Month: August 2024

August 22, 27 A.D.  A Woman Healed by Touching His Garment #47

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , , ,

Week 27 ———  Woman Healed by Touching His Garment
Matthew 9:20-22 — Mark 5:24-34 — Luke 8:42-48

Luke 8:42-48     As Jesus went, the people pressed around him.   And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.   She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately, her discharge of blood ceased.   And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!”   But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”   And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.   And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”

Are you having a busy week? Let me tell you what Jesus was doing almost 2000 years ago this past week.  The Gospels tell us that Jesus began this week in 27 AD teaching in parables in Capernaum but then got in a boat with the disciples, and a storm came up, and Jesus calmed the storm just by speaking.  The next day, they arrive in Gadara, in Gentile territory, where Jesus encounters a demon-possessed man.  Jesus frees him and sends the demons into a herd of pigs.  The people are so scared by this that they ask Jesus to leave immediately.  So they get back in the boat and travel back to Capernaum. Jesus begins teaching to the crowd that gathered but is interrupted by a leader of the synagogue, Jairus, whose daughter is dying.  Jesus leaves to go to the girl, and the crowds all follow him, but on the way, he is interrupted again by a woman with a disease that no doctor can cure.  And you thought your week was busy.

A few weeks ago, I talked about Jesus healing the leper and the idea of uncleanness.  (https://swallownocamels.com/2024/07/15/july-15-27-a-d-jesus-cleanses-a-leper-40/)  Remember, three things can cause uncleanness: bodily discharge like this woman, the skin disease tsa’arat (often mistranslated as leprosy), and touching a dead body.   This woman was unclean due to her constant discharge of blood.  She was ostracized from society just as the person with tsa’arat would have been.  No one would come near her, and she could never worship in the Temple or offer any sacrifice.  To touch her would make you unclean, just as to touch a leper or to touch a dead person would make you unclean.  But Jesus had the power to provide not just a temporary solution to uncleanness but also a permanent solution.  He took away the skin disease; he healed this woman’s medical problem, and he brought the dead back to life.  And don’t miss that Jesus is on his way to Jairus’ house to touch the dead body of a girl we are told is 12 years old when he is interrupted by a woman who has been unclean for how many years? Twelve.  You aren’t supposed to miss the connection between these two times when Jesus cures that which can make us unclean.

Here is a video from “The Chosen” of the scripture above:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYEmdFyWBq8

We have heard this story many times.  But have you ever asked yourself, “What led this woman to believe that touching his garment would bring her healing?”  Where did she get that idea?  And it was not only her, but according to Mark’s Gospel, it was many people:

Mark 6:56 And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

Fair warning:  This is a complicated explanation.  First, we must talk about the “fringe of the garment.”

The Greek word ‘kraspedon’ is translated in most translations (59 of 60 that I checked) as either ‘fringe of the garment’, ‘edge of the cloak’, ‘border of the garment’ or ‘hem of the garment’.  I only found one translation, Holman, that I think chose the most accurate English word to translate ‘kraspedon’.   The Holman Version says she “touched the tassel of his robe.”

Let me explain why that is the best translation.  Greek biblical dictionaries typically define ‘kraspedon’ as “a margin, specifically a fringe or tassel or border or hem.”1  One way to look deeper is to see if you can find ‘kraspedon’ in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.  This translation called the Septuagint, was done around 200 BC by Jewish scholars and is the version Paul uses when quoting scripture to a Greek audience. (As the old song goes, “It was good for Paul and Silas; it is good enough for me.”)

We find it here:

Numbers 15:38  The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make kraspedon on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the kraspedon of each corner.

‘Kraspedon‘ is the Greek translation for the Hebrew ‘tzitzit.’  And we know what tzitzit are.  Modern Orthodox Jews still wear ‘tzitzit’ on the corners of their garments.  The English translations have no problem translating them as ‘tassels’ in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, it is usually translated as hem, edge, or border.  It is like they are afraid to make Jesus look too Jewish.

The passage in Numbers 15 continues:

Numbers 15:39   You will have these tassels to look at, and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.

The tassels are there to remember.  And don’t forget that, like all Hebrew verbs, remember is an action verb.  They are to remember, not just for the memory’s sake, but that you may obey.  It is not like they were walking along and their hand brushed against these tassels hanging from their cloak, and they say, “What’s that?… Oh, yeah, I must be Jewish!”

It is like wearing a wedding ring.  It is not for me to remember that I am married but to be reminded to keep the promises of the covenant I made when I got married.  It is almost cliche in a movie for a man to remove his ring before he goes (as the Bible says) “chasing after the lusts of your own heart and eyes.”  Now, it can also serve other purposes.  It can be for others to see and know I am married.  But the best reason is to look at and remember a commitment and the promises made.  

The tzitzit are similar.  They are there for others to see who you belong to.  They represent a bond with others because the way the knots are tied varies from tribe to tribe and from family to family.  They remind the wearer of a commitment and the promises made.  But what do the tassels have to do with remembering all the commands?

To understand this, you need to know about Gematria.  Gematria is very common in ancient languages. It is the idea that words have numbers embedded that can be important.  While most modern languages have letters (ABCs) and numbers (123s), most ancient languages, like Hebrew, did not, so their letters also served as numbers.

Here is the Hebrew language with number equivalents.

So, every letter and word can have an equivalent number.  

Here is an example to show how important this idea of Gematria was in those days. It is from an Assyrian inscription dating to the 8th century BC, the time of Sargon II.

“the king built the wall of Khorsabad 16,283 cubits long to correspond with the numerical value of his name.”

This king of Assyria built an almost 5-mile-long wall, but he built it precisely 16,283 cubits to match the number value of his name.  Gematria was an important concept.

We see it used in the Bible several times.  In Matthew’s first chapter, the author emphasizes Jesus as the son of David.  So, there is a genealogy that goes back to David and beyond.  But Matthew didn’t include everyone.  He carefully selected who was included and who he left out.

Matthew 1:17   So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Why does 14 matter?  With Gematria, 14 is David’s numerical value.  Matthew’s Hebrew readers would have recognized that Matthew is saying in the genealogy, “David, David, David!”

The best-known example of Gematria in the Bible is in Revelation.

Revelation 13:18   This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

Many Bible translations have a footnote at that verse that says, “Some manuscripts have ‘616’.” Well, is it 616 or 666?  It depends on your Hebrew spelling.  Nero was notorious for his horrible torture and persecution of the Jews.  ‘Nero Caesar’ had two common Hebrew spellings; the number equivalent for one was 666, and the other was 616.  John was not saying Nero was the beast.  When John wrote Revelation, Nero was dead for over 20 years.  But the terror and persecution Nero brought upon the church is a picture of what the last days will be like.  Nero is a representative of a type of ruler that will arise.

Now that you understand Gematria, we can return to our question, “What do the tassels have to do with remembering all the commands?”

The numerical value of ‘tzitzit’ is 600, and each tassel is tied with eight strands into 5 knots.  600 + 8 + 5 =613.  The rabbis say there are 613 commandments in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible.  So, the tassels represent ‘all the commandments.’

Looking back at Numbers 15:38, why did God command a cord of blue in each tassel?

Numbers 15:38  The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.

Blue or purple dye was costly.  In ancient times, most blue dye came from a gland of a tiny snail that lived in shallow water.  It was a complicated process to extract the dye, and it is estimated that it would take 36,000 snails to make a teaspoon of blue dye.2   You can see why blue was the color of royalty; no one else could afford it.  (So sorry, all you classical artists out there, Mary, the mother of Jesus, did not likely wear blue.)  But blue was the color of the high priest’s robe, and it is thought that the strand of blue in the tassels was to remind the Hebrews of their role as a member of the ‘kingdom of priests’ (See Exodus 19:6).

Now that we have discussed the tassel that the woman touched let’s return to our original question:  “What led her and many others to believe that touching the tassels that hung from Jesus’ garment would bring healing?”  It comes from a verse in Malachi:

Malachi 4.2  But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. 

But what do ‘wings’ have to do with tassels?  (I warned you this one would be complicated.)  The Hebrew for ‘wings’ in the above verse is ‘kanaf,’ which means the extreme part of something.  For a bird, the ‘extreme part’ would be the wing.  For a piece of clothing, the ‘extreme part’ would be the hem or border, specifically the corner of the hem.

Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 22:12, “You shall make yourself tassels on the four kanaf of the garment with which you cover yourself.  

The tassels were to be placed on the four corners of the garment, the ‘wings’ of the garment.  So when Malachi prophesies that the Sun of Righteousness will come with ‘healing in his wings,’ it was interpreted that the Messiah would come with healing in the corners of his garment. The woman in our story today knew the Scripture and recognized Jesus as the Messiah, knowing there would be healing in his tassels.  Did you know that scripture in Malachi?  You should.  Most of you sing a song about this scripture every year.  It goes like this:

Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace!
Hail the sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings, 
Risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that we no more may die,
Born to raise each child of earth,
Born to give us second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn king!”3

This song we sing at Christmas, heralding the Messiah, celebrates the Sun of Righteousness who came with healing in his wings.  (Now, hopefully, you are wondering about all the other phrases in songs you sing that you have never really thought about.)

This verse in Malachi was a very popular verse for the Israelites in Jesus’ day.  Living in a time when medicine was helpless in treating most diseases, there was hope for healing when the Messiah came.  This idea of the Sun of Righteousness, the Messiah, coming and bringing healing in his wings was well known.  There will be healing in the tassels of the Messiah when he comes.  So when Jesus came, and the people in Galilee saw his miracles and heard his teaching, they began to realize he was the promised Messiah.  This woman with the issue of blood, by grabbing Jesus’ tassel, is proclaiming him as the Messiah.

So Jesus tells her:

Luke 8:48    And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”

It is not touching the tassel that made her well; her faith made her well.  She believed in her heart that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the Sun of Righteousness, and then she acted on that belief.  She took a significant risk going into that crowd in her unclean state.  And she received more healing than she anticipated.  Jesus tells her, “Go in peace.”  And to Jesus, peace, Shalom, means total peace.  She has found peace with God.  Her relationship with God is in peace.

Twice, Jesus calls her ‘daughter.’  This woman’s family had likely rejected her because she was unclean, because of a medical problem that could not be cured.  But Jesus calls her ‘daughter.’  Jesus hasn’t just healed her; he has adopted her into his family.  As Paul says in Romans 8:15-17, “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” …we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”

Let me finish with one more Old Testament prophecy about tassels:

Zechariah 8:23   Thus says Yehovah of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the tassel of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

Zechariah tells us there will come a day when people of all nations on the earth will take hold of the tassel of “a Jew,” asking to follow that Jew because they see that God is with that Jew.  That day is today.   People from all nations in the world are taking hold of the tassel of a Jew — Jesus — and saying, “I want to follow you.”

How important it is that we all take hold of the tassel of a Jewish man.  We can’t actually reach out and touch Jesus’ tassel today.  He is not walking around like he was in 27 AD.  But we can figuratively take hold of his tassel.  What does that mean?

Like this woman, to take hold of his tassel is to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Sun of Righteousness.  It is to demonstrate that belief by some public act.  Today, we come to the front of the church and say we believe Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. and then we follow Jesus in baptism.  Then, remembering that the purpose of the tassel is to remind you of the covenant you made to follow God’s commandments, taking hold of his tassel is to commit to following Jesus’ commandments.  It is to see that blue string and remember that we are the the people assigned to be the kingdom of priests to this world..  We have a responsibility to carry Jesus’ message to those around us.  To take hold of Jesus’ tassel is to remember that there is still healing in his wings.  Jesus will heal us all – some now, some later, but all will be healed, and not only of their physical diseases but, even more importantly, their relationship with God will be healed.  And finally, to take hold of Jesus’ tassel is to be adopted into Jesus’ family.

Have you taken hold of Jesus’ tassel lately?   Do you need a fresh touch from Jesus?  Jesus is waiting for us to follow him.

  1. Strong’s Concordance. “Krasperdon“.
  2. The color of ‘tekhelet‘ and the processing of the Murex trunculus snail glands to produce dye is a very deep rabbit hole. You will find many articles online saying there is no way to produce blue dye in this manner and then several scientific articles detailing how it can be done. (There are also YouTube videos of peope producing the dye, of course.)
  3. “Hark the Herald Angels Sing!”. Verse 3. (1739)

August 20, 27 A.D.  Jesus Calms the Storm #46

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 27 ———  Jesus Calms the Storm
Matthew 8:18-27 — Mark 4:35-41 — Luke 8:22-25

Matt. 8:23-27     And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And beheld, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.   And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”   And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.  And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

The Sea of Galilee is not actually a sea but a lake.  It is about 8 miles wide and 13 miles long.  It is the lowest freshwater lake in the world at 686 feet below sea level.  Being that small, you would not expect it to have large waves, but it sits in an unusual geographic setting in the Rift Valley.  It is surrounded on three sides by hills that reach 2000 feet high. This results in significant differences in temperature and pressure that can send strong winds down the hills into the sea.  Since the sea is so small and shallow (200 feet deep), there is relatively little water to absorb these cascading winds, so the sea can become whipped up with violent waves, reaching 10 feet in a storm recorded in 1992.  I had a chance to witness 4-5 feet waves on my first trip to Israel.  Our boat trip was canceled, and looking at those waves, it was a good idea.    Here is a picture of waves on the sea looking from the eastern side to the west.   The steep northern slope of Mt. Arbel is visible on the other side of the sea.

Now add to the possibility of huge waves the small size of the boats they would have been using in Jesus’ day.   A drought in 1986 partially exposed an ancient boat that was trapped in the mud.  Two fishermen discovered it and informed the authorities, who quickly sent in a crew of archeologists.  It took 12 days to encase the wooden structure in foam so it would be preserved and could be floated out to be restored.  The remains of what has been now proven to be a first-century fishing boat are on display at a museum on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.  

The boat originally looked like this:

It was 27 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, and only 4 feet high. It could carry 13-15 people. Its very shallow draft allowed it to get very close to shore, but this also made it susceptible to taking on water from wind and waves. 

So, the 13 of them are in a small boat in a storm with large waves.  Some of these men with Jesus were professional fishermen.  They were very familiar with this boat and this lake.  But the storm that blew up that night was especially violent.  Mark tells us that the boat was filling with water, and Jesus was sleeping in the stern.  They wake Jesus, saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Or “How can you possibly be sleeping when we are all about to die?”  They couldn’t imagine how Jesus could be sleeping when they were about to die.  But Jesus couldn’t imagine how they could be so concerned about a storm when they were in the boat with God.  So he stops the storm like we would turn off a light switch.

“Peace, be still!”   The same God who said, “Let there be light,” the same God who calmed the chaos of the waters in creation and made dry land appear  — that same God is sitting in the boat with them.  How could they possibly be afraid when they were in God’s boat?  Have you ever been in a scary situation?

We were on a flight, and the turbulence got bad.  The plane was bouncing all over, and many were getting sick and using those bags in the seat back pocket.  And everyone, if they would admit it, was scared.  But a baby was across the aisle sleeping in their mother’s arms.  The baby wasn’t afraid.  It slept well, with the knowledge that its mother would protect it.  Oh, to sleep like a baby, without worries, cares, or fear.   Have you ever been unable to sleep because of concern about finances, illness, or violence?  Have you ever thought, “I wish I could sleep like a baby without worries?”  

Leviticus 26:6  I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.

David wrote a psalm about when he was on the run in the wilderness with people hunting him down to kill him, and he said, “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.  I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around (Psalm 3:5-6).

Perhaps you have never been where David was, on the run with someone trying to kill you.  I won’t forget the day our local District Attorney called me at my office.  He asked, “Have you seen anyone unusual around or anyone following you?”  “No,” I replied, “should I be worried?”   I had just weeks ago spent several days testifying in a court case to convict a man who had sexually abused a young girl for years.  Apparently, the man found someone in prison who hooked him up with a hitman.  The prison had intercepted some communication where the arrangement was made to kill several people who had been involved in the conviction, including me, the DHR worker, an attorney, and the judge.  Fortunately for us, because there was a credible death threat against a judge, the FBI became involved, and the hitman was arrested several days later, with weapons and the list with our names in his vehicle.  I don’t remember being too scared to sleep at the time.  I want to say that was because of my faith in the sovereignty of God, but I really believe it was because the whole event was too much like a TV show to seem real.  (Lest you think I don’t have fear, read about “The Day of My Fear” https://swallownocamels.com/2024/02/20/the-day-of-my-fear/  )

I love how Skip Moen said, “Circumstances do not dictate the outcome of life.  Relationship does.  I have nothing to fear if I am truly in the boat with Jesus.  We are riding the waves together.  The only time I need be afraid is when I am not in the boat with Him.”1

“And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”  We talked about “little faith” back on July 23 (See https://swallownocamels.com/2024/07/23/july-21-27-a-d-jesus-heals-a-paralytic-that-drops-by-41/).  Again, ‘little faith’ is described by Jesus as faith less than the smallest thing he can show them, a mustard seed, so ‘little faith’ means no faith at all.  At this point, the disciples in the boat are faithless.  They are in the boat with the creator of the sea, and they don’t yet have that understanding or, more importantly, that relationship.  Faith is trust built up through experience.  Our faith grows as we witness God’s trustworthiness in the Scriptures, in the lives of our friends and family, and in our lives.  That is one reason it is so important to study the Scriptures.  In them, we see the long history of God being faithful to his promises.  This is why it is so important to share our experiences with God with the people around us.  Our faith can grow through each other’s experiences by telling the stories of God’s faithfulness.  

Are there any storms brewing in your life?  When you get in the boat, ensure it’s the one with Jesus in it.

  1. 1. Moen, Skip. In “In the Boat” from https://skipmoen.com/2008/03/in-the-boat/

August 16, 27 A.D.  Jesus Speaks in Parables #45

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , ,

Week 26 ———  The Parable of the Four Soils
Matthew 13:10-23 — Mark 4:10-25 — Luke 8:9-18

Matthew 13:1-10   That same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.   And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.   And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.   And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.   Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.   Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.   Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.   He who has ears, let him hear.”

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist on February 16 and then spent 40 days in the wilderness.  He returned to John, who proclaimed him the “Lamb of God.” His ministry began on March 30 when some of John’s disciples asked to tag along.  Jesus is preaching, teaching, healing, and casting out demons, and he goes viral.  In just a few months, he has gone from the unknown son of a carpenter in a tiny crossroad town to the most talked about person in Galilee.  He also attracted the attention of the religious leaders, who began to plot ways to have him killed, a task they would accomplish eight months later on April 28.   

We are in the time when Jesus of Nazareth is at the height of his popularity.  People are coming from everywhere to hear him speak or to be healed.   Here in Capernaum, he goes out in the morning to the beach, and great crowds gather.  So he does as he has done before; he goes out in a boat so they can stand on the beach and hear him.  There is a cove near there, which people today call “the cove of the sower.”  You can see from this drone shot below that this would be a great place to teach a crowd, a natural amphitheater.  As the people stand there on the beach, behind them are fields.  This time of the year, the final harvesting of the wheat crop is completed, so the fields are sitting, waiting for the fall rains to soften the ground so they can be plowed and planted in September.  So the crowd can overflow from the beach to the field.

Jesus has something important to teach.  And for the first time, he teaches primarily in parables.  And the first parable he tells, the parable of the soils, is a parable about parables.  I want to deal with the last verse we read this morning first because the disciples ask a question that I have heard many people ask about Jesus:

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

As you read the gospels, one-third of Jesus’s teaching is in parables. Why parables, Jesus? Why don’t you just say what you mean?

Jesus didn’t invent parables. There are many in the Old Testament. In Hebrew, they are called mashals.  For example, there is the one in Judges of the trees who wanted to crown themselves a king of the trees.  There is the parable that Nathan told David of the poor man who only had one lamb, but the wealthy neighbor came and took it.  Solomon often taught in parables.  The rabbis around Jesus’ day and afterward often taught in parables, and we have hundreds recorded in the Talmud.  But why teach in parables?

A parable is an ordinary life story told to make a point or teach a lesson.  One definition says a parable is “an allusive narrative which is told for an ulterior motive.  The well-known situation in the story disarms the listener, who is then hit with the lesson.  Soren Kierkegaard (a Danish theologian) said it this way: Parables are a form of indirect communication intended to deceive the hearer into the truth.

We see this in the parable of Nathan in 2 Samuel 12.  David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband.  But David is king and accountable to no one but God.  So Nathan tells David the story of a poor man with only one lamb.  Then, a wealthy man with many herds of sheep takes the poor man’s lamb from him, leaving him with nothing.  The king then becomes angry and says this wealthy man deserves to die. Nathan responds, “You are that man!”  Nathan told a story with an ulterior motive, and it worked.

Jesus uses parables to teach, but as with Nathan’s parable, they often involve a lesson people do not want to hear. Jesus uses parables for difficult lessons, usually lessons that challenge what people have been taught for years.  

So, let’s jump into Jesus’s first parable. He tells this one first because it is a parable about parables.

Some call it the parable of the sower, but it is really the parable of the four soils.  Many rabbinic parables compare four things.  Let me give you an example of an ancient rabbinic parable that is similar to this parable of Jesus because it is about how to listen:

There are four types among those who sit in the presence of the rabbis: the sponge, the funnel, the strainer, and the sieve. “The sponge,” which soaks up everything. “The funnel,” which takes in at this end and lets out at the other. “The strainer,” which lets out the wine and retains the dregs. “The sieve,” which removes the chaff and dust and keeps the grain. (Pirke Avot, 5:17)

So which do you think is the better student?  You might be tempted to say the sponge that soaks up everything is the best type of student.  They get it all.  And the worst listener is the funnel, for it just lets everything run through.  But look at the wine strainer.  It allows all the good wine to pass through but retains the dregs and contaminants.  Compare that to the sieve.  It removes the chaff and dirt but retains the seed. This is how the rabbis wanted their students to learn, to retain the essential lessons, but filter out the rest.  Paul, who was rabbinically trained, felt the same way about the people who listened to him:

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11

Don’t just listen to a message or bible study like a sponge.  Filter what you hear through the scripture.  Carefully consider how the scripture applies to your life, pray for God to open your eyes to his wisdom, and look for ways to be obedient to the Word.

Many of Jesus’ parables are agricultural because many of his listeners were farmers, and all of them depended on the success of the farmers to survive.  You teach using examples people are familiar with.  God even scheduled their religious observances around the farmers.  The beginning of the new year was determined by the first new moon after the barley reached the near-ripe Aviv state. Passover and the feast of Firstfruits happen just before the barley harvest.  Then, 50 days later, it is Pentecost, the wheat harvest time.

But our story today happens in the late summer.  The wheat harvest has ended.  The ground sits fallow for a few months. They wait until after the early rains come in October, which will soften the ground so they can plow it.  But the farmer does not rest.  Two things had to be done before the early rains came.   First, they must burn off the thorns.  If they don’t, then whatever they plant will be choked out.  Next, they must remove the rocks from the field.  Rocks are constantly pushed up to the surface or exposed by the rain.  Typically, farmers collect these rocks on the borders of their fields, as shown in this picture.  

So in the parable, you have seed sown on the path, the rocky ground, among the thorns, and on the good soil.  We talked about this parable in my men’s group last year, and my friend Shane asked, “Why would you sow seed in those other places anyway?  Remember that all their work to farm the land was done by hand.  The seed for wheat was thrown and scattered as they walked through their fields.  So, some would be blown on the rocky places or the paths around the fields.  

Now we move on to the explanation of the parable:  “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11).   This is a parable about hearing the word of God.   Notice that the seed that falls in these four places is the same.  Now it is possible that when you plant your garden you might get bad seed.  But that is not the problem here.  God’s word is the seed, and it is always good.  This parable answers why different groups of people can hear the same word but respond in entirely different ways.  So, as you read this parable, you should ask yourself, what kind of soil am I?

Matthew 13:19-23  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.  As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.  As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.  As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

The seed on the path, the hard ground. It just sits there.  The birds come and eat it.  Jesus says this represents the evil one ‘snatching it away.’   How does the evil one snatch what you hear out of your head?  It is easy.  Because the ground is so hard, the seed never gets in.  These people listen, but they hear nothing.  They are hard-hearted.  They are the funnel in the rabbi’s parable.  It all just passes in one ear and out the other.    They don’t care about the word. It is like me watching that documentary on British Royalty that my wife was watching on Netflix.  I was in the room and heard the TV, but when it was over, I knew nothing about British royalty.

Then, there is the seed on the rocky ground.  They receive it with joy.  Oh, they like being in church.  They know everyone; they clap and sing and may raise their hands in praise.  But outside the church, being excited about God may not be convenient.  What happens if it is not popular to talk about God? They get quiet. These are the people who like the idea of God and the idea of “going to Heaven,” but they don’t have a genuine personal relationship with the Father.  But Jesus says, “When tribulation or persecution arises.”  We in the US know very little about persecution.  For many years, Christianity has been popular in the US.  For a time, it was good for a business person to be involved in a church.  That helped his business.  It is still true to some extent in the South.  But times are changing.  Church membership may be a negative in some areas.  But tribulation and persecution?  We haven’t yet known that to any degree here.  But in the rest of the world, persecution abounds.

This is a map from opendoors.org that shows the countries in the world with very high and extreme levels of persecution of Christians. 

One in seven Christians in the world is under persecution.  Last year, 4998 Christians were killed for their faith. There are no rocky ground listeners in these countries.  There are no ‘casual Christians.’  If you sit in a church meeting (typically a home church), then you could be arrested or, in several of these countries, killed on the spot.  These people must count the cost anytime they gather to discuss scripture or pray.  They have removed the rocks from their fields.  They desire a deep relationship with God.  If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have taken the risk.

Then there is the seed sown among thorns.

 “Matthew 13:19-23  …As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”   The cares of the world.  Distraction.  I am constantly amazed by an incredibly bizarre thing that happens every Sunday morning in churches all over America. It has happened in every church I have ever attended.  Everyone sits and listens for 30 minutes to someone talk about scripture, about this amazing God who had the power to speak words to make the universe come into existence. And about a heavenly Father who loves us so much that Jesus was willing to suffer for us, to die for our sins and be raised from the dead.  And then afterward, everyone pretends that it didn’t happen.  The last hymn is sung, and then everyone pops up, and it is like this:  “How about those Braves?  Oh, I like your dress!  Did you see ‘The Bachelor’ this week?  That storm last night was intense.  What’s for lunch?”  You may get challenged by God by something said or sung in church.  But as soon as the last hymn is over, your mind turns to other things.  The cares of this world: the weather, the previous ballgame, what’s for lunch?  And whatever it was that challenged you from God’s word is forgotten, and you are none the better.  Or is it that we hear the benediction and assume that God-time is over?   Okay, we did the God stuff for an hour, and now, we’ll move on to the rest of life.

Let me be honest with you for just a minute.  When someone comes up to me after the service and says something like, “I appreciated what you said,” or “Thanks, that really spoke to me,” I desperately want to respond, “Great, what exactly spoke to you? What did you hear that meant something to you?  How will that make a difference in your life?”  But I am guilty of just letting it go.  We all move on to other things.  God-time is over.  But it isn’t.  We are all surrounded by thorns.  Too quickly, we move on because someone somewhere said,  “There are two things you never discuss in public: politics or religion.”  If we can’t talk to each other about how scripture affects us and what God is doing in our lives, then we aren’t people of God.  God was never meant to be a one-hour-a-week God.  He doesn’t take up residence in our hearts on a part-time basis.  If he is our Lord, then it is 24/7.  

But we are taught to separate the world into sacred and secular as if they are two different things. Secular is defined as “denoting  attitudes, activities, or other things with no religious or spiritual basis.”  Let me ask you, where in this world is God absent?  Where do you go without the Holy Spirit within you?  Our whole life, our entire time on this planet, is sacred.  Nothing is outside God.  For a Christian, there is no such thing as secular. 

But we are so easily distracted.  There are always ten other things that clamor for our attention. This is why I take notes when I listen to a sermon.  It helps me focus so I can go home, look up the scripture, and consider things.  Don’t let the cares of this world take away your chance to grow as a Christian.   This is why we have trouble finding time to study the word, pray, or do whatever God has asked us to do.  We are too distracted. 

I’m not saying we can’t be social and talk about current happenings.  But don’t turn off God’s presence in your life.  Find time to share your life with God with others.  Don’t let the thorns get you.  Don’t let the cares of this world steal your chance to be who God wants you to be.

This world is full of people who work hard to avoid thinking about their lives and where they are headed. They constantly seek distraction because they don’t want to think about things with eternal meaning.  Victor Frankl said it this way:

“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”

Remember when Jesus went to Mary and Martha and Lazarus’ house, and Mary sat at Jesus’ feet to listen to his teaching: 

Luke 10:40-42  “But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Sometimes, we are distracted by good things.  Serving is a good thing, but there is a time to serve and a time to listen.  There is a time to talk about the weather or the ball game and a time to study scripture.  Be careful not to let the evil one snatch away all your opportunities to grow in God’s word.

Then, there is the seed on the good ground that has been properly prepared.  The thorns have been burned off, and the rocks have been removed.  The soil has been tilled and plowed.  It is ready for the seed.  “this is the one who hears the word and understands it.”  The word “understands” means considering and contemplating what he hears.  Then Jesus says, “He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”  Note the reverse order of the yield. Usually, we would say, “30 times, 60 times, a hundred times.” A hundred times the yield is a harvest almost beyond belief.  Jesus is here emphasizing the hundredfold because he wants his Bible-aware listeners to remember someone in the Bible who harvested that amount.

Gen. 26:12   And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Yehovah blessed him.   

Jesus is telling his listeners that they can be blessed like Isaac, one of their patriarchs, one they revered. The story is even richer if you know the context.  If you don’t, then go back to the first verse of Genesis 26: 

Gen. 26:1   Now there was a famine in the land.   

Isaac is reaping this massive crop amid a famine in the land.   Everyone else can’t find food, and Isaac raises this amazing bumper crop.   We are living in a time of famine, a moral famine.  The world has pursued pleasure to such extremes that morality is no longer considered important.  Right and wrong are no longer the standard.  For most of the world, God is becoming irrelevant.  The spiritual famine is real.  But Jesus says that despite this famine, you can bear fruit in a fantastic harvest if you are the good soil. 

You must properly prepare yourself to hear the word of God.  How do you prepare?   Have an ongoing relationship with God, listen and carefully consider the Word, and don’t let the cares of this world choke out your life.  If you do this, you will reap blessings you can’t even imagine.

Matthew 13:10-15   Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”   And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
   For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’

This makes it sound like Jesus is hiding the truth of scripture on purpose from some.  But you have to know the context of the quote he is giving here from the book of Isaiah.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6 because things are as they were in Isaiah’s day.  It was a time when people had turned away from God.  Even the priests and religious leaders had settled into a pattern of going through the motions of religion without truly honoring Yehovah.  They heard the Scripture, but they could not understand.  God called Isaiah to try to get the people to return to God and repent.  But they did not listen.  Jesus finds the people in the same situation.  The people listen to the scripture but do not “hear” it.  For Jesus, the word ‘hear’ is the Hebrew ‘shmah’, which means listening and obeying.  Jesus sees the people listening to God’s word and then ignoring it.  Without obedience, they haven’t really heard. And that is why Jesus says:  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Jesus says this a lot.)  You only understand it if you know the Hebrew verb shmah.  He says: ”If you are able to listen, then you had better obey.”

Notice that every soil gets the same seed.  The difference is the soil.  Everyone hears the same words from Jesus.  Some respond with thankfulness and worship, and others respond with anger—the same words but very different responses.  And Jesus says the difference is what type of soil you are. 

Brad Young tells the story of being in Israel during the time of year when farmers were working hard to prepare their fields.  They had burned off the thorns and were working to get the rocks out of the field.  Some were lugging heavy stones back to the boundary; One was pounding on a huge rock to break it up so it could be moved.  And he watched him for a while, sweating in the hot sun, and heard God whisper to him.  “Are you willing to do that kind of work to prepare your field, your heart for my words?”

Are you willing?

August 2, 27 A.D.  The Man with the Withered Hand #43

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , , ,


Mark 3:1-6   Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.  And they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him.   And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”   And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.   And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”  He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.   The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

Sometimes, when studying a passage of Scripture, you must stop and address one of the ‘big picture’ ideas found in the passage.  So we will look at this story as we primarily discuss this phrase:  “Jesus looked around at them with anger…”

Jesus…angry?  Yes.  If you thought Jesus was only meek and mild and never angry, then you had better read the Bible again.  And this word translated as anger here is the Greek ‘orge’ (pronounced ‘or-gay’).  It is not saying Jesus is irritated or mildly annoyed.  This is a word of violent passion.  Jesus is steaming mad.  He is boiling over with anger.  Does it bother you that Jesus is described with such fierce anger?  (It must bother some people, for there are many translations that ‘water down’ Jesus’ emotions.)

Some people have a problem with Jesus being angry in the New Testament and an even bigger problem with how angry God gets in the Old Testament.  I have heard people describe God as an “angry God” in the Old Testament. Just because someone gets angry occasionally, do you call them an angry person?  Now, if I see a mass shooting at a school and I get angry about someone indiscriminately killing children, you can describe me as angry, but does that make me an “angry person”?   Now, if I am in a hurry to drive somewhere all the time and the person in front of me is on their phone and not noticing the light is green and I start blowing my horn and yelling — if I do that a lot, maybe then I am an angry person.  But if I jump out of my car and attack that person…, that is another thing.  It makes a difference: 1. what situation causes the anger and 2. How do you act in your anger.

We have mentioned Exodus 36:4 several times in the past weeks, where God uses five character traits to describe himself.  “Yehovah passed before him and proclaimed, “Yehovah, Yehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” “Slow to anger,” the middle description, makes it clear that God is patient. Still, his patience has a limit. (The Hebrew literal translation is “long nostrilled,” because anger is typically described in Hebrew as your ‘nose burning hot,’ so if you are ‘long of nostrils,’ it takes some time before you get your nose overheated.  If you think that is odd, remember that we do something similar in our culture.  We use the term ‘nosy’ to describe someone who is a ‘busybody,’ always ‘getting their nose in someone else’s business.’  Languages are fun.)

Now, my friends who read the Old Testament and complain that Yehovah is an ‘angry God’ talk of Sodom and Gomorrah or the flood in Genesis, or the warfare in Joshua and following.  Interestingly, there is no mention of God being angry in the book of Genesis (and only three times in Exodus.)   At the time of Noah and the flood, God is described not as angry but as grieved or hurt.   He was heartbroken that his image-bearers had abandoned his ways and descended to the depths of evil.  The flood is a necessary act of judgment but not an act of anger.

You may know someone who rarely gets angry.  That is an excellent, godly trait.  How about someone who never gets angry?  Is that a good trait?

Think about the time you got the most angry in your life.  What did you get angry about?

Let me tell you about the most angry I have ever been.  My 5-year-old daughter had the day off from Kindergarten.  I took the day off to spend the day with her.  She first requested to have breakfast at McDonald’s and to play on the playground.  While I was paying for the meal and waiting for the order, she wanted to get her drink, and I let her.  Apparently, it took her a while, and she kept the next person waiting a bit to get his drink.  I hear him huffing behind me and see him force his way beside her as she finishes so he can fill his drink in the dispenser.  I hear him say, “Damn half-breed,” and something else I won’t even repeat.  I ask my precious bi-racial child to go out to the playground.  After she gets outside, I have a ‘discussion’ with this man.  In Hebrew terms, my nose was a blazing inferno.  I really wanted to slug him, but I instead corrected him with a not-so-gentle spirit.  God forgive me.  The lesson to learn from this is, first, that it matters what you get angry about.  Getting angry because your child is treated wrongly, bullied, or abused is expected.  If a parent watched another adult abuse a child and didn’t get angry about it, then something is wrong with that person.  Secondly, anger rises up much faster when it involves someone in relation to you, someone you love.

What kind of God would Yehovah be if he had no emotional reaction when one of his children was mistreated or abused?  Would you really want to have a God who never got angry?  Some anger is not only justified but is necessary.  The Bible gives three primary reasons for God’s anger:  human suffering, evil, and betrayal of a covenant.

The first time God is described as angry in the Bible is when God meets Moses at the burning bush on Mt Sinai.  

Exodus 2:23: “The people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning…”

Things had gone from bad to worse for the Hebrew slaves to the point that the Egyptians were committing genocide, drowning their babies.  Egypt is abusing God’s children.  God then comes to Moses and says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings.” (Exodus 3:7)  God asks Moses to go back to Egypt and lead his people out of bondage.  But five times, Moses refuses to go, giving excuse after excuse, and when he runs out of excuses, he tells God, “Just send someone else.”  At this point, Exodus 4:13 tells us, “The anger of Yehovah was kindled against Moses.”  Why was God angry?  It was not just because Moses was refusing to obey, but because Moses was refusing to care enough for his own people, his own family, to do anything.   His people were being tortured, and their babies drowned, and Moses didn’t want to become involved.  God may be patient with disobedience, but a frank disregard for people who are suffering will arouse God’s anger much faster.  Human suffering is one of the three primary reasons God gets angry.   The Bible is full of God’s reprimands to Israel for failing to care for those who can not care for themselves, especially widows, orphans, and strangers in the land. If you ignore the suffering of others, God will get angry.

That is the reason for Jesus’ anger in our story today.  This man has a ‘withered hand.’  He is not able to work and provide for his family.  It likely resulted in him becoming a beggar.  Jesus can restore him.  But some in the synagogue don’t see this man as someone desperate for healing.  They see a chance to further their agenda to trap Jesus.  If Jesus heals on the Sabbath, they can accuse him of breaking the Sabbath rules.  But God never said that healing was not allowed on the Sabbath1, and Jesus makes it clear that God would never say that.  That was a rule the Pharisees added themselves.  Notice that Jesus calls the man up in front of everyone.  He tries to point out to these ‘religious leaders’ that he is a child of God who is in desperate need.  But their agenda to trap Jesus prevents them from having compassion and requires them to ignore his suffering.  After he is healed, they should be celebrating the miracle with him.  But what do they do?  Just as God became angry with Moses for his lack of care for those suffering in Egypt, Jesus became angry with these Pharisees for their refusal to care about this man.  Do not miss this lesson. If we have the means to prevent suffering and choose not to get involved, we make God angry.  Even today, some people don’t have compassion for others; instead, they see all people as pawns to further their agenda.  We call these people politicians.  How do we view people who are in need?  Are they inconvenient burdens that interrupt our day?  Or are they opportunities to minister and show the love and mercy of God?  We should thank God every time we cross paths with someone in need because God has given us another opportunity to be compassionate and obedient.

The second time we see God described as angry is due to evil.  Just a few chapters later in Exodus, God’s anger is due to the evil of Pharaoh.  Even after the ten plagues, including the death of the firstborn of Egypt, Pharaoh is too hard-hearted to let the Hebrew slaves go, and he pursues them into the parted waters of the sea.  God has had enough of this evil leader, and he and his ‘chosen officers’ suffer the fury of God’s anger and are drowned (ironically, just as they were drowning the Hebrew male children.)  No one can argue that God wasn’t patient (slow to anger) with Pharaoh, but evil will always eventually be dealt with.  Jesus created this world, and evil was never meant to be a part of it.  Death and illness were also not supposed to be part of this world.  Several times in the gospels, we see Jesus react with deep emotion when facing the death or illness of others.  For example, when Jesus is faced with the death of his friend, Lazarus, the ESV translates that Jesus was “deeply moved,” but the Greek word used is one of anger and rebuke.  We see this again when Jesus is faced with illness.  It is okay to be angry when someone dies, or someone gets a horrible diagnosis.  But don’t be angry at God; be angry at death and disease.  Just as God became angry at evil in the world, Jesus is angry at death and illness, two things that should not exist in God’s creation but are the result of a world fallen in sin.

The third time God is described as angry in the Bible is at the incident of the Golden Calf. God had just established a covenant at Mount Sinai with the nation. As we discussed last time (#42), the covenant at Sinai was like a marriage. Both parties promised to be faithful to each other. They are expected to act with chesed towards each other, faithful covenant love and mercy.  Then Moses ascends the mountain, and while he is up there with God, Israel builds a golden calf and worships it.

Exodus 32:7-10   And Yehovah said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.   They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”   And Yehovah said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.   Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

Can you imagine someone committing adultery six weeks after the marriage?  Israel made this covenant with God; they exchanged vows and made a commitment.  And just six weeks later, they break the covenant and worship other gods. God calls this adultery, and they have done it on the honeymoon.   Betrayal of a covenant leads to anger.

God takes commitment very seriously.  Betrayal of the expected loyal covenant love (chesed) is the third reason for God’s anger in the Bible.  We see this happen repeatedly in the Old Testament and the New Testament.  Israel betrays God and worships the idols of other nations.   The Bible has three important recurring phrases seen in God’s reaction to Israel’s betrayal: God “hiding his face,” “handing them over,” and “drinking the cup” of wrath. Pay attention when you see these phrases as you read your Bible.

Deuteronomy 31:16-18   And Yehovah said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then these people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.

God “hiding his face” represents God withdrawing his sustaining power over his people.  In the beginning, God’s act of creation was to make order out of chaos. And God did not create the world and then walk away to let it run on its own.  Without God’s continual intervention in this fallen world, things return to disorder. (In Physics, you may have learned this concept as the 2nd law of thermodynamics.)  The Bible makes it clear that without God’s sustaining efforts in our lives, we would all perish.  Who knows how many catastrophes God prevented this past week that we never knew about?  When God ‘hides his face,’ he stops intervening and allows us to reap the consequences of our poor choices.  Paul in Romans describes this action of God removing his protection and allowing people to suffer the natural consequences of their sins, God ‘handing them over.’

Over and over, Israel sins by worshiping the gods of another country or (against God’s plan) involving themselves with another country politically or by taking wives from that country.  Eventually, God’s anger is aroused, and he ‘hides his face.’  Typically, then, Israel is attacked by that very country.  God allows this country to invade as the natural consequence of their unholy alliance with that country.  We see this with many nations in the Bible, but the classic example is Babylon, which invaded Israel, destroyed the temple and took away a large percentage of the population in 586 BC.  Isaiah and Jeremiah had warned the people that this would happen.

Jeremiah introduces another important symbol relating to God’s wrath:

Jeremiah 25:15-16   Thus Yehovah, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.   They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”

We will discuss the importance of this symbol of the cup of wrath when we look at Jesus’ final days. He repeatedly mentioned the cup he must drink, and in his prayer in Gethsemane, he asked if the cup could not be taken from him. Jesus is not making this symbol up but using a well-known Old Testament phrase.  If we don’t understand how Jesus uses it, we miss some of the richness of his message.  We see the cups of wrath again poured out in the book of Revelation.  Again, if you don’t understand Jeremiah, you can’t understand Revelation.

For those who believe the Old Testament is about wrath and the New Testament is all about grace, you might want to read the last 1/3 of the Bible again.  The first three books all begin with John the Baptist warning people that the wrath of God is coming and they need to repent.  He is preaching the same message as Old Testament prophets Isaiah or Jeremiah: change your ways, or God will bring destruction.  He says the one coming after him (Jesus) has a winnowing fork in his hand and will separate the wheat from the chaff and burn the chaff in the fire.  He says the ax is already at the tree.  John expects you to know the story of how this has happened many times before in Israel.  And how does God bring destruction in the Old Testament?  He hands them over to some foreign nation.  Assyria, for example, is called the rod [of correction] of God’s anger.  (Isaiah 10:5). 

In Jesus’ day, things haven’t changed.  Israel is still being disobedient, and God’s anger is coming to a point where he will hide his face as he did so many times in the Old Testament.  As before, a foreign nation will come in and bring destruction. But it doesn’t have to be that way.  As in Old Testament times, the prophet’s (John the Baptist and Jesus) attempts to convince the nation to turn and repent are largely ignored.

And as you know, Rome is waiting in the wings to be the latest rod of God’s anger.  In 70 AD, Rome destroyed the Temple and, according to Josephus, killed 1.1 million Jews, and 97,000 were enslaved.  We have drawn too thick of a line separating the “Old Testament” from the “New Testament.”  God has not changed.  What he does in Jesus is the continuation and completion of what he has been doing with his image-bearers all along. 

God does indeed get angry.  As God in the flesh, Jesus gets angry at the same things.  But God is ‘slow to anger,’ which tells us he is not only patient to a point but also very strategic in his response.  It is not a response of rage and rash action (though it appears God considered that response in the Golden Calf incident.)  But God’s action from his anger is measured and productive.  When God’s wrath is poured out on Israel, a remnant is always preserved, and the nation is never completely destroyed.  So Paul tells us:  “Go ahead, Be angry…” as we said, sometimes anger is not only justified but is necessary.

Be angry about what Jesus is angry about.   I told you that Bob Pierce (founder of World Vision) famously prayed, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God,”   Similarly, we need to pray, “Let us become angry at the things that make God angry.”  What made Jesus angry?

Jesus got angry when the disciples wanted to keep children away from him.  He got angry when he saw the money changers taking advantage of the poor in the temple. He got angry when he saw people caring more about religious traditions than a beggar’s needs.  Notice that he didn’t get angry when someone personally attacked him.  He wasn’t angry when someone’s donkey was going too slow in the left lane or not moving fast enough at a traffic light.  He didn’t get mad at the tax collectors or the prostitutes.

So be like Jesus. Be angry when the poor are taken advantage of.  Be angry at payday loan companies.  Be angry when children are abused or neglected or when unborn children are slaughtered.  Be angry at death; be angry at cancer.  Jesus hates cancer…it was not supposed to be part of the world he created.  Don’t be angry about a scene on television at the Olympics.  It is okay to be grieved about it but not angry.  Be angry about ethnic and economic injustice, abuse of any kind, sex trafficking, human slavery, adultery, refugee plight, or persecution.

But look at the rest of Paul’s verse in Ephesians:

Ephesians 4:26-27  Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. 

Be angry, but do not sin.  Respond strategically and measured. So much of our anger is rooted in our prideful, selfish, sinful nature.  Do not act in rage or retribution.  Vengeance is not ours to take.  If you feel the need to become angry at someone else’s sin.  First, you better look in the mirror.  Be angry at your own sin first.  Too many people walk around with logs in their eyes, yelling about splinters in other people’s eyes.  You can’t press God for mercy for your sins while at the same time yelling for judgment for their sins.  God is just.  Sin must be dealt with.  But Jesus was willing to drink the cup of God’s wrath for us. So we can be part of the remnant that escapes from the final cups of wrath poured out in Revelation if we are willing to covenant with Jesus and join his kingdom.

  1. There are 39 types of work that are forbidden on the Sabbath in the Bible.  Healing is not one of them.
















































    We will discuss the importance of this symbol of the cup of wrath when we look at Jesus’ final days. He repeatedly mentioned the cup he must drink, and in his prayer in Gethsemane, he asked if the cup could not be taken from him. Jesus is not making this symbol up but using a well-known Old Testament phrase.  If we don’t understand how Jesus uses it, we miss some of the richness of his message.  We see the cups of wrath again poured out in the book of Revelation.  Again, if you don’t understand Jeremiah, you can’t understand Revelation.



    For those who believe the Old Testament is about wrath and the New Testament is all about grace, you might want to read the last 1/3 of the Bible again.  The first three books all begin with John the Baptist warning people that the wrath of God is coming and they need to repent.  He is preaching the same message as Old Testament prophets Isaiah or Jeremiah: change your ways, or God will bring destruction.  He says the one coming after him (Jesus) has a winnowing fork in his hand and will separate the wheat from the chaff and burn the chaff in the fire.  He says the ax is already at the tree.  John expects you to know the story of how this has happened many times before in Israel.  And how does God bring destruction in the Old Testament?  He hands them over to some foreign nation.  Assyria, for example, is called the rod [of correction] of God’s anger.  (Isaiah 10:5). 



    In Jesus’ day, things haven’t changed.  Israel is still being disobedient, and God’s anger is coming to a point where he will hide his face as he did so many times in the Old Testament.  As before, a foreign nation will come in and bring destruction. But it doesn’t have to be that way.  As in Old Testament times, the prophet’s (John the Baptist and Jesus) attempts to convince the nation to turn and repent are largely ignored.



    And as you know, Rome is waiting in the wings to be the latest rod of God’s anger.  In 70 AD, Rome destroyed the Temple and, according to Josephus, killed 1.1 million Jews, and 97,000 were enslaved.  We have drawn too thick of a line separating the “Old Testament” from the “New Testament.”  God has not changed.  What he does in Jesus is the continuation and completion of what he has been doing with his image-bearers all along. 



    God does indeed get angry.  As God in the flesh, Jesus gets angry at the same things.  But God is ‘slow to anger,’ which tells us he is not only patient to a point but also very strategic in his response.  It is not a response of rage and rash action (though it appears God considered that response in the Golden Calf incident.)  But God’s action from his anger is measured and productive.  When God’s wrath is poured out on Israel, a remnant is always preserved, and the nation is never completely destroyed.  So Paul tells us:  “Go ahead, Be angry…” as we said, sometimes anger is not only justified but is necessary.



    Be angry about what Jesus is angry about.   I told you that Bob Pierce (founder of World Vision) famously prayed, “Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God,”   Similarly, we need to pray, “Let us become angry at the things that make God angry.”  What made Jesus angry?



    Jesus got angry when the disciples wanted to keep children away from him.  He got angry when he saw the money changers taking advantage of the poor in the temple. He got angry when he saw people caring more about religious traditions than a beggar’s needs.  Notice that he didn’t get angry when someone personally attacked him.  He wasn’t angry when someone’s donkey was going too slow in the left lane or not moving fast enough at a traffic light.  He didn’t get mad at the tax collectors or the prostitutes.



    So be like Jesus. Be angry when the poor are taken advantage of.  Be angry at payday loan companies.  Be angry when children are abused or neglected or when unborn children are slaughtered.  Be angry at death; be angry at cancer.  Jesus hates cancer…it was not supposed to be part of the world he created.  Don’t be angry about a scene on television at the Olympics.  It is okay to be grieved about it but not angry.  Be angry about ethnic and economic injustice, abuse of any kind, sex trafficking, human slavery, adultery, refugee plight, or persecution.



    But look at the rest of Paul’s verse in Ephesians:



    Ephesians 4:26-27  Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. 



    Be angry, but do not sin.  Respond strategically and measured. So much of our anger is rooted in our prideful, selfish, sinful nature.  Do not act in rage or retribution.  Vengeance is not ours to take.  If you feel the need to become angry at someone else’s sin.  First, you better look in the mirror.  Be angry at your own sin first.  Too many people walk around with logs in their eyes, yelling about splinters in other people’s eyes.  You can’t press God for mercy for your sins while at the same time yelling for judgment for their sins.  God is just.  Sin must be dealt with.  But Jesus was willing to drink the cup of God’s wrath for us. So we can be part of the remnant that escapes from the final cups of wrath poured out in Revelation if we are willing to covenant with Jesus and join his kingdom.





    1. There are 39 types of work that are forbidden on the Sabbath in the Bible.  Healing is not one of them.


August 9, 27 A.D.  When Jesus Doesn’t Meet Your Expectations #44

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

Week 25 ———  John the Baptist has Doubts about Jesus
Matthew 11:2-30 — Luke 7:18-35

(A note from David: I am still catching up after three weeks of being away (our annual camp meeting and then ten days in Alaska). So here is today’s blog entry, but #43 from August 2 will be posted Sunday.)

Matt. 11:1   When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.  Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 

Jesus has had a busy week.  He healed the man with the withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath (#43).  The following day, great crowds gathered to be healed.  Then Jesus spent the whole night in prayer on a mountain (Luke 6:12).  The following day, he chose 12 of his disciples to become apostles (ones who are sent out).  (Remember that some of these twelve had been following Jesus for over four months.)  Then Jesus preaches another sermon to a group of people, heals a centurion’s servant, and then raises a widow’s son in Nain.  So Jesus is moving among the towns of Galilee, not just teaching and announcing the Kingdom of God, but also bringing it into reality by what he does, the healings, signs, and wonders.  He is gaining more and more public attention, and word gets back to John the Baptist, who is in prison.

John has been imprisoned for several months in Herod Antipas’ fortress of Macherus, located east of the Dead Sea in what is now Jordan.  I have been there. I have sat in the place John sat while waiting to be beheaded.  And regarding our passage today, I have been where John is…I can identify with John in this passage. There have been times Jesus didn’t do what I expected him to do. Perhaps you have been there also.

Jesus mother, Mary, and John’s mother, Elizabeth, were related, but the Bible does not specify how.  We know that Mary visited Elizabeth during their pregnancies.  However, John and Jesus did not grow up together.  Jesus grew up in Nazareth, while Luke tells us that John “grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (Luke 1:80).  John saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus at his baptism and pronounces him as the ‘Lamb of God.’ 

John publicly rebuked Herod because he married his brother’s wife, Herodias.  So Herod had him imprisoned.  Mark tells us that “Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly” (Mark 6:19-20).  

Prisoners in the first century were not fed or provided with clothing. If you had family or friends, they would bring you food (and anything else you needed), or you would starve. Presumably, John’s disciples visited him regularly and filled him in on the news about Jesus, so John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask him a question.  However, the question is not likely the one you would have expected John to ask.

Now, if you were John and had the opportunity to ask Jesus a question— the one you baptized, saw God’s spirit descend on, and called the “Lamb of God,” what would you ask? “Wow, all this healing and preaching sounds wonderful; how can I pray for you?”  “Can you use a few extra disciples?”  “Do you need to borrow some camel hair clothes?”  But here is the question John asks Jesus:

“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  (Matthew 11:3).

John is asking him, “Are you the Messiah?“ 

If you look at how Matthew has structured his gospel, you see that chapter 11 and the following chapters contain stories of how people react to Jesus (John, Jesus’ family, the Pharisees, etc.).  So John hears what Jesus is doing, and it doesn’t convince him that Jesus is the Messiah.  He begins to think he was wrong.  Remember what John said about the coming Messiah: 

Matthew 3:7-12   “But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to watch him baptize, he denounced them. “You brood of snakes!” he exclaimed. “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath?   Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.   Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.   Even now, the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.”

So, John’s message is much like the Old Testament prophets. God is sending a Messiah, and there will be a time of judgment—harsh stuff. Then John baptizes Jesus, and the heavens open, and the spirit descends, and the voice from heaven says, “This is my son….”

Everything is going just as John expected. But then Jesus started his ministry, and John began having second thoughts.  His disciples tell him that Jesus is healing everyone, teaching, and having banquets with sinners and tax collectors.  And John thinks, “Hey, wait a minute!  Where is the ax?  Where is the fire?  Where is the winnowing fork and the never-ending fire? If he can do miracles, then why am I still in prison?  This is not what I expected from a Messiah.”

Matthew 11:4-6   And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.  And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” 

Jesus summarizes his activity.  And since Jesus knows that John has Isaiah memorized, each of those six things is from passages in Isaiah.  Jesus uses a teaching moment to open the scriptures and show how they reveal the Messiah.  Since there may be a few of you that don’t have Isaiah memorized, here are the references from Isaiah that speak of what will happen when the Messiah comes:

In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. (Isaiah 29:18)

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.  For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;  (Isaiah 35:5-6)

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.  You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!  For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. (Isaiah 26:19)

So Jesus tells them to report back to John, “You were right. I am the Messiah, and I have come to inaugurate the kingdom. And it doesn’t look like what you thought it would. But it is just like Isaiah described it if you remember the verses.  And then Jesus adds, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Or, as some versions say, “Blessed is anyone who doesn’t stumble because of me.”  The Greek word translated as ‘offended’ or ‘stumble’ is ‘skandilizo’, from which we get our words ‘scandal’ and ‘scandalous.’  As an adjective, scandalous is defined as “causing general public outrage by a perceived offense. “  We have seen how Jesus is causing a good bit of outrage among the religious leaders of the day because they perceive him as offensive.  To them, Jesus is scandalous.  But Jesus says that it is the ones who don’t see him as scandalous but who see him as the true Messiah who are blessed.

But this is hard for John because he taught the Messiah was coming to kick butt with a chainsaw and a flame thrower. Instead, Jesus comes healing and teaching and having parties with tax collectors while he is rotting in prison.

And I am sure John was thinking about a different verse in Isaiah that Jesus preached from in Nazareth:  

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;1 he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound”  (Isaiah 61:1).

John is missing something important, but put yourself in John’s sandals.  Think back to the last time you were in a first-century prison waiting to die, and you told everyone who Jesus was and talked about what Jesus was going to do —- and now he is not doing that, and you’re still in prison.  John had a picture of how things would go and what exactly Jesus would do—and it was not going at all the way he expected. We may not be able to identify with John in prison, but we can all identify with this: We have all suffered disappointment when our expectations didn’t come to reality.

Perhaps you’ve had a crisis of faith — maybe when your expectations weren’t met — a friend or child died, people let you down, a good friend burned you in business, or prayers that weren’t answered how you wished.  When this happens, and you question your faith, you need to ask yourself what your faith is in.  Is your faith in Jesus, or is your faith in a picture of what you expect Jesus to be?  This is why Jesus was a scandal to the Pharisees.  They had a picture of what the Messiah would be: a warrior who would conquer Rome and restore the kingdom to Israel.  When he failed to meet their expectations, they were outraged and conspired to do away with him.  

The same is true of our understanding of Jesus. Many people follow Jesus, expecting him to solve all their problems and make their wildest dreams come true—and then when their dreams don’t come true, or the opposite happens, they are scandalized by Jesus and what he is doing.  How about you when your friend or family member passes away, your business fails, a significant illness strikes, or your home is destroyed?  Ask Job about it.  If your faith is in the god of your imagination and not the God of the Bible, it will fail.

Then John’s disciples leave, and Jesus speaks to the crowd:

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: 

Matthew 11:7-11   “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?   What, then, did you go out to see?  A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses.   What, then, did you go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.   This is he of whom it is written,
“‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.   

Jesus has nothing negative to say about John and affirms him as the messenger that would come before the Messiah.  But John will die in prison before Jesus completes his mission.  Those in the Kingdom are greater because they will be privileged to see Jesus bring the kingdom to its great beginning.

Matthew 11:12-14   From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. 

John and Jesus are bringing the kingdom on in unexpected ways, and they have met a lot of opposition from the Bible scholars and teachers, the Pharisees, the temple Sadducees, and the government.  Herod has imprisoned and will kill John. And the religious leaders and the government will condemn Jesus.  But just because there is a lot of opposition, Jesus says, don’t think for a moment that God’s plan is being thwarted.

Matthew 11:13-15   For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear. 

The kingdom is here, but it doesn’t look like what John or anyone thought it would look like. He is the Elijah figure predicted (Malachi 4:5) to come before the Messiah. You have to be willing to accept it as it is, even though it is not at all like you expected.

Matthew 11:16-17  “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
  “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

So Jesus uses a village parable of kids in the marketplace.  They play a flute for people to celebrate and dance, but no one dances.  They sing a funeral song, but the mourners (usually paid professionals) would not mourn.  Like the villagers who do not respond as expected, Jesus and John don’t act as expected.

Matthew 11:18-19   For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 

Jesus says, “You wouldn’t like it no matter what we did because we don’t fit into your mold.”

Matthew 11:19 “Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Here, Jesus is borrowing from proverbs, personifying wisdom.   You will see that this is right when you see it happen.  Jesus realizes he will never convince them with words.  Or, to say it another way, words do not prove wisdom — it’s not what you say will happen that matters; it’s what actually happens.

We know what is going to happen very soon.  John is going to be beheaded, and Jesus is going to face even more opposition, be put up on false charges, and put up on a Roman cross where he suffers and dies.   They both die.  And Jesus’ opponents will see that as a sign of their failure.  Many people in the 200 years before Jesus claimed to be the Messiah.  And the Jewish leaders would mostly just sit back and watch them until they died, and then they would say, “Well, you see, they are dead, so they weren’t the Messiah.”

But Jesus was different.  Because he didn’t play the expected role of the Messiah, he “did it all wrong.”  So they said from the beginning he wasn’t the Messiah.  And when he died (which they hurried up to get rid of the troublemaker), then they could say beyond doubt, “See, we were right; he wasn’t the Messiah.”

But Jesus was different because he didn’t stay dead.  Their expectation of the Messiah was to defeat the great enemy— the one that had been a thorn in their side and persecuted them for years –  and that great enemy was the Roman Government and soldiers and any sympathizers.

But Jesus was different.  He saw the great enemy — the one that had been a thorn in their side and persecuted them for years –  and that great enemy was evil —sin and the penalty of sin —death.

Jesus did not come to meet everyone’s expectations or solve everybody’s problems, but to be God’s gift of love to us, to be the solution to the problem of the barrier between God and man.  So don’t choose to follow Jesus if you expect him to solve all of your problems and cure all of your diseases.  It didn’t work that way for John the Baptist, and it didn’t work that way for Jesus.  Choose to follow Jesus because he loved you enough to suffer and die for you.  Choose to follow Jesus because following Him is the only way to defeat evil, sin, and death and be reunited with your creator.