Don’t Make Jonah’s Mistake

This article by Ruth was in our archives. She returns to her regular place on Fridays next week.

Jonah and the Psalm

A while ago, I posed this question as an informal Facebook poll: “Did the story of Jonah happen literally as it appears in the Bible?” The majority said yes. No surprise. The Church has been defending the story’s miraculous nature since the early Church Fathers. For many, it’s even a test of faith in God’s sovereignty; can you believe God didn’t do it, without believing God couldn’t do it?

People often say that it “must have happened—Jesus says it did.” Fair statement, but one that needs some thought. What is the relationship between Jesus and Jonah?

Let’s assume that the event literally happened to Jonah, son of Amittai, prophet to King Jeroboam. That Jonah’s psalm in chapter 2 was his prayer, recorded as he prayed it.

Why would Jonah sing his gratitude to God in the middle of this mess? Why does Jonah never expresses remorse?

And where does Jesus fit in?

Now the Lord had appointed a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights. Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from inside the fish.

Matthew records Jesus saying: “…For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” Matthew 12:40 (HCSB)

Both events involve a prophetic man who comes back after three days of being given up for dead, but in all other respects, narrative contrasts are greater than similarities.

• Jesus is in conversation with God all through his approach to the grave: Jonah is silent until he can’t stand it any more.
• Jesus laments God’s turning His face away; Jonah is the one who turns his back.
• Jesus enters his grave as an act of submission: Jonah embraces death as part of his defiance.
• Jesus, as God, returns by an act of power and of will: Jonah as vomit.

I called to the Lord in my distress, and He answered me.
I cried out for help in the belly of Sheol; You heard my voice.

Jonah finally breaks his silence. Some suggest he’d been unconscious, others that Jonah physically died and was resurrected, based on Matthew’s “sign of Jonah,” and the reference to Sheol.

For Christians, “Sheol” can bring to mind medieval pictures of Hell, but to Jonah himself the image was very different. Sheol was beneath the earth, the farthest place from Heaven, where the dead descended to (or were raised from if God opened the gate). Those who entered it became silent shadows, without knowledge, passion, or hope. Yet God ruled there, and in the Messiah’s day the righteous would be released to joyously participate in His kingdom.

Some see a connection here with 1 Peter 3:18-20 and Ephesians 4:9 but there’s no real support in scripture for the idea of Jesus “descending to Hell.” Peter speaks of earth, and Paul of the past, not of metaphysics. Instead, they drive home for us the understanding that Jesus overcame time and space to walk in the dust, and “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.”¹

You threw me into the depths, into the heart of the seas,
and the current overcame me. All Your breakers and Your billows swept over me.

For modern songwriters, switching ‘voice’ mid-song is a no-no. Not true for the Psalmists who switch from addressing God, to His people, to the writer’s own soul and back again. Jonah moves from speaking about God, to direct, dramatic accusation.

Jesus also recognizes God’s hand in directing his path, but He does it with an attitude of humility and submission that culminates in His prayer, “If this cannot pass… Your will be done,”² modelling not blame but trust and obedience.

But I said: I have been banished from Your sight,
yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.
The waters engulfed me up to the neck;
the watery depths overcame me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

Jonah has what he wanted—to be far from the face of God—and realizes he should have been more careful in his wishing.

He’s bound and suffocating, tangled in something beyond his strength. He echoes Psalm 88: drowning, God’s wrath, an innocent sufferer, accusation, demands for rescue, loneliness.

At His loneliest moment, Jesus draws instead from Psalm 22 and its anticipation of praise in better days. Like Jonah, Jesus grieves God’s absence. Like Jonah, He identifies Himself as an innocent. Unlike Jonah, He actually is one.

At least Jonah is looking in the right direction—back where he came from.

I sank to the foundations of the mountains;
the earth with its prison bars closed behind me forever!
But You raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God!
As my life was fading away, I remembered Yahweh.
My prayer came to You, to Your holy temple.

Jonah continues to deny the cause of his trouble—his own choices. But something has changed.

He’s run as far as he can but still has a connection to the One from whom He ran. He knows to whom he speaks, how he will sound in those ears and what the response is likely to be.

In the darkest place possible, his heart and mind turn toward the brightest. In the grip of the worst monster, he looks toward the most loving Father. At his farthest from home, his mind turns to the Holy of Holies, the centre of all Creation.

To “remember” is not just to recall, but to be intentionally mindful. Of the past—what God has done. Of the present—where He meets us. Of the future—in which He awaits.

This is where Jonah comes closest to Jesus, who in His own climactic moment on the cross contradicted His own sense of abandonment and declared the words of Psalm 31:5, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit…”…trusting God to “…redeem me, Lord, God of truth.”

Jonah, weakened and lost, cannot save himself but Yahweh-remembered can and will. Jonah is freed from the pit.

Those who cling to worthless idols forsake faithful love

Has Jonah learned anything? Has he changed? He hasn’t admitted his guilt. We see no contrition. Instead, he condemns “those” who forsake faithful love which comes from the God that Jonah fled. So who is he talking about?

“Those” sailors whose misfortune it was to give Jonah a ride? They’d been pagan until they met with Yahweh. Afterward they’d sacrificed and made vows to the LORD, a step toward becoming “Hebrews.” But Jonah didn’t see that happen. He was already underwater and sinking. All Jonah knew of them was that they were “those who cling to worthless idols.” Perhaps he assumes they’ve lost their chance.

“Those” Ninevites, violent and cruel people? He’s endangered his own life to scuttle their chance at receiving the faithful love of God. Is he hoping that this proverb is a promise?

All that’s left is himself—the prophet who clung to the idol of his nationalistic hatred, forsaking the faithful love of God. Jonah’s not the only prophet to object to his assignment. So did Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. He is, however, the only one who upped sticks and ran. The others spoke honestly to God and received His response. Jonah built a wall of silence and refusal between himself and God.

Jonah and Jesus again part ways. Jesus didn’t only accept His role, He chose it. “…He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men.”

One rabbinic writer said:

“Jeremiah sought the honor of God and the honor of Israel;
Elijah sought the honor of God and not the honor of Israel;
Jonah sought the honor of Israel and not the honor of God.”

One might even substitute “Jonah sought the honor of himself…” Jesus sought the honor of the Father through obedience, pursuing and rescuing those who clung to their idols and could not, on their own, find the freedom of letting go.

…but as for me, I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving.
I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the Lord!

Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

The fish has been carrying around 180 extra pounds of ballast. Enough is enough. The LORD lets her off the hook. It’s time for Jonah to head inland.

Three days of petulant silence, followed by a burst of eloquent gratitude, and either hypocritical self-righteousness, or an excuse to head to Jerusalem instead of Nineveh. No wonder she was sick.

Jonah heads reluctantly to Nineveh, wanders around—in silence for three days—before delivering his message.

But Jesus spent His ministry reaching out and being available to not only men like Himself, but to enemies and invaders, strangers and rejects, women and children, heretics and hypocrites. After His resurrection, He allowed only moments to pass before reconnecting with the people He’d come to save.

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However… what if instead of Matthew’s rendering, we look at Luke’s record of the same statement: For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be to this generation. Luke 11:30 (HCSB)

Despite the fact that Luke wouldn’t have heard it first hand, his understanding of the Jonah/Jesus parallel seems better grounded: just as Jonah’s message of God’s grace toward Nineveh had “overturned” the city, so would Jesus’ overturn the world.

The verb in Jonah’s message to Nineveh seems intentionally ambiguous. Throughout Scripture, it’s translated as demolished, overturned, overthrown, transformed or turned around. Those who (eventually) heard it inferred a threat of destruction, creating fearful repentance. But was this true prophet of Israel not also used to point to an alternative fulfillment?

Nineveh was beautifully, life-givingly “overturned.”

So, yes. Jesus wanted us to remember this story. He wanted us to learn from it.

I’d argue that the least important question about this story is whether it “happened.” What matters is that we learn from Jonah’s mistakes and are free to not repeat them. That we learn from Jesus’ example and are free to make it real in our lives.

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1 Philippians 2:8 HCSB

2 Matthew 26:42

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More about Jonah: Here’s an article by Ruth that’s also about Jonah which appeared here just a few weeks ago.

Ruth Wilkinson is a pastor in south central Ontario, Canada.

Jesus Breaks Expectations for a Rabbi

I always encourage readers here to read the posted articles at their original source; however, that applies much more today because the site in question is simply blessed with some unique rich visual illustrations.

Today we’re introducing you to Matt Pierce. He writes at Embracing Simplicity. Click the links in these shorter articles to read them as we first saw them.

Embracing the Authentic Christ: A Reflection on John 2:15

The temple, in this context, was far from the pristine sanctuary we might imagine. It had become a marketplace, a place focused on the ideals and benefits of men rather than a house of worship. This narrative starkly contrasts the image of a gentle Jesus meek and mild. Here, He is a figure of righteous…

It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle, scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor, and turned over their tables. – John 2:13-15; 15 highlighted

As we turn our hearts to the words of John 2:15, we find ourselves confronted with an image of Christ that challenges our often-sanitized perceptions. The scripture vividly portrays Jesus, making a whip of cords and driving out the sheep, cattle, and money changers from the temple courts. This is a moment of raw human emotion, an expression of divine discontent with the state of His Father’s house.

The temple, in this context, was far from the pristine sanctuary we might imagine. It had become a marketplace, a place focused on the ideals and benefits of men rather than a house of worship. This narrative starkly contrasts the image of a gentle Jesus meek and mild. Here, He is a figure of righteous anger, opposed to the corruption and commercialization of a sacred space.

This episode reveals to us a Christ who is deeply human, feeling anger and grief at the perversion of something holy. It’s a stark reminder that Jesus was not removed from the emotional experiences that color our daily lives. His reaction was not just against the physical defilement of the temple but against a deeper moral and spiritual corruption.

In His time, Jesus was indeed opposed to those who, like the rich, the lawyers, the bankers, were primarily focused on building their own kingdoms. These figures often represented the societal elite, consumed by power and wealth, starkly contrasting with the humble and the marginalized whom Jesus embraced.

Moreover, Jesus’ disciples were not dedicated solely to the ‘elect’ or the institutionally religious. They focused on reaching those beyond the fold, the marginalized, and the overlooked. Christ’s ministry was not confined to the temples and synagogues; it reached into the streets, to the tax collectors, the sinners, the outcasts.

In our contemporary setting, this message holds a profound relevance. We must question if our churches have become like the temple courts Jesus cleansed – more focused on human ideals and institutions than on the heart of Christ’s message. Are we, as followers of Christ, aligning ourselves with the marginalized and the voiceless, or are we entrenched in the pursuit of our own kingdoms?

The Jesus of John 2:15 calls us to embrace a faith that is not obsessed with temples and theology in their institutional forms but is deeply engaged with the world’s pain and brokenness. He invites us to a discipleship that is not about securing a place within the religious elite but about living out the radical, inclusive love of God in our everyday lives.

As we reflect on this passage, let us seek to embrace a Christ who is the friend of sinners, not the friend of mere religious convention. Let us follow the Jesus who felt deeply, loved radically, and acted boldly against the injustices of His time. This is the Christ who calls us, not to a temple made with hands, but to a kingdom built on love, justice, and mercy.

Breaking Barriers with Compassion: The Inclusive Ministry of Jesus Christ

In the era of Christ, the norms of Jewish teaching were stringently exclusive. A reputable teacher in those times would never dream of taking a woman as a student, nor would they associate with individuals afflicted by chronic illnesses or disabilities, as these were often misjudged as signs of moral failing or tainted lineage. Interaction across the rigid ethnic and political divides of the day was equally unthinkable.

Yet, Jesus, a Jewish teacher Himself and thus subject to these societal expectations tenfold, defied every single one of these conventions. He purposefully reached out to those society had marginalized.

In our modern world, where, unfortunately, exclusion based on gender, ethnicity, or disability is still a reality in some places, it might be challenging to fully grasp the radical nature of Jesus’ actions. Consider the moment he showed compassion to a woman who had suffered years of continuous bleeding, a condition deemed unclean. Or his interactions with individuals afflicted with leprosy, blindness, and paralysis, without a moment’s hesitation. Equally profound was his conversation with a Samaritan woman, a member of a group widely scorned, and his visit to a Roman’s home to care for the sick.

Jesus’ ministry was an embodiment of inclusive love, valuing and respecting everyone, thereby crossing societal boundaries time and again. A particularly striking example of this was his friendship with a woman widely believed to be demon-possessed. In our times, such an association would certainly raise eyebrows. This woman was Mary Magdalene, who, through Jesus’ compassion, not only regained her health but also became one of the most influential figures in his circle. Her story, known to us even after two millennia, stands as a testament to the barriers Jesus dismantled by simply choosing to ignore them.

Today, the legacy of Jesus challenges us to embrace true inclusivity. He inspires us to look beyond physical and mental challenges, gender, and ethnicity, to truly see individuals for who they are. In doing so, we might discover, just as those who knew Mary Magdalene did, that those often deemed the least in society can have the most profound impact on us.

 

The Wheat, The Weeds, and the Separation Impetus

In recent years there has been much discussion about “the seven mountains,” and a movement which has grown up around electing or appointing Christian leaders into influential positions within certain distinct areas. As Wikipedia notes “The seven areas which the movement believe control society and which they seek to control are family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government.” With that as background, keep reading.

With now fourteen appearances here, longtime Christian author and musician John Fischer is one of the most-frequently used sources at Christianity 201. He writes at The Catch: Grace Turned Outward. Click the headers which follow to read this — and today’s bonus devotional — where they first appeared.

Good alongside the not-so-good

Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?

“An enemy did this,” he replied.

The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” 

“No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30)

Jesus gave us a very important clue in this parable about living and operating in the world. He’s talking about the kingdom of heaven on earth, and there are good seeds and bad in the same garden. And the surprising thing is how little attention he wants us to put into weeding that garden. It’s implied that it may even be hard to tell the weeds from the wheat in the early stages of growth. At any rate they are too close together to mess with separating.

The operable words here are: “Let both grow together.” I would suggest that this is a remarkably daring worldview and I do not know of many Christians who have ever adopted it even though it was Jesus who came up with it. I would also suggest it takes a very different philosophy about living in the world than the ones offered so far by Christian educators and institutions to adopt this as one’s worldview.

Wheat next to weeds, good next to evil, right next to wrong, sacred next to secular – so close that to root up one, would inevitably root up the other. No… “Let both grow together.” Do not waste your time trying to separate any of this out. God isn’t even doing that yet. Spend your time learning to be who you are as good seed in a complicated, mixed up garden where things are not always what they appear to be.

For at least four decades there has been a major move among Christians to separate  from the culture especially in education. And as the world gets worse this movement gains intensity.

But think about it this way. If you let the weeds and the wheat grow together, yes, the weeds grow worse and worse but we forget the wheat is growing as well, right alongside it. So as the weeds grow more evil, the good seed is growing stronger in its ability to handle the evil that is going on right next too it.

Whereas if you separate out the good seed and educate it in a supportive and believing environment where it is not constantly being challenged by worldly philosophies, it often cannot handle an evil, complex world when its education is complete and it is sent out into the world unprepared. It’s a documented fact that many students who were educated in Christian schools lose their faith when they are thrust into the real world.

Let them grow together; the good seed will be the stronger for it.

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Today our “second helping” by John Fischer isn’t just linked… it’s reprinted in full for you!

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Running on empty

Does anyone have the vision that it’s someone else’s turn? Does anyone ever feel like the dial on their motivation is approaching empty? Is the Holy Spirit active in your life as He fulfills what the Lord has called you to do, or do you feel like you’re running on empty? Are you done with your assignment as a representative of the kingdom of God, or have you got miles to go?

One of our older MemberPartners recently commented, “There are so many people in our generation who have stopped growing, stopped giving to others, and are stuck, confident they have all the answers. We boomers have a lot more learning ahead in order to be faithful to what the Lord wants from us.”

What does the Lord want from us? He wants us to move out on His command — to represent His Voice to those who do not know Him, to those who are anxious and lonely, knowing they are connected to the global environment, but knowing very few people who genuinely care for them. God wants us to turn the grace given to us out to others, not necessarily like an evangelist, but through creating a  relationship, where we come alongside, listen, and walk together because we genuinely care.

Just as the Lord clearly tells us what he does not want from us:

“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17).

“Wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked” … that’s quite an indictment upon a group of believers. And the tragedy is, if it’s true, we rarely are aware of it. That is, until we thirst to be revived, a thirst that can only be quenched by the Holy Spirit.

That is when we hear Jesus say, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:20).

What a surprise. As an evangelical from childhood, I was always led to believe Revelation 3:20 was for unbelievers. Aside from John 3:16, it was the most commonly used verse in evangelistic appeals, as in, “Jesus is knocking on the door of your heart. Why don’t you let Him in?” When in actuality, it is spoken to spiritually lukewarm believers. It is directed at you and me. It is talking about revival — about those who are running out of gas. We need to sit down to dinner with Jesus. We need to share a meal together as friends. We need to get close again. We need to be reintroduced to the grace given to us and stimulated to want to give it out to others.

Says one Boomer in response to the motivational question: “We can’t give what we don’t have. We must become humble. What causes us not to be? Hard hearts from years of hurt, betrayal, abandonment and feeling left behind. We have made an idol out of our past and the ‘way it used to be.’ Those should only be monuments to what God did. When our past becomes an idol, it causes us to stay stuck there. When our past becomes a monument to what God has done, it causes us to be inspired to find out what He wants us to do now.”

I think it’s time for a fill up.

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Music video: Although it’s not a John Fischer song, immediately after I scheduled this, I was drawn to this song by Brian Doerksen. I think it totally fits today’s second devotional.

Riches on Deposit in Heaven

Today we have a new author to introduce to you. Jarrett Fletcher writes about Theology, Discipleship and Missions and serves on the pastoral staff of a local church in Greater Atlanta. Click the title which follows to read this where it first appeared, and from there, explore other articles.

How to Store Up Treasures in Heaven (Matt 6:19-24)

We are natural accumulators. We get and want more, so we get more and then want even more. This is true even at the subconscious level of the human mind. It is a proven fact that when we inhabit a space, whether it is a 2,000 sq. ft home or an 8,000 sq. ft home, we will accumulate enough things to fill the space whether we need those things or not. This is why Netflix series like ‘Tyding Up’ with Marie Kondo entice us. They promise to help us break free from the enslaving cycle of accumulation. The modern ‘minimalist’ movement seeks to do the same. These solutions are temporary at best, acting as band-aids on a fatal wound. But for those who want true freedom from the harsh master of materialism, there is hope in the words of Christ.

Jesus knows that His disciples will face the temptation to accumulate earthly riches. It is a temptation common to all mankind, one that Jesus faced Himself (Matt 4:8-9). But it was a temptation that He resisted. How? He tells us in Matthew 6:19-24,

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

We can avoid the temptation and subsequent enslavement of accumulating earthly treasure by pursuing the accumulation of eternal treasure. But how?

1. Recognize that pursuing and accumulating earthly treasures is a futile effort.

Jesus mentions three things that demonstrate the fragility of earthly treasures and the futility of pursuing them. First, He mentions a moth, a small insect that could eat through treasures such as fine clothing, money bags, or even titles to property. The idea is this: it is foolish to spend your life pursuing treasures that could so easily be destroyed by such a small creature.

Second, He mentions rust, which could corrode coins, silver, and other precious metals. Third, He mentions thieves. Even if one dodges moths and rust, everything He has is still subject to the possibility of thievery. I experienced this recently when a family friend gave me three valuable pieces of World War II memorabilia. I was so thankful for the items he gave me (I am a history nerd), but I literally lost sleep worrying about someone potentially stealing them. How could I replace such unique items? Such is the fragility of worldly treasures. Sure, we can enjoy them, but let us not fool ourselves, living a life in pursuit of them is futile, because they can be taken from us so easily.

Also, let us not forget what Jesus teaches elsewhere regarding the final enemy of earthly treasure: death. When we die, we cannot take anything with us. To the rich man who stored up many years’ worth of goods God says, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared [accumulated and stored], whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:20-21, bracketed text added).

Pursuing and accumulating earthly treasures is futile. These treasures will not last. They do not satisfy our hearts’ desires. They become a harsh master that prohibits us from serving God by enslaving us in a never-ending cycle of seeking the next thing to satisfy us. Those who would be “rich toward God” and “lay up treasures in heaven” must first realize this truth.

2. Put on eternal lenses and set your heart on heavenly things rather than earthly things.

After we recognize the futility of pursuing earthly treasure, Jesus instructs us to actively turn our gaze from earthly treasure to heavenly treasure. Why? Because where our treasure is, there our heart will be also (6:21). As we focus on heavenly treasure, our hearts become consumed with the things of heaven. When we focus on things that are eternal, our hearts will search for and be satisfied with those things.

This is where Jesus’ comments on the eye comes into play. If our eyes are healthy (i.e. set on the right things- eternal treasure), then our bodies are full of light. If, however, our eyes are unhealthy (i.e. set on fragile earthly treasure), then our bodies are full of darkness. Where the eye is focused indicates the condition of the heart. Thus the eyes of those who have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Col 1:13-14) should be set on the things of eternity.

We might ask, what are heavenly things we should set our eyes on? First, the being and character of God. The more we focus our eyes on Him, the more we will love Him. He is the Eternal One, and knowing Him is the ultimate eternal treasure. Second, the beauty of the gospel. The Scriptures tell us that even the angels long to look into the beauty of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection to save sinners (1 Peter 1:12). As we look to, search for, and delight ourselves in God and what He has accomplished for us in Christ, our hearts will be with Him and we will become like Him. This is the kind of godliness that Paul says is beneficial for our current lives and the life to come (1 Tim 4:8).

Heavenly things are also the attitudes and actions that characterize the members of the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus mentions several of these in the Sermon on the Mount: the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12), pursuing reconciliation (5:23-24), fighting anger, sexual immorality, and dishonesty in the heart (Matt 5:21-32), maintaining honesty and integrity (5:33-37), not responding in kind to evil (Matt 5:38-42), loving your enemies (5:43-48), giving to the needy (6:1-4), praying and fasting in sincerity (6:5-18), etc.!

Thus, storing up treasures in heaven is far more than being generous financially. Giving is certainly part of it (Matt 6:1-4 as mentioned above), but it involves much more. Laying up treasures in heaven is pursuing Jesus and seeking to live out the righteousness that He describes in the Sermon on the Mount. As we live righteously, often in secret (Matt 6:4, 6, 18), we are accumulating and storing up heavenly treasure: rewards from God that neither moth, rust, nor thieves can touch.

3. Decide which master you will serve.

There are two masters that we can serve. Jesus says, “you cannot serve God and money.” The word used in the original Greek for “money” is mammon, which can describe money and possessions. These masters are mutually exclusive. Serving both is impossible. Who then, will we serve? Will we serve the harsh and never-fulfilling master of materialism, who is subject to loss at the hands of moth, rust, thieves, and death? Or will we serve God and His kingdom, who graciously grants us righteousness in His Son and then rewards us for all of eternity for living out of that righteousness? Let us say with Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Jesus resisted the temptation to accumulate earthly treasure when Satan tempted him in the wilderness by setting His eyes on the eternal reward of pleasing His Father. Likewise, when He went to the cross to pay for our sins, including our idolatry of earthy possessions, He endured “for the joy that was set before Him” (Heb 12:2). What was that joy? The eternal treasure of pleasing the Father. The eternal reward of a redeemed people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. Philippians 2:9-11 tells us that He has received, is receiving, and will receive this reward for all of eternity- to the Glory of God the Father.

Therefore, let us look to Christ as the One who stored up heavenly treasure perfectly on our behalf. But let us also look to Him as the one who took the penalty of all of our earthly-riches-idolatry on our behalf.  And then let us follow His example, by the power of the Spirit, by setting our eyes on eternity and storing up treasure for ourselves in Heaven!

Can We Depend on God to Take Our Side?

Thinking Through Luke 18:1-14

by Clarke Dixon

Can we depend on God to take our side? We have been wronged. Someone or some people are against us. We turn to God in prayer with a plea for justice. Can we depend on God to hear us? Jesus told a parable with a clear answer:

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

Luke 18:1-8 (NLT)

The answer is a resounding yes. Crying out to God in prayer is not futile when we face injustice. The main point of the parable is that if the widow could count on an unjust judge to do the right thing, we can count on God, who is just, to do the right thing. The justice of God shows up a lot in the Bible. Also, when we read about the righteousness of God in the Bible, that does not just mean that God is sinless, but also that God does the right thing with regards to justice. So yes, we can depend on God to grant justice when people are against us. If you are human being, you will face such moments in life.

This was great news for anyone feeling oppressed in the day Jesus said it. The obvious oppressor that would pass through people’s minds was Rome. The obvious lesson here was “keep praying to God about the Roman problem, God will come through and provide justice. We, God’s people, will be on top in the end. We can depend on God to do the right thing as we cry out to him.”

And yet, Jerusalem fell to Rome within a generation of Jesus’ speaking this parable.

Maybe the obvious lesson was not the full lesson. In fact the next parable from Jesus challenged such assumptions:

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14 (NLT)

The lesson is again obvious; be humble, like the tax collector, and not proud, like the religious leaders.

We often think of these two parables alone, each teaching a different lesson. Noticing that they both speak of prayer, and of justice, or being justified, let’s think of them together. The religious leaders who were keen on crying out to God for justice in the face of Roman oppression were the very same ones who engineered the greatest example of injustice in history, and had Jesus killed. They were proud, too proud to let go of their assumptions about Jesus, about God, in the face of Jesus.

Holding both parables in our minds together, we see that the religious leaders were the oppressors, the proud ones, Jesus was the oppressed one, the humble one. Who ended up being “justified,” or vindicated? On whose side was God?

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11 (NRSV)

Jesus was vindicated. Jerusalem was destroyed. The lesson here goes beyond persistence in prayer for help when we are oppressed. It includes a commitment to never being the oppressor.

The connection point between these two parables is found in verse 8:

And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Luke 18:8 (NRSV)

We often think of faith here as meaning trust, but in the context it might be better to think of it as faithfulness. The religious leaders, crying out to God for justice in the face of Roman oppressors were not themselves faithful to God. They had become the oppressors.

Does God find us being faithful? Are we like Jesus? Or are we like the religious leaders; crying out for justice, yet also being the reason why others cry out for justice? Do we expect God to take our side when we side with oppression? Perhaps we might be like the Pharisees and not even realize when we do.

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Clarke Dixon is a pastor in the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec denomination. Previous sermon summaries can all be found at Thinking Through Scripture.

The Kingdom of God is Closer Than We Think!

Thinking Through Luke 17:20-37

by Clarke Dixon

Do you ever wonder when God is going to do the next big thing? We might wonder when we get to celebrate the Lord’s return, the end of the world, a new beginning.

If so, we are not alone:

One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”

Luke 17:(NLT)

Bible scholars tells us that when anyone asked about the coming Kingdom of God in that time and place, they were asking about a return to the glory days of political independence and of God’s people shining as a world power. So when will that happen according to Jesus? How did he respond?

Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”

Luke 17:20-21 (NLT)

Jesus responded with what the Kingdom is not, and what the Kingdom is.

What the Kingdom is not.

“The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’” (NRSV). That is, the Kingdom of God coming would not be a single world event that you could someday read about in world news. Someone in Egypt wouldn’t pick up the daily news and read about Judah, under a new king, kicking the Romans out on the way to becoming a powerful kingdom, more powerful even than the Roman Empire.

Jesus went on tell the disciples that there would be a showdown between Rome and God’s people in Judah, and that people would think it was the Kingdom coming, with this or that leader being named the Messiah, but it wouldn’t be. In fact the showdown would go the other way:

Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it. People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t go out and follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes. But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation.

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.
“And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building—until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”

Luke 17:22-33 (NLT)

The next big thing would not be a good thing!

Next are two verses that if you have ever heard about the rapture, you would think refer to it. If you have not you would not:

That night two people will be asleep in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.”

Luke 17:34-35 (NLT)

Given that the disciples would never have heard of the rapture, what would they have thought Jesus meant?

A person being snatched away is the kind of thing that happened when a foreign army invaded. Many people are snatched up and taken as slaves. Again, Jesus was pointing out that a showdown was coming, and it was not going to go well for God’s people. It would not be the Kingdom of Israel restored to former glory.

“Where will this happen, Lord?” the disciples asked.
Jesus replied, “Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.”

Luke 17:37 (NLT)

Bible scholars point out that the Greek word here for vulture also refers to an eagle. The eagle was the symbol of Rome. We could paraphrase, “where something is dead (perhaps referring to the religion of Jerusalem), there the Roman armies will attack.” Jerusalem was indeed besieged and destroyed by Roman armies within a generation of Jesus saying it would happen.

Jesus told the Pharisees and the disciples that the Kingdom of God is not as they expected. It is not bound up with a political entity, a nation, even such a special nation as Israel, being more powerful than the rest. It is not the empire of Rome being replaced by a new and improved Kingdom of Judah.

So what is it then?

What the Kingdom of God is.

For the Kingdom of God is already among you.

Luke 17:21 (NLT)

This verse has often been translated as “the Kingdom of God is…” “among you,” “within you,” or as the NET translation notes put it, along with N.T. Wright, “within your grasp.”

This is one of those moments where how you translate the words may depend on your theology and what you think Jesus was saying. Let’s think through what Jesus means here given the context of a showdown with Rome not being the Kingdom coming. To do so, we will want to remember everything that Jesus taught and modeled about love for one’s neighbour, which didn’t require a big final showdown between good and evil, about love for one’s enemies, which didn’t require a big final showdown between good and evil, and about picking up our cross and following in the way of Jesus, preferring to be crucified over crucifying, which didn’t require a big final showdown between good and evil. We could paraphrase Jesus here: “Don’t wait for God to do the next big thing – seek God’s Kingdom in everything.” The Kingdom of God is here when people live out that vision of love. That is possible here and now. It is within grasp. It is not something reserved for the future.

The apostle Paul gets at the kind of person that reflects the teaching and example of Jesus, the kind of person that reflects the Kingdom of God having come in their lives:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23 (NET)

When it comes to the Kingdom of God, the question is not when, but how. How can I get involved? How can I reflect the Kingdom of God though my decisions?

When it comes to the Kingdom of God, the question is not when, but what. Not when do we get to take over this land,
but what does it look like when Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom life takes over my life?

None of this is to say that God is not going to do a next big thing in world history. It is to say that Jesus was not talking about that here.

The Kingdom of God is closer than we think. It is not a day, the Lord knows when, in the future when God changes everything in one extraordinary event. It is here when we lives as Kingdom people in everyday, ordinary decisions. When that happens, everything changes.

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Clarke Dixon is a pastor in the Canadian Baptists of Ontario and Quebec denomination. Previous sermon summaries can all be found at Thinking Through Scripture.

Desperate for Jesus

^{NIV.Luke.8.42b} As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. ⁴³ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. ⁴⁴ She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

⁴⁵ “Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

⁴⁶ But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

⁴⁷ Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. ⁴⁸ Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

* see also parallel account in Mark 5 25-34

The popular modern worship song “Breathe” ends with these words,

And I I’m desperate for you
And I I’m lost without you.

But how many times do we acknowledge our desperate need for God?

This is the fifth occasion we’ve shared the writing of Matt Tullos. Clicking the link which follows will connect you to his site where this first appeared.

Call Me Desperate

As I read the Gospel, there’s something that stands out in so many narratives and backstories. Jesus loves desperate people. Whether it’s the pleading father, the paralyzed man whose friends tore the roof off a house, or the sufferings of the entire nation of Israel, desperate people always get His attention.

I can remember times when I was so preoccupied with my work, the game, or a task, that my five-year-old son would grab my face with both his hands to assure I was listening. That’s just how absurdly one-track minded I can get. But that was never the case with Jesus. Nobody had to grab Him by the face. The moment the tassels of his prayer garment were touched, He felt her faith connect with His sufficiency. There is absolute power in the faith of a desperate person.

I’ve spent lots of time trying not to appear desperate, while knowing the deep chasm of my own insufficiency. And there is power in desperation. It’s clumsy at times. When I’m desperate, there’s no telling what might come out of my mouth. My prayers are fragmented. Sometimes all I can pray is the oldest one: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me.” In fact, that’s how I start every morning. It centers me on the truth that I have to cry out for mercy. Every morning. Every evening. And a baker’s dozen times a day. “Lord Jesus, Son of God have mercy.” I’m sure there are those who don’t need his mercy as much as I do, but it’s my broken bread and butter.

It brings me back to the woman reaching for the tassels of Jesus. (Luke 8, Mark 5)

A desperate, sick, bankrupt woman fights her way through the crowd to touch Jesus’ cloak. In Mark, we read that she spent everything she had on doctors but things only got worse. I have been there. It’s when you throw money at a problem and the problem’s appetite for money only grows. No one wants “money pit” problems. They’ll bring you to the end of yourself. Who wants that? There comes a time when you aren’t worried about how humiliating you look. You just lay yourself out there in front of God and everybody because you don’t care what anybody thinks. “In front of” is none of your concern.

As soon as she made contact with Him, He knew it and focused all his attention on her. In one moment, we can agree on a number of things about Jesus. He’s never too late, He’s never too busy, and He’s never too burdened to step into the pain of our desperation. Sometimes, He has to bring us into desperation in order for us to diligently seek Him. That’s the whole point of this life and yet we are often too consumed with the crowd to really stop and focus on our ultimate and preeminent King. That’s too bad, because when it comes down to it, every solution for brokenness, our pain and neediness is no more than a touch away.

Lord Jesus, Son of God have mercy. I have so often wanted a self-instigated salvation without the mess and grit of desperation. There is only one hero in my story. Have mercy in my desperation, so that I can more fully revel in your rescue.

Poverty and How We Spend Our Money

In the circles in which I travel, various refugee crises and domestic homelessness have brought the problems of poverty and social inequities into clearer focus. Yet at the same time, an evangelistic project spent millions of dollars on two single television advertisements during a sporting event. How do we react to that expenditure against a background of chronic need?

For a sixth time — and the first time in four years — we’re back with Steven C. Mills at the website, Steve’s Bible Meditations. Click the title which follows to read this where it first appeared.

You Always Have the Poor

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19a NIV)

Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray him), said, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”…. Jesus answered, “Leave her alone; she has kept it for the day of my burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” (John 12: 4-8, CSB).

A group of Christian individuals and organizations recently developed an advertising campaign for American TV called “He Gets Us” (www.hegetsus.com). This group states that they are a diverse group of people passionate about the authentic Jesus of the Bible who want everyone to understand Jesus as he’s depicted in the Bible.

The campaign has purchased airtime to broadcast its commercials on national television. Recently, the campaign purchased airtime for two commercials during SuperBowl LVII at a cost of millions of dollars for each 30-second spot. The campaign says it plans to to invest a billion dollars on spreading its message of the Jesus of the Bible.

Spending millions of dollars on “messaging” has, of course, generated criticism from both the socially-conscious Christians on the theological left and the fundamentalist Christians on the theological right. The biggest criticism of the campaign, however, is its spending on marketing, which is seen as money that could be spent for funding community programs for the poor and advocacy for the oppressed.

While you could make a coherent, biblical justification for either side of the argument, fortunately Jesus addressed this issue during His earthly ministry–you always have the poor but you don’t always have me!

Matthew and Mark also include the anointing at Bethany in their gospels, though under slightly different circumstances. In Matthew and Mark it is a group of disciples, not just Judas Iscariot (though he may have been the ringleader), who express displeasure at using the perfume to anoint Jesus and not selling it and giving the proceeds to the poor. Then, Jesus addresses His response to this group, not just Judas. Mark also expands Jesus’ response to this group to include: “You always have the poor with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want…” (Mark 14:7, CSB).

Most Christians would agree that evangelism–making disciples of all nation–is the Great Commission of the Church. Some may do it through efforts accentuated by social activism and some may do it through multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. What’s important is that ALL Christians work toward the same goal of making disciples. Because ALL Christians are evangelicals!

The Bible is pretty clear that injustice, poverty, war, hunger, disease and all forms of human suffering will only be resolved ultimately by God. That doesn’t mean, however, that people shouldn’t try to bring relief to human suffering. And clearly, there are some diseases and forms of injustice that have been overcome as a result of the efforts of good people.

The International Congress on World Evangelization held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974 urged the necessity of both evangelism and social justice in the mission of the Church. The gathering produced The Lausanne Covenant, a declaration that is “intended to define the necessity, responsibilities, and goals of spreading the Gospel.”  Since 1974, the Lausanne Covenant has challenged Christians of all persuasions to work together to make Jesus Christ known throughout the world.

We affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty…
~ From The Lausanne Covenant Section 5 – Christian Social Responsibility

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. (James 2:18, CSB)

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Second Helping: From the same author, a look at “amateur” theology of the man born blind.

 

Jesus and Social Responsibility

We’re back for a second time with Ben Foley who is the International President of Serve Now. (Motto, “Serve Now, Procrastinate Later.”) He is the author of several editions of their “The Basics” series (discipleship guides), and has been posting at Ben Foley: Whispers of God, Echoes of Eternity (aka BenFoley.com) since 2012. Click the header below to read this where it first appeared.

Responsibility

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. -John 6:5-6

Lately, I have been reflecting on the responsibility we have as humans to one another. But mainly, I have been thinking about the responsibility followers of Jesus have in serving those in need and being a people of generosity.

Throughout the Bible, we find clear calls, commands, and reminders to serve and be open-handed in our relationships with others, especially towards the most vulnerable among us. For example, a few of my favorites are:

• Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. -Deuteronomy 15:9-12
• “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” -Isaiah 58:6-7
• Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ -Matthew 25:34-39
• Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27
• What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. -James 2:14-17
• All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. -Galatians 2:10
• For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. -Ephesians 2:8-10

Serving sacrificially and giving generously are not only commands given to God’s people and the decent human thing to do towards others created in God’s image, but also critical ways we demonstrate God’s very nature and character. John 3:16, perhaps the most well-known verse in Scripture, reminds us, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

While we rightly focus on eternal life being a gift to receive by God’s grace through faith alone, we sometimes miss what this tells us about God and how we are to become like him. God doesn’t just say he loves us. He showed us he loves us by giving generously, sacrificially, and unconditionally. He gave his all, his only, and his best. Therefore, when we give wholeheartedly, we are reflecting his character and representing his love to others.

Serving sacrificially and giving generously, therefore, are sacred responsibilities to take seriously. Jesus takes personally the way we do or do not treat others, especially those in need. It is an act of love and service to those in need and Jesus himself when we serve sacrificially and give generously. And when we fail to serve others, we fail to serve Jesus.

If this sounds overwhelming, take heart. I started this blog quoting from the story of when Jesus fed the 5,000 with just a few loaves of bread and fish. The needs of the world can feel overwhelming. This year alone, I traveled to many countries with overwhelming needs, such as Ethiopia amid conflict and famine, Ukraine amid a war, Sri Lanka facing an economic and political collapse, and Iraq, where Yazidi people terrorized by ISIS feel forgotten and abandoned by the world and their government. I am heading next to the US/Mexico border, where thousands come on harrowing journeys fleeing violence, crime, poverty, and corruption.

Sometimes instead of wanting to look up and see all the overwhelming needs of the world, we focus just on what feels more manageable to us. After all, don’t we have our own needs? Don’t our families have needs? Don’t our communities or own country have needs? Who has the time or resources to deal with the world’s needs?

But notice, Jesus turned to Philip when he saw the crowds coming and asked him what he would do about it. Jesus made it personal to Philip and his disciples and, by extension us. However, we know something Philip didn’t have the luxury of knowing at the moment. We are told Jesus asked this only to test Philip. Jesus already knew what he was going to do. He just wanted to stretch Philip’s faith and involve him in a miracle about to unfold.

The same is true today. Jesus wants to involve you and me in the responsibility and privilege of serving others in need. And as Jesus’ disciples found out that day, it isn’t about how little we might have compared to the overwhelming need in the world. Instead, it is about whether we are willing to give all we have and do what Jesus instructs us to do in participating in his plans to reveal himself to a world in need. Give him all you have by serving others sacrificially and generously, and watch what he will do with it in ways you cannot fathom.

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” -John 5:17

Can We Do “Greater Things” Than Jesus?

Today we’re back again at Good Question, the website of Biblical scholar Christopher Smith who is a former pastor, former staff worker with InterVarsity, and the author of several excellent Bible study and reference books. This is our fifth time (I think) directly sharing one of his Q&A articles, but we’ve also quoted him an equal number of times.

Besides acknowledging the source of today’s material, you might also want to bookmark the site as it gets into a number of “201-level” topics you might find useful. Click the title which follows to read this where it first appeared.

How can believers in Jesus do even greater things than he did?

Q. If Jesus is God and is so powerful that he can even raise people from the dead, what does it mean when he says that people who believe in him will do “even greater” things than he does? (John 14:12, “Whoever believes in me will do … even greater things than these.”)

The works that believers in Jesus do are not greater in power than the works that Jesus did on earth, they are greater in glory. See the fuller context of the statement that Jesus made about this: “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

While Jesus was on earth, his glory was veiled. It was possible to witness his miracles and claim, as some of the Pharisees did (absurdly, as Jesus pointed out), that he was doing them by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. And even those who recognized correctly that Jesus did his miracles by the power of God did not always understand who he was. Matthew tells us in his gospel, for example, that when Jesus healed a paralytic, “When the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.” They thought that Jesus was only a human being. (And it is true that Jesus did his miracles not as God omnipotent, but as someone who had emptied himself of such divine attributes when he became a human being. As such, he was completely dependent on God and yielded to God, and so a perfect channel for the Holy Spirit’s power.)

Nicodemus said to Jesus, “We know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the miraculous signs that you do unless God was with him.” So Jesus’ miracles attested that God had sent him and was empowering him. But these miracles did not necessarily disclose that Jesus was the Son of God, come to earth as the Savior.

However, when Jesus’ followers starting doing works in his name after his resurrection, people were amazed that someone whom they knew had died was nevertheless still doing miracles when people called upon him. The apostle Peter, for example, said to a paralyzed man named Aeneas in the city of Lydda, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you,” and Aeneas got right up! So the miracles that Jesus’ followers did were greater in glory than the miracles Jesus did on earth because those later miracles attested to the fact that God had raised Jesus from the dead, beginning a new age in redemptive history, and that the resurrected Jesus was doing great works to confirm the message that his followers were proclaiming about him. So the miracles of Jesus’ followers glorified him in a way that Jesus’ own miracles on earth did not, and in that sense they were greater.

This is a challenge and an opportunity for all believers in Jesus to call upon him to do things in our lives today that will glorify him as the resurrected and exalted Son of God.

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Acts 4:4 NLT But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of men who believed now totaled about 5,000.

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Read more from this author: What about the verses which talk about a woman being saved [from reproach, disgrace] through childbirth? Paul’s epistle to Timothy says women are saved through childbirth, but in his first letter to the Corinthians his advice is to stay single. How does that work?

Rejoicing in the Holy Spirit

Yesterday I was conversing with someone about the contrast between the simplicity of the Good News — so simple that a child can understand it — and the complexity of scripture — so intricate that even back in Bible times John was able to write,

Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written. (21:25 NLT)

Imagine what he would say in a post-printing-press world if he saw all the doctrinal and theological commentaries which have been written since.

Each time you read the Bible there is something new waiting for you that you’ve not noticed before. If you migrate between translations this happens more frequently, a word or phrase suddenly strikes you and have to simply stop reading and think about it.

Eight years ago, while reading Michael Card’s book, Luke: The Gospel of Amazement (IVP), I was struck by  Lk. 10:21. The NCV is one of many translations that uses the phrasing I chose for today’s post title:

²¹ Then Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the people who are wise and smart. But you have shown them to those who are like little children. Yes, Father, this is what you really wanted.

The NIV uses

 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said…

Although this is not one of the ‘trinitarian’ verses in scripture, the Holy Spirit is mentioned. If like me, the phrasing was unfamiliar to you, perhaps you were raised on the KJV which omits this:

²¹ In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said…

but the phrase hagios pneuma is there.

The occasion is the return of the 70 (or 72) from their mission trip and report that demons were subject to them. Jesus’ full prayer is:

My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I am grateful that you hid all this from wise and educated people and showed it to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that is what pleased you.

My Father has given me everything, and he is the only one who knows the Son. The only one who really knows the Father is the Son. But the Son wants to tell others about the Father, so that they can know him too.  (CEB)

So while the verse isn’t, you can see that this passage actually is expressing all three persons of the Trinity.

Card points out that this missionary report is much different than when The Twelve were sent on a similar journey:

We are not told if the first mission of The Twelve was successful or not, but the failures that surround them before and after their first mission are not cause for hope.

We also know from Luke 9:49 there was confusion when they (the disciples) went out on their own:

“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” (NIV)

So to return to our key verse, Jesus rejoices in the report of the larger group. Matthew Henry takes particular note of the phrase “in that hour;”

It was fit that particular notice should be taken of that hour, because there were so few such, for he was a man of sorrows. In that hour in which he saw Satan fall, and heard of the good success of his ministers, in that hour he rejoiced. Note, nothing rejoices the heart of the Lord Jesus so much as the progress of the gospel, and its getting ground of Satan, by the conversion of souls to Christ. Christ’s joy was a solid substantial joy, an inward joy: he rejoiced in spirit; but his joy, like deep waters, made no noise; it was a joy that a stranger did not intermeddle with. Before he applied himself to thank his Father, he stirred up himself to rejoice; for, as thankful praise is the genuine language of holy joy, so holy joy is the root and spring of thankful praise.

Henry’s phrase in the last sentence, “he stirred up himself” is interesting, because he was working from the KJV, which we’ve noted omits the reference to the Holy Spirit. Still, it is interesting to consider Henry’s wording. What did it mean that Jesus stirred up himself? I would like to spend more time on this phrasing, however…

What is the application to us? The IVP New Testament Commentary notes:

The theme of rejoicing continues as Jesus turns back to the disciples and blesses them. They should feel happy and honored because they are seeing things that the prophets and kings longed to see (1 Pet 1:10-12). This passage emphasizes that what Jesus is doing is what the saints of the Old Testament had hoped to see. Many great saints of the old era did not get to experience the blessing, but Jesus’ disciples are blessed to be a part of this new era. The statement recalls 7:28: the lowest person in the kingdom is higher than the greatest prophet of the old era.

Sometimes we think how great it would have been to see Moses perform miracles before Pharaoh or watch Elijah defeat the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel. Jesus says that the situation is in fact the exact reverse—they long to see what we experience, because to know God and life through Jesus is what they had wished to experience all along. In effect, Jesus says, “Count your blessings, for they are many and have been desired for centuries.”

That ought to make us rejoice in the Holy Spirit.

 

To Such as These Belongs the Kingdom of Heaven

by Clarke Dixon

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them; but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

Matthew 19:13-15 (NRSV)

These verses are well loved and help us form the opinion of Jesus that he is very loving and kind. However, keep reading in Matthew’s account of Jesus and we will come across an entire chapter where Jesus rips apart a certain group of people. Here is a sampling:

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!…You snakes, you brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to hell?

Matthew 23:13-15; 27,28,29,33 (NRSV)

The entire chapter goes on like that!

What happened to “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” as some people like to describe him?

Is Jesus a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Was he prone to snapping, like some of us regular folk do? Actually there is a common thread here, and a consistency to Jesus. Whether Jesus was kind and welcoming of the children, or vigorous in lambasting the spiritual leaders, he had in mind the kingdom of God. “To such as these belongs the kingdom of heaven.” That could be said of the little children. It could not be said of the spiritual leaders. Yet they were the very ones who were supposed to be helping people move toward the kingdom of God, to living life as God’s kingdom people. In fact, they thought that if everyone would obey them, God would have to bring the kingdom. Yet to such as these does not belong the kingdom.

There are at least two ways in which the little children and the spiritual leaders are quite unalike.

First, the religious leaders were hypocritical, putting on a religious show for others while their character could be lacking. Whether they are being perfect little angels, or, let’s just say less than perfect, little children tend to be genuine. Little children are great at just being themselves.

Second, the religious leaders were also quite religious. When we think about it, little children are really not religious. They don’t become religious unless someone teaches them religion. The spiritual leaders were so religious that they got lost in the weeds of religion and could not smell the flowers in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was not pulling a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde between welcoming the children and dressing down the spiritual leaders. Jesus was being consistent. In each case Jesus said what could and should be said with regard to the kingdom of God. The little children modelled life in the kingdom. The spiritual leaders were supposed to help people experience kingdom life but instead they only helped people experience their religion.

Matthew records for us how Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, cursed a fig tree for not bearing fruit. This is symbolic of how the religion was not bearing good fruit. The city of Jerusalem, for all its religion, and being the centre of people’s religion, was not helping people experience the kingdom of God. A lot of that had to do with the spiritual leaders.

Not long after that Jesus told the religious leaders the parable of the bad tenants and said: “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom” (Matthew 21:43 NRSV). This is a very important moment where the kingdom of God is defined as a people marked by what their lives are like, a people of whom you can say “to such as these belongs the kingdom of God.” This leads us to the words of Jesus as Matthew’s account draws to a close:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:18-20 (NRSV)

In teaching people to obey Jesus the disciples were not to help them trade getting lost in the weeds of one religion, Judaism, for getting lost in the weeds of another, Christianity, but rather to help people get what life looks like in the kingdom. Obeying the commands of Jesus is not about a new set of religious rules, but following the way of love. We are to trade the weeds of religion for the flowers of the kingdom.

In Conclusion

Are we like the little children who were welcomed by Jesus or are we more like the spiritual leaders who received a dressing down? Little children are better representatives of what life is like in God’s presence. They are genuine, not very religious, even playful. Little children are not perfect, nor even innocent. But they are real. The spiritual leaders, on the other hand, tried to give the impression of perfection, but Jesus knew better. So do many non-church-attending people in our day.

Are we good representatives of what life is like in the presence of God? Does the expression of our faith help people experience the kingdom of God? Or do they just experience our religion? Do people say of us “to such as these belongs the Kingdom of God”?

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Before they appear here each Thursday, Ontario, Canada pastor Clarke Dixon’s condensed sermons appear at his blog, Thinking Through Scripture.

The Surprise, the Scandal, of Jesus

That Time Jesus Gave a Woman the Cold Shoulder

by Clarke Dixon

Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile [Greek: Canaanite] woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.”
But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to go away,” they said. “She is bothering us with all her begging.”
Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”
But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”
Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

Matthew 15:21-26 (NLT)

We might be surprised to find that Jesus gave this woman the silent treatment. Then to make matters worse he denied her request with a put-down! As surprising as this might be, this incident had a much greater surprise for the earliest readers of Matthew’s account of Jesus.

What shocked people then was not what shocks us now. In fact when Jesus gave this woman the silent treatment, he did what anyone in that time and place would have expected Jesus to do. There was a common belief that God had given the land to the descendants of Israel. Here, however, was a descendant of Canaan. Beliefs lead to attitudes, and while there was an attitude of disgust toward foreigners generally there was an even worse attitude toward the indigenous peoples. This Canaanite was a reminder of the failure of the descendants of Israel to completely take the promised land.

That Jesus gave this women the silent treatment was not a surprise. Indeed the disciples thought she should be driven away, betraying the belief that her people should have been driven out hundreds of years earlier. What was shocking here is that Jesus engaged in conversation. What was even more shocking is that Jesus commended her faith and granted the miracle.

She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”
“Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.

Matthew 15:27-28 (NLT)

Let us take note that this descendant from Canaan gave no hint that she wanted to break with her people and identify with the descendants of Israel instead. The faith that Jesus commended was not faith in the Jewish religion, but in Jesus himself. That was truly shocking!

Let us take note also, that Jesus did not instruct the Canaanite woman to become Jewish, to identify with the descendants of Israel, to make their, and his, religion hers. Rather he does a good deed, an act of love; he healed her daughter. As shocking as Jesus’ cold shoulder might be to us today, the positive engagement with Jesus, and the affirmation of a Canaanite woman’s faith in himself is what was truly shocking at the time of the incident.

Some of our church members are following along with me in reading through the New Testament using the One Year Bible. In our readings this past week there have been a lot of surprises on top of this incident with the Canaanite woman. Jesus walked on water leading the disciples to connect Jesus with the divine: “You really are the Son of God!” (Matthew 14:2 NLT). Jesus taught that character was more important than ritual purity leading the Pharisees to be offended (Matthew 15:1-20).

The word for offence in the Greek is a word that has come into our English language; scandal. Jesus was not just full of surprises, he was full of scandal too. In a further surprise for the earliest readers, Jesus brought clarity about his identity with Peter’s confession that he is the Christ, the Messiah (Matthew 16:13-19). So surprising, so scandalous, and so dangerous, was this idea, that Jesus told the disciples not to tell anyone (Matthew 16:20).

Then there was that weird incident we call the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9) where it was made evident that Jesus is greater than the law, represented by Moses, and the prophets, represented by Elijah. What, or who, can be greater than the law and prophets other than God? Again another surprise, another scandalous thought, another dangerous idea.

Matthew will go on to tell us more shocking things than these, such as Jesus being killed, usually a sign that one is not the Messiah, and that Jesus rose from the dead, a sign that Jesus is not your usual idea of a Messiah. And never mind healing a Canaanite women, the Book of Matthew ends with a huge surprise:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

Everyone is invited to this party, including Canaanite women!

So what does this have to do with us today?

First, do we feel the shock, the scandal of Jesus? Or have we become rather blasé about it all?

Have we become so accustomed to the stories of Jesus that they have lost their shock value? Have we become so accustomed to the teaching of Jesus that nothing surprises us? Perhaps we need to put ourselves back into the shoes of the first readers of Matthew’s Gospel, or the people actually there with Jesus at that time, and be shocked.

Or are we not shocked by Jesus because he is not at the centre of our faith? Perhaps some of us need to pay less attention to Paul, or Calvin, or (insert your favourite Christian teacher here), and pay more attention to Jesus?

Or is it possible that we have just fallen into Christianity because we are Canadian and there happens to be a lot of Christianity in Canada? Or our parents and grandparents just happen to be Christians so we just happen to be Christians too? Is Christianity a religion we subscribe to, a box we tick off in a census, or is God the God who has shocked us and rocked our world in Jesus? If Jesus has truly shocked us we will not want to hold onto Christianity as a religion we practice, but to Jesus as the anchor for our souls, the wisdom for our lives, and the hope for our future.

Have we experienced the scandal of divine love?

Some think the idea of divine love is crazy and scandalous because of suffering. With all the troubles of this world and this life, how could anyone believe there is a God who is for us and not against us? Yet beauty has a habit of breaking through. There was great ugliness when hateful people strung Jesus up on a cross. Yet beauty broke through. That was a surprise.

Some think the idea of divine love us crazy and scandalous because divine judgement might seem to be more important and makes more sense. But in Jesus “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” becomes “’this is my body broken for you,’ and I’m not going to break your body. ‘This is my blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins’ and I’m not going to shed your blood.” That was a surprise.

Do we have the audacity to believe in divine love, that God is, and that God is for us and not against us?

Second, do we continue the shock, the scandal of it all?

Does it ever surprise people that we are for them and not against them?

In Conclusion

It is possible that we have made Jesus, and Christianity, boring. What has been shocking in our society is not Jesus and the idea of divine love, but unmarked graves in religious residential schools and pastors whose sins have found them out.

Let us get back to the most surprising, the most shocking, the most scandal ridden person in all of human history – Jesus. Let us follow in his footsteps with some surprises of our own.

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Before they appear here, Ontario, Canada pastor Clarke Dixon’s condensed sermons appear at his blog, Thinking Through Scripture.

Is Opposition Proof that We Are Good Christians?

by Clarke Dixon

…and you will be hated by all because of my name.

Matthew 10:22 (NRSV)

Hated by all. That is what Jesus said would happen. That is what many Christians think is happening now. With great apathy towards Christianity, or at least organized Christianity, by many plus outright outrage against the faith by some, this is proof we are being good Christians, right? Not necessarily.

People may reject or be against our particular expressions of Christianity for good reason. They may never get around to experiencing a better expression.

Let me give one example. Suppose we take the Bible at face value, taking the plain sense in every instance starting right at the beginning with how everything came into being. Taking six days of creation literally, and the timing of the patriarchs as accurate, we will arrive at the conclusion that the earth is quite young. However people go off to university, or Google, and are confronted with some pretty convincing evidence that the earth is not nearly as young as we say it is. Some of us will be unflappable: “see, hated by all just like Jesus said would happen! Therefore trust God, not scientists!” The opposition found in universities and online is treated as proof of correctness. We dig our heels in. The questioner walks away. The questioner may walk away, not just from our church or denomination, but from Christianity altogether and, sadly, from the possibility of connecting with Christ.

But what if we are wrong? N.T. Wright has said somewhere about how we do well to consider how history, theology, and literature has shaped the Bible. Something happened in history which either affirmed or challenged what people believed (theology). They then wrote from, and sometimes about those belief perspectives (literature). In the Bible we hold that literature. We don’t necessarily hold the history as it happened.

Having studied English Literature and Classical Studies in my undergraduate studies, I have little difficulty in seeing that there is something quite literary going on in the creation account of Genesis. In fact it is so poetic that I can’t even comprehend that it is supposed to be read as being a straight historical account. The writers of that day were trying to convey, in ways appropriate to their time and place, beliefs about God. They were not trying to write history the way we think we do today.

If we are holding tightly onto the idea that every word of the Bible conveys an accurate historical account, and if we then face opposition from those who have studied science and history, that opposition is not proof that we are being faithful, but rather that we might need to do a rethink. What we need is not more Bible reading from our own perspectives and biases, but more Bible reading with wisdom. The questioners who walk away depend on it.

Let us also note that the opposition Jesus spoke about was not from people outside Jesus’ own religion, but from people within. The opposition Jesus said his disciples will face is also from within, from their own religious peers, from their own faith family:

“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles… Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Matthew 10:16-18,23 (NRSV)

Opposition from within still happens in our day. In fact opposition from within Christianity may be better proof of being on the right track than opposition from without.

Recently I preached a sermon called “The Bible Clearly Says that Women Must Be Silent in Church. Is that Fair?” Here is what one person commented on the video version of that sermon:

Fair? The Most High God determines fairness. This is a question asked by a base conscience person. Repent, walk away from your wicked ways, seek Christ, and live by the fruit of the spirit. Gal. 5:22-23

Evidently my quest for fairness and equality is to be equated with wickedness. Meanwhile people walk away from Christianity because they know better. Maybe they really do know better. Perhaps, like Jesus they have a nose for fairness and can smell injustice a mile away. The danger if we confuse opposition of our bad ideas with the kind of opposition Jesus faced, is that we will fail to break through to a better expression of our faith. We won’t be following Jesus as well as we think we do. We won’t be helping people connect with Jesus.

If we are going to face opposition in our day let it be because we are like Jesus, pushing against the status quo and seeking good things for people, and not because we are holding onto bad ideas.

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Before they appear here, Ontario, Canada pastor Clarke Dixon’s condensed sermons appear at his blog, Thinking Through Scripture.

First Century Cancel Culture

A couple of times in our earlier years we featured the writing of Claire in New Zealand at the blog One Passion, One Devotion. I’m not sure how we broke that continuity, but today, after a long break we’re catching up. Click the title which follows to link to this article at its source, and then click that blog’s header for some really excellent articles.

Influenced – Blind Bartimaeus

You don’t have to be on the internet for more than 2 minutes to know about cancel culture. Some of its valid – they should cancel certain people for certain things – but others you’re like,  ‘Come on!’ …

Let’s jump into the bible and see where the crowd tried to cancel someone and how they didn’t let that crowd influence them and stop them from encountering Jesus.

Mark 10

Jesus and his disciples went to Jericho. And as they were leaving, they were followed by a large crowd. A blind beggar by the name of Bartimaeus son of Timaeus was sitting beside the road. ⁴⁷ When he heard that it was Jesus from Nazareth, he shouted, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” ⁴⁸ Many people told the man to stop, but he shouted even louder, “Son of David, have pity on me!”

⁴⁹ Jesus stopped and said, “Call him over!”

They called out to the blind man and said, “Don’t be afraid! Come on! He is calling for you.” ⁵⁰ The man threw off his coat as he jumped up and ran to Jesus.

⁵¹ Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”

The blind man answered, “Master, I want to see!”

⁵² Jesus told him, “You may go. Your eyes are healed because of your faith.”

At once the man could see, and he went down the road with Jesus.

I love it when we read the bible – it’s not just a story locked into the pages – it’s God showing us what He is like and what He can do and we can ask Him to speak and show us what He wants to say today about our lives and what He wants to do to and through us.

So Jesus has been in Jericho – doing miracles, healing people, teaching.  Because of this a large crowd had started following Him.  He’s the man, He’s amazing.

But there is a difference between following Jesus in the crowd and being a follower of Jesus.

The crowd were buzzed about all the cool stuff Jesus was doing.  But followers declared Jesus was Master, Lord, Saviour and their lives completely changed because of His influence.

So Jesus is leaving Jericho and the crowd is following.  Crowds are noisy right – unless you’re in one doing a minute’s silence – there is always some level of noise.  People talking. People yelling. People moving.  In this case there were probably people bustling to get closer to Jesus, to hear what He was saying or to get Him to touch them and heal them.

There is a blind man sitting by the road – this was his spot where he would have been dropped off every day, or maybe he slept here, and it was where he would beg for money and food.   They didn’t have health insurance or disability allowances back in those days.  Bartimaeus heard all the noise and the buzz of the crowd and asked someone what is going on? What’s happening?

When he was told Jesus was walking past he called out loudly JESUS SON OF DAVID, HAVE PITY ON ME!

What he is saying here is important.  Son of David is one of those spiritual titles for who Jesus is – that he is the son of God, the messiah.  So Bartimaeus KNOWS who Jesus is, he knows his true identity.    He has heard of his great fame, he has heard of the great things that Jesus has done and he has made up his mind that this is the one who has the power to change his life and heal him.  He has made up his mind that this is God Almighty.

And the crowd tried to cancel him. They told him to sit down and shut up.  They tried to block him from meeting Jesus.

Sometimes when we’re Christians people will tell us to sit down and shut up.  The world have tried to cancel Christians and call us intolerant and narrow minded.

They’ll try to cancel us because sometimes what we believe is counter cultural.  It’s upside down to the world.

It’s bless your enemies instead of get vengeance.

It’s serve not be served.

It’s deny yourself instead of follow your heart.

It’s righteousness and holiness instead of whatever feels good.

It’s purity instead of player.

It’s self control instead of whatever I want I want it now.

It’s seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness instead of building my own kingdom.

It’s grace instead of guilt, hope instead of hopelessness.

Disclaimer here:  Being a Christian isn’t about rules and to do and to do don’t lists.  It’s about a relationship with God, its about peace with God, and when its like that we make God our greatest influencer because we see He’s worth it and His way of living, while hard and upside down sometimes, we do it in response of how good and loving God is.  Knowing Him is worth everything.

Bartimaeus didn’t let the crowd cancel him. In fact, he got louder. He called out even louder.

The cool thing is that over all the noise of the crowd Jesus heard Bartimaeous.  There would have been hundreds of people potentially calling out His name, but there was something about this man calling that grabbed His attention.

Have you ever thought about how God hears us when we pray even if the 8 billion people on the planet all prayed at the same time? He cares about you and what you have to pray.  Prayer doesn’t have to be special words at special times, it is us talking to God, listening to God and about us connecting heart to heart.  We can be honest about how we’re feeling.  If you read Psalms you’ll see often that David, author of probably over half of them, talks about how life sucks, how he feels like he’s drowning, that everyone is against him, that he’s alone, scared, frustrated, angry.  They’re emotional!  They’re raw!  But he always ends it by realizing that in it all, despite how he feels, in the middle of the mess, God is right there, God rescues Him, we can call out to Him and He will hear and respond.  God hears you when you pray.  If we could see what happens when we prayed, how God turns His attention to us we would want to pray more.  If we could see angels move in response to our prayers, we would want to pray more more more.

⁴⁹ Jesus stopped and said, “Call him over!”

They called out to the blind man and said, “Don’t be afraid! Come on! He is calling for you.” ⁵⁰ The man threw off his coat as he jumped up and ran to Jesus.

Now I want to pause here and point something out.  Minor details in the bible can have major meaning.

Bartimaeus threw off his cloak and jumped up and ran to Jesus.

That cloak wasn’t just a jacket, wasn’t just a jumper, wasn’t just a hoodie or an item of clothes.  It was an item of clothing, a cloak that defined that he was a beggar.  It was like his permission slip to be sitting there asking for money.  If you were wearing a cloak like that it showed the people around you that you were a beggar.  It was his identity.  In biblical days, being blind was often seen as a curse. There was really no way to support yourself financially, so beggars were given cloaks, which gave them permission to beg. Beggars were defined as such by the cloak they wore. Usually, the cloak was the beggar’s one and only possession and their only source of income.

Bartimaeus threw off his cloak. He threw off his old way of life. He threw off his comfort zone. He was done being defined as a beggar. He didn’t just toss aside a jacket or sweater, this was life or death. It was sink or swim time; either he was going to be healed or he would have nothing. His faith was remarkable; he was so desperate for change he went to Jesus expecting a miracle.

When he encountered Jesus he threw it off and left it behind.  Jesus changes us – he gives us a brand new start.  He takes off our old life and gives us a new one.

It’s like how we talked about last week with our panel – God gets to define our life.  He gets to say how we do it.  He gets to say leave this behind and live differently because He is good, wise, great and most importantly because He loves us.

So Bartimaeus meets Jesus.

⁵¹ Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man answered, “Master, I want to see!”
⁵² Jesus told him, “You may go. Your eyes are healed because of your faith.”
At once the man could see, and he went down the road with Jesus.

What do you want me to do for you?  Surely Jesus could tell this man was blind?

But He asked.

Loaded question potentially.

He’s asking the blind man what do you expect me to do?  What do you believe I can do?   What do you have faith in?

Jesus asks us the same question.

What do you believe I can do?  What do you want me to do for you?

Now we don’t turn this into a Christmas list for Santa situation where we reply with our wish list, a Lamborghini, to be 5 foot 5, doc martin boots, a swimming pool….

Psalm 37:4 says Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Philippians 2:13 says: for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

It’s like God places His dreams in our heart and the Holy Spirit transforms us that our desires become His desires and His desires become our desires.  It is God at work in us to make us willing to do His will.

But its also an invitation.

What do you want me to do for you?

How big can you believe God for?   How big can you dream?  How big can your vision be?

God wants to do amazing things to and through our lives.  We are not made for normal.  We are not made to blend in.   We follow an amazing God who is the creator of the universe, who loves us so much that He gave His son Jesus to make the way for us to have peace with God.   Nothing is impossible for God.

So how do we make this real in our lives?
1.  Position yourself where Jesus is – Bartimaeus was on the main road where everyone has to pass through.  In the same way, get yourself where God is.  River Youth.  Camp.  The Guys Group, Glow  Church.  We don’t put these on just because we like to have fun together, but because we believe that when you position yourself where God is you meet Him and He changes your life.

2.  Call out to God.  The bible says that everyone who calls out to God will be saved. Calling out to God can look like prayer, can look like worship, can look like getting prayed for, can look like fasting.

3.  Leave the old behind and follow Him.  Bartimaeus threw off his cloak and left that identity behind and left everything that was familiar to follow Jesus.  He became a disciple.

God is inviting each one of us into that adventure.

The challenge is the same.

Will we see Jesus for who He really is?

Will we fight the cancel of the crowd telling us that this is crazy?

Will we hear Jesus calling us to come closer?

Will we believe He can do what He can do?

Will we throw off our old life and follow Him?