How to Make the Rest of 2019 the Best of 2019
We’re halfway through 2019. Want to make the rest of the year the best of the year? Here’s how:
Start practicing the First15 and begin reading the Gospel of Luke with me tomorrow. In 2019, we've been reading through the Gospels every weekday; starting tomorrow, we’re reading through Luke every weekday from now until the end of October. Each reading is short (less than 5 minutes), and every weekday I’ll be writing a very short commentary on that day’s passage.
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Fred Jones: "It Won't Hurt to Try It"
Mungarians Fred and Debra Jones took me up on the Gospels challenge starting in January, and here’s what the experience has meant to them:
Are you in?
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Did the Resurrection Really Happen?
Did the Resurrection actually happen? The Apostle Paul, writing in sometime in the 50's A.D., had this to say: "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith" (1 Corinthians 15:14). In other words, Christianity rises and falls with the Resurrection of Jesus. But, the issue for many modern people is that though the Resurrection seems like a nice story, we know that dead people stay dead and that it couldn't possibly have happened. So, did the Resurrection happen, or not? I think it did, and here are three reasons why.
(By the Way: It Wasn't a Spiritual or Emotional Resurrection)
As a way around the difficulty of the Resurrection, some people say that what the Gospels report is some kind of spiritual or emotional sense that Jesus was still with his disciples after his death. This view does not at all match what the Gospels themselves say, namely that after the Resurrection:
- Jesus ate food (Luke 24:13-32 & John 21:1-14) and
- Jesus made physical contact with the disciples (Luke 24:36-43 and John 20:24-29).
The Gospels are very clear: the Resurrection was a bodily resurrection, and not a vague spiritual sense that Jesus was still alive.So, what reasons do we have to believe that the Resurrection happened?
Reason 1: The Women Witnesses
All the canonical Gospels agree that the first witnesses to the empty tomb and the Resurrection of Jesus were women. In our world, that detail doesn't surprise us, but in the ancient world this would have been a shocking detail because women weren't considered reliable witnesses in the ancient world.If you were making up a resurrection hoax in the 1st century Mediterranean world, you would never say that women were the first witnesses of your story. So, why do all the gospels insist that women were the first witnesses?The simplest reason for the inclusion of the women witnesses: because the Gospels are merely reporting what actually happened. The inconvenient truth of the women witnesses is a detail that argues for the plausibility of the Resurrection.
Reason 2: The Deaths of All Involved
Many people have died for lies that they believed were true, but groups of people do not die for what they know is a lie.Virtually all the disciples of Jesus were martyred for their faith in him. If they were making up the Resurrection, then they would have recanted their stories at the point of death. But they didn't.
Chuck Colson, one of the Nixon men involved in the Watergate break-in, had this to say:
I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.
Chuck Colson
The martyrdom of the early Christians is a strong argument in favor of the truth of their claims.
Reason 3: It Was Testimony, Not Legend
Modern people will say that the Resurrection is a legend, a folktale that took shape over generations and that consequently grew in the telling, like George Washington and the Cherry Tree.The problem with this theory is that it doesn't fit the facts: the letters of Paul began to be circulated around 20 years after the death of Jesus, the Gospel of Mark within 40 years, and the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John within 60 years (at the latest). In other words, Christians were publicly talking about the Resurrection within the lifetime of its witnesses. Anyone who wanted to investigate the truth of the Resurrection merely had to talk to its witnesses.A legend takes generations to develop, but the Gospels (and other New Testament materials) were written down and circulated within a generation or two of the events of that first Easter Sunday, i.e., way too soon a time for a legend to develop.Rather than being a legend, the Resurrection was testimony.
Testimony is a valid form of historical memory. People who experienced the events say, "I was there. I saw it." January was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and there are thousands of people who lived through the Nazi concentration camps who can still testify today to their experience, 70 years later. One of the reasons Holocaust deniers have a hard time gaining a hearing is because there are people who can point to their blue tattoos and say, "No, it did happen: I was there."
Just as the remaining Holocaust survivors' testimony is available to anyone wanting to investigate the Holocaust today, so the Resurrection witnesses' testimony was available to anyone wanting to investigate the Resurrection at the time that the New Testament was taking shape.
Conclusion: the Resurrection is Plausible
The Resurrection cannot be proved in a laboratory. But, we can examine the facts and decide that it is more plausible that the Resurrection happened than that it did not happen.Now, some people will accept the above and yet still insist: "We know that dead people stay dead, and therefore the Resurrection could not have happened." The problem with that position is that history is full of events that seemed impossible and that actually happened. I admit that the Resurrection is unique as an historical event, but that doesn't mean that it is necessarily impossible. In any historical inquiry, we have to look at the evidence and see where it takes us. In this case, I believe the evidence argues in favor of the Resurrection.The reason discussions like this are important are not because they can bring anyone across the threshold of faith (only God can do that), but because I've found that some people won't even approach the door of faith if they believe that the claims of the faith cannot possibly be true; arguments can't cause someone to believe, but they can knock down bad reasons for not believing.Here's hoping this little post might help someone somewhere come a bit closer.[originally published Easter 2015]
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The Church of the Holy Sepulcher
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is in Jerusalem, supposedly built over the tomb of Jesus, and we visited there in February. The more I've read about it, the more convinced I am that this is really where Jesus was buried--this actually happened.
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Alexander & Rufus
"A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross."
Mark 15:21
The identities of the sons of Simon of Cyrene are irrelevant to Mark's story. So, why mention Alexander and Rufus?
Because they were members of the early church, known to Mark's readers. How awesome is that?!
Their dad was forced by the Romans to carry Christ's cross on the way to Golgotha.
His sons became Christ's followers.
WOW.
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Pilate
Pilate knowingly sent an innocent man to die. Think about that.
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The Difference Between Peter & Judas
The difference between Peter and Judas is that Peter, even when he denies Christ, is still trying to say close, whereas Judas runs off on his own.
Be like Peter.
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The Next Time You Are Treated Unfairly
Jesus was not given a fair trial:
55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. 56 Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree.
57 Then some stood up and gave this false testimony against him: 58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands.’” 59 Yet even then their testimony did not agree.Mark 14:55-59
The next time someone treats you unfairly, remember: they did the same to Jesus.
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Mark's Self-Portrait?
Many scholars think that Mark wrote himself into his Gospel in this one strange verse:
A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, 52 he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.
Mark 14:51
Who knows? We know that John Mark was from Jerusalem (cf. Acts 12:12), and would have been a young man at the time of the Crucifixion.
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Judas
I find Judas fascinating.
- Jesus kept Judas in his inner circle, even though he knew he would betray him. Why?
- Judas had been with Jesus for years, and then he deliberately chose to betray him. Why? (He clearly immediately regrets it.)
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The Day & Hour Unknown
Jesus switches from talking about the end of the Temple to The End of All Things. He continues using apocalyptic language, and tells us that because no one knows when the end will come, we all need to be ready.
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The Little Apocalypse
In Mark 13, Jesus is not talking about the end of the world, but an end of the world: the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. In the generation after Jesus (who died circa 33 AD), the Jews staged a revolt against Rome which was cruelly put down, culminating with the destruction of the Temple. The Temple remains in ruins until this day. (The well-known Wailing Wall is a still-standing wall of that Temple.)
Jesus is here foretelling the destruction of the Temple, using apocalyptic language, which is appropriate, because in the time of Jesus, the idea that the Temple would be thrown down, stone upon stone, would have seemed to require the end of the world.
13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”Mark 13:1-2
I've been to the Temple Mount and seen the great stones that were brought from the quarry into Jerusalem. Even today, their size and scale is astounding. Add to this the fact that, as with the Pyramids, we still don't know how the Temple was built and couldn't build it today, and you can see why Jesus uses the language he does.
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God's Economy
In God's economy, it's not the amount of the gift that matters, but the heart behind it.
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Punished Most Severely
Jesus warns the large crowd that has gathered around him in the Temple courts that hypocritical religious leaders who prove unfaithful will be "punished most severely." Whoa.
No wonder the crowd of ordinary people "listened to him with delight" (Mark 12:37).
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The Stone the Builders Rejected
In the Parable of the Tenants, Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22-23:
The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.Psalm 118:22-23
What if God has a redemptive purpose for the overlooked things in our lives?
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By Whose Authority?
We know the answer to the question the Temple leadership puts to Jesus: he is authority.
They totally miss it. What about us?
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Overturning the Tables
Just as with the cursing of the fig tree, by overturning the moneylenders' tables, Jesus is enacting a living parable in Jerusalem, testifying that the entire Temple leadership is corrupt and will be overthrown.
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Why Does Jesus Curse the Fig Tree?
Jesus enacts a living parable with the fig tree on his way to and from Jerusalem that last week of his life. Why? The fig tree represents Israel (see Jeremiah 8:13, e.g.), and Jesus is telling the disciples that the religious establishment in Israel is totally corrupt and will be overthrown,"from the roots" (Mark 11:20).
In AD 70, the Romans destroyed the Temple and razed it to the ground.
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What Do You Really Want?
I love the question Jesus asks Blind Bartimaeus:
“What do you want me to do for you?”
Mark 10:51
Bartimaeus has his answer.
Do you?
(If you don't, then that's yours right there: "Lord, give me an answer.")
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The Baptism of His Suffering, Death, and Resurrection
In the liturgy for Holy Communion we pray:
"By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection
you gave birth to your church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made with us a new covenant
by water and the Spirit."
In today's reading when Jesus asks James and John, "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" he is talking about his coming suffering. He will be glorified, but he'll have to be crucified first.
Cross before Crown.
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Can Rich People Be Saved?
Yesterday marriage, today money: Jesus gives us another very hard word in today's reading. Is it possible to be wealthy and inherit eternal life?
The answer: Technically yes, but it's practically impossible. (That's what Jesus says, not me, so don't shoot the messenger!)
Here's my question: Why? Why is it so hard to be wealthy and live into the Kingdom?
I think it's because the essential question every person must ask is this: am I going to be lord of my life, or will I choose to submit to the Lordship of Christ? That's a difficult choice for everyone and has been since Eden, but for the rich it becomes even more excruciating because one of the things that wealth brings is control. The more wealth you have, the more control you have, or more accurately, the more control you think you have. Wealth lures you into the spiritual trap of self-sufficiency, and the more wealth you have, the deeper into the trap you walk.
There are 2 ways that rich guys like me try to wriggle out from under this hard teaching of Jesus:
- We tell ourselves that we aren't really that wealthy--now John Doe, that guy is wealthy. But this is a lie: I personally have more wealth not only than most people who have ever lived, but more than most people living today.
- Or, we comfort ourselves at Jesus's words that, although it is impossible for man that the rich to be saved, with God all things are possible. The problem with relying on those words is that I can too easily let myself off the hook and not take Jesus seriously.
There is no question: if we are going to be followers of Jesus, we must wrestle hard with the question of wealth. If not, it's liable to overpower us.
I'm a wealthy American, and I expect I will be my entire life: wealth won't go away for me. I think Jesus is telling me that I am going to have to constantly bring my wealth before him in prayer and ask the question, "Lord, am I being a good steward of this?"
But then again, I guess I'm the only one with this problem, right?
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