Start Planning Your Sabbath Today

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[Note to my subscribers: As usual, this post went live on my blog at 3:30 AM this morning, but yet again we had some technical difficulties in sending it out via email, which is why you are only just now receiving this. The reason is a good reason: my subscriber number keeps increasing, and so I keep burning through the limits set by the email provider. —AF]

Jesus makes an interesting point when the Jews attack him for healing the lame man on the Sabbath:

“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”

The practice of ceasing work on the 7th day comes from Genesis 1, where God rests on the 7th day and ceasing from the work of creation. However, the rabbis also acknowledged that Sabbath doesn’t mean that God stops caring for and upholding Creation, and Jesus makes the same point.

There is a sense in which God never takes a day off (since nothing would exist without God’s continued care).

The good news is that we are not God.

How can you start planning today for a true Sabbath day this weekend?

 

Today’s Scripture

John 5:16-30

Do You Actually Want Things to Be Different?

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[Archeologists have excavated the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where this incident takes place; I’ve been there.]

[Archeologists have excavated the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where this incident takes place; I’ve been there.]

I’m convinced that many people would rather stay in the pain they know than risk changing the way things are in their lives. Chances are you know someone like this: constant complaint, but never any meaningful change.

I love how Jesus cuts to the heart of the matter when he sees the crippled beggar laying with the others by the Pool of Bethesday in Jerusalem:

“Do you want to get well?”

In other words, Jesus asks him, “Do you actually want things to be different?”

The man’s answer? An excuse:

Well, I’m stuck here and other folks get to the water first and it’s not my fault and blah blah blah.

How many times have I done the same thing? How many times have you? How many times have you listed a litany of excuses while never taking the responsibility to put yourself in a position to change?

Jesus, as usual, cuts through the crap. [Pardon my French.]

“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”

To the man’s credit, he does! His desire to get well meets Jesus’s ability to make him well.

I think that’s how it works: we have to want what God wants for us.

Do you?

 

Today’s Scripture

John 5:1-15

If Jesus Performed a Miracle on Live Television in the Middle of Times Square....

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would it make a difference? Would the world believe?

[Technical difficulties kept this from being mailed out on the normal day and time. My apologies. —AF]

Instead of miracles, John likes to talk about the “signs” that Jesus performs. Why? Because signs point to something else. The miracles that Jesus performed were meant to point to his identity: that of the only Son of God.

If you have the eyes to see, miracles can certainly be signs that point beyond themselves. The problem, however, is that often we prefer to focus on the miracle and not the miracle-worker. We are entertained by the power and miss the point.

Which is precisely what the strange story of the healing of the royal official’s son is about.

John tells us that Jesus knew that a prophet was never welcomed in his hometown, and then precedes to tell us that the Galileans “welcomed him,” which seems like a contradiction. However, Jesus has just come from Samaria, where the Samaritans trust him as the Messiah. What we will see as we read through the rest of John’s Gospel is that the Galileans—Jesus’s own people—are quick to appreciate his miracles but slow to recognize him as Messiah.

This explains why Jesus says what he says after the royal official begs him to come to Capernaum and heal his son: “‘Unless you people see signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’"

To his eternal credit, however, the royal official himself decides to take Jesus at his word. He has wanted Jesus (ordered Jesus?) to come and heal his son, but when Jesus says, “Go, your son will live,” he goes.

The boy is healed, of course.

I like what John Calvin has to say about this incident:

“It is also worth noticing that although Christ does not grant his desire, He gives him far more than he asked. For he receives the assurance that his son is even now well. So our heavenly Father often does not comply with our prayers in every detail but goes to work in an unexpected way to help us, so that we may learn not to dictate to Him in anything.”

—John Calvin, as quoted in The Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: John

The Point

We tell ourselves that if the Lord would only do this or that, then we would be filled with faith.

But that’s not true, as the Gospel writers tell us over and over again: the miracles were impressive, but they didn’t lead everyone to trust in the Messiah. And this is precisely why Jesus says what he says to the royal official: he knows that signs and wonders can attract a crowd, but they will not necessarily lead that crowd to faith in Christ.

The lesson for us is clear: just as with the royal official, Christ demands that we believe in his word without a sign. And when we do so, two things happen:

  1. We learn that Jesus performs miracles to teach us about himself.

  2. And we learn that he is always trustworthy.

So today, don’t be afraid: just believe.

 

Today’s Scripture

John 4:43-54

Not by Bread Alone

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When the Israelites stood right on the edge of the Promised Land, Moses gave a speech to the younger generation, the ones born in the wilderness and who, unlike their parents, had never known Egyptian slavery. We call this speech Deuteronomy. In it, Moses reminds this wilderness generation of all that the Lord has done for his people, and what they must not forget when the enter the Promised Land. In Deuteronomy 8:3 he says:

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

This is a really profound insight, namely that we need God more than we need food, and obedience to God must come before even our biological needs.

So, in today’s passage when Jesus says

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

He is reminding his disciples (and through them, reminding us), that God must be first in our lives, because any other way of living will not ultimately work for us.

A good reminder.

 

Today’s Scripture

John 4:27-42

Thirsty

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In the time of Jesus, Jews considered Samaritans to be half-breeds: Israelites who had intermarried with Gentiles centuries before. And so Samaritans were considered unclean, and they were considered heretics. They read the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) but rejected everything else in the Hebrew Bible: Psalms, prophets, etc.. Instead of Jerusalem, they believed that the Lord should be worshipped on Mount Gerizim.

Samaria was between 2 Jewish regions: Judea in the south and Galilee in the north.

Samaria was between 2 Jewish regions: Judea in the south and Galilee in the north.

So, Jesus’s interactions with this Samaritan woman are extremely transgressive:

  • She is an unclean foreigner;

  • She is a woman;

  • And she is someone who is currently in an ambiguous moral state (she was divorced or widowed 5 times—presumably through no fault of her own—but the man she is currently with is not her husband).

In spite of all of that—or because of it?—Jesus reaches out directly to her.

Jesus has a way of reaching out to outsiders.

To whom do you need to reach out today?

Do it.

 

Today’s Scripture

He>i

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HE>i

He must increase, and I must decrease.

There’s a reason John the Baptist is one of the greatest men who ever lived:

He had a specific role to play, and that role was to point people to Jesus. And he did it perfectly.

In his day, John was a sensation in Judea. But, when his purpose was fulfilled, he graciously moved back and let Jesus take center stage.

“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
— John the Baptist [John 3:30]

Today, how can you be as excellent in your role as John, and at the same time be as humble?

 

Today’s Scripture

John 3:22-36

Born Again

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Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He’s a member of the religious establishment, and the conversation he has with Jesus shows just how little the establishment understands about what Jesus is doing.

In Greek, the same word means both “again” and “from above.” Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born from above, and Nicodemus thinks he means born again—he doesn’t get it. Jesus goes on to explain that the new thing that God is doing will require a complete change in a person, a change as drastic as being born all over again. And, Jesus explains, this new way of living is a gift from God—the Spirit of God makes it possible.

To be “born from above” or “born again” is to commit to the Jesus way, and to relearn how to live life in his image. What does that look like? It looks like the kind of life Jesus describes in the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Today’s Scripture

John 3:1-21

Overturning the Tables

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In the ancient world, a temple was a place where heaven and earth overlapped. And, though the Jews knew that the Lord was not literally confined to the Temple in Jerusalem, at the time of Jesus they certainly saw the Temple as that kind of place: where God dwelt.

But in the day of Jesus the Temple had become a corrupt institution that preyed on the poor and vulnerable and kept the rich and powerful in power. So, Jesus here stages a spectacular protest in which he overturns the tables of the moneylenders and drives out the animals.

Then, he goes even further and implies that his body is now the Temple.

In other words, Jesus is telling those present that heaven and earth meet in him.

John tells us that though his disciples didn’t understand at the time, after the Resurrection they looked back on that moment and it all made sense:

“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

John 2:22

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Today’s Scripture

John 2:13-22

Water Into Wine

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John gives us a clue to the meaning of this strange story at the end of his account:

“What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”

John 2:11

In John’s Gospel, there aren’t “miracles”; rather, there are “signs.” Each miracle that Jesus does is meant to point to a larger purpose.

So, what is the point of the miracle/sign at Cana, the water into wine?

When the Messiah comes, he will prepare a messianic banquet of abundance. Jesus doesn’t just turn water into wine; he turns lots of water into really good wine.

No matter how high our expectations are, our future life in the Kingdom of God will exceed our expectations.

 

Today’s Scripture

John 2:1-12

How to Talk to Unbelievers

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I say the same thing every Sunday:

“Whatever your week’s been like or your life’s been like—whatever you look like—whether you believe what we believe, or even if you vehemently disagree: in the name of Jesus Christ you are welcome in this place today.”

The reason I say this is because I know that Jesus can take care of himself. It’s my job to knock down bad arguments and to clear the path for folks to come to Jesus, but it is NOT my job to argue people into the Kingdom. So, I don’t worry if there are folks at Munger on a Sunday who aren’t believers—I know that as long as I make the space for them to meet the Lord, he can take care of himself.

Look at how how Phillip deals with Nathanael when Nathanael asks some skeptical questions about Jesus.

Nathanael asks, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (For whatever reason, he is not impressed when Phillip tells him where Jesus is from.)

To which Phillip replies, “Come and see.”

Phillip knows that Jesus can take care of himself, and that if he only makes it easy for Nathanael to be confronted by Jesus, Jesus will take care of the rest. So, Phillip invites Nathanael to take a step toward the Lord with those simple words: “Come and see.”

I think this is exactly how we should talk to unbelievers in this culture. Note how Phillip doesn’t allow himself to be drawn into a pointless argument; instead, he brings it back to Jesus, and gives Nathanael an invitation to meet Jesus himself: “Come and see.”

We have a part to play in bringing people to faith, but it’s the part of invitation.

Once people encounter Jesus, he has a way of surprising them, just as he surprised Nathanael.

So, the next time you get in an argument with a non-believer, I believe the best thing you can say is,

Come and see.

 

Today’s Scripture

John 1:35-51

John the Baptizer

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MungerFest 2017.

MungerFest 2017.

We know from sources outside the Bible that John the Baptist was an electric figure in first-century Judea who created a sensation with his ministry of baptizing Jews in the Jordan River.

Baptism was practiced before John, but it was something that converts to Judaism did; baptism was not for people who were already Jewish. But, there was John, baptizing Jews in the Jordan River. It would be like an American politician today making American citizens take a citizenship test. (Come to think of it, that’s not a terrible idea….)

So, what did John’s baptism mean? John was baptizing Jews in the Jordan River, the same river that the Israelites had to pass through to get to the Promised Land so many centuries before. It was a provocative act: John was acting as if the entire Jewish people needed to purify themselves for something imminent.

Naturally, John’s actions attracted the attention of the religious establishment in Jerusalem, and so they sent emissaries to question him.

Was John the Christ? (“Christ” is the Greek word for the Hebrew term “Messiah,” which means “Anointed One.” The Messiah was the one who was long foretold in the Old Testament, the one who would save God’s people.)

Was John the second coming of Elijah? (There was a tradition in Judaism that the prophet Elijah would return to prepare the way for the Messiah. See Malachi 3:1, 4:5.)

Was John the second coming of Moses himself, the greatest of all Old Testament prophets? (In Deuteronomy 18:15, Moses tells the Israelites that the Lord will raise up a second Moses, and the legend developed that this second Moses would come as the End Times approached.)

John answers negatively to all 3 questions. John knows his role is to prepare for the Messiah, and nothing more.

In some sense, each of us is like John the Baptist—we are supposed to point other people to Jesus.

How can you do that today?

 

Today’s Scripture

John 1:19-34

In the Beginning

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John begins his Gospel at the beginning. Not with the birth of Jesus to Mary in Bethlehem, but with the Beginning of Creation itself. He is deliberately echoing Genesis 1—“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”—and the question is, Why? What’s he trying to tell us? Why would you begin a Gospel in this way?

John wants us to understand that the Word, i.e., the Second Person of the Trinity, is both God and distinct from God, and was in existence before he was born of the Virgin Mary and given the name Jesus. He wants us to understand from the very beginning of his Gospel just who this Jesus is: namely that the carpenter’s son from Nazareth who heals the sick, feeds the hungry, and eats with sinners is God in the flesh.

Although he doesn’t use the term, John is describing God as Trinity.

Go back and read Genesis 1:1-3:

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:1-3

What do you notice? There is God, there is the Spirit, and there is the fact that God creates by his Word!

The rest of the Gospel is going to show us what happens when the Word puts on flesh and dwells among us.

AMAZING.

P.S. The “John” mentioned in the prologue here is John the Baptist. He was a SENSATION in first-century Judea, and so John the Author wants us to be totally clear: John the Baptist wasn’t the point; Jesus is the point!

Update at 2:30 PM: I had some technical difficulties this AM (of course!), so that’s why those of you on my Gospels 2019 mailing list are receiving this post in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning, everything should be back to normal.

 

Today’s Scripture

John 1:1-18

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

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I can't say it too often: no one expected the Resurrection.

Even when the Risen Jesus appeared to the disciples, they had to create a new mental category before they could really grasp what had happened.

What does Luke tell us?  They thought he was a ghost.

That's why he asks for and eats a piece of broiled fish: to prove he is flesh and blood.

37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

Luke 24:37-42

I imagine Jesus having a twinkle in his eye during this whole episode--it's the greatest private joke of all time.

At the End of History, God will renew all things, and it will feel as if our faces will split open, we'll be smiling so wide!

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 24:36-49

The Greatest Bible Study of All Time

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On the road to Emmaus, the Risen Jesus (whom Cleopas and the other disciple don't recognize) explains that the Messiah had to die:

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Luke 24:25-27

The greatest Bible study in all of history, and Luke doesn't give us any more details than that!

But, I think what he does give us is important:

Jesus is the key to understanding the entire Bible--it all points and finds fulfillment in him.

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 24:13-35

What I Like About Peter

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No one expected the Resurrection, and Luke tells us that the Eleven and the others thought the report of the women who had found the tomb empty was "nonsense."

"Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened."

Luke 24:12

I love that! Peter runs to the tomb. Why?  Because if there is even the slightest chance it's true, he wants to find out for himself.

I wish more people had that attitude.

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 24:1-12

Joseph of Arimathea

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The actions of Joseph of Arimathea are totally selfless, courageous, and noble. His request of Pilate for Jesus’s body, and then his burial of that body, is the act of a great man. I look forward to meeting him in glory.

What act of selfless integrity can you perform today?

For more on Joseph, this is from an entry in The Anchor Bible Dictionary (a fancy new multi-volume encyclopedia I just got):

“According to Roman law execution signaled the sacrifice of all of the victim’s earthly possessions and left the right of burial only to the good favor of the magistrate, although the body was often released to relatives. Jewish law on the contrary held that burial was a duty to be performed even for enemies, and according to Deut 21:23 and rabbinic law the body was not to hang on a cross after sundown. Joseph, as a leader of the Jews, and out of respect for Jewish law, especially in light of his apparent dissent from the voting for Jesus’ execution (Luke 23:51), and possibly as a favor to Jesus’ followers and as a friend of Pilate, felt compelled to request from Pilate the right to bury him. But this motive faces the difficulty of why Joseph would have risked ceremonial uncleanness; perhaps servants helped him; to say nothing of his political and religious careers (John 19:38; cf. Mark 15:43, where Joseph “took courage” to go to Pilate), for such a criminal as Jesus. As depicted in the Gospels, Joseph at the least probably felt that Jesus’ message of the coming of the kingdom warranted this one final act of devotion, with Matthew seeing this as a further sign of Joseph’s being a follower. The NT documents agree that Joseph, with help from others (though no family members), prepared and laid Jesus’ body in a tomb and rolled a stone across the opening.”

from “Joseph of Arimathea”, in The Anchor Bible Dictionary

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 23:50-56

What Were They Thinking As They Saw Jesus Crucified?

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After Jesus breathes his last breath, Luke tells us:

But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Luke 23:49

Here’s my question: what where they thinking?

Imagine the despair and disappointment and fear and anger they must have been feeling.

What I KNOW they were not thinking about was resurrection. The scriptures are clear: no one expected resurrection.

They were totally hopeless, and yet hope came for them anyway.

When you cannot possibly understand how this or that situation will ever be anything good, that’s when you know that what God is going to do with it will be SHOCKING and beautiful.

If God can make that Friday Good, he can make anything good.

Don’t lose hope today!

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 23:44-49

Some Political Background Info to the Crucifixion

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The Romans were in political control of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, and unsurprisingly there were Jewish rebels who tried to overthrow Roman rule. (The ancient Jewish historian Flavius Josephus–who lived a generation after Jesus– tells us a lot about these movements.)

I think it’s a fair assumption that Barabbas was a rebel leader, which is why he was imprisoned under Pontius Pilate, awaiting sentencing. Luke also tells us that Barabbas was a murderer. Most likely, he murdered Romans.

Think about the irony: Jesus, the innocent man, dies on behalf of Israel for his enemies, whereas Barabbas, the guilty man, goes free.

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 23:13-25

Silent Like a Sheep Before Its Shearers

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Jesus refuses to defend himself in the sham trial he’s put through that last night of his life. His silence reminds me of the great Isaiah prophecy of the suffering servant:

He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.

Isaiah 53:7

Isaiah 53 is worth reading in its entirety, by the way. Keep in mind that this prophecy comes centuries before the time of Christ.

53 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53

Today’s Scripture:

Luke 22:63-71