Mary's Faith

  Life of Christ 24

          In Jesus' day, on the evening of a wedding, the bride walked from her father's home to her husband's home. Along the way a sort of torch lit parade developed, accompanied by music and dancing. The bride, who remained veiled, on her arrival stood with her espoused while the marriage ceremony was conducted, and then a feast was held.

          It was to just such a feast that Jesus returns when He arrives back in Galilee after being gone for almost two months, accompanied by His small band of three or four disciples. He arrives just in time to join His mother at this wedding feast to which she had been invited. Hospitality has traditionally been very important in the Middle East, and the hosts would have been mortified to run out of something. Of course, Jesus and four other men showing up uninvited might have had something to do with that too. In addition, it was customary for people to bring a gift of wine or food to such a communal event, and there is no indication that He had. So perhaps for these reasons, when the wine ran short, Mary went to Jesus and asked Him to fix the problem.

          This is very interesting to me. What caused her to think He could fix it? After all, His life hadn't yet hinted at the ability to perform miracles, and He hadn't so much as done anything other than pound nails in her experience. Well, we must remember that a mother never forgets the events surrounding the birth of her children, and the events surrounding Jesus' birth were anything but forgettable. For instance, His was a virgin birth, on the road, announced by an angelic choir, visited by complete strangers that happened to be shepherds, pronounced upon in prophecy by Simeon at the Temple, accompanied for years by a blazing star, worshipped by gift giving Magi, and finally concluded with a hasty flight into Egypt and just as hasty of a return. Not only had she seen all of these things decades ago, but events in the intervening years had only served to confirm His uniqueness, such as His interaction with the rabbis in the Temple at the tender age of 12. Additionally, for three decades she had observed Him as closely as it was possible for another human being to do so, and He had never yet done anything wrong. He had always obeyed and honored her. He had always treated His siblings with kindness and respect. He had always been diligent at school and work. In other words, she, of all people, knew He wasn't just another good man, and while she didn't know exactly what He was or would become she did know that He was different than everybody else, and that He had been sent straight from God in Heaven.

          Jesus, who has been gone for months, suddenly shows back up, with an entourage of disciples, and she puts two and two together and knows His life has shifted. What faith she shows here (John 2.1-5)! Some will say this is simply the faith a mother places in her favorite child, but I think it is much more than that. No, He had not done any miracles yet, but she knew miraculous things had happened at His birth, and it appeared that He had launched into a different life entirely, and a religious one at that. She knew He was, in every sense, an amazing man. Her faith, then, was a natural outgrowth of everything she knew about Jesus up to that point.

          Have we not also seen, in the past, God do miraculous things in answer to prayer? Do we not also know well our Saviour's ability and His love? Can we not also freely admit that we have never seen Him do anything wrong? Then can we not also trust Him with great faith to solve the intractable problems that present themselves in our lives?

          I will say it about a hundred times this year in this blog series – Jesus came looking for belief. He had found it in John the Baptist. He had found it in some of John's disciples. He had found it in some of their friends. Now He finds it, very sweetly, residing in the breast of His own mother.

          Does He find it in you?

Follow Me

Life of Christ 23

          It was customary in Jesus' day for highly esteemed rabbis to have a group of young men whom they were tutoring or mentoring. These were often called disciples, and John the Baptist had attracted a select number of men such as this.

          The day following John's great statement about Jesus being the Lamb of God he sees Jesus again. This time, John is with two of his disciples, and when he repeats yesterday's assertion about Jesus Christ they both immediately left John and started following after Jesus. This isn't an abandonment of John the Baptist but rather it is John releasing his disciples into the care and custody of a better Teacher, if they so chose.

          Jesus suddenly finds Himself being followed around by two men, and turning around He asks them what they are looking for (John 1.35-39). Their answer, 'Rabbi, where dwellest thou?', simply meant that they were asking to become His followers, His disciples. And He allows them.

          One of these men was Andrew, and practically as soon as he was settled in Jesus' care he went to find his brother, Peter (John 1.40-42). He tells Peter that he has found Israel's messiah, and drags Peter back to Jesus. Peter and Jesus have a short conversation and Peter goes away apparently unimpressed, but courtesy of a brother's compassion a seed had been planted that would bear astounding fruit some months later.

          The next day, Jesus is walking with his two new disciples, and meets Philip, and says to him, 'Follow me' (John 1.43-51). Philip, who perhaps already knew Andrew (they were from the same town in Galilee), does follow Jesus, and the next day, fired with enthusiasm, he goes looking for his friend, Nathanael. Philip found him sitting under a tree and tries to convince him that they have found Israel's messiah. Nathanael's reaction is completely spontaneous and true, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' Philip encourages him to come and see, and so Nathanael does. He finds, to his great surprise, that this man Jesus pierces his skepticism with two statements, and Nathanael's reaction is to immediately and totally acknowledge Jesus as the Christ.

          This is the sequential order of events as we see Jesus, for the very first time, begin to gather around Him men whom He would mentor and teach. Some of these would go on to become apostles. Bear in mind, He has not yet preached a sermon or done a miracle, but after His baptism, weeks of fasting, and facing down the devil in the temptations we can see He has transitioned from a simple village carpenter to the leader of a nascent religious movement in Israel.

          Although there is a simplicity in Jesus' instruction to Philip, 'Follow me', there is also greatness here. This is the same instruction we will later see Jesus give to Peter (Matthew 4.19). It is the same instruction we will later see Jesus give to Matthew (Matthew 9.9). And this is the same instruction He continues to give to us today. In a very real way this is Christianity, following Christ. We are to follow Him in what He did. We are to follow Him in Who He was. In fact, if we live the Christian life well we will find ourselves always following, continuously, without end (Philippians 3.12).

          I have spent almost a thousand hours studying the life of Christ in the past few years. So often, in the midst of it, I have wished that I could have been there, in Palestine, 2000 years ago, when He walked the earth. I have wished that I could have been in the crowd when He fed the 5000, preached the Sermon on the Mount, or tangled with the Pharisees in the Temple. But more than that, I have wondered what it would have been like to be one of those closest to Him, the apostles. How amazing it must have been to live with Him, to travel with Him, and to have Him interact with you personally on a daily basis!

          …when it suddenly occurred to me that I can be one of His disciples. All I have to do is follow Him.

If you would like to listen to the audio sermon that accompanies this blog you may find it here. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 9, 'Follow Me.'

Agnus Dei

Life of Christ 22

          In the mid-seventeenth century, a regionally well-known court painter in Europe named Francisco de Zurbaran set out to paint a representation of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. The result, which now hangs in the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain, is of a lamb, bound hand and feet, and lying still awaiting sacrifice. He titled it 'Agnus Dei', which is Latin for 'Lamb of God.' Jesus is exactly that, the precious Agnus Dei.

          Immediately after John the Baptist comes to realize that Jesus is the Christ, and baptizes Him, Jesus leaves for about six weeks. He spent those weeks in the Judean wilderness fasting and undergoing the temptations. During that period John the Baptist began to preach openly, not just a generic 'repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand', but a specific message that Jesus was that King, the One to whom his messages had been pointing all along (John 1.15-17).

          When Jesus came back to civilization following His ordeal John the Baptist sees Him, and makes an absolutely wonderful proclamation: 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world' (John 1.29). This statement shows a depth of understanding of Jesus' life and ministry that I don't think anybody else on the planet had in Jesus' lifetime.

          The common Jew of the day, even the repentant ones following John, was looking for a messiah that would be a political deliverer. They grasped the prophecies in the Torah regarding the coming kingdom with both hands and refused to let go in order to grasp, say, Isaiah 53, for instance. They wanted someone who would storm the walls of Rome, overthrow the hated empire, and put Israel at the top of the new heap of the world. But John the Baptist saw things differently. He didn't say, 'Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.' He saw a messiah sent to suffer and die in order to pay for our sins.

          It wasn't just the common Jew, or even the spiritual ones who completely missed this. All but one other of Jesus' followers, including every single one of His disciples, completely missed this as well. Up to the very end, when the coming clash between Israel's religious leadership and Jesus couldn't help but be noticed, those close to Jesus still thought He was going to pull a rabbit out of the hat and end up with a crown on His head. It was faith of a kind, and I respect that, but it completely, totally, absolutely missed the point of His first coming.

          But John didn't. John saw it, and John said it.

          Not only did John see Israel's Messiah in terms of a sacrificial atoning death, but he saw that atoning death applied to the entire world, even <gasp> the Gentiles! The only other one that saw that, I think, was the old prophet Simeon. John understood that Jesus, our Paschal lamb, would not die for the sins of the Jews alone, but for the sins of the entire world. Perhaps this is because it was John's habit to see things in a spiritual light rather than a political, economic, or military light. Perhaps this is because God specifically revealed it. I do not know, but I do know John saw what everyone else completely failed to see.

          In this there is also a great mystery and a great sadness. The entirety of Jewish history and religion is filled to bursting with illustrations pointing precisely to this aspect of the necessity of the atoning death of the messiah. Abraham, their highly esteemed father, had himself explained that God would provide the sacrificial lamb necessary to take Isaac's place on the altar. In Moses' day, what was Passover but a gigantic representation of the necessity for the shed blood of a lamb to be applied to appease God's wrath? Indeed, for the next almost 1500 years, first in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple, the day itself was begun and ended with a sacrifice on the Brazen Altar. I have not even mentioned the Day of Atonement yet. How tragic it is that His people, including those who loved Him the most, so completely missed this.

          But there is yet a greater tragedy than this. Yes, it was heartbreaking that the entire nation missed the point of His first coming, but it would be even more heartbreaking for that sacrifice to be wasted. Have you placed your faith in Christ? I do not mean do you believe He existed. I do not mean do you believe He was a good man. I mean, have you placed your total trust for deliverance from the penalty of your sin in the man Christ Jesus?

          This is why He came the first time, to be the Lamb of God that would take away your sin. My unknown friend, whatever you do, don't waste such a stupendously wealthy sacrifice. 

Tempted

Life of Christ 21

          Before God uses a man in a way that can be seen He often tests him in a way which cannot be seen. Daniel, and his three friends, were completely anonymous when they faced the temptation of whether to drink the king's wine or not. Joseph was completely anonymous when he faced the temptation of Potiphar's wife. For 40 years, Moses labored in anonymity on the backside of a desert, testing the reality of his walk with God. David was all alone in that cave when he faced the temptation to step out ahead of God and solve his own problem by killing God's anointed. So it was with our Saviour. Before He can be set before men as the cure for their sin, and the hope of humanity, He must first pass the test of temptation.

          I'm sure this was not the only time He was tempted, for He faced the same everyday temptations of deceit, pride, laziness, lust, gossip, discontentment, etc. that every human being faces. But this was different in that it was almost a formal thing, a specific test of wills between God and the devil, to see who would control the man Christ Jesus.

          The first temptation was incredibly reasonable (Matthew 4.1-4). The devil found Him at a very vulnerable time ('he was afterward an hungered') and encouraged Him to make some food out of the nearby rocks. Hunger is not only responsible for a tremendous drive in our nature, but almost everything is forgiven to a man who does what he must because he is hungry. It is almost borderline illogical, at least compared to our human experience, to say to a man who is tremendously hungry that he would be sinning by eating. But to me, the sin for Jesus would not have been in the eating, but in the devil's chosen proposal for how to solve the problem.

          Jesus was just about to enter His public ministry. In that ministry He would use the tool of a Holy Spirit enabled miraculous power to authenticate His claims and His message. The first temptation was a test to see if He would use that tool improperly, so to speak, simply for Himself. A few decades hence James would say that it was wrong for us to ask something simply so we could consume it upon our lusts (James 4.3). This does not mean that it is wrong for you and I to pray about something that we personally need, but rather that it is wrong for us to pray for something that we selfishly want. You say, 'Yes, but after 40 days of fasting Jesus needed to it; it wasn't selfish' – but it would have been a selfish use of the Holy Spirit power with which He was entrusted.

          Think of it this way: I am entrusted with hundreds of thousands of dollars to manage and use for the benefit of our church; if I take that money and use it solely and selfishly for my own benefit I have betrayed a trust, and I'm not worthy of the opportunity to continue to use it. So it was with Christ. He had been entrusted with the power of the Holy Spirit to produce food from thin air, as He would later aptly demonstrate, but to have solely and selfishly used it for His own benefit would have been wrong.

          Could Jesus be trusted with the power of the Holy Spirit to do miracles in His upcoming ministry? Absolutely, and the restraint He showed under great duress in His first temptation proved it out emphatically.
          The second temptation was incredibly sophisticated (Matthew 4.5-7). It was sophisticated in how it was framed. Jesus' audible response to the first temptation was to attack the devil with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. It is almost as if the devil says, 'Well, two can play that game, and if you like the Bible let me show you how to use it to justify getting what you want', and so the devil quotes Scripture to Him. In this I am reminded so much of our generation of American Christianity. Scripture is hurled about with all the carelessness of a boy with a bucket full of snowballs. It is twisted, misrepresented, misquoted, misapplied, and mistaken to mean the allowance of what the speaker and the audience desires. The prosperity gospel nonsense, those who embrace license under the guise of Christian liberty, and those who use 'judge not' as a cover for never taking a stand or for rejecting any solemn admonition are all prime examples of this. When Scripture becomes something I use as a cover to allow me to do what I want I have fallen into this precise trap.

          In this temptation, not only was the devil sophisticated in how he offered Jesus something, but what he offered was precisely what Jesus would have wanted – to be easily and quickly accepted as Israel's messiah. To quote Edersheim:

Jesus stands on the watch-post which the white-robed priest has just quitted. Fast the rosy morning light, deepening into crimson, and edged with gold, is spreading over the land. In the Priest’s Court below Him the morning-sacrifice has been offered. The massive Temple-gates are slowly opening, and the blast of the priests’ silver trumpets is summoning Israel to begin a new day by appearing before their Lord. Now then let Him descend, Heaven-borne, into the midst of priests and people. What shouts of acclamation would greet His appearance! What homage of worship would be His! The goal can at once be reached, and that at the head of believing Israel.

          So often what the devil offers us is a good thing gotten the easy way or the quick way. God is not a short cut God but the devil most definitely is a short cut devil. You will remember that the very first temptation ever recorded was essentially offering Eve a short cut to something very desirable: 'ye shall be as gods' (Genesis 3.5). What a temptation this must have been to Christ! He could have avoided three years worth of work, a war with the Pharisees He couldn't hope to win, and the agony of the crucifixion in one fell swoop.

          I am deeply grateful, and will be for eternity, that Jesus resisted the devil here. If He had not, there would be no cross. If He had not, there would be no atonement. If He had not, there would be no redemption. If He had not, there would be no mercy. And if He had not, there would be no Heaven for me, only the fiery torments of hell. My eternal destiny hung on His response to the devil's sophisticated temptation. Thank God my eternal destiny was safe!

          The third temptation was similar to the second, with only the scope being different (Matthew 4.8-10). In the second temptation the devil offered Jesus Israel. In the third, he offered Jesus the world. The devil has been around for a long time and dealt with billions of us. He knows that, for most people, all he has to do is increase the offer in order to get us to sell. Many a man who wouldn't fall for an average strange woman will for a beautiful one, and a man who wouldn't embezzle a thousand dollars will sell out his integrity for ten times that amount.

          Jesus has been promised kingship over the entire world (Daniel 7.13-14, Psalm 2, Psalm 8, etc.) But at this point Jesus is now just an unemployed carpenter from a backwater village in a distant province of the Roman empire. Between where He was, starving, in the hill country of Judea, and a throne that would straddle the globe was a mountain of toil, tears, pain, sorrow, betrayal, heartache, suffering, and loss. Between those two are thousands of years. Between those two are billions of human stories containing immeasurable suffering from war, disease, famine, and death. Yet Jesus could, literally, usher in the kingdom, the one over the entire world, right at the very beginning if He chose. He chose not, and although I am exceedingly eager for the kingdom to come I am glad He postponed it.

          Pyrite is sometimes called fool's gold. It bears a superficial resemblance to gold

but is actually relatively worthless. So it is, beloved, with what the devil offered Jesus then, and what he offers us now. If Jesus had reached for the Holy Spirit's power to selfishly turn stones to bread I think He would have found it suddenly vanished, like Samson's strength. If Jesus had cast Himself from the pinnacle in order to slowly descend into the waiting arms of an adoring and accepting religious leadership He would have found the acceptance hollow, and the embrace empty. If Jesus had knelt on that mountain peak to the devil in exchange for the keys to kingdom He would have found that He hadn't really gotten a kingdom at all, rather just a title.

          No, the only proper response was to skewer the devil with Scripture, and refuse to be swayed by what he offered. The only proper response was to continue on down the hard path the Father had set for His feet, embracing the humility and sorrow of it all, for the joy that was set before Him. The only proper response was to resist the devil, and then watch in delight as he fled from Him.

          This was the only proper response for Jesus. It is also the only proper response from us. 

Where Is Your Wilderness?

Life of Christ 20

          I do not know if Jesus planned to head into the Judean wilderness for a month when he set out from Nazareth a few days before, but I suspect He did. I think that He knew it was time for His public ministry to begin, and He chose to launch it on purpose with the formal ceremony of baptism followed by a lengthy period of time alone with God.

          I'm a Baptist through and through, but one of things I've come to respect about Catholicism is its historical emphasis on withdrawing periodically into a quiet place, where you can be alone with God and the world He created. Please don't misunderstand this, for I'm in no way positively referencing Roman Catholic theology, but they have long grasped this as an essential concept to include in a ministerial life, and I believe it comes straight from the life of Jesus Christ. We see Him do it here (Matthew 4.1-2) and elsewhere (Luke 5.16).

          Several years ago one of my church members returned from a vacation in Wisconsin and spoke of seeing a prayer cabin on their travels, a place specifically set aside for those who want to be alone with God. Intrigued, I did a bit of research (the fancy way for saying I googled some things) and found a number of these within driving distance of me. I settled, finally, upon a place in Western Illinois that is designed specifically for those who want to be alone with God. It is 80 acres of wooded hills way back off of some dirt roads in the middle of one of the most rural counties in the state. (You may find it here.) On this property are three tiny, one room cabins in which, for a nominal fee, anyone may come and stay for a while. I went for the first time about four years ago, and I have returned every year since, and, frankly, it has become one of the highlights of my year. Cut through the woods and fields are walking trails, and scattered along these trails are various benches and chairs. For hours I just walk and pray, occasionally stopping to sit for a while, my only company the deer and wild turkey, and the hawks soaring in slow circles above me. These times alone with God, so far from the rush of the busy city I live in, have become exceedingly precious to me, almost, if you will allow me to say it, sacred in the memory of my mind.

         I think it was something precisely like this that Jesus was seeking to accomplish. His entire life was about to turn upside down, from the quiet life of a village carpenter, into a whirlwind of miracles, sermons, attention, opposition, and ministry. He had long enjoyed the most intimate of relationships with His Heavenly Father, engaging, I am sure, in lengthy conversations with Him while at His workbench, or laboring in quiet dignity amid the scent of freshly worked wood. But this was different. This was a time set aside to do nothing but be with God, to turn a page, so to speak on one life, and to embrace the next while placing His Heavenly Father in the very center of it.

          The applications of this are startlingly obvious. If Jesus Christ, Almighty God, and the Saviour of men, could not hope to engage upon His great work without first going alone to be with the Father, how can we frail creatures of dust hope to do so? Especially is this true of His men, those called to walk with Him and then stand before His people and share with them what He has said. Do you have a place like this? More importantly, do you have times like this? I am not now speaking of the chair where you read your Bible of a morning, but of getting alone, far away from the call of the world and of your phone, with just you, your Bible, and God, for a few days.

          Before Jesus ministered in public He withdrew into the Judean wilderness.

          Where is your wilderness?

Why Did Jesus Get Baptized?

Life of Christ 19

          Well, why did He? If John’s baptism was one of repentance from sin and an expression of faith in the coming Messiah, why would Jesus get baptized? After all, He had no sin from which He needed to repent (John 8.46) so logic would decree that baptism was unneeded. In my opinion there are three answers to that question.

          First, Jesus was baptized in order to publicly identify Himself with the believing remnant of Jews. Israel was in a mess. Rome had her by the throat, and just as with any country there were various ideas about how to deal with it, and people identified themselves in accordance with those ideas into about four major groups.

          The Pharisees, with their resistance to Hellenization by a strict adherence to the letter of the Law, their concept of a fence around the garden of the Torah, and their solution of an highly complex system of rules designed to keep people from breaking Moses’ Law, sought to handle it by pursuing religious purity. The Essenes, a cult like commune on the shores of the Dead Sea, handled the mess by seeking to withdraw from it into a monastic life. The Zealots, the Irish Republican Army of Israel, believed that the solution was an armed revolution against Rome. The Herodians, on the other hand, were complete accommodationists, and believed that since Rome was so powerfully permanent they should just make the best of it.

          Into the midst of all of this strode the gigantic figure of John the Baptist preaching a national repentance from sin and a faith in God’s promises of a soon coming King. John the Baptist’s answer to the problems of his day was a heart driven spiritual one, and by accepting baptism at the hands of him Jesus was publicly saying, ‘That’s my crowd.’

          Secondly, Jesus was baptized in order for the Father to publicly affirm Him (Matthew 3.13-17). We spoke recently about Jesus’ gradually dawning awareness of His own position as Messiah. I don’t believe He had any doubt in that whatsoever, or that He needed God’s public endorsement in order to firm up His own insecure and shaky understanding. No, He didn’t need those, but He was soon to be surrounded with people who would express both mingled faith and doubt in His claims, including John the Baptist himself  (John 1.29 vs Luke 7.19). This baptism marked a formal beginning, transitioning Jesus from a simple carpenter in Nazareth into the One Who would present His claims as the Christ, and this transition was now stamped with the visible and audible approval of God Himself.

          Thirdly, Jesus was baptized in order to introduce Him to John the Baptist. It is probable that they already knew each other, since their mothers were related, but if they did it was a prior knowledge, before each had assumed his national religious role. They certainly did not have any working relationship on this level for John was still preaching a generic ‘The King is coming’ not a specific ‘Jesus is that King’ type of message.

          As of this writing I have been a pastor for seventeen years, and one of the things I enjoy very much is baptizing people. For lack of a better phrase, I feel something special toward each one of the people whom I have been privileged to baptize. The first and most formal step into their new life in Christ was done, literally, in my hands, and that, in my mind at least, creates a link between us. Of course I do not know if John the Baptist felt that way but I suspect he might have.

 

The Jordan River

         When Jesus stepped into that water and John the Baptist took Him by the hand somehow John knew that this was the Messiah (Matthew 3.13-14). I do not know how John knew that immediately, for Jesus certainly had made no announcements, preached no sermons, performed no miracles, or in any other fashion drawn attention to Himself as of yet. Perhaps it is as simple as the fact that God told John as Jesus stepped into the water.

          As they are standing there in the water they have a bit of an argument, for John, realizing he is holding the Messiah, resists the very idea of baptizing Him. I can imagine this conversation as it takes place, privately, yet in full view of the others assembled on the shore of the Jordan River, and I can imagine the people watching wondering why this one was taking so long and what they were talking about. But when it was over what a link there must have been between the two! Not just the kind of link that I feel, but additionally the thought that you had been privileged to baptize the Messiah Himself, the very One to whom your message of repentance in preparation for a coming King was pointing. He is finally here! And I got to baptize Him!

          I think was necessary because if John the Baptist was to be the forerunner, not just of a generic Messiah, but of Jesus then it would be well for John to know Him personally, and to love Him.

          Frederick W. H. Myers wrote it this way in his lengthy nineteenth century poem, ‘Saint John the Baptist’:

And once again I saw him, in latter days

Fraught with a deeper meaning, for he came

To my baptizing, and the infinite air

Blushed on his coming, and all the earth was still;

Gently he spake; I answered; God from heaven

Called, and I hardly heard him, such a love

Streamed in that orison from man to man.

Then shining from his shoulders either-way

Fell the flood Jordan, and his kingly eyes

Looked in the east, and star-like met the sun.

Once in no manner of similitude,

And twice in thunderings and thrice in flame,

The Highest ere now hath shown him secretly;

But when from heaven the visible Spirit in air

Came verily, lighted on him, was alone,

Then knew I, then I said it, then I saw

God in the voice and glory of a man.

          I think the highlight of John the Baptist’s life was this moment, and a love and worship sprang forth inside his heart that would continue to warm him as his ministry declined, prison came, and eventually the martyr’s crown. Do you love Him today? Is there, in your heart, a great awe, respect, and affection for Jesus? Naught else will warm you through all that you will face in the coming days of your life, but Christ alone, a great love for Him, and His great love for you.

If you would like to listen to the audio sermon that accompanies this blog post you may find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 7, 'When He Was Baptized'.

The Message of John the Baptist

Life of Christ 18

          John the Baptist is one of the most fascinating characters in the Bible. From the very beginning (the miraculous angelic announcement to his father, Zacharias, in the Temple) all the way to his untimely end (having his head cut off after an incestuous and lustful dance in order to satisfy the anger of an aggrieved adulteress) he never fails to interest us.

          He was rough in his carriage, wearing camel's hair and leather, and eating locusts and honey (Matthew 3.4). He was uncompromising in his message, calling the religious leadership of Israel snakes (Matthew 3.7). He was also wildly successful, attracting a large following (Matthew 3.5) which eventually developed into the accepted view that he was actually a prophet (Matthew 21.26). Indeed, Jesus Himself said that a greater man than John had never walked the face of the earth (Luke 7.28).

          The whole point of his ministry was to prepare Israel to receive her soon coming King (Matthew 3.1-2). The Jews of John's day were longing desperately for the Messiah, a great king who would show up and smash Rome's power to smithereens. John the Baptist preached that this promised King was coming, and that Israel needed to spiritually prepare to receive Him. This spiritual preparation involved personal repentance of sin, and an outward visible expression of faith in the coming Kingdom of God via baptism.

          The Jews of John's day would have been familiar with the concept of baptism. It was required of proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism), along with circumcision and sacrifices. The Greeks used the word 'baptize' in the fuller's trade, which produced cloth. Woven wool was first baptized in bleach and then in dye to produce a dramatic and visible purification. As such, baptism came to be understood metaphorically as symbolic of just such a dramatic cleansing and change coming to a person as well. John's baptism, then, was a public declaration of confession and repentance already taken place in the heart, and of faith in God's promises of a soon coming King.

          The common Jewish man of the day swallowed the line fed to him by his religious leaders that he would get into Heaven on the basis of his ethnic identity as a Jew. John's job was to show them plainly that this was not so, but to rather show them the necessity for a genuine heart change, repentance from their sin, and faith in God's promises. The commonly held idea of the day that all Jews went to Heaven simply because they were Jews was called 'the merits of the fathers.' In other words, the Jews of John's time would skate into Heaven because of what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had done. In fact, the Talmud taught that Abraham sat at the gate of hell to turn back any Jew who somehow accidentally got that far.

          John the Baptist's message flew directly in the face of that, demanding a personal repentance from sin and a personal faith in the promises of God of a soon coming King (Matthew 3.9).

          There never has been but one way to Heaven, whether one lived before Christ or after Him. We must, in humility, repent of our sin, and in faith believe the Word of God regarding Jesus Christ. The Messiah was sent to take away Israel's sin (Isaiah 53) and He did exactly that. John's message was that He was coming. Our message is that He did come, and that He is coming again.

The World of John the Baptist

Life of Christ 17

          Thus far we have been looking at the earthly origins of Jesus Christ. We shift now to the next chronological event, which is the ministry of John the Baptist. Before I discuss that ministry, and how it prepared for and intersected with Jesus I want to explain what kind of a world awaited the fiery preaching of John.

          The be all and end all of everything was Rome. They were the single largest influence politically, militarily, and economically. Even in a country and culture that so stridently maintained its separate identity, such as Israel, we find Rome intruding into daily life a tremendous amount. And that Rome was morally and culturally sick.

          The people of Rome embraced two basic philosophies. The first was epicureanism, which proposed that personal pleasure is the chief aim of life. I think you can already imagine where that would take a society. As extremes typically give rise to opposite extremes, unsurprisingly, the second was stoicism, which proposed to remove desire and live completely on reason, virtue, and will. Coincidentally (or not), both of these necessarily always end up at despair, albeit by two totally separate routes.

          Religiously, the Roman pantheon was a collection of Latinized Greek gods with the addition of a bunch of Roman emperors, etc. Being religious had much more to do with observing certain rites and rituals than it did with having faith in the gods or believing a certain set of doctrinal precepts. These rites, including animal and human sacrifice, astrology, reading the entrails of dead animals, etc. could give zero comfort or hope.

          Culturally, slavery was rampant, and respect for human life was nil. Suicide was honorable. Marriage was a facade, still maintained by many for appearance sake but in reality consisting of a fictitious, if legal, binding. Homosexuality, pedophilia, and temple worship prostitution were common. I have an horribly fascinating book in my office that walks you through the lives of each of the Roman emperors, and the absolute debauchery that characterized most of their lives is unspeakable.

          Politically, Mao Zedong, who famously said that power comes out of the barrel of a gun, would have been right at home. Political disagreements often resulted in poisonings, assassinations, and even civil wars. There was very little stability, internally, especially when a transfer of power took place. The Senate, long the guardian of the Roman Republic, had become an empty shell of itself, with little power to halt the excesses of the emperors, and even less desire to do so.

          Economically, the wealth of the known world flowed to Rome, but realistically it flowed to the Roman rich. The palatial extravagant excesses of the French Bourbons had nothing on the gilded lilies of Rome. At the same time, the common people flocked to Rome from the provinces in order to partake of the generous welfare benefits and the free entertainment gratuitously filled with violence. Bread and circuses indeed. How else do you keep a populace satiated while you are treating the empire like your personal fiefdom?

          Closer to home, in Palestine, Rome covered its iron fist with the velvet glove of regional autonomy, but make no mistake, it was an iron glove underneath. Four times, in Jesus' day, the Romans changed the high priest, in spite of the fact that it was supposed to be a lifetime appointment. It is almost certain that the office was purchased, and run as a business. The Roman administration freely trampled the most basic human rights, insulting, offending, demanding, stealing, and murdering whom it would.

          The predominant religious influence of the day in Palestine was the Pharisees, and their external and legalistic religion had no heart to it at all. Their rulings bound the people to a dead traditionalism accompanied by a long list of infinitesimally detailed and highly burdensome regulations. The Sadducees, politically and financially connected, were doctrinally lethargic and heretical. The Herodians embraced the Roman leadership while at the same time the Zealots sought a violent revolution against the might of the entire empire. Each of these groups sought its own advancement at the expense of what was best for the people as a whole.

          To quote Edersheim:

And so the only escape which remained for the philosopher, the satiated, or the miserable, seemed the power of self-destruction! What is worse, the noblest spirits of the time felt, that the state of things was utterly hopeless. Society could not reform itself; philosophy and religion had nothing to offer: they had been tried and found wanting. Seneca longed for some hand from without to life up from the mire of despair; Cicero pictured the enthusiasm which would greet the embodiment of true virtue, should it ever appear on earth, Tacitus declared human life one great farce, and expressed his conviction that the Roman world lay under some terrible curse. All around, despair, conscious need, and unconscious longing.

          Into this sin sick world God launched the uniquely fiery life and message of John the Baptist. Clearly, his world needed exactly that.
          I am an American. Before my eyes, I am watching the political, economic, and cultural decay of the greatest empire the world has known since Rome. Would to God He would send another John the Baptist.

          Or, better yet, just send Jesus.

         

A Peak Behind the Curtain

Life of Christ 16

          The curtain that covers the silent years of Jesus' life is only once raised (Luke 2.41-51), but in that raising we see a precious and holy glimpse that reveals to us much of Who a young Jesus was.

          All Jews were commanded to assemble at Jerusalem for the Passover, and millions of them obeyed. Joseph and Mary clearly were the type who did, and the child Jesus must have reveled in the stories they told on their return each April, but He Himself was too young to go until the age of 12. In contemporary Jewish culture a boy celebrates his bar mitzvah at 13, becoming, literally, a son of the Law. Although that custom did not originate until centuries after Christ, for a 12 year old Jesus the opportunity to attend Passover in Jerusalem must have been a clear demarcation line in His life.

          It was customary for Jews in a neighborhood to travel together in groups, albeit separated by gender. The men and women would then gather together again each evening, and it is relatively easy to see how, on the return journey, neither Joseph nor Mary noticed Jesus' absence until the close of the first day's travel.

          Jesus, at 12, has heard of the Temple almost daily ever since He could remember. It was often mentioned in the Torah and Mishnah, which were probably His sole textbooks up to that point. Jesus Himself surely had heard the story of His own presentation there at about six weeks of age, and of Simeon and Anna's words on that occasion. In Jesus' day, the Temple was the physical heartbeat of everything it meant to be a Jew, and Herod the Great's extensive remodeling, recently begun, would have only added to the allure. Twenty one years later Jesus would weep as He rounded the Mount of Olives and the Temple sprang into His sight though crowds around Him were shouting His name in adulation (Matthew 23.37). I think that same Jesus, at 12, probably wept too, in awe and joy, the first time He saw it.

          He would not have wanted to leave the Temple. After the Passover seder was celebrated Jesus must have gotten up early the next morning and returned to it, unbeknownst to His parents, pulled by His love and desire for His Heavenly Father, and out of a desire to experience the place which Jehovah loved so much. It was common in that day for esteemed rabbis to gather around them a group of followers, and to partake of a give and take conversation with them about some aspect of the Law, and it was to these groups that Jesus attached Himself after His parents left. Even then, at 12, He already had the incredible knowledge of the Scriptures, and the barbed way of wording His point that He revealed so often in His public ministry decades later. How those learned rabbis marveled at the maturity and spirituality and knowledge this young man displayed!

          Though Jesus at that age did understand many things, He would not have understood a parent's worry gradually turning to fright and then coming out as anger. But what He did understand, I'm convinced, was His place and role in the world, and His relationship to His Heavenly Father. In other words, I believe that Jesus at 12 understood that He was the Christ, and the divine Son of God, and that His destiny was to die for the sins of humanity in just a few short decades.

          Let the enormity of that last sentence sink in a moment before you hasten on, dear reader. My reason for asserting this is His use of the phrase 'I must be about my Father's business' (Luke 2.49). The Old Testament does not reveal God as Father, at least not openly; it is there only implied. In fact, I will repeatedly assert this year that Jesus was a revolutionary, not a reformer, and one of the most revolutionary of His doctrines was that revealing God as our Father. So in His day, at His age, to speak of Jehovah as His Father reveals both a depth of understanding of Who God was, and a depth of intimacy in relationship with that God such as no one else had.

          Regardless of whether it was by age 12 or not, at some point, studying the Torah, sitting in synagogue, watching the sheep on a Galilean hillside, or lying awake on His pallet, He had come to the conclusion that He was the Messiah spoken of in the Book He studied so much. …and that is exceeding difficult to wrap my mind around. Who could He talk to about it? His rabbi? His parents? His friends? No, no, and no. Only His Heavenly Father. What a sweet and precious communion that must have been to Him, and become to Him, indeed to them both, as a juvenile yet quickly maturing Jesus came to realize Who He was. Such scenes are almost too tender and holy to look upon, but unless He was born omniscient, which I cannot believe, then they are certainly true.

          And yet His greatness is seen yet again in that He remained subject unto His parents (Luke 2.51). Deity took out the garbage and did the dishes at the command of His mother. Deity made His bed, and swept the floor, and babysat His siblings, and held the boards while His dad cut them. Deity bit His tongue while His rabbi made errors in interpreting and applying the Torah at school. Long before Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to the death of the cross He learned to humble Himself, and be obedient to the imperfect parents and teachers and authorities He encountered in daily life. There is such loneliness here! There is such humility here! There is such grace here! There is such pressure here! There is such intimacy with His Heavenly Father here! There is such obedience here!    Additionally, there is such example here. It just so happens that I have a 12 year old son. Why can't he be like Jesus? I can here you thinking it, 'Well, that's not a fair expectation for a father to have. Your son isn't perfect. He's just a regular boy. He's no Jesus. You shouldn't put such pressure on him.' Excuse me? If I, as an adult, am supposed to be like Jesus was as an adult then why is it wrong to expect a 12 year old to be like Jesus was as a 12 year old? Isn't being like Jesus the great aim of Christianity?

          The problem with American Christianity is not that we set the bar too high, and psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually damage people by demanding they meet it. No, beloved, the problem is that we set the bar so low that all people have to do essentially is to roll across it and then accept their spiritual maturity trophy. Let us point our children to Jesus, and may they discover in Him both a Saviour and an example. And let us point ourselves at Jesus and find in Him all of that, and more.

If you would like to listen to the audio sermon that accompanies this blog post you may find it here on our church website. Press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 6, 'And The Child Grew'.

                   

And the Child Grew

Life of Christ 15

  

 

           Jesus grew. For some reason, there is a tendency to think of Jesus as being hatched, full-fledged, from the womb, wearing a robe, with long hair dangling down, and his hands held out in blessing. Well, He wasn't. Jesus grew.

          At the risk of sounding heretical, one of the things I want to do with this series this year is to show you the humanity of Jesus. Yes, He was God, but He was just as much human as He was divine (I Timothy 2.5) and that is all too often forgotten. He got hungry (Luke 4.2). He got thirsty (John 19.28). He got tired (John 4.6). He got sleepy (Mark 4.38). I love the way Hebrews phrases it, careful to incorporate His humanity while not denying His deity, 'For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4.15).

          I believe in the omniscience of God, but I also believe that Jesus laid aside this omniscience when He clothed Himself in flesh (Mark 13.32). Luke said, 'And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him' (Luke 2.40). I realize it is somewhat controversial to assert that Jesus lay aside some of Deity's attributes but that is the only conclusion to which I can come. He had to learn to crawl, and then walk, and then talk. He had to learn how to tie His sandals and how to brush His teeth. He had to learn the alphabet, and how to read. He had to study in school just like you did. I realize He never sinned, but just because He didn't disobey His parents doesn't mean that He stepped from the manger knowing everything. He still had to be taught, and He still had to learn.

          He would have learned first at home, being taught to read by Mary. Then His schooling would have shifted to His local synagogue in Nazareth where the course of education would have been almost exclusively religious. This was not because He was some gifted and spiritual boy, but simply the custom of the time for observant Jews such as Joseph and Mary were. He clearly applied Himself, for as an adult He spoke Aramaic, Greek, and Hebrew, and He knew the Law and the Prophets inside and out.

          Most of all, He grew spiritually. In this, I think, He was different from us, for we grow two steps forward and one step back. He, on the other hand, never had to conquer a sin. He never took a step back. But He did have to mature, and mature He did.

          He grew in spirit. We are triune creatures, consisting of a body, soul, and spirit. Your body is the part of you that is sitting in that chair reading this. Your soul is the part of you that looks out behind your eyes, and thinks and feels and experiences. Your spirit is the part of you that communicates with God. In those quiet years in Nazareth, the child Jesus grew spiritually. He learned from the Torah what God expected of Him, and He learned to yield Himself to God. At the same time, He developed His ability to talk to God in prayer, to communicate with God in His spirit.

          Luke also tells us He grew in wisdom. Wisdom is seeing life like God sees it, from His perspective, so that you can make the correct choice when you are faced with a decision. Wisdom is knowing how to do something. Jesus gradually matured in wisdom to the place where His entire perspective on life was God's perspective. He was filled with wisdom.

          In the context of the same verse Luke mentions that the grace of God was upon Him. Grace enables Him to serve His Father. Grace filled His lips. Grace helped Him to deal with the imperfections of every person around Him. He grew in an atmosphere of grace. He came to understand clearly the relationship between grace and the Law. He cultivated the Christian graces like faith, boldness, knowledge, diligence, love, mercy, and generosity. He grasped the grace necessary for a perfect young man to remain humble.

          Can you imagine what His parents thought and felt as they watched Him mature, never sinning, never taking a step back, just constantly growing and growing and growing? Can you imagine being His siblings? How they must have struggled with jealousy, never being able to measure up to their older brother. In their turn, Joseph and Mary must have struggled a fair amount in parenting, dealing with such unequal children at home, especially when your first is the perfect one. No one knows us better than those who share the same home with us, and although there was clearly a measure of hostility between Jesus and His siblings during His lifetime, in the end they also came to believe on Him. How humbling that must have been for them, to put their faith in their own brother. He must have been completely real, completely genuine, and completely filled with grace and truth as He grew else surely they would have known. One of the greatly ignored evidences that He was not a fraud, and was Who He claimed to be is that His own siblings eventually believed on Him.

          The Bible is largely silent about these years, but to me they are precious years. They show His humanity while not detracting from His deity. And in that very humanity there is such an example for you and I, a practical, real life, day by day kind of example.
          Jesus grew.
          Are you?