worship

August 5 –  The Beggar at the Gate — Acts #7

David Chupp Acts , , ,

August 5 –  The Beggar at the Gate — Acts #7
Acts 3:1-10

Acts 3:1-10   Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter and John are going to the Temple for the 3 pm service of prayer and sacrifice.  And they encounter a man who has been paralyzed since birth.  

There is much discussion among theologians about exactly where this man was begging.  Luke tells us that it was at the gate to the temple called the “Beautiful Gate.” A gate is an excellent location if you were a beggar.   It’s a place where many people would have to pass by.  But no other sources except the scriptures use the term “the gate called Beautiful”.   There are eight gates by which to enter the 36-acre Temple Mount, and then several more to enter the inner courts of the Temple.

Many place the “Beautiful Gate” as one of the inner gates.  The historian Josephus describes a magnificent gate made of fine Corinthian brass and plated with gold and silver, so heavy it took 20 men to move the doors.  But experts differ on whether this inner gate was the entrance to the court of women or the gate from the court of women to the court of Israel.

But the scripture we read this morning lets us know that neither of these gates within the temple could be correct.   Because this was no ordinary man, he was lame from birth.  His legs had shriveled from disuse and were twisted and disfigured.  He was not allowed to go into the temple like other men could because he had a defect.

In Leviticus 21, there are requirements for a priest who could make offerings at the altar or enter the holy place:

Leviticus 21:16-19   And Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand…

And the list goes on.  But the first mentioned is the blind and lame.  Now these ‘blemished’ priests could do other priestly duties, but they could not approach the altar or the holy place.  Just as the sacrifices had to be unblemished, so too did those offering them.  That rule only applied to priests, but by Jesus’ day, many laws for purity intended for priests were made requirements of all people.  For example, in the Mishnah, a record of the Pharisees’ rulings, Mishnah Kelim 1.8 discusses that people with discharges of impurity could not enter the Temple Mount at all.1  

And we know those with the disease lepra could not enter the temple area.  And many add that people who were lame or blind were not allowed to enter the Temple Mount.2  (And the Rabbis’ scriptural basis for this comes from this passage in Leviticus and a rather odd interpretation of 2 Samuel 5:8)3.

So this lame man was likely placed daily at one of the primary entrances to the Temple Mount.  The primary entrance at the southern side of the Temple Mount was a massive double gate with elaborately carved arched ceilings in a tunnel that led up to the Temple Mount.  (Portions of these beautiful carved ceilings can still be seen today.)  It was the gate with the most traffic, so it was the best place to beg.  And this was as close as this lame man would ever get to the temple itself.  As he had no hope for healing, he had no hope of ever going inside.  So he is left begging at the gate, never able to go in and see the riches and grandeur inside.

Does this remind you of a story Jesus told?  I am thinking of the story of the “Rich Man and Lazarus.”  Lazarus was the beggar at the rich man’s gate, and it makes me wonder if the people in Jesus’s day didn’t see something in that story we miss.  Whenever Jesus’ listeners went to the temple, they would pass by many poor beggars at the gate who were never allowed inside to see the opulence of the Temple.  They may have seen this story as yet another condemnation of the wealthy religious officials who oversaw the Temple. 

There is another story in Matthew 21 that brings attention to the blind and lame who were not allowed in the Temple. After Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, he turns over the tables of the money changers and drives out the animals.  This is in Matthew 21

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

However, there is more to this story that we didn’t have time to talk about in April when we discussed it.  There is something else going on that caused Jesus to be fed up with the poor state of religion that day.  And there is something else that happens before the chief priests and scribes get mad at Jesus.  Let’s read the rest of the story in the following two verses:

Matthew 21:14-15. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant…

And the blind and lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them.   Jesus has the nerve to invite these unclean, blind, and lame people into the temple.  And he rewards their law-breaking with healing for which he is praised. At this point, the priests and scribes become furious.  But they are not the only ones angry.  Jesus was angry.  And now we can see why Jesus was so angry that day, and why he was moved to drastic action.  

Jesus is angry because they are taking advantage of the poor with their businesses in the Temple and because they leave the beggars outside the gate of the Temple, not only offering them no assistance, but also refusing them the opportunity to participate in worship.  It was the responsibility of the Temple to care for these people.  There were offerings designated for them.  They should never have to beg.  But instead of distributing these funds to those in need, the Temple officials devised ways to make themselves even richer while these beggars starve.

So on the day of his triumphant entry, Jesus enters the temple and passes by the blind and lame beggars who are starving because the temple rulers are hoarding the money donated in the temple and not using it to care for the poor.  Jesus sees this as he enters the temple, and the next thing he sees is the money changers and the animal merchants cheating the people, again enriching the temple rulers at the expense of the poor.  And Jesus is not going to stand for it.  He disrupts the money changers and drives out the animals, and then he invites the deaf and blind into the temple, where he heals them. 

About a year ago, we discussed what makes God angry.  Do you remember the first time in the Bible that God is described as angry?  It is when he tries to get Moses to lead his people out of Egypt.  At the burning bush, God told Moses that he saw his people, Israel, in their affliction, how the Egyptians were abusing them, how the Egyptians were killing their children, and God had compassion on them.  But five times, Moses refuses to go and lead the people, even though they are his people.  Even though Moses was one who, as a baby, was rescued from the Egyptians’ plan to kill all male children.  It is Moses’s lack of compassion for his own people and his refusal to help the afflicted that angers God.  

We discussed the New Testament story where Jesus was about to heal the man with the withered hand, enabling him to work and provide for his family instead of being a beggar.  But the Pharisees only see this poor man as a chance to trap Jesus if he heals on the Sabbath.  Jesus became furious with the Pharisees because of their lack of compassion for this man, more interested in their petty rules than in this man’s well-being.

 And on this day, He sees them taking advantage of the poor, refusing compassion to the blind and lame, and using His Temple to do these things.  They have turned his Temple into a den of criminals.  This is why the Temple is going to fall.  This is why God uses the Roman army as a tool in his hand to knock down every stone. God will not stand by and watch his people refuse to help the poor, the needy, the ill, the sick, while they are inside the walls pretending to worship.

With this background, let’s look at today’s story again. Peter and John approach this lame man who is begging.  He sees them.  Alms!  Alms!  It comes from the Greek word for mercy.  Now they could have passed by him just like everyone else had passed by him so many times.   He has been there every day for 40 years.  Perhaps they had passed by him before.  But not today.  Today, they “directed their gaze at him”.   This man was right in front of their eyes, but was unseen by most, overlooked, and ignored. 

It is a wonderful thing to be seen, to be noticed. There are plenty of people in this world who feel invisible, overlooked by everyone.  In moments of distress, we’ve all felt like no one understands what we are going through, that no one truly sees our dilemma. But know that God sees you. When Hagar was mistreated and abused and fled to the wilderness, God sent an angel to her to tell her that he saw her in her distress and that he was looking out for her.  She called him El Roi, “the God who sees me.”   God saw the affliction of his people in Egypt and delivered them.  God saw us in the hopelessness of our sin and sent Jesus to deliver us. No matter how invisible you think you are to the rest of the world, know that God is still El-Roi. He sees you and desires to heal you, to deliver you.

And if we are his children, we need to learn to see as God sees.  We need to seek out those the world has tossed aside, those deemed unfit—those seen as unproductive or damaged.  We need to see the forgotten at the gate.  If Jesus has given us a new heart and God’s Holy Spirit lives in us, we cannot just pass by those in need.

Peter and John looked at this man.  And they asked him to “Look at us.”   Where had the man’s attention been?   Was he searching the crowd for someone who appeared wealthy enough to give him some money?  Was he just hoping to make eye contact with someone to garner some sympathy?  Or was he just so defeated that his gaze never left the ground?  But he looks at Peter and John.  And you can almost feel his relief that finally someone has noticed him and will contribute so he can eat today.  

And Peter says, “I don’t have any money.”  Now you can almost feel his disappointment.  Just my luck, he thinks to himself, the one person who pays me any attention, and they are broke.  But look at what Peter actually says.  In the Greek construction, it is:  “Silver and gold do not exist through me.”  Peter is saying, “What you are begging for is of no importance to me.  It doesn’t exist through me.” Peter has his priorities right!  This paralyzed beggar doesn’t see it yet, but what does exist through Peter?  God’s Holy Spirit exists through Peter, so Jesus exists through Peter.  Peter is Jesus’ hands and feet and voice in a world full of beggars, and this beggar is about to see Jesus through Peter.  But I get ahead of myself.  

At this point, the beggar realized he wasn’t going to get what he was hoping for: money to buy food.  He has been begging his whole life.  40 years.  He had long ago given up hope that he would be healed.  He had long ago given up hope that he would ever be able to work and make his own money.  He had long ago given up hope that he would ever see the inner courts of the temple and be able to worship there.  Everyone who passed him by daily lived in a different world than he did.  His world had been upside down since he was born.

A few months ago, he had heard about this man called Jesus, a healer.  He had even heard that he had healed some people who were lame like him in the Temple.  He had hoped to have a chance to encounter Jesus, but he had missed him.  And then he heard Jesus was dead.  Now he is a man with no hope.  

But then it happened. Peter continues, Silver and God do not exist through me, but I am going to show you who does exist through me.  You are about to see the power of who exists through me. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  At the mention of this name, Jesus Messiah, Peter reached out his hand to the beggar.  And somehow, the man raised himself upright for the first time in his life.  Never had he ever stood.  And now, yes, not only could he stand, but he could walk.  And he could leap.  And his world turns right-side up for the first time in his life.

These two men, Peter and John, continued into the temple, but he sure wasn’t going to let them get away.  He was healed, and for the first time in his life, he too could enter the temple.  He stayed right with them.   And everyone he passed was shocked.  They had seen him for years with his misshapen, shriveled limbs, and how he was leaping and dancing about.  He was creating a scene.  And a crowd followed them to Solomon’s Porch in the Temple.  They were asking how it happened, and some people were praising the two men who healed him.   And the man Peter begins to preach to them right there. And next week, we will discuss Peter’s sermon and the response, but there is so much we need to see here.   

We don’t use the word ‘lame’ much to refer to people anymore.  You have probably heard it more often in the context of horses being lame.  But it is a slang use of ‘lame’ that has become more common in the past 50 years.  “That was a lame joke.”  What we have to see, before we move on, is that this story in Acts 3 is the story of “A Lame Man and a Lame Religion”.  A man who could not walk and a religion that does not work.  A man with useless legs and a religion that is useless.  We have to see where these first-century religious leaders went wrong so we can avoid making the same mistake.

Before Peter and John showed up, it was just another day in the temple.  Business as usual.  They were going about their usual schedule of worship and prayer services.  They were doing all the required sacrifices.   They were probably commenting on the great job the choir did on the psalms that morning.  And didn’t the high priest look especially nice today?  And we’ve got a pretty good crowd for a hot summer day, don’t we?  Business as usual.  Hey, look at us; we are doing God’s work here.  

But just outside the gates were those who needed mercy, those who needed compassion, those who needed healing. Those who needed to be seen.  This is not new.  God has dealt with this before.  Let’s go back 700 years before our story today—the time of Isaiah.  Let’s look at Isaiah chapter 1.  There is a verse there you will recognize. 

Isaiah 1:18  Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

But do you know the context for that verse?  Let’s back up to verse 11, and we will use The Message version:

Isaiah 1:11-18   “Why this frenzy of sacrifices?”  GOD’S asking.
“Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of burnt sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me, Whoever gave you the idea of acting like this,
Running here and there, doing this and that— all this sheer commotion in the place provided for worship?
“Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!  Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.  When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong.  Learn to do good.
Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.

And then comes the verse we know….

“Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.” This is GOD’S Message:
“If your sins are blood-red, they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson, they’ll be like wool.

There is a great sin they need to be cleansed of.  You see, the same thing is going on in 700 BC as is going on in Jesus’ day.   They are going through the motions of worship.  They are busy with sacrifices, busy with offerings, busy with praises, busy with prayers.  But God is sick of their worship services, because they are not busy with obedience.  They are not busy with compassion.  

Last week, we discussed what God really wants from us, and I asked the question, “What does God really want?”  The answer: obedience.  Today, from our story of the lame man in Acts 3 and now from Isaiah 1, we see what else God wants from us: compassion.  God wants us to have compassion for those who are poor, homeless, sick, and defenseless.

Why was God sick of their worship?   It is because they have a lack of obedience and a lack of compassion.  Look at verses 15-17 again and see the call to obedience and the call to compassion:

Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong.  Learn to do good.
Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.

Do you see that this is the same problem Jesus had with the temple leaders in his day?  God is serious about obedience and compassion.  This is the reason that Northern Israel was destroyed by Assyria in 721 BC. This is the reason that Judea was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BC. This is the reason that the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. And every day up until the Temple was leveled to the ground, they were performing useless sacrifices and praying useless prayers — pretending to worship a God that would not listen to their prayers or pay attention to their worship.

It does not matter how we worship.  God does not care if it is contemporary or traditional.  God does not care if worship is in a vast, beautiful sanctuary or a tiny shack.  He does not care if there are 10 people there or 10,000.  God’s primary concern is not how good the music is, or how great the preacher is, or how nice everyone dresses.  He doesn’t care if worship lasts 30 minutes or 4 hours. What God really wants from your church is not what happens on the printed ‘order of worship’ and not what happens within the four walls of your sanctuary.

What does God really want from us?  Obedience and compassion for others. This is what Jesus said.  He tried to make it clear to us.  Remember, they asked him what the most important verse in the Bible was, and what was the greatest commandment?

Matthew 22:37  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

And what is God’s love language?  Jesus said:

John 14:15  If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

We reveal our love to God by our obedience to him.  And the second most important commandment?

Matthew 22:39 (quoted from Leviticus 19:18) Love your neighbor as yourself.

So, what does God want from us? First of all, God wants our obedience, and secondly, he wants us to have compassion.  This is the message that runs all through the Bible.

This man was laid by the gate for 40 years.  He saw thousands of people pass by.  But Peter and John that day didn’t just pass by.  And they didn’t just take a second to drop a coin in his bowl.  They had an encounter with him and became the hands and feet of Jesus to him.  They let the Holy Spirit within them be known to him.   It was Jesus who existed through them that day, not silver or gold.

How many people do you pass by?    How many do we not even see?  We worship the God Hagar called “El-Roi,” the God who sees.   If the Holy Spirit is within us, we should see as God sees.  And God became blind to their worship because they were blind to the poor around them.

I pray God will open our eyes to the beggars at our gate, that we may meet their needs and invite them in to relationship with us and into worship with us.   I pray that our compassion would take the form not just of a few dollars in their pocket but in the gift of the presence of God in their lives.  Because, like the beggar at the gate, they think what they need most is money, and we can fill that need.  But we can give them more.  We can give them Jesus through our love and compassion.

This week, I challenge you to follow the example of Peter and John.  Do not be a passerby.   See the needs around you and then reach out to fill the needs.  Be obedient.  Be compassionate.  That is what God really wants.

1.  The Mishnah is a collection of oral teachings of religious scholars that was finally composed in written form in 220 AD, though the teachings themselves dated much earlier. (The Temple was destroyed in 70 AD.)
2.  Razafiarivony, Davidson.  “Exclusion of the Blind and Lame from the Temple” in The American Journal of Biblical Theology.  Vol 19.  August 26, 2018.
3.   2 Samuel 5 has the story of King David conquering the city of Jerusalem.  The inhabitants (Jebusites) taunted David by telling him the city was so well fortified that they let the blind and lame guard the walls.  David says in 2 Samuel 5:8, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.”  And the narrator adds, “Therefore it is said, ‘The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.’” Indeed, David did not hate men because they were blind and lame, but because they were Jebusites.  And we know David went out of his way to show great care for Mephiboseth, a descendant of Saul who was lame and lived in David’s house.  Nevertheless, that verse was used as proof that the blind and lame should not enter the temple.

May 18-24, 27 A.D.  The Samaritan Woman at the Well- The Year of the Lord’s Favor #32

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 14 ———  The Samaritan Woman at the Well
John 4:5-42

Several stories in the Bible begin with a man meeting a woman at a well. This setting is where Rebecca is found as a wife for Isaac, where Jacob meets his future wife Rachel, and where Moses meets Zipporah whom he will marry. All of these stories all end in marriage, but today’s story is different.

You have probably heard several sermons on this story.  I have, and they all pretty much go the same way:  The disgraced, sinful woman encounters Jesus, and he reveals her sin, and she comes to believe in him.

Here is a typical rendering, from ‘Got Questions Ministry’ “What we can learn from the woman at the well”:

“…she was an outcast and looked down upon by her own people. This is evidenced by the fact that she came alone to draw water from the community well when, during biblical times, drawing water and chatting at the well was the social highpoint of a woman’s day. However, this woman was ostracized and marked as immoral, an unmarried woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men. The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves us in spite of our bankrupt lives.”

And another traditional view from John Piper, in his sermon titled: ‘God Seeks People to Worship Him in Spirit and Truth’:

“If people are spiritually asleep, you have to shock them, startle them, scandalize them, if you want them to hear what you say. Jesus was especially good at this. When he wants to teach us something about worship, he uses a whore.”

That is the traditional interpretation.   Today I want to challenge that interpretation.

Forever this story has been read with the assumption that this woman was of ill repute.  One of my Hebrew teachers, Eli Lizorkin, wrote a book in 2015, on the gospel of John. In the chapter on John 4 he questions that presupposition.  Then this past week, I read a book by Caryn Reeder that focused on the problems with the traditional approach to this woman (and many other women in scripture.)

So, let’s take a new look at this story.

The location is Sycar, a village near Shechem, where Jacob’s well was. This was one of the first pieces of land in Israel owned by the Hebrews, and it is where Joseph’s bones were brought from Egypt to rest. 

Joshua 24:32   As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem.

A divine appointment.

Jesus is waiting for her when she arrives at the well at an unusual time, noon.  Most people would have already made their daily trip for water in the morning. The suggestion is that she is intentionally avoiding others.  This had led pastors for centuries to say that she was a sinful woman, having been married multiple times and now living with a man out of wedlock.  These pastors describe her as shunned by her village.  This is a reasonable conclusion based on our modern culture.  But this story didn’t happen in our culture.  So let’s place the story back into its original setting.

Why all the marriages?   There are two ways marriages can end in Israel in the first-century culture: divorce or death.

In Jesus’ day, divorce was not uncommon, but only men could file for divorce, and they could do it for pretty much any reason.  This was a subject of much debate by the Pharisees of the day, and they questioned Jesus on his opinion in Matthew 19.1 One of the common reasons for divorce was that the woman could not bear a child.  There was no procedure for women to file for divorce.2  If divorced, a woman did not take anything from the marriage, including anything the husband had given them during the marriage.  They had the right to take the original dowery, but this often didn’t happen.  So many women left with almost nothing and no way to provide for their needs.   

Women in Jesus’ culture typically were married when they were 12 – 15 years old, and husbands were usually 10-15 years older.  With the state of medical care, accidents and illnesses would mean many would not live past their mid-30s.  As in divorce, if her husband died, the wife did not inherit anything from the husband’s estate; it all went to his heirs.  That included the family home.  She again only had the right to her dowery.  Often, this meant she had no place to live.  If she had an adult son, he might be able to care for her. Any younger children belonged to the husband’s family. So frequently, in a divorce or the death of a husband, the wife would lose almost everything, including her home and children.  

“The man you now have is not your husband.”  We jump to the conclusion (based on our prior assumption of her character) that she is living out of wedlock.  If she has had and lost five husbands, no matter the reason, she will unlikely marry again.  A single woman in this culture could not live on her own. Women who cannot marry seek refuge with some male relative who can help support them. She may be living with a relative or another man out of necessity.  We don’t know.3

One other thing has always bothered me about the traditional characterization of this woman.  If she was seen by her community as a ‘horrible non-repentant sinner’, how is it possible that she can run in the village bearing witness to the Messiah, and suddenly everyone follows her back to the well?  That seems unlikely.  If she, instead, was pitied by her community for her misfortune and depression, it is more reasonable that this sudden change of spirits would lead them to take the hike to the well to investigate. 

Given this culture and these uncertainties, you can certainly not jump to the conclusion that she is a sinful woman. How odd is it that sermons on this story seem to always focus on her sin when sin is never mentioned in Jesus’ conversation with the woman?   Jesus doesn’t identify her relationships as sinful, nor does he offer her forgiveness. Jesus does not ask her to repent or change her life. Elsewhere in the Gospel of John, we see Jesus freely discussing sin — the woman caught in adultery is told to “go and sin no more”.  He tells the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven.”  But the omission of any mention of sin here is striking.4

Remember, this is a shame/honor culture.  If you have read much of the Old Testament, you understand the shame of a woman who is not married and the even worse shame of a woman who can not bear children.  Whether this Samaritan woman is at fault for her prior relationships or not, her position is the same.  She lives in shame in her community, from either their accusations or their pity.  It seems Jesus doesn’t focus on why she is living as she is.  His concern is not who is at fault.  He looks past the blame and sees a hurting woman he can help.

How unlike Jesus we can be.  We are very quick to decide if we are willing to help people based on how much they deserve our help.  We are much more likely to support an innocent victim than we are someone whose bad behavior got them into a mess.  We have seen this over and over in our homeless ministry.  A father loses his job, and his family with three young children finds themselves homeless.  People rush in to help.  We get more offers for help for them than we can handle.  But a young man comes in the same day who made bad decisions and became involved with drugs and lost his home — that rush of offers never comes.  He sees the response that the churches have to the family with kids while he is ignored.  What does he learn about the church?  Some people deserve grace, and some people do not.  That is a poor reflection of Jesus.

People say, “He got what he deserved.”  That is a very common response.  But is it a Christ-like response?   One of my friends said about the young man, “He made his bed, now he has to sleep in it.”  How ironic. The problem is that right now he doesn’t have a bed to sleep in or a place to put one.  He may be at fault, but he is also in need.

We often reserve our mercy and grace for those we deem worthy. But aren’t we grateful that Jesus dispenses grace and mercy freely, even when we don’t deserve it? None of us can earn God’s grace through our actions. Isn’t it a comfort to know that Jesus offers grace unconditionally? I don’t know anyone who wants to stand in front of God at judgment and ask to be given what they deserve.

As we discussed last week, Jesus went out of his way to meet this woman. He drags his disciples down what they feel is a wrong and dangerous path to have this one encounter. They do not see these Samaritans as worthy of their attention or God’s love. But Jesus comes to bring her hope, healing, and salvation.

But first, he has to break through some problematic barriers.   Remember, the Samaritans and Jews are bitter enemies with a long history of strife.  No Jew would share a meal with a Samaritan or drink from a Samaritan’s vessel.  Remember the quote from the Mishna:

Mishna Shebiith 8:10  “He that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like to one that eats the flesh of swine.”

Jesus starts the conversation by asking her for water, breaking any expectations she might have had about this Jew.   He then turns the conversation to ‘living water’, which he can offer her.  She initially does not understand this concept.5  Jesus then reveals himself as a prophet, and she responds by asking him the critical question regarding worship for a Samaritan.  Where is the proper place to worship?  Remember, the Samaritans had been, at times, not allowed to participate in temple worship in Jerusalem.  They had built their temple on Mt Gerizim, which the Jews had destroyed around 130 years before this encounter.  So there is no temple for her to worship in.  And this woman could not go to the Jerusalem temple due to racial strife.  But even if she could, she would have been restricted to the outer court, the “Women’s Court” simply because she was a woman. Women had a lower place in the religious culture of Jesus’ day.  This was not God’s idea.  There is no Biblical command for a court of women in the Tabernacle or the Temple.  It is an invention of the culture of men.  Sadly, some religions still refuse to admit women to certain areas of the church just because they are women.  Further, this woman would have a hard time even going to the local synagogue because of her shame.  

So she asks, where is the proper place to worship?  This is an important question that we still fail to grasp today.  Jesus tells her that salvation comes through the Jews, but now worship can happen anywhere and has no racial restrictions. God is to be worshiped in spirit and truth. Jesus tells her that the day is here, that the location won’t matter, and that she will have full access to God. Can you imagine what this would mean to her?

It is not about where.  Not this mountain or that mountain.  Not this temple or that temple.  Not this church or that church.  It is not about methods.  Not this denomination or that denomination.  Not with this style of music or that.  Worship is our response to the awe and wonder of a mighty God.  The Hebrew word for worship is avad which is also the word for work.  Worship is not simply a state of mind; it is doing the work that God demands. We call the church building a place of worship.  If this is the only place you worship, then you don’t comprehend what Jesus said to this woman.  What Jesus is saying is that place doesn’t matter.  The place of worship is anywhere the spirit is.  Anywhere you go is a place of worship.  Your occupation, your home, your grocery store, your friend’s house – these are all places of worship.  Worship is what we do every day of the week as we walk in obedience to him. We call this a worship service. Do you see that?  Service is the work a servant does. But the community worship we do for one hour on Sunday morning is just a tiny part of our week.  The other 167 hours in the week we worship as we walk with God and do his work.  We do not work to earn salvation. We do the work of God because that is our way to worship every day of our lives.  Jesus said we show our love for him by following his commandments.  Worship is doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.  (Micah 6:8)

This is all too good for her to believe, even coming from a prophet.  ‘That’s nice, Mr. Prophet, but only the Messiah can reveal that truth when he comes.’6  And that is when Jesus tells her he is the Messiah.  She is the first person he reveals himself to.  And now she knows what is too good to be true — it has just become true.  She drops her water jars and runs into town.

Then Jesus speaks with his disciples an often quoted verse:

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.”  John 4:35

Do you understand the significance of the placement of this verse right here in this story?   Jesus speaks of a field ready for harvest, and then verse 41 tells us: “And many more believed because of his word.”  The field Jesus is talking about is a field that the disciples would have never considered to be their responsibility to harvest, never considered to be capable of harvest.  This was a field of enemies.  A field full of hated people.  They were people who had polluted their worship and were unclean.  But not to Jesus.  

We can not set limits on God’s view of the harvest.

Do you see the trouble Jesus has gone through to teach the disciples and us this lesson?

God’s original plan was for the Jews to be his kingdom of priests to carry his message to the whole world.  But they were not obedient to this plan.  Their view of God’s kingdom was too small.  Samaritans part of the Kingdom?  No way. We don’t even talk to them, we don’t drink from their water jars, and we don’t allow them to come to our temple.  They are our enemies.  A woman?  Are you serious?  We keep them in the outer courts.7  Now a Samaritan woman who is living in shame?  She is probably a horrible sinner.  She has no place in God’s harvest.

But Jesus says, “Yes!”  Samaritan’s? “Yes!”  Enemies? “Yes!”  Women? “Yes!”  Sinners? “Yes!”

How big is your view of God’s kingdom?  Is it for the poor, is it for the prisoner, is it for the Hamas member, is it for your neighbor who is rude or mean, Is it for the people who are public sinners as well as those who we pity?  This woman dropped everything and ran to tell people about the Messiah.  And here we sit, clutching our water pots.

  1. Note that Jesus in Matthew 19 is not giving an exhaustive teaching on divorce, but answering a specific question.
  2. An exception is that the very wealthy or highly politically connected women could, in certain situations file for divorce.
  3. Caryn Reeder notes in her book, The Samaritan Woman’s Story: Reconsidering John 4 After #ChurchToo, “The characterization of the Samaritan woman as an adulterer or prostitute exemplifies the dehumanizing, reductive sexualization of women in the theology and practice of the church. This pattern of interpretation endlessly repeats: Deborah and Jael, Bathsheba, Mary Magdalene, the woman who anoints Jesus in Luke 7: 36-50. These women (among many others) are categorized and defined on the basis of gender and sexuality.”
  4. And the centuries of male-dominated church leaders’ insistence on proclaiming the sin of this woman is even more striking.
  5. It is interesting to compare this one-on-one conversation with Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in the previous chapter.   Nicodemus is a leader of the Jews, a great teacher, and held in high esteem by the community.  She is of the lowest social status.  She is not even given a name.  She encounters Jesus in the middle of the day while Nicodemus comes at night, and Jesus says a lot to him about the light and the dark. They both initially have trouble understanding Jesus’ symbolism (born again, living water.)  But in a surprising twist, Nicodemus says little in his conversation with Jesus, while this woman holds her own.  And this unnamed Samaritan woman becomes the model for us to believe and witness, not the great Pharisee, Nicodemus.
  6. Since the Samaritans only had the first five books of the Bible, their primary prophecy on the Messiah was Deuteronomy 18:18 which refers to a prophet like Moses that will come and speak the very words of God.
  7. “It is frighteningly easy for a woman in the church to absorb a message that she is lesser, inferior, and lacking in some way.”  Lucy Peppiatt, in Recovering Scripture’s Vision for Women.

April 28-May 4, 27 A.D.  The Attitude of John the Baptist- The Year of the Lord’s Favor #29

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

Week 11 ———  The Attitude of John the Baptist
John 3:25-30

We continue to follow Jesus’ 70-week ministry. He was baptized on February 16, went into the wilderness for 40 days, returned to be with John the Baptist, and then headed into the Galilee. He went to a wedding in Cana, performed miracles, and then headed down to Jerusalem for Passover. He had a conversation with Nicodemus. He celebrated Firstfruits and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

John 3:25   Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jewish leader over purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’  The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

There arose a discussion, more literally a debate, between John’s disciples and a Pharisee.  They were debating about purification, a topic often discussed among religious leaders at the time.  Remember that debate was the usual form of discussion and teaching of the day.  We have no reason to believe this was a heated argument.  But at some point, the idea that the number of people coming to hear their rabbi, John the Baptist, was dwindling.  John had been seeing huge crowds come to him.  By any standards used by preachers today, John was incredibly successful.  But something had changed.  John’s attendance was down.  Something was going wrong.

So his disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, that guy you called the “Lamb of God,” he is copying your ministry and baptizing like you are. He even uses your sermon line, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”  And he is attracting our crowd.  We are down 30% in baptisms over the past month.  We’ve got to do something!

How does John respond? 

He could have been very jealous.  His life was hard.  He was an aesthetic.  Jesus went to marriage celebrations, feasts, and parties.  Meanwhile, John ate locusts and wild honey in the desert and only had water.  He lived in the wilderness.  He wore simple clothes.  He ends up in prison and is beheaded around 30 years old.  It was not easy being John the Baptist.

I imagine John’s response shocked his disciples.  They had given up their life to follow John.  They believed in his message of repentance.   And they had seen people flock to him and commit to the cause by being baptized.  Then, his disciples saw Jesus preaching the same sermon that John was preaching, and his disciples were baptized just as they were.  Jesus and his followers were stealing their show.

And John says, “This is exactly how it is supposed to be.”  John knew his place and he stayed in his lane.  

John tells them:
Listen, guys, you’ve heard me say it several times.  This Jesus is the Messiah we have been praying for and looking for for hundreds of years.   People kept asking me if I was the Messiah.  You know I never claimed to be.  From the beginning, I told you my job was to prepare the people for the coming Messiah by acknowledging their sins and repenting.  And then it was my place to point out the Messiah when he arrived.  And you saw him yourself.  You know that the bridegroom and the bride are the stars of the wedding day.  It is not the best man’s place to upstage the groom.  The attendants don’t upstage the bride. The best man is the supporting actor, not the star.  A good friend of the groom will only be happy to see the groom come and take his bride. 

My ministry was to prepare the way and point towards Jesus.  So when Jesus came, it was the happiest day of my life.  My joy was complete when I saw Jesus.  That is the task God gave me.  It is not all about me. —-It is all about Jesus and the kingdom he is building.

Get your attitudes right.

John knows Jesus is the messiah.  He knows that Jesus will do amazing miracles and be the great teacher of Israel.  But he doesn’t get to follow Jesus.  Did you ever wonder why John the Baptist didn’t get to be one of Jesus’ disciples?  If I were Jesus, I would have picked John first.  He was the most qualified.  He understood Jesus’ message.  In fact, Jesus picks up John’s message and preaches it verbatim.  And John was willing.  He had proved he was willing to do whatever God called him to do.  However, Jesus did not choose John to be his disciple.

He didn’t get to follow Jesus; he didn’t hear Jesus’ sermons, see his miracles, and perform miracles like Jesus’ disciples.  Instead, his path was to preach a bit longer in the wilderness and then be arrested,  languish in prison, and be beheaded by an evil king.  

This would make most people bitter.  It would make most people question God.  But how John answers his disciples reveals the attitude of John that we all need to understand and adopt.  

“A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven.”

Do you think we earned anything we have in life?  Did you earn the right to live today?  Does God owe you another day of life?  Did you do something before birth to deserve to be born in this place?  Who gave you this land?  Who gave you the smarts to achieve what you have achieved?  

Some people consider themselves ‘self-made men.’ They came from modest income or poor families and have become very successful in the business world.  They are reluctant to support programs for people in need because they feel that everyone else should pick up themselves by their bootstraps as they did.  They have forgotten how God gifted them personally to become successful. They don’t understand that some have limited IQ, mental illness, chronic medical problems, or haven’t gotten the “lucky breaks” they got.  They think they have done it all themselves. They have forgotten the grace God gave them.

This attitude of John the Baptist is critical to understand.  He knew his place.  He said he wasn’t even worthy to be a slave to Jesus; he wasn’t even worthy to do the lowest job of a slave – to untie his sandals.  But despite his unworthiness, Jesus gave him a place, a job to do.  And that gave him joy.  Joy came from serving where God placed him.

So he says, “He must increase, I must decrease.”

Look, disciples of John. This has been the plan from the beginning. Our job was to point out the Messiah so he could assume his role. It is not all about us, but it is natural to see the world as if it is all about us.

Francis Chan, in his book Crazy Love, says it so well:
“Even though I glimpse God’s holiness, I am still dumb enough to forget that life is all about God and not about me at all. It goes sort of like this…. Suppose you are an extra in an upcoming movie. You will probably scrutinize that one scene where hundreds of people are milling around, just waiting for that two-fifths of a second when you can see the back of your head. Maybe your mom and your closest friend get excited about that two-fifths of a second with you … maybe. But no one else will realize it is you. Even if you tell them, they won’t care. Let’s take it a step further. What if you rent out the theater on opening night and invite all your friends and family to come see the new movie about you? People will say, “You’re an idiot! How could you think this movie is about you?” Many Christians are even more delusional than the person I’ve been describing. So many of us think and live like the movie of life is all about us. Now consider the movie of life…. God creates the world. (Were you alive then? Was God talking to you when He proclaimed “It is good” about all He had just made?) Then people rebel against God (who, if you haven’t realized it yet, is the main character in this movie), and God floods the earth to rid it of the mess people made of it. Several generations later, God singles out a ninety-nine-year-old man called Abram and makes him the father of a nation (did you have anything thing to do with this?). Later, along come Joseph and Moses and many other ordinary and inadequate people that the movie is also not about. God is the one who picks them and directs them and works miracles through them. In the next scene, God sends judges and prophets to His nation because the people can’t seem to give Him the one thing He asks of them (obedience). And then, the climax: The Son of God is born among the people whom God still somehow loves. While in this world, the Son teaches His followers what true love looks like. Then the Son of God dies and is resurrected and goes back up to be with God. And even though the movie isn’t quite finished yet, we know what the last scene holds. It’s the scene I already described in chapter 1: the throne room of God. Here every being worships God who sits on the throne, for He alone is worthy to be praised. From start to finish, this movie is obviously about God. He is the main character. How is it possible that we live as though it is about us? Our scenes in the movie, our brief lives, fall somewhere between the time Jesus ascends into heaven (Acts) and when we will all worship God on His throne in heaven (Revelation). We have only our two-fifths-of-a-second-long scene to live. I don’t know about you, but I want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God. First Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That is what each of our two-fifths of a second is about. So what does that mean for you? Frankly, you need to get over yourself. It might sound harsh, but that’s seriously what it means. Maybe life’s pretty good for you right now. God has given you this good stuff so that you can show the world a person who enjoys blessings, but who is still totally obsessed with God. Or maybe life is tough right now, and everything feels like a struggle. God has allowed hard things in your life so you can show the world that your God is great and that knowing Him brings peace and joy, even when life is hard. Like the psalmist who wrote, “I saw the prosperity of the wicked…. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure…. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God” (Ps. 73:3, 13, 16-17). It is easy to become disillusioned with the circumstances of our lives compared to others’. But in the presence of God, He gives us a deeper peace and joy that transcends it all. To be brutally honest, it doesn’t really matter what place you find yourself in right now. Your part is to bring Him glory-whether eating a sandwich on a lunch break, drinking coffee at 12:04 a.m. so you can stay awake to study, or watching your four-month-old take a nap. The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His. It is His movie, His world, His gift.”1

But we tend to make it all about us. We do that even in church. Have you ever heard anyone say, “I really enjoyed worship today” or “I just don’t get much out of the worship there”? That is worship all about us. You aren’t supposed to get something out of worship; you’re supposed to put something in.

Matt Redman tells the story about his song, “The Heart of Worship.” He says that their church was going through some difficult times. There have been all these discussions about the style of worship: some said it was too fast, too slow, too loud, or too soft. “I like that song,” or “I don’t like that song.” “I like the way this worship leader does it.”  “The drums are too loud.” “The lights are too bright.”  “The preaching lasts too long.” “The songs are old.

People were becoming consumers, judging worship like a product you buy at a store. It was all about them and what they enjoyed.  He said we aren’t worshipping to “get something out of it,” but we are supposed to be bringing something to worship.

So this big contemporary church with a professional-level worship band removed the sound system and all the instruments off the stage.  They did away with the sermon; they did away with all of it. They told people, “Ask God what you can bring as an offering today in worship.”  So, people showed up with their Bibles and nothing else.  He said it was very awkward at first.  But then people started singing hymns with just voices; someone would read a scripture and testify what God was doing in their life.  They discovered true worship.  No show.  There was no performance on stage.  It was all about God.  And he said it was good.2

After this experience in their church, Redman wrote the song “Heart of Worship,” which expresses what I feel is the attitude of John the Baptist.  Here is the second verse and chorus:

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I’m weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath
I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus3

True worship is all about God. If we make it about us and what we like, then who is being worshipped? Is it about you or God? Revelation 4 and 5 describe the worship in heaven, with the throne in the center, all the elders, spirits, and creatures, and a rainbow of light around the throne. And who is on the throne? He who is worthy.

Worship is not something you come to church to do.  Every moment of your life should be a time of worship because worship is the unworthy recognizing the worthy.  We come to church to join together and point out that God alone is worthy.  We recognize him as our creator and sustainer, as the one who is love, who is peace, who is grace, who is comfort, who is healing, who is good.  He alone is worthy of worship.  

The other day, our grandson was at the house and wanted his mother to see what he had done.  She was busy talking, and he kept saying Mama, mama, mama, louder and louder until she acknowledged him.  With our daughter it was “Look at me! Look at me!” whenever she did something and wanted our attention.  That is natural for a child.  Apparently, it is also natural for anyone on social media..  Look at me! I got a new car! Look at me! My son got an award!  Look at me!  My daughter’s going to the prom! Look at me!  I went on a trip!  I guess it is natural for all of us.   Now, don’t get me wrong.  I enjoy keeping up with what is going on with my friends and past acquaintances.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But our job on this earth is not to point to ourselves but, like John the Baptist, to point to Jesus.  So keep posting all of that.  But perhaps, sometimes, you could say, ‘Look at Jesus!  Look what he did today!’  That might make Facebook a little more worth looking at.

You have a place in the kingdom.  You matter.  Yeah, it is not all about you. You are not the star.  But you are more than an extra in this movie of life.  You are more than a background actor.  There are no small parts in God’s world.  You have a speaking role.  You can contribute to the kingdom if you understand your place like John the Baptist and fulfill the role God has given you.  Everyone take your hand and point.  You can point at yourself or some other person… but point up.  This is what we are to do.  

Like John, our job is to stand and point out Jesus.  He must increase.  I must decrease.

Every church has a place in the kingdom. Some churches will never be a huge mega-church.  Many will never be a Saddleback or a Northpoint or as numerically successful as other churches in their area.  But every church has a place in the kingdom.  Our job is to seek God’s plan, seek His will, know our place, and fulfill our role to point to Jesus. Churches fail when they advertise themselves.  ‘Look at how great our church is! We have great music, a good preacher, great facilities, and wonderful programs.’  Slow down the self-promotion bus!   All churches should exist to point not to themselves but to point to Jesus.  If we spend a lot of time promoting ourselves or our church, we are failing in our mission to make everything about Jesus.  And our job at church in this community is to help others learn to point to Jesus.

Let me tell you about Tommy. Someone I met who taught me about all about pointing to Jesus.  One of my life’s most meaningful worship experiences happened with him in an unusual place. It was in the middle of nowhere, in Northern Ghana, Africa.  There was not a village for miles.  I rode out with the pastor.  Tommy had no training as a pastor.  He was a diesel mechanic.  He retired from his diesel business in Alabama and would come with his wife 3-4 times a year to service the diesel generators for the Baptist Hospital there.  There was initially no other electricity. They depended on the generator.  When his wife passed away, Tommy left Alabama and moved to Ghana to do maintenance at the hospital. Tommy had an important job.  But God had more for Tommy.

Tommy loved people, but he loved Jesus even more.  He started off plowing fields for people living in a remote area near the hospital.  He had the only tractor anywhere around.  He kept little spiral notebooks in his pocket and wrote down words he didn’t know. He taught himself the Manpruli language.  And he started three preaching points.   I was there on a medical mission trip, and he invited me on a Sunday morning to go with him.  He picked me up in his truck, and soon, it was filled with people we had met on the dusty roads.  Everyone knew Tommy.  Everyone.  On the way to the church, we must have picked up and dropped off 30 or more people here and there.  Then we left the area of villages and went 4-5 miles out further.  We stopped by a solitary mango tree in an empty field. As far as I could see, there was nothing in all directions.  But in a few minutes, I could see people walking miles away from every direction.  They had seen the dust his truck kicked up and knew it was time for church.  We waited about an hour and a half for everyone to have time to walk the 3-4 miles to where we were.  While we waited, Tommy told me what he would preach about because I didn’t speak the language.  

Then it started.  And people spontaneously started praising God.  They clapped, beat the drums they brought, and they danced.  And it was beautiful.  Tommy would tell me what the song was about now and then, but I didn’t need the explanation.  It was worship.  It was recognizing a God who had been so good to them.  There was a good mango crop that year, and they were thanking God.  After about an hour or so of praising God, they all sat on the ground and listened to Tommy tell them how God was the creator and how the idols often worshiped in the area were just wood made by man.  And they listened.  And they responded.  And several stood and bore witness.  And I was blessed beyond measure to see people I couldn’t understand point to Jesus.4

The attitude of John the Baptist.  

John’s role was to speak the truth and die for it. He had known the crowds at one time. He was ‘the next best thing,’ people flocked from the cities to hear him preach. But then the crowds were gone, and he saw his flock dwindle. Then he was arrested and beheaded.  His life had been hard, but the last years were miserable in Herod’s prison in Machaerus. Most people who spoke of John would say he was a 30-year-old failure, a has-been who didn’t live up to his potential. He had few followers and few friends.

But there was one who gave him praise.

Matt. 11:11   Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. 

It does not matter what the world thinks of you or if you are successful in the eyes of this world. What matters is what Jesus thinks of you.  There is only one affirmation we should seek, and only one matters. I care not what the world thinks of me. There is one voice I want to hear. I have wasted too much of my life seeking praise from others.  I want to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

What about you?  Let’s all seek to live lives that point to Jesus.  Let our worship be all about Him, not about us.  Let our very attitude be that He must increase, and I must decrease.

  1. Chan, Francis. Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.  (2013) Kindle location 231.
  2. Interview with Matt Redman, BBC Radio 2013.
  3. “Heart of Worship” by Matt Rodman, 1999.
  4. I pray for God’s richest blessings on Tommy Harrison. In a single Sunday morning, he taught me more about living for Jesus throughout your life, humility, and true worship than I could have ever learned anywhere else.  He had an immeasurable impact on so many people during his time in Ghana.