Month: May 2025

May 26, 28 A.D.  – How Jesus Responds to Failure — The Year of the Lord’s Favor #84

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 67 —  Peter’s Denial and Affirmation
John 21:1-19

Last week, we talked about Thomas, who is unfortunately remembered as “Doubting Thomas.”  We saw how Jesus spoke about the concept of doubt, that questioning is not a problem for Jesus, and mental uncertainty is not a sin.  Jesus comes not to punish uncertainty but to resolve it.   Thomas needed to see Jesus’ hands and side.  Jesus obliges.  Doubt is only a sin if it leads to disobedience.  So while some people see Thomas’ doubting as a failure, Jesus doesn’t.

That brings us to the next resurrection appearance of Jesus in the Gospels, where Jesus responds to an actual failure of one of his disciples.  Last week, we saw how Jesus dealt with doubt; now, we see how He deals with failure. It seems no disciple has more highs and lows than Peter.  Remember when Jesus took the disciples north to Caesarea Philippi and asked them who people said that he was?  And Peter gives the answer that gets the gold star. 

Matthew 16:16-17  Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

This is the first open proclamation in the Gospel of Matthew of Jesus as the Messiah, one who has a special relationship with God, the Father. Jesus tells Matthew that this answer is straight from God.  However, in the following passage in Matthew, Jesus tells them that he will go to Jerusalem, suffer, and die.  And Peter pulls him aside and tells Jesus there is no way that will happen.  And Jesus tells Peter he is talking like the snake in the Garden.  

Matthew 16:23  (Message) “Peter, get out of my way. Satan, get lost. You have no idea how God works.”

From the best answer to the worst answer.  It seems Peter is a jumble of highs and lows, of successes and failures.  He is jumping out of the boat to walk on water in one moment, then sinking into the waves and being called out by Jesus for having no faith in the next.  Peter’s series of failures climaxes after Jesus’ arrest, when he denies Jesus.

Matthew 26:31-35   “Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.”

(A small teaching point.  If you find yourself arguing with Jesus, then you are wrong. 100% of the time.)

Then they go to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus tells the disciples to stay awake and watch while he prays.  Peter and the others had just told Jesus they would stand with him no matter what, but they couldn’t even stay awake with him.  Jesus is then arrested and taken to the home of the high priest for questioning. 

Matthew 26:58   “And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside, he sat with the guards to see the end.”

In the 4th chapter of Matthew, Jesus asked these fishermen to follow Him.  And they had followed him for months wherever he went.  But this is a different type of following.  Matthew says Peter is “following at a distance.”   There is a significant difference between following Jesus as a disciple and following from a distance.   

John adds more detail to this story. 

John 18:15-18   “Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. The servant girl at the door said to Peter, “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves. Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.”

This is the first of Peter’s three denials that come in this courtyard.  John adds some details that seem unnecessary.  It was a cold night.  They had built a fire in the courtyard to keep warm.  He even tells us what kind of fire they had.  When you see details like this that seem to be thrown in, you had better pay attention.  John, in his Gospel, tells you he doesn’t have room to tell all the things Jesus did.1  So, why would he waste several sentences on these details?

John shifts the scene to the interaction between the high priest and Jesus, and then returns to Peter outside.

John 18:25-27  “Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, “You also are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter again denied it, and at once a rooster crowed.”

In case you forgot, John reminds you that Peter was by the fire, warming himself.  It is by this charcoal fire that Peter denies Jesus three times, just as Jesus told Peter he would.  Twice, Peter says, “I am not.”  We have discussed the seven signs or miracles in the Gospel of John, the seven table meals, and the seven confessions about Jesus.  There are seven I am statements of Jesus in John’s Gospel.

I am the bread of life.  I am the light of the world.  I am the door.  I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life.  I am the way, the truth, and the life.  I am the true vine.

“I am” is the first answer God gives to Moses when Moses asks for His name.

Exodus 3:13-14   Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 

God is the great “I am.”  What God is telling Moses here at the burning bush is the explanation of his name. As you know, in biblical times, names often carried meanings that revealed aspects of a person’s character: Abraham meant ‘father of many’, Jacob meant ‘trickster’, and Jesus meant ‘Yehovah is salvation’.

In Hebrew, “I am” is the word “ehyeh” (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה), which means “I exist.”  The explanation of his name is that he is the God who actually exists, different from the idols of Egypt, who only exist in the minds of men.   So “I am” is the explanation. He gives his actual name in the next verse.  

Exodus 3:15  “God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘Yehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

When God says this is my name, the name he gives is Yehovah, not “I am” and not ‘lord.’  And this name, ’Yehovah’, is written in Hebrew in the Old Testament almost 7000 times (actually, 6827).  Your English translation says ‘LORD’ in all capital letters because the rabbis who taught the English translators Hebrew taught them the tradition of reading Yehovah as ‘Adonai’, which means ‘lord’.    Yehovah (יְהוָ֞ה) is a combination of three Hebrew words, “Hayah, hoveh, and yiheh,” which mean “He was,” “He is,” and “He will be.”  God has existed forever, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (see Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8.)

Because of the association of “I am” with the explanation of God’s name, Yehovah, “I am” statements in the Bible merit special attention.  It is no accident that John’s Gospel has Peter denying Jesus by saying “I am not” as he tries to disidentify with Jesus.

Then, in the courtyard around the charcoal fire, after his third denial, Peter hears the rooster crow.  And Jesus looks at Peter.  That sound signifies the rising of the sun, light dawning on the world, just as Peter sinks into darkness.  Can you imagine how Peter felt after this?  He has just renounced the one he said he would give up his life for.  He just did the very thing he swore he would not do less than 12 hours ago.  Luke tells us:

Luke 22:61-62   “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.”

Despair.  The worst failure imaginable for a disciple. Peter is learning an important lesson we all need to learn.  We are not as strong as we think we are.2   We all like to think we know what we would do in certain situations, but we don’t really know until we face them.  We are all a lot more like Peter than we’d like to admit.

How does Jesus respond to Peter’s failure? Peter may have surprised himself with this denial, but it didn’t surprise Jesus.  

Luke 22:31-32   “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

And when you have returned (when you have repented), strengthen your brothers.

He will strengthen his brothers by being an example of how you can fail miserably and still be used in a mighty way by God.  We have a terrible problem in our churches today.  We are afraid to talk about our faults and our failings.  “How are you?” someone asks.  And you answer, “I’m fine.”  But you are not fine, at that moment, you are broken.3  But we pretend like we have it all together.   We are a collection of people who live in a world that is terribly broken.  We are all sinners who are all in various stages of failure.   But around others, we pretend we have it all under control.  

We need to let the story of Peter strengthen us, and then strengthen one another by sharing our own stories.  The Bible instructs us to confess our sins and failures to one another.  The place I have seen this the most is at a Celebrate Recovery service—a worship service for people who have drug, alcohol, or other addictions or hang-ups.  Every week, you see someone come forward and celebrate that they have been free of drugs or alcohol for a year or 5 years or a month.  And the people in the congregation cheer wildly.  Then you see someone stand up and confess to everyone there that they have failed.  Last week, they slipped up and took that drink or used that drug.  And how do the people in the congregation react to this failure?  They cheer wildly.  They are not celebrating the failure, but celebrating the confession, the first step back towards recovery.  They understand that confession and repentance are essential to change.  And they are strengthening their brothers with their failure and new commitment.

How does Jesus respond to Peter’s failure?   You know you learn as a parent that sometimes, when your child does wrong, sometimes you don’t need to punish them, sometimes you don’t even need to talk with them about what they have done wrong.  Sometimes their mistakes cause them so much suffering and anguish that there is no need for you to add to it.  

There have been times in my life when God has chastised me for my wrongdoings.  The Bible says God chastises those he loves.  And the discipline God dispenses to us is instructive.  It is to lead us to awareness of our failures and repentance.  If we are already aware of our sin and we have grieved it and repented of it, then the chastisement is not necessary.  

Peter was grieved.  He wept bitterly.  And I think he shows his repentance. So Jesus doesn’t need to chastise Peter.  So, how does Jesus respond to Peter’s failure?  He doesn’t come with accusations.  He doesn’t say “I told you so.”  He doesn’t say, “Hey, how about that rooster?”  How does Jesus respond?  He cooks him breakfast.   Here is the story:

John 21:1-6   After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.  Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.  Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.  
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.”  He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”

John 21:6-11   So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.  ….
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.  Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”  So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. 

John 21:12-16   Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.  Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish.  This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”

John 21:17-19   He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.  Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”  (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this, he said to him, “Follow me.”

When writing a screenplay or novel, as the author of a story, you can craft the narrative so that it includes hints about what will happen later, leaving subtle details like a trail leading to the story’s climax.  You can write a scene in a way that allows you to recreate it later.  But when you are the author of the universe, the creator, you can arrange the details of life so that they will paint a picture.  You can arrange events to occur on specific days or during certain seasons that will help people understand the message you are trying to convey.  God often uses details like this to paint a picture for us.  Look at what Jesus is doing here to paint a picture for Simon Peter.

At the beginning of his ministry, Andrew is a disciple of John the Baptist, and he brings Simon Peter to meet Jesus.  This happened at the end of March, 27 AD.  They begin to follow him, off and on. They see miracles in Cana and elsewhere, but are not full-time disciples.4  They are still fishermen who follow Jesus at a distance.  Then, in July, we have the story in Luke 5, where Jesus meets them at the Sea of Galilee after they have been fishing all night with no luck, and they catch more fish than they know what to do with.  A miracle of fish.  At that point, Jesus calls them to be full-time disciples.  He says, “Follow Me.”  Peter now follows Jesus not at a distance, but closely, day by day; however, his commitment is not yet complete.  He thinks he is willing to die for Jesus, and he boldly declares this to him.  But Jesus tells him the test will come, and he will fail. Then Jesus is arrested.

When Jesus is on trial, John tells us that Peter follows Jesus from a distance. Then, in the courtyard of the High Priest, Peter denies Jesus three times by the charcoal fire.  Jesus is crucified  and 3 days later resurrected.   They meet again on the Sea of Galilee (Just as before) after a night of unsuccessful fishing.  Jesus tells them to drop their nets again, and they catch a vast number of fish.  Then Jesus gives Peter a chance to affirm his love three times, at one of all places, a charcoal fire.  Then Jesus says (as he did back in July) Follow me.  Peter now follows Jesus closely with complete commitment. Jesus tells him, “You will stretch out your hands and go where you do not want to go. You will pass the test the next time; you will be crucified.

Jesus is replaying the circumstances of Peter’s first call to set up this calling him back. He is replaying some circumstances from Peter’s denial to give him a chance to repent.  He brings in the warmth and smell of that charcoal fire — Look Peter, you are getting a second chance, now are you willing to die for me?

Peter is not through making mistakes.  Read the book of Acts.  He has some mistakes left to make.  Me too, Peter.  We all continue to make mistakes.  And this is not a problem for Jesus if we repent and grow from them.   

The story is told of a man who lived near a monastery and passed by it every day, often wondering how the monks there lived, and what went on behind the walls of this ancient building.  One day, he spotted the abbot of the monastery in town and asked him what life was like there.  The abbot is said to have replied.  “We fall down, we get up.”  

This is the life we lead.  As long as we walk in this sinful world, we repeat this cycle.  We fail.  We fall down in sin, we repent and then get up and walk again, trying to live the next day closer to the life God wants us to live.  This is the cycle we repeat until one day, we fall down in worship, humbling ourselves and laying our crowns before the throne of God.  

Proverbs 24:16   For a righteous man falls seven times and rises again.”

Do you ever stay awake at night reliving your past mistakes?   Are there things you have done in your life that you wish you could go back in time and do differently?  Do you find it hard to escape the memories of your failures?

The Bible excels at highlighting the mistakes of its characters.  There is no attempt to hide their faults.  Abraham lied about his wife and put her and others in danger to save his own neck.  Abraham and Sarah both laugh when God tells them they will have a child in their old age.  They treat their Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, horribly, sexually abusing her and then banishing her to the wilderness with her child to die.  And after all that, how does God think of Abraham?

Isaiah 41:8   [God speaking]  But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

After all his mistakes and failures, God called Abraham His friend. And here is Paul in his letter to the Romans discussing how God views Abraham:

Romans 4:20-22   No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”

“No unbelief made him waver.. ”    Did you read the book of Genesis, Paul?  There is quite a bit in there about Abraham’s wavering.  Yes, but that is not how God remembers Abraham.  He remembers Abraham as his friend who never wavered in his faith.

Then I turn to Hebrews 11, the Faith All-Star Roster.  Look at that line-up.   Many on that list lived lives full of failures.  After it goes through the Patriarchs of the Bible and Moses, the next on the list is Rahab the Prostitute.   The hooker who told lies to save spies.  You have David (the adulterer/murderer), Jephthah, who made a rash vow that went really bad, and then you have Samson.  A guy whose story is in the Bible for the primary purpose of showing how to do everything the wrong way.  Samson’s life is one bad sin after another, one failure after another. But look at how God remembers these, not for their failures, but for their faith.  This is the roll call of faith.

It is as if God has remembered their failures no more.  Does this surprise you?  It is just as He promised in Jeremiah, and this promise is quoted in the book of Hebrews.  

Jeremiah 31:34. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

 He has separated their failures from them as far as the east is from the west.5  Think about this for a minute.  If Jesus were to walk in that door this morning and you were to ask him, “Hey Jesus, what was going through David’s mind when he decided it would be okay to take another man’s wife and then kill him?  Jesus would say, “Hmmm….I have no idea what you are talking about.  But David was a great king of Israel and a man after my own heart.  What an awesome guy.  I can’t wait for you to meet him.

God remembers us for our best day, not our worst days.   That is Grace

Do you see what this means?  Sometimes I lie awake at night rehashing some mistakes I’ve made and wishing I had a chance to go back and do things differently.  But look at Jesus with Peter, after Peter’s complete betrayal.   Jesus is not rehashing Peter’s mistakes.  He doesn’t even mention them.  The all-knowing God, who knows every hair on all of our heads, who sees if any sparrow falls, has forgotten that thing that you can’t seem to forget.

After that denial, Peter felt like a failure.   He had utterly failed as a disciple by renouncing his rabbi.   Was this fishing trip just a one-time thing, or had Peter decided to return to his occupation of fishing because of his failure as a disciple?  We don’t know, but Jesus came to let him know that he was not a failure, but was just one step away from leaving that sin behind and becoming the disciple Jesus called him to be – one who was willing to die for him.  We fall down, we get up.  Jesus says, Peter, if you love me, then let’s start over.    

No one who is still breathing is a failure, for they are also one step away from overcoming that failure and moving forward.  Stop worrying about your past mistakes.  Everyone who has walked on this planet, except Jesus, has failed many times.  And those of us still alive will fail again. We fall down, we get up.   Look at your failures, see your sin.  Learn from your failures; learn the lesson from your mistakes.  Then repent — turn back from whatever attitude or action that put you in that place to commit that sin.  Confess and walk away from it.  God doesn’t remember it, why should you?

Perhaps you are carrying guilt for the mistakes of your past.    You don’t have to walk with that burden anymore.  Lay the burden of your past mistakes down here at this altar.   You don’t need to carry things that God has already forgotten.  Leave them here and walk away.

Today is a great day to let go of past mistakes and failures and start anew.

Psalms 37:23-24   Yehovah makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him, though he may stumble, he will not fall, for Yehovah upholds him with his hand.

Yes, you and I will make mistakes again.  We may stumble, but we will not fall, for God is holding our hand the whole time.6

  1. John 21:25   “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
  2. Rich Mullins wrote a song by that title with powerful lyrics.  You should listen to it.
  3. Speaking of songs, Matthew West has a song entitled “Truth Be Told” that addresses this topic.  Put this one next on your playlist.
  4. See the explanation of this in June 13, 27 A.D.  “Jesus invites Four Fishermen to Join Him for Sabbath” #36]
  5. Psalm 103:12.
  6. One more for your playlist:  DC Talk’s “What if I Stumble.”

May 19, 28 A.D.  – “Doubting Thomas” — The Year of the Lord’s Favor #83

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

Week 66 — “Doubting Thomas”
John 20:24-29

John 20:24-29   Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”  Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”   Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Poor Thomas, so famously known for one moment in his life.  This is how we often perceive people.  We tend to reduce them to that one moment that we remember.   And sadly, like Thomas, it may be a moment we view negatively.  Thomas is not the only person who, unfortunately, becomes known for one moment in their life.

If you are a baseball fan, there is one name that comes to your mind.  Bill Buckner.  It is Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.  The Red Sox lead the Mets in the series, three games to 2.  A win in this game will mean Boston will have their first World Series Championship since 1918.  Boston was leading this game, but the Mets tied it up, and the game went into extra innings.  In the top of the 10th inning, Boston scored two runs to go ahead again, 5-3.  In the bottom of the 10th, the Mets scored twice to tie the game again at 5-5.  The Mets had a man on second, but there were two outs, and they were down to their last strike.  One more strike and the game goes to the 11th inning.

Mookie Wilson hits a slow roller down the first baseline.  Bill Buckner is there to field the ball, but it goes between his legs and rolls into right field.  The runner scores and the Mets win.  The Mets go on to win the World Series, denying Boston yet again.  The term ‘Buckner Play’ became synonymous with a costly sports blunder.

Bill Buckner played Major League Baseball for 21 years. He ended his career with over 2,700 hits and almost 500 doubles, having batted over .300 seven times. He retired as one of the most effective first basemen in major league history, but is still remembered for one error.

“Doubting Thomas.”  Does he deserve this title?  Should he be known for this one event?  We don’t have as much written in the Gospel accounts about Thomas as we do Peter or John, but there is more to him than this one story.  Thomas was a bold, dedicated follower of Jesus.  When Jesus says he is going back to Jerusalem, and the disciples say, “Wait, you know they are looking to kill you there?”  It is Thomas who steps up and says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Another time, Jesus tells the disciples:

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.   And you know the way to where I am going.”

But none of them understood, and they were scared to admit it.   Only Thomas has the courage to speak up.”

“Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”     

And because Thomas was bold enough to ask, we get this from Jesus:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The reason we have this verse is that Thomas was bold enough to ask the question that the others were scared to ask.  But what do we remember about Thomas?  He was the doubter.    And is doubt really that bad of a thing?  Do we even understand what doubt means in the Bible?

According to modern dictionaries, doubt is “a feeling of uncertainty or a lack of conviction”. If that is what doubt means, then we might think of the opposite of doubt as faith, which is defined as “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”  These would seem to be near opposites.  But these modern-day dictionary definitions don’t fit with the way the Bible uses these words.  You see, this is the Greek view, not the Biblical view.

Our thinking is significantly influenced by the ideas of Greek thinkers.  We tend to want proof with absolute certainty before we ‘believe’ something. In fact, the very idea of proving something is Greek.  It comes from the Greek mathematicians Euclid and Thales, who devised a method of proof for mathematical theorems.  (I am suddenly having flashbacks of writing proofs in Geometry in High School.  Anyone else nauseous?)

 However, in life, absolute certainty is rare.  So, then it takes a leap of faith.  You finally have to be convinced enough to accept something.  So the Greek idea of faith is what you mentally agree with.  If you have Greek faith, then you are mentally convinced, your mind is made up. 

However, the Biblical notion of faith is not from the Greek mindset but from the Hebrew.  Faith in Hebrew is ‘emet’ (from which we get our word ‘Amen’); it is about reliability, trustworthiness, and consistency of actions.  God is always consistent.  He always keeps his promises.  He is faithful.  Faith is about actions, not thoughts.  It is what you do, not what you think.  (It helps us to read “faith” as “faithfulness” as it is an action, not a thought.)

So, biblical faith is not just accepting God and His word, but acting in obedience to His word.  But if Biblical faith is about action, then what is doubt in the Bible?  The Biblical Hebrew word for Doubt is — wait, there is no Biblical Hebrew word for doubt.   Does that surprise you?  There is a word for doubt in modern spoken Hebrew (safek), but you won’t find that word in the Bible.  While we view doubt or mental uncertainty as a negative thing, the Old Testament doesn’t even assign a word to it.

You do see people in a time of mental uncertainties in the Bible, but it is not called doubt.  Abraham and Sarah both laughed when God told them they would have a child in their old age.  And while God corrects them, he does not rebuke them.  Twice, Gideon seeks confirmation of God’s plan before he acts because he is unsure.  Similarly, Moses needs assurance from God because he is uncertain that he is the right man for the job.

God doesn’t rebuke any of these people for having some mental uncertainty.  He helps them through it.  Jesus does the same with Thomas, yet you don’t hear “doubting Abraham” or “doubting Sarah.”  Instead, you see the author of Hebrews put all of these people who had uncertainties in the Hall of Fame for faith in Hebrews 11.  And for all of the “heroes of faith,” in that ‘roll call of faith, ’ you read not what they believed, but what they did.  Their faith is not what they thought about God, but their actions.  (Abraham offered up Isaac, Noah built an ark, Moses kept the passover, sacrificed the lamb, walked through the sea, etc.)

While there is no word for doubt in the Old Testament, you do see the word doubt in the New Testament a few times.  There are 2 Greek words that are translated as ‘doubt’:
Diakrino, which means to distinguish between two things, is occasionally translated as ‘doubt.’
Distazo, which means to waver, hesitate, or delay, is translated as ‘doubt’ twice.  However, it is clear that neither word accurately captures our modern understanding of doubt. The best example of how these words are used is the story of Jesus walking on water.  We reviewed this back in the fall, but let’s revisit it here to see what Jesus says that gets translated as ‘doubt.’

The disciples are in a boat in a storm.  Jesus is casually walking on the water by them.  Peter says, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  Jesus replies, “Come.”  Peter hops out of the boat and begins walking on the water. 

Matthew 14:30-31   But when he saw the wind, he was afraid…    

Wait a minute.  Can you see the wind? No, you can only see the results of the action of the wind.  Hang on to that thought for a minute.

Matthew 14:30-31   But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

What is going on? Why is Peter sinking?  Peter is wavering between two thoughts:
1. Jesus told me to walk on water, so I should be obedient.
2. It is impossible to walk on water (do you see those waves?)
And Peter is stuck.  He stops walking and becomes stuck in his thoughts, pondering between these two ideas.  This is similar to our concept of doubt.

Some call this Analysis Paralysis – His mental confusion led to an inability to do what Jesus commanded.  His mental uncertainty causes him to stop obeying Jesus’ command to come.  So, how does Jesus respond to Peter?

Matthew 14:31     Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him. “Lord, save me.”

This is important.  Jesus does not punish Peter for having mental confusion; he reaches out his hand to pull him up, and says, 

“Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Why does Jesus say Peter has “little faith”?  First, remember that Jesus said if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you could move mountains.  A mustard seed was the smallest item he could show them, smaller than a grain of sand.  So the point is any faith at all is sufficient, even the smallest amount, because the outcome is not dependent on the amount of faith you have, but the amount of power God has.  “Little faith” really means no faith.

Why does Jesus say Peter has no faith?  Faith is like the wind.  You can’t see it, but you can see the result of it.  Remember when the paralyzed man’s friends let him down through the roof to Jesus?  The Bible says, “Jesus saw their faith.”   You can see faith because faith is an action.  Biblical faith is characterized by reliability, trustworthiness, and consistency of action.  Peter stops walking.  He is inconsistent in his actions. Therefore, he has no faith.

“Oh, you of little faithfulness, why did you doubt?”  Jesus isn’t asking Peter if he is theologically confused or has doctrinal issues.  He is asking Peter why he stopped walking.

This Greek word doesn’t mean ‘doubt’ as we think, but instead has the meaning of hesitating and/or delaying.  To Jesus, the problem is not mental questioning or uncertainty; the problem is his hesitation or refusal to do what he called Peter to do.  To Jesus, the issue with doubt is the lack of obedience.

The Bible doesn’t call us to be certain in our minds.  (It is not Greek.). Proofs are not necessary.  The Bible leaves room for uncertainty.  But it does not leave room for disobedience.

Jesus never said, “Understand everything I say and don’t ask questions.”  He said, “Follow me.”  It’s all about the action, all about obedience.  Jesus is fine with your questions.  He has no problem with your consideration as long as it does not lead to disobedience.

We see that with Thomas.  Thomas was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life; he knew Jesus had died.  If Jesus were alive again, Thomas would need to see Him again.  Jesus doesn’t fuss at him. He gives him exactly what he needs.  You need to see my hands and side.  Here they are..  Jesus solves his uncertainty.  Mental uncertainty is fine, as long as you remain obedient.

But there can be a huge potential problem with resolving mental uncertainty.  We need to go back to Genesis. There is a tree in the garden.  Eve says, “That fruit looks delicious!  It looks so good to me, but God said, ‘Don’t eat it.’”  So, where does Eve go when she has uncertainty?  Where does Eve go when she is confused?  She goes to the serpent and listens to what he has to say.  Then she reasons within herself.  Her mental uncertainty led to disobedience, as she sought advice from the snake and then decided that she was more capable of making decisions than God.

If Adam and Eve had some mental uncertainty or questions about the tree of knowledge of good and evil, then they should have asked God about it on their next walk in the Garden, not the snake.  The answers we need are not going to come from our reasoning, and certainly not from the snake and the world he controls.

Proverbs 3:5-6.  (Message)  “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.”

If you find yourself confused or questioning, don’t go to the serpent for advice. Don’t go to the world that he currently runs.  And then don’t think you can decide better than God.   The next verse in Proverbs says, “Don’t be wise in your own eyes.

Luke tells us this also.  In the book of Acts, Luke writes about Paul’s ministry and says:

Acts 17:11. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. 

Paul was saying some things they had trouble understanding.  You may not have noticed this, but Paul can be difficult to understand. (See 2 Peter 3:16 for Peter’s opinion on this.)   So what do you do?  You don’t go asking a snake about it.  And you don’t just sit around thinking you can reason it out in your own mind.

I frequently see this in Bible studies.   People ask, “What do you think the scripture is saying? What makes sense to you?”  I apologize, but that is not the correct way to interpret scripture. That’s what got Adam and Eve in trouble.  “The fruit looks good.  It makes sense to me to eat it!”  Use the Bible, God’s Word, to interpret the Bible, not your own understanding.  Don’t make the same mistake Adam and Eve made.  Ask questions about it, but go to the right place for answers.  Listen, if we spend hours in front of a television and never find time to study God’s word, it is no wonder we are confused.  Search the scriptures and ask God to help you understand them.

So it is all about action.   Christianity’s leap of faith is not a mental leap but a leap of action.

Remember the story of Naaman the leper?  He came to the prophet Elisha seeking healing.  He was expecting some grand gesture from the prophet, but Elisha sent a servant to instruct Naaman to wash in the Jordan.  Naaman was angry that Elisha didn’t even bother to speak to him personally, and he was mad that all he offered him was to bathe in a river.  What would that do?  But Naaman’s servant said, You’ve come all this way, what could it hurt to try the river that the prophet said?   So Naaman goes and washes 7 times in the Jordan.

Did Naaman, after his healing, understand how the water would heal him?  Did he solve his uncertainty about the prophet’s command?  No, but he was obedient, and he was healed, and his obedience led to faith. He goes back to the prophet and says, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel” (2 Kings 5:15). His obedience preceded his belief, and his obedience led to his belief.  Understanding is not a prerequisite to obedience.

Faith comes by obedience.  Let me ask you, “When has your faith grown?”  I have been in some beautiful church buildings and heard some fantastic music, and I enjoyed the time of worship, but that did not deepen my faith.  I have listened to some incredible preachers deliver great sermons, and I have learned a lot, but that hasn’t deepened my faith.    I have heard some amazing testimonies from others, but that alone didn’t make my faith grow.  However, all of these things contributed to inspiring me to do the one thing that ultimately led to my faith growing: walking out of the building and being obedient to what God led me to do.

It was when I followed God in obedience and stepped out to do something that my faith grew.  And often they were things that I didn’t really want to do or things I felt inadequate to do.   But as I stepped out, like Peter, God empowered me to do what I thought I couldn’t do.  And in obedience, faith grows.

Again, faith is not about mental agreement; it is about action.  Read the book of James.  James says faith without action is worthless.  It is dead.  It only exists if there is action with it.

Have you ever been rappelling?   Essentially, you attach a rope to the top of a cliff, hook into the rope with a harness, then lean back off the side of the cliff and walk backward down the cliff wall.  There is a big difference between believing that the rope is strong enough to support your weight and then stepping off the side of the cliff and depending on the rope.   Faith is not “believing that the rope will hold you”; it is leaning back off the side of the cliff on that rope.

James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

James is clearly thinking of Peter on the water here.  Doubt (wavering between two things) is like the back-and-forth waves in the sea, just being tossed around.  “Let him ask in faith.”  Don’t be like Peter, who stopped being obedient while he considered the physics of water-walking.

We must also guard against analysis paralysis. I don’t know about you, but I like to stop and think about things first – I’m not Peter, just quickly jumping out of the boat.  I want to follow Jesus, but sometimes I’m not quite sure it’s His voice I’m hearing.  It is okay to be sure, but it is not okay to use that as an excuse for delaying obedience.

How often have I been prompted to do something – give something away, visit someone, whatever – and I have not done it because I second-guessed myself, not believing the prompting was from God. A wise friend told me that if it were an act of kindness that could not harm anyone, then don’t hesitate.  It would certainly be tragic to miss a command from God because I was questioning my motivations.  Remember, Jesus is fine with our questioning, but not with our delay and hesitation in obedience.

So “Doubting Thomas”?  No.  Thomas was no different than any of the other disciples.  None of them believed Mary or the disciples from Emmaus when they came and told them about Jesus’ resurrection.  They had all seen him alive and seen him die.  They all needed to see him alive again.  Let’s look at the end of the story again.

John 20:26-29   Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”  Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”   Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

“My Lord and my God!”   The clearest confession of Jesus’ divinity in the Gospels.1  Many called Jesus ‘Lord’, but that was a title of reverence and used as a standard greeting, as we say ‘sir’ or ‘mister’.  Some called him the ‘Son of God,’ but this term is used frequently in the Bible to refer to angels, the nation of Israel as a whole, and some kings, not specifically to a divine being. ‘Son of Man’ can be used as a reference to human beings or as a special reference to the Daniel 7 exalted figure called the ‘Son of Man.’

John began his Gospel, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.”  This is a statement about the divinity of Jesus.  And now John is ending his Gospel with the same statement.  How ironic that this most bold statement of faith comes from the man we call “Doubting Thomas.”

How does Thomas’ story end?  The Bible doesn’t say, but history tells us Thomas, the disciple who stated his willingness to follow Jesus to death, traveled further than any other apostle to spread the Gospel.  He traveled the trade routes east, outside the Roman Empire, through Persia to India, likely arriving there by 49 AD.  He started numerous churches and was later martyred there.  The man known for doubting followed Jesus further than anyone.

So what is our take-home message?

  1. It is ok to question God.  He can handle our questions.  If you are drowning in uncertainties, Jesus will reach out his hand to help you.
  2. If you are uncertain or questioning, do not go to the world and do not go to the serpent, and do not think you can reason it out on your own.  Go to God’s Word and God in prayer.  Don’t make the Adam and Eve mistake.
  3. Faith is something you can see.  It is not a creed, a list of things we believe.  It is the actions of a life that is based on that creed.  It is what you do, not what you think.
  4. If God calls you to do something, do not delay or hesitate; act promptly.  Be consistent in your obedience.

God brought us into his kingdom to do the work of the kingdom.  He gave us talents to use them.  There is nothing I can say to help you grow your faith.  I hope to inspire you to walk into God’s world and do what God leads you to do.   I truly believe God is calling each of us to do something for the kingdom this week.  And as we do, our faith grows.

  1. Last week, I mentioned that the Last Supper was the seventh meal Jesus had at the table in John.  Seven is the number of completion.  And then the next meal in Emmaus was a kind of ‘first supper,’ marking the beginning of a new era in the world following Jesus’ resurrection.  There are many ‘sevens’ in John.  There are seven miracles, and the eighth one, marking a newness of life in the world, is the resurrection of Jesus.  There are seven “I am” statements by Jesus.  There are seven statements by seven witnesses that Jesus is the Messiah, followed by the eighth one after the resurrection, the climactic witness that Jesus is divine.

May 13, 28 A.D.  – Why They Didn’t Understand — The Year of the Lord’s Favor #82

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

Week 65 — Why They Didn’t Understand
Mark 16:12-14, Luke 24:36-49, John 20:19-23

Last week, we discussed what Jesus did on the day He was resurrected. He met the two disciples who were on their way home to Emmaus.  He opened up the scriptures to them and then opened their eyes when he broke bread with them. That day ends with the two disciples from Emmaus traveling back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples gathered there of their encounter with the risen Jesus.  We have descriptions of this in the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John.  Mark’s account is the briefest:

Mark 16:12-14   After these things, he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country.  And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.  Afterward, he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 

Mark mentions the disciples from Emmaus and tells us the disciples “did not believe them.”

How frustrating when you are telling something you are all excited about, and they don’t believe a word you say.  And Mary Magdalene is over there in the corner of the room saying, “Same.  They didn’t believe me either.”   While they are discussing this, Jesus appears in the midst of them and rebukes them “for their unbelief and hardness of heart:

Why did the disciples have such a hard time believing Jesus was alive?  To us, 2000 years later, the resurrection seems so obvious. How could they have missed it?  Of course, things are always simpler when you are looking back.  It is difficult for us to put ourselves in the disciples’ shoes.  It is hard for us to imagine their trouble believing in Jesus’ resurrection.  Hadn’t Jesus explained this several times?  

I think there are three reasons why they couldn’t see what we see now. First, they were overcome with fear.  John tells us they were in a room with locked doors “for fear of the Jewish authorities” (John 20:19).1 They are in hiding.  The weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread continues, and the city is still on high alert.  They were the core followers of a movement that the authorities had just deemed as blasphemers, insurrectionists, and traitors.  Their leader had just been dealt the most severe punishment thinkable.  They feel like they barely escaped.  Hadn’t Peter almost been discovered to be “one of them” in the courtyard of the high priest?  Peter had to lie to avoid being named as one of the conspirators.  They are scared.

Do not underestimate the effect that fear has on your thinking.  Fear activates the parts of the brain, such as the amygdala, that are designed to ensure self-preservation.  And that portion of the brain takes over.  Your body’s resources are all diverted to one goal: staying alive. Stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, are released.  Your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate increase to prepare for rapid, strong physical reactions.  Your pupils dilate, allowing you to see the threat more clearly.  And as these parts of the brain take over, your prefrontal cortex gears down.  This is the part of the brain that is responsible for rational thinking and decision-making.  You can’t do higher-level thinking when you are ruled by fear.

This system is designed to help you best react to immediate physical threats.  You start to step, but you see a snake, so you instinctively jump back.  That’s good… unless you are walking on the edge of a cliff when you see the snake.  It is not good to let this fear response run loose.  You may make terrible decisions you wouldn’t usually make, because your higher-level brain functions are suppressed. 

What about people who live in constant fear?  We see this with people living in areas of warfare where bombs are dropping around them.  But we have a word for the most common scenario of chronic fear: anxiety.  Anxiety and stress produce the same fear response and the same effects on your brain.  And the incidence of anxiety has increased in the US over the past 5 years.  The National Institute of Mental Health data from last year noted that 19% of adults in the US had an anxiety disorder.  That is almost 1 out of 5 people living in a state of chronic fear. 

Maintaining this fear response over more extended periods is physically harmful to the body.  Studies show chronic anxiety causes increased cardiovascular disease, increased gastrointestinal disease, weakened immune function, and physical changes to your brain as your prefrontal cortex shrinks.  The part of your brain responsible for higher-level thinking and decision-making loses mass.

Is it any wonder that the most common commandment in the Bible is “Fear not!”?  These disciples were scared that the Romans were coming for them next, and they couldn’t see past their fear to think about what Jesus had told them.  Jesus said this fear was a faith problem.  He calls them hard-hearted.  

The second reason I believe the disciples didn’t believe the stories of Jesus’ resurrection is that they didn’t understand Jesus’ mission.  Every Jewish person was expected to pray daily for the Messiah to come.  They had been praying and waiting for hundreds of years.  Over the past year with Jesus, the disciples began to understand that Jesus was the promised Messiah, but their concept of the Messiah was tainted by tradition.  They had been taught all their lives that the Messiah was coming to overthrow the enemy, which they naturally assumed was Rome.  Toward the end of his ministry, Jesus tried to make it plain to them:

Matthew 17:22-23   As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” 

That seems pretty plain, doesn’t it?  ‘Men are going to kill me, but I’ll only be dead for 3 days, then I’ll be back.’  But look at the rest of verse 23:  “And they were greatly distressed.”  ‘You’re going to die?  But you can’t die; you’re the Messiah.’ Fear kicks in, and the stress hormones surge, causing their brains to shut down. They didn’t even hear the ‘rise in three days’ part.  They sure didn’t process it.  Look at another time Jesus tried to tell them in Mark:

Mark 9:30-32   They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”

Again, look at their response in the following sentence:  “But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.”  They didn’t understand.  Knowing what they knew and had always been taught about the Messiah, it didn’t make any sense, and they were afraid to even ask about it.  Their thoughts were captive to the erroneous teaching of their leaders.  They were unable to see the truth of scripture. They were blinded by tradition and blinded by fear.

They didn’t understand the scriptures about Jesus’ mission because they had the wrong paradigm.  A paradigm is a dominant way of understanding or interpreting the world, a framework of assumptions and beliefs that shapes how we perceive and interact with reality.  More simply put, it is your worldview that shapes how you interpret everything.  For example, some people have the basic political assumption that we need more governmental intervention, more governmental oversight, and regulation.  Other people have a completely different assumption that we need less governmental intervention, less oversight, and less regulation.  Your evaluation of a particular political candidate will depend on the paradigm you operate under. Two people can examine the same candidate and arrive at totally opposite conclusions due to their differing paradigms.

Have you ever been at a high school basketball game when there is a very close play, and people on one side of the court are completely certain their player was fouled, but the people on the other side are equally certain there was no foul? They both saw the same thing, but they have different basic assumptions.  Different paradigms.  So they came to different conclusions.

The Jews in Jesus’ day, as well as the Jews today, have the same Old Testament Scriptures that we read, the same ones Jesus explained to the disciples; however, they reach a different conclusion.  Why?  They have a different starting point, a different point of view.   So when Jesus goes through the scriptures with the disciples in Emmaus and the disciples in the room, he is not giving them new scriptures; he is giving them a new paradigm.   This is how their eyes were opened.  

We can have the same problem. Could it be that there are aspects of Jesus’ mission that we also don’t understand?  We must always be vigilant for instances where our preconceived notions influence our thinking.  We all have blind spots where our discernment is clouded by tradition.  What are yours?

To recap, why did the disciples initially refuse to believe that Jesus was resurrected?
1. They were overcome by fear.
2. They didn’t understand his mission.
And finally,
3.  They were overly focused on the natural and blind to the supernatural.

They knew Jesus as a person. Some saw him grow up from an awkward teenager. They saw him on the days he was dirty, and his breath smelled bad. They saw him trip on a rock on the path and spill his drink at the table. Sometimes we struggle to think of Jesus as a human with all the human issues we face, but the people around Jesus had a different problem.  It was all too obvious he was human.  The problem for them was seeing him as more than human.   This was hardest on his brothers, who, at one point, upon hearing him claim to be the Messiah, thought he had lost his mind.

Mark 3:21  And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

I can hear James talking to Jude now.
James:  “Hey, older brother has lost it.”
Jude:  “Really, what is he doing this time?”
James: “He is running around telling people he is the Messiah.”  
Jude:  “Seriously?”
James:  “Yeah, he’s gone off the deep end now.   We had better stop him before he gets in trouble.”

They knew him as their older brother, the one who never got in trouble.  As kids, they probably saw him as the brother who thought he was better than them, kind of like how Joseph’s brothers saw him.

“But,” you say, “the disciples saw all of those miracles!”  Yes, but look at how they responded.  On Thursday, September 18, the disciples witnessed the miraculous feeding of the 5000, a truly supernatural event.  Everyone is amazed.  The people wanted to make Jesus king right then.  Jesus sends the disciples off in a boat without him. That night, they end up in a storm and see someone walking on the water.  They were terrified, thinking it was a ghost (there goes the fear again).  They find out it is Jesus, and Peter walks on the stormy water.  But then Jesus gets in the boat, and the storm immediately stops.  That’s pretty amazing.  But look at the following verse:

Mark 6.52   for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened. 

They witnessed the miracle of the loaves being multiplied; they were the ones distributing them.  But a few hours later, they have forgotten the supernatural event and are back to thinking only of the natural.  This miracle on the water surprised them. You would think that after the bread miracle that day, they would not be so shocked, but they just didn’t understand it.  They are said to be  “hardhearted”, the same thing Jesus said this about the disciples when he appeared to them in the room after his resurrection. He said this is a faith problem. But wait, there is more…

You have these very supernatural events, and six days later, they are in a different area of the country, and this happens:

Matthew 15:32-33   Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”

It’s just been six days. This guy walks on water, calms a storm, and just 6 days ago made food appear from nowhere.  And now these disciples can’t imagine where they could find enough bread to feed these people.  Even after what they witnessed, their minds are thinking on a purely natural level, ignoring the possibility of the supernatural. 

I get it.  We tend to draw firm lines between what we call natural and supernatural. We define them this way:  the “natural” realm encompasses what we can understand and explain through science and the laws of nature. In contrast, the “supernatural” refers to events or phenomena that go beyond these natural laws, often involving spiritual or divine realms. My problem with these distinctions is that what we can understand and explain through science is a moving target.  

Many phenomena that were once thought to be supernatural have been explained by science.  In the past, lightning, earthquakes, weather patterns, and mental illness were all felt to be supernatural events. Until the 17th century, people believed that a supernatural force acted to move blood through the body.  William Harvey proved that blood was contained in tubes throughout the body, and the heart served as a pump.   What was once deemed supernatural was now considered natural.  From there, the idea emerged that science could eventually explain everything, and the realm of the supernatural shrank significantly as the “Age of Enlightenment” began.2  However, as time passes, we come to realize that the more we learn about the human body and the universe, the less we truly understand.  We have only begun to discover the complexities of science. And there is so much that science will never be able to explain.

But even the things we can currently explain with science could not have begun to exist by themselves.  We know why things fall when you drop them – gravity.  And we know gravity keeps planets in orbit.  We have also calculated the gravitational constant.  But if that number varied by the tiniest fraction (0.000000000000001), then the universe could not exist.  If it were that tiny bit smaller, then no planets or stars would have formed and stayed together.  If it were just that tiny bit larger, then the Big Bang would be followed by a Big Crunch, where everything would collapse back down to a single point.  And that is only one of many such constants that all have to be exactly as they are for us to exist.    Our universe is incredibly complex in its design.  Science shows that it could not have happened by accident.  The natural world only exists because God designed it with incredible precision.  We only have a “natural world” because a supernatural God ordained it.  

 So while we want to categorize things as either natural or supernatural, I see Jesus moving back and forth between them with complete freedom.  Notice in this passage in Luke how Jesus casually moves from “the supernatural” to “the natural” in this room with the disciples.

Luke 24:36-42   As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”  But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.   And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?   See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.”   And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.   And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”   They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Remember that he just vanished from the home in Emmaus. Just disappeared. Then he suddenly materializes in a room with secured doors in Jerusalem.  You thought Star Trek transporters were cool?  Jesus was doing that two thousand years ago.   Then he gives a casual greeting.  Peace be unto you.  In Hebrew, that’s Shalom Aleikem. That’s still a standard greeting in the Middle East (Jews and Arabs).    So Jesus is like,  “Hi Guys!  Don’t be scared, it’s just me alive again.  See these holes in my hands, Yep, still there.  No worries.  Sure, stick your hand in that hole in my side.  Pretty cool, huh?  Anyhow, you got any food?  I haven’t eaten for days.  Oh great, fish!”

The disciples are flabbergasted. To Jesus, everything is just routine. They are blind to the supernatural, and to Jesus, the supernatural is just, well, natural.  Death is a mystery to us, but not to Jesus.  Resurrection is hard for us to imagine, but not for Jesus.  We draw firm lines between the natural and the supernatural.  Jesus didn’t.  Because he understood nothing was impossible for God.  The disciples hadn’t grasped that, and we haven’t either.

So if right now, Jesus suddenly appeared out of nowhere right there in the room with you and said, “Hey, everybody! How’s it going?” How would you react?  Do you believe God can do miracles?  Do you believe God is still at work in our world today?  Then why do we live our lives ignoring the possibility of God working in our midst to do God things?  Why do we look at the problems in our lives and think we have to figure them out ourselves and find a way to solve them without God’s help?  We are no better than the disciples.  We see a problem like their 4000 hungry people, and say, “That problem is just too big to solve.”   Like the disciples, the problem only seems big if you see your God as small.   Jesus said this is a faith problem.

Let’s finish the story:

Luke 24:44-49   Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”   Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,   and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses to these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

So Jesus goes through the scriptures, opening their minds by changing their paradigm. Then he tells them, ‘And by the way, you are going to be witnesses, spreading the need for repentance and the news of forgiveness through me to the whole world.  Now that is a big job.  So, if you’re going to do that, you’ll need some serious help.  You will need God’s power.  You can’t just depend on the natural; you have to learn to depend on the supernatural.. So sit tight until God empowers you.’

John gives more details:

John 20:21  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”  

 We could spend hours unpacking what it means for us to be sent to the world in the same ways that Jesus was sent to us.  However, we will focus on the one aspect that Jesus emphasized.   How is Jesus sending us?  The next verse:

John 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them…

Jesus exhales a breath.  Is that odd?  Every time Jesus does something that seems weird to us, you had better pay attention, because he is teaching an important lesson.  Just like the Old Testament prophets, Jesus is a very visual teacher.

John 20:22. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

Now we know these disciples will receive the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the Feast of Shavuot, and the countdown to that Feast has begun, 50 days from Passover.  What Jesus is doing now is demonstrating a lesson about receiving the Spirit.

Jesus isn’t speaking English, and when he says ‘spirit,’ it is ‘ruach,’ the same Hebrew word as ‘breath’ and ‘wind’.  Here we have Jesus, God, breathing on man.  Pay attention, we’re going back to Genesis again.  It is the beginning of creation, without form and void, and what is hovering over the face of the waters? 

Genesis 1:2   And the ‘Ruach’ of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

 The Spirit of God, the wind, the breath of God.  In Genesis 2, we see God take dust and form a person from it. How does he give life to this dust?

Genesis 2:7. Then Yehovah God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

God breathed life into Adam, and now, God is going to breathe new life into these disciples.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection draw a big vertical line in history. There was creation, when life was first made, and God dwelt with man in the Garden.  Then came the fall, when sin caused death to become a part of the world, and then God was separated from his people.  Now Jesus comes, Emmanuel, God with us, and He demonstrates what life is, then destroys the power of death. Now life reigns again.  Everything from here on out is different. God’s plan to redeem his people is happening. 

Then, 50 days after Jesus dies on the cross, it is the time of the Holy Spirit.  Now it is not God with us but God in us, God’s Holy Spirit within us.  God is breathing on humans again — to give them life again.  A life where death does not prevail and a life that is abundant.  No longer will people be separated from God.  No longer will people have to travel to a temple to commune with God, for he will be God with us and in us.  We will be the temple of the Holy Spirit.  

The Spirit descends on the face of the waters at creation.  The Spirit descends on the church in a mighty rushing wind at Pentecost, a time of recreation.  God breathes life into Adam, and God breathes abundant life into his church. So, the countdown has begun to the climax of Jesus’ ministry, the culmination of God’s plan to restore fellowship with His creation. Pentecost is coming.

However, if we are to live an abundant, spirit-filled life, then we must overcome the same issues the disciples faced.  We have to drop our fear.  We can’t be afraid of what God will do.  We can’t fear how others will react.  We can’t let fear of doing something new or something hard cause us to be disobedient to whatever God calls us to do.  We must have the faith to believe that God loves us and will be with us always.  He will work everything to good.  Fear not!

We have to understand our mission.  When I was growing up, I heard many sermons that said every Christian should be knocking on doors and witnessing to people.  And I have friends who can talk to anyone, who can do door-to-door evangelism. But I also have friends who are introverts.  Talking to people is not their gift. And for years, they had listened to the church tell them they weren’t good Christians if they didn’t go witnessing.  Do not be blinded by this traditional teaching.

God has given people a variety of gifts.  Some are evangelists, but not all of them.   We are sent to build up the Kingdom of God, but it is not just about the number of converts.  The Kingdom of God is about following God’s will, and that includes feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, comforting the grieving, loving the unloved, caring for the sick, freeing the oppressed, and giving sight to the blind.  And many times it is in doing these things that people are drawn to the Kingdom.  

Finally, we have to expect God to work in supernatural ways.   We have to expect the supernatural.  The disciples were shocked every time Jesus did a miracle.  Wow! Look at that miracle!  We’ve never seen anything like that before!  (Yes, you did!  You saw the same miracle 6 days ago.) To be people of faith is to expect God to do God things!  We can’t be hard-hearted and live our lives as if God doesn’t exist, and God still doesn’t act in this world.  

We can’t go through life trying to solve problems on our own and ignoring God’s help.  If we only attempt to do things that we can do by ourselves without God’s help, then we are living faithless, empty lives.  If we can do it without God, then where is God’s place?  How can God get glory from that? 

John 14:12   “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.  

Read that again — Whoever believes will do Jesus things, and works greater than His!  Every believer is capable of doing Jesus-sized works!     But hold that thought… Why does Jesus going to the Father help us do greater works?

John 16:7   It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 

And 50 days after Passover, after Jesus’ crucifixion, is the day of Pentecost, when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit in power.  We will do greater works because the Holy Spirit is in us.  It took the disciples some time to grasp the concept of greater works.   But they did.  And we have to also.   Why did God put the Holy Spirit within us if we are never going to listen to Him or do the things that require His power?

  1.   The Greek term, “Ioudaios,” is often translated as “Jews,” but typically is understood to be “the Jewish authorities.”
  2. The starting date for the Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason is typically given as 1685, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, followed in the next few years by Isaac Newton’s publication of “Principia Mathematica” and John Locke’s “Essay Concerning Human Understanding.”

May 6, 28 A.D.  – Raised from the dead.  Now, what do you do?— The Year of the Lord’s Favor #81

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

Week 64 —The First Supper
Luke 24:13-35

Here we are at week 64/70 following the ministry of Jesus week by week. And last week we talked about his final week that ended in his crucifixion and resurrection.  In 28 AD, Resurrection Day would have been as late as it could be, May 1.  So, putting the four Gospels together, let’s look at the timeline for that day of resurrection.

The Jewish day begins at sundown, so the day of resurrection, our Sunday, starts at sundown on the sabbath (Saturday). When the Sabbath ends on Saturday, May 1, 28 AD, Jesus has been in the grave for three days and three nights. So, some time after sundown on Sunday, Jesus is resurrected from the tomb.  Just before dawn, Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome head toward the tomb to anoint the body.  Before they arrive, there is an earthquake as an angel rolls the stone away. The sun rises.

The angel tells the women that Jesus is risen, as he said. They depart to tell the disciples.  Peter and John run to the tomb and see it is empty, but do not see Jesus.  Mary remains outside the tomb, weeping, and sees Jesus, but does not recognize him at first.  She goes to tell the other disciples, but they do not believe her.  Jesus then goes to the throne of God and presents the firstfruits of the resurrection to the Father in Heaven.  Jesus appears to two disciples on the road to Emmaus; they head back to Jerusalem.  

Sundown on Sunday — a new day begins.  After sundown, the Emmaus disciples arrive and report their encounter with Jesus to the disciples.  Then Jesus appeared to ten disciples, and others gathered with them (Thomas was not there).  The next morning (Monday, May 3, 28 AD), the eleven went to Galilee as Jesus had instructed them.

So on the actual day of Resurrection, Jesus does three things:  

  1. He has a brief encounter with Mary.
  2. He appears in heaven for First Fruits (we discussed this about a year ago).
  3. He has a much longer encounter with two disciples headed to Emmaus.

And this encounter at Emmaus is our focus for today.

Luke 24:13-35   That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.  While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.  But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.  Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.  Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.  They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”   And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them.   When he was at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.  They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”  And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”  Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

These two disciples hung around Jerusalem with the eleven disciples, waiting until Jesus had been dead for three days and nights. Why? Because you weren’t completely dead in their eyes until after that time passed (remember that is why Jesus waits to raise Lazarus, so everyone would know it was a true miracle). They were hoping he wasn’t really gone. So after the three days and nights had elapsed, they gave up and went home.  

Luke 24:21. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

“We had hoped…”, but now, after 3 days and nights, hope is gone.  And Luke tells us they just stood there “looking sad.”   They were defeated, grieving the lost hope of a Messiah.  It was a difficult 7-mile walk back home to Emmaus.1 

Who were these two disciples?  They are not part of the named 12 disciples, but were in the larger group (that we know at times was over 120).  Luke tells us one of their names, ‘Cleopas.’ The other is unnamed.  But we know they were family, living in the same house as they invited Jesus to “stay with us.”  Then we have this information from John:

John 19:25   But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 

The slight spelling difference in the Greek is not significant.  The two on the road were likely Cleopas and his wife.

So Jesus joins them on this road from Jerusalem.   But they, like Mary Magdalene at the tomb, do not recognize Jesus when they see him.

Luke 24:16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 

Why did God not want them to recognize Jesus immediately?  (There is a reason.)  God intervenes and hides Jesus’ identity from them on purpose.  (This is important.)

God wants Jesus to explain the scriptures to them.  If they recognized Jesus immediately, they would be so overwhelmed at his presence that they could not focus on the very important lesson he had to teach.  God performs a miracle, concealing Jesus’ identity, just so he can teach this lesson.  

So they think Jesus is just some other pilgrim leaving Jerusalem.  The conversation goes like this:

Jesus:       Hey, what are you talking about?
Disciples:  Have you been living under a rock?
                  You must be the only person who was in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what
                  happened.2
Jesus:      What happened?
Disciples:  Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

(Notice that they call him a prophet, but not “the Messiah”. )

Disciples:  But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.  (We thought he might be the Messiah, but he is dead.)
Disciples:  Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.3
Jesus:      O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 

“Foolish ones” — This is a poor word choice by our translators, because if you know your Bible, you might think Jesus is calling them that word he told us in the Sermon on the Mount never to call anyone.  But this is not the same Greek word; instead, it is a completely unrelated word that means someone who just doesn’t understand, lacking in wisdom.  Jesus is saying, “You just don’t get it, do you?”

“Slow of heart”  — The Greek is ‘Bradus Kardia.’  Now that is a very familiar term to me as a doctor.  Bradycardia is a heart rate of less than 60 beats a minute (or less than 100 for a newborn).  Sometimes when you’re asleep, your heart rate might fall that slow.  Your slow heart would be normal when asleep.3  But if it goes too slow while you aren’t sleeping, you may feel lethargic and tired.  Your slow heart would make you feel and act sleepy.

So what does Jesus mean by ‘slow of heart’?  They had been disciples of Jesus for some time and had just witnessed the events of Jesus’ last week, the most important week in the Bible.  25% of the material in our Gospels is about this one week. They were there. They saw it all, but here is the problem: They could not see how these current life experiences, how the events they witnessed this past week, fit into the story of the Bible.  They were confused.

What Jesus says is:  “Come on! It’s like you’re sleeping through this!  Wake up and see what God is doing!”

Then he says, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”  In other words:  “You should have seen this coming.  The Scriptures said it would be this way.  Didn’t you read Isaiah?  Did you read it to understand it?   Did you just read the words, or did you spend time thinking about them?  Did you carefully consider, reflect on, and meditate on the scriptures?   The Bible is not just words on a page; it is the very wisdom of God.  We are not to read it like a first-grade reader or like the newspaper.”

The Bible is ‘Meditation Literature.’    How did the psalmists say they read the scriptures?

Psalms 119:15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
Psalms 77:12  I will ponder all your work,and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Psalms 119:23  Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.

Even though my enemy is getting ready to attack me, I will take the time to sit and not just read the words, but think about them, meditate on your word.

This is why I like to study the Bible in the morning.  I read and ponder. I wrestle with the text.   I consider how people heard it on the day it was written.  What was going on in the world then?  What is the historical and cultural context?  What words did they hear differently than I do?  How does this part fit into the whole story of the Bible? And then, how does this fit into my life, what I am going through now, and God’s plan for my life?  And throughout the day, God gives me insight. Those scriptures keep churning around in my head all day, and then it is like a light bulb coming on as God’s Holy Spirit reveals truth.  

Then in our story, the narrator interrupts the dialogue and says,

Luke 24:27. And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

They had the Scriptures, and they had studied them, but they didn’t see the big picture of where God was headed in them. They had no idea how the events they had just witnessed this past week fit into the story in the Scriptures. Jesus is about to connect all the Old Testament dots for these disciples. 

Who remembers doing dot-to-dot pictures? You follow the numbers and connect the dots; the lines you draw help form an image.   Jesus is going to connect the dots of the Old Testament for them.  He will show them the prophecies he fulfilled and how all of the Scriptures, the whole Old Testament, points to him.  They knew what happened, they saw it happen, but they were unable to make the connection between what they had read in scripture and what was happening right before their eyes.  So Jesus takes them on a tour of the Bible and points out how all this time the whole story of the Bible was pointing to what they saw this past week.

Does God care that we understand the Old Testament?   You bet he does.  We live in a day when some preachers shy away from the Old Testament. They say it only confuses people.  They say we don’t need the Old Testament now that we have Jesus.  But look at this story where God purposely keeps people from recognizing Jesus so he can walk them through the Old Testament Scriptures.  Because God doesn’t want people to just see Jesus, He wants people to understand Jesus.  And we can’t understand what Jesus is saying if we don’t know the context.  And the context for what Jesus says and what he does is the Scripture of the Old Testament.

But they could not see how the events they had just witnessed over the past week fit into the story of the Bible. The story of the Bible is not a complicated story.   It can be broken down into just three parts.  And here is how the Bible is divided:

  1. Genesis 1 & 2:  God created the world, made man, and placed man in a garden.
  2. Genesis 3. Humans rebelled, broke the relationship, left God’s presence, and sin and death entered the world.  There is a separation between man and God. 
  3. The rest of the Bible, from page 4 to the end, is about God’s plan to redeem mankind and restore the relationship with his creation.  God is reconciling the world to himself.    And that plan is all about Jesus.  He comes to restore a proper understanding of God’s word.  He dies and is resurrected to defeat sin and death.  He is returning to gather his people who want to be with Him and restore creation.

It is not a complicated story.

So Jesus goes through the Scriptures and helps them see how they had been predicting what they witnessed this past week all along.  We are now picking up the story in verse 28. They have arrived at their house in Emmaus. They stop, and Jesus “acted as if he were going farther.” But they encourage him to stay as it is ‘towards evening.’  “Stay” means abide. They thought he would stay the night. They prepare a meal, then a very odd thing happens. 

Luke 24:30   When he was at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 

Now, if you don’t know the culture, you pass right by this as you are reading.  But this is totally unexpected.  This is odd because this is what the host in the home always does. Jesus is not the host here; he is the guest.  It would be like someone coming to your house for dinner, and you greet them at the door. Then they walk into the kitchen and start stirring pots, putting the rolls in the oven, setting the dishes on the table, and telling you, “OK, let’s say a prayer and eat.” That would be weird.  A guest would never assume these duties.

Now, don’t miss what is going on here. This is classic Jesus. He has just spent a while teaching them how the Old Testament predicted and explained the events of this past week. Now, he is going to demonstrate a lesson from the Old Testament. So he takes the bread, blesses God for the bread, breaks it, and gives it to them. And then, the climax of this story: their eyes were opened.

Picture what is going on here.  There is a man and his wife, and there is food, and their eyes are opened.  Can you think of any other time in the Bible when a man and his wife ate something and their eyes were opened?

Genesis 3:6-7   So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened,

Luke wants to make sure you don’t miss this connection.  This was the lie of the Satan, the adversary. He loves to tell partial truths.

Genesis 3:4-5   But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” is not about understanding good and evil; it is all about who decides what is good and evil and who makes the rules. Before this incident, God lived in harmony with humans.  They walked together in the Garden.  God made the rules, and man followed the rules.  God is the king, he is the ruler, and he makes the rules.  This disobedience breaks all of that.  By choosing to eat the fruit, they have decided they want to make their own rules. They want to decide for themselves what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong. They reject God as their king.  And because they rejected the king, they no longer live in the kingdom of God.

Oh, the serpent was sort of right.  Their eyes were opened all right. Their eyes were opened to the ways of the world.  Open to the possibility of sin, but closed to the way of the Lord.  And this is the way we have all lived since Adam, blinded to the ways of God, unable to understand the things of God.  But when we accept Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin, when we recognize him as the King who gets to make the rules, then his Holy Spirit opens our eyes again to God’s truth.

So, before the apple (pomegranate), Adam and Eve were in the garden with God, and everything was good.  God said it: “He saw that it was good.”  They were in communion with God; they walked in the garden with him.  They knew God, they heard and understood his voice. Then the Satan serves up some fruit.  Their eyes were opened (to the ways of the world), and now Adam and Eve are filled with sadness and shame.  They hide from God.  Then we see them leaving the garden.  

This opening of their eyes was actually a spiritual closing that rendered them unable to see God for who he is. They could no longer recognize their Father, who loves them. Slowness of heart, confusion, inability to see, and inability to recognize God and his designs—this is the state of Adam and Eve leaving the Garden, and this is the state of the woman and her husband, Cleopas, walking away from Jerusalem. 

They are sad and hopeless; everything is wrong.  They don’t see God, though he is standing right before their eyes.  They don’t understand the teachings of God; they don’t recognize his voice. Then Jesus serves food. Their eyes are opened to God and the things of God- they understand the scripture and how the events they just lived through fit into the story, and they see Jesus. They leave to head back to Jerusalem with joy!

Do you see why Luke wants us to recall the Genesis 3 story here?  Jesus is undoing what went wrong in Genesis 3.  Jesus is restoring what went wrong in the fall.  He told them with words, then gave them a picture by action.  All the harm done in the fall in Genesis 3 — Jesus is redeeming all of it.

But we are not done.  There is something else going on here.

Luke 24:30   When he was at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 

Jesus at the table in Emmaus—this has to remind you of something that just happened in Jerusalem in an upper room at the Last Supper.

Matthew 26:26   Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Took, blessed, broke, gave…..Same verbs, same order. Jesus takes over the hosting duties in Emmaus, which is unusual because he wants to reenact the Last Supper for them.  Luke’s Gospel emphasizes gathering around the table for a meal.  The ‘Last Supper’ is the seventh table meal in Luke.  Seven is the number of completion in Jewish thought, so the Last Supper is the completion of that group.  So you could call this meal Jesus serves in Emmaus the “First Supper,” beginning a new era of sharing grace around the table.

We discussed hospitality back in September (#49) and how hospitality is a demonstration of the gospel. Remember that 1 Peter 4 tells us (my paraphrase), “Hey, the world is coming to an end, so most importantly, keep loving each other and show hospitality without grumbling.”  Don’t overlook the importance of sharing meals in your home as a way to show God’s love to your community. 

It was in the breaking of bread that their eyes were opened and the resurrected Jesus was made known to them.   Even though it is getting dark, they head back the 7 miles to Jerusalem because some news is so good it can’t wait.  And they find the disciples:

Luke 24:35   Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The breaking of bread.    And remember what their problem was:  Their eyes were closed.  They couldn’t recognize Jesus or see how the events in their lives fit into the story God was telling.  I am becoming convinced that a lot of the depression and anxiety of this world stems from our eyes being closed to these things.  

If we could truly see Jesus for who He is and how the things currently going on in our lives fit into the story of our lives that God is weaving, we would see how things that appear to be disasters can be opportunities for God to show his power. The Israelites are trapped between the armies of Egypt and the Red Sea. This is not a tragedy but an occasion for God to show He is God.  The Israelites see a huge giant, Goliath, coming to fight them.  That is not a disaster but a chance for God to show his power.  Hey, disciples in Emmaus, Jesus’s death on the cross is not the end of the world; it is God’s plan for deliverance. It is the beginning of a better world.

But this blindness to the way God is working in our lives affects us all. My wife and I, like many couples, went through a time when we desperately wanted to have another child, and we chased that dream with everything in us.  We tried almost every avenue, but every surgery and procedure that promised help failed.  Several times, we were set to adopt a baby, but they all fell through at he last minute. There were many tears shed in those days.  These were some very difficult, frustrating, and depressing times.  

Why were they so hard?   Because our eyes were closed.   We couldn’t see how what was going on in our lives fit into the story that God was weaving.   Like the two disciples in Emmaus, who could not see how Jesus’ death fit into God’s plan.  We couldn’t see the big picture of God’s plan.  He had a baby for us, a specific baby picked out for us.  But it was his doing, not ours – his timing, not ours.  Our anxiety, depression, frustration, and grieving over a child we could not have could have been relieved if we had only been able to understand how this circumstance in our life fit into God’s big picture for us.

The Bible makes it clear that God loves us as his children and works everything for our good.  Trials, hardships, unfulfilled expectations, and persecution are all viewed as good because God uses them all to refine our hearts and make us more of the people we were created to be.   

The disciples in Emmaus could not see how the horrible events of their past week fit into God’s plan.  So Jesus opened the scriptures to them and then opened their eyes in the breaking of bread.

The next time you participate in The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, remember these two from Emmaus.  Remember Jesus, whose death was not the end but the beginning.  And bring to that communion table or altar your anxieties, frustrations, and sadness.  

Is there something going on in your life that doesn’t make sense?  Do you find yourself wondering: Why did this happen, Jesus?  Why is this person suffering from this illness?  Why can’t I have healing?  Why are people so mean and insensitive?  Why are so many things going wrong?  Why can’t this friend or family member do the right thing?  Why can’t I do the right thing?  Why is life so hard? 

Every remembrance, every encounter with Jesus, is an opportunity to bring those concerns to the altar, and we leave them there, knowing that Jesus, who loves us, will take whatever the situation is and turn it to our good. Our eyes need to be opened, and often, that happens in the breaking of bread.

  1. Note that they are leaving Jerusalem before the end of the weeklong feast of Unleavened Bread. Only the first day was required. Deut. 16:7 notes that it is permissible to leave after that. Jesus’ disciples may be scattering due to disappointment in the outcome and fear of being charged next.
  2. This is good biblical irony. Jesus is, indeed, the only one who really knows what happened over the past week.
  3. Luke reports, “but him they did not see.” This is more irony, as these two telling the story can not “see” Jesus, even though he is right before their eyes.
  4. Athletic people can also have a slower-than-normal resting heart rate.

April 27, 28 A.D.  – Jesus rides in a parade, rearranges furniture, and kills a tree.— The Year of the Lord’s Favor #80

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

Week 63 — Jesus rides in a parade, rearranges furniture, and kills a tree.
Matthew 21:18-19

As we follow Jesus’ ministry day by day, in 28 AD, this is the week of Passover, the week between Palm Sunday and the Resurrection.  At times over the past year, I had only had one short scripture passage to cover the events of that week in Jesus’ ministry.  But the week between the triumphal entry and the resurrection is so important to the story of Jesus that there is a lot of material: Seven chapters of Matthew, five chapters of Mark and Luke, and eight chapters of John.   Almost one-fourth of the material in the four gospels is about this final week.

There is no way to cover the material in those 20 chapters.   So I want to step back this week and get one aspect of the big picture of what is going on in the story of the Bible in that week.  The Bible is one cohesive story of how God is working to reestablish his relationship with his creation, and the key to that plan is what happens in this week and 50 days later.  Jesus does three symbolic acts at the beginning of that week.  We have already discussed two of them, so today, we will look at the third one and see how these fit into that big picture.

Matthew 21:18-19   In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.  

I know what you’re thinking.  “So, out of 20 chapters of Gospel Material from Jesus’ final week, this is what you pick as a focal passage?  And why is Jesus hating on a fig tree? “

At the beginning of Jesus’ passion week, he performs three significant symbolic acts, which carry a lot of meaning to his followers who are familiar with the scriptures. He rides a donkey into the city (the Palm Sunday triumphal entry that we discussed two weeks ago). He drives the money changers and animal salespeople out of the temple area (which we discussed last year), and then he curses a fig tree.

These may seem out of character for the Jesus we have seen this past year—that meek and mild Jesus who told people not to talk about his miracles, who was leaving town when he gathered crowds to try to fly under the radar, and who mostly avoided confrontation. Here, we see him in a big parade entering the capital city, jumping into the middle of a confrontation in the temple, and then performing a miracle of destruction. What has changed? Let’s look at these events.

The cleansing of the Temple happens twice in Jesus’ ministry.  Both at the same time of the year, just before Passover..  Every Jewish person at that same time every year would, in preparation for the feast of Unleavened Bread, go to great lengths to remove every bit of yeast from their homes.  This is to commemorate the exodus from Egypt when they left after Passover and ate only unleavened bread, because they didn’t have time to let the bread rise as they hurried out of Egypt.  Yeast came to represent sin and corruption.  So every home would be cleansed to remove any traces of yeast every year.  Walls would be scrubbed, and cooking utensils boiled in water.  This still happens in Orthodox Jewish homes today.  Jesus enters the Temple and sees that the House of God is full of corruption and takes it upon himself to do some spring cleaning in preparation for the festival.  This has great symbolic meaning to the people of Jesus’ day.  (You can go back to my blog entry of April 10 last year to review.)

Then there is this episode about the fig tree, which seems odd to us.  Again, these are very symbolic acts.  To understand what is really going on in these events, you have to have a good working knowledge of the first 2/3 of the Bible.  But most people don’t spend much time in the ‘First Testament.’  We call it the ‘Old Testament.’   Why study something old when you have something newer?   I really don’t like the ‘old/new’ nomenclature.  Jesus just called the Old Testament ‘the Scriptures.’  The only Bible that Jesus and the disciples ever read is the one that very few people now ever read.

But the Old Testament is the context for the New Testament. Jesus assumes you have a working knowledge of the Scriptures when he talks. Ten percent of his teachings are quotes from the Old Testament.  If you don’t understand his quotes, then you misunderstand what Jesus is saying.  These acts are a good example.  We miss what God is communicating if we are ignorant of the context and connection to the Scriptures.  So bear with me while I go way back to give you the big picture you need to understand the fig tree.

The key to these incidents is found in Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament.  

Malachi 3:1-2a “And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says Yehovah Tzavaot. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”

Let me put this verse in its historical context for you.  The Jews were conquered by Babylon in 586 BC.  The Babylonians destroyed the city and the temple. Most of the Jews were taken to Babylon, where they lived in exile for 70 years.  When they finally returned, they rebuilt the wall around the city and the temple.  But they didn’t have the riches of Solomon to build the temple this time, and this temple they built was a sad imitation of the grand structure that had been.  The people came back from Babylon expecting to have all the promises of the prophets come true, that the Messiah would come and set up God’s kingdom over Israel and restore the nation with a time of prosperity, justice, and peace.

But the people don’t see that, so in Malachi, they complain to God, 

“Hey God, things are going very well.”  

And God could answer, 

“You’re telling me, I allowed your country to be conquered because of your sins, hoping that the time of exile would lead to repentance and that you would come back ready to truly follow me and my commandments and abandon your idols.  But you have not repented.  You are committing the same sins as your ancestors did, which got them exiled.”

The people keep complaining to God. (The book has six disputes between the people and God), And he says, 

“You are on my last nerve with all this griping and complaining and bad behavior.”  

(Or maybe that was my wife talking to one of my sons in the backseat of the car one day.)  But Malachi says it this way:

Malachi 2:17  “You have wearied Yehovah with your words.”    [He is tired of your griping.]

They are asking, “Where are you, God?”   Why are they asking this?  They have been back in the land for almost 100 years.  They had rebuilt the temple, and everyone came to the grand opening except God.   He didn’t show up.  To understand this, we have to go back even further.

Remember when Israel first encountered Yehovah in the wilderness of Sinai.  They had escaped from Egypt, and 50 days later came to Mt Sinai.  God invited them to come up on the mountain with him, but on that day, God came on the mountain with a great cloud of smoke, and with fire and the sound of a loud shofar, like a roaring wind.  And it scared the people so that they would not go up on the mountain to meet God.   So Moses goes for them, and while up on Mount Sinai, God gives him instructions to build a tabernacle, a tent of meeting.  God told Moses, 

Exodus 25:8  “Have them build me a tabernacle, a holy place so that I might dwell with them.”

God wants to dwell with his people.  He wants to walk with us like he did with Adam and Eve in the Garden.  Sin destroyed the fellowship between humans and God in the Garden, and the whole story of the Bible is God working a way to restore that fellowship so that he may dwell with his people again.

So they built the tabernacle, and when they dedicated it:

Exodus 40:34-38   Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Yehovah filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of Yehovah filled the tabernacle.

Leviticus 9:23-24  And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and when they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of Yehovah appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before Yehovah and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Just like on Mount Sinai, God comes in a cloud with fire.  Since they wouldn’t come up on the mountain, God comes to dwell with them in the cloud and fire and leads them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

 And 400 years later, Solomon builds a more permanent structure. And the nation of Israel was at the pinnacle of its wealth.  So this temple was very impressive.  And when it is time to dedicate the temple:

2 Chronicles 7:1-3    As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of Yehovah filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of Yehovah, because the glory of Yehovah filled Yehovah’s house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Yehovah on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to Yehovah, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

First at Sinai, then at the tabernacle, and now at Solomon’s temple, God’s presence comes in mighty fashion.  Have you ever been in a church service where you wondered if God was present?  No one left these dedication services wondering if God showed up.  

But things go downhill in Israel, and God punishes the Northern and Southern Kingdoms by allowing them to be conquered by a foreign nation.  Four hundred years after Solomon’s Temple was built, the Jews were conquered by Babylon in 586 BC.  The Babylonians destroyed the city and this wonderful Temple. Most of the Jews were taken to Babylon, where they lived in exile for 70 years.  And that horrible day of destruction is still mourned by Israel today on their calendar on the ninth day of their month of Av.

But the worst part of this tragedy is seen in a vision by the prophet Ezekiel.  Now, most people reading the Bible miss this because Ezekiel is not exactly an easy book to read.  In his vision in Ezekiel 10, he sees God on His throne leave the temple in Jerusalem.  This is that odd vision of the throne chariot with the cherubim and the ‘wheels within wheels.’  God abandoned his temple and allowed the temple to be destroyed.  

Ezekiel 11:23. And the glory of Yehovah went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.   

(What mountain is on the east?  The Mount of Olives.)

But in Ezekiel, there is hope.  God abandoned the temple, but he didn’t abandon his people, and Ezekiel talked about God preserving a remnant and that God will one day take away the heart of stone and give them a new heart.   And in Ezekiel, we have the vision of the restoration, the valley of dry bones brought back to life.  And finally, in Ezekiel, there is a vision of God’s presence returning to the temple. Ezekiel sees God coming back from the East

Ezekiel 43:1-2   Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east.  And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. 

And 70 years later, Ezekiel’s prophecies started coming true.  A remnant of the people returned from Babylon to Jerusalem and rebuilt the city and the temple, though as I said, it was nowhere near as grand a structure.  And as before, they held a dedication service:

Ezra 6:16-18   And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.  They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel 12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their divisions, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses.

It was a grand service, and huge numbers of people crowded in to see the spectacle. But something was missing.  God was missing.  There is no great storm of wind, thunder, clouds, and fire that shows God’s presence in the temple.  They set up the altar, but this time, fire didn’t come from heaven to consume the sacrifice.  They have to light the fire themselves, because God doesn’t show up.

That is why the people of Malachi’s day asked, “Where is God? We rebuilt the temple, but he didn’t show up.”

They knew Zechariah had prophesied of the time when God would return.

Zechariah 8:3  Thus says Yehovah: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Yehovah Tzavaot, the holy mountain.

So we see in Malachi that they complain that God has not returned as he promised. They had conveniently forgotten the first part of Zechariah, which made it clear to them that this was a conditional promise.  

Zechariah 1:3  Therefore, say to them, Thus declares Yehovah Tzavaot: Return to me, and I will return to you, says Yehovah Tzavaot.

But God explains, “You returned to the land, you returned to the city, but you didn’t return to me.  You haven’t repented.   You are still committing the same sins your fathers did that got them exiled.  So I have not returned to you. 

But when the people complain, Malachi answers, “Oh, God is going to come back to his Temple…”

Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Yehovah Tzavaot.”

Malachi says that a messenger of the covenant will come, and then God is coming back to his temple, but he may not come exactly like you want him to come.  The next verse, Malachi 3:2a

“But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears?”   

Uh-oh… he is coming in judgment.  Malachi is the last prophet in the Old Testament. There would be 400 years of waiting until another prophet comes, until the time Malachi predicted.  And the Gospels tell us the messenger did come, John the Baptist, preaching repentance, and after that, God returns to the temple 

So in his final week, Jesus is again staying at the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary in Bethany.  He has his disciples get a donkey from the nearby town of Bethphage.  And Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey, with people shouting praise and proclaiming him as king, and he enters the temple. This is the first of those three symbolic acts Jesus did this past week. People of his time easily recognized the symbol of the king being coronated and triumphantly entering the city just as David and Solomon did.  But more than that, God, in the form of Jesus, is coming back to the temple as Zechariah and Malachi prophesied.  And he is coming just as Ezekiel predicted, from the east, from the Mount of Olives.

Ezekiel said, “Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east.”  The Triumphal Procession on Palm Sunday – God returning to his temple.

And how does Jesus enter the temple?  As Malachi said, He comes not in peace but in judgment.  God’s presence will eventually come, never to depart again.  And it will come with a great sound of rushing and with fire.  But first, God has to deal with the problem of sin.  There has to be a cleansing of the temple first.  Jesus enters the Temple and sees that the House of God is full of corruption, and begins the process of cleaning it out.

Matthew 21:12-13   And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.   He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

He drives out the money changers who are charging exorbitant fees for the special coin that could be used to pay the temple tax. Then he turns over the seats of those selling animals and taking advantage of people who have to purchase animals to sacrifice.  And which animals does Matthew specifically note? The pigeons. They were the sacrifices of the poor who could not afford a sheep or goat.  Religion for profit, stealing money from the poor.

He is coming to judge.  As Malachi asked, “Who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”  But Jesus is just getting started with the cleansing.  Every time he comes back into the temple, the next week he is coming with his gloves off, he speaks in judgment, especially of the Scribes and Pharisees.  Matthew chapter 23 has 7 statements of woe on these leaders because they are ‘hypocrites,’ ‘false teachers,’ ‘blind guides,’ ‘all show and no substance,’ ‘dead on the inside,’ ‘sons of snakes,’ ‘people who will not enter the kingdom of God.’

This is the same Judgment God had passed on Israel in the past.  Look at the similarities from the prophet Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 7:2-11   Hear the word of Yehovah, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship Yehovah.  This is what the Yehovah Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.  Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!”   If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.

But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.  Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?   Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you?  But I have been watching! declares Yehovah.”

And the third symbolic act we find in Matthew 21:

Matthew 21:18-19   In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.  And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.  

He sees this fig tree full of leaves.  And these fig trees produce an early fruit that comes when the leaves appear.  It is not as big as the later harvest of figs in the summer.  This fruit is not as good or mature, but these early figs bring the promise of more mature fruit later.   Early figs in Hebrew are ‘phage.’  And this happened in a town called Bethphage, which is in Hebrew, the house of early figs.

If you know the scriptures (the Old Testament), you know the prophets frequently used this symbol of early figs. I could give a bunch of examples, but we only have time for one.

Micah 3:9-12   Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness.  Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money.

Yet they look for Yehovah’s support and say, “Is not Yehovah among us? No disaster will come upon us.”  Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

Micah 7:1-4  What misery is mine!  There is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave.  The faithful have been swept from the land;  not one upright person remains.…

Now is the time of your judgment.

You are wicked and producing no fruit.  You will be judged.

So, as Malachi predicted, God would come back to his Temple, but in judgment. This condemnation of this fruit tree that was all leaves and no fruit is a symbol of Jerusalem. Its leadership is all leaves and no fruit, all show and no substance.  

You have to bear fruit.  This is the message of the messenger that Malachi predicted would come before God came back to the temple.  That messenger was John the Baptist, and he had a 2-part message.

First, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  — Clean your house, God is coming back.  So all these people were coming to repent, and John said, “Hey, that’s great that you want to repent, but you can’t just say ‘I repent ‘ and then get baptized.  Your life has to change.  

Repentance is not something you say; it is something you do.

So the second part of the message is “You have to bring fruits worthy of repentance.”  You have to perform acts that are consistent with the life you have decided to live.  Don’t tell God you are going to change — show God how you have changed.  Then he warns them that a time of judgment is coming— either bear fruit or perish. And Jesus shows that symbolically with the fig tree.

Remember the reason God didn’t come back to the Temple they built in Malachi’s day?  They didn’t repent.  There is a reason Malachi saw the messenger coming before God came back to his Temple.  There is a reason John comes before Jesus.  The Messenger has to preach repentance before God returns. 

 And John told them it is judgment time, either bear fruit or perish.  Because the Kingdom of God is near.  God it about to return to his temple.  And we are in week 63 of this 70-week study.  You don’t want to miss week 70.  Because that is when God returns in power to his temple, as he did before with fire and the sound of a rushing windstorm.  But first, the temple must be cleansed.   First, there must be repentance.

Repentance is the necessary step everyone must take before establishing a relationship with God, and it is a step we must all continue to take as we walk with Jesus.  The old man dies hard.  We want to make our own rules.  We want to go the way that seems right to us, even though we are warned it leads to destruction.

Don’t miss the story of the fig tree.   But I can’t finish this morning without looking at Jesus’ other story of the fig tree Jesus tells in Luke:

Luke 13:6-9   And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.  And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’  And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure.  Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Why does this tree get a second chance when the other fig tree is condemned immediately? This Fig tree has been barren for years.  It is just taking up space in the vineyard.  How do we reconcile these two stories?   What is the difference?

This tree has an advocate—a vinedresser who intervenes and asks for mercy on its behalf. Someone who will show this tree more care and love in an effort to encourage it to produce fruit.  Thanks be to God that we have an advocate.

Romans 8:34. Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

1 John 2:1  We have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

We have a loving, merciful Father who remembers his children not for the day of their trouble, but the day of their salvation.  He remembers us not for our worst day but for our best day.

And Jesus and the Spirit within us are interceding for us.   And we can intercede for each other.  We can go before the Father asking God to be merciful just as this vinedresser interceded for this tree.  We can then, as the vinedresser did for the tree, show these people love and encourage them to produce more fruit.

Time is short.  Spend time in prayer before the Father on behalf of your friends and family.  And each day, seize the opportunity to produce fruit.