September 22, 27 A.D.  –  The Woman Who Would Not Give Up —   The Year of the Lord’s Favor #53

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

Week 32 ———  The Woman Who Would Not Give Up
Matthew 15:22-28      Mark 7:24-30

Several weeks ago, Jesus fed the largest crowd recorded in his ministry (5000 men plus women and children). Last week, he taught on the Bread of Life and spoke for the first time to a crowd plainly of eternal life resurrection on the last day because that evening began the Day of Trumpets. I told you then that we were at a turning point in his ministry.

His popularity was at its highest after the feeding of the 5000.  It was so popular that John tells us the people wanted to force him to be king.  And Jesus is king, but not the kind of king they think.  So he withdrew (John 6:14-15).  The next day, the crowd finds him again.  They want him to repeat the bread miracle.  But Jesus tells him he is the Bread of Life.  They cannot understand what he is saying because their mind is stuck on earthly things.  And that brings us to one of the saddest verses in the Bible:

John 6:66  After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

But God granted understanding to Simon Peter:

John 6:66-69  So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”   Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 

That evening, the new moon is visible, and it is the Day of Trumpets, which is a required day of rest.  (So both Saturday and Sunday were Sabbath rests that week.)  A group of Pharisees from Jerusalem had been waiting for Jesus to return to Capernaum.  On the Day of Trumpets, they confront Jesus because he and his disciples don’t wash their hands the way the Rabbis had instructed them to keep ritually pure.  (Note that this was not a law from scripture, but something the rabbis added and Jesus found unnecessary.)  It would be like you visiting a church one Sunday, and one of the church elders comes to you and fusses at you because you didn’t wear a jacket and tie.  “Everyone here wears a suit to church.  Next time you come, dress correctly.”    Jesus was all about rules, but only God’s rules.  He had no trouble ignoring their traditions that seemed more important to them than God’s rules.  And this was not a friendly discussion but a confrontation.  The disciples realized that contradicting these authorities could be a problem, and they asked Jesus:

Matthew 15:12  Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”

Jesus answered by telling the disciples that the Pharisees were ‘blind guides’ and challenging their whole concept of purity.  

The following day, Jesus and the disciples traveled north out of Galilee, out of Jewish territory, into Syria, the region controlled by the two large cities, Tyre and Sidon. These were very wealthy coastal cities, profiting from their position in the spice trade.  They controlled the region of Syria north of Galilee, and it was not Jewish.1

Now, the people in Syria had already heard about Jesus.  As Matthew noted just before the sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 4:24-25   So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them.

 So, some of the people from Syria had already come south to Galilee, blended in with the crowds around Jesus, and found healing. But now, Jesus goes there.

Matthew 15:21-28   And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”   But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”   But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Jesus enters the southernmost part of this region, and his disciples are likely thinking he is leaving to have some time away from the crowds and the religious leaders who are becoming increasingly antagonistic to him. But Jesus has a hidden agenda.  He doesn’t seek out anyone, but a woman whose child was possessed by a demon hears that Jesus is in the area, so she comes to ask for healing for her child.  The fact that she is not Jewish is much emphasized in the Scriptures.  Matthew (writing to a Jewish audience) describes her as a “Canaanite woman,” using a term that recalls the Old Testament history of Canaanites being the enemy whose worship of idols was a persistent threat to the proper worship of the Israelites.  That the Messiah of Israel would bring healing to a Canaanite, of all people, would be a shocking statement to Matthew’s readers that Jesus’ ministry is for all people.  Matthew furthers the shock value of the story, recording that the pagan woman then addresses Jesus as the “Son of David,” a Jewish messianic title.  

This is an odd Bible story. You probably won’t get it in Vacation Bible School, so we must examine it more closely.

Mark adds the detail that Jesus is trying to escape notice from the people. 

Mark 7:24   And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.   And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 

He is not there to minister.  He doesn’t seek out anyone, but a woman whose child was possessed by a demon hears that Jesus is in the area, so she comes to ask for healing for her child.  Both Mark and Matthew emphasize the fact that she is not Jewish.  Mark says, “Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth” (Mark 7:26).   Matthew (writing to a Jewish audience) describes her as a “Canaanite woman,” using a term that recalls the Old Testament history of Canaanites being the enemy whose worship of idols was a persistent threat to the proper worship of the Israelites.  This was a derogatory term.  That the Messiah of Israel would bring healing to a Canaanite, of all people, would be a shocking statement to Matthew’s readers.  Matthew furthers the shock value of the story, recording that the pagan woman then addresses Jesus as the “Son of David,” a Jewish messianic title.

She “comes out” of her village to seek out Jesus, leaving her daughter at home.  She begs for mercy.  How would you expect Jesus to respond to this woman desperate for healing for her daughter?   Jesus does not even respond to her at all.  But she is persistent, and she will not be turned aside.  Eventually, the disciples ask Jesus to send her away “for she is crying out after us.”  They begged Jesus to heal her daughter so she would leave.  But Jesus responds:

“I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

We have heard Jesus use that phrase before, when he was sending out the 12.

Matthew 10:5-7   These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

So Jesus ignored this woman’s request for help because she is a Gentile?  He has healed some Gentiles before.  What is going on?  Still, she doesn’t give up.2

But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
And then Jesus replies:  “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

Whoa, Jesus.  That sounds bad, even in our culture, where we love dogs and some treat them like children.  But in the Jewish world of Jesus’ day, dogs are not pets. They are scavengers, a nuisance, unclean animals. It is definitely a derogatory reference.   The disciples were not surprised at all when Jesus said this.  They probably were thinking the same thing.  What is Jesus doing?

But this woman won’t let that comment slow her down. She is a mother with a sick child.  She will not be dismissed so easily.  “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”  She embraces the derogatory comment and continues to make her case.  Somehow, this Gentile woman has got it into her head that Jesus is her Messiah also.

After his death and resurrection, Jesus told the disciples to go into all the world.  His ministry will be for all, not just the Jews.  But this woman begs Jesus to take that future hope for the Gentiles to be part of God’s kingdom and make it happen now.  

And suddenly, everything changes.  

Jesus turned and said, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” Her daughter was healed instantly.

Jesus has a crucial lesson to teach these disciples.  But this lesson is so contrary to their thinking that he knows he will have to take extreme measures to teach it.  He has emphasized several times that his mission was first to the Jews, which is just what was foretold in Scripture. Jesus is being faithful to the story of the Bible.

Once, there was only one nation in the world, but they rebelled against God, building a tower they hoped would rise to heaven.  So, God divides them into many nations.  And God chooses one man from all the nations to be the way he will restore the world.  This man, Abraham, will be the “father of many nations,” and his family will be the means of redemption for all.  His people are rescued from slavery in Egypt,

After deliverance from Egypt, God tells the children of Israel they are to be a kingdom of priests to carry his message through the world.  But they fail to follow God and be that kingdom of priests. So God chooses a king to lead the people in justice, mercy, and obedience, but David fails also.  Then God promises that one day, a king will come from the house of David who will succeed in keeping God’s covenant and be the leader that will bring all nations together under God.  And that king is Jesus.

Isaiah had predicted a time when all nations would come to the house of the God of Jacob.

Isaiah 2:2-4   It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

“I ain’t gonna study war no more.” the old spiritual song says.  Why? Because all the nations will one day be united under Jesus.  There will be no more war.  But this is all in the future.  First, Jesus must come and reach out to the lost sheep of Israel.  He plans to take his gospel to the rest of the world, but all in due order.  Jesus has to fulfill a covenant promise to Abraham.  How many disciples are there?  How many tribes of Israel were there?  Jesus is rebuilding the house of Israel so that they will finally become the kingdom of priests. Are these 12 ready to fulfill that mission?  Unfortunately, not yet. 

Like us, the disciples are slow learners.  Something drilled into you from your childhood is difficult to shake off.  Many of my generation grew up in families where racism was the norm.  Some of my friends have struggled to shake off those old prejudices and hate.  Changing your mind often takes a real-life experience with someone who surprises you by not meeting your negative expectations.  When people found out we were adopting a biracial girl, some people thought we were crazy.  But they watched this girl grow up, and they grew to love her.  Those same people who were so against our adoption would now fight anyone who made a racial statement around our girl.  

Racism is removed through relationships.

We have seen that in our churches who minister to our homeless community.  As part of our program, we encourage churches to sit at the dinner table and have discussions with our ‘neighbors without homes.’  This helps in two ways.  Our church members discover that our ‘neighbors without homes’ are real people with real problems.  They lose many of their prejudices and become more interested in helping.  Secondly, our neighbors, many of whom have had poor encounters with churches, meet church people who care about them.  Conversations around a table go a long way to remove their memories of bad experiences with people who see them as worthless.

Prejudice is overcome through experience.

So, what happened in Syria with this woman is a critical step in God’s plan.  I think God set Jesus up.  God sent Jesus and the disciples walking about 16 miles to this region in Syria, and Mark tells us Jesus doesn’t want to be seen.  But God makes sure this woman with a sick child finds out Jesus is there.  God is using her as the catalyst to begin Jesus’ ministry to the Gentiles.  They walk 16 miles from home, encounter this persistent mother, and the next morning, get up and start walking 20 miles back south.  Something profound has happened.  Look at where Jesus goes.  This time, he doesn’t return to his home base in Capernaum but goes further west to the Decapolis, an area of the Gentiles.   Here, Jesus will test his disciples to see if they learned anything from his interaction with the Gentile woman the previous day.

Jesus and the disciples have been here before.  It was where they landed in the boat after the stormy night when Jesus calmed the seas.  They encountered the demoniac, and Jesus sent the demons into the pigs that hurled themselves into the sea.  After losing about 2000 pigs, the people did not favor Jesus staying around.  So they insisted he leave.  The former demoniac asked to go with Jesus, but Jesus said:

Mark 5:19-20   “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Now, I like the ESV translation, but they missed it here.  “Go home to your friends…”  This man didn’t have any friends.  He was the scary, strong man who lived in the graveyard and busted out of chains when they tried to restrain him.   That Greek literally says, “Go home to yours.”    The NIV gets it right: “Go home to your people.”

Jesus is saying: “Don’t come with me; I’m going back to the Jewish side of the lake; you go witness to your people, the Gentiles.”

The last time he was in the Decapolis, just a little over a month ago, Jesus was there only a few hours and was kicked out of the country.   Wait until you see what happens this time…

Peter will not understand this concept of the expansion of the Kingdom to the Gentiles until Acts 10, and it will take a vision of a sheet from heaven and a devout Roman soldier to convince him.  The tradition that God was for the Jews alone ran very deep in the psyche of all the Jews.  Jesus will take extreme measures with this woman to begin the lesson.  He demonstrates their own racism in how he initially treats her.  Sometimes, we can see things in others we cannot see in ourselves.

Jesus is being very intentional. He began his ministry only to the Jews but, as predicted in the scriptures, will eventually expand his kingdom to everyone. In Matthew 28, he tells the disciple, “Go into all the world…”   And we are at a turning point.  He makes this journey into Syria and will go to the Decapolis, another primary Gentile territory, and then up to Caesarea Philippi all in the next week.  He will test the disciples to see if they have learned the lesson to have compassion for the nations.  (And they will fail.)

Like us, the disciples are slow learners.  Something drilled into you from your childhood is difficult to shake off.  Many of my generation grew up in families where racism was the norm.  Some of my friends have struggled to shake off those old prejudices and hate.  Changing your mind often takes a real-life experience with someone who surprises you by not meeting your negative expectations.  We have seen that in our churches who minister to our homeless community.  As part of our program, we encourage churches to sit at the dinner table and have honest discussions with our ‘neighbors without homes.’  This helps in two ways.  Our church members discover that our ‘neighbors without homes’ are real people with real problems.  They lose many of their prejudices and become more interested in helping.  Secondly, our neighbors meet church people who care about them.  Conversations around a table go a long way to remove their memories of bad experiences with people who see them as worthless.

Jesus has already shocked his followers by offering to go to the centurion’s home after the sermon on the mount, by touching a leper, and by ministering to a Samaritan woman.  But he is now going to push them further.  Let’s see what he does next.

  1. It is interesting to note some similarities between the visit of the prophet Elijah to this same region.  Elijah encounters a widow in Zarephath (felt to be modern-day Sarafand, a city between Tyre and Sidon.)  This is another woman whose child is healed.  It is amid a famine in the land, and God multiplied her oil and flour so that the little she had never ran out, just as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes. 
  2. Don’t miss how the Bible displays this woman’s initiative in a positive light.  This is atypical of narratives about women in this day.  And this is not the only gospel story that does this.  (See also the initiative of the women with the 12 years of bleeding and the woman in the parable Jesus tells in Luke 18 of the woman who would not stop pleading with the unrighteous judge for justice.

September 21, 27 A.D.  Yom Teruah The Year of the Lord’s Favor #52

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

Week 32 ———  Yom Teruah- the Day of Trumpets
John 6:25-65

Jesus had just fed the 5000, dismissed the crowds, and went up on a mountain to pray. He made the disciples get in a boat and go ahead of him, but he caught up to them by walking on the water. But they can’t escape the crowds. When they got to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, the crowds gathered again.

John 6:25-34   When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.   Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, God the Father has set his seal.”  Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”  So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?   Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

John 6:35-40   Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.   But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.  All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.   For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.   And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of the all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.   For this is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Crowds surrounded Jesus.  And the miracle of the multiplication of the bread and fish ramped that up tremendously.  Jesus’ popularity with the crowd reaches its zenith after the feeding of the 5000.  Why is Jesus so popular?  Do you want to be popular?  Give away free food, free medical care, or free anything that usually works well.  It is election season, right?  All the candidates know if they promise to give you what you want, they will get your vote.  This is one of the problems with democracy.  The idea of democratic voting is that each person will decide what is best for them, and then the vote will represent what is best for the majority of people.  Unfortunately, that may not represent what is best for the country because most people don’t think past today.  Yes, lower my taxes and, at the same time, get the government to send me more free money and more benefits.  But that is why our country has a debt of over 35 trillion dollars.  Because people vote for what is best for them today, not what is best for the country in the coming days.   So we discussed Jesus handing out free food to thousands of people last week. How did they respond?

John 6:15   Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

Jesus is the king, but not that kind of king.  So he leaves them.   But the crowds found him the next day, and Jesus said to them:

John 6:26   Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

Jesus tells the crowd, “Stop it!”  You are here for the wrong reason.  You are looking for the wrong thing.  Yes, I can give you bread, but you are thinking too shallow.  Sure, bread is good and necessary for life, but even when God rained bread out of heaven daily, what happened to all those people?

John 6:49   Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

Well, of course, they are dead, Jesus; that was over a thousand years ago. But there is a different kind of bread from heaven they should be seeking:

John 6:50  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 of this bread, he will live forever. 

Jesus uses the metaphor of bread that sustains earthly life to show them that he is the bread that gives eternal life.  Do they understand?  Look at their response:

John 6:52  The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

 No, they didn’t get it at all.  Jesus uses the metaphor of bread to describe himself, just like he used the metaphor of “living water” when talking to the woman at the well.  Drink this water and never be thirsty again.  Eat this bread and live forever.  The woman at the well understood him.  The crowd is hopelessly lost.  Their level of understanding is zero.  Instead of understanding Jesus’ metaphor, they think he wants them to be cannibals and eat his flesh and drink his blood. You want to grab them by the face and say, “It is a metaphor!” Why can’t they understand?  It is not that difficult.  The problem is not that what Jesus is saying is hard.  The problem is their hearts are hard.

Thousands of people experienced the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, but there were two primary responses.  They all witnessed the same thing but got two very different messages.  One group saw the miracle and said, “Wow!  Isn’t God great!”  The other group saw the same thing and said, “Wow! Isn’t free bread great!”

There were those so focused on this world that they couldn’t see the hope of something else.  These weren’t starving people.  Remember the disciples discussing that they could have just broken up the meeting and let them go home to eat?  But Jesus filled this short-term need for food to teach a lesson.  So Jesus filled that need but wanted them to know there is more to God’s world than today.  There is more to life than what we see with our eyes.  Jesus is interested in how we are doing today, but he is more interested in the infinite number of days to come.   

If we look back at the passage we read earlier, we will notice Jesus is directing them toward a theme. You may not have noticed it as we read it before, so let me point it out.

6:27  Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. 
6:39  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 
6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
6:44  No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
6:47  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
6:50  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
6:51  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
6:54   Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
6:58  Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

Do you think Jesus is trying to make a point? There is more to life than day after day trying to earn your daily bread. He is pushing the idea of eternal life and being raised up on the last day. Matthew and Luke only mention eternal life twice, and Mark only mentions eternal life once. John mentions it in Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3, here in chapter 6, and in the upper room.  If I were to take a poll of people leaving a church service on Sunday morning and ask, “What is eternal life?”  What answers do you think I would get?  My very informal poll got these top four answers:  “To live forever,” “To go to heaven,” “To be with Jesus forever,” and “To never die.” All of the answers define eternal life as a length of time or a destination.  But what did Jesus say?

In the upper room, Jesus prays to the Father and says, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”  (John 17:3).

What is eternal life?  To know God, to know Jesus.  But again, to Jesus, who grew up with Hebrew scriptures, ‘to know’ does not mean to know about something.  Knowing about God is not enough.  The demons know about God.  This is the fourth or fifth time I have mentioned this, but it is so important here.  The verb “to know” in Hebrew is ‘yadah’ from the root word ‘yad’ which is the palm of your hand.  To know something in Hebrew is to hold it in your hand, experience it, and have a relationship with it.  To know God is to have an ongoing experience with Him and be in a relationship with him.

Let me give you an example:
Lots of people know who the Attorney General of their state is.  They may know a good bit about him.  But they don’t have a relationship with him.  But he is my friend.  I have a relationship with him.  We met every Tuesday at 6 am for seven years to discuss the scriptures and talk about things that mattered.  So, one day, I needed some help.  A woman was being abused by her husband, and we took her into our home because she was not safe with him.  Her husband ended up in the psychiatric ward in the hospital and threatened to kill me because we helped her.  So I needed some legal advice, and because we have a relationship, I could call the State Attorney General on his personal cell phone.  And, of course, he knew what I should do and helped me out. Now he would do that for anyone who needed help, but knowing his name and having a relationship with him are two very different things.

Similarly, many people know about God but don’t have a relationship with God.  They may have attended church all their lives and know a lot of Bible stories but still not have a relationship with the Father.  If so, they do not have eternal life.  Eternal life means an ongoing relationship with God and his Son, our Messiah, Jesus.  That is eternal life, which is forever, but it begins now.  It is a life that is so much more than just waking up, eating, working, and sleeping and then doing it again another day.  Eternal life is a different way of living, where you are focused on more than just your next meal or free bread.  It is the abundant life Jesus talked about. 

But the crowd in our passage doesn’t get it.  They are like voters in America, only thinking about what will improve my life today.   Free food is more important to them.  Jesus wants them to think beyond the daily grind and consider what is essential.

Jesus says those who have this relationship with him and the Father will be “raised him up on the last day.”   He uses that phrase four times in this passage, which is interesting because only one other time in the gospels does Jesus mention the “last day.”  There is a reason Jesus picked this time to discuss the “last day.”  Setting and context are so important.

Jesus is teaching on the Sabbath in the synagogue in Capernaum.   That Saturday at sundown, people in Jerusalem were scanning the horizon for the appearance of the new moon.  God told them in Exodus and Leviticus that the appearance of the New moon in Jerusalem would mark the beginning of their month.1  In their calendar, the month began on the new moon.  But this is not just any month.  This is the month of the fall festivals, the month of the most holy day in their year.  

The tenth day of this month is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, when the priest would once a year enter the holy of holies and make atonement for all of their sins.  And the ten days before Yom Kippur are a significant time.  They are called the “Days of Awe,” a time for everyone to search their hearts, confess their sins, and repent.  

But how would people throughout the country know what day it was?  They didn’t have calendars on their walls and no calendar app on their cell phones.  And the new moon must be sighted from Jerusalem and verified by two witnesses before the Sanhedrin.

So, as Jesus is teaching about being raised on the last day, the new moon would become visible in Jerusalem, and a trumpet would blow, and signal fires would be lit on the mountain. People on nearby mountains would see the fire and light theirs and blow the trumpet, and it would spread throughout the land. Because this is the first day of the month. This is Yom Teruah, the Day of Trumpets. 

We have previously discussed the spring Jewish festivals: Passover, Firstfruits, Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost. The Jews have celebrated them for thousands of years. The Old Testament calls them moedim, appointed times. We talked about how Jesus is the fulfillment of all the spring feasts. Let’s do a quick review.

Passover — You remember the 10th plague in Egypt.  The Israelites were commanded to slaughter a one-year-old lamb without blemish, paint the doorposts of their homes with the blood, and eat the lamb. And in every house that did not have the blood on the door, the firstborn would die.  Every year for over a thousand years, the Israelites would slaughter a lamb, put the blood on the altar, eat the meal, and remember the deliverance of the firstborn of Israel from death and the people from captivity in Egypt.  On the same day (at the same time), as the Passover lamb is being slaughtered, Jesus is slain on the cross.  A lamb without blemish; Jesus was without sin.   Jesus became our Passover lamb who delivered us from the curse of death and from captivity to sin.  (What a coincidence that happened the same day of the year at the same time.)2

The Feast of Unleavened Bread follows Passover 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 follow other nations’ ways.  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, throwing out the moneychangers.  Jesus becomes the Bread of Life for us without leaven (sin).3 4

Firstfruits is an appointed time to dedicate the barley harvest to God.  This is done at dawn of the first day of the week (Sunday) after Passover.  This offering to God is the first of the harvest, and it represents the whole harvest.  If that sacrifice is acceptable to God, the entire harvest is acceptable.  No one is allowed to touch the harvest until God receives his share first.  This is to remind them that everything they have is from God. Jesus is resurrected from the dead on the same day, at the same time as the firstfruits are harvested.  He tells Mary not to touch him as he has not yet gone to the Father.   Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection.  Because God accepts Jesus’ sacrifice, he can accept the whole harvest of people who follow Jesus. 5 

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

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

The Feast of Weeks – Pentecost
Daily, for seven full weeks, a sheaf of barley is presented to God for the harvest.  The next day, the fiftieth day, celebrates the current harvest and the incoming wheat harvest.  It is also the day that Moses received the gift of the Law on Sinai.  The law that one day God promised he would write on our hearts.  This feast was fulfilled 50 days after Jesus’ crucifixion on the day of Pentecost when God came in power as he did at Sinai, with a rushing wind and fire, with the gift of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in Jerusalem.

It is no accident that God has these events happen on the exact same days.  He is painting a picture in history for those willing to look for it.  Now that Jesus has fulfilled all the spring feasts, we turn to the three fall feasts that have yet to be fulfilled.  They all happen in a month’s time.  The first is Yom Teruah, which our translations call the feast of trumpets.   

Again, the Day of Trumpets is a day that marks the beginning of a very holy time.  It is currently celebrated by Jews as Rosh Hashanah (literally, the head of the year) as a new year’s day, but the Biblical reason for the day was to announce the coming of the Day of Atonement in 10 days and the days between the Day of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement, the “Ten days of Awe,” a time to prepare for the coming day of Atonement by looking back on your life and seeking repentance.  The day had no formal ceremonies other than a day of rest, a special offering, and, most importantly, the blowing of the shofar.  (Now your translation probably says ‘trumpet.’  But the original trumpets were made from the horns of animals: rams or kudus or antelope. A band’s trumpet and brass instruments are still called the ‘horn section’ today.) More than anything else, it was an announcement of the coming Day of Atonement and the days of Awe.

The shofar is prominent in the story of the Battle of Jericho.  As they blew their shofars, they saw God fight the battle for them.  As they continued to use their shofars in battle and saw God continue to deliver them, they began to call God “the horn of our salvation.”  He is their deliverer.  David said it this way:

Psalm 18:1-3   I love you, Yehovah, my strength.  Yehovah is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  I call upon Yehovah, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

It was Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, who prophesied about Jesus:

Luke 1:68-69   “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David.

It was the loud blast of a shofar that heralded the presence of God on Mt Sinai.

Exodus 19:16   On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightning and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
Exodus 19:19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 

We reviewed how Jesus fulfilled the spring feasts.  I imagine you are already figuring out the coming fulfillment of the Day of Trumpets.  It will be the sound of the shofar that will herald the coming of Jesus again.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52   Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
1 Thessalonians 4:16   For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 

Now you can see why Jesus is choosing this time to talk about being raised on the last day.  Put yourself in the story.  The people that Jesus is teaching are just thinking about today and how they can get free bread.  In his teaching, Jesus plants the idea of eternal life and being raised on the last day.   Even though he said it several times, they are just focused on the idea of the bread.  But on their way back to their homes, it is sunset, and they hear the shofar blow, and they know what it means.  They can’t miss the lesson here.  Jesus wants them to consider the day the last shofar blows.  Eternal life matters.

We can also be caught up in the business of this world. It is easy to be distracted by the cares of this life.  In Jesus parable of the soils it was the seed that fell among thorns.

Mark 4:18-19   Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

What matters is eternal life, your daily relationship with God.  Let that be our focus.

One day, the final trumpet will sound, the last days will begin, and the day of the fulfillment of the Day or Trumpets will come, soon followed by the fulfillment of the other two fall feasts.  When?  Jesus said no man knows the day or the hour.   But I do know that God arranged for all of the fall feasts to be fulfilled on the very same day they had been observed for over a thousand years.  I can not help but think that God’s Trumpet will sound on the day he set aside for the blowing of trumpets. In 27 AD, that day was September 21, the day Jesus spoke of being raised on the last day.  This year, the Day of Trumpets (according to the Rabbinic calendar) will begin at sundown on October 2.  Listen for the shofar.  I’ll be blowing mine.

  1. First, you must know that the Hebrew word for the month, chodesh, is also the Hebrew word for the new moon.  They used a lunar calendar with months being either 29 or 30 days, the length determined by whether the new moon could be sighted or not.  To avoid seasonal drift, they inserted a leap month into their calendar every 2-3 years.  The need for a leap month was determined by the stage of ripeness of the barley crop every year.  If it was time for the month of Aviv/Nisan (the month in the spring for Passover), but the barley had not entered the stage of ripeness, then an extra month was added to allow the barley to mature.  (Remember that the first day of the week after Passover is the Feast of Firstfruits where the barley is harvested.)   When the Jews had no access to sight the new moon from Israel, they had difficulty with setting the calendar, so a calendar that calculated the months was established in 359 AD. A calculated calendar is still used today (except by Karaite Jews that still sight the new moon and ripeness of the barley in the spring as in ancient days.)  Today’s technology allows us to back-calculate new moons astronomically, enabling people to determine dates for events in Jesus’ ministry and has made this chronological study possible. 
  2. For more information on Passover, see https://swallownocamels.com/2024/03/31/march-29-27-a-d-behold-the-lamb-the-year-of-the-lords-favor-22/
  3. For more information about cleansing the temple, see https://swallownocamels.com/2024/04/10/april-10-27-a-d-jesus-cleanses-the-temple-the-year-of-the-lords-favor-25/ 
  4. For more information about the appointed times and the Feast of Unleavened Bread see https://swallownocamels.com/2024/04/17/april-11-18-27-a-d-jesus-celebrates-the-feast-of-unleavened-bread-the-year-of-the-lords-favor-27/
  5. For more information on Firstfruits, see https://swallownocamels.com/2024/04/23/april-11-18-27-a-d-jesus-and-the-appointed-time-of-firstfruits-the-year-of-the-lords-favor-28/

September 18, 27 A.D.  Jesus Walks on the Water #51

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 31 ———  Jesus Walks on the Water
Matthew 14:22-33 — Mark 6:45–52 — John 6:16-21

Jesus got the bad news about John’s death.  He wanted to go off by himself to grieve but ended up healing and teaching a large crowd and then performing a miracle to feed them.  

Matthew 14:22-23  Immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

Jesus made (not asked)1 the disciples get in a boat to go to the other side of the lake.  He finally gets some time alone and goes to the mountain to pray.

Matthew 14:24-25  …but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.  And in the fourth watch of the night…

You remember the last time the disciples made a night trip in a boat a few weeks ago.  The storm was so bad they thought they would die, but Jesus was in the boat with them, and he calmed the storm.  Well, the wind was against them again, and this trip should have only taken a few hours in the boat, but now it is the fourth watch (between 3-6 am).  They have been rowing a boat against the wind for 6 hours.  They are exhausted and getting nowhere.  Matthew tells us they are “many stadion.” (A stadia is about 600 feet2)   The sea is beating them down, and Jesus is not in the boat with them this time.  They are on their own.  During the last storm, Jesus said they had no faith, zero faith.  Jesus is now testing their faith.  Have they learned anything from the previous storm, from the last few weeks of teaching and miracles?   

Matthew is telling these stories to let us know how Jesus taught them what it means to be a disciple — a disciple of one who controls the wind and waves, one who always acts out of compassion, one who fills the needs of people when there aren’t resources.  A disciple must have the faith to do what is asked despite any circumstances.   So he made them get back in the boat and gave them another storm.  And the Bible doesn’t say they are scared to death- good, maybe they have faith now.  But the test is not over.

Matthew 14:26   But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.

So the wind and waves don’t scare them. But they see this figure walking on top of the water (this same water that is so churned up they can’t get anywhere).  And they are terrified again.

Mark 6:48-50   And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified.  But immediately, he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 

He meant to pass by them.  (Thanks for the smile, Mark.) In the last storm, Jesus was sleeping; this time, he was just out for a stroll.  What’s the message?  Don’t be afraid of storms.  Don’t be scared of ghosts.  What is the most common command in the Bible?  Do not fear!   

Matthew 14:28  And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came to Jesus.

Peter wanted to be a disciple.  Again, the goal of a disciple is not to know what the rabbi knows; it is to be who the rabbi is.  To do what he does.  To follow.  And this is not Peter’s brashness talking.  He wouldn’t step out of the boat unless Jesus told him to.  At this point, we would all say of Peter, “Wow! he sure has a lot of faith!”   I don’t see the other 11 disciples stepping out.  But keep reading…

Matthew 14:30-31   But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

What happened?  Jesus says Peter has no faith.  We talked last week about how Jesus defines “little faith.”  It is less faith than the smallest thing in their world, a mustard seed.  It is zero faith.  Jesus seems to say that you either have faith or don’t.  It is not a measurable commodity.  And here, Jesus says Peter does not have faith.  But let’s look at that scripture:

Luke 17:5-6   The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”   And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. 

The disciples thought faith was measurable and that you could get more of it. We know this because they asked Jesus for more faith. Then Jesus tells this parable that, at first, looks odd.

Luke 17:7-10  “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’?  Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?   So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

The story’s point is that the slave is just doing what he is supposed to do.  His position is to be obedient to his master.  And when he is obedient, he is not greatly rewarded for his obedience.  He is not invited to the table to eat but is expected to serve the meal. The master does not lavish honor and thanks on the servant; he is just doing what he is supposed to do.  And when the slave has completed his tasks he says: “I don’t deserve a reward; I have done only what was expected of me.”

What a strange answer to a request for more faith!  But wait, maybe it isn’t so strange.  What it tells us is that faith is not something I am given as a reward.  It is not something given as a sign of privilege.  Faith comes by obedience – and obedience is expected!  We are not obedient to God to earn a reward or honor.  We are obedient because it is our position to be obedient.  He is God.  We are not.  And God does not owe us anything for our obedience.  What God gives us, especially salvation, is not due to our obedience but out of his love, mercy, and grace.  

If you ask for more faith, God will not just go to his cabinet, get out a bottle of faith, and pour more on you.  He will simply give you more to do.  If you obey Him, you will discover that your obedience is the faith you desire.  To request an increase in faith is to ask for the opportunity to be more obedient.  The times in my life that I have felt my faith was the strongest was after I had been obedient to some difficult things.

You don’t need more faith; you just need to continue being obedient. The power to fling mulberry trees or mountains around is not dependent on the measure of our faith but on the measure of God’s power, which is limitless.  

Paul said that faith comes through obedience, in a much-misunderstood verse.  

Romans 10:17   So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God.

Paul is not saying that you get faith by reading the Bible.  This verse is only valid if you remember that Paul is a Jewish Rabbi.  To Paul, hearing is not just listening but obedience. Shema (Hebrew for ‘to hear’) means to hear AND obey.  So, in this verse, Paul says, “Faith is a result of hearing the word of God and doing it.  Faith is not the prerequisite for obedience but the result of obedience.  First, I am obedient to what God calls me to do, and by doing so, I discover that I can stand on his word.  That is faith.  Faith is impossible without obedience. If you do not obey God, you have no faith.

Peter steps out and stands on the water, but he ‘sees the wind’ and then starts sinking.  Of course, you can’t see the wind; you can only see the results of the action of the wind.  You can’t see faith either; you can only see the actions of faith  – because faith is obedience.)  What did Peter doubt?  He didn’t doubt Jesus; Jesus seemed to be just fine standing on the water waiting for him.

What is doubt?  There is no Hebrew word for doubt.  Why not?  The answer is in Genesis 3.

The serpent asks, “Did God really say that?  You won’t really die.  You will be like God, able to make your own decisions and decide for yourself.”  So Eve looks at the fruit, and to her, it looks good, so she weighs that against what God said, decides for herself, and is disobedient.  It is what makes sense to her.  She didn’t doubt God; she just decided that she was a better judge of what was best for her.  

The Greek word for doubt is ‘distazo.’  It comes from a root meaning ‘two.’  Peter looks at the wind and waves and how crazy this is. Like Eve, he weighs that against what Jesus has shown him and decides for himself.  He should have kept walking but stopped and considered the two options.  Is God right, or is my understanding of physics right?  He hesitates to walk any further while he tries to decide between the two viewpoints.  And he sinks.  

It is okay to ask God ‘why’.  It is not okay to wonder if God is telling the truth, if God means what he says, or if God is God.  What kind of arrogance does it take for someone to think they are smart enough to decide if God is right or wrong?  It takes Adam’s and Eve’s kind of arrogance, yours, and my kind of arrogance. This is the opposite of faith, and it is sinful.  When Jesus asks Peter why he doubted, he is asking why he stopped walking.  Doubt is hesitation; it is stopping your obedience to consider if God is right.  James said it this way:

James 1:6-8  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

I have to think James is thinking about the story of Peter on the water, comparing doubt to a wave in the sea.  Doubt is being double-minded, wavering between two worldviews.  

Let’s tie this all together.  Jesus is trying to teach these young men what it means to be a disciple.  Look at the world and have compassion for the people.  Don’t walk through the world with blinders on.  We pass by people who are hungry and homeless and depressed and sick and tired and hopeless without Jesus every day.  See the needs around you.  Then, take it to Jesus.  Pray to Jesus:  these people need help!  And Jesus will smile at you and say, “Good, you go help them.”  And then bring whatever you have to Jesus to solve the problem.  Even though there is no way your little can begin to solve a huge problem.  Bring it to Jesus; be willing to bring your all.  And Jesus will multiply it and give it back to you to hand out.  Don’t waver.  Don’t be double-minded.  Don’t hesitate on your obedience by stopping to consider how it doesn’t make sense.

It doesn’t make sense that you can feed thousands of people with five loaves and two fish; it doesn’t make sense that you can treat a hundred children with four antibiotics.  It doesn’t make sense that you can walk on water.  It doesn’t make sense that God would love us, despite our rebellion, that he would send his Son to suffer and die for our sins.   And the issue is not how strong your faith is but how strong the object of your faith is.  It is not the power of your faith but how powerful God is.  We don’t need faith in our faith, but faith in Jesus.  And faith comes by obedience.  

  1. The Greek verb for ‘made’ (the disciples get into the boat) is ‘anagkazo’, a very forceful verb, elsewhere in the New Testament translated as ‘compelled’ or ‘forced’.  It makes you wonder if the disciples might have hesitated to get back in a boat in the evening after their most recent evening trip that ended in a storm that scared them to death.
  2. The Greek stadia was a measure of length equal to 1/8 of a Roman mile or about 600 feet (or about 1 furlong for horse racing fans). This is the distance of two 100-yard football fields. Interestingly, the plural ‘stadion’ came to refer to the race track itself. The track at Olympia was 192 meters or one stadia. From this, we get the word ‘stadium’ to refer to the facility with the running track and then to any sports event.

September 18, 27 A.D.  Jesus feeds the Multitude #50

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

Week 31 ———  Jesus feeds the Multitude
Matthew 14:1-21 — Mark 6:14–44 — Luke 9:7-17 — John 6:1-15

We will talk about the only miracle Jesus did that is found in all four Gospels, one of the most familiar miracles, the feeding of the 5000.  But the context is important.  Matthew goes to a lot of trouble to ensure you know what happened before.  Jesus had sent the 12 out on their 3-week mission.  They have returned, but then Jesus gets some bad news.  John the Baptist’s disciples came and found Jesus to let him know John was dead.  And you know the story.  John was not guilty of any crime but preaching the truth.  Herod’s family conspired to have him beheaded at the king’s drunken birthday party.  

Matt. 14:1-12   At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.”  For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet.   But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod,  so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.   Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.”   And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.   He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

A corrupt government kills an innocent man.  We shouldn’t be surprised.  The kingdoms of this world will do what the kingdoms of this world do—lust, greed, power, revenge…..some things never change.

How does Jesus react?  His close cousin has died. He just lost a family member, and not only a family member but also the one who baptized him as his ministry began, the one who was preaching the same sermon he was preaching.  Not only has he just found out about this death, but it was a senseless, horrible murder by an evil king.  And not only was it murder, but this same evil king may now have his sights set on Jesus.   This is a lot.  What would you do?  Jesus needs some time apart from the crowds.  

Matthew 14:13   Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.  But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.

You know that the Sea of Galilee is just a big lake.  You can see the boats from the land, and the people see where Jesus is headed and follow him along the shore.

Matthew 14:14  When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd…

I can see it now. They get out of the boat. And, of course, it is Simon Peter who jumps out and tells the crowd to disperse because Jesus needs some time alone to mourn.  But Jesus does what Jesus always does, “and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”  He pushes aside his grief, has compassion on the crowd, and spends the whole day healing them.  

Matthew 14:15-21  Now, when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”   But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”   They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”   And he said, “Bring them here to me.”   Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, who gave them to the crowds.   And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.   And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

As I’ve said before, when you are studying a familiar story, list all the characters in the story and read it slowly from each of their perspectives.  So let’s imagine you are one of the disciples; say you are Bob the disciple.  Jesus ends up healing all day, and you realize the crowd will get hungry (and Jesus really needs some time off).  So you go and tell Jesus — “It’s getting late, we are out in the middle of nowhere, and we have no food. We need to send them home. And Jesus smiles because he is glad you recognized their need (good job, Bob, you were thinking about someone else for a change. Maybe Jesus’ compassion is rubbing off.)   And then Jesus says,  “They don’t need to leave, Bob. You give them something to eat.”  And you are thinking, uh… no, they do need to go because the only food we can find is one boy’s lunch.  So you try to talk some sense into Jesus because you don’t even have near enough money to feed half of these people, even if there was a place to buy food.   So you bring the five loaves and two fish to Jesus, expecting him to say. “Oh, that is all you have. You are right, Bob; we do need to send them away.“  Except that is not how it goes.  Instead, Jesus says, “Great! that little bit is just what we need!”  So Jesus told the crowd to sit down, and he took the tiny bit of food, looked up to heaven, said a blessing, broke the bread, and started handing it out to you to go and feed everyone.  (And you are thinking Jesus has lost it.)  But you start passing out the food to, say, the first dozen people, and you go back, and Jesus somehow has even more, so you take more and keep on giving it away, and every time you give it all away, you go back to Jesus, and there is still more.  Jesus has more than enough to take care of everyone.  Just imagine this experience!

But I don’t have to use too much imagination here because I have seen Jesus do something similar.  Jesus is still doing this.

For several years, I went with a mission group to Guatemala over Thanksgiving.  We spent a week doing medical missions in an underserved area of the country.  Many we saw had no access to medical care, and we were able to help a lot of people.  One difficulty of medical missions in foreign countries is getting permission to bring medications into the country.   We would typically need 30-40 large bins of medicine each trip to treat 300-400 patients daily.  That had never been a problem because, on one of their first trips, the team had treated a child they later discovered was a relative of the Minister of Health for the country.  This official had written a letter that we showed to customs at the airport on each trip, and they gave us a quick look and let us all through.  But this year, we showed them the letter, and they tore it up.

We did not know that the Minister of Health had been replaced in a government shake-up before our trip.  They confiscated all of our medicine.  We felt defeated.  We went to the missionary’s home to decide what to do.  We prayed.  God had brought us there, and people were counting on us.  The missionary told us there were four to five bins of medicine in his basement left over from the last trip there six months ago.  We went down to see what was there, but we weren’t optimistic because the previous trip’s leftovers were not likely to be what we would need, and it had been six months.  There wasn’t much there.  Some of the medicine was still in date.  There were some chewable vitamins, but they looked off.  Mike, our pharmacist, tasted one.  That is when we found out multivitamins with iron can rust.  We couldn’t use those.  I looked to see what medications we had for children.  There were four 10-day courses of antibiotics in powder form that were still usable and that we could mix and treat four children.  I knew I would see hundreds of children in a day and usually use 20-30 courses of antibiotics for children who have skin infections, pneumonia, or chronic ear infections.  We decided to proceed with the clinic as scheduled the following day and treat as many as possible.  

So, starting clinic the following day, I knew I had to be very careful only to give antibiotics when it was absolutely necessary.   There was only enough for four patients.  We arrived to see the usual long line of people already waiting for the doctors.  The second and third patients I saw were brothers who both had a chronic draining skin infection for weeks.  There was no way to avoid using antibiotics on them.  Then, a few patients later, a 6-year-old boy came in, and his mother said he hadn’t been able to hear for a month.  Both ears were filled with a raging infection.  If we didn’t treat him, he would probably permanently lose his hearing.  Now, one antibiotic left.  Several patients later, an infant with a severe cough is brought in.  Right lower lobe pneumonia.  Now, we are just 45 minutes into what is typically a 10-hour clinic with no antibiotics left.    Ten minutes later, there is another small child with pneumonia.  I write a prescription for them to carry over to the pharmacy tent.  It said, “Mike, I think we are out, but this kid really needs an antibiotic.  Maybe there is one I missed.  If you don’t have anything, let me know, and we will find some way to treat him.”  I keep seeing patients expecting Mike to come any minute to tell me what I already knew, that we had nothing.  Then I see a child with an infected bite and give him a prescription with the same instructions: “If you don’t have something, come let me know.”   That happened several more times, and I wonder if the government released our medicine to us.  So, I take a break and walk over to the pharmacy tent.  There is Mike and the five medicine bins, and they are still almost full.  “What are you giving the kids for an antibiotic?” I asked him.   Mike says, “Just write for whatever medicine they need.  I keep digging in the bin, and what I need is always there.  God was supplying their needs.  By the end of the day, I had seen over 150 children and given out 40 courses of antibiotics.  We started the day with four, and by the end of the day, there were still four antibiotics.  God is good.  We saw patients for two more days and never ran out of medication to treat anyone.

There is no problem in this world too big for God to solve.  If we seek him, he will give us the resources and tell us to handle it.  I say that not because I read it somewhere, not because I want it to be true; it is not just a theological concept to me.  I say it because I have seen him do it.   I have seen God respond, not just with the medicine in Guatemala, not just with the medical equipment in Ghana1, but over and over in our homeless ministry, supplying needs when we thought there was no way.

But when we tell of these miracles, one person in the room usually asks a question like this:  “If God can miraculously make food appear, then why is there hunger in the world?  Where is God when people are starving?  Why didn’t God stop 9/11?  Where was God when 6 million Jews were killed in Nazi Germany?”  You need to be able to answer these questions.  People who don’t know God will ask you these questions.  Are you ready to answer them?

If we ask God a question like, “Why didn’t you stop the holocaust?”  If you asked God that question, I believe he would answer your question with a question  (Didn’t Jesus frequently do that?)  God’s question:  Why didn’t you stop it?  You had the chance.   I can hear the echo of the disciples and Jesus.  “These people are hungry.  Don’t send them away; you feed them.”

Let’s talk about the history.  Are you aware of the Evian Conference of 1938?  The League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations) called a meeting of 32 countries and 24 organizations to solve the problem of the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees in Germany.  Germany had already stripped them of their citizenship and ability to live there (they could no longer own land or have a job.)  The persecution was ramping up, but Hitler wasn’t murdering them (yet).   So they met at this beautiful spa in France and discussed the problem for nine days.

Just before the conference, Hitler had sent word that he was all for the idea of all the Jews leaving Germany.  He even volunteered to pay to transport all of the Jews out of Europe, even using cruise ships.   Here is a translation of what he said:

“I can only hope and expect that the other world, which has such deep sympathy for these criminals [Jews], will at least be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid. We, on our part, are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries, for all I care, even on luxury ships.”

Unfortunately, before the conference, The United States and Great Britain had made a pact not to discuss the fact that the US would only take a paltry 30,000 Jewish refugees a year if the US didn’t bring up the fact that Great Britain was not going to consider letting any of the Jews go back to Israel (then under British governance.)  Anti-semitism ruled the conference just like it was ruling Germany.  The Australian delegate said, “As we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one.”  So 32 countries and 24 organizations sat around and talked for nine days and, ultimately, decided to ……. do nothing.  Only one of the 32 countries agreed to take more refugees, the tiny Dominican Republic, which agreed to take 100,000. The US refused to increase its 30,000 amount.

Chaim Weizmann (who later became the first president of Israel) said at the time, “The world seemed to be divided into two parts – those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not go.”   Four months later (November 1938), the persecution of the Jews got much worse.  Kristallnacht (German for ‘the night of broken glass’), when hundreds of synagogues and over 7000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps.  When word got back to the US that children were being orphaned and imprisoned, and under threat of death, two Senators introduced a bill to the US Senate (the Wagner-Rogers bill) to allow 20,000 more endangered children to enter the US above the current visa restrictions.  However, the bill was defeated in committee because people feared the refugee children would deprive American children of aid.  Most of those children would instead be murdered.

Since the Jews could not leave Germany (or the surrounding countries Germany was beginning to occupy), Hitler decided to implement his “Final Solution,” which started with death squads and then mass killings in concentration camps. The plan was for the slaughter of 11 million Jews across all of Europe.  The war stopped Hitler, but only after he had successfully murdered over 6 million men, women, and children.

All of those deaths were needless.  If the League of Nations would have acted, they could all have been saved.  All died because the countries of the world decided to do nothing.  I hear echoes of the disciples again:  “Jesus, these people are going to die.”  Jesus replies: “Don’t send them away. You help them.”   How dare we ask God where he was?  He gave us the chance to stop this.  We chose to do nothing and let 6 million innocent people die a violent death.  The kingdoms of this world are going to do what they do.  

So this feeding of the 5000 teaches us how God works.  From Jesus, we learn compassion.  We see someone hurting, in danger, or hungry, and we have compassion for them.  We bring the matter to Jesus.  He says great! You take care of that.  Bring me whatever you have.  But it’s not enough!  Just bring me what you have.  I will provide the resources for you to join me in taking care of it in ways you can’t even imagine.  I can even get the most wicked man on earth to pay for it, to put them on luxury ships.   

So let’s review— I want to connect some dots to another story you know:  A righteous man, John the Baptist, dies a violent death at the hands of an evil King.  Jesus grieves over his friend, his cousin, and co-worker.  He really needs some time away from the crowds.  Instead, he ignores his needs and has compassion for the people who need healing and are hungry.  So he takes the bread, blesses it, and gives it to his disciples.  

Fast forward seven months to the end of April, the day before Jesus, the righteous man, suffers a violent death.  This is the day he will grieve over disciples who will betray him and grieve his suffering to the point of sweating drops of blood.  The day Jesus ignores his own needs and gives his life on the cross to show compassion to the people who need salvation and freedom from the curse of death.  On that day, in the upper room, he again takes the bread, blesses it, and gives it to his disciples.

 Now stay with me because I think we have missed something here.  Then Jesus says:  “This is my body, which is broken for you.”  Despite my grief and the pain and agony I will suffer tomorrow, I choose to act in compassion towards you.  Then he says, “Do this in remembrance of me.”   And I have always heard this interpreted as ‘do the bread and the cup, the Lord’s Supper, as a way of remembering what Jesus did for us.’   And that is all well and good.  But for Jesus, a Jewish teacher, ‘remembering’ is not simply a mental process.  Hebrew doesn’t have thinking verbs.  Remembering implies doing something. When the Bible says, “And God remembered Noah” (Gen 8:1), the Bible does not say God had forgotten about Noah and the animals who had been in the ark on the flooded earth for 150 days.  It means God is  going to act.  And he does.  “God sent a wind, and the waters receded.”  In the Bible, remembering is not just thinking about something but doing something about it.

Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me.”  Do what, Jesus?  What is the action we should do?

If we want to honor the memory of Jesus, reenacting the bread and the cup is good.  But that is not the climax of Jesus’ story.  I believe Jesus had much more in mind for us to do than just reenact the bread and the cup.   He said, “This is my body which is broken for you.  Do This…”

In the feeding of the 5000, Jesus ignores his own needs to show compassion to the people who need healing and then are hungry. Despite what is going on with you personally, no matter what pain, grief, or suffering you endure, act out of compassion for the crowds who need healing, deliverance from evil, and salvation. 

Matthew 16:24   “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

“My body is going to be broken for you.  Do This.”

Paul said it this way:  

1 Corinthians 10:16  The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 

We are not students in a classroom; we are not just observers. We must join with Jesus, partner with him, and participate in his sufferings—that is the cup and the bread.

If you read the Gospel of John, you will see Jesus’ last teaching before his crucifixion.  John 13-17  are four chapters of teaching Jesus does in the Upper Room at the Last Supper.  Jesus makes it very clear to the disciples that they will suffer.

John 15:20   If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. 
John 16:2  They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

And all the disciples (but Judas) are persecuted, and all but one die a horrible martyr’s death.

Paul, sitting in prison, says in Philippians, “I have lost everything, but I count everything I used to value as rubbish….. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share (partner) his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”

My body is going to be broken for you.  Do This.

What did Matthew list as Jesus’ final teaching before the Last Supper?  

Matthew 25:34-36   Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’  

My body is going to be broken for you.  Do This.

Paul warns us to take the Lord’s Supper seriously.

1 Corinthians 11:27   Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 

For years, we read that in the King James Version, which says, “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.”  So, people got the idea you had to be worthy.  You had to ensure you didn’t have any unconfessed sin.  So, examine yourself to see if you are worthy.   Let me make that easy for you.  No, you are not worthy…on your own.  You are only worthy if Jesus makes you worthy by giving you his righteousness.  So the Lord’s table is for those who have been made worthy by Jesus, those who know him as savior and lord.  Don’t get me wrong; any time is an excellent time to search your heart and see if there is an unconfessed sin in your life.  Do that every day, not just before communion.    So what is the “unworthy manner”?

In Paul’s time, they were doing the Lord’s Supper as a complete meal, called a “Love Feast.”  Paul said (1 Corinthians 11:19, 21), “I hear that there are divisions among you…For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry; another gets drunk.”  For in Paul’s day, the wealthiest members of the church in Corinth provided most of the food, which could have been a wonderful expression of Christian love and unity towards the poor of the congregation.  But the poor had to finish their work before they could come to the meeting, and the slaves would find it very hard to arrive on time.   But the rich did not wait.  They ate and drank in their little groups, eating their own dinner, and by the time the poor arrived, there was little to nothing left.  “One goes hungry, another gets drunk.”  They were not eating in a worthy manner.  Instead of following Jesus’ example of putting others’ needs first, they are doing the opposite. 

To eat in a worthy manner is to examine yourself and see if you are following Jesus’ example of putting others first.  Are you denying yourself?  Are you taking up your cross?  If you want to do something to honor the memory of what Jesus did for us, he told us how in the Upper Room, right after he washed their feet:  “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you”  (John 13:15).   

The next time you partake of the bread and the cup, remember.  And the action of your remembrance is taking the bread of life to those in the world who are hungry, sick, or hurting – to those who need Jesus.  Do these things in remembrance of him.

1.  See https://swallownocamels.com/2024/07/10/july-9-27-a-d-a-miraculous-catch-of-fish-39/ 

September 8, 27 A.D.  Jesus Sends Out the Twelve #49

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

Week 30 ———  Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
Matthew 10:1 – 11:1 — Mark 6:7-13 — Luke 9:1-6

Mark 6:7-13   And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.   He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—    but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.   And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.  And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”  So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.  And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

Jesus is busy. There are crowds all around him, and he can’t minister to them all. A few weeks ago, Jesus stayed up all night praying. The next day, he appointed these 12 guys to be his core group. Mark tells us, “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach” (Mark 3:14). Apostles, from the Greek ‘Apostolos,’ which means one who is set apart and sent out.

Jesus realizes he has limited time left with these men.  The religious leaders are already plotting to kill him.  He will be leaving these disciples in about seven months, and they will be the ones to continue the ministry he started.  He has to get them ready to move from students to teachers, from the ones who watch and learn to the ones who do the work and teach.   These young men (all but Peter are less than 21) will need to become the core of his movement, the missionaries of his gospel.  And again, this will all happen in just seven months.   

Are they ready to be sent?   If you asked them, I’m sure they would say, “No way!” There is still so much they don’t understand.  As we saw last week, they still don’t understand that Jesus is God in the flesh, though he began to make that evident last week.  But Jesus sends them out on a mission.

When I say the word ‘missions,’ what do you think about? We think of sending missionaries or someone going to Africa or Asia.  The word ‘mission’ is from the Latin ‘missionem’ which is from the Greek ‘apostolos’ so it is also defined as the act of sending or being sent.   Isn’t it interesting that we immediately focus on sending others and supporting missionaries overseas rather than seeing ourselves as being sent?  Our default way of thinking is to consider missions someone else’s job. 

Jesus is asking them to fulfill the role of disciple. Being sent out is the next step in being a disciple.  Remember that we talked about a disciple as an apprentice.  An apprentice watches everything his mentor does; he listens to every word, and when he is ready, he begins to imitate his mentor.  Under the mentor’s close supervision, he begins to do what the master does: act like the master acts.  Then, one day, the training is over.  The master determines that the apprentice is ready to go out on his own and one day have his own apprentices.  So it is with discipleship.

We all know of someone or have heard of someone who seems to be a perpetual or career student.  They are always in school, degree after degree, but they never do much with them.  One of the most famous I’ve read about is Michael Nicholson.  As of 2016, he was 75 years old and held one bachelor’s degree, two associate degrees, three specialist degrees, 23 Masters degrees, and one doctorate.  At that time, he was still in school and took a part-time parking attendant job to get a tuition discount.  Or there is Benjamin Bolger, who is 49 years old and as of 2024 has degrees from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Boston College, Dartmouth, the University of Georgia, William and Mary, George Washington University,  Ithaca, Cornell, Georgetown, Oxford, University of Tampa, Ashland University, Brandeis, Columbia, Skidmore College, University of Michigan, West Virginia Wesleyan College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Cambridge, and Muskegon Community College.  That is a lot of degrees— but Mr. Bolger, what are you doing with them?

A professional student becomes full of knowledge but is empty of wisdom.  What are we after, knowledge or wisdom?  There is a big difference between those two things.  Knowledge is the facts and information you have accumulated.  Wisdom is an action.  It is the ability to put knowledge into action in a practical way.  Knowledge is what you know.   Wisdom is what you do based on that knowledge.  Charles Spurgeon once wrote:  “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”1

Biblical knowledge is obtained over time through the study of the Scriptures. Through this study, I hope to increase your Biblical knowledge.  But that is only the beginning.  What I really want is for you is not just to increase your knowledge but to increase your wisdom.  I want you to take this knowledge and do something with it. This is why I often end my teaching with some action step you can take or a challenge. Knowledge understands that the red light means stop; wisdom applies the brakes. Knowledge sees the patch of ice on the walkway; wisdom walks around it. Knowledge memorizes the Ten Commandments; wisdom obeys them. Knowledge learns of God; wisdom loves Him.  But there is this great disconnect we see in the church. Listening to someone teach about the scriptures is good—it increases knowledge. But if we don’t ever make a decision to change something in how we live because of what we have learned, then we fail to obtain wisdom.

Proverbs 2:6  ‘For Yehovah gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.’

The four years of medical school are a great demonstration of the difference between knowledge and wisdom.   The first two years of medical school are all in the classrooms and labs.  It is hard, and there is a lot of material thrown at you at a rapid pace.  Those two years are all about gaining knowledge.  But then the third year comes.  And suddenly, you aren’t just a student sitting and learning.  You are expected to apply the knowledge gained during the first two years to practical use in treating actual patients.

 As a medical student or resident, someone is usually looking over your shoulder, making sure you do the right thing, but you are doing the work.  The mantra in that part of med school is “See one, do one, teach one.”2  This phase originates with William Stewart Halsted, one of the four founding doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Halsted firmly believed that you don’t understand something until you have experienced it and then done it yourself.  This is the core of the Hebrew meaning of knowing.  You don’t know something until you have experienced and participated in it. 

The first few years in the classroom in medical school are filled with anxiety.  There is a lot of pressure to do well, and examinations are often brutal.  But when you enter the hospital, the hands-on portion of medical school, the anxiety level dramatically increases.  You are assigned a number of patients.  You are the first to talk to them, examine them, and try to find out what is going on to make a diagnosis. You must order the proper tests and labs to confirm your diagnosis.  You report to your resident, the more experienced doctor overseeing you, and they either agree with you or tell you that you are missing something important and ask you why you are trying to kill this patient.

It was my first night in the surgery rotation at Grady Hospital in Atlanta.  We finished all the work and did our evening rounds on patients, where each student and resident on your small team would discuss each patient and how they were doing, what the plans were for them, and what to watch for during the night (so no one would die on your watch.)  It was about seven pm, and everyone would go home and be back at four or five the following morning to check on their patients and be ready to present them for morning rounds.  Everyone went home except the designated students and residents to stay overnight on-call.  And I had the first night on call.  Usually, there would be some surgeries to do overnight, emergency appendectomies, or some major trauma.  But on my first night in the hospital, there were no surgeries.  So, after we ate a quick dinner in the cafeteria, we went to the ER to learn how to sew up wounds.  In those first two years of medical school, we studied all the processes involved in wound healing.  I had the knowledge.   I have heard about some medical training programs where you learn to suture wounds by practicing on pigs’ feet, which you get from the grocery store.   Later, you practice more delicate work by skinning grapes and sewing the skin back on.  But no pig’s feet or grapes for us that night. 

 My supervising resident introduced me to Frank, a man who had gotten into a drunken brawl at a bar the night before and had been waiting in the ER for about 20 hours to be sewn up.  He had been beaten all about the head with a pipe but had been cleared of any other injuries, so he was put in the row of people waiting for stitches.  So, the resident set me up with the tools I needed and taught me about sterile procedures.  Then he put in a couple of stitches while I watched.  He then stood up and said, “You finish.”  He stayed and watched me struggle through the first two sutures, and then he was off to teach someone else.  182 sutures later (and 4 hours later), I was done.  Let me tell you, the last ten went in much better than the first ten (and looked better, too.)   There was much trial and error as I moved from knowledge to wisdom.  And that was the theme for the next five years through residency.

So, let’s bring this home.  Months ago, we talked about discipleship.  We are all called to be disciples, and we discussed the idea of discipleship like an apprenticeship.  Somehow, in the modern church, many people have gotten the idea that some people are called to be ministers, and some are called to be ministered to.  But God never intended anyone to sit in the pew and learn their whole life.   There are no professional students at the University of Jesus.  We should always be learning, but practical application begins quickly.  We are called for a purpose. 

Ephesians 2:10   For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are his workmanship; we are his creation.  And what did he create us for?  Not to sit, but to do good works.  Now, you don’t have to go out and find your purpose.  God already decided it.  He has prepared some works for you to do ahead of time.  Like the resident who found the patient, and laid out all the tools and sterile equipment that I would need, God has put you in the place where you have works to do.   It is all ready for us to begin.

God made us do these works and set them up for us.  It may be uncomfortable to leave the classroom and begin to apply what you have learned, but that is what you were created to do.  We can’t just sit here learning. We need to step out of the classroom into the world and begin the work. We already know what God wants us to do.

What is the first great commandment, Jesus?
“Love the lord with all your heart, soul, and strength.   Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Let me remind you that love is an action word.  Sorry, Hallmark, it is primarily something you do, not something you feel.  Our mission begins with loving our neighbor.  Jesus insisted on this mission they stay with their own people, their immediate neighbors.  So, I want to challenge you to go on mission to your neighbors.  Now, I will leave you to decide who your neighbors are, but Jesus said it is anyone you happen to encounter.  And the mission is to love them.  The small church I attend is very good at loving each other.  That is so important.  Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”  (John 13:35).   The next step is to take that into our greater community.  And it must be a personal ministry.  As important as it is to donate money, supplies, clothes, or coffee, that can’t be the extent of our mission work.

Shane Claiborne, in his book The Irresistible Revolution, said:

“When we get to heaven, we will be separated into those sheep and goats Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 based on how we cared for the least among us. I’m just not convinced that Jesus is going to say, “When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me,” or, “When I was naked, you donated clothes to the Salvation Army and they clothed me.” Jesus is not seeking distant acts of charity. He seeks concrete acts of love: “you fed me…you visited me in prison…you welcomed me into your home…you clothed me.”

We think of the church as a ministry, but often it is just “a distribution center, a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump stuff. Both go away satisfied (the rich feel good, the poor get clothed and fed), but no one leaves transformed. No radical new community is formed. And Jesus did not set up a program but modeled a way of living that incarnated the reign of God, a community in which people are reconciled and our debts are forgiven just as we forgive our debtors”3

It is essential to support missionaries financially and with prayer. It is very important to support our local ministries, like the Salvation Army, that reach people we don’t know. But Jesus is a very personal savior. He didn’t just send a donation of grace and mercy from heaven; he left his throne in heaven and came here to interact with his people personally.  

I will give you two steps:

The first step is to reach out to your neighbors.   Invite neighbors over for a meal. Now, if you don’t cook, you can go out to eat with them. You could spend time with these neighbors in other ways, but sharing a meal is easy because everyone eats. And there is something special Biblically about sharing a meal with others.  You could call them random acts of kindness; while they might seem random to others, they should be intentional to you. The object is to show your neighbors love by showing hospitality. 

If you trace the theme of hospitality through the Bible, you will see how important it is. God commends Abraham for his hospitality to strangers.  One of the main reasons the Bible says God allowed Babylon to conquer Judah was that they didn’t care for the widows and orphans and didn’t show hospitality to strangers in the land.  

In 1 Peter 4:7, Peter says, “The end of all things is at hand…”  If you thought the world was about to end, what would be at the top of your ‘to do list’?

1 Peter 4:7-10  “The end of all things is at hand, therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.   Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins.  Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

The world is about to end so “above all” (most importantly) love one another and show hospitality.  Hospitality builds friendships and relations.   It is a demonstration of the gospel.

The next step:   Invite neighbors or friends to discuss the Bible together.  Now, you may feel like you are not ready to do this.  You may not feel like you are equipped to do this.  Congratulations! Jesus’ disciples felt the same way.  You may not feel you know enough about scripture.  Remember that the disciples didn’t even realize exactly who Jesus was at this point.  You know more now than they did then.  But he equipped them, and he will equip you.

.Why do you think Jesus told them to take no money, extra tunic, or food?  He didn’t want them to depend on their own resources but learn to depend on him.  If they went out totally prepared, they wouldn’t learn the lesson that He would provide for them.  Similarly, if you feel like you aren’t fully prepared to do what God is asking you to do, then perfect.  Now, you will have an opportunity to see God work.  There are many excellent books and materials for group Bible studies. You don’t have to be the expert teacher. The group will study together, and everyone will teach each other.

We all have visions of what our life would be like.  These disciples did. And we make decisions every day in ways to make life the best we think it can be for us.  But God has a different vision of what life is, of what the good life is.  Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  Your creator has a bigger dream for your life than you do.

The Bible has a story of a very religious man who thought he was living life to its fullest.  But then God came and challenged his vision for his life.  God asked Jonah to preach to his people’s enemies in Nineveh.  But Jonah takes off in the opposite direction on a boat. And Jonah thinks he is running for his life, but he is running from the abundant life God wanted for him.  God wanted Jonah to be part of the greatest outpouring of grace in the largest city in the world, the biggest revival ever.  But Jonah doesn’t want to give up on his own vision of his life.  Some disciples were fishermen and dreamed of big fish catches and better boats.  But Jesus had a bigger dream for them: to change the world.  

You may think a great evening this week would be to sit in your recliner with some snacks and watch a good football game or sit on the sofa with some popcorn and watch a good movie.  But God has a bigger vision for you.  He wants you to be an influencer for him with your neighbors.  If you have ever thought your life was boring or stuck in a rut, I have good news for you: God wants abundance in your life.  He wants you to have a hand in bringing people into His kingdom, bringing joy to someone who needs it, and living your life like you are the very image of God, demonstrating His love and grace as you live day to day. 

Jesus says, “Follow Me.”  He is asking these young men to take the next step.  Jesus is asking us today to take the next step.  Begin by showing hospitality to those around you.  Find a neighbor you don’t know well, or that person you always run into somewhere, or that person you used to be close to but haven’t talked to in a while, or the neighbor you don’t know, or the grumpy old guy you know who has no friends because, well, he is a cranky old guy.  Then, consider if God is calling you to begin a group of people who can look at the Bible together.  

Jesus is sending us out into the world.  It is time to take our knowledge and turn it into wisdom.  I challenge you to take that step this week.

  1. Spurgeon, C. H.  From the sermon “Christ and the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  Delivered 5/17/1857 at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
  2. Cameron, J. L.  “William Stewart Halsted, Our surgical heritage.”  Annals of Surgery, 1997;225:445-8.
  3. Claiborne, Shane.  The Irresistible Revolution.  Kindle Edition. Location 1320.

August 24, 27 A.D.  Do not be Afraid Any Longer #48

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 28 ———  Do not be Afraid Any Longer
Matthew 8:18 – 9:26  — Mark 4:35-5:43 — Luke 8:22-8:56

(**Note: Portions of the following are from a sermon done on 9/1/2024.  Some material is repeated from #47, “Jesus Calms the Storm.”)

Last week, we discussed the woman with the issue of blood that touched Jesus.  We talked about what a busy week that was for Jesus.  He calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee; he cast demons from a man on the Gentile side of the Sea.  He was teaching in Capernaum when he was interrupted by a man whose daughter was dying, and on the way to heal his daughter, he was touched by a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. 

This week, Jesus sent the disciples on a three-week mission trip to the Galilee. We know that during those three weeks, Jesus spent time teaching and healing near Capernaum, but because none of the disciples were around, we don’t have any specific accounts of that time. Next week, we will talk about Jesus sending out the 12, but today, I want to go back and look at some of the previous week’s events that we didn’t cover.  

Mark 4:35-41   On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”…  And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.   But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”   And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”  And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

The Sea of Galilee is not actually a sea but a lake.  It is about 8 miles wide and 13 miles long.  But the area’s unusual geography can cause this small lake to have waves that were measured at 10 feet in 1992. Shirley and I had a chance to witness 4-5 feet waves on our first trip to Israel.  Our boat trip was canceled, and looking at those waves, I didn’t want to be out there.   Here is a picture of waves on the sea looking from the eastern side to the west.   The steep northern slope of Mt. Arbel is visible on the other side of the sea.

The boats used on the Sea of Galilee in Jesus’ day were not large.  A drought in 1982 exposed the hull of a first-century fishing boat that had sunk and was covered in mud.  It is in a museum on the shore now.  This is what it would have originally looked like:

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

So, the 13 of them are in a small boat in a storm with large waves.  Some of these men with Jesus were professional fishermen.  They were very familiar with this boat and this lake.  But the storm that blew up that night was especially violent.  Mark tells us that the boat was filling with water, and Jesus was sleeping in the stern.  They wake Jesus, saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Or “How can you possibly be sleeping when we are all about to die?”  They were scared to the point of death.  They were scared of death.

Have you ever been scared of death?  I have.

We were on a flight, and the turbulence got bad. The plane was bouncing all over and, at one point, dropped straight down about 10 feet. Many were getting sick and using those bags in the seat back pocket. And everyone, if they would admit it, was scared.

One winter night, we were on our way to Memphis on a two-lane road and hit a patch of black ice. Our vehicle began spinning round and round, and an oncoming car was heading toward us. We had no control of the car. We were all scared.

I was lying on a stretcher one morning alone in a room before a major surgery.  As a medical student and resident, I saw many things go wrong in the Operating Room.  I had seen very healthy people not wake up after simple surgeries. I saw a young man have a severe reaction other than anesthesia and never make it to the first incision.  And for a few minutes, fear swept over me to the point I broke out in a cold sweat.  

But I would bet that everyone here in this room has had a few times in their life that they were scared they were about to die.

These disciples thought they were about to die.   And what was Jesus doing while they were scared to death?  Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat.  They couldn’t imagine how Jesus could be sleeping when they were scared to the point of death.  But Jesus couldn’t imagine how they could be so concerned about a storm when they were in the boat with God.

He asks them, “Why are you afraid?”   What kind of question is that? Are you kidding?  As Max Lucado says, it is like one swimmer asking another, “Why are you wet?”1  

“And Matthew records that he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”  In Matthew 17:20, Jesus describes ’little faith’ as faith less than the smallest thing he can show them, a mustard seed, so ‘little faith’ means no faith at all.  That is how Mark said it in the passage we just read: “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”  They had “no” faith.

 Why did Jesus say they had ‘no faith’?  Because, at this point, they really don’t understand who Jesus is.   Oh, they have seen him perform miracles and heal people.  But they knew the stories of prophets in the Bible who had done such things.  They thought he was a great prophet, perhaps even the Messiah.  But they didn’t have the full knowledge of who Jesus was.

God spoke the sea into existence. They are in the boat with the creator of the sea, and they don’t know it.  They don’t yet have that understanding, or, more importantly, they don’t have that relationship. Remember that understanding or knowledge in the Bible means relationship.  You don’t know something until you experience it for yourself.  They knew a lot about Jesus.  Some of them have been with him for months. They know him as a great teacher, prophet, and healer.  They know him as a great man of God — but they don’t yet know him as the man who is God.  And that is all the difference.  

There are a lot of people today who are, well, in the same boat.  They know Jesus as the man in the New Testament who did miracles and taught.  They may have sat in church for years and heard stories after stories of what Jesus did.  They may be church members, give money to the church, or hold office there.  But none of that will help when the time comes when you are scared to death.  You must have knowledge through a relationship with Jesus as the Son of God.  Unless you know him as your personal savior, then you have no faith.  As Billy Graham often said, there will be a lot of surprises on the day of judgment for people who thought they were good with God because they did all the right things, but then Jesus said, “Depart from me.” And why does Jesus tell these people to leave?  “For I never knew you.”  On the day of judgment, either you have a personal relationship with Jesus or you don’t.

But at this point, these disciples have zero faith.  But this week, Jesus is going to challenge their thinking. If they thought of him as just a prophet, he will show them how he calms a storm and later raises the dead. 

For you see, faith is trust built up through experience.  Our faith grows as we witness God’s trustworthiness.  God sees us through something, and our faith grows.  God keeps his promise, and our faith grows. This is one reason it is so important to study the Scriptures.  In them, we see the long history of God being faithful to his promises.  We learn more about God’s trustworthiness through the people’s experiences with God in history.  Perhaps we won’t have to learn every lesson for ourselves the hard way.  This is why sharing our walk with God with the people around us is so important.  Our faith can grow through each other’s experiences by telling the stories of God’s faithfulness.  We don’t spend enough time telling each other our stories.  With whom are you sharing your stories of your walk with God?

But these disciples are not there yet.  They have no faith so they are scared to death in a storm.

Then Jesus, who in the beginning, spoke the water into existence, calms the storm with a word.  The storm is over; the waters are calm, and the danger has passed.  So now the disciples should be relieved. But Luke tells us that they are afraid.

Luke 8:25  And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

What are the disciples afraid of now?  They had seen Jesus do miracles before, but he just turned off the forces of nature like we would flip a light switch. They were amazed and confused after this awesome display of power.   Who is this guy?  I imagine the rest of that boat trip was really quiet.   There were prophets of old who could heal or do miracles, but this controlling nature is God-stuff.  Whatever they thought of Jesus before has been challenged.  Just who is this man that speaks and the world obeys him?  Who is this guy who has the power of God himself?  And honestly, they are scared of the answers to those questions.

But the boat arrives safely, and we continue:

Mark 5:1-20   They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.  And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.   He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.   Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.   And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.  

 The Bible doesn’t tell us how the disciples reacted to this, but don’t just read the words; picture them in your mind.  This man who is so strong no one can subdue him, strong enough to break chains and shackles, sees Jesus from afar and comes running out of a graveyard towards them, and he is naked.  Imagine how the disciples felt.  How do you think they reacted?  Were they afraid?  Did some of them start running toward the boat?

 “And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”  

The demons know something the disciples haven’t figured out yet: Jesus is the son of the most high God.  And they are terrified of Jesus.   They should be afraid, for they stand in opposition to God. James, in his discussion about belief without the obedience of good works, said it well: (James 2:19) “The demons believe [there is one God] and they tremble.”  

“For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”   And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”   And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.   Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,  and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”   So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

“The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.   And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.   And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.   And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”

This man was possessed by many demons.  This whole area lived in fear of him.  But Jesus comes and heals the man; he casts out the demons, and then we see him clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.  So, how do the villagers respond?  Well, of course, they throw a big party.  They celebrate that this scary man is not scary anymore.  They celebrate that Jesus has healed one of their own.  Nope.  “They began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.”  They were no longer scared of the man; they were now afraid of Jesus.  Just like the disciples in the boat, they went from fear of a situation to fear of Jesus because they, too, didn’t understand who he was.

As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him.  And he did not permit him…

Notice the difference between the villagers’ and the healed man’s reactions.  The villagers beg Jesus to leave.  The man who was healed begged to stay with Jesus.  What is the difference?  It is faith built on experience.  This man has seen firsthand what Jesus can do.  He has experienced the power of God.   And this experience is the difference.   He is the only one in these two stories that gets it.   So, he wants to stay with Jesus.  But Jesus refuses to let this man stay.  Is it because he is not Jewish?  No.  Jesus has a mission: 

“Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

Jesus just sent this man, the former crazy, naked, strong man living in a graveyard, to be his witness in the Gentile area of the Decapolis.  And in about three weeks, Jesus will return to the same area that he was asked to leave. And you can’t believe how different the people will react to Jesus.  He will be welcomed, and thousands will stay for days to hear him teach and be healed.  And how in the world is it possible for things to change so much so quickly?  Who or what made these people change their minds about Jesus?  We’ll talk about that in 3 weeks.

But for now, they were asked to leave, so they headed back in the boat to Capernaum.

Jesus is then teaching in Capernaum, but he gets interrupted by one of the synagogue leaders, Jairus, whose daughter is dying.  Jarius is afraid.  He fears for his daughter’s life.  Nothing strikes fear in the heart of a parent or grandparent than a child who is sick or in danger.  On the way to Jairus’ house, Jesus is interrupted by the woman we talked about last week who is healed by touching the tassel on his garment.  While Jesus is talking to her, a man comes to Jairus and says, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”  Jairus’ heart sank.  His worst fears are realized.  His daughter has died—a parent’s worst moment.

But then Jesus interrupts:

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

And Jairus stands in the middle between these two. Between horror on one side and hope on the other.   Between disaster and diety.   Between fear and faith.  Have you lived in that moment between the two?  That’s why Matthew is telling these stories.  In this troubled world, we are often thrust into the middle between fear and faith.  What are you afraid of?

The Greek word for fear in the New Testament is ‘phobos,’ the base for our word phobia.  There are currently more than 550 named phobias.  The four most common are: 1. Social Phobias (fear of crowds, social situations, speaking, etc.)   2. Fear of Animals (dogs, snakes, insects, or mice), 3. Claustrophobia (fear of closed-in spaces), and 4. Acrophobia (fear of heights).   However, how words are used changes over time, and this can cause confusion when reading what the Bible says about fear.  For example, if I asked you to quote a Bible verse about fear, you might say:

Proverbs 9:10   The fear of the LORD [Yehovah] is the beginning of wisdom.

And then I might ask you, “Are you afraid of God?”  Does that seem like an odd question?  These days, when God is pictured as a ‘kind old man’ or ‘your best buddy,’ it may seem strange.  But I remember hearing many “fire and brimstone” sermons as a child that made me very scared of what God might do.

The Bible is not telling us to be afraid of God.  As a matter of fact, the most common command in the Bible is “Do not be afraid.”  So what is Proverbs 9:10 saying?  Remember that the way words are used changes over time.  Think back to the days when people were ruled by kings who held absolute power over their subjects.  To ‘fear the king’ did not mean the same thing as to ‘be afraid of the king.’  To fear the king meant to be utterly loyal to the king, carrying the idea of awe and respect in the realization that this king has absolute power over you.  In contrast, to be afraid of the king was to be scared of what the king might do.  So “the fear of Yehovah” in this verse is about having absolute loyalty and obedience to God, with awe and respect.  

There can, however, be a good reason to be afraid of God, as Jesus implies:

Matthew 10:28-31 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

For those who oppose God (like the demons we talked about earlier), fear of God’s justice is warranted. This fear can lead some to repentance. However, contrary to my childhood experience of scary sermons, this should not be our primary tool for evangelism.

Now, we can see how the disciples’ reaction to Jesus in the boat differs from that of the people across the lake.  The disciples witnessed Jesus do more than any prophet had ever done before.  They have awe and respect after that display of power.  After learning that Jesus had cast out the demons from the man into the pigs, who ran into the sea, the villagers were scared of what Jesus might do next.  They were already missing 2000 pigs and weren’t happy about that.  These are two different displays of fear.

The difference in these reactions is significant.  This is the place Jairus was standing, between fear and faith. The difference is your worldview.  What kind of world do you live in?  

Skip Moen said it this way:

“There are two different worldviews competing for your allegiance.  The first is the world of constant familiarity.  It is a world of risk and fear.   It is the world of the nightly news where tragedy, risk and trauma are given prime importance.  This world is the world of security concerns, insurance protection, hedge funds and hurricane warnings.  It is the world of the terrorist, the thief, the con man and the kidnapper.  In this world, being afraid is an important component of capitalism.  We are taught to be afraid of bad breath, crooked teeth, wrinkles and out-of-fashion clothes.  This kind of fear produces all sorts of actions in attempt to reduce risk.  But in the end, this world is unpredictable, hostile and dangerous.  When I believe that the world is ultimately fearful, nothing I can do will actually overcome my dread of the future.  I will always confront “but what if”.

The second paradigm is God’s view of the world.  It is not based on fear.  It is based on the fact that God loves what He creates and that He can be trusted to manage His creation.  From God’s perspective, the only proper fear is the fear of Who He is.  That fear is designed to bring me to repentance and seek Him.  That fear produces faith in His grace and trustworthiness.  When I believe that the world is actually in the hands of an almighty God Who loves me and has my best interests at heart, I no longer dread the future.  In fact, I can give up trying to manage the consequences of my life.  I stop living with the myth of control and start living with the reality of submission.”2

One view says God is irrelevant and that we should all live scared to death of many things. The other says God is sovereign—in complete control of everything—and we need not be afraid of anything or anyone, but we are to be loyal, obey, awe, and respect God alone.

The airplane drops 10 feet, and  I get scared.  Oh, me of ‘little faith.’  
The car spins on the ice, and I am afraid.  Oh, me of ‘little faith.’
I imagine everything that can go wrong as I enter surgery, and I become frightened. Oh, me of ‘little faith.’   

Moen said, “Fear produces faith.”  How does that work?   

The airplane drops, but we are all okay. The car spins, and through a miracle of God, the ongoing vehicle doesn’t hit us. On the day of my pre-surgical fear, God’s voice comes to me as clear as you hear me now and says, “Don’t worry; I’ve got this. ” Though I could look at my previous fears as failings, God used them as experiences where my faith could grow.  

Aristotle said the thing to be feared most is death because it appeared to be the end of everything.3

Mark 5:36  (NASB)  But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.”

Hear the good news as Jairus did!  You do not need to be afraid any longer!   You do not need to fear storms, weird people in the graveyard, or even death.  (Aristotle was wrong about this and pretty much everything he ever said.)  Jesus said, “Fear not anything that can kill the body.”  You aren’t leaving this earth until Jesus says so.  This past week, my friend Danny died.  He was a wonderful man of God who spent his whole life as a teacher and coach, influencing young people for Jesus.  Let me tell you, Danny did not fear death because Danny knew Jesus, not just knew of him, but had an active relationship with him. 

The most common command in the Bible:  “Do not be afraid!”
The most common promise in the Bible:  “I will be with you.”

Do you see how these fit together?  We do not need to be afraid because God is with us.  This is the message of the Bible from beginning to end.

Psalm 23:4   “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.”

John 14:1-2  (NLT)  “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.  There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am.

God has promised to always be with us.  We need not fear the storms because Jesus is in the boat with us.  We need not fear death because when we leave this world, God does not abandon us – He will be with us forever.  

Hebrews 12:1-2  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Danny outran me to the Father’s house.  I will see him soon.  There is plenty of room.  I look forward to seeing you there also.

  1. Lucado, Max.  Fearless.  Page 6.
  2. Moen, Skip.  “Do Not Fear”  February 9, 2005
  3. King, R.A.H. Aristotle on Life and Death. 2001.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We find it here:

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

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

The passage in Numbers 15 continues:

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

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

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

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

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

Here is the Hebrew language with number equivalents.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So Jesus tells her:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

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

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

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

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

The boat originally looked like this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then there is the seed sown among thorns.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you willing?

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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
















































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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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





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