Teacher

This was (and I hope always will be) my message for Easter this year. Can you hear Him speaking your name?

Easter, 2019 (April 21); John 20:1 – 16 - TEACHER

Robert L. Withers, Prince George, VA

            Her life has been shattered – her hopes dashed – her joy turned to sorrow.  The light of her life

has gone out – her heart is broken.  From darkness to light she had come but now back to darkness.  

From despair to hope she had been borne, but now she’s collapsed back to despair.

            All those years in prison she had lived.  Not a prison of walls and bars but a prison of inner torment.  Not jailers of flesh and blood, but unmerciful captors who took their orders from none other than the warden himself, Satan.

            We don’t know the details of her captivity, we don’t know the specifics of her torment and despair – but we do know who rescued her from prison, we do know who opened the windows of her soul to see – after so many years in the dungeon of darkness - the light of life.

            For years the only voices she had known were those of her seven captors.  From morning till night and then through the night their voices were the ones that filled her ears, her heart, her mind.  Their voices drove her to do things that repelled her, things that she loathed to do, things that caused the citizens of her village to reel in revulsion.

            The chains of her tormentors did not bind her hands and feet; they bound her heart, they bound her mind.  The food she was given to subsist on in her confinement was not bread and water but self-accusation, hopelessness, self-loathing and perpetual despair.

            Oh but then that day – which began as just another night, for all days were as night and all nights were as if the sun, moon and stars had been blotted off the heavenly canvass – yes, but then there was that day that began as just another night.

            The crowds were gathering, gathering to hear the One known as the new Teacher.  It was said that anyone could come and see and hear Him. 

“Anyone?  Could this be true?” she asked, “but I am not allowed in the synagogue because I am an outcast.  And no respectable scribe or Pharisee, no accepted religious leader would allow me to be in his audience.”

            “Oh but,” she was told, “this Teacher is not a scribe, He is not a Pharisee, and He carries no certificate of authenticity nor license to preach from the religious authorities.  Truly all are welcomed by Him…come…come and see…come and hear.”

            And so even though confined within the walls of her prison she makes her way with the crowd and approaches the Teacher.  Her seven captors raise their voices, “No! No!  Not this way, you’re going the wrong way!  You vile despicable woman, who would want you!  Who would love you!  You’ll stay in this prison all your life, you have no hope of escape.  This will be your home forever!!! You have no hope, no hope, no hope!!!”

            As these frenzied voices reach a high-pitched crescendo in their attempt to drown out all other voices – she hears one word – one word amidst the cacophony of confusion within her heart and mind – one word that pierces the darkness, one word that brings her heart to life, one word that fills her lungs with pure fresh clean air  –

“Mary.”

          And the vile stench of her prison leaves her, her broken heart is healed, a life of despair is transformed into a life of joy, a life starved for love, starved for care and starved for acceptance finds itself enveloped in the love of God, the love of the Teacher – Jesus of Nazareth.

Who Made the Nails?

Who Made the Nails?

April 14, 2019, Bethlehem Congregational; Prince George, VA        Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12

Bob Withers

            (First Person Narrative begins)

            What a mess!  Three dead men.  Two criminals…and one…one…well…who knows just who 

He was…or is?  At least the bodies have been taken away…the criminals to the burial pit…the 

Other…I understand Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and got special permission to take His body 

down and put it in Joseph’s own tomb.  Apparently Nicodemus helped him place this Jesus in the 

tomb and they wrapped it with spices and cloths.

            What’s this down here?  A nail?  (Bend down and pick up spike). How many times have I told those soldiers to clean up after themselves?  This must have been one of His nails…Don’t they know that a man could get hurt walking on these things?  Don’t they know I’ve better things to do than to go around picking up nails?  Picking up their trash?

            Hum…I wonder whom they’re buying their nails from these days?  With all the crucifixions going on it wouldn’t be a bad contract to have.  Let’s see, I don’t see a trademark on it…I wonder who made this thing?  Maybe I’ll keep this one as a souvenir, or maybe…since it was used on Him…on that strange one…maybe I’ll sell it to one of His followers…that is if any of them still have the nerve to call themselves His followers.  Ran away like a pack of rats off a ship they did!

            I wonder who made this nail?  If I could find out maybe I could get a few of them and sell them for souvenirs…maybe I could make a pretty penny out of this?

            Perhaps Pilate made the nails?  After all, Jesus was crucified by Roman soldiers, He was mocked by them, tortured by them.  Pilate could have let Jesus go.  He could have found Jesus innocent.  In fact Pilate said, “I find no fault in Him.”  Pilate crucified an innocent man.  Pilate succumbed to the pressure of the Jewish leaders and the crowds by crucifying Jesus and freeing the murderer Barrabbas.

            What do you mean the soldiers killed Jesus and not Pilate?  Sure the soldiers performed the act, but Pilate gave the order.  Surely Pilate manufactured the nails.

            Or, suppose we consider the Jewish leaders and the crowds.  The crowds shouted to Pilate that they wanted Jesus crucified and that they wanted a murderer to be released instead.  So Pilate wouldn’t have crucified Jesus had it not been for the crowds yelling and screaming and thirsting for blood.  So the crowds must have been the ones to manufacture the nails.

            But what about the priests?  If they hadn’t plotted against Jesus He wouldn’t have been arrested…and if they hadn’t incited the crowds the crowds may have asked for His release.  So it must have been the priests who made these nails.

            How about the disciples?  After all they all deserted Him, if they had stayed and defended Him perhaps He wouldn’t have been arrested.  Perhaps they could have refuted the lies told about Him at His trial.  Perhaps it was His followers who made these nails?

(End of first person narrative)

           

Who manufactured these nails?  Suppose you have company over this afternoon after church and talk turns to the Crucifixion and someone asks you the question, “Who manufactured the nails?”  How would you respond?  What would you say?  Who made these things?

            Why did Jesus die?  Did He die because He was railroaded?  Did He die because of a conspiracy?  Did He die because He was a good man?  Did He die because He was a prophet?  Why did Jesus die?  Who manufactured the nails?

            750 years before His crucifixion Isaiah the prophet has the Word of God come to him, and even though he doesn’t understand all that he sees and hears, he writes what God gives him.  He portrays the Messiah, the One promised to Abraham, the One spoken of by Moses, the descendent promised to King David.  In verses 7 – 12 of Isaiah 52 Isaiah portrays the Messiah as a conqueror, a deliverer, One who is reigning, comforting His people, One who is manifested to all the nations of the earth.  And just as things seem to be reaching a crescendo in the prophecy in verse 13, “He shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be very high,” Isaiah is startled by an image, a vision, a Word from God….

            “Many are astonished at Him, His appearance was so marred, beyond human appearance…and His form beyond that of the sons of men.”  What can this mean?  What happened to the Messiah, the One who is coming to reign over the earth, the One who is coming to bring deliverance and salvation to His people?

            53:2  “He had no form or comeliness that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.”  53:3“He was despised and we esteemed Him not.”

            A few years ago when Ross Perot was running for president I recall watching the vice-presidential debate.  Since it was a three – way race there were three candidates on the platform – representing the Democratic, the Republican and the Reform parties.  The two main candidates were sharp looking, articulate, with make-up on for television…they could have stepped out of the cover of some slick magazine.  When they were asked questions they responded with canned and predictable answers, more often than not answers that really didn’t mean much, other than they knew what they could safely say without losing too many votes.

            But the Reform party candidate had obviously never read GQ magazine…and he probably purchased his suit off the rack at a retail store…and he was slow to answer questions…he lacked the toothpaste ad style cotton candy teeth and grin to display to the camera…to the American public he came across as a loser…when in fact he had served his country as none of the other two had served their country…for all of his adult life he had served his country…not with his mouth, not with slick sounding words…not with a toothy sickening sweet smile…but Admiral Stockdale had served his adult life in the US Navy and particularly as a long-term prisoner of war…he had given his life for his country…virtually to the point of death…but the American public considered him a loser – he may have not been pretty to look at, he may have been slow of speech, he may not have had 15 layers of make-up on him, but Admiral Stockdale was no loser.

            This is the picture that the prophet paints of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  Nothing to cause a second – look, nothing to cause us to cast a vote for Him.  Until the 4^th century and the time of Constantine, when Christianity was sanctioned by the Roman government, artistic portrayals of Jesus are normal – they are not the high – gloss halo enhanced ultra-bright toothpaste Madison Avenue public relations images we’ve seen for 1700 years.

The Donkey by G.K.C.

THE DONKEY

   G. K. Chesterton

When fishes flew and forests walked

   And figs grew upon thorn,

Some moment when the moon was blood,

   Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry

     And ears like errant wings,

The devil's walking parody

     On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth

     Of ancient crooked will;

Starve, scourge, deride me.  I am dumb,

      I keep my secret still.

Fools!  For I also had my hour,

   One far fierce hour and sweet:

There was a shout about my ears

    And palms before my feet.

Lenten Meditation

Our community holds a series of Lenten lunches hosted by various churches. This past Wednesday was Bethlehem's turn to host; below is what I shared with the congregation:

Are we drinking the cup of Jesus Christ? Am I drinking it? Are you drinking it?

In the Gospels, as Jesus is making His way to Jerusalem, as He approaches Palm Sunday, James and John and their mother come to Jesus, asking that when Jesus comes into His Kingdom that one will sit on Jesus’s right and the other on His left.

Jesus proceeds to give them a lesson in servant-leadership; pointing out that the Son of Man didn’t come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many – and while to sit or His right or left is not His to give – He does tell them that they will drink of His cup and be baptized with His baptism.

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

This is the time of year when we like to clean things up – after all it’s Easter season, it’s spring, the flowers are up, the trees are blooming, and we want things to be pretty. We want the Cross of Christ to be pretty, and if it must, if it absolutely must, be ugly and horrid on Good Friday, well then, come Easter let’s clean it up and keep it clean until Good Friday of next year.

And while we’ll cleaning the Cross up, let’s clean the cup of Christ up – so that if we must taste it, if we must drink of it – that it not be bitter, that it not contain suffering for others, that it not demand self-denial.

For surely when Jesus says that we are to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him, surely when He teaches that whoever will save His life will lose it and that whoever loses it for His sake will save it – when Jesus says these things – surely He fails to recognize the comforts we are accustomed to – surely He misses the whole point that we are called to live safe and secure and prosperous lives. Whatever in the world is the matter with Jesus?

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

And then there is Christ’s totally misplaced and uninformed command to us that we make disciples of all people groups. Does he really expect us to tell our neighbors and friends and families and coworkers about Him? Doesn’t Jesus understand that religion is a private matter?

Jesus’ death was no private matter. The shame heaped upon Jesus was no private matter. Jesus identification with us – His taking our sin, our death, our corrupt souls, our depraved minds, our filthy hearts upon Himself and into Himself was, in many ways, no private matter. Let us not forget that we were enemies of God.

Paul writes that God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

How can we enter into Holy Week without carrying our cross and drinking from His cup? How can we contemplate Good Friday, how can we celebrate Easter, how can we live beyond Easter – without being women and men whose distinguishing feature is that they are dying daily so that others might live…drinking the cup of Jesus Christ?

Our God, the Trinitarian God, the One True God – is the God who suffered for us, died for us, rose for us, and comes again to us – He is the God who bears scars for us. Can we see God’s scars today?

George MacDonald wrote, "The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His."

What do our sufferings look like today? Not the general sufferings of humanity and our common condition – but sufferings that are the result of carrying the Cross, of drinking the Cup, of obedience to Jesus Christ?

Jesus says that except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and dies, that it abides alone, but that if it dies that it will bring forth much fruit. Do we see what that looks like in Christ? And if we see it in Christ do we see it in ourselves, in one another, in our churches?

German pastor Detrick Bonhoeffer wrote, “When Jesus calls a man, or woman, he bids him come and die.”

Paul writes to the Philippian church that he wants to know the power of Christ’s resurrection and the fellowship/koinonia of His sufferings. What does this look like in my life, in our life, in your life?

Are we drinking from the cup of Jesus Christ?

Missionary Jim Elliot wrote, He is no fool who loses what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

If we are not dying with Christ then we are not living with Christ. If we are not suffering with Christ for others then we are not following and serving Christ. If we are not laying our lives down for those around us, if we are not living sacrificial lives – as individuals, as families, as churches –

Christ calls us to know Him in His sufferings, He calls us to know the glory of living for Him and others, He calls us to know the joy of bringing others to Him, He calls us to experience His glory and joy when we bear His shame, His rejection, when we drink His cup.

Paul writes that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Who will you talk to about Jesus this week?

Whose hands will you hold as you pray for them?

Who will you share your material resources with?

Who will you interrupt your life for?

How will I obey the Christ of the Cross? How will His Cross work in me?

He is no fool, who loses what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.

Did I mention that this cup is transformative?

For if we will drink it in Gethsemane, and if we will drink it with Christ on the Cross…well then…we’ll also drink it on Easter morning…we’ll drink it in the Resurrection.

What shall we do with the Cup?

What will I do?

What will you do?

Question for You (Part 3)

The second question I asked a few days ago (March 29) concerned linking the Burning Bush of John 11 with an encounter Jesus had with religious leaders in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). I should have included, “during Holy Week”, because that is what I was thinking about – there may be more than one answer to my question, but I am particularly thinking about the following passage which occurs during Holy Week:

And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”

Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.” (Mark 11:18 – 27, ESV).

Note that the Sadducees quote Moses to Jesus and that Jesus quotes Moses right back to them. The Sadducees are using Deuteronomy 25:5ff to buttress their belief that there is no resurrection, and in doing so they are failing to consider the broader Biblical context which includes Exodus 3:10 – 22. However, there is more than contextual failure, in fact Jesus doesn’t give them a lecture on considering context, instead Jesus tells them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?”

In my blog Mind on Fire, I’ve been working through 1 Corinthians chapters 1 – 4, with a focus on Chapter 2; I haven’t been frequent in this writing, perhaps because I’ve been pondering this for well over a year and I am still exploring it – or it is still working in me. I am challenged by Paul’s insistence that only the Holy Spirit can reveal our Lord and His Word to us. I am challenged by Jesus revealing Himself to His disciples through what we call the Old Testament in Luke Chapter 24. 

This is more than looking at OT passages here and there, this is beholding Jesus Christ holistically in and through the OT – this is “seeing” Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, including the Body of Christ, as a complete whole in and through the Old Testament. (We struggle with the NT book of Hebrews because we lack this vision, this way of seeing, this way of hearing.) Like the ancient Jews, we may hear the prophets read in church but we do not hear their voices (Acts 13:27). Paul says in this verse that it was because of this that the people of Jerusalem condemned Jesus – I wonder if we also condemn Jesus because of our deafness and blindness?

Well, Martha and Mary in John 11 were looking to the past and the future and not “seeing” that Jesus IS (I AM) the Resurrection and the Life; but at least they were on a pilgrimage of faith and relationship in Christ – our Lord Jesus brings us along as, by His grace, we respond to Him. Our Father was graciously opening the eyes of Mary and Martha and I imagine that they got quite the eye-opener when their brother Lazarus came out of the tomb.

But the Sadducees? They may have been able to quote Scripture but they did not “know” either the Scriptures or the power of God. They could not “see” the Burning Bush, not when they read about it in Exodus or when the Burning Bush was speaking to them during Holy Week.

What about us?

Question for You (Part 2)

We see the Burning Bush throughout the Gospel of John in the “I Am” statements of Jesus Christ; the God of the Burning Bush and the God of Sinai is the God of the Sermon on the Mount and the God unveiling Himself in the Gospel of John.

“I am the resurrection and the life”, John 11:25.

Martha’s orientation was the past, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died,” (11:21). Then it was the future, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day, (11:24).”

Mary’s orientation was the past, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” (11:32).

This is not to deny Martha’s (and Mary’s) faith and vision of Christ, for Martha says, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who comes into the world.” After all, we are (let us hope) learning to see Jesus Christ in his glory in an ever-increasing way of life – is this not the purpose of life? To love him, to know him, to worship him, to glorify him?

There is a sense in which John 11 is the prelude to Holy Week, or might be said to be a prelude to the Resurrection – the Kingdom that has been coming has a Bay of Fundy ebb and flow in the small case resurrection of Lazarus as Jesus reveals that “I Am the Resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies.” (See also John 5:24 – 29).

The John who writes the Gospel is the John who also writes the words of Christ, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and hades,” (Revelation 1:17 – 18).

Perhaps we should take our shoes off?