Are you the One we’ve been expecting to come, or should we keep our options open (11:3)?
Asked by John the Baptist’s disciples, who had been actively waiting and preparing themselves to be ready for God’s Messiah, it’s a question pondered by all of us at the depths of our human experience.
We ask it in different ways, but the depth of our longing is the same. God, when are you going to show yourself to me? How long do I have to wait? How do I know that you’re for real? Some of the things I’ve seen in my life look like you, but how can I be sure? Are you really the one who gives us hope? If not, please tell me because I’m getting weary of waiting.
I find it interesting that Jesus didn’t respond to them by giving them some sort of intellectual argument, trying to prove that he in fact was the One. He didn’t placate their expectations by telling them, “I know you’ve been waiting a long time, and I know things aren’t exactly what you expected, and things are hard, but just hold on a little longer and you’ll see.”
Jesus simply said, What do you hear, what do you see? “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me” (11:4-6).
In other words, you see the evidence of God’s kingdom at work. You tell me.
Take a look at Isaiah 35, especially verses 5-6, and you’ll understand that Jesus answered them by referring them to Jewish expectations of the Messiah that they knew, but perhaps had forgotten. Maybe that’s why Jesus says, “Blessed is the one who doesn’t not fall away on account of me.” Some turn away from Jesus because he doesn't meet their expectations.
It’s not just the question we ask— “Are you the One?” It’s having “ears to hear” the answer that God is giving. “Wisdom is proved right by her actions” (11:15, 19).
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Matthew 9:35-10:42: Your Turn
I ended my post on Matthew 7 with this question: If we lived in the reality of Jesus with us and his authority (s'mikhah) in us, how would that change the way we live and how we relate to the world around us?
Does 10:1 give us the answer? “He called his twelve disciples and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”
Matthew 9:35-37 is like a hinge in the story. These three verses swing back to summarize what has happened since 4:17, while opening the story forward, pointing us to the next phase of the story: The Rabbi’s students doing what the Rabbi does. “Your turn,” Jesus says. “Here are the keys to the kingdom. Take it for a test drive.”
Jesus gives the twelve a boatload of instruction in chapter 10, more than I want to detail here. But let me just point out one main idea that sticks out to me. Don’t you find it compelling that there exists such close communion between Jesus and his disciples that their words and actions (their very lives) are seen as if they are Jesus’ words and actions? Jesus instructs them, “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me” (10:40; see also 10:17-20, 24). That’s authority of Jesus transferred to the lives of his disciples.
What does it mean that those who follow Jesus represent Jesus to the world? This is not just some lofty ideal. This is how the kingdom works.
I wonder if there’s a correlation between seeing the power of God and living under the authority of God. Is it possible that we deny the power of God in our world today because we choose to live under an alternative authority?
Would people see more of Jesus in us if we saw ourselves more in Jesus?
Does 10:1 give us the answer? “He called his twelve disciples and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”
Matthew 9:35-37 is like a hinge in the story. These three verses swing back to summarize what has happened since 4:17, while opening the story forward, pointing us to the next phase of the story: The Rabbi’s students doing what the Rabbi does. “Your turn,” Jesus says. “Here are the keys to the kingdom. Take it for a test drive.”
Jesus gives the twelve a boatload of instruction in chapter 10, more than I want to detail here. But let me just point out one main idea that sticks out to me. Don’t you find it compelling that there exists such close communion between Jesus and his disciples that their words and actions (their very lives) are seen as if they are Jesus’ words and actions? Jesus instructs them, “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me” (10:40; see also 10:17-20, 24). That’s authority of Jesus transferred to the lives of his disciples.
What does it mean that those who follow Jesus represent Jesus to the world? This is not just some lofty ideal. This is how the kingdom works.
I wonder if there’s a correlation between seeing the power of God and living under the authority of God. Is it possible that we deny the power of God in our world today because we choose to live under an alternative authority?
Would people see more of Jesus in us if we saw ourselves more in Jesus?
Monday, September 24, 2007
Matthew 9:9-13: Was Matthew Listed in the Christian Business Yellow Pages?
What’s up with the Christian Business Yellow Pages? If that thing had been around in Jesus’ day and Jesus only entered the businesses of his followers, do you think he would have ever entered Matthew’s tax office?
If Jesus only hung out with the righteous, we wouldn’t be reading the gospel of Matthew.
If we only engage in conversation with Christians, shop at Christian stores, eat Christian food, listen to Christian music, watch Christian TV, go to Christian schools, read Christian books, work Christian jobs, how in the world does God’s kingdom come, his will done on earth as it is in heaven? Somebody break up this holy huddle!
If Jesus only hung out with the righteous, we wouldn’t be reading the gospel of Matthew.
If we only engage in conversation with Christians, shop at Christian stores, eat Christian food, listen to Christian music, watch Christian TV, go to Christian schools, read Christian books, work Christian jobs, how in the world does God’s kingdom come, his will done on earth as it is in heaven? Somebody break up this holy huddle!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Bread for the Journey: Our Shared Faith
Often times the words someone else has written say better what you want to say than you could yourself. This past Thursday night I shared with our Catalyst interns a quote from one of my heroes of the faith, Henri Nouwen. This is as close to a "mission statement" as I can think of for who we are at what we are aiming for here at Wesley.
Being a Christian is not a solitary affair. Nevertheless, we often think about the spiritual life in highly individualistic terms. We are trained to have our own ideas, speak our own minds and follow our own ways. European and American education places so much emphasis on the development of an independent personality that we have come to view other people more as potential advisors, guides and friends on the road to self-fulfillment than as fellow members of a community of faith.Considering what is written above, it is also interesting to note that the Lord's prayer in our readings this past week begins with "Our Father" and not "My father." Let us meditate on the prayer Jesus taught us, and what it means for the communion of saints of which we are a part.
In the intimacy of my relationship with God I still find myself thinking more about my faith, my hope and my love than about our faith, our hope and our love. I worry about my individual prayer life, I speculate about my future as an educated man, and I reflect on how much good I have done or will do for others. In all of this, it is my individual spiritual life that receives the most attention.
That God reveals the fullness of divine love first of all in community, and that the proclamation of the good news finds its main source there has radical consequences for our lives. Because now the question is no longer: “How can I best develop my spiritual life and share it with others?” but “Where do we find the community of faith to which the Sprit of God descends and from which God’s message of hope and love can be brought as a light into the world?” Once this question becomes our main concern we can no longer separate the spiritual life from the community, belonging to God from belonging to each other, and seeing Christ from seeing one another in Him.
Henri Nouwen
"Behold the Beauty of the Lord"
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Reading Scripture: Great Expectations (Part One)
As we continue through the Gospel of Matthew, we come across a very interesting statement by Jesus in 10:5: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel – God’s lost sheep.”
God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus, but now here is Jesus telling his disciples to ignore the rest of the world and focus only on their own people. What are we missing?
Looking back at the last 10 chapters we have read in Matthew, we can see a major theme developing: This book was first written for Jews who were expecting a messiah. That is why there is so much imagery and attention paid to Jewish customs and laws. And if we look closer still, we can see that the gospel is filled with echoes of the Israelite Old Testament story… all with the purpose of showing that Christ is the Messiah and that God keeps his promises to his people.
In the Creation story Adam fails and gives in to temptation, leading to sin and death entering the world. But in Matthew 3 we see Christ resisting the temptation of Satan. In the Exodus story we see God leading his people out of Egypt and across the Jordan River. In the Gospel of Matthew we see Christ coming out of Egypt and being baptized in the Jordan River. The Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. Christ spends 40 days in the wilderness.
So what we see here is that where Adam failed, Christ (the “new Adam”) would not. Just as Israel was called and led, so was Christ. But where Israel failed, Christ would not. Before God could show how much he loved the world, he first had to show Israel that he keeps his promise. How can God be trusted in anything he says if he cannot first keep his promise to his people?
But what is that promise? Maybe it runs deeper than just dieing for our sins.
More to come…
God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus, but now here is Jesus telling his disciples to ignore the rest of the world and focus only on their own people. What are we missing?
Looking back at the last 10 chapters we have read in Matthew, we can see a major theme developing: This book was first written for Jews who were expecting a messiah. That is why there is so much imagery and attention paid to Jewish customs and laws. And if we look closer still, we can see that the gospel is filled with echoes of the Israelite Old Testament story… all with the purpose of showing that Christ is the Messiah and that God keeps his promises to his people.
In the Creation story Adam fails and gives in to temptation, leading to sin and death entering the world. But in Matthew 3 we see Christ resisting the temptation of Satan. In the Exodus story we see God leading his people out of Egypt and across the Jordan River. In the Gospel of Matthew we see Christ coming out of Egypt and being baptized in the Jordan River. The Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. Christ spends 40 days in the wilderness.
So what we see here is that where Adam failed, Christ (the “new Adam”) would not. Just as Israel was called and led, so was Christ. But where Israel failed, Christ would not. Before God could show how much he loved the world, he first had to show Israel that he keeps his promise. How can God be trusted in anything he says if he cannot first keep his promise to his people?
But what is that promise? Maybe it runs deeper than just dieing for our sins.
More to come…
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Matthew 8: Bigger, Wider, Deeper
It’s interesting who hears Jesus and how they respond to him. Coming down from the mountain of kindgom teaching (Matt. 5-7), Jesus immediately enters into the heart of human response to the demonstration of his kingdom.
The unclean, isolated, rejected, pagan, godless, sick, possessed, and outcast respond in courage, humility, and trust.
Some Jewish religious elite respond with excuses.
Winds and waves, non-human elements, obey his authority. His disciples worry about their own well-being.
Jesus enters the region of the Gadarenes, a predominantly Gentile-Roman region about 6 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee where the people religiously practice the worship of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses. Demons flee their well-established residence in two men in obedience to Jesus’ command, and yet the whole town of people begs him to get out of town. Do the demons fear his power more than the people trust his authority?
Jesus busts through any religious boundary constructed to include and exclude. The kingdom of heaven has broken through the paradigms of the stuff of earth (4:17). God’s mission to renew and restore his creation is bigger, wider, and deeper than anyone thinks or imagines.
When I look at the responses to Jesus in chapter 8, I feel compelled to ask some questions. Where do I put limits on God’s work in my life and in the lives of others? Am I open to God breaking in on my world? Where am I missing God’s kingdom mission because my view of him is too narrow or too self-absorbed? What is my response to him?
The unclean, isolated, rejected, pagan, godless, sick, possessed, and outcast respond in courage, humility, and trust.
Some Jewish religious elite respond with excuses.
Winds and waves, non-human elements, obey his authority. His disciples worry about their own well-being.
Jesus enters the region of the Gadarenes, a predominantly Gentile-Roman region about 6 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee where the people religiously practice the worship of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses. Demons flee their well-established residence in two men in obedience to Jesus’ command, and yet the whole town of people begs him to get out of town. Do the demons fear his power more than the people trust his authority?
Jesus busts through any religious boundary constructed to include and exclude. The kingdom of heaven has broken through the paradigms of the stuff of earth (4:17). God’s mission to renew and restore his creation is bigger, wider, and deeper than anyone thinks or imagines.
When I look at the responses to Jesus in chapter 8, I feel compelled to ask some questions. Where do I put limits on God’s work in my life and in the lives of others? Am I open to God breaking in on my world? Where am I missing God’s kingdom mission because my view of him is too narrow or too self-absorbed? What is my response to him?
Reading Scripture: Chapter & Verse
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had many conversations with many of you over how we should look at Scripture, particularly the first half of the book of Matthew. Today we start reading chapter nine, but I want to look at the texts we have read so far and use them to lay the groundwork for some larger themes and ideas that I hope will help us as we read the Scriptures together.
This past weekend I was watching a preacher on TV say that God had told him to tell me that because God had promised a blessing in Isaiah 58, I was supposed to give $58 a month for a year in order to receive the same blessing. I’ve seen this preacher do this before, with certain chapters being the number of people who are supposed to give, and the verse being the amount they are supposed to give.
Now of course this is an extreme example, but it got me thinking about the concept of chapters and verses in the Bible. In reality, the chapters and verses as we have them today were not there when the original authors wrote the Scriptures. They just wrote long letters or gospels. It wasn’t until centuries later that they were divided up and organized into the chapters and verses that we have today. Of course, the intent was to make the Scriptures easier to reference, but there have been unintended consequences.
Today when we read a passage of Scripture, the editors of the different Bible translations have broken them up by story or topic based on these chapters, and on what they think is a “logical” break. But what if the original author did not mean for the story or thought flow to break there? What if we have missed something all together by boxing in the Scripture so it makes sense?
Here is an example: In Matthew 3:13-17 we have the story of the Baptism of Jesus. The story climaxes with Jesus rising out of the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descending upon Him, and God declaring out loud for all to hear, “This is my beloved Son, and I am well pleased with Him.” Then the chapter ends, and then Matthew 4 opens with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. So we tie off one story and open the next… and this story usually ends for us with the lesson that Jesus was able to fight of temptation and so can we.
But look at the first thing that happens when Satan tempts Jesus. He asks Him “are you really the Son of God?” Jesus rebukes him, and tells him that “Humans do not live off of bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” What does that mean?
But if we look back in the story just a bit, we see that from the mouth of God came the words that Jesus was the Son of God. So what did Jesus “live off of” while he fasted in the desert for 40 days? What was the bread that had come from the mouth of God? The words of the Father at His baptism… "This is my beloved Son, and I am well pleased with him." And so after 40 days with only that as his bread in the wilderness, Christ is able to face the temptation of the Enemy, knowing that his identity is in the Father. And what is even more telling, is that God declares he is well pleased with the Son before he has even done anything publically, rather than waiting until the end and saying, "Well done good and faitful servant." It was not Christ beating back Satan with Scripture that won God's favor... rather it was knowing and feasting on the fact that He had God's favor and was God's beloved Son before he entred the wilderness that enabled Christ to resist temptation.
I don’t know about you, but that helps me look at the story in a different light, and it helps me apply the story to my own life in a somewhat different way. This is no longer just a Bible lesson that simply says, “You can fight off the Enemy with Scripture.” Rather our Baptism, in all reality, becomes the core of who we are and how we are sustained in the wilderness… the beloved sons and daughters of God, regardless of what we have or have not done.
When reading a passage of Scripture, it is of vital importance to not read a verse or set of verses in a vacuum and try to determine what they mean for you life now. Take the time to read what has come before it, and even what comes after. Try to not let the chapters and verses break up the story where it was not intended to be broken. You’ll be able to find where the author intended for a change or a break, but often times it will not be where centuries of editors decided it should be.
So how does this concept change some of the other ways we should read Scripture? More to come…
This past weekend I was watching a preacher on TV say that God had told him to tell me that because God had promised a blessing in Isaiah 58, I was supposed to give $58 a month for a year in order to receive the same blessing. I’ve seen this preacher do this before, with certain chapters being the number of people who are supposed to give, and the verse being the amount they are supposed to give.
Now of course this is an extreme example, but it got me thinking about the concept of chapters and verses in the Bible. In reality, the chapters and verses as we have them today were not there when the original authors wrote the Scriptures. They just wrote long letters or gospels. It wasn’t until centuries later that they were divided up and organized into the chapters and verses that we have today. Of course, the intent was to make the Scriptures easier to reference, but there have been unintended consequences.
Today when we read a passage of Scripture, the editors of the different Bible translations have broken them up by story or topic based on these chapters, and on what they think is a “logical” break. But what if the original author did not mean for the story or thought flow to break there? What if we have missed something all together by boxing in the Scripture so it makes sense?
Here is an example: In Matthew 3:13-17 we have the story of the Baptism of Jesus. The story climaxes with Jesus rising out of the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descending upon Him, and God declaring out loud for all to hear, “This is my beloved Son, and I am well pleased with Him.” Then the chapter ends, and then Matthew 4 opens with the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. So we tie off one story and open the next… and this story usually ends for us with the lesson that Jesus was able to fight of temptation and so can we.
But look at the first thing that happens when Satan tempts Jesus. He asks Him “are you really the Son of God?” Jesus rebukes him, and tells him that “Humans do not live off of bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” What does that mean?
But if we look back in the story just a bit, we see that from the mouth of God came the words that Jesus was the Son of God. So what did Jesus “live off of” while he fasted in the desert for 40 days? What was the bread that had come from the mouth of God? The words of the Father at His baptism… "This is my beloved Son, and I am well pleased with him." And so after 40 days with only that as his bread in the wilderness, Christ is able to face the temptation of the Enemy, knowing that his identity is in the Father. And what is even more telling, is that God declares he is well pleased with the Son before he has even done anything publically, rather than waiting until the end and saying, "Well done good and faitful servant." It was not Christ beating back Satan with Scripture that won God's favor... rather it was knowing and feasting on the fact that He had God's favor and was God's beloved Son before he entred the wilderness that enabled Christ to resist temptation.
I don’t know about you, but that helps me look at the story in a different light, and it helps me apply the story to my own life in a somewhat different way. This is no longer just a Bible lesson that simply says, “You can fight off the Enemy with Scripture.” Rather our Baptism, in all reality, becomes the core of who we are and how we are sustained in the wilderness… the beloved sons and daughters of God, regardless of what we have or have not done.
When reading a passage of Scripture, it is of vital importance to not read a verse or set of verses in a vacuum and try to determine what they mean for you life now. Take the time to read what has come before it, and even what comes after. Try to not let the chapters and verses break up the story where it was not intended to be broken. You’ll be able to find where the author intended for a change or a break, but often times it will not be where centuries of editors decided it should be.
So how does this concept change some of the other ways we should read Scripture? More to come…
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Matthew 7: S'mikhah
A word pops up at the end of Matthew 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7), which gives some insight into who Jesus is and how people responded to him. This is the first place the word occurs in Matthew but not the last place. It pops up again in chapters 8, 9, 10, 21, and 28, where Jesus gives to his disciples what has come to be known as the Great Commission.
Matthew concludes this section of Jesus’ teachings (chapters 5-7) by letting us know that Jesus “taught as one who had s’mikhah (authority), and not as their teachers of the law.” A s’mikhah Rabbi was recognized as one who had the authority to make new interpretations of the Torah. In contrast, the teachers of the law could not offer new interpretations of the law. They could only teach what the rabbinic community had already commonly accepted.
You see Jesus exercising his s’mikhah in several places in the Sermon on the Mount. For example,
The amazing thing is that no one fulfills all of God's people's hopes and dreams except God. Hmmm…what is Jesus saying?
Spoiler alert: When Jesus commissions his disciples after his resurrection, he says, "All authority [all s’mikhah] in heaven and on earth has been given to me…. Therefore go…. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20). Check it out. If Jesus’ presence constantly and always accompanies his people, wouldn’t that mean that his s’mikhah also comes along with him and with his people?
If we lived in the reality of Jesus with us and his s'mikhah in us, how would that change the way we live and how we relate to the world around us?
Matthew concludes this section of Jesus’ teachings (chapters 5-7) by letting us know that Jesus “taught as one who had s’mikhah (authority), and not as their teachers of the law.” A s’mikhah Rabbi was recognized as one who had the authority to make new interpretations of the Torah. In contrast, the teachers of the law could not offer new interpretations of the law. They could only teach what the rabbinic community had already commonly accepted.
You see Jesus exercising his s’mikhah in several places in the Sermon on the Mount. For example,
- When Jesus wraps up all his teaching by sharing the parable of the wise and foolish builder, he communicates that everything he has just said are “words of mine” (7:24, 26).
- When Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said…but I tell you…” (5:21-22; 27-28; 31-32; 33-34; 38-39; 43-44).
The amazing thing is that no one fulfills all of God's people's hopes and dreams except God. Hmmm…what is Jesus saying?
Spoiler alert: When Jesus commissions his disciples after his resurrection, he says, "All authority [all s’mikhah] in heaven and on earth has been given to me…. Therefore go…. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20). Check it out. If Jesus’ presence constantly and always accompanies his people, wouldn’t that mean that his s’mikhah also comes along with him and with his people?
If we lived in the reality of Jesus with us and his s'mikhah in us, how would that change the way we live and how we relate to the world around us?
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Matthew 6: No Word for Worry?
Three words commonly used in our everyday discourse are absent from the language of the Moken people.* For hundreds of years, the Moken have lived on the Andaman Sea around the islands off th
e Southeast Asian coasts of Thailand and Burma (That’s right, on. They live mostly in their boats, on the sea). Not only does the Moken language exclude these three words from its lexicon, the Moken people have no concept of their meanings.
What are the words? Worry. When. Want. The Mokan don’t ask when. They don’t want. They don’t worry.
It makes sense, I guess, that they don’t worry. Like a never-ending merry-go-round, WHEN and WANT cycle through our lives, producing endless, meaningless WORRY. The things that make us WORRY have to do with WHEN and WANT. If you’re not concerned with WHEN, you don’t WORRY. If you don’t WANT, you don’t WORRY. If you don’t wonder WHEN you’re going to get what you WANT, you don’t WORRY.
In our culture, we are consumed with anxiety. It’s perhaps the number one health concern, leading to depression, ulcers, and even more serious health problems. If we were to take a cue from the Moken, deleting WHEN and WANT from our consciousness, perhaps WORRY would disappear. To delete WHEN would mean to live in the now, unconsumed by fear of the future. To delete WANT would mean to live content, not coveting what we don’t have.
Is it possible not to worry? Well, just look at the Moken.
Look to Jesus. God is good enough to take care of you. What’s Jesus’ answer to the worry that preoccupies us? Make it your number one priority to keep seeking God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness in all that you do (Matt. 6:33). Eugene Peterson, in The Message, puts Jesus’ words like this:
e Southeast Asian coasts of Thailand and Burma (That’s right, on. They live mostly in their boats, on the sea). Not only does the Moken language exclude these three words from its lexicon, the Moken people have no concept of their meanings.What are the words? Worry. When. Want. The Mokan don’t ask when. They don’t want. They don’t worry.
It makes sense, I guess, that they don’t worry. Like a never-ending merry-go-round, WHEN and WANT cycle through our lives, producing endless, meaningless WORRY. The things that make us WORRY have to do with WHEN and WANT. If you’re not concerned with WHEN, you don’t WORRY. If you don’t WANT, you don’t WORRY. If you don’t wonder WHEN you’re going to get what you WANT, you don’t WORRY.
In our culture, we are consumed with anxiety. It’s perhaps the number one health concern, leading to depression, ulcers, and even more serious health problems. If we were to take a cue from the Moken, deleting WHEN and WANT from our consciousness, perhaps WORRY would disappear. To delete WHEN would mean to live in the now, unconsumed by fear of the future. To delete WANT would mean to live content, not coveting what we don’t have.
Is it possible not to worry? Well, just look at the Moken.
Look to Jesus. God is good enough to take care of you. What’s Jesus’ answer to the worry that preoccupies us? Make it your number one priority to keep seeking God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness in all that you do (Matt. 6:33). Eugene Peterson, in The Message, puts Jesus’ words like this:
What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.*I first heard about the Moken in a 60 Minutes story reported by Bob Simon on June 10, 2007 (originally aired on March 20, 2005). Here’s the link to the full story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/18/60minutes/main681558.shtml)
Matthew 5: Can you give me something to work with here?
What if Jesus took just about everything you’d been taught about God your whole life, everything you thought you knew about him, and every rule you’d ever followed in attempts to make yourself right with him and smashed it into a million pieces? After Jesus obliterates your God-view, he then begins to build for you a new framework of fresh understanding of who God really is and what God really expects.
Tap into those feelings and you’ll tap into the experience of those who heard for the first time Jesus’ words of Matthew 5. Everything is turned upside down.
Sounds like Jesus is setting us up for failure. Or is he?
Let me ask a rhetorical question. Could it be that instead of setting us up for failure, Jesus is lifting himself up as our fulfillment (5:17)?
And the call to perfection (probably not the best translation for our perfectionistic, performance-based society) is more accurately a call to be fully alive by loving God with all of who we are and expressing God's love to others without prejudice.
In Jesus, God’s kingdom comes. He is the Father's fulfillment…and ours.
Tap into those feelings and you’ll tap into the experience of those who heard for the first time Jesus’ words of Matthew 5. Everything is turned upside down.
- What you perceive as a life cursed is a life blessed (5:2-12).
- As God’s people, you don’t hide in a corner, but you penetrate the earth and illuminate God’s kingdom goodness for everyone ((5:13-16).
- The “righteous” example of your religious leaders, people who you think are definitely a part of God’s in-crowd, is insufficient (5:17-20).
- Everything you’ve heard from your religious tradition about what not to do on the outside flips to include even the stuff you think on the inside (5:21-33).
- Your sense of justice is upended and replaced by a practice of grace (5:38-42).
- Your love has to extend even to those who don’t love you (5:43-47).
- God loves even those who don’t love him; people you don't even like (5:43-47)!
- And, to top it all off, with your imperfections fully exposed, you must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect (5:48).
Sounds like Jesus is setting us up for failure. Or is he?
Let me ask a rhetorical question. Could it be that instead of setting us up for failure, Jesus is lifting himself up as our fulfillment (5:17)?
And the call to perfection (probably not the best translation for our perfectionistic, performance-based society) is more accurately a call to be fully alive by loving God with all of who we are and expressing God's love to others without prejudice.
In Jesus, God’s kingdom comes. He is the Father's fulfillment…and ours.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Matthew 4: What are we waiting for?
Immediately. At once. I’m struck by the level of urgent non-resistance Peter and Andrew, John and James had to Jesus' invitation to “Come, follow me.” I like how The Message translates it: “They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed” (4:20). Not everyone who experienced Jesus had that response. Matthew makes that clear later.
This “come and follow” call was not just a “let’s hang out a little” invitation. It was Rabbi Jesus asking a few guys to become his students, his disciples. He was asking them to see what he saw, hear what he said, listen to what he heard, eat what he ate, do what he did, pray as he prayed, love as he loved, to become like him. Follow after him.
Rob Bell, in Velvet Elvis, gets at the kind of followship-devotion disciples had for their rabbis. “One of the earliest sages of the Mishnah, Yose ben Yoezer, said to his disciples, ‘Cover yourself with the dust of [your rabbi’s] feet.’”
What did they see in Jesus that caused them to drop everything and follow?
What did Jesus see in them?
What does Jesus see in us?
What are we waiting for?
This “come and follow” call was not just a “let’s hang out a little” invitation. It was Rabbi Jesus asking a few guys to become his students, his disciples. He was asking them to see what he saw, hear what he said, listen to what he heard, eat what he ate, do what he did, pray as he prayed, love as he loved, to become like him. Follow after him.
Rob Bell, in Velvet Elvis, gets at the kind of followship-devotion disciples had for their rabbis. “One of the earliest sages of the Mishnah, Yose ben Yoezer, said to his disciples, ‘Cover yourself with the dust of [your rabbi’s] feet.’”
What did they see in Jesus that caused them to drop everything and follow?
What did Jesus see in them?
What does Jesus see in us?
What are we waiting for?
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Matthew 3: Repentance
To be honest, whenever I read John the Baptist’s message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” I get the image in my head of the people who travel to college campuses to preach a gospel of condemnation, screaming judgment and denunciation, accusing students of all kinds of things. Some students are mesmerized, some antagonized, few (if any) drawn to Jesus.
The movement of Matthew 3 is interesting. It begins with John’s call to repentance and ends with Jesus’ baptism and blessing from the Father. “At that moment, heaven was opened, and [Jesus] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”
In Jesus, the kingdom of heaven has invaded the stuff of earth. God’s kingdom done on earth as it is in heaven. We don't get there without repentance.
Repentance, technically a change of mind and purpose, is more than turning away from someTHING. It is turning toward someONE. The momentum of life changes direction.
In spite of the initial images in my head, repentance is not negative. True, it is a call to turn from a life direction inconsistent with God’s good intention for us (call that sin), but it’s not an imperative to beat ourselves up. It’s a realization that God is drawing us to himself, and by lowering our resistance to his movement in our lives, we move toward his life for us, in us, and through us.
Repentance is our response to the gracious, magnetic draw of Jesus, the fulfillment of God’s dream for all of us.
The movement of Matthew 3 is interesting. It begins with John’s call to repentance and ends with Jesus’ baptism and blessing from the Father. “At that moment, heaven was opened, and [Jesus] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”
In Jesus, the kingdom of heaven has invaded the stuff of earth. God’s kingdom done on earth as it is in heaven. We don't get there without repentance.
Repentance, technically a change of mind and purpose, is more than turning away from someTHING. It is turning toward someONE. The momentum of life changes direction.
In spite of the initial images in my head, repentance is not negative. True, it is a call to turn from a life direction inconsistent with God’s good intention for us (call that sin), but it’s not an imperative to beat ourselves up. It’s a realization that God is drawing us to himself, and by lowering our resistance to his movement in our lives, we move toward his life for us, in us, and through us.
Repentance is our response to the gracious, magnetic draw of Jesus, the fulfillment of God’s dream for all of us.
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