in our hearts and find the real Jesus where He has promised to be found: in His Word, in His Baptism, in His Supper.
We must declare the "Jesus" of culture to be false. We must show the culture the real Jesus. We must condemn sin as the real Jesus does. We must comfort sinners as only the real Jesus can. We must be determined to know nothing--nothing--but Christ and Him crucified. We must tell the culture that the real Jesus is found in His Church.
The real Jesus asked, "Who do men say that I am?" The survey results are still coming in, and they are still wrong. The only way to change that is for the Church to answer Jesus' next question correctly, "But who do you say that I am?"
This article outlines the confusion that the modern world has of defining who Jesus is and was and is as straight forward in it’s intent and deserving of reprint.
I have one more issue to bring to you in regards to the subject of, who Jesus is. This past Christmas, the Archbishop of Canterbury referred to portions of the Nativity, Christmas story as legend and probably not true. In this interview, this Christian leader disputed the number of wise men in attendance, the weather and the actual date of Christmas on December 25th. All of these points are debatable and open to conjecture and none have anything to do with core Christian beliefs. Archbishop Williams is quoted as saying the following:
In the interview, Williams didn't dispute the virgin birth of Christ to a woman named Mary and her husband Joseph, though he did say belief in immaculate conception shouldn't be an obstacle that Christians must overcome to be considered true followers of the faith.
"I don't want to set it as a kind of hurdle that people have to get over before they, you know, be signed up," he said. "I think quite a few people ... get a sense, a deeper sense, of what the virgin birth is about. I would say that of myself. About 30 years ago, I might have said I wasn't too fussed about it — now I see it much more as dovetailing with the rest of what I believe about the story."
I may be a knucklehead but, what is this man talking about? Going back to Rev. Wilkin’s article, this is a problem when the head of a Christian church that represents millions of believers states that the foundational belief in the virgin birth can be ignored if you choose. Without the virgin birth, the sinless life example of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice on the cross for our sins and the belief that He ascended into heaven and is going to come back some day, all you will have is a diluted version of Jesus Christ that makes no demands on you.
It is no wonder that our world has a convoluted sense of who Jesus was and is.
The people who physically followed Jesus during this period did so for, I am sure, a variety of reasons. I am positive that there were people who understood that He was the Messiah but it is unlikely that they all held this view. It is evident in Luke 9:18 and 19 that the people thought that Jesus might be John the Baptist, Elijah or some other prophet and despite his future actions belying this belief, Peter answered Jesus saying that He thought that He was the Messiah or the Christ of God.
If we look around today, things haven’t changed that much. Thousands of years later we have a society still trying to identify who Jesus was and is. In 1966, John Lennon made a flippant comment that he and his fellow Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” setting off a hailstorm of protest against the Beatles and their music. Lennon went on to say that he felt that Christianity was a dying religion and that Jesus was all right but the apostles were rather “thick”.
In an article on the web entitled “Everybody Loves Jesus : The Culture Cherishes a Counterfeit Christ” by Rev. Todd A. Wilkin, host of a nationally syndicated radio program,
Rev. Wilkin has written a very insightful article that is worthy of being reprinted here.
When anchorman Peter Jennings aired his 1999 television documentary "The Search for Jesus," many Christians were alarmed. The program was promoted as "a journalist's exploration of the historical figure of Jesus." It turned out to be Jennings and a group of liberal Bible scholars deconstructing the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.
Jennings followed in 2004 with "Jesus and Paul: Word and Witness." While this program was more balanced, it still failed to take seriously the historical accounts of Jesus and of the early Church. This time Christian viewers were less surprised. Some were almost convinced. After all, it all sounded so reasonable. Maybe that Jennings fellow was on to something.
Why does Jesus make the cover of Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, and even Popular Mechanics? Why is He the subject of best-selling fiction and blockbuster movies? Why is Jesus cited in support of presidential candidates, P.E.T.A., diet books, hybrid cars, and Alabama state tax reform? Everybody claims to know who Jesus was and what He would do. Everybody loves Jesus.
During His ministry, Jesus suffered from what marketers would call "poor consumer awareness." Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do men say I am?" The survey results at the time were confused: "John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or some other prophet."
Today, Jesus enjoys almost universal name recognition. The American public seems to have a pretty good idea of who Jesus was. Seventy-five percent of Americans believe that Jesus was a real person; 77% believe that He was born of a virgin; 69% believe that Jesus was the Son of God; 67% believe that He was divine; only 44% of Americans believe that Jesus was merely human and committed sins; and 80% believe that He rose from the dead. Of those who expect His return, 45% believe that it will happen in their lifetime. Jesus is even the public figure most Americans name as their personal hero.
Does this mean that our culture has an accurate picture of Jesus? In 1999, George W. Bush was asked to name the political philosopher that had most influenced him. He answered, "Christ, because He changed my heart." For days afterward the media debated the meaning of this response. Did Bush consider Jesus a political philosopher? With Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Burke, and Paine to choose from, why name Jesus?
The media's reaction was odd. After all, Bush's answer simply reflected the conventional wisdom of the culture. In popular opinion, Jesus is a political philosopher. Jesus is also an animal rights activist, a flag-waving patriot, an environmental crusader, a champion of free trade, a feminist goddess worshiper, an enemy of gun control, and an advocate for gay marriage. Conservatives and liberals, the religious and irreligious, the moral and immoral all claim Jesus. I recently saw a T-shirt reading, "Jesus Is My Homeboy."
Everybody has a place for Jesus. Secularists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Agnostics, Atheists, Hindus, Universalists, Wiccans, Baha'i, Sikhs, Taoists, and New-Agers all have some place for Jesus in their ideologies. He was a good man, a prophet, a teacher, a deva, an avatar, a consciousness, an enlightened being, or a divine spirit.
Everybody loves Jesus, but why?
In America's consumer culture everything must be simple. Everything must be accessible to the broadest possible audience. Information, art, morals, and politics must be delivered to consumers in their lowest common denominator.
Religion is no exception. Americans love the idea of religion but are leery of any particular religion. This is especially true of Christianity. Christianity is too particular, too specific. Consumers want vague spirituality.
In American spirituality, "god" is generic, man is basically good, and your problem isn't your sin but your unrealized goodness. In American spirituality, "salvation" doesn't require a savior, just a little self-help.
The Jesus of Christianity won't do either. The Jesus whom Scripture reveals isn't user-friendly. He is too harsh with sinners and too determined to die for them. He can't stop talking about His Cross and why He must endure it. He is too human, too divine, too bloody, too dead, and too alive. So, the culture invents its own "Jesus."
In American spirituality, Jesus is shaped by the felt needs of the culture. At one moment he is telling us to go vegan, at the next he is manning the grill at the 4th of July church picnic. He is cited by Democrats and Republicans, quoted by doves and hawks, and invoked by presidents and anarchists. When one asks, "What would Jesus do?" the Jesus of American spirituality answers, "Whatever you want." No wonder everybody loves this Jesus. What's not to love? This Jesus is everything the Jesus of Scripture isn't.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is obscure. This Jesus, if he lived at all, lived so long ago that no one can know anything about him for certain. But that's good. That way there's no need to delve into the details of his life. Besides, he's more interesting (and useful) as a myth than a man. He is a shadowy figure of the past but not of the present. He is always referred to in the past tense or in the potential optative mood, "What would Jesus do, eat, drive, etc.?"
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is ambiguous. This Jesus spoke in sound bite platitudes and truisms. He didn't have anything to prove; he just wanted to make people think. He was for good and against evil in the most general sense, without defining either one. He held the moral high ground by refusing to choose sides.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is inoffensive. This Jesus was the nicest guy in the world. He never caused trouble; he just loved people. He was universally popular because he never got on anyone's nerves, never overstayed his welcome, and always knew when to shut up.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is affirming. This Jesus accepted everyone as they were. He never told anyone that they were wrong. He didn't judge anyone. He encouraged people to believe in themselves and feel good about themselves. He taught tolerance for everyone and everything.
Everybody loves this Jesus because he is pluralistic. This Jesus never claimed to come from God, much less to be God. He never tried to convert anyone. He didn't insist that his way was the only way. He came to show us that you can't put God in a box, and that God is too big for any one religion.
This is why everybody loves Jesus. This is a Jesus shaped by 21st century postmodern sensibilities. This Jesus helps you find your purpose, reach your potential, realize your innate goodness, and achieve self-fulfillment. He was sent by a sugar-daddy god from a country club heaven to help us be all we can be. He said nice things, did nice things, and never hurt a fly. He lived to show us that we are better than we think we are. He died to show us that you can accomplish anything if you just apply yourself. His message fits neatly on a bumper sticker. His spirit is the spirit of the age.
The Jesus of American spirituality might make a good aerobics instructor, but he makes a lousy Savior. In his book, "The Jesus I Never Knew," Philip Yancey remembers the saccharine, obsequious Jesus of Sunday school lessons and asks,
How would telling people to be nice to one another get a man crucified? What government would execute Mister Rogers or Captain Kangaroo? Thomas Paine said that no religion could be truly divine which has in it any doctrine that offends the sensibilities of a little child. Would the cross qualify?
The problem with the Jesus of American spirituality is he doesn't offend us. The Jesus of American spirituality lacks the offensive message of the Cross. The world needs the Savior, not the Jesus of American Spirituality.
Can we blame the culture for its misperception of Jesus? Should we expect the culture to get Jesus right when the Church doesn't?
Richard Niebuhr wrote that the message of the 20th century Church was that "a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment though the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." Jesus without His Cross may be many things, but He is not the Savior of sinners.
What about the 21st century Church? Some in the Church today seem comfortable with the culture's misperception of Jesus. They say that it is better for a person to believe something about Jesus rather than nothing at all. Thus, the "Jesus" being preached in pulpit after pulpit bears little resemblance to the Christ crucified of the Bible. When the Church preaches Jesus the therapist, Jesus the life-coach, Jesus the lover, and, Jesus the enabler, the Church only reinforces the culture's misperception. This is dangerous. The real Jesus says,
Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you."
Everybody loves Jesus. Many invoke His name. Many want to be associated with Him: "We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets!" But on the last day the real Jesus will respond in effect, "I don't know who that was, but it wasn't Me."
The Church cannot afford to reinforce this case of mistaken identity. In our preaching and public discourse, it is not enough to give Jesus honorable mention and hope for the best. In a world where everybody loves Jesus, the real Jesus must be proclaimed in all of His suffering, crucified, and risen detail. David Adams has written,
At the risk of seeming impious, we must recognize that even the Doobie Brothers can confess that "Jesus is just alright with me." When we use the term God and the name Jesus, we invest those terms with all the proper historic Biblical content. Those around us in our culture do not. We are foolish if we believe that we are giving a Christian witness just because we use the terms god and Jesus in an orthodox way. When speaking in the public square, we must explicitly express the particularity of the Gospel message.
Our culture is infatuated with a counterfeit Christ, and its up to the Church to break the spell. The only way to do this is to preach the real Jesus to every sinner at every opportunity--beginning in our own churches. We must stop preaching Jesus the therapist, Jesus the life-coach, Jesus the lover, and Jesus the enabler, and start preaching Jesus the crucified and risen Savior. We must stop looking for the Jesus in our hearts and find the real Jesus where He has promised to be found: in His Word, in His Baptism, in His Supper.
We must declare the "Jesus" of culture to be false. We must show the culture the real Jesus. We must condemn sin as the real Jesus does. We must comfort sinners as only the real Jesus can. We must be determined to know nothing--nothing--but Christ and Him crucified. We must tell the culture that the real Jesus is found in His Church.
The real Jesus asked, "Who do men say that I am?" The survey results are still coming in, and they are still wrong. The only way to change that is for the Church to answer Jesus' next question correctly, "But who do you say that I am?"
This article outlines the confusion that the modern world has of defining who Jesus is and was and is as straight forward in it’s intent and deserving of reprint.
I have one more issue to bring to you in regards to the subject of, who Jesus is. This past Christmas, the Archbishop of Canterbury referred to portions of the Nativity, Christmas story as legend and probably not true. In this interview, this Christian leader disputed the number of wise men in attendance, the weather and the actual date of Christmas on December 25th. All of these points are debatable and open to conjecture and none have anything to do with core Christian beliefs. Archbishop Williams is quoted as saying the following:
In the interview, Williams didn't dispute the virgin birth of Christ to a woman named Mary and her husband Joseph, though he did say belief in immaculate conception shouldn't be an obstacle that Christians must overcome to be considered true followers of the faith.
"I don't want to set it as a kind of hurdle that people have to get over before they, you know, be signed up," he said. "I think quite a few people ... get a sense, a deeper sense, of what the virgin birth is about. I would say that of myself. About 30 years ago, I might have said I wasn't too fussed about it — now I see it much more as dovetailing with the rest of what I believe about the story."
I may be a knucklehead but, what is this man talking about? Going back to Rev. Wilkin’s article, this is a problem when the head of a Christian church that represents millions of believers states that the foundational belief in the virgin birth can be ignored if you choose. Without the virgin birth, the sinless life example of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice on the cross for our sins and the belief that He ascended into heaven and is going to come back some day, all you will have is a diluted version of Jesus Christ that makes no demands on you.
It is no wonder that our world has a convoluted sense of who Jesus was and is.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Chapter Six
Chapter Six
As a teenager I attended Catholic high school. Coming back to school on a Monday, we were greeted with the sad news that a member of our sophomore class had drown in the ocean on the previous day. He had apparently gone surfing instead of going to mass and according to Catholic law, as we understood it, as a result, it was really possible that his soul was not in heaven. I was struck by the unfair and arbitrary laws that God must have invoked and basically decided that if that was how petty God was, then I would ignore Him from that point on.
Following the Sabbath rituals as defined by man has caused many people to lose their faith. The guilt of not going to church on Sunday could be overwhelming and could ruin whatever activity that you chose to do instead. How could God be pleased as we treat Him like the old family relative that your parents visited out of obligation and not joy? Everyone has or had an uninteresting, old and boring relative or family acquaintance that mom or dad felt obligated to visit on an annual basis. Remember how you would sit and stare off at a hot and dusty landscape because they didn't have a television or any good magazines? They didn't have Coke or Pepsi and they made you drink that crappy lemonade that just wasn't right (without ice cubes), the house was filled with antiques that you were told not to touch and the conversation between the adults was so boring and seemed to drone on forever? That’s what it was like for me as a child attending church.
In the sixth chapter of the book of Luke, Jesus comes face to face with the religious critics that have been hired to follow Him and report back to their superiors. It seems that Jesus was walking with His disciples and one or two of them broke off the top of the ripe grain in the field they were walking through and after rubbing off the husk, popped the grain in their mouth as they were conversing. The religious spies couldn't help themselves and after writing down this violation of Mosaic law, pointed out that Jesus and His disciples should not be harvesting grain on a Sabbath day. Jesus responded by asking if the men remembered the story of king David (1 Samuel 21:1-6) when David was on the run with his men and the only food available was the holy bread in the temple, and they ate it without guilt. The Pharisees had such a set of convoluted laws designed to bind others, they had no answer and must have really lost it when Jesus spoke of being God and having control over even the Sabbath day.
If Jesus saw that eating grain on the Sabbath really wound up His enemies, He chose to go a step further to confront their legalism. While teaching in the synagogue, on another day, Jesus saw a man with a withered hand in the audience. We again have a situation where He knew He was being watched and His activities were reported on.
The bible says that Jesus knew what was up and so He invited the man to present himself to the audience and He then asked those assembled if they thought that the Sabbath was a day for doing good deeds or a day for doing harm? He then healed the man's deformed hand and His enemies went wild with rage.
The word Pharisees comes from a Hebrew word that means "separated". During their history, they were a political party, a social movement and a school that taught a creed of separation for a life of purity and it should be noted that they had a history of being supported by the general Jewish population (common people) even though that population itself was non-sectarian. The relationship between the Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism (exemplified by the Talmud) is so close that many do not distinguish between the two. Nevertheless, the social standing and beliefs of the Pharisees changed over time, as political and social conditions in Judea changed.
While we may look at the actions of the Pharisee’s to be overbearing and legalistic, you don’t have to look very far to see that they exist, in spirit, throughout the Christian church today. We have believers who claim the Sabbath is on only a specific day, others who argue that only one interpretation of the bible is correct and yet other congregations that believe that there is a specific way to worship (cannon law, ceremony, sacraments etc...) as a church. They are so fervent in their beliefs, in some cases, that they will separate themselves from other Christians because of those self imposed laws and traditions.
If you think about it, if Jesus were to show up today and walk into a rigid denominational Christian church, it is possible that the pastor or religious leaders might just assign a detail of the most fervent believers to follow and keep notes on His daily activities. You know, nothing too James Bondish, just enough to protect laws and traditions that the church was built on.
The bible tells us that after this encounter with the religious leaders, Jesus went to a mountain to pray to God, all night. This was done just before He chose His twelve apostles. Again I bring up the fact that God became man and gave us a perfect example to live up to as a human being. Christ prayed to the Father for help in making an important organization decision. Jesus was, and is, God in human form asking for wisdom and help in making a tough decision. After a night of prayer, Jesus went before His followers and selected twelve apostles. According to Latin (apostolus) and Greek (apostolos), the term apostle translates into “messenger” and “to send off” while current definitions refer to a “learner” or “follower”. Jesus chose these twelve disciples to be the initial group to be trained by Him and sent out to teach others later.
Reading into this account, it is very possible that Jesus had quite a pool of followers to pick from. In the book of John 6:53 through 6:70, the bible tells us that Jesus explained that He was God, born a man, and many of the disciples that followed Him, turned away and deserted Him. This would help to indicate that the twelve were selected because of their faith and not by a structured selection process. If we follow this theory, we can assume that the number of disciples or apostles was self determined and based on a threshold of faith in who Jesus was and is. That being the case, His followers are still selected in this manner today.
As a teenager I attended Catholic high school. Coming back to school on a Monday, we were greeted with the sad news that a member of our sophomore class had drown in the ocean on the previous day. He had apparently gone surfing instead of going to mass and according to Catholic law, as we understood it, as a result, it was really possible that his soul was not in heaven. I was struck by the unfair and arbitrary laws that God must have invoked and basically decided that if that was how petty God was, then I would ignore Him from that point on.
Following the Sabbath rituals as defined by man has caused many people to lose their faith. The guilt of not going to church on Sunday could be overwhelming and could ruin whatever activity that you chose to do instead. How could God be pleased as we treat Him like the old family relative that your parents visited out of obligation and not joy? Everyone has or had an uninteresting, old and boring relative or family acquaintance that mom or dad felt obligated to visit on an annual basis. Remember how you would sit and stare off at a hot and dusty landscape because they didn't have a television or any good magazines? They didn't have Coke or Pepsi and they made you drink that crappy lemonade that just wasn't right (without ice cubes), the house was filled with antiques that you were told not to touch and the conversation between the adults was so boring and seemed to drone on forever? That’s what it was like for me as a child attending church.
In the sixth chapter of the book of Luke, Jesus comes face to face with the religious critics that have been hired to follow Him and report back to their superiors. It seems that Jesus was walking with His disciples and one or two of them broke off the top of the ripe grain in the field they were walking through and after rubbing off the husk, popped the grain in their mouth as they were conversing. The religious spies couldn't help themselves and after writing down this violation of Mosaic law, pointed out that Jesus and His disciples should not be harvesting grain on a Sabbath day. Jesus responded by asking if the men remembered the story of king David (1 Samuel 21:1-6) when David was on the run with his men and the only food available was the holy bread in the temple, and they ate it without guilt. The Pharisees had such a set of convoluted laws designed to bind others, they had no answer and must have really lost it when Jesus spoke of being God and having control over even the Sabbath day.
If Jesus saw that eating grain on the Sabbath really wound up His enemies, He chose to go a step further to confront their legalism. While teaching in the synagogue, on another day, Jesus saw a man with a withered hand in the audience. We again have a situation where He knew He was being watched and His activities were reported on.
The bible says that Jesus knew what was up and so He invited the man to present himself to the audience and He then asked those assembled if they thought that the Sabbath was a day for doing good deeds or a day for doing harm? He then healed the man's deformed hand and His enemies went wild with rage.
The word Pharisees comes from a Hebrew word that means "separated". During their history, they were a political party, a social movement and a school that taught a creed of separation for a life of purity and it should be noted that they had a history of being supported by the general Jewish population (common people) even though that population itself was non-sectarian. The relationship between the Pharisees and Rabbinic Judaism (exemplified by the Talmud) is so close that many do not distinguish between the two. Nevertheless, the social standing and beliefs of the Pharisees changed over time, as political and social conditions in Judea changed.
While we may look at the actions of the Pharisee’s to be overbearing and legalistic, you don’t have to look very far to see that they exist, in spirit, throughout the Christian church today. We have believers who claim the Sabbath is on only a specific day, others who argue that only one interpretation of the bible is correct and yet other congregations that believe that there is a specific way to worship (cannon law, ceremony, sacraments etc...) as a church. They are so fervent in their beliefs, in some cases, that they will separate themselves from other Christians because of those self imposed laws and traditions.
If you think about it, if Jesus were to show up today and walk into a rigid denominational Christian church, it is possible that the pastor or religious leaders might just assign a detail of the most fervent believers to follow and keep notes on His daily activities. You know, nothing too James Bondish, just enough to protect laws and traditions that the church was built on.
The bible tells us that after this encounter with the religious leaders, Jesus went to a mountain to pray to God, all night. This was done just before He chose His twelve apostles. Again I bring up the fact that God became man and gave us a perfect example to live up to as a human being. Christ prayed to the Father for help in making an important organization decision. Jesus was, and is, God in human form asking for wisdom and help in making a tough decision. After a night of prayer, Jesus went before His followers and selected twelve apostles. According to Latin (apostolus) and Greek (apostolos), the term apostle translates into “messenger” and “to send off” while current definitions refer to a “learner” or “follower”. Jesus chose these twelve disciples to be the initial group to be trained by Him and sent out to teach others later.
Reading into this account, it is very possible that Jesus had quite a pool of followers to pick from. In the book of John 6:53 through 6:70, the bible tells us that Jesus explained that He was God, born a man, and many of the disciples that followed Him, turned away and deserted Him. This would help to indicate that the twelve were selected because of their faith and not by a structured selection process. If we follow this theory, we can assume that the number of disciples or apostles was self determined and based on a threshold of faith in who Jesus was and is. That being the case, His followers are still selected in this manner today.
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