Adventures in the Word

The Magi mapped and marveled at the stars,
their questions probed beyond the earthly sphere,
grown too big for Persian ways, their minds,
nurtured by the stars, soared to find
a stellar path to worship a worthy God.

It surely must have been a brilliant star
that rose one night – a star more radiant
than all the rest, that made them stare
and check their well-worn astral maps,
no Magi ever witnessed such a sight.

Surely King Herod must have marveled when
they asked him where the King of Jews was born –
sincerely they said no common king deserved their gold,
so subtly Herod hid his jealous rage
and vainly asked them to return.

But on the road to Bethlehem when the sun
laid down to rest, the star arose
to escort them with its graceful light,
then slowed and stopped to cast a glow
upon the house where Mary rocked the Child.

And when the caravan arrived
and camels laid their weary heads to rest,
and Magi opened and arrayed their gifts,
how did his little face reflect that light,
what made them bow their hoary heads with joy?

I wonder if that star possessed a special shape,
I wonder if it formed a cross that beamed
two rays: one to God and one to all
mankind – a silent witness like the one where,
at the end, they nailed him and his sign:
   ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

– David Herin

Here’s a quote from N T Wright on resurrection that I thought was especially cogent. It reminds us that resurrection is truly a defeat of death.

“Death – the unmaking of the creator’s image-bearing creatures – was not seen as a good thing, but as an enemy to be defeated. It was the ultimate weapon of destruction: anti-creation, anti-human, anti-god. If the creator god was also the covenant god, and if the covenant was there to deal with the unwelcome problem that had invaded the created order at its heart and corrupted human beings themselves, it was this intruder, death itself, that had to be defeated. To allow death to have its way – to sign up, as it were, to some kind of compromise agreement whereby death took human bodies but the creator was allowed to keep human souls – was no solution, or not to the problem as it was perceived within most second-Temple Judaism. That is why ‘resurrection’ was never a redescription of death, but always its компютри втора употребаdefeat.”
— N T Wright pgs 727-728 The Resurrection of the Son of God.

Sound familiar?

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“ O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

— Paul the Apostle, I Cor 15:54-57

Summary of a message spoken at Nora Christian Fellowship on Nov 25, 2007.
Taken from Luke 22-23

I’m honestly not sure why Luke told the story of the cross in a “series of threes.” It may have been a reference to Jesus’ statement that he would be ‘raised the third day,’ or it could have been an indication of His death, burial and resurrection. Or telling it this way could simply help us better remember the greatest story ever told.
Here’s the Story told in threes:

On the road to the cross, Jesus . . .

• reminded Peter, with a solemn look, that he would deny Him three times, late, before the rooster crowed.
• suffered the false testimony, hatred, and bitter accusations of three trials and three judges: the Sanhedrin, Herod, and Pilate.
• stood by quietly while an unlikely Pilate tried to defend Him – unsuccessfully – three times (Luke 23:22).

On the cross, Jesus . . .

• agonized between two other crucified men, one bitter and desperate, the other repentant but hopeful.
• stretched out His hands to all the world as King of the Jews. The sign, posted over his head and intended to mock Him, ended up praising him to all the world in three languages: Greek, Latin and Hebrew.
• uttered three things that showed the cross was deeply rooted in His heart: these three words expressed His forgiveness, His steadfast love for individuals, and His undying commitment to the Father. His cross was not just for show; it was not something He only felt obligated to do – it simply revealed who He was . . . and still is!

Still on the cross, Jesus . . .

• endured the sneers from three strata of society: the religiously self-righteous, the merciless soldiers, and a crucified criminal.
• mourned with creation for three hours, when the sun refused to show its face.
• died, and all three sneering strata began – in reverse order – to grieve when they finally saw the truth of what they had done, and the Truth of who this Man really was.

This is a summary of a message that I spoke on Sept 23, 2007 at Nora Christian Fellowship

“. . . Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, “The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all!” – Luke 21:1-4 The Message

Taken from Luke 20:27–21:4

Divine Life Out of Death – Resurrection – continues to be the theme in Luke’s gospel. This passage has three ‘riddles:’ One spoken by the Sadducees and two by the Lord:

Riddle 1: “ . . . whose wife will she be in the resurrection?”

The Sadducees’ question, clearly intended to ridicule the idea of resurrection, backfired when Jesus clearly taught that marriage will simply not continue into that age. And this makes perfect sense because, in that age, there will be no more death either. And because death will expire, the need for conception, birth and children – the primary purpose of marriage – will also expire.
However, under the Sadducees’ program this pitiful widow would have no hope at all.

Riddle 2: “David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

Jesus quotes Ps 110:1 and basically asks, since David calls the Messiah, his human descendant, ‘Lord,’ how can that be? In other words, he asks, “HOW CAN A HUMAN BEING BE GOD?” (We have to understand that, in the first century, the common assumption appears to be that the Messiah would be a normal human being, a descendant of David. They simply could not have imagined the God Man. )

And although Luke doesn’t reveal the answer to the riddle here before His resurrection, you can feel the anticipation! He doesn’t waste much time though: Read Acts 2:29–36. There you’ll find Luke quoting Peter saying that, David wrote this Psalm when he “ . . . fores[aw] this, [and] spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah (vs 31)” and “ . . . God made Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord (God) and Messiah (human).” The resurrection left no doubt that the human Jesus was divine! So the answer to the riddle is: once you witness the resurrection, you’ll see plainly that Jesus truly is both Lord (Divine) AND Christ (the expected human Messiah).

Riddle 3: How can the widow’s two mites be a bigger offering than all the others’?

Here Jesus re-introduces the Sadducees’ apparently hopeless widow and elevates her – a veiled reference to resurrection – above everyone. Jesus has just charged the Scribes with “devouring widows’ houses,” but now she has risen from her despair. Jesus answers the riddle by saying that she – out of her poverty – gave everything she had.

This ought to encourage us too, because, when we’re feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders, when our ‘gas tanks’ are ‘on E,’ and yet we choose to give – even if it seems to be such a small thing – Jesus tells us that it actually means a lot to Him and He sees and receives it for what it truly is: a huge gift. So it’s not the actual size of the gift that matters so much, but the amount of effort that it takes to give it, given the resources that we humanly have on hand.
May God fill you with the Resurrection Life of His Son!

I’m still reading The New Testament and the People of God, by N. T. Wright, and I’m learning what Jews in the first century believed about resurrection – which would most likely be close to what our Lord believed about resurrection.

To Jews in Jesus’ day, the belief in the resurrection had to do with more than just the raising of the dead. It had a larger context that can help Christians in the twenty-first century too.

So think about this:

To first-century Jews resurrection was a belief in God’s plan and ability to completely restore all of creation. First-century Jews did NOT believe in a coming suspension of space and time. They did not believe that God would create a different world out of whole cloth. It wasn’t going to be us floating around on clouds and playing harps – an alien world.
No.
God was going to restore THIS world – the home that we’ve grown up in and where God placed us in the first place. He was going to restore this world, including the human family, and he was going to do it by resurrection. It was a faith that God could literally raise the dead if he had to, and . . . it turns out that he actually DOES have to.

Resurrection was a trust in the God who can do the impossible and who will go to any length to restore and redeem His creation.
It’s a hope that,

despite all the appearances,

despite the overwhelming odds,

despite the fact that thousands have died while living under covenant and in the hope of the kingdom and yet have never received the promises of that Kingdom –

God will completely vindicate and restore everything ANYWAY by raising them from the dead.

Take that, devil.

It’s the belief in the ultimate victory of God, that the sovereign Lord will ultimately have his way, and nothing – not even death and destruction – can defeat Him.

This is resurrection.

This is the God that I serve: who, even while I face my own brand of suffering: DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS, still He remains undaunted and will ultimately win. Jesus’ own resurrection proved that, and also proved at the same time that we can now live and move with His kind of quiet confidence.

I continue to slog through N.T. Wright’s The New Testament and the People of God and ran across this statement that I thought was concisely perceptive. In the context he’s talking about “types of dualities” and how the Jews thought of God and themselves at the most fundamental level.

How we see heaven and earth and our place in them – or is it, it? – makes a huge difference in how we live.

Here’s the quote:

. . . most [first-century] Jews would have [been] in favour of a more integrated cosmology and anthropology. Most Jews would have held that humans, though thoroughly at home in the space-time universe, are also open to the world of heaven, to the presence and influence of the divine. Worship and prayer are not attempts to reach across the void, but the conscious opening of human life to the god-dimension which is ever-present.
– N T Wright
Emphasis mine.

The footnote is also instuctive. It says,

A good example of this belief in the immediate presence of the god-dimension of reality is 2 Kgs. 6.17.

Which I will quote here with the verse before it also:

16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

God is closer than we think.