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  • April 11-18, 27 A.D.  Jesus and the Appointed Time of Firstfruits- The Year of the Lord’s Favor #28

    Week 9 ———  Jesus and the Appointed Times – Firstfruits
    John 2:18-22

    Last time, we talked about how God in creation set up appointed times of meeting, the moadim.  On the 4th day of creation, God made the sun, moon, and stars —to separate day from night, to mark the days and years, for signs, and to mark specially appointed times.

    But historically, we Christians haven’t spent a whole lot of time studying the Older Testament.  We don’t read Leviticus – it’s too hard. We say that, but we must understand that Leviticus is what Jesus and the other Jews in the first century used as their first-grade reader.  While all the kids in my grade were learning about Dick, Jane, and Spot, Jesus was reading Leviticus.   Because our background on these appointed times is weak, we miss much of what God is saying in Jesus.

    Leviticus 23 discusses eight appointed meeting times with God.  The first one mentioned is the most important, Sabbath.  Then, there are four spring times for meetings with God and three in the fall.  The first three in the spring all happen in the same week.

    This year, the time for Passover and Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits begins this week.  It starts with the day of preparation for the Passover.  Before the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D., this would be the time when the Passover lambs were slain and then taken home to roast.  Today, this preparation day is also the time to prepare the meal. The Passover would be eaten after sundown.   That day, no matter which day of the week, is a special Sabbath and the first day of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread.  The regular seventh-day Sabbath would begin as usual at the twilight of our Friday evening.  The Sabbath ends at twilight on our Saturday.  After the seventh-day Sabbath has ended, the Priest would go and harvest the dedicated barley and prepare it for the firstfruits offering, which would be given on Sunday morning.  This offering of Firstfruits always happens after dawn on the first day of the week (Sunday).  Unleavened Bread continues and ends with another special Sabbath on the final day.  Note there are 3 Sabbaths in this week and three of the four spring appointed times.

    Firstfruits is a dedication of the barley harvest to God.  Barley is the first harvest in the spring.  The people have been living through the winter on their stored wheat.  If the wheat harvest was not good, they may have been running out of food at this point.  But even if they were near starvation, they were not allowed to harvest any of the barley until the first fruit offering to God was made.  They were not to touch the grain until the harvest was dedicated to God.  This was in recognition that the land and the harvest were God’s.  They were just stewards of His land; so though He deserved the whole harvest,  God had required only the first of the harvest.

    In his book The Temple, Alfred Edersheim says the barley for the first fruit offering was cut by the priests in a particular field on the Mount of Olives on the day of the Passover sacrifice and gathered into ten standing sheaves.  The priests then crossed back to the Temple and to their homes before twilight to eat their Passover meal.  After the Sabbath during Unleavened Bread, they would cross back over to harvest the offering at twilight and spend the night preparing it for the wave offering the following day.1  Offering the firstfruits consecrated the entire harvest to God. If God accepted the firstfruits of the harvest, it meant God would accept the whole harvest.

    This offering was the first day of 50 days (this day and seven weeks of days) that they would have a similar wave offering to God, marking the days until the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks).  There were seven weeks and one day.  The book of Acts calls this appointed time “Pentecost” from the Greek for ’50’.  We will discuss this feast later and the three appointed times of the fall:  The Day of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and Sukkoth (The Feasts of Booths.)

    What do these Old Testament feasts have to do with us?  

    Passover.
     God established the Passover sacrifice and meal to remind the people of his great deliverance from Egypt.  They were slaves for 400 years.  God brought them out with power, with ten plagues or signs, the last being the death of the firstborn of Egypt.  The Passover lamb takes the place of the firstborn of Israel, and they are spared from death. For 1500 years, they celebrated Passover with the sacrifice of a lamb, recognizing the deliverance God gave them that day from death.  But they knew they needed a more complete deliverance from sin and death, and their prophets had told them that one day God would do something different. One day, a Messiah would come and be that perfect lamb of God not just to cover sin but to take it away; not just to spare them from death temporarily, but to defeat death— that it would not be a permanent separation from God.  And Jesus came to fulfill the Passover in his crucifixion. And  God arranged in his calendar to set aside Jesus to be our Passover lamb on the exact day and time that the Passover lambs were being sacrificed.  This is not a coincidence.  This is God being sovereign over time.  He didn’t want his people to miss the relevance of Jesus’ crucifixion. For thousands of years, God has painted a picture of history.  We only have to trouble ourselves to know what he has done in the past to recognize what he does in the present and what he will do in the future.

    Unleavened Bread.  
    God established the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a memorial to the Jews who quickly escaped from Egypt with no time for their bread to rise.  Yeast became a metaphor for corruption and sin.  They were to remove the leaven (yeast) from their homes as a reminder of their ancestors’ journey and that God had called them to live differently and not to follow the sinful ways of other nations.  Jesus comes to Jerusalem just before Passover when everyone is cleaning out their homes and removing the leaven.  Jesus sees the sin and corruption in God’s house, the Temple, and cleanses the Temple.  Jesus becomes the Bread of Life, without leaven, for us.

    John 6:47-51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 

    Like the children of Israel, God has called us to live holy lives, free from sin (leaven).  We are not to be conformed to the world around us but to be transformed.

    Firstfruits.  
    The barley offered to God on the Sunday after the Sabbath after Passover represents the whole harvest.  If that portion is acceptable to God, the entire agricultural harvest is acceptable.  They do not touch the harvest until God receives his share first.  This is to remind them that everything they have is from God.  He is their life.   Jesus is resurrected from the dead at the same time as the firstfruits are harvested.

    “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”      1 Cor 15:20

    Because Jesus is resurrected, the whole world, the fields white unto spiritual harvest, are accepted.  He is our life.

    John 11:25   “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

    Again, look at how the spring feasts are fulfilled:
    Passover –  Jesus, our Passover lamb, removes the curse of death and sin in his crucifixion.
    Unleavened Bread – Jesus is the Bread of Life who took on our sin (leaven).  It is buried with him.
    Firstfruits – Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection.  Because he has been raised, we will be raised.
    Feast of Weeks – fulfilled in the Book of Acts (we will get there in just over a month).

    The spring appointed times have all been fulfilled in Jesus.  The fall feasts have yet to be fulfilled.  I do not know when they will be fulfilled, this year or 100 years from now, but I have to think they will, like the spring feasts, find their fulfillment on the same day God ordained for the originally appointed times.  

    Let me cover at one more aspect of Jesus’ resurrection.  On Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and sees the stone rolled away.  Then she tells Peter and John, and they all return to the tomb to see it empty. John tells us that he and Peter returned to where they had been staying, but Mary was left weeping in the tomb.  Jesus appears and reveals himself to Mary and then curiously says, “Do not touch me for I have not yet ascended to my Father…” (John 20:17).

    Have you ever wondered why Mary can not touch Jesus yet? He specifically asks Thomas to touch him later. But Jesus needs to appear before the Father first. If you understand the appointed times, there is nothing surprising about this. Remember that Israel was not allowed to touch the barley harvest until the firstfruits were offered to the Father.  Jesus is not to be touched until he is presented as the firstfruit of resurrection to the Father.

    “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”    1 Cor. 15:20

    Because Jesus’s sacrifice is acceptable to the Father as our Firstfruit, we are all eligible to be harvested in resurrection as acceptable to our God.

    Let me end with one of the Psalms of Ascent that those journeying to Jerusalem for these appointed times would sing as they travel.

    Psalm 126:5-6   Those who sow in tears
    shall reap with shouts of joy!
      He who goes out weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
    shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him.2

    The fields are white unto harvest.  The firstfruits have been offered in Jesus, now let us seek to bring in all the harvest.

    1. Edersheim, Alfred. The Temple (1874)
    2. Remember that sheaves in the Bible can represent people (as in Joseph’s dream).  Jesus said the fields are “white unto harvest.”  

  • April 11-18, 27 A.D.  Jesus celebrates the Feast of Unleavened Bread- The Year of the Lord’s Favor #27

    Week 9 ———  Jesus and the Appointed Times
    John 2:18-22

    (April 11-18: Jesus observes the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem. The Gospels don’t mention any specifics of his activity after the discussion with Nicodemus until April 20th, when he and his disciples leave Jerusalem.  So, I will take this time to provide some background on the special appointed times in God’s calendar and then discuss the feast of Firstfruits next week. This will hopefully give you time to catch up if you have gotten behind.)

    Eclipse fever is over (until the next one.)   I am sure you got your fill of the apocalyptic predictions based on that regular occurrence of the moon blocking out the sun totally for 4-5 minutes.  This is not a new thing.  Some saw some Hebrew letters in the tracks of the path of the last three solar eclipses to cross the US.  (Hey, if you want to get some revelation from Hebrew letters, I can show you 304,805 Hebrew letters in my Hebrew Scriptures.  I can promise you that you will get a lot of good information there.)  But people have forever been searching for meaning from the sun, moon, and stars.

    But is that why the sun, moon, and stars exist?  God tells us exactly why he created those in Genesis 1.

    Gen. 1:14-15   And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” 

    So there are four reasons.  The most obvious one is “to give light upon the earth.” But their significance goes beyond mere illumination. Secondly, they are also “for days and years.”  The sun determines our days.  The sun ‘comes up’ and then the sun ‘goes down.’  Sunset is the beginning of a new day (as God defines it and the Hebrew Bible understands it — “evening and morning was the first day.”)   And how about ‘years’?   Because the Earth revolves around the sun in just over 365 days and because its axis is tilted, the sun rises and sets in a slightly different place every day.  It only sets in the due west on two days of the year, the spring and fall equinoxes.   Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, the pyramids in Egypt, and many other ancient monuments were constructed to align with the direction of the sunrise at the summer solstice.  People have forever realized how the sun marks out the years.

    Thirdly, the Sun and Moon are there for signs (Hebrew ‘otom’).  Not the signs people want to see in an eclipse or a comet, but something more.  People have forever been trying to make “signs from God” out of natural occurrences (or trying to explain away the signs of God as natural occurrences.)  Comets were associated with the death of Caesar or the coming of the black plague in the Middle Ages.  During solar eclipses in ancient China, people thought an invisible dragon was eating the sun. So the Chinese would bang drums, pots, and pans and get archers to shoot arrows into the sky to scare the dragon away. Moments later, the sun would reemerge. So it must have worked! In the Middle East, in 585 BC, the Lydians and Medes were in a five-year war. A total solar eclipse occurred during the battle, and nations stopped fighting at once and forged a peace treaty.  In 1504, on Columbus’ final voyage, he got stranded in Jamaica.  He convinced the indigenous people that if they didn’t feed and take care of him, the gods would be angry.  He used an almanac to predict a lunar eclipse and told the people the gods would give them a warning and that the moon would disappear for a time that night.  The son of Columbus, Ferdinand, wrote:

    “…with great howling and lamentation they came running from every direction to the ships, laden with provisions, praying the Admiral to intercede by all means with God on their behalf; that he might not visit his wrath upon them.”

    What does the Bible say about people seeking signs?   Jesus said:

    Matthew 12:39-40   “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  For just, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. “

    We will talk much more about this sign of Jonah later.   Jesus hints at this sign in our passage today:

    John 2:18-22   “So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

    But I think this verse from Jeremiah sums up the turmoil that constantly circulates during these routine celestial happenings:

    Jeremiah 10:2-3  “Thus says Yehovah: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity.”

    Jeremiah goes on to say don’t be afraid of idols either.  Like the fear of man from routine movements of the heavens, they are only inventions of man.  They “can not do evil, nor is it in them to do good.” (Jer.10:5).  But every big astronomical event brings out the sign-seekers.  Don’t fall for that nonsense.  If you want to know about real signs, check out the otom in the Bible.

    In the Bible, these signs, “otom”, refer not to natural astronomical occurrences but to something beyond the ordinary.  For example, the plagues in Egypt are called ‘otom’.  One plague was darkness, but not the darkness of a solar eclipse that affects a small area for a short time. All of Egypt (except where the Hebrews were) was in total darkness for three days.  In Joshua 10, the sun and moon stand still during a battle for the length of a day.  In 2 Kings 20 (also in Isaiah 38), the shadow of Ahaz’s sundial goes backward ten steps as a sign.  Routine visible astronomical events are a wonder of God’s creation, but not miracles or signs.

    Finally, the sun and moon are there for what the ESV calls “seasons.”  This is the translation of the Hebrew “moadim” in almost every translation.  That is unfortunate, as the actual translation is “an appointed time or place for meeting with God.”   The NIV is on the money here and translates moadim as “sacred times” and the Holman likewise as “signs for festivals.”   It could refer to a season only as a ‘sacred season’ or “appointed season” to meet with God.1  The primary two things this word refers to in the Bible are 1) The “tent of meeting” — where Moses met with God outside the camp (an appointed meeting time and place with God). Or 2)  the appointed feasts in the Biblical calendar.  — Lev. 23:44   “Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts [moadim] of Yehovah.”

    Leviticus 23 lists eight appointed times.  There are four in the spring and three in the fall—but these are mentioned only after the most important appointed time, the Sabbath.  

    Lev. 23:1-4   Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying,  “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts [moadim] of Yehovah that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts [moadim].  “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to Yehovah in all your dwelling places.

    Again, the Sabbath is the most important appointed time for meeting with God.  We will discuss the Sabbath in Jesus’ teaching later.

    We have already discussed the first of the spring appointed times, Passover (see ‘Behold the Lamb #22‘).  The Bible doesn’t call the day Passover but uses that term to refer to the sacrifice “Pesach,” which is eaten after twilight, thus the beginning of the next day, the first day of the seven days of Unleavened Bread. (We discussed unleavened bread in ‘Jesus Cleanses the Temple #25‘.)  The first day of Unleavened Bread is a special Sabbath, as well as the last day of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:7-8). So you can have 3 Sabbaths in the week of Unleavened Bread.2

    The next feast is Firstfruits, which is on the day after the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. Several New Testament books refer to this feast. Understanding Firstfruits will deepen your understanding of why Jesus’ resurrection opens the door for our resurrection. So that is our topic for next week.

    1. Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon,  article for ‘moed.’ (‘Moed’ is the singular form, and ‘moadim’ is plural.)
    2. At this point, a very wise and careful reader may think about the final week of Jesus’ life and how they had to rush his burial as the next day was the Sabbath.  That led everyone to believe that Jesus was crucified on a Friday because the Sabbath starts at twilight on our Friday night.  But, if you know about Jewish feasts, you realize that every day after the Passover lamb is slaughtered is a Sabbath, so Jesus’ death did not have to be on a Friday.  We will go into more detail about this possibility next year.

  • April 12, 27 A.D.  Jesus and Nicodemus – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #26

    Week 9 ———  Jesus and Nicodemus
    John 2:23 – 3:21

    John 3:1-3   Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”   Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

    We feel like we understand Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus. After all, that encounter has the most quoted verse in the New Testament, John 3:16.  Yeah, we know all about this. These words are important to us. God put this here for us. But I want you to see it differently. These words were said for you but not to you.  We usually read it as if Jesus was talking to us, Christians in America in 2024.  But he was talking to a Jewish Pharisee in Jerusalem in 27 A.D.  Nicodemus doesn’t know what we know.  He hasn’t seen the football players with John 3:16 on their faces nor the guy with the crazy hair holding up the sign at the pro games.  He is not familiar with the term ‘born again.’  We have heard it all our lives.  But not only does Nicodemus not know what we know, we do not know what Nicodemus knows.  I want to look at that encounter again through Nicodemus’ eyes so we can fully understand what Jesus was saying and why Nicodemus was having so many problems with what Jesus was saying.

    We usually ask why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.  But I want first to ask why he came to Jesus at all.

    “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”  John 3:2.

    So, Nicodemus saw the miracles Jesus had been doing.

    John 2:23   Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

    But John tells us Jesus did not ‘entrust himself to them’  — he didn’t tell them who he was.

    So Nicodemus can’t figure out Jesus. He saw the miracles, but he also knew that two days ago, Jesus raised a ruckus in the outer court of the temple, taking a whip and driving out the people selling sacrificial animals and the moneychangers. So, who was this guy who could do miracles but also threw a fit in the temple? Jesus is a puzzle to him.

    Nic is curious to discover who he is, but he can’t afford to be seen talking with the guy who made such a mess in the temple, so he comes in secret. He starts the conversation by giving Jesus the benefit of the doubt and perhaps a compliment, “I know you are from God.”  With such a gracious opening line, He is expecting Jesus to reply something like,  “Oh, thanks, Nicodemus,”  “I appreciate you saying that,” and “What nice words coming from such a respected member of the Sanhedrin.”  But instead, Jesus says:

    “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  John 3:3.

    What kind of response is that?  Apparently, Jesus is not going to waste time with pleasantries.  Now, Nic is puzzled and shocked.

    Jesus starts, “Amen, Amen.”  This is a very Hebrew way of saying, ‘What I am about to say is a fundamental truth.’  Now, Nicodemus is taken aback because he thinks his spot is secure in God’s kingdom already.   The Pharisees were sure that all Jews would enter the kingdom through resurrection on the last day.  The only way that they could lose their position in God’s kingdom was to renounce their Jewishness and deny their faith.  He was shocked to hear that he was lacking.  He has been told all his life that his ticket was punched.  And of all things to say to a pharisee!  This Jesus fellow is sounding about as crazy as that John the Baptist fellow.

    Remember how John the Baptist responded when the Pharisees came to him:

    But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.   Matthew 3:7-9

    John the Baptist says the same thing.  Being born a Jew is not a free ticket.  God can make children of Abraham out of rocks!  Now Nicodemus feels a bit insulted. But he can’t deny Jesus’s miracles, so he tries to understand what Jesus is saying, questioning him further.

    “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  John 3:4.

    Nic is wondering how he can be born a second time, when Jesus was talking about a whole different kind of birth. (The Greek we translate as ‘born again’ carries with it the concept of birth from above – ‘born again from above.’)  Jesus tries to clarify it, saying that what you need to enter the kingdom of God is a birth of water and spirit—a natural birth of water and then a spiritual birth.

    Nicodemus is not understanding.  Jesus says, “This shouldn’t shock you; the spirit is like the wind.  You can’t see it, but you can see its effects.

    Nic still doesn’t get it.—it makes no sense to him, so he asks,  ”How can this be?”  Jesus says, “Wait a minute, you are the great teacher in Israel, and you don’t understand this?”  It is like he is asking Nic, ‘Haven’t you ever read the Bible?’ (He will say this to other Pharisees later on.)  He tells Nic, ‘If you can’t understand how God works on earth, then you’ll never understand the stuff of heaven. You aren’t even getting the easy stuff. How will you ever understand the more difficult things? ‘

    We have to stop here.  Why was Jesus expecting Nic to already know about this?  Nic was supposed to know the Old Testament, and the idea of regeneration by the Spirit is not an uncommon theme in the Old Testament (see Isa. 44:3; Isa. 59:21; Ezek. 11:19, 20; 36:26–27; Joel 2:28–29; Ps. 51:10).  Jesus expected the great teacher of Israel to understand these things. Nicodemus, of course, was not alone in this shortcoming. Jesus accused other Pharisees of being people who claimed to see but were, in fact, blind (9:39–41).  Jesus expected Nic to remember that God would do something new, something that involved God’s spirit—a new heart and a new spirit—a spiritual rebirth.

    Jesus presses on, while Nic is trying to absorb this.  He is going to throw Nic a bone. Nic is a scholar of the Old Testament, so Jesus will give him a remez.  Remez is Hebrew for ‘hint.’  Rabbis do this all the time. They use some phrase from scripture and expect you to know the scripture, grab that context, and use it in what they are saying.  This is what Jesus does on the cross. He quotes the first line of Psalm 22, expecting you to know the Psalm. If you do, you will understand what is happening at the crucifixion.  We do this also with movie quotes. For example, if you were in an unexpectedly odd situation, you might say to your friend, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.” You expect them to know the context of the quote and pull that context into what you are saying.  So here is the hint Jesus gives Nicodemus:

    “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” John 3:13.

    Did you catch the remez?  In case you’re a little behind on studying and memorizing your Older Testament, let me help you. Nic knew there was a verse that asked, “Who will ascend into heaven..” 

    Deut. 30:11-12   Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.   It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”

    Let me make sure you know what Nic knows: Remember that Deuteronomy is Moses’ farewell address to the people he has spent the past 40 years leading to the land he will not enter.  He desperately wants them to follow the rules that God has given them.  He reminds them if they do well, they will prosper as a nation, but if they do not keep God’s laws, his Torah, then they will not prosper.  (And we see that in their history.)  Here, he tells them that the instructions God gave them are not hard to keep. It is “not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.”  It is not so complicated that we have to send someone up to Heaven to get an explanation and then come back down here and explain it to us.  It is “in your mouth and in your heart.” That is, you already know it; this is easy stuff.

    Jesus says the same thing later in his ministry:  

    Matthew 11:28-29  “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”1  

    And we see it also here:

     1 John 5:3  “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”

    Contrast that with what Jesus says about the Pharisees’ teaching:

    Matt 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders,

    They made it hard — Nicodemus was a member of the group that made it hard. These Pharisees made additions to the law that God gave on Sinai.  They call it the ‘Oral Law’; Jesus calls it “the traditions of men” (Mark 7:8).  Their point is to build a fence around the Written Law to keep people from breaking it.  It is like guardrails on a road.  You don’t want someone to run off the road on a curve and fall off the mountain, so you put up a guardrail.  But it is like the Pharisees came along and said, ‘Well, you don’t want anyone to hit that guardrail and scratch up their car, so let’s put a guardrail in front of that guardrail to protect it.  And eventually, you can’t drive on the road for all the guardrails.  For example, if the written law says, “Don’t work on the Sabbath,” then the Pharisees reasoned that they needed to strictly define work so people wouldn’t accidentally break the law.  But these additions to the law made life difficult for everyone.  Having a day of rest is wonderful, God’s idea from Genesis 1.  It is a gift to us.  But the Pharisees made it very hard to keep all their Sabbath laws.  Let’s look at how that works today.

    Building a fire was defined as work.  If you can’t light a fire on the Sabbath, you can’t flip a light switch because there is a little spark when you do.  This means you also can’t start a car, even an electric one.  So you walk.  But you can only walk so many steps; one more than that is a sin.  Carrying stuff is work, so you can’t carry anything outside your house, like a handkerchief in your pocket or your house key.   You can’t tear; tearing is work. So, for the Sabbath, you can buy toilet paper that is pre-cut and folded.  When I was a Pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital, we lived in Brookline, which was 90% Jewish.  Many houses had two refrigerators, two sinks, two sets of pots and pans, two dishwashers, and two stoves.  Why?  Mixing meat and dairy products in the same meal, container, or storage was not okay.  My friend had to wait 6 hours after eating any dairy product before he could have any meat product.  Where did they get the idea of not mixing meat and dairy?

    Exodus 23:19: Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk (also in Exodus 34:26, Deut  14:21).  This was a common Canaanite practice as part of their sacrifice to ensure the fertility of the land. God forbade this because it was idolatry.  

    I am not your rabbi.  Jesus is your rabbi.  You fall under his teaching.  My job is to help you understand his teaching.  His yoke is easy.  I do not want to make it harder.  I will go out on a limb and say it is not idolatry to eat a cheeseburger.  And I am not saying this to poke fun at my Jewish friends.  I deeply respect anyone who strives to meet the obligations God places on them.  But my understanding of the Scripture falls more in line with the Karaite branch of Judaism that follows only what was in the Scriptures and doesn’t follow the rabbis’ additions to the law (Oral Law.)  And God knows, we Christians have done the same thing, adding our own ‘traditions of men’ to the scripture and holding them to the level of Scripture, so let’s not throw rocks. (Did you get that remez?)

    Moses and Jesus pointed out that following God’s instructions is not hard. The scriptures were written so that a young child should be able to hear and understand them. Any eight-year-old child should be able to listen to them and know what to do just by hearing them read once.  

    Deuteronomy 31:9-13  “So Moses wrote this law and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.”

    Every seven years, they would read the first five books of the Bible to the gathered nation. Does that seem impossible? Actually, you can read those five books in Hebrew in about 12 hours (English would take 14 hours). You can read the entire Bible in 75 hours, and all but six individual books of the Bible can be read in three hours (which happens to be the amount of time the average American watches TV every day).

    But wait, if it is so easy that a ‘little one’ can understand it, why is it not so easy for me to understand it today?

    1. It was written 2-3000 years ago in a language you can’t read to a culture that is incredibly foreign to you.  Everyone then knew about the ‘young goat in the milk’ thing because it was all around them.  It turns out that the life of nomadic shepherds 3000 years ago in the Middle East may not make much sense to engineers in 21st-century America.  They use idioms we have no idea about. (I’m sure if we said we ‘got up on the wrong side of the bed’ to a shepherd in Jesus’ day, he would be a little confused.)
    2. The Bible contains different types of literature. The Bible contains history, law, poetry, songs, wisdom literature, prophecy, personal letters, and apocalyptic literature. You don’t read a book of poetry the same way you read a history book. The Chronicles of Narnia is a great fiction book by C.S. Lewis, and it has some beautiful Christian messages in it, but you would never take the talking lion literally.  Yet many people read the apocalyptic literature in the Bible, like Revelation, and take it very literally even though it is not a history book.
    3. We don’t know the history or the land. The people Moses was teaching had just left Egypt, where their people had lived for 400 years. They understood Egyptian mythology, culture, and temples—that’s all they knew about temples and worship. God used their baseline knowledge as a starting point to teach them proper worship. But if you don’t know the starting point, you can’t understand what God is saying to them.  Many people read the stories of the feeding of the 5000 and the feeding of the 4000 and think they are the same story, but John made a math error.  Why are they different?  They are very different because of where they happen.  The 4000 occurs in the Decapolis, a place with mostly Gentiles.  But you don’t know that unless you do a little reading.
    4. Sometimes, we are the problem.  We have preconceived ideas that we don’t want to let go of.  That is why Nicodemus had trouble understanding the ‘born again from above’ thing.  If you think you are a lock to get into heaven because you were born Jewish, then you may not want to hear that is not enough.  If you have been told for 400 years that the Messiah is coming as a military leader, then when it doesn’t happen that way, you have to be open-minded enough to see it.
    5. We aren’t willing to study the Bible as we were taught.

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

    They listened eagerly to hear the message. But they didn’t just listen and go about their business. They heard Paul speak and then took the time to go through the Scriptures to see if what he was saying was true. They examined the Scriptures every day. They talked about them as they went about their lives. If you don’t do this when you hear a sermon, then I guess you think your preacher is better than Paul. Be a Berean! Study the scriptures for yourself.  

    So Moses said: “It is not up in heaven, so you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” And Jesus said to Nic, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”  Do you get the remez now?  The point is that (1) God has clearly taught us what to do.  (2) It is not hard to understand or do.  and (3)  But since you Pharisees have found a way to make it hard, then I am the Messiah who has come down from heaven to explain it to you and show you how to live it correctly.  This is a claim of divinity.  Nic, did you want to know exactly who Jesus is? Well, here it is: he is the guy from heaven, Daniel’s Son of Man, the Messiah.

    And because Jesus desperately wants Nicodemus to understand this, he gives him one more well-known Scripture reference to drive it home:

    John 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

    Now, this is an odd one.  Jesus comparing himself to a snake is a shocker.  Let’s look back at the story.  The children of Israel are nearing the end of their journey in the wilderness.  The country of Edom will not let them pass through, so they have to go around — it is a long detour that means an extra several months of walking.  They are discouraged. And they are tired of walking.  And the temptation to murmur gets the best of them.  (When does temptation strike?  At your weakest.)

    Once again, they begin complaining to God about the food. We have talked about this—murmuring, complaining about your circumstances—this is sin. It is more than ungratefulness; it is denying the goodness of God—faithlessness.  

    This will be the last time they complain about the food.  This is strike three (another remez.)  

    Numbers 21:6   Then Yehovah sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people, and many Israelites died. 

    This is the wrath of God against a people who continue to sin over and over.  It is a curse in the form of the animal who was cursed in Genesis 3.    It brings death — the wages of sin is death.

    How do the people react?

    Numbers 21:7   The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against Yehovah and against you. Pray that Yehovah will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

    It’s incredible how people run to God for help when disaster strikes—to the same God they were complaining about just yesterday.  We saw this happen after 9/11  when all of the churches were full (for a brief time).  But God does not take away the snakes.  The snakes are still there, biting people, filling them with poison that will cause their death.  He doesn’t remove the snakes, but he provides a way to remove the curse of death.

    Numbers 21:8-9   Yehovah said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”   So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

    Does it seem odd that Moses would make a copper/bronze snake2 and put it on a pole? 

    It was not odd at all to Moses and his people because they understood the context. We don’t know what they knew, but we have some context they didn’t have at the time.

    The snake, one of the gods of Egypt, was often worn on the headdress of Pharaoh as a sign of power. If you defy Pharaoh, you will die, and you will die the most agonizing death Egypt knows — death from a cobra bite. In Egypt, this was a sign of the power of death. You fear Pharaoh because he can kill you.

    So God tells Moses to turn this sign of death into a sign of deliverance from death. The people would look at the serpent on the pole and see that God has provided a means of deliverance from the curse of death they deserved.

    Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Son of man must be placed on a pole and lifted up.  People can look to him to see that God has provided a means of deliverance from the curse of death.  A curse they brought on themselves due to their sin.  So God takes the cross, the symbol of Roman power over the Jews.  Rome holds the power of life and death over you. And Roman crucifixion was the symbol of that power.  Like the cobra, the most cruel, agonizing death Rome knew of.  You fear Rome because it can crucify you.

     Now Jesus does what Moses did.  He takes this symbolic representation of pagan control over life into a vehicle of healing through the One true God.  The symbol of Rome’s power is converted into a sign of Yehovah’s grace, just as the symbol of Egypt’s power was converted into a sign of Yehovah’s grace and healing.  And in both cases, the recipient must look upon that pagan symbol and see something new; not a sign of the power of pagan gods but a sign of the authority of Israel’s God.

    Jesus is trying to connect the dots for Nicodemus.  The serpent brings death.  It was the Accuser, in the form of a serpent that tempted Adam and Eve and brought death into this world.  As Yehovah told Eve in Genesis 3, one day, one of her descendants would crush the snake. Jesus crushes the serpent by disarming him, removing his weapon against us, that is death.

    This is how much God loves the world, Nicodemus. And we come to that verse you already know, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…”  The word ‘world’ in Greek is ‘kosmos,’ from which we get our word ‘cosmos.’  God is not just redeeming people; God is redeeming all of creation. And if you have memorized 3:16 but don’t know 3:17, please add that one to your list.

    “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  John 3:17

    Jesus’ church has messed up so many times, thinking its job was to go around condemning everyone of every sin (well, of the ones they don’t do). Jesus said he wasn’t there to condemn; he told the woman caught in adultery he didn’t condemn her.   He was on a mission to save the world, not condemn it.  If you find yourself speaking words of condemnation instead of words of salvation, then do you think you are better than Jesus?  We are condemned already; we know we are condemned.   The church should not be known for telling everyone what they are doing is bad.  We should be out telling everyone what God has done that is good.

    And it will be Nicodemus’ friends, his cohorts in the Sanhedrin, that will condemn.  They will condemn the only one who never deserved it.   But it will be Nicodemus who will speak up for Jesus.  It was in the fall, about six months after Nicodemus first encounters Jesus, that charges are first brought up against Jesus in the Sanhedrin.  And Nicodemus stands up and says,

    John 7:51  ”Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 

    Nicodemus, along with Joseph, his fellow member of the Sanhedrin, will arrange for Jesus’s honorable burial. 

    John 19:39  ”And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.”

    We don’t know exactly when Nicodemus finally understood.  It may not have been until Jesus was ‘lifted up,’ and he recalled Jesus’ words.  But as Moses and Jesus said, it really wasn’t that hard, once you drop your preconceptions and biases.

    Sometimes we are like Nicodemus.  Sometimes, God is trying to tell us something, but we don’t get it.  Maybe it is because we don’t know our Bible, or we don’t have time to read it, or we don’t take the time to dig into it and really study it.  But often it is because, like Nicodemus,  we read the Bible with a closed mind, looking for what we think we already know.  We read it through the lenses of our preconceived doctrines and traditions.  Are you willing to forget what you think you know from tradition and approach the Bible with eyes to see?

    Moses said it’s not hard; even a child can understand it.  You don’t have to have someone come out of heaven to explain it.  But after hundreds of years of teachers getting it wrong, someone did come out of heaven to explain it.  Jesus said he didn’t come to do away with what God had already said (the Law and the Prophets), but he came to bring it to its correct conclusion, to explain it fully.3  And then he sent his Spirit to be with us, just as the prophets had foreseen, to comfort and guide us.  Let us all seek to diligently study God’s Word with eyes that are not clouded with preconceptions and thousands of years of man’s tradition, but let us study using all the resources God has given us under the power of His Spirit that lives in us.

    1.  This is a loaded verse and there is a lot for us to unpack later.  For now, just know Jesus ‘yoke’ is God’s instruction that binds us together so we can do the work we have to do.

    2.  The Hebrew can mean either bronze or copper, but copper is much more likely in this area.

    3.  This is why, in “The Chosen,” Jesus says, “I am the Law of Moses.”  He is the author and embodiment of the Law and the Prophets, and he came to explain them and fulfill their meaning to us.

  • April 10, 27 A.D.  Jesus Cleanses the Temple – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #25

    Week 8 ———  Jesus Cleanses the Temple

    John 2:14-22

    Jesus and those traveling with him have just completed a 5-day walk covering 94 miles from Capernaum to Jerusalem.  The last part of the journey is all uphill, going up in altitude from near the earth’s lowest point (the Dead Sea) in the Rift Valley to the mountains of Jerusalem, a gain of over 3700 feet.  The goal of the pilgrimage was the Temple, and in Jesus’ day, the rebuilding of the second temple under Herod was grand.1 This massive marble structure gilded with gold must have been a sight, especially for those living in the ‘back country’ of Galilee.  

    Jesus entered the temple area on this day, 1997 years ago. However, his attention is not focused on the massive structure in the center of the courts but on the commotion in the outer courts.   

    This would happen in the “Gentiles Courtyard.”  Note the size of the footprint of the Temple Mount complex (about 37 acres) in comparison to a modern football field.  

    Again, Jesus is arriving for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as commanded several times in the Bible.

    Lev. 23:4-8  These are the appointed feasts of Yehovah, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is Yehovah’s Passover.  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Yehovah; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.  On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.  But you shall present a food offering to Yehovah for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”2

    Unleavened bread, in Hebrew, ‘matzah,’ means bread not made with yeast.  This is to remember when the children of Israel left Egypt in a hurry and did not have time to make bread that would rise. 

    Exodus 12:34    So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.

    Typically, they would keep a small amount of their old yeast bread (their ‘starter’) and mix a small portion in with the new dough.  The yeast would spread throughout the entire dough. As the yeast feeds on the sugars in the dough, it creates gas bubbles that cause the dough to rise.  Yeast (leaven) is often used in the Bible as a metaphor for sin or corruption.  (It is also used in Hellenistic literature as a metaphor for corruption.)  

    Matthew 16:6-12 “Beware of the leaven [teaching] of the Pharisees.”  

    Exodus 13:7  Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.  

    Based on this scripture, before the Feast, there was a great effort to remove any trace of leaven from their homes.  This was a very serious spring housecleaning.  Everything and every surface of the walls and floors were scrubbed.  Cooking pots and utensils were boiled in water.  This still goes on in modern Israel in Orthodox Jewish homes today.  It has become more challenging to rid modern businesses of all the leaven.  For example, grocery stores and factories that produce leavened products like bread or beer can’t just destroy their stock and shut down and clean their equipment.  So, what they currently do is use an interesting legal loophole. For the past 25 years, the State of Israel has sold the entire stock of food items and related goods to one Muslim man, Hussein Jabar.  He pays ~$14,000 to Israel as a down payment.  The contract says he owns the products and has ten days to pay the remainder (~300 million dollars) to complete the transaction. This way no Jewish people would own any yeast products. He is also given the keys to the premises.  Every year, he fails to pay the remainder by the end of the Feast so he ‘returns’ all the property and receives his down payment back.3

    So, every house in Jesus’ day was thoroughly cleaned—all but one.  Jesus enters the temple and sees God’s house is full of corruption.  So Jesus takes it upon himself to do a little house cleaning.  Did you realize that Jesus drives out the money changers and the people selling animals twice in the scriptures?  Did you know that the two events are the exact same time of year?  Both times are immediately before Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Jesus is symbolically cleansing the leaven from the temple.

    John 2:14-17  “In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

    Why are money changers in the temple? The annual Temple Tax began as an offering for atonement, a ransom of the firstborn (all of Israel is God’s firstborn). A census was taken of the people ransomed from Egypt. (The census is where we get our names for the Book of Numbers.)

    Exodus 30:12 -15  “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to Yehovah when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to Yehovah. Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give Yehovah’s offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give Yehovah’s offering to make atonement for your lives. 

    It became an annual offering, as seen in 2 Kings 12:5-17 and Nehemiah 10:32-33.

    The offering had to be paid in a specific monetary unit: shekels from Tyre.  Some have said that was because other coins had ‘graven images,’ but the Tyrian shekel had the image of a god.  The real reason was that the Tyrian Shekels were more pure silver.   (Roman coinage was only 80% silver, and Tyrian coins were 94% or more.)  The money changers referenced in the New Testament Gospels (Matt. 21:12 and parallels) provided Tyrian shekels in exchange for Roman currency, at a cost, of course.  The current value of this amount of silver is about 27 dollars.

    Then, there were those selling animals for sacrifices.  The original reason is that people traveling to Jerusalem would not have to carry the animals long distances but could purchase them after arrival.  There was a place originally designated for these purposes outside the temple proper at what is now the Western Wall.  Presumably, these businesses were moved inside the temple by Annas (the High Priest before Caiphas) so he could keep an eye on them and ensure he got his cut of the profits.  Of course, the animal you brought would not be deemed “without blemish” when inspected, so you would have to purchase another that was deemed ‘perfect’ at a premium cost.  The ‘imperfect’ animal would be taken in trade and presumably recycled later as newly deemed ‘perfect.’  It was quite the business model.

    John quotes Jesus as saying “Do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”  In the passages in the other gospels, when Jesus replays the driving out of these traders, he quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah,  “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Mark 11:17, quoting from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.

    The Greek word for ‘robbers’ is ‘lēstai,’ which can mean ‘robber, bandit, or insurrectionist.’  It is the same word used in Matthew 27:38 “Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.”  But Rome did not use the punishment of crucifixion for robbers or bandits.  Primarily, crucifixion was used for Romans who committed treason or non-citizens who committed rebellion or insurrection.  Indeed, the charge Pilate gives Jesus is insurrection.  So those two beside Jesus at his crucifixion are not robbers but lēstai, insurrectionists.   Then, overturning the tables in the temple courtyard is not about robbery but about those rising up against an authority.  Then, who is the authority that the guilty is attempting to overthrow?  The authority Jesus is defending is God himself, and the rebels are those attempting to usurp God’s authority, the priests and temple rulers.

    In 2024, Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread begin in less than two weeks.  If yeast represents sin, it may be time for all of us to do a little spring cleaning. God’s temple must be kept clean.   “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16.)  Ask Yehovah to look deep into your life, in all the corners and crevices, and remove all that hinders us from being worthy vessels for his service.  And if you have given Jesus authority over you, let us pray we never are insurrectionists, attempting to regain that authority over ourselves.

    1. Some sections of the temple were still under construction and were officially completed between 64 and 66 A.D. The Romans destroyed the Temple just a few years later, in 70 A.D.
    2. Note that the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the last day are special Sabbaths.  In a week when the first day falls on a day other than the seventh day of the week, there can be three Sabbaths in that week.  This will become important next year when we consider the Sabbaths in the week that Jesus is crucified.
    3. https://www.timesofisrael.com/meet-the-arab-israeli-who-buys-all-of-israels-hametz/

  • April 6-10, 27 A.D.  SBS #4   From Capernaum to Jerusalem

    Week 8 ———  Headed to Jerusalem for the Feast of Unleavened Bread — 98 miles

    John 2:13

    The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus stayed in Capernaum for only a few days. He had just done a 32-mile walk from Cana on April 2 -3, then was in Capernaum on April 4 and 5 for the Sabbath, and then left on April 6, which would have been the first day of the week in 27 A.D.  

    It is a long journey to Jerusalem.  It is a mandatory journey for all male Jews three times a year (Passover, Shavuot, and the Feast of Tabernacles).1  Luke tells us, “Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover” (Luke 2:41).  That is followed by the story of Jesus’ parents traveling a day’s journey (about 16-20 miles) and then noticing Jesus was missing.  They travel back to Jerusalem and, after 3 days of searching for him, find him in the Temple, amazing the teachers.

    Google Maps says that it is a 41-hour walk from Capernaum to Jerusalem.  Good luck with that today.  The roads may be better, but the number of checkpoints makes that unlikely.  Google has you hugging the Sea of Galilee to the west, then continuing on the western side of the Jordan through Jericho, then turning west to Jerusalem.

     The Google Map 2024 path for walking from Capernaum to Jerusalem.

      Jesus’ path may have been similar, though he would likely have traveled south on the eastern side of the Jordan.  Traveling on the western side of the Jordan or through the center of the country would have taken him through the land of the Samaritans, and most pilgrims would never have traveled that way (we will talk about that later.)

     This is the likely path from Capernaum to Jerusalem using ancient and Roman roads (avoiding Samaria), a total of 98 miles.

    In Jesus’ day, large crowds would be headed together from Galilee to Jerusalem, typically taking 4-5 days.  It was a festive journey.  Traditionally, they would sing the shiray hammaloth Hebrew for Songs of Ascent.  Why were they called ‘ascent’? 2 

    This shows the altitude changes on this path.  Note that the final portion of the journey ascends from 333 meters below sea level (-1092 feet) to 809 meters above sea level (+2654 feet), which is a change of 1142 meters or 3746 feet.

    Jesus left on the first day of the week (our Sunday) and arrived in Jerusalem on Thursday. As with most pilgrims, he immediately went to the temple when he arrived. But Jesus is not like most pilgrims.  He comes into the outer courts of the temple and sees the people selling animals and exchanging money, and, well, you know what happens next (more about that later this week).

    1. Deuteronomy 16:16   “Three times a year—on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths—all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place that he will choose. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.”  There is some documentation in the first century that it was not as strictly followed at that time.  The Mishnah says, “The following are things which no measure is subscribed… appearing before the Lord.”  (Peah 1:1).  It is felt, though, that the most observant Jews (including Mary and Joseph) would observe the commandment as stated in Deuteronomy.
      2.   Let me recommend a great book that examines these Songs of Ascent: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. This book gives you the flavor of the Psalms sung on the journey. Peterson paraphrased these Psalms, which led him to paraphrase the book of Psalms and then the entire Message Bible.

  • April 2-4, 27 A.D.  From Cana to Capernaum  Step by Step with Jesus #3

    Jesus will leave Cana after the miracle of water to wine.  It is about 32 miles from Cana to Capernaum.  If you go to Israel, you can hike this as part of “The Jesus Trail,” from Nazareth (about 8-10 miles from Cana) through Cana to Capernaum.  The trail is well marked, and a guidebook is available with directions, sites you will visit on the way, and suggestions for overnights, eating, and where to get water.  

    Jesus would have likely made this trip in 2-3 days, depending on how soon they left the wedding. They would want to be in Capernaum early on Friday to have time to prepare for the Sabbath, which begins at sundown on Friday evening. There is about a 700-foot elevation drop from Cana to Capernaum, but there are plenty of ups and downs.

    You will pass over the “Horns of Hattin,” an extinct volcano with two peaks (horns) that are volcanic plugs. This is the site of the “Battle of Hattin” in 1187 A.D., in which the Crusader forces that controlled the land after the First Crusade were devastated by the Muslim troops led by Saladin. This marked the end of the Crusaders’ control of the land. You will then descend before you climb again to Mount Arbel. The Horns of Hattin

    Arbel is a volcanic peak that was split in half by an earthquake. Here is a view from the west of Arbel, between the halves, with the Sea of Galilee in the background.

    And here we are going up, then coming down.

    From Arbel, it is an easy hike down to the Sea of Galilee and then around the top of the sea to Capernaum (at the ‘cap’ of the Sea.)

  • April 1, 27 A.D.  The Wedding at Cana – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #24

    Week 7 ———  The Wedding at Cana

    John 2:1-11

    John 2:1-11   “On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

     Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.   And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.   When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”

    “And the third day” is a puzzling phrase unless you understand how the Israelites named the days of the week.  Only the 7th day got a name, ‘Shabbat’ (Sabbath), which means “come to a stop, cease, rest.”  The other days of the week are just named after their order.  The first day is our Sunday; the second day is Monday.  So the “third day” is Tuesday.   According to Jewish tradition, Tuesday is the best day for a wedding.  The reason is that Tuesday is ‘doubly blest’ — the only day of creation in which the Bible states “and God saw that it was good” twice.  (Seriously, that is the reason.)  So we know the wedding was most likely on a Monday night.  Wait a minute,” you say, “didn’t you just say the third day was Tuesday?”  Ah, but this is a Jewish marriage.  And Jewish culture counts the days beginning at sunset, so our Monday night is the beginning of their third day.  Why do they count the day starting at sunset?  It all goes back to Genesis (doesn’t most everything?).  “And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5).  So Jesus is there for the Monday night wedding. Wedding celebrations usually lasted seven days, but Jesus didn’t hang around for the entire celebration.

    How long did he stay?  Long enough for them to run out of wine.  Jesus departs the wedding with his family (mother and brothers) sometime between Tuesday morning and Thursday morning.  It is about 32 miles from Cana to Capernaum and “down” to Capernaum, a drop of about 700 feet.  The journey would take two days, and they would want to arrive in Capernaum early enough on Friday to have time to prepare for the Sabbath.  They are returning to Jesus’ home base of Capernaum (likely staying at Peter’s house [or Peter’s mother-in-law’s house]) before they undertake the long journey to Jerusalem for Passover on the day after Shabbat.  So they likely left Cana either Tuesday or Wednesday morning.

    Running out of wine at a wedding celebration is a major social faux pas by the bride’s family. People will be coming and going for the seven-day celebration, and in this culture, you do not have a joyful celebration without wine.  We can only guess why Mary relates this information to Jesus.  Has he been in a habit of performing miracles for social reasons before?  I doubt it.  Is Jesus’ family part of hosting this wedding?  Possibly.  We just don’t know.  But Jesus’ response to Mary makes it clear he feels like she has asked for his help.  In English, Jesus’ reply to Mary sounds harsh, but it is not.  He uses the same term when he tells Mary, “Woman, behold your son,” about John at the crucifixion. 

    Jesus says, “My hour has not yet come.”  You will see this phrase several more times in John’s Gospel.  (John 7:6, 7:30, and 8:20). when the time has come for Jesus to go to the cross, Jesus says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  Jesus is on a schedule. He has tasks to complete before he allows the Jewish authorities to put him to death.  There is a plan, and it is the Father’s plan. 

    As I have said before, whenever the Bible gives you an unexpected detail, it is almost always very important to the message.  Why do we get so much information about the water jars?  They were the expensive kind, stone, not clay.  Stone has to be carved from a solid piece of rock.  And they were big and heavy.  These are not jars you carry around with you.  They would have been 26-32 inches high and 16-20 inches in diameter.  Stone jars were used for ritual purification as they were non-porous and could be cleaned well.  A clay vessel that became contaminated (unclean) would be shattered and thrown away.  Why would one home have so many of these jars?  Some have suggested that it could be the home of a priest or pharisee, who would be more interested in ritual purification.  We do know that some priestly families lived in Cana.

    Some people make a lot about the number of jars.  Six can be a significant number. As seven is seen as the number of completion, six can be seen as the number of incompletion or imperfectness.1 If that were the case when Jesus performed his miracle, it wouldn’t have remained six.  Sometimes, the number is six because there were six stone jars.  And we presume John is present here as an eye-witness.  (We are told that disciples were present.  Andrew, John, and Peter have been with Jesus for a few days, though he won’t officially call them as disciples for a while. Perhaps Philip and Nathaniel are also here, but none are mentioned by name.)  Exactly six stone jars of this size were found in the remains of the kitchen of a first-century house in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem that was excavated in 1970.  The house was burned in the fire started by the Romans during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  It was located in the section of Jerusalem where the priests lived.  It is now a museum called ‘The Burnt House Museum’ (pictures below.)

    So what is the significance of Jesus using water jars that were for ritual purification?  These would be for ‘netilat yadayim’ or ‘washing hands with a cup.’2  Halakha required hand washing before and after meals, before prayers, upon waking in the morning, and after using the toilet.  Note that this was for ritual purity (though there was obviously some benefit we now realize for germ control.)  As we move through the gospel, Jesus will have much to say about ritual purity.  He will also demonstrate his ability to overcome ritual impurity through his contagious holiness.  Two types of impurity are discussed in the Bible: ritual and moral.  We understand moral impurity, which is sin.  Ritual impurity was unavoidable and was not sinful (unless you came into the tabernacle/temple without going through the purity procedures.)  Jesus will show that he is the answer for both ritual impurity and moral impurity.  Here, he replaces the waters of ritual purification with wine.  In his last supper, he reveals that his wine represents his blood. He is foreshadowing a new method for complete purification through his blood.  Revelation 7:14 says, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

    The author says in 2:11 that “this is the first of his signs.”  This gospel has seven signs that climax in the raising of Lazarus from the dead.3 The purpose of the signs is to reveal his glory, which is in keeping with the prologue to the gospel in chapter 1:14

    “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

    May we seek this day to glorify our God.  There are a lot of empty jars out there.

    Six stone jars as used for purification (and two smaller jars), as found in first century house of a priest (from the “Burnt House Museum” Jerusalem).

    1. Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.), who was never known to miss a chance to see ‘deeper meanings,’ said the six jars represented the six ages.  (From Augustine’s “Tractates on John (9.6)”)  If I were to go down a rabbit hole on this (and yes, I have been known to do just this), I would say there were six disciples there (though I am not sure who the sixth would be) and that filling the six vessels with Jesus’ new wine would be symbolic of filling the disciples with the new wine of the gospel.  I would contrast that to Jeremiah 13:12-14, where people are visualized as jars being filled with wine and sentenced to destruction.  Jesus is filling the disciples with his gospel of the kingdom that, instead of destruction, leads to blessing.  But I will resist the urge to go down that rabbit hole, so pretend you didn’t just read this (But do read the Jeremiah passage and tell me what you think.)
    2. The other form of ritual washing is ‘tevilah,’ which is total body immersion in a mikvah.
    3. Here are the seven signs in John:  water into wine (John 2:1–11), healing a royal official’s son (John 4:46–54), healing a disabled man (John 5:1–15), feeding 5,000 (John 6:1–14), walking on water (John 6:16–21), healing a man born blind (John 9:1–12), and raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1–43).

  • March 29, 27 A.D.  Behold the Lamb – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #22

    Week 7 ———- John 1:35-42

    It was on the first day of the Hebrew month of Aviv, 14 days before Passover in 27 A.D.  That corresponds to our March 29, 1997 years ago. John the Baptist looked at Jesus who had just come from his time in the wilderness, a time of testing and temptation and said ‘Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  

    I will take you on a journey through the Bible so you will know what John knew.  We are familiar with his words, but do we know why he said them?

    We have to go back to the beginning when God created everything.  He made this world and created a special place where he could dwell with us.  It was a garden in Eden.  And it was wonderful.  Adam walked in the garden with God. God loved the man and the woman. And there was no sickness, and there was no death.  But there was a tree.   And God told Adam to be obedient to me about the tree.  That fruit is not for you.  If you eat it, there will be death.

    Genesis 2:17  “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.“

    But Adam and Eve were tempted to eat of that tree, to disobey God’s rules, and when they did, everything changed.  Sin drove a wedge between man and God.  They had to leave the garden, and death did come.  One day, they would die.  And they did die.  The Bible tells us Adam lived for so many years and then died.  Seth lived for so many years, and he died, and Enosh lived for so many years, and then he died.  Please don’t get all caught up in how many years they lived.  The big thing is that they all died.  That was not what God intended. Death was not supposed to be a part of the world. Death was a final separation from God.  There needed to be an answer for sin and death.

    Romans 5:12   “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned“

    Death began when Adam and Eve sinned. Death entered the world then and became a part of it. But death did not spread to all because one man sinned, but because we all sin. You will die because you have sinned.  

    Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death 

    And I said that everything changed, but not everything changed. God still, despite sin, loved his children deeply and longed to be reunited with them. So, after these first three chapters of the Bible, the following 1186 chapters are all about how God pursues mankind and how God manages to destroy the barriers of sin and death so that God and man can dwell together again.

    God calls Abraham and tells him to obey me, and I will build a great nation from you.  And that nation will be a nation of priests who will carry my message to the whole world.  But Abraham says My wife and I are very old and have no children.  How can we have descendants?  But God says, “I’ve got that.”

    But Abraham is not always obedient; he gives up on God’s promise and has a child with his wife’s maid.  But God says no, I will give you and Sarah a child.  And Isaac is born… the child of promise.  

    God says, ‘ If I am to build a nation from Abraham, from this one man, I have to know, and he has to know: ‘Is he faithful now?’  So there is a test. God asks Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son on a mountain. Will Abraham believe that God can fulfill his promise even if Isaac dies? Will Abraham believe God can conquer death?

    Abraham and Isaac set out.  Abraham is about 100 years old, and Isaac is about 30.  And they came to Mt Moriah.

    Genesis 22:6  And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. 

    It is a heavy load. This is to be a whole burnt offering and must be completely consumed. It will take a lot of wood. So Isaac struggles up the mountain carrying the wood, and Abraham carries the fire and the knife.

    Isaac asks, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7).  Abraham replies, “God will provide for himself the lamb” (Genesis 22:8).

    At the top of Mount Moriah, Isaac realizes that he is the sacrifice. 

    Genesis 22:9  And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

    I had always missed something important here. My Jewish friend taught me that the heading for this story in his Bible is “The Binding of Isaac.”  In Hebrew, it is the Akedah. They emphasize the binding because Isaac, as a young man of 30, could have resisted. He could have overpowered his father. But he submits voluntarily to be tied up with ropes and placed on the altar—a willing sacrifice.

    Abraham raises the knife. When it seems all is lost for Isaac, God provides a substitute: a male lamb appears. There is a lamb to take the place of sacrifice for Isaac.

    Fast forward to when Abraham’s descendants end up in Egypt, and they become slaves for 400 years.  And they are harshly treated.  And they cry out to God for help.

    Exodus 3:7-8   Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and bropiad land, a land flowing with milk and honey

    So God sent Moses, and there were nine horrible plagues, but the pharaoh would not let God’s people go.  So, there is one more plague.   

    Exodus 11:4-5   So Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

    Someone must pay the price for sin.  The wages of sin is death.  The firstborn must die.

    But God will spare the firstborn of the Israelites.  There will be a substitute as there was for Isaac.  There will be a lamb. And Exodus 12:5 says, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.” Every family will take a lamb, slaughter it, cook it, and eat it.

    Exodus 12:13  But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.

    This is not an offering for sin; it is a substitution for death.  A family eats it, and none is left.

    So they escape Egypt and come to Mount Sinai, where God gives them instructions for a tabernacle so that he can dwell with them. Again, after the first three chapters of the Bible, God is working to restore the relationship with man that he had in the garden. But they are still sinning, so God gives them a means to atone for their sins.  Because their sins are continual, they need a continual sacrifice of sin. So, God establishes the tamid sacrifice.  (Tamid is Hebrew for ‘continual.’)    Again, it is a one-year-old lamb without blemish or spot, 

    The tamid lamb would be placed on the altar at 9:00 in the morning, and it will burn on the altar along with all the other sacrifices until 3:00 pm when it is completely consumed.  And so that there be a lamb there continually, another lamb shall be sacrificed and placed on the altar at 3:00 pm and burn until the next morning, when it will start over.

    Ever-present sacrificial lamb before the father. for sin

    And so it was, every day.   A lamb was placed at 9:00 am and 3:00 pm.  And the people would gather at 9 and 3 for the sacrifice.  They would say the Shmah prayer and the 18 benedictions.

    This happened every day for over a thousand years, so there was an ever-present sacrifice before the Father for sins.

    In addition to this twice-a-day tamid offering for sin, once a year, at the time of the Passover celebration, beginning at 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., every family would bring a lamb to the temple, slaughter it, take it home, and roast it. It was to be eaten to remember the Passover when a lamb was slain as a substitute for death.  

    Because there had to be a solution to the problems of sin and death

    But the prophet Isaiah foresaw a time that God would do something different:

    Isaiah 43:18-19 “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.
    Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
    I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

    And Isaiah tells us that this one would be the new Passover and the new sacrifice:

    Isaiah 53:3,5-6       He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
    But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed.
    All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;
    and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


    There is one coming, this new Passover, this new sacrifice. God will provide the lamb.

    But after Isaiah predicted this new thing God would do, for the next 600 years, the people of Israel said, as Isaac had said, “Where is the Lamb?” 

    The nation hits its lowest point, and Babylon attacks them.  The city and the temple are destroyed, and they are taken into captivity for 70 years.  And the people ask, “Where is the lamb that will bring us redemption?”

    They finally return and rebuild the temple, but it is only a shadow of its former self. They make an offering, but God does not show up. And the people ask, “Where is the lamb who will do this new thing?”

    They are conquered by the nations who burn their bible scrolls, desecrate their temple, and refuse to let them say the name of their God. And the people ask, “Where is the lamb that will restore us?”

    Then they are conquered by the Romans, who are brutal, bring more persecution, bring more death, and crucify whole villages of their neighbors. And the people ask, “Where is the lamb?  Where is the way in the wilderness?”

      They rebuild the temple, and it is beautiful on the outside, but inside, it is corrupt and controlled by priests who swindle money from the poor to gain personal power and wealth. And the people ask, “Where is the lamb?”

    And Jesus walked out of the wilderness, back to where John the Baptist was preaching near the Jordan River.  John looked at Jesus, who had just come from his time in the wilderness, a time of testing and temptation, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.‘   God has provided the lamb.

    Jesus spends the next year teaching and demonstrating how to live as a member of the Kingdom of God. When his year is up, he heads to Jerusalem to fulfill his role as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. It is the time of the Passover celebration when everyone comes to Jerusalem to sacrifice a spotless lamb to celebrate God’s delivery from death. And he gives himself up.  And as Isaiah foresaw, He is beaten repeatedly, scourged, abused, and he did not say a word.

    Is. 53:7    He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth;
    like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.

    After his beating, Pilate presented Jesus and said, “Behold the man!” (John 19:5). Pilate did not know what John the Baptist knew.

    And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son.  
    And Yehovah took the wood of the cross and laid it on Jesus his Son.

    And Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice up the hill.
    And Jesus carried the wood for the cross up the hill.

    And Isaac was bound by ropes and laid on the wood.
    And Jesus was bound by nails, laid on the wood.

    And the innocent lamb took Isaac’s place.
    And the innocent lamb took our place.

    We stood guilty before God of sins, knowing that the wages of our sins were death.  We deserved the penalty of death.  But Jesus is the innocent, spotless lamb who takes our place, 

    It was our sin he took on; it was our punishment of death. He deserved none of it.  But he did it because he loves us.  He would do anything for us.  He would do anything to be able to reunite us – to restore the fellowship of man with God in the garden as he first designed it.

    And in the very spot on the same mountain where Abraham laid Isaac on the altar, God provided the lamb. On that very same spot, at 9 a.m., the people gather and pray, and as they have done every year for over 1000 years, the yearling lamb without blemish is being placed on the altar, where it will be until 3 p.m.

    But this day is different because it is the day of Passover, and after the 9 am lamb is placed, they begin the slaughter of the Passover lambs. Each family brings a 1-year-old lamb to the temple to that spot on the mountain where God provided the lamb and the sacrifice of the Passover lambs begins.  But this day is very different Because at that same time, 9 am when the Tamid is offered for sin, when the Passover lambs are being slain to remember the salvation from death,  Jesus is placed on the cross, where he stays until 3 pm. 

    And John the Baptist points from the grave and shouts, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

    At 3 pm, the Tamid lamb for sin has been consumed, and the last Passover lamb has been slain, 

    And Jesus says, “It is finished.” In Hebrew, that is one word, “Asah.” That is the last word of Psalm 22, the Psalm that tells the story of the crucifixion.  “Asah” means “I have done it.”

    At the exact moment when Jesus’ work is complete on the cross, He says, “It is finished,” and the veil of the temple is torn.  The curtain that separates God’s presence from the people is ripped from top to bottom. There is no longer a dividing wall between us and God’s presence. The barrier was sin. Jesus conquered sin on the cross.  Now, there is a way for God to be reunited with man.  And for the first time since God commanded the continual sacrifice in Leviticus — for the first time in over a thousand years, there is no need for the twice-a-day tamid sacrifice of the lambs because Jesus’ sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice. 

    Sin has been defeated once and for all.

    Sin is defeated, but what about death?   Death, that final separation, must be addressed.

    And Jesus, who did not deserve to die, is placed in the Grave.  But the prophets had also predicted the defeat of death.

    Isaiah 25:8  He will swallow up death forever; and Yehovah God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for Yehovah has spoken.

    Hosea 13:14   I shall ransom them from the power of the grave; I shall redeem them from Death.  Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, grave, where is your sting? 

    Three days later, the stone rolled away from where he was buried to reveal an empty tomb. The angel tells Mary, “He is not here, for he has risen.” The news spreads.

    And I can almost see old Nicodemus when someone tells him that Jesus’ grave is empty

    and he finally understands what Jesus was trying to say to him.

    Nicodemus, For God, so loved the world… This is how much God loved the world. This is how much God wanted to restore the relationship with mankind that was tarnished by separation by sin and death. This is what God was willing to do.

    For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

    So when we hear John the Baptist’s words, ”Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” we remember that Jesus is the Lamb of God who conquered both sin and death.

    1 Peter 1:18-19  But you were ransomed with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

    1 Corinthians 5:7   For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

    This explains our communion, our Lord’s Supper.  Why do we remember what Jesus did by eating bread that represents his body and juice that represents his blood?  Because the Passover lamb was eaten, and his blood is our ransom from sin.  Because sin and death are both defeated 

    1 Cor. 15:57   But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  • March 30, 27 A.D.  Jesus with Andrew, John, and Simon – The Year of the Lord’s Favor #23

    Week 7 ———  What are you looking for?
    John 1:35-42

    (You may notice we skipped #22, which covers John 1:35. It will be released tomorrow, as it coincides with our Resurrection Day message.)

    John 1:35-42   The next day, again, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “Where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.  One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.  He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

    Sometimes, we don’t know what we are looking for. When you reach a… certain age… you may find yourself walking in a room because you know you are looking for something—but you temporarily forget what you are looking for. (It is even more embarrassing when the keys you forgot you were looking for are in your hand or those glasses you forgot you were looking for are on top of your head.)

    Jesus asked the disciples, “What are you looking for?”  Was he asking for him or for them?  Was he asking so he would know, or was he asking them to consider for themselves so they would really know what they were looking for?  I think he wanted them to consider what they were seeking.  It is an important question.  What are you looking for from Jesus?

    I don’t think Andrew and John really knew what they were looking for.  John the Baptist had just pointed Jesus out as “The Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.”  Perhaps they wanted Jesus to explain how he would be that Lamb.  Perhaps they wanted him to ask them to be his disciples.  Maybe they didn’t know exactly what they wanted, but they knew the answers to all the essential questions were in this ‘lamb of God.’  

    Their reply, “Where are you staying?” is an answer to Jesus question.  They want more time with Jesus.  They want a relationship with Him.  Just this week, one of my friends had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with someone whom I can only describe as his pastor-hero. This world-famous pastor, author of around 50 books, leads one of the largest churches in the US.  My friend was asked to submit a few questions to ask this celebrity pastor.  In talking with him about it, it was clear that my friend didn’t want answers to questions as much as he just wanted to make a new friend.  He wasn’t seeking answers so much as seeking a relationship.  

    John says it was the tenth hour. It is important to know that John counts time differently than the other gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke (the synoptic gospels) count time using the Jewish method of dividing the daylight hours into 12 hours from sunrise to sunset (6 am to 6 pm). So, in this method, the tenth hour of the day would be 4 pm.  However, John uses the Roman method, which counts the hours from midnight (or from noon).  So the tenth hour in John would be 10 am, which makes the phrase “stayed with him that day” a more reasonable description.

    Jesus invites them to come with him and see where he is staying.  Andrew takes a detour to locate his brother, Simon, telling him, “We have found the anointed one (Hebrew ‘Messiah’ / Greek ‘Christos’ / English ‘Christ’).  Peter joins the two and meets Jesus who tells Peter he will in the future be called ‘Cephas’.  ‘Cephas’ is a transliteration of the Aramaic word for ‘rock.’  Peter is the English version of the Greek ‘petros’ (meaning rock).  The Hebrew word for ‘rock’ is ‘evan’.  We are not told why Simon will be called ‘Peter,’ Evan,’ or ‘Rocky’ in the future.  (We will talk about this one day in the future.)  

    This brings up the question of what language Jesus spoke.  It is almost undisputed that Jesus spoke Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, but what was his primary language?  It matters because knowing a speaker/author’s primary language influences understanding of their work.  For years, theologians (including the Pope) have maintained that Jesus spoke Aramaic.  The Jews adopted that language during their captivity in Babylon.  Parts of the book of Ezra and much of Daniel are written in Aramaic.  On returning from exile, Nehemiah complained that the Jews did not speak their original language. (Neh. 13:23)  So Ezra established Hebrew Torah readings, prayers, and songs, many of which are still used today.  

    Recent evidence makes it more likely Jews in Jesus’ day spoke Hebrew more than Aramaic.  The Dead Sea Scrolls material, written between 200 BC and 100 AD, is almost exclusively Hebrew, both scripture and commentary.  Of the 215 different types of Jewish coins that have been discovered (dating from 200 BC to 200 AD), all but one had a Hebrew inscription.   Personal letters from that period have been discovered in Hebrew.  And the Book of Matthew was undoubtedly initially written in Hebrew.  It is clearly from a Hebrew mindset, with many Hebrew idioms and expressions, and there are many word connections and puns that do not work in other languages.  Finally, there is John 19:19-20.

    Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. (John 19:19-20)

    The word translated “Aramaic” by the ESV is the Greek “Hebraisti.”  Scholars have long asserted that this word can mean either Hebrew or Aramaic and because they once believed that Hebrew was a dead language, it had to mean ‘Aramaic.’  Scholars are not quick to give up their traditional beliefs, but with more and more information proving that Hebrew wasn’t a dead language in the first century, this view is changing.

    Jesus asks this question many times in the gospels. He asks the blind man what he wants.  

    What are you looking for from Jesus?  Some people have questions and want answers.

    Some want a ‘get-out-of-hell-free card’. Some want Jesus to take all of their problems away. First, I think we should seek a relationship.  That is what God wants.  He designed creation so that we would have a place to fellowship with him, and He is moving events so that we will have that Eden experience again with Him.  Secondly, I want from Jesus what he wants for me.  I dare not trust my own desires.  I trust that this God, Yehovah, who loves me, will only give me good gifts.  He knows my needs better than I do.  

    So these two teenagers, Andrew and John, joined by the oldest of the future disciples, Peter, spend the day with Jesus. And it changed them forever. Note that they are not called to be disciples of Jesus at this point. That will happen months later. But it certainly explains how when Jesus sees Simon and Andrew again, fishing in the Sea of Galilee, they are willing to drop their nets and immediately follow this teacher they knew from before. 

    Today, let’s you and I spend a day with Jesus.  If we do, we will never be the same.

    (Bono said his hit “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” was really a gospel song, but more about doubt than faith. If you haven’t heard the version he does with a gospel choir from Harlem, you need to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8Wt3dhF4fU )

  • Step by Step with Jesus #2 — A Course Correction

    If you read the accompanying resource and make it all the way to the end of this post, you are a certified Bible Nerd.  If you just want the details on following Jesus’ steps, skip to the last 2 paragraphs.

    As I explained earlier, I am attempting to map Jesus’ journeys throughout this year of ministry.  I was aware that there would be some difficulty determining some locations and routes, but since I have been unable to find anyone who has attempted this, I had no real idea how hard it would be.  I certainly didn’t expect to have trouble the very first day. 

    I had always accepted the traditional location of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.  John 1:28 says, “These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing.  I had read that it states “Bethany beyond the Jordan” to differentiate from the ‘Bethany’ near Jerusalem that is listed many times in the gospels.  “Beyond the Jordan” is assumed to mean “on the other side of the Jordan” from Jerusalem, so on the east bank.  Currently, we know of no places named ‘Bethany’ anywhere near the Jordan.  Both Origen and Chrysostom (early ‘church fathers’) favored a location called Bethbara, on the Jordan about 6 miles southeast of Jericho. But none of the earliest manuscripts of John support the spelling of ‘Bethbara.’  

    I  have been to the traditional Baptismal site several times.  There are ruins of church structures dating back to 500 AD at that site to commemorate the baptism of Jesus.  But when I began to calculate Jesus’ journey from that area to the Galilee, I ran into a problem.  On March 30, Andrew and John, disciples of John the Baptist, spent the day with Jesus, where he was ‘dwelling.’  The following day, March 31, Jesus “decided to go to Galilee” and then has conversations with Philip and Nathaniel in the Galilee.  The next day he was at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  

    The problem is that even to get to the most southern aspect of the Galilee would be 48-50 miles at least.  Jesus was a miracle worker, but I doubt this one day 50-mile hike is one of them.  So then I began searching to see what other locations John may have been baptizing at that could be near “Bethany.”  I won’t bore you with the missteps I took, but I did find a resource that explains the problem well and does an excellent summary of the possibilities.  Bethany Beyond the Jordan (John 1:28) Topography, Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel, by Rainer Reisner,1  Jesus returns to this location ‘across the Jordan’ in John 10:40.  Looking at when Lazarus died and when Jesus arrives in Bethany near Jerusalem (by which time Lazarus has been dead four days) also makes the location near Jericho in the south unreasonable.  So Reisner locates Jesus’ baptism in the north, in the region of Batanaea (see map below) with Batanaea being a variant of the Greek that our current English versions translate as ‘Bethany’.  I believe Reisner makes a strong case for this location.  Read his article.  It is available online and not too difficult to follow, but the ability to read a little Greek is helpful. 

    Also, there is the possibility that since this is the spring season, the Jordan might be at flood stage, making baptism in the Jordan dangerous.  Joshua 3:15 says”now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest.”  (We know that he was referring to the barley harvest, which begins just after Passover because Joshua 4:19 says, “The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.”  The 14th of the first month is Passover.  So baptism in the traditional location (which is very close to the location of the crossing in Jordan) is very unlikely. We know that John the Baptist baptizes in several locations, using springs for baptism at some times.  John 3:23 says, “John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was plentiful there.”  Aenon near Salim most likely means “the springs near Salem.”  These springs still exist and currently feed many ponds in the area that are used for fish hatcheries by a local kibbutz.

    So now I have to revise my previous articles that refer to the baptismal site in the south. Jesus’ time in the wilderness would be not in the Judean wilderness but in the wilderness east of the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Batanea.  And his journey from the place John was baptizing to Galilee on March 31 (in John 1:29-34) would be between 2-7 miles.  He would then travel around 14-15 miles to Cana for the wedding on April 1.  

    So for those of you following with your feet, it makes more sense now and is certainly more doable.  I’m sure we will run into other issues determining these 2000 year old locations, but for now, happy walking!

    1. “Bethany Beyond the Jordan (John 1:28) Topography, Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel” by Rainer Reisner. Available at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://tyndalebulletin.org/api/v1/articles/30556-bethany-beyond-the-jordan-john-1-28-topography-theology-and-history-in-the-fourth-gospel.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjqyez4lpKFAxUB18kDHdmRBzEQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0KvtX1aUZskL6fmZI-vCJ2