Jesus, Healing, and Who Matters

Luke 13:10-17
Jesus heals a woman. He heals because Kingdom salvation makes us whole. This is Shalom peace. Will you believe that Jesus’ desires to rescue you in the same way?

The woman stands up and praises God. She is filled with joy, filled with love for God. Worship is a heart on fire with praise and thanks. Can we abandon ourselves to joy and love; pouring out genuine thanks and praise to God?

YHWH, the God of Israel and Father of Jesus, sees His people and hears their cries. He is the faithful Lord who remembers His covenant and saves. Jesus is the eyes and ears of God. He sees the woman and hears her silent cry. Jesus sets her free from Satan, just as His Father freed Israel in the Exodus. Redemption is a war and God is on our side!

The story, however, can be misunderstood. Let's be clear, Jesus is not rejecting the Law. Jesus is making a legal argument. Jesus is saying that the highest demand of the Law is “acts of mercy,” which are more important than “Sabbath rest.” Life is complex. Even good Laws can compete with each other. Laws guide and protect us. I often hear that the Jews had ruined God’s word by generating 613 mizpat/commands. It sounds like a lot but our State enacted 559 new public laws this year, with 527 last year. Do you want to live in a lawless land?

Laws are not the problem. Legalism is. Jesus says Laws are meant to benefit humans. God’s law is a gift. Remember, the Torah is the Word of God and Jesus is the Word made flesh! Jesus came to make us whole. He loves you. Believe it and think in a new way! He also sent you. You have the Holy Spirit. God’s saving love for others. Go out to rescue out the least, the last and the lost in Jesus Name. Trust Him to do it!

Today there is a debate about whose lives matter. Jesus says everyone’s life matters. But it is not a slogan, He actually touched the outcast woman whom the religious leader did not see. If you say ‘all lives matter’ than I ask you: When was the last time you brought the healing love of Jesus to a person who is black or brown, poor or marginalized? When?

We need to talk politics less and proclaim the Kingdom more.
We need to argue racial issues less and love others more.
We need to trust Jesus and pour out Kingdom healing, redemption, love and Gospel on everyone.
We need to thank and praise God more.
When we look in the eyes of Jesus we will know that our lives matter.
In the meantime, will we be the eyes and ears of Jesus? 
Can anyone and everyone look in our eyes and see that they matter? 
Will you free them from Satan’s hand in Jesus Name??

The Importance of Believing (Sunday School)

Mark 6:1-6
In Jesus' world, honor came in a limited quantity. Like the football polls, if someone moved up others moved down. This dynamic is on display as Jesus come home to His patris (father land, home country). We can assume that the folks had heard about what Jesus was doing elsewhere. We read that He teaches in the synagogue and garnered praise. The people were ekplasso (compound of ''out" +"smite" meaning literally to strike out or be expelled by a blow and might be paraphrased as "blown away"). This quickly shifts, however, as "His own" were unable to see beyond His social status--there is no extra honor to bestow. It was impossible for them that Jesus could be anything more than the nondescript carpenter related to some locals. A strong negative reaction (the verb scandalizo means cause to fall, stumbling block) follows. It may be noteworthy that He is called the "son of Mary," perhaps a veiled reference to illegitimacy? In the Gospel of Mark there is no mention of Joseph. At any rate, Jesus was in a box and the town could not let Him out. Jesus responds that prophets are not honored in their fatherland. (A rare staying found in all four Gospels; Matthew 13:57 Luke 4:24 and John 4:44). Note the word "honor." This is a strong declaration by Jesus.

Jesus (thaumazo) wondered/marveled at their (apisitis) faithless/unbelief. He can only lay hands on a few of them to heal. "Faithlessness" is two edged, meaning devoid of faith in Jesus but also disloyalty to Jesus. Faith connects the believer to Jesus, 'apisitis' cuts one off. The majority responded to Jesus with unbelief. It is easy to forget that. The text, however, is confronting us.  


Jesus generates the twin reactions "amazement" and "scandal" to this day. What are we to think of His miracles when our scientific world view negates the possibility. We "assume" it can't happen, and many have never seen such things. When someone reports an experience of "dynamis/work of power" it is written off as psychological or a biological mystery. Even more difficult, the claims He is the Savior, Incarnate Son of God and Lord. Unbelievers reject Jesus, but are there times that we who believe are also part of the "clan and kin" who are reluctant to accept Him on His own terms?


Since the early church, theologians have debated what "He could do no mighty work" means. Perhaps human faith is a necessary component of God's activity? Does faith open a door? Can unbelief foil God's work among us? Not to despair, however, as even in that context of unbelief, there are some whose faith (great need inspiring desperate trust?) received healing. One wonders about the village reaction to that. What is the church's response to an active healing ministry? What is the church's response to Jesus who stands alone as The Way and the Only Son of God?

This simple narrative confronts the contemporary Christian. Are we willing to be amazed by Jesus' words and deeds and respond in faith? Is our faith a trusting loyalty open to receive the Kingdom dynamis/mighty works? Will we receive health and salvation and then use the power for others? With that in mind, it is telling that immediately after this in Mark 6:6-13 Jesus sends out the apostles to proclaim the kingdom, cast our demons and heal the sick.


This is no otherworldly Savior. Jesus walked among us with a 'hands- on' approach to redemption and salvation. We need to trust Him. We also need to believe that He trusts us to do the same in the church ministry. Faith is the key!

Passion

Passion...
Luke 12:49-56 reveals the raw emotions of Jesus.WOW, does He have emotions and feelings! Jesus has passion.
I came to throw fire on the earth/land, and how I wish it were already blazing...What is this fire? The word is used of two phenomena in Luke's Gospel. 

First is the "judgment fire"(Luke 3:9, 17) which John the Baptist warns is coming. Recall that the prophet Elijah called down fire to consume the offering in his contest with the false prophet-priests of Baal (1 Kings 18:38) and then also on the companies of soldiers dispatched by King Ahaziah against him (2 Kings 1). However, in 9:54 when James and John ask Jesus if He wanted them to call down fire upon the inhospitable Samaritans, Jesus rebukes them. Is Jesus longing for the final fiery judgment? God made a covenant with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth with water (Gen 9:8-17). Is fire the next and final judgement? (Revelation 19:9) Fire both purifies and consumes. Cranking up the heat, for example, allows one to burn off the built up debris on a grill. However, the debris is consumed. This is necessary before God can reign on earth. Everything not of God must be purified (burn off impurities) or consumed (those who stand against the Kingdom). Why is there judgment? Because love demands goodness and blessing on the beloved and those who would pollute the Kingdom with sin and rebellion cannot be allowed to remain among those who seek the Kingdom. Peace comes at a cost....

But John also promises a baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit (3:16). In Acts, the Holy Spirit comes like "tongues of fire" and we often pray for the fire of love and the fire of the Holy Spirit. To "be on fire for God" is to be consumed and faithful. Those who seek God (though sinners) are sanctified by the Holy Spirit within. How this takes place is hard to understand, but the Spirit in Jesus will be in us and raise us up. We will be transformed. Jesus is anxious and desires the day when all people love God and one another. In our brokenness we cannot do this, so the Father will send the Spirit to do it within us. Jesus says that He cannot wait!

I have a baptism to be baptized and how I am crushed and stressed until it is completed.
Jesus' "baptism" is His death. Like at the Last Supper (though Jesus tells the disciples not to be troubled in John 14:1, 27)  we read that Jesus is troubled and agitated in John12:27 and 13:21. Later, Luke 22:43 tells us that as Jesus prayed in the Garden "His sweat became like drops of blood," which indicates severe stress [http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Hematohidrosis]. One overlooked aspect of the Messiah's personal life was the emotional stress and tension He was under as He looked ahead to His sufferings and death. The Lord loves us but still dreads the cost of that love, even as He willingly embraced it.

Human communication is difficult on paper. Facial expressions, tone of voice, body language--these are what give meaning to words. We cannot see Jesus' face or hear His voice. When He says, "Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No I tell you but rather division," what did it sound like? Is this sadness and frustration on His part. Is the division upsetting to Him as He faces rejection? Is He angry or merely declaring a truth? Or all of these?

Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but the Scriptures seem to say its a peace after the storm, and we are living in the storm just as He was. We do know that He sounds frustrated with people who can figure out the weather by looking at the changing sky, but are clueless and oblivious to the Kingdom markers all around. 

Family ties are second to Jesus-ties. In the ancient world submission to the family Patriarch was a given. One's identity and sustenance were completely dependent on the clan. Insiders survived, outsiders found life very treacherous. To embrace Jesus was to embrace outsider status. Cut off from family, one's very self was at risk. Paul used the image of "slave for Christ," and the Christian person was frequently on that social level when they chose Jesus. They often lost everything dear to them. It was like dying (which is why baptism is into the death of Christ)
 
Jesus confronts us with a life or death choice. The day of decision is today. We cannot be assured of tomorrow. We do not know our personal deadline. Life hangs by a thread. Too many believe Jesus can be dealt with later, nor not at all. Jesus did not seem to think that. Jesus appears to be pretty emotional about it, full of passion! Jesus, the man, God incarnate, churning with every human emotion, struggling like us all to live in this fallen world, hungry for God, ready to do what He needs to do, dreading the pain, hoping and trusting. He loves us with that same fiery passion. He wants us to be with Him with the same emotional intensity. Maybe it's time to respond in kind!

Real Trust

Sunday Readings Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
Isaiah, unlike most of us, actually saw God and heard God. Don't envy him though, being a prophet was a difficult job which usually end in failure. YHWH had chosen His people by grace. He made a covenant with them. Isaiah feels God's response to Israel breaking that covenant. Isaiah says: "shama/listen to the torah/instruction of the Lord". He feels YHWH's heart break as He calls Israel "Sodom and Gomorrah"---the worst! 
YHWH asks for trusting, obedient love. He is not fooled by the empty show of religious practices. Love God, love your neighbor. Take care of the poor and needy. Be moral. Be just. Be holy. Trust! YHWH God will wash the sin away.
Biblical faith in response to God's grace encompasses everything: the mind and heart, the will and desires, the spirit core and the body. It is the response of the whole person to God. Hebrews provides some angles. Faith lives today in absolute confidence because God promised. It is not dependent on what we see; it looks to our Father.  The faith of Abraham was obedient faith, what else can it be? God promised, Abraham trusted, but had he not acted the promise would never have been received. Faith means to live as a Kingdom citizen now, even before the Kingdom is established, because that is how the grace is received. We are invited to trust. We are called to faith. 
Jesus is very concrete. He is saying, "Trust God, stop relying on your money and help the poor!" Yikes! How far has our middle class values pulled us from such a way of being in the world? Yet what is the cost of our life style? What treasure owns our hearts? Could it be there is more to life than what we have pursued?
 Do we imagine that if Jesus walked in here now He would tell us something different from Luke 12? Are we the well-prepared servant who has done all that was expected? Would we be blessed for our faith and faithfulness? Are we ready?

Jephthah: Nothing Pious Here (Sunday School)

Judges is a wonderful saga of the (sad) ongoing deterioration of the tribal confederacy in covenant with YHWH.. Jephthah is the penultimate story (the next three judges are mentioned by name but with little narrative) leading to Samson. This long narrative includes features found in previous stories and there is far too much here for us to lay out in a limited setting.The narrative picks up from the "mixed" saga of Gideon/Jerubaal. The previous post explains the problems of Gideon and his struggles to be who he should and do what he should. His offspring by a harlot is a bridge to Jephthah and the fickle Israelites (they forget Gideon, they reject Jephthah only to turn to him in a time of need).

The needs of community differ in times of peace and times of conflict. Jephthah is a mighty warrior. An outsider to his family, the legitimate heirs cast him out. One can easily make sense of the man in the face of his dire circumstances. A strong man, he fights back, and it is probable a lesser man would have perished. He gathers around himself some "worthless" men. The Hebrew word rak (sounds like 'rake' in English) occurs 14x in the Tanak (Jewish Bible) and three times in Judges. It can mean empty, as it does in 7:16 referring to the empty jars carried by the 300. It can also mean vain, idle, worthless as in 9:4 where Abimelech (Gideon's son by a harlot) gathers a similar group of men around himself. From faithful to worthless to alone (Samson), the decline of Israel is on full display.

The corrupt crew are approached by the elders of Gilead (tribe of Manasseh). The corruption of "polite society" is on full display. Reputable folks are willing to lower their standards if the times are pressing. "So I am not good enough to live among you, but fine as a savior," Jephthah implies by his response. Rather than fulfill the role for God's glory, Jephthah negotiates a deal. If victorious he will become chieftain. The deal secure he proceeds, and by "the spirit of God" Jephthah is successful. However, before he leaves he makes a brash oath, promising to make a human sacrifice of the first person out his front door if he returns victorious.

Human sacrifice is the foulest of pagan practices. Here we see the sins of the land bubbling up amongst the Chosen People who are sworn to be holy. In every age it is our challenge to rise above human culture and live as God's People. Yet all of us make Jephthah errors (and a covenant with the devil) in pursuit of our own aims. Jephthah is a reminder of our own "deals" with spiritual forces for lack of trust in God. Many religious practices are motivated by the desire for security. We make promises we should not keep in an effort to control our destiny and secure our "success."

Jephthah learns the cost of his word when his only daughter happily bounds out the door to celebrate her father's victory. His words, "daughter you have brought me very low," seem to place the blame on her. However, for these people who take words seriously, a vow is a vow, so she must die. The young girl, no doubt a model of virtue in her ancient context, accepts her fate on condition that she be allowed to mourn her virginity. In other words, the lost promise of her young life.

Since ancient times some interpreters have posited that the phrasing "she never knew a man" meant that he consecrated her to celibacy (rather than kill her). This is a horrible crime and one hopes he did not follow through on the sacrifice.  At any rate, the tragedy is even more horrible to our contemporary sensibilities. It is a reminder that pious practices are not meant to manipulate our Heavenly Father YHWH, and too often we make a deal with the devil unknowingly. The otherwise unmentioned practice in Israel of lamenting the daughter of Jephthah (another nameless person) reminds us how little we really know about the daily life of this ancient people. We too gather to remember the victims of senseless violence. Our roadside shrines and memorials are the human response to the harsh reality of death. As we ponder the loss of young life, children cut down on the brink of adulthood, we are confronted with the lone remedy: Jesus

It is fitting that the gospel passage, Mark 4:35-41, is the historical//symbolic story of Jesus asleep in the boat during a storm. If Jephthah's daughter is an example of the storms which chill us to the bone, Jesus' question to the apostles' panic is the fundamental question of our life. "Where is your faith?"

'Where' can be read as "where do you put your faith?" it can also simply mean, "do you have any?" It is easy for some to despair in the face of our current presidential options. Were these people, who are apparently viewed as untrustworthy by so many (according to the polls), chosen because we think they can do what we want to get what we want? Is Jephthah lurking, ready to rise to power? Whom do we trust on this earthly pilgrimage in the face of all manner of storms. Do we turn to the mighty warrior Jephthah and his worthless gang, or do we cry out to Jesus? If Jephthah is not pious (godly) perhaps we can choose to be (and are chosen by Him to be). I think of those ancient Gileadites and the worried apostles and see myself. I pray mercy. Save us Jesus! God raises up fallible humans in every age to save His people, but we know there is only One, Jesus the Lord, Who is the True Messiah Savior.

prosperity gospel upside down

Judges 6-7-8 "the time of Gideon/Jerubbaal" makes a mess of our commonly held beliefs about God's blessings. Called in a time when the punishment on sinful Israel had brought her "very low because of Midian", Gideon emerges as a reluctant hero. As chapter 7 begins his army stands poised to attack the enemy, but YHWH says the army is too large. So the process of reducing continues until 32,000 is pared down to 300. God wants to show He has done it, not allowing humans to take credit for His salvation. This got me to thinking about church decline and the numbers of folks who have stopped attending. Is the people of God likewise being pared down? In our culture the draw to bigger and better is unmistakable. Churches resemble malls with their assorted offerings of food, drink and entertainment. The measures of growth and prosperity seem to drive our willingness to say "God has blessed us!" I certainly view blessings as growth and prosperity.

Yet here stands the Gideon cycle from the Book of Judges. This turns it all upside down. For as the story continues, we hear that the 300 are told to shout "For the Lord and for Gideon!" The shared billing with YHWH reveals the changing heart of the humble man. Success, even success broadcast as God's miracle, can go to our heads. Gideon overestimates his own significance. And I wonder about church leaders and our center-stage life style. Being humble is easy in the face of failure and discouragement. The realization that "I cannot make anything happen on my own" brings its own special mix of peace and anxiety. It drives us to our knees and like the ancient tribes of Israel we cry out to God "Save us! Help us!" God sees, He hears, He remembers, and He comes down to save.

Then the paradox of prosperity. Gideon delivers Israel as God's tool, but the people want to acclaim him king. Gideon refuses the honor, so it appears all is well, until we learn that he asks them to gather up gold. Lots and lots of gold (Exodus' golden calf echoes in the background) which is then melted down into an ephod. This ephod becomes a snare to Gideon, his family and the people. And as a subtle warning, we hear Gideon has 70 sons by his many wives but the son born of a harlot is named. Abimelech. "My father is king." Aaahhh, the rest of the story? Does Gideon aspire to replace YHWH as king? We do not know, but we know stories of harlots and babies are often symbols of Israel and God (Hosea!) and we know that success breeds corruption, abundance drains focused trust in God. It is why Jesus said it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom.

So as the Gideon saga pummels the middle class Christianity which too often trusts material well being with proof of God's blessings, it was another story, this one from Acts 3, which took my reflections deeper. Peter and John come out of the Temple and a lame beggar cries out to them. He wants, needs, alms. They respond, "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you; in the Name of Jesus walk." The greatest riches we possess is the Name of Salvation (Jesus/Joshua-YHWH saves).

The Satan whispers alternate standards in the church-person's ears. Human, earthly measures of success. Huge. Big. Silver and Gold. Wealth! Our culture is in love with such things; our faith is a baptized twist on the same thing. How can we not be what we were born into and live amongst each day? Simple life of faith and love? Where? And who trades financial wealth for the Name of Jesus and belief in His power to heal? It can be all too confusing.

Yet Gideon stands as a stark reminder of my own willingness to share in God's honor and glory. ("Father, hallowed be our names, you and me!") Our humble tone and words cover over the hearts desire, which finds a way to express itself in our "children", literal and figurative (daddy is king). Our embrace of the wrong kind of wealth is a snare that causes us to stumble and fall. Still, there is hope. Perhaps a divine paring down will occur (did I mention it is painful and terrifying, that it loss and means being out of control) and we will find some day, possessing neither silver nor gold, we will rely solely on His Name. Jesus. YHWH Salvation. Then we will know the Kingdom abundance for which our overstuffed lives really seeks. Hope.