|
|
Saturday, August 26, 2023
September News, Praise and Prayer Requests
Friday, August 25, 2023
The Light and the Law
Exodus 31:18 Daniel 5:1-6, 24-28 John 7:53-8:12
The Light and the Law
In 1984 an American woman by the name of Karla Faye Tucker was convicted of murdering two people in Texas with a three-foot pickaxe and was sentenced to death by lethal injection. However, while in prison awaiting trial Tucker had apparently become a believer in Jesus in October 1983. While all subsequent appeals and requests for retrial were denied, on June 22, 1992, after 14 years on death row, Tucker made a plea for clemency on the basis that she had been high on drugs at the time of the murder and that she was now a rehabilitated person. Her plea became a heavily debated point of contention, especially in the Church. Many appealed to the State of Texas on her behalf, from Pope John Paul II to televangelist Pat Robertson and even the brother of the female murder victim. But the board rejected the appeal on January 28, 1998, and at the 11th hour, Texas Governor George W Bush refused to block her execution. On February 3, 1998, the lethal injection was administered while Tucker sang praises to Jesus.
Capital punishment is a divisive and much-debated subject in both Church and State. Some believers in Jesus think that the Old Testament law regarding the death sentence for certain offences has been abrogated in the New Testament and often they cite John 8 in defence of their position. They claim that Jesus’ act of mercy and forgiveness in this passage sets a precedent and a pattern for us to follow. But is that what this passage is about?
Now, before we go any further, you will probably have noticed that in your particular version of the Bible, this passage is either written in italics or it is placed in brackets or in the footnotes. That is because it is not found in any of the earliest Greek manuscripts. That’s right. Not one…nor is it mentioned by any of the Early Church Fathers, East or West. Stylistically the text is more like Luke than John and, in fact, in some manuscripts it is inserted after Luke 21:38.
Having said that, the general consensus among conservative scholars is that it is an independent account of a real historical event in the life of Jesus that was later added to the Gospel of John as it actually does develop and advance the narrative regarding the ever-deepening divide between Jesus and the leaders.
Also, nothing in the story contradicts Scripture and, indeed, it can be favourably compared to other events and teachings of Jesus. So, even though the story probably was not written by the Apostle John, conservative textual critics believe it is more than likely a true story.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at the passage itself. It is helpful to remember at this point that this incident happened in the Temple the day after the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles. The huge candelabras used during the festival would still have been present in the Court of the Women and it is possible that Jesus used them as a visual aid for his statement, “I AM the Light of the World”.
The story begins with Jesus being interrupted while he was teaching in the Temple. A group of scribes and Pharisees brought in a woman apparently caught in the ‘very act’ of adultery. Now there are a number of problems with what they were doing here.
Firstly, this so-called trial was designed to publicly humiliate the accused. Trials such as these were usually not conducted in the open. This amounts to what someone once described as “a soul striptease” where the sinner is indicted “by the faithful in an atmosphere of righteous indignation”. (Central and Eastern European Bible Commentary, Langham Publishing, 2022, 1191) Unfortunately, the practice of “shaming” is not uncommon in the Church…
Secondly, the incident was staged as a trap. The Romans forbade the Jews to put anyone to death, so if Jesus advocated stoning her, he would have placed himself in opposition to the Roman authorities. However, if Jesus advocated clemency, he would have been accused of not upholding the Jewish Law.
Thirdly…and you have no doubt wondered about this yourself…where was the man? You can’t commit adultery on your own, can you? And yet they say she was caught ‘in the very act’. At the very least, they would have seen some part of her male counterpart if they caught them “in the very act”. Being caught “in the very act” places both parties in a rather compromising position with no room for escape. And yet…where was he?
The law clearly stated that there had to be at least two eyewitnesses to the crime (hence their claim that she had been caught “in the very act”), but it also taught that the death penalty applied to both parties, not just one. Catching her in a compromising circumstance on her own was not sufficient evidence for the death penalty…the physical act had to have been witnessed. (See Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22, 23, 24. Another interesting piece of information here is that as they advocated stoning and not strangling, according to the law this woman must have been a betrothed virgin.
Maybe someone was not happy about his favourite nephew marrying a woman from a less than favourable family. Or if they had, in fact, caught them “in the very act” maybe the man was a very important or very wealthy person…maybe even a very generous benefactor. Who knows. But the bottom line is there was ample reason for dismissing the trial right there and then.
But, instead of saying something, Jesus bent down and started to write on the floor with his finger. You have no idea how much has been written about this one verse. Why did he do this? What was he writing? Was he trying to buy some time…trying to formulate a reply? Was this perhaps the First Century equivalent of doodling? Of course, whatever we say in reply to these questions can never be anything more than speculation…so allow me to tell you what I think is going on here. I checked it in the Greek here and in the Hebrew in Exodus and Daniel…my kind of fact-checker…so I think my guess is as good as any other.
The operative word for me is the word “finger”. Jesus wrote on the floor with his finger. So, I asked myself…where else did God write on something specifically with his “finger”? No door prize here I’m afraid, as we have already read from the two passages. Yes, in Exodus God was said to have written the Ten Words (the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments) on the stone tablets with his finger…and the sixth commandment says? That’s right: You shall not commit adultery.
But what does the ninth commandment say? Any guesses? You shall not bear false witness, yes.
But what does that mean? The commandment is expounded and explained in Exodus 23:1-3. “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit.”
Interesting, no? Remember that these were the same men who had no problem hiring false witnesses in the later trial of Jesus.
And then there’s the hand that wrote on the wall in Daniel. Remember what the message was? “God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.” Throughout the Gospels, Jesus often said similar things to the apostate leaders of Israel.
What these so-called teachers of the law and the Pharisees were trying to do was to use the Law to break the Law…to use the Law as a pretext for prejudice. They thought they had him in a corner with this unreasonable challenge. But in an acted parable, Jesus turned the tables on them, exposed their evil intentions, and pronounced a verdict on them. They had been weighed in the balance of the Law itself and they had been found wanting. Trying to uphold one law by breaking another was hypocritical and damnable, especially when the goal was to trap your opponent!
This is exactly what Jesus meant when he said, “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Now, it is important to remember that the law stated that the first to cast a stone had to be an eyewitness (Deuteronomy 17:7). The fact that no one cast the first stone may suggest that there were no actual eyewitnesses.
Or perhaps the sin Jesus was referring to here, which was definitely present in the hearts of all his accusers, was the sin of false witness with the intent to falsely accuse, convict, and murder Jesus. The Law stated clearly that “If a malicious witness (remember the text says that they were maliciously trying to trap Jesus) takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime…the judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness proves to be a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” (Deuteronomy 19:16–19)
But I think it might be helpful if we could connect what the Law demanded with what Jesus said because, I am sure you will all agree, no one, other than Jesus himself, can be without sin. As John said in his first letter, chapter 1 verse 8, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
If what Jesus said here applies to all cases across the board, well then no one would be able to judge anything. No criminals could be brought to justice if the judges had to be sinless.
So, what did Jesus mean? Well, he either meant that they were all guilty of the sin of adultery, which I don’t think was the case, or he meant that they were guilty of bearing false witness, which is what I do think was the case.
You need to realise that there were actually two people on trial here…the woman and Jesus. While the absence of the man suggests that either she was not caught “in the very act” or that her accusers were totally misapplying the law (killing the woman while letting the man go free), the story seems to indicate that the woman was simply a pawn in their hands…she was nothing more than a tool being used to achieve their evil and murderous goal.
Shamefaced, with their tails between their legs, these law-breaking teachers of the law slunk away to crawl back into their holes one by one, starting with the eldest. That is what creatures of the dark do when confronted with the light.
Jesus is the light that both exposes the misinterpretation and misapplication and misuse of the Law, as well as the light that discloses the true meaning and intent of the Law. As he reminded the leaders, God desires mercy and not religious rituals. (Matthew 9:13; 12:2).
The Law of God was designed, not as a weapon to attack and annihilate, but rather as a beacon to attract sinners to a just and good God and as a guide to lead them on their journey to wholeness. In Deuteronomy 4:6, Moses told the Israelites that everyone that hears about these laws will say, “That great nation certainly is wise!” And as Paul reminds us in Romans 7:12, “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good”.
But even a good law can be abused when used by the wrong person for the wrong reasons. Like the Cambridge student who entered the classroom on exam day and asked the proctor to bring him cakes and ale. When the proctor refused, expressing astonishment at the young student’s audacity, the student read from the 400-year-old Laws of Cambridge, which were still nominally in effect. The passage read by the student said, “Gentlemen sitting for examinations may request and require cakes and ale.” The proctor was obliged to comply, supplying the student with Pepsi and hamburgers as a modern equivalent. The law of the University was clearly on his side.
However, three weeks later the same student was summoned to the Office of Academic Affairs to face disciplinary action and was assessed a fine of five pounds. Of course, the student protested saying that he was within his rights to ask for cakes and ale. But he was told that he was not being fined for demanding cakes and ale, but for blatantly disregarding another Cambridge law: he had failed to wear a sword to the examination. Trying to manipulate the law for our own selfish purposes can be very tricky.
But we now come to the most important part of this story. Jesus’ own judgment. That the woman was guilty of sin seems clear in his statement, “Go and sin no more.” So, if she was guilty and if, as we believe is true, Jesus was without sin, why did he not cast the first stone? One may argue that as he was not an eyewitness, he was not permitted by law to cast the first stone. But, while this would be biblically correct, I think it misses the point of the story. This is God’s grace on display for all to see. Jesus did not dismiss her sin…he rightly judged her actions as sinful. She was guilty. But he did not condemn her.
The purpose of God’s law is to expose sin and to lead us to repentance. That’s what Paul argues in Romans 7. Like Jesus, the law is like a light that penetrates the darkness in every one of us and reveals our need for forgiveness and cleansing. That’s what John said in his first letter. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins AND purify us from all unrighteousness.” What happened to this woman in the First Century as she stood exposed before the Judge of all, happens to everyone who comes to him. I desire mercy, Jesus said, not sacrifice. This is grace…
But the question we need to ask ourselves today is: How do we use God’s Law? Do we use it to condemn others? Do we point out the splinter in their eyes while neglecting the beam in ours? Do we use the law as a weapon? Do we perhaps focus on one sin to the exclusion of others? While both Jesus and Paul’s lists of sins include sexual sin, both heterosexual as well as homosexual, they also include rage and jealousy and arrogance and envy and greed and slander and gossip. Of course, sin must be exposed, otherwise, how can we ever be healed and restored and forgiven? But it is how we expose the sin that makes the difference.
Are we self-righteous or are we humble and merciful and ever mindful of the fact that but for the grace of God, there go I? On which side do we stand in this story?
Karla Faye Tucker was guilty. The woman caught in adultery was guilty. You are guilty. I am guilty. Whatever our position on Capital Punishment may be, whether for or against, we need to be careful that by demanding our pound of flesh, we are not ourselves weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023
Saturday, August 19, 2023
The Person and Purpose of Jesus
Ezekiel 47:1-12 Revelation 22:1-5 John 7:25-52
The Person and Purpose of Jesus
On my father’s farm in Namibia, we had two large reservoirs close to our home that contained water pumped up out of the ground by a windmill. One reservoir was shallower and consequently safe for us to swim in as children. The other was very deep, and we were constantly warned not to clamber up the side of that reservoir because if we fell in, we would surely drown.
Now, in trying to preach from John 7, I feel like I have fallen into that deeper reservoir. The depth and breadth of John 7 are so phenomenal that to do the passage justice would demand an in-depth intertestamental comparative study.
You see, in this chapter, John looks back at numerous passages in the Old Testament and also rehearses several themes already covered in his own Gospel. For instance, think of the question of Jesus’ identity in the opening chapter of this Gospel, the multifaceted theme of living water in Cana, with Nicodemus, and the Samaritan woman, his heavenly origin, his goal and eventual destination, his relationship with his Father, and the authority of Scripture, to mention only a few…all these themes are repeated in John 7.
The Exodus and the provision of water in the desert looms large on the horizon as does the Feast of Tabernacles and the harvest festival, but also the prophetic statements from Ezekiel and other pre- and post-exilic prophets are crucial to understanding what Jesus was teaching here. As such, the person and the purpose of Jesus are both tightly interwoven with the history of the Jewish people: the drama of the Exodus with all its festivals, the miraculous provision of water and bread, the promise of rest, and the presence of God in the Tabernacle and the Temple. Deep and wide…
However, not only does John look back, but he also looks forward to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the subsequent healing flow of the Gospel into the world. In Acts 2, the immediate after-effect of the coming of the promised Holy Spirit was the spiritual rebirth of about three thousand souls who subsequently feasted on the teaching of the apostles. But from that point on, believers in Jesus became canals (to use an image well known to us living in the Netherlands) of this life-giving river, the source of which is the throne of God and of the Lamb. (This is one of the reasons why we say in the Nicene Creed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son). And through us, this life-giving river of the Holy Spirit that flows from the threshold of the heavenly Temple (which the New Testament tells us is Jesus) is brought into a spiritually dead world, bringing life wherever we may go. Or in the words of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “Joy to the World”, Jesus came to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. Deep and wide…
Be that as it may, this complex interlaced teaching of Jesus in this passage encouraged the people to ask questions. We see them wrestling with and arguing over what they had been taught about the Messiah regarding his person and his purpose…where he came from and what he had come to do. But their thoughts seem to have been frustrated by material matters…they could not envision life beyond the national boundaries of Israel and the religious connection to the physical Temple building…and so they stumbled over the spiritual origin and spiritual objective of Jesus. Many continue to stumble even today over the question of who Jesus is and what he has done and is doing for the same reason…he simply does not fit into their preconceived ideas or beliefs.
As we have seen before, one of the rituals performed during the seven-day festival of Tabernacles was the daily collection of water from the Pool of Siloam, the solemn procession of the priests carrying the water up to the Temple, culminating in the pouring of the water as an offering and a prayer at the altar while reciting Isaiah 12:3, “With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” On the eighth and final day of the Feast, water would once again be drawn from the Pool and carried up to the altar amidst a wild, singing, palm-waving gathering and the noisy blasts of trumpets. At some point during this final ritual, Jesus cried out, “Those who are thirsty, ought to come to me and drink, for if you believe in me, know this: I AM the one out of whom rivers of living waters will flow!” John immediately informs us that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Jesus would receive.
What is important to note here is that Jesus claimed to be quoting from Scripture when he said this, but there is no exact match to be found in the Old Testament. Scholars have debated the possibility of this statement being a composite of several passages such as the water flowing from the rock in Exodus 17:6 and Nehemiah 9:15 and 20 and Psalms 78 and 114, the text from Isaiah 12:3 (quoted during the water pouring ceremony), the provision of streams of water in the desert in Isaiah 43:20, the pouring out of the Spirit like water in 44:3, or of God’s people being like an inexhaustible spring of water in 58:11, or the promise of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Joel 2:28 and 3:18, or the reference to living water flowing out from Jerusalem in Zechariah 14:8-9, or the reference to living water flowing out from Temple in Ezekiel 47:1-2.
Perhaps it is best to think that Jesus meant for his hearers to recall all these references, but seeing as this statement was made during the water-pouring ceremony at the Temple, and that the river of living water that brings healing to the nations flows from the Temple and from the Throne of God and the Lamb, I think it is fairly safe to say that Ezekiel’s prophecy of water flowing from under the south side of the Temple, south of the altar, is the primary one. It is even possible that Jesus was standing on the southern steps leading up to the Temple when he made this declaration and that this was the same location where Peter preached his sermon on the day of Pentecost, given the proximity of the baptismal pools in the area.
Nevertheless, wherever this quotation came from, it seems clear that some in the crowd understood it to be a messianic reference. “Surely,” some said, “this man is the Prophet,” referring to a statement made by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 about a future prophetic figure who must be obeyed. Others said, “He is the Christ,”, in other words, the Messiah. Even those who made contrary statements understood his declaration to be a Messianic claim.
But understanding the claims of Jesus and believing the claims of Jesus are not the same things. Indeed, sometimes those who clearly reject him do so because they do understand not because they don’t understand. They know that to acknowledge that Jesus is who he claimed to be, means that they must submit to him and obey him as Lord…they know that everything about them will have to change, and so they actively resist him and reject him.
The temple guards sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus were clearly impressed by what Jesus said and chose to risk the anger of their superiors by admitting that they had never heard such teaching…a bit of a slap in the face when you think that they were addressing the teachers of the law! It may even be that there is a contrast here between the boldness of the guards and the timidity of Nicodemus, as they were not afraid to stand up to these men whereas Nicodemus seemed to have been intimidated by his peers.
Also, it is humorous to note that while the Pharisees accused the crowd of not knowing the law, they incorrectly asserted that no prophet ever came out of Galilee. Jonah was a Galilean native and perhaps even some other prophets. In my experience, those who reject Jesus are often not consistent nor are they as knowledgeable as they think they are.
Be that as it may, the compelling message of Jesus to those in Jerusalem in the 1st Century is still applicable today. The effects of the curse that were so obvious in the First Century can still be seen all around us today…anger, bitterness, resentment, and ethnic hatred that spills over into riotous violence and killing and war. No amount of political diplomacy or allied intervention can put an end to this madness because it is the heart of humanity that needs to change. And only God can redirect a wayward heart.
But it is here that we must be wary of making the same mistakes as some folks in the crowd and the leaders in our Gospel passage for today. They kept stumbling over a materialistic literalism that centred on a geographical and national Israel with a physical and earthly Temple. That’s why they misunderstood Jesus and that’s why the leaders sought to kill him. In John 11:48 the leaders callously stated: “If we let him (Jesus) go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
What Ezekiel and John were describing were spiritual and heavenly realities, not earthly realities. They used physical images to explain what is in many ways unexplainable. So, we should not be distracted by an apparent lack of material fulfilment of these descriptions. As the author of the book of Hebrews said to those discouraged by failed expectations: “…at present, we do not see everything subject to him…but what we do see is Jesus…now crowned with glory and honour…” And because Jesus is crowned with glory and honour, the life-giving water of the Spirit is flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, into us and through us, bringing healing to the nations…reconciliation, rebirth, renewal, and recreation to a spiritually dry and dying world.
What Ezekiel and other Old Testament authors described prophetically…what Jesus declared anticipatingly…what John and other New Testament authors announced reassuringly…is a present reality for all who come to Jesus and drink from that fountain flowing deep and wide. Like the reservoir on our farm in Africa, this body of water is deep and wide, but unlike that reservoir, this is a body of water we are encouraged to enter and be overwhelmed by its cleansing and spiritually invigorating power.
However, it was never the purpose of Jesus for this body of water to be a reservoir. In every biblical passage that references this life-giving water, we are told that it was never intended to be stationary…rather this water that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb…this water that flows from the Temple…this water that flows from the Lord Jesus is a river that flows into the dry and dead places of the world. That is the very reason Jesus came into the world. To bring life. To bring healing. To reconcile the world to God the Father.
Jesus did not come to restore the geo-political, national, ethnocentric kingdom of Israel (Acts 1:6-7; Matthew 28:19-20). He came to establish a global kingdom…every tongue, every tribe, and every nation will be blessed by and through him (Genesis 12:1-3; Psalm 89:9; Daniel 7:14; Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 14:6, et al).
The Holy Spirit of God has been poured out on us and he lives in us so that wherever we may go in this world he may go too. In many ways, our presence is his presence. Whoever rejects us, rejects him. But the takeaway for us today is that we who believe in Jesus are canals of this life-giving water. We are the means by which Jesus fulfils his purpose. His river flows through us even to the ends of the world…through us he makes his blessings flow far as the curse is found.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023
Thursday, August 10, 2023
Our Source of Authority
Isaiah 5:18-21 Galatians 1:6-10 John 7:10-24
Our Source of Authority
How do you feel when you are falsely accused of saying something or doing something you did not say or do? It is not an easy thing to process, is it? Any form of protest on your part seems to reinforce the idea that you must be guilty. On the other hand, should you choose to remain silent, it is assumed that you have no defence and must therefore be worthy of blame.
But it is even worse when your alleged culpability has been discussed and decided in your absence, leaving you without recourse for remedy or reconciliation. Sentence has been passed. Your visible or invisible jury have made up their minds. And even if you are later exonerated and absolved in the eyes of those who truly matter, the sweetness of the acquittal is eclipsed by the bitter reality that your word was once called into question.
In 1994, Frank Darabont wrote and directed a film by the name “The Shawshank Redemption”. The movie is about the wrongful conviction of Andy Dufresne for the double murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Everyone, including his fellow inmates, believed he was guilty. But then, after a few years had gone by, a new inmate revealed the identity of the real killer. Andy appealed to the prison authorities for a retrial…authorities he thought would protect him and vindicate him…instead, the witness was shot and killed in what was claimed to have been an attempted escape. The sheer power of helplessness drove Andy to plot and plan his own vindication and revenge and eventual redemption.
But for the rest of his life, the consequence of this gross miscarriage of justice remained. Andy had to live in a foreign country as a fugitive…but he was free.
This movie paints a vivid picture of the pain of being falsely accused…a pain which can be healed, but never really be erased…it will always be a scar embedded deeply in your innermost being. That devastating feeling of impotence when all attempts to prove your innocence fail…remains for life.
In this situation, the accused can be driven to despair, to retaliation, or, hopefully, to prayer for exoneration and vindication.
Now, in our Gospel passage for today, we see Jesus dealing with the misunderstandings and misperceptions that were a direct result of false teachings and false accusations. Just as an aside, it is important that we never lose sight of the fact that our Lord was human and therefore subject to the hurt and pain that comes from rejection, just like we are. The raw wound inflicted by his unbelieving brothers in Galilee was, no doubt, still quite fresh and, as he had correctly anticipated, his accusers were waiting for him to appear at the Feast in Jerusalem.
Some of the most influential religious leaders at the time were deceiving the people with their extra-biblical rules and rituals (not to mention their political inconsistencies) and perhaps they were even deceiving themselves into thinking that they were approved of by God. Remember, Paul believed that God was well pleased with him when still a zealous Pharisee, as he mercilessly persecuted the followers of Jesus.
The subsequent muddle becomes apparent in verses 12 and 13. Some said of Jesus, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives people.” But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders. You see, the leaders had managed to confuse and confound and scare the people with their rigid regulations and restrictions to such an extent that the people were unable and unwilling to discern the truth for themselves…opinions on the person of Jesus were divided as the people had been polarised, apparently without either side really knowing why.
Dishonest leaders often prefer to keep the general population ignorant of the real issues at stake. Unfortunately, this is as true in the Church as in the world. As the 19th-century British politician Lord Acton once said: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The people of God have often been kept in bondage by the false teaching of those with less than honourable intentions. This was as true in the 1st Century as it is in the 21st Century.
Unfortunately, people tend to believe what sounds authoritative. That is why speakers often like to quote famous people, whether it be Rabbi Hirsch or Martin Luther or Winston Churchill. Peppering your speech with wise anecdotes or your social media posts with clever memes makes you sound and look intelligent and important, and by using the right quotations for the right audience, you can sway and influence whomever you like.
Louise and I recently watched a TV drama in which a young man read scholarly books and classic literature, not for his education or enjoyment, but rather to glean useful information to impress his wealthy clientele.
This tendency of people to believe what sounds authoritative can be fraught with dangers. While it's natural to seek guidance from authoritative sources and to trust in them, blindly accepting information solely based on its authoritative tone can lead to misinformation and manipulation. This is why we need to discern and filter anything and everything we hear and read on various media platforms, especially since the advent of artificial intelligence (or AI). The vulnerability of the uninitiated or uninformed might open the door to false narratives, fear-mongering conspiracy theories, and pure fabrication of false evidence, hindering critical thinking and fostering a polarized society, like this crowd of people in Jerusalem. Individuals must cultivate a healthy spiritual scepticism, check all assertions against the plumbline of Scripture, and engage in thoughtful intertestamental contextual analysis to safeguard against the potential pitfalls of uncritical acceptance of authoritative-sounding information.
This was a major difficulty for the people of Israel in the time of Jesus. The teachers of the law were quoting from one another and praising one another, patting each other on the back and giving each other glory and honour (John 5:44) while robbing the general public of the ability to understand and interpret Scripture for themselves.
However, Jesus tells the crowd that he too was quoting, but from a much higher authority than their intellectuals. This wasn’t the only time he bluntly stated that his authority was not derived from himself or anyone else but from God his Father. In John 12:49-50 he said, “I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.” In other words, the source of his teaching was not the interpretation of scholars, but rather the source of his teaching was Scripture itself.
Now, of course, we all interpret Scripture…indeed, interpretation is necessary to understand any historical document in our own time, especially when it is written in an ancient foreign language…but it is the way we interpret Scripture that makes all the difference. Biblical context and biblical continuity are both extremely important. The Bible is one story and, as such, every book and every letter and every sentence must be interpreted “intertestamentally” and interdependently and consistently. God is not like a gearbox that shifts from one gear to another depending on the driver's will. Scripture is our final authority because it is the Word of God.
It doesn’t matter how convincing a contrary argument may seem to be…even if the most respected person in all of history or, as Paul said in Galatians, even if an angelic being was to declare something conflicting with what has been revealed in Scripture…that teaching is to be rejected as false. God’s Word is the supreme authority for all believers, and it is the ultimate source of truth. What we teach in the Church must not be based on how we feel or what we think or what we prefer…nor on how others feel or think or what they may prefer.
Jesus tells us that his teaching will only be understood by those who actively choose to do the will of God. Those who derive their authority from anyone or anything else are open to error. Only those who are of God and belong to God can understand his Word (John 8:47). If our primary source is not God, then any ill wind can shift our focus. Many have used the Scriptures to promote their own agenda or to seek to profit from what they teach. They will either manipulate Scripture to force compliance or undermine Scripture to acquire affirmation. In their hands, Scripture becomes a wax nose that can be shaped in whichever way will suit the face best. They will never confront errors and will constantly play the proverbial chameleon.
But such self-deception can only lead to inconsistent contradiction and, regrettably, those who teach contradiction and inconsistency can become dangerous when confronted. While professing to keep the law, these religious leaders were plotting murder.
Religion is a strange thing. It can be so beneficial…so liberating. And yet, it can become such a web of deception and deceit if used to pursue or advance anything other than the will of God. While professing godliness and holiness, some have made it an art to wrap their agendas in elaborate and eloquent words that appear to all to be so learned and so right… so sweet…and yet so deadly. With one side of their mouth, they talk of equality, tolerance, and acceptance; with the other, they deride, denigrate, and seek to destroy.
Of course, like all good con artists, they will deny this, all too often through ridicule or outright attack. “You have a demon!” some in the crowd said. “Who is trying to kill you?” It is at this point that Jesus not only reminded them of the consequence of his healing of the man at the Pool of Bethesda, but he also exposed their own illogical faith system.
Circumcision, which involved but one small part of the body, was permitted on the Sabbath, even though it was considered to be “work” by the Rabbis. Yet, when a man’s whole body was healed and restored on the Sabbath, the objection escalated to the level of a capital offence! The Sabbath was gifted to humanity to bring about restoration and renewal. It was meant to be a day to recalibrate…rest, contemplate, evaluate, and prepare for the week ahead. In many ways, it was an image of liberation…of freedom. Yet, the teachers of the law had made the Sabbath a prison. So many rigid rules and regulations governed the observance of this day that people lived in abject fear of violating them.
Their leader’s disproportionate judgment of Jesus for his healing on the Sabbath was a result of the misinterpretation and misapplication of a biblical command. And so, those in the crowd were unable to judge correctly because the judgment of their leaders was not based on the truth. “Do not make superficial judgments,” Jesus told them, “But rather base your judgment on what is right and true.”
Jesus was falsely accused and unjustly condemned even though he was and is the truth itself. He was eventually executed because he exposed the leaders for what they were. We cannot expect to be treated differently should we, like Jesus, actively choose to do the will of God and if we are called to walk as he walked, to live as he lived, and to love as he loved…if we profess to follow him, we can do no less. If we call him Lord, we must obey his Word. Jesus’ source of authority, whether confronting the devil or his assistants, was always the Word of God.
Scripture is our source of authority. We must seek to read it, learn it, understand it, and inwardly digest it so that it becomes the sole guiding principle for our life and conduct as believers. We live by it so that we might judge rightly by it even though it may cost us dearly. The world will judge you; the world will accuse you falsely; those who call evil good and good evil will oppose you, reject you, and persecute you. But be of good cheer…not only has Jesus given you the perfect example of how to deal with false accusations, but he is also the one and only actual judge of all…and his judgement is always right and true.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023
Saturday, August 5, 2023
At Peace with God's Time
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 John 7:1-9
At Peace with God’s Time
Time is a concept most people struggle with – you will often hear people say things like: “I don’t have enough time” or “time flies” – which seems to indicate that they think time is an uncontrollable entity. But God ordained time to be a structuring tool for man’s benefit and as such time can be ordered if it is subject to God’s priorities. This was the purpose for the six days of creation – to establish and demonstrate a divine and ideal pattern for work and rest. Therefore, time should be used wisely and according to biblical principles. Time is precious in the sense that once a moment has passed, it can never be recaptured…but thankfully, with God, time can be redeemed.
We often think of time as something we can try to master and manipulate…and so we have planners and diaries and calendars. But, if we forget about God’s providence or God’s timing, we will all too frequently find ourselves being reactionary…reacting (or perhaps overreacting) to unplanned incidents which seem to bulldoze their way into our schedules.
Like the frantic man who called an insurance agency asking if he could insure his home over the phone. The agent said yes, but that he would need to see and inspect the home first, to which the now very agitated man exclaimed: “Well, you had better get here right away because the place is burning down!”
Time is God’s gift to us…but it is a gift that comes with operating instructions. As the future – in fact the very next millisecond – is known to God alone, it stands to reason that he alone would know how we ought to use time. So it would be wise and prudent if we would at least view time in the light of God’s providential will and then attempt to live according to that.
“Now listen,” James says, “you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 4:13-15)
In other words, we must submit to God’s perfect will and move within the boundaries of the time he gives us. Jesus illustrates this point to his brothers in our Gospel passage for today.
First, he shows them (and us) that the wise use of time is rational and reasonable. Providence is not the same as fate…life is not based on luck or chance. Time is sovereignly controlled by an almighty God. We should not adopt a “whatever will be will be” attitude to life and expect everything to fall into place. There are certain reasons why we ought to do something and certain reasons why we ought not do something.
In this particular case, Jesus had made a wise decision based on the evidence at hand. The Jews in Judea wanted to kill him. Consequently, he prudently preferred to stay in Galilee. This was not an act of cowardice, but rather a reasoned and rational choice to avoid potentially violent conflict. It was an act of self-preservation. Jesus knew that the time would come when he would have to face the inevitable, but that time had not yet come.
There are many who would rather have Jesus resign himself to fate than move with caution. Was he not God? Could he not avert such attempts on his life? Interestingly, this line of thought is similar to Satan’s temptation on the pinnacle of the temple: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” To which Jesus replied: “It is written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Luke 4:9-12)
It is also like what Jesus said to Peter after the zealous disciple had cut of the ear of the high priest’s servant: “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword. Do you not think that even now I cannot pray to my Father and that he would provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen this way?” (Matthew 26:52-54).
Of course, Jesus was and is God and, as such, he could do anything…but he was also human and as a human he humbled himself and chose to live his life as a limited, finite human being submitted to the will and purposes of God. And so, he moved within the parameters of God’s time.
God has never expected his people to knowingly walk into harm’s way unless he had a good reason and a good purpose for doing so. We all know that Jesus did return to Jerusalem, but only when he knew his time had come…he went knowing full well that he would be murdered. Paul also returned to Jerusalem even though many begged him not to go because God had revealed through prophetic speech what he would be captured and incarcerated.
But this is not the same as the blind charge of the light brigade.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
(The Charge of the Light Brigade, Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
No. The rational and reasonable use of time coupled with divine guidance through regular Bible Study and prayer (Daniel is a great example here) is not blind or fatalistic. God has given us an intellect to sensibly determine the nature of any given situation, and he had given us the ability to make responsible decisions in the light of such evidence. And so Jesus decision to stay in Galilee was wise and prudent.
Then, secondly, Jesus showed his brothers (and us) that we are to remain steadfast in our decision to use time God’s way, even when others demand compromise from us. I’m sure you all know exactly what I mean: that age old “guilt trip” or “shaming” tactic…a tactic used when others want to persuade you to do something you have already said “no” to.
“No one who wants to be known,” the brothers asserted, “remains hidden. Since you do such great works, reveal yourself to the world!”
John tells us that the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot was at hand. Along with Passover and the Festival of Weeks, Sukkot was one of three notable pilgrimage feasts, associated with the Exodus as the other two, but also more particularly with the annual harvest. As a rule, Jewish men were expected to come before the Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem.
The feast would begin on the 15th day of the seventh month, on the first day of the week. This first day was a holy day on which no common work was allowed. The feast continued for seven days, during which the people made regular offerings (Num. 29:13–16) and lived in temporary tabernacles, or tents. The eighth day, considered the greatest day of the festival, was another holy day and a time on which the people could make one last offering (Num. 29:35–38).
Now, by the time of Jesus, additional extra biblical rituals had been added that can be found in the Talmud (Tractate Sukkah). These additions included the increased use of lights and the singing of Psalms 113–118 and Psalms 120–135. The feast concluded with an elaborate water pouring ceremony based on several prophetic passages about life-giving water (see Isa. 12:2–3; Ezek. 47:1–2; Zech. 14:16–19). Every day, water would be drawn from the Pool of Siloam and then carried up to the altar as an elaborate parabolic prayer for rain and every night the people would gather to dance and sing praises to God for his blessings during the wilderness wanderings and for the anticipated good harvest that year in the light of the huge candelabras set up in the court of the women.
On that final great day of the Feast, water would once again be drawn from the Pool and carried up to the altar amidst a wild, singing, palm waving gathering and the noisy blasts of trumpets. Now, later in this chapter, John tells us that at some point during this final ritual, Jesus cried out, “Those who are thirsty, ought to come to me and drink, for if you believe in me, know this: I AM the one out of whom rivers of living waters will flow!”
But that is for a later sermon…what is important for us to notice here is that as far as the brothers were concerned, this would be a good time for Jesus to show himself to be someone important. At this point, it is not clear whether the brothers thought that Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah or not. In the light of John’s comment in verse 5 regarding the unbelief of Jesus’ brothers, it is highly unlikely that they believed that he was someone important despite their being witness to the miracles. So, when you read their statements to Jesus, you should perhaps hear mocking laughter mingled in the background. It is therefore doubtful that they wished to share his “stardom”.
It is interesting to note that this unbelief of the brothers continued through to the crucifixion as Jesus gave over the care of his mother, not to his brothers as would have been customary, but to his disciple John…but this unbelief seems to have been shattered by the resurrection. The triumph of Jesus over sin, death, and the devil catapulted the brothers into belief…a faith so radical that they were willing to die for it. (Acts 1:14; 12:17; 15:13; James 1:1, Jude 1)
But for the moment, the challenge remained. “If you think you are someone great, show yourself for all to see.” What a test! Weaker men would surely have fallen headlong into this trap. Vindicate yourself, Jesus!
But and this is important, Jesus knew when God’s time was right…he spent his time with the Father in prayer every morning and every evening and no doubt throughout the day…he would know when the day of reckoning had arrived. The temptation was for him to speed things up, but Jesus chose to resist the temptation and to wait for the correct time.
Waiting may be one of the most stressful things we do as humans. We are so used to our scheduled lives that any form of delay is a source of annoyance. While Jesus might not have had all the time-consuming gadgets and gizmos we have today, he had his own very real distractions and demands…the disciples, his family, the crowds, the unbelieving leaders, the devil, and the threats against his life…these were all very real interruptions and stresses.
But Jesus was led by the Spirit not by the nose…he submitted himself to God and waited for his timing. Remember, it was impatience that set King Saul on a collision course with Samuel and with God that ultimately cost him his kingdom.
So, the lesson for us Spirit filled, Bible-studying and directed, prayerful believers today is simple. Don’t be deterred from spending time alone with God to determine your future actions and plans…regardless of the pressure. People like the brothers of Jesus will try to force you to fill your life with things that have no eternal value…this will make you focus on the wrong things and clutter your life with stress and anxiety and worry. Jesus taught us not to be anxious for anything but to focus on the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We will always be tempted to give in to the tyranny of the urgent. But there is a better way.
Jesus had a vibrant and intimate relationship with the Father. As we have seen before, he spent time with the Father every evening and every morning and no doubt throughout the day. Jesus knew the Scriptures. He read them, he learned them, he inwardly digested them. He knew the will of God. Without this, he would have been left in the dark, and his timing would have been no more than pure guess work.
If Jesus needed daily guidance, don’t you think we do too? That’s why Jesus said he would send us the Holy Spirit who would guide us in all truth. We have his Word. We have his Spirit. And we have constant access to Almighty God through prayer. Knowing the will of God demands a life set on doing that will. Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38) Paul said of Jesus that “being found in appearance as a man…he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.” (Philippians 2:8) His entire life was centred on and subject to the will of the Father and as such, even that which man deems most precious, his life, became of no account. Because of his disciplined and surrendered life, Jesus knew when it was time to say no and when it was time to say yes.
Can you faithfully and patiently wait for God’s will to be done in your life? Or are you one of the many who say, “God give me patience and give it to me right now!” Leaving your life in God’s hands is possibly the greatest step of faith you will ever have to take…but it is a necessary step if you are to make any sense of the many distractions, intrusions, and uncertainties of life.
A soul submitted to the timing of God is a soul at peace. The next time something or someone comes crashing into your jam-packed schedule, turn aside and ask God what he would have you do. He has promised to work all things together for good…trust in that promise and you will come to understand the providential dealings of God in even the smallest things of day-to-day life.
Shall we pray?
© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2023
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)