Sermon: You of Little Faith

Delivered at Northside United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on June 23, 2024

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You of Little Faith

Audio Version

And when [Jesus] got into the boat, his disciples followed him.  A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.  And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”  And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?”  Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm.  They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”

Matthew 8:23-27 (NRSV)

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Immediately [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.  When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.  And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.  But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!”  And they cried out in fear.  But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

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, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.  But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.  And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:22-33 (NRSV)

Well, sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small

So hold me, Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't you be my Prince of Peace?

From “Hold Me, Jesus” by Rich Mullins

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was afraid of sailing on the sea, in the same way that a person might be afraid of flying in an airplane in our day.  In 1735, Wesley was recruited to relocate to the Georgia colony to serve as a chaplain to the colonists and as a missionary to the native peoples.  In October of that year, he confronted his fear and boarded a ship heading across the Atlantic Ocean.  Over the course of the next three months, the ship on which Wesley sailed was caught in a number of storms.  In January of the following year, the ship was caught in such a violent storm that Wesley was sure he was a goner.  That day, he noticed a group of Moravians who responded to the storm not with terror but with faith.  While he and most of the other passengers panicked, the Moravians peacefully sang a psalm.  Deeply moved by the sight, Wesley longed for the kind of faith they had, a kind of faith he had yet to attain at that point in his life.¹

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In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that, as Jesus starts to draw crowds in Capernaum, He decides that it is time to move onward.²  He and the Disciples board a boat and set sail across the Sea of Galilee.³  The Sea of Galilee, which is also known as Lake Tiberias, is a freshwater lake that covers only sixty-four square miles.⁴  Despite the normally pleasant climate, the topography of the area can make it a very scary place at times.  The lake sits well below sea level in the Jordan valley, which acts as a funnel that concentrates wind, making the lake prone to sudden, violent storms.⁵  As Jesus and the Disciples sail across the Sea of Galilee that day, they suddenly find themselves caught up in such a storm.  As the wind and the waves batter the boat, the Disciples start to fear for their lives.⁶

Jesus, on the other hand, is in the hull of the boat, sleeping right through the storm.  The panicking Disciples wake Him up, crying, “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”  Jesus, who is perhaps a bit groggy at the moment, asks them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?”  He then stands up and rebukes the storm, and the storm dies down as suddenly as it started.  The Disciples are awestruck.⁷

In Jesus' day, the Sea of Galilee is a scary place for more than one reason.  The sea, in general, is thought to be a place of darkness, evil, and chaos.  In people's minds, it is associated with the dark “formless void” from which God brought forth the Earth, achieving victory over chaos.^{8 9}  When Jesus calms the raging sea, He is demonstrating not only His mastery over the forces of nature but also His dominion over the forces of evil.  It is worth noting that the Greek word the Gospel writers use to describe Jesus' silencing the sea, which is translated into English as “rebuke,” is the same word they use elsewhere to describe Jesus' subduing demons.¹⁰

Personally, when I read the story of Jesus' calming the sea, I find myself wishing that I had the kind of faith that would allow me to rest easy amid the storms of life.  Truth be told, when I see storm clouds in the distance, I find that I have more in common with the panicking Disciples and less in common with the peacefully resting Jesus.  I've been through enough storms in my life to know that everything will work out in the end or that everything will get better in time, but still I am filled with dread when I see storm clouds approaching.

This morning, I would like to suggest that the story of Jesus' calming the sea has something to teach us about faith.  Specifically, I would like to suggest that this story hints at the possibility that a person can have a mature kind of faith that brings with it a deep, abiding peace.  After all, if Jesus chides the Disciples for having “little faith,” then He must also be suggesting that they have the potential to have great faith, the kind of faith that would allow them to sleep peacefully through a storm, as He was doing.  We might be tempted to think that it is easy for Jesus to sleep through storms since He is the Son of God, but, if such peace-bringing faith is not available to anyone who seeks it, then Jesus is completely out of line for chastising the Disciples for not having it.

One person who attained this kind of faith is St. Paul.  In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that, while Paul is heading to Rome as a prisoner, the ship on which he is sailing is caught up in a storm that lasts for several weeks.  He does not calm the storm, as Jesus did, but he does calm the hearts of the other people on the ship.  Though he is a prisoner, he takes on the role of a chaplain.  He encourages the crew members to not be afraid, assures them that they will reach their destination, and urges them to eat when they have not eaten in days.¹¹  While Paul is imprisoned in Rome, unsure if he will be acquitted or sentenced to death, he looks back on everything he has endured in his life, and he writes in one of his letters, “I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.”¹²

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Later in the Gospel of Matthew, we read that one day, after Jesus and the Disciples minister to a large crowd in a remote place,¹³ Jesus tells the Disciples to go ahead of Him across the Sea of Galilee, so that He can dismiss the crowd and spend some time alone in prayer.  Night falls, and once again the Disciples suddenly find themselves aboard a boat in the midst of a violent storm.  As they struggle against the wind and the waves, they see what appears to be the form of a person walking on top of the water.  The sea is a scary place in their day, as I noted earlier, so they cry out in fear, assuming that what they are seeing is a ghost.  A familiar voice calls out to frightened Disciples, saying, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”¹⁴  Not only can Jesus command a storm to subside, He can also walk on top of a raging sea.

While Jesus is still standing on top of the water, the disciple known as Peter calls out to Him, saying, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”¹⁵  When a rabbi, like Jesus, calls disciples, like the Twelve, to follow him, he is essentially calling them to do what he does.¹⁶  Naturally, Peter wants to follow in his Rabbi's footsteps, even if those footsteps happen to be on liquid water.  Jesus invites Peter to join Him on the water, so Peter climbs out of the boat and starts walking on the water toward Jesus.  Peter walks on the water like a natural, for a moment, but, when he feels the wind blowing against him, he becomes afraid and starts to sink.  He cries out, “Lord, save me!”  Jesus catches him, saying, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  The two walk back to the boat, and the storm dies down.¹⁷

Peter manages to walk atop the Sea of Galilee with Jesus for a moment, but, as soon as he starts to doubt, he starts to sink.  Typically, we assume that Peter is doubting Jesus, but, if Jesus is not sinking, then Peter has no reason to doubt Him.  Perhaps Peter doubts his own ability to follow in his Rabbi's footsteps and to do what his Rabbi has called him to do.  Jesus would never have called Peter to be His disciple if He did not believe that Peter was up to the task.¹⁸  If Jesus chides Peter for doubting, then He evidently believes that Peter is even capable of walking on liquid water with Him.

Like the story of Jesus' calming the sea, the story of Jesus' walking on water and inviting Peter to do the same teaches us something about faith.  In the Church, we are taught that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human.  In Jesus, we see both what God is like and what humanity is capable of becoming.  I once heard a friend of mine suggest that, though we have no hope of ever becoming divine like Jesus, we can always aspire to become the kind of human Jesus was.  I don't believe that any of us will ever be able to take command of the weather or walk on top of liquid water, no matter how much faith we have.  I do believe that we are capable of attaining the kind of faith that will allow us to rest easy amid the storms of life or even to stand tall in defiance of them.

So often, we, like the fearful, doubting Disciples, face the storms of life with “little faith.”  Sometimes, we struggle to believe that God will bring us through the storms or bring something good out of them.  Sometimes we doubt our own capability to withstand the storms.

As someone who is prone to anxiety, I wish I knew how to cultivate the kind of faith that would give me peace and boldness amid the storms of life.  When I see storm clouds in the distance, I typically do one of two things.  I might try to avoid the storm altogether by feebly attempting to exert control do not really have, or I might just take an Imodium and anxiously brace myself for the storm.  These strategies have not served me well.  Many people, myself included, use worry as a means of preparing themselves for the storms of life, but, truth be told, I've found that worrying about storms only serves to ruin perfectly sunny days.  I suspect that great faith is hard fraught.  Perhaps, if God brings me through enough storms in my life, then maybe, at some point, my first impulse when I see storm clouds approaching will be to trust and not to worry.

Again, I believe that each of us is capable of attaining the kind of faith that will allow us to rest easy amid the storms of life or even to stand tall in defiance of them.  I have not attained this kind of faith myself, but, like John Wesley sailing across the Atlantic, I know that other people have attained it, and I envy them.

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So what do we do amid the storms of life, if we, like the panicking, doubting Disciples, have “little faith”?

Notice that Jesus never suggests that the Disciples have no faith; He simply says that they have “little faith.”  There is a big difference between having a little faith and having no faith at all.  The Disciples do not have enough faith to keep their cool when they suddenly find themselves in a violent storm, but they do have enough faith to wake Jesus up and ask Him for help.  Peter does not have enough faith to walk on water with Jesus for very long, but, when he starts to sink, he does have enough faith to call out to Him for help.  So often we like to criticize the Disciples for not getting the picture, but at least they have the faith to cry out to Jesus in times of trouble.

If we, like the Disciples, don't have enough faith to face trying times with peace and boldness, then we, like the Disciples, can still cry out to Jesus.  When we are afraid, we can pray, like the late singer Rich Mullins, “Hold me, Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf.”¹⁹

At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, we read that the birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of the following prophecy from the Book of Isaiah: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.”  The writer makes it a point to note that the name Emmanuel means, “God is with us.”²⁰  At the very end of the same Gospel, we read that, when Jesus commissions the Disciples to “make disciples of all nations,” He assures them, “I am with you always, to the end of  the age.”²¹  The Gospel of Matthew is effectively bookended with promises of Christ's presence.  We can cry out to Jesus in the storms of life, because Jesus goes through the storms with us.  He did not leave the frightened Disciples to face the storm by themselves; He did not leave Peter thrashing in the water when he started to sink; and He will not abandon us in the storms we face.

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In the Gospels, we read that the Disciples face two storms on the Sea of Galilee.  When they are caught in the first storm, they fear for their lives, so they wake a sleeping Jesus and ask Him for help.  Jesus rebukes the storm, and it miraculously subsides.  Full of wonder, the Disciples ask each other, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”²²  When the Disciples are caught in the second storm, they see Jesus walking on the water toward them.  When He climbs into the boat with them, the storm miraculously subsides once again.  At this point, the Disciples have their answer.  “Truly you are the Son of God,” they say to Jesus, as their wonder turns to worship.²³

There is a kind of faith that allows us to rest easy amid the storms of life and even to stand tall in defiance of them.  If we have not yet attained this kind of faith, we can still cry out to Jesus, who is with us in the storms.  Whatever storms you are facing in life right now, may you remember that you are not alone, for Christ is with you.  May you trust that everything will work out in the end, for “God works all things together for good.”²⁴  May you believe in yourself, for the One who has called you to follow Him believes in you.

Thanks be to God.


Notes:

1. Adam Hamilton.  Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It.  2014, Abingdon Press.  pp. 62-64
2. Matthew 8:5, 18
3. Matthew 8:23
4. Wikipedia: “Sea of Galilee”
5. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume One. 2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 365
6. Matthew 8:24-25
7. Matthew 8:25-27 (NRSV)
8. N.T. Wright.  Matthew for Everyone, Part 1.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 89
9. Genesis 1:2 (NRSV)
10. Blue Letter Bible: “epitimaō”
11. Acts 27
12. Philippians 4:12-13 (CEB)
13. Matthew 14:13-21
14. Matthew 14:22-27 (NRSV)
15. Matthew 14:28 (NRSV)
16. Rob Bell.  Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.  2005, Zondervan.  pp. 133-134
17. Matthew 14:29-32 (NRSV)
18. Bell, pp. 133-134
19. From the song “Hold Me, Jesus” by Rich Mullins
20. Matthew 1:20-23 (NRSV)
21. Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)
22. Matthew 8:23-27 (NRSV)
23. Matthew 14:22-33 (NRSV)
24. Romans 8:28 (CEB)

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee was painted by Rembrandt in the 1600s.  Christ Walking on the Sea was painted by Amédée Varint in the 1800s.

Sermon: The Spirit of the Law

Delivered at Northside United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on June 2, 2024

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Spirit of the Law

Audio Version

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.  When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.”  He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests.  Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless?  I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.  But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.  For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.”

He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?” so that they might accuse him.  He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?  How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep!  So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.”  Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other.  But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Matthew 12:1-14 (NRSV)

Give me words, I'll misuse them
Obligations, I'll misplace them
'Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free

From “More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray

One day, in 1866, Sheriff John W. Kirby formed a posse, and together they boarded a steamboat heading from Kentucky to Ohio and arrested Dr. Cyrus W. Farris on murder charges.  Following the arrest, Sheriff Kirby was charged with violating the Act of Congress of March 3, 1825, which forbade the willful obstruction or delay of mail delivery.  Dr. Farris was a postal worker, and, because he was arrested, the mail he happened to be carrying at the time was not delivered promptly.  The case against Sheriff Kirby eventually reached the Supreme Court, and the court ruled unanimously in favor of the sheriff.^1 2  Justice Stephen J. Field, who delivered the opinion of the court, stated that “all laws should receive a sensible construction” and that “general terms should be so limited in their application as not to lead to injustice, oppression, or an absurd consequence.”³  Basically, a law should not be written or interpreted in such a way that it will be applied in a ridiculous or unjust manner.

United States v. Kirby is an interesting case because it highlights the tension that occasionally exists between the way a law is written and the reason the law was passed.  In other words, it highlights the tension between the “letter of the law” and the “spirit of the law.”  The law that Sheriff Kirby supposedly violated was passed in order to ensure that mail was delivered in a timely manner.  It was never intended to give postal workers total immunity.

It seems to me that some of the conflicts between Jesus and the other religious leaders of His day highlight a similar tension.

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In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that one day, while Jesus and the Disciples are walking through a grain field, the Disciples pick some heads of grain and eat them, greatly offending a group of Pharisees who catch them in the act.⁴  What offends these Pharisees is not the fact that the Disciples have picked grain from a field that undoubtedly belongs to someone.  According to the Book of Leviticus, Jewish farmers are forbidden to pick their fields clean and are required to leave the edges of their fields unharvested, so that hungry passersby, especially impoverished people and immigrants, can pick some food to eat.⁵  The Disciples' picking grain from someone's field would be considered gleaning and not stealing.  What offends the Pharisees is that the Disciples have picked grain on the Sabbath Day.

The Jewish Law mandates the observance of the Sabbath Day.  One of the Ten Commandments, as it is written in the Book of Exodus, states,

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work – you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.⁶

The Law prescribed a harsh penalty for people who failed to follow this commandment.  The Book of Exodus states that “whoever does any work on [the Sabbath Day] shall be put to death.”⁷  In the Book of Numbers, we read that a man who was caught merely gathering sticks on the Sabbath Day was condemned to death by stoning.⁸

The commandment forbidding work on the Sabbath Day was to be taken seriously, so naturally it was necessary to define what constitutes work.  Ancient rabbis counted thirty-nine melakhot or “categories of work” that the Law explicitly forbade on the Sabbath Day.  Among these actions are reaping, threshing, winnowing, and various forms of food preparation.⁹  Scholar William Barclay points out,

By their conduct, the disciples were guilty of far more than one breach of the law. By plucking the corn they were guilty of reaping; by rubbing it in their hands they were guilty of threshing; by separating the grain and the chaff they were guilty of winnowing; and by the whole process they were guilty of preparing a meal on the Sabbath day, for everything which was to be eaten on the Sabbath had to be prepared the day before.¹⁰

With simple actions that we would probably consider rather innocuous, the Disciples are guilty of multiple counts of violating the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day.

Considering the importance that has been placed on the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day, the strictness with which it has been enforced, and the work that has been done to define what is and is not permissible on that day, it makes sense that the Pharisees are appalled by the Disciples' flagrant violations of their Law.  They confront Jesus, saying, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.”¹¹

Jesus defends the Disciples to the Pharisees by appealing to their knowledge of their holy scriptures.  Specifically, He reminds them of instances in which people seemingly bent or broke the rules of their religion out of necessity and were not considered guilty for doing so.¹²  First, He calls to mind an episode from the First Book of Samuel in which David, the military leader who would later become Israel's most beloved king, took sacred bread from a place of worship.  David and his soldiers would not normally be permitted to eat this particular bread, but they were famished, and the sacred bread was the only food available at the moment.¹³  Next, Jesus points out that, even though the Law forbids work on the Sabbath Day, priests have always carried out the duties prescribed for them by the Law on the Sabbath Day.  For example, in the Book of Numbers, we read that there are offerings presented on the Sabbath Day, to which the priests will have to attend.¹⁴

Jesus then heads to the local synagogue, where there happens to be a man with a deformed hand.  Trying to entrap Jesus, the same Pharisees ask Him if He thinks the Law of their religion permits acts of healing on the Sabbath Day.¹⁵  In their eyes, acts of healing are off limits on the Sabbath Day, like harvesting and preparing food.  Medical attention may be administered only if a person's life is in immediate danger.  The man with the deformed hand is clearly not in such dire straits.¹⁶  Jesus responds to the Pharisees by appealing not to their knowledge of scripture but to their reason.  First He asks them rhetorically, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?” Next He proclaims, “How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep!”  From these two points, He reasons, “So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.”¹⁷

Jesus proceeds to heal the hand of the man in the synagogue, and the Pharisees who are present, perceiving Jesus as a threat to their religion, proceed to conspire against Him.¹⁸

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Jesus seems to have a rather cavalier attitude about the Law of His religion, at least in the eyes of the Pharisees.  I would like to suggest that Jesus is not flouting the Jewish Law, as the Pharisees doubtlessly think, but is instead trying to teach them something important about their Law and about biblical instructions in general.  The Pharisees, as they are portrayed in the Gospels, strive to follow the Jewish Law to the letter, and they expect other people to put forth the same effort.  Jesus, on the other hand, evidently wants them to look past the letter of the law and to consider to the spirit of the law.

Consider why God would command God's people to observe the Sabbath Day in the first place.  The Ten Commandments, which include the prohibition against working on the Sabbath Day, were given to the people of Israel while they were camped at the foot of Mount Sinai.¹⁹  Just a few months earlier, they were rescued from slavery in Egypt.  In Egypt, they were treated not as human beings but as machines, and merely asking for a break would be rewarded with a heavier workload.²⁰  God never wanted the people of Israel to treat each other or anyone else the way they were treated in Egypt, so God gave them the Sabbath Day.  The Sabbath Day was a gift to God's covenant people, intended to uphold their humanity and to remind them that they were worth more than what they produced.²¹

The Sabbath Day does not exist to prevent something that needs to happen from happening.  It does not exist to ensure that an animal that falls into a ditch on that day remains trapped and vulnerable until the following day.  It does not exist to prevent hungry people who do not already have something ready to eat that day from obtaining something to eat.  It does not exist to prevent people in need of healing from being healed on that day.  It does not exist to make people's lives more difficult or more complicated one day per week.  The Sabbath Day exists to prevent people from being dehumanized and exploited.  As Jesus says to the Pharisees in Mark's version of the story, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath.”²²

When the Pharisees accuse the Disciples of breaking the Law by picking grain on the Sabbath Day, Jesus says to them, “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.”²³  This is not the first occasion Jesus has urged the Pharisees to contemplate this saying.

One day, Jesus called a tax collector named Matthew to follow Him as one of His disciples.²⁴  Calling this particular person was a strange choice on Jesus' part, because, as a tax-collector, he would have been hated by the Jewish people not only as a crook but also as a traitorous collaborator with the Roman occupation.  That evening, while Jesus was enjoying dinner with Matthew and some of his fellow tax collectors and other so-called “sinners,” some Pharisees approached the other Disciples and asked them why their teacher would associate with such people.  Overhearing the Pharisees' question, Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”²⁵

Twice, when Jesus has clashed with the Pharisees, He has quoted the Book of Hosea, in which God says through the titular prophet, “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”²⁶  The Jewish Law prescribes a number of different animal sacrifices that are to be offered as acts of worship to God on different occasions.  Some are offered on specific holy days; others are offered to atone for wrongdoings; and others are simply offered out of gratitude.  Some people evidently believed that, as long as they fulfilled their ritual obligations to God, how they lived and how they treated other people didn't really matter.  Prophets like Hosea fought back against that idea.

To prioritize mercy over sacrifice, as Jesus urges the Pharisees to do, is to prioritize the needs of one's neighbor over the rules of one's religion.  Associating with traitorous, thieving tax collectors might be discouraged in Jesus' religion, but Jesus understands that even so-called “sinners” need someone who will befriend them and bring out the best in them, in the same way that sick people need a doctor to bring them back to health.  Preparing food on the Sabbath Day might be forbidden in Jesus' religion, but Jesus understands that hungry people need to eat, regardless of what day it is.

Jesus will explain His understanding of the Law and of all biblical instructions most directly shortly before the end of His earthly ministry.  At one point, after His arrival in Jerusalem, a number of His detractors will start asking Him very loaded questions in the hopes of incriminating Him.²⁷  One scholar will ask Him which commandment in the Law of their religion He considers the most important.  First, Jesus will quote a particular part of the Book of Deuteronomy known as the Shema,²⁸ saying, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the greatest and first commandment.”  Next, He will quote the Book of Leviticus,²⁹ saying, “And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  Finally, He will say, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”³⁰

With this statement, Jesus will reveal the spirit of the law in regards to all Biblical instructions.  Biblical instructions do not exist merely to be followed and enforced.  They exist to prevent harm and to promote love for God and one's neighbor.

Jesus has the utmost respect for the Law of His religion, but He understands how important it is to know not only what it says but also why it says what it says.  In the Sermon on the Mount, He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”³¹  To “abolish the Law” is to undermine the Law through misinterpretation, but to “fulfill the Law” is to properly interpret the Law so that people can better understand it and follow it in the way God intended.³²

Quoting one of the Ten Commandments, Jesus said,

You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.”  But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool,” you will be liable to the hell of fire.³³

Quoting the very next commandment, Jesus then said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”³⁴  Jesus is not replacing the commandments or making them more difficult; He is instead revealing God's will behind them.  The letter of the law states that we must practice enough self-control that we do not kill the people who make us angry, but God's will is that we love people so that we don't even harbor malice toward them.  The letter of the law states that we must practice enough self-control that we uphold our own marriage covenants and respect the marriage covenants of other people, but God's will is that we love people so that we don't even objectify them.

As followers of Jesus, we are not called to simply follow the rules we read in the Bible and to try to force everyone else to do the same.  We are called to love as Jesus loved.  Sometimes love will require us to bend or break the rules, as Jesus did when he healed a man on the Sabbath Day.  Sometimes love will require us to go above and beyond the rules, as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount.  As followers of Jesus, when we approach any ethical matter, we need to consider how harm can be prevented and how love can be shown.

Far too often, Christians are guilty of acting like the Pharisees, as they are portrayed in the Gospels, or even worse.  Far too often, when confronted with complicated situations, Christians lazily quote Bible verses without taking into consideration why the verses were written in the first place.  Far too often, Christians apply biblical instructions in ways that are detrimental to other people.  Biblical instructions, according to Jesus, exist to help us to love God with everything that we are and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  That said, any prohibition in the Bible is meant to prevent harm.  If we fail to keep in mind the reasons that biblical instructions exist, we run the risk of using them in harmful ways, and any harmful use of Scripture is a misuse of Scripture.  If we really want to follow Jesus, then we must learn to read Scripture as He read it, keeping our focus on love.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: “United States v. Kirby”
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skyd4ze67fI
3. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/74/482/
4. Matthew 12:1-2
5. Leviticus 23:22
6. Exodus 20:8-11 (NRSV)
7. Exodus 35:2 (NRSV)
8. Numbers 15:32-36
9. Wikipedia: “39 Melakhot”
10. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 26
11. Matthew 12:2 (NRSV)
12. Matthew 12:3-6
13. 1 Samuel 21:1-6
14. Numbers 28:9-10
15. Matthew 12:9-10
16. Barclay, p. 34
17. Matthew 12:11-12
18. Matthew 12:13-14
19. Exodus 19:1-20:21
20. Exodus 5:1-18
21. Rob Bell and Don Golden.  Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for a Church in Exile.  2008, Zondervan.  p. 34
22. Mark 2:27 (NRSV)
23. Matthew 12:7 (NRSV)
24. Matthew 9:9
25. Matthew 9:10-13 (NRSV)
26. Hosea 6:6 (NRSV)
27. Matthew 22:15-33
28. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
29. Leviticus 19:18
30. Matthew 22:34-40 (NRSV)
31. Matthew 5:17 (NRSV)
32. Lois Tverberg.  “What Does It Mean to ‘Fulfill the law’?”  En-Gedi Resource Center.
33. Matthew 5:21-22 (NRSV)
34. Matthew 5:27-28 (NRSV)

The painting featured in this perspective was painted by Ferdinand Oliver around 1840.

Perspective: Surprised by the Spirit

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Surprised by the Spirit

I have much more to say to you, but you can't handle it now.  However, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you in all truth.  He won't speak on his own, but will say whatever he hears and will proclaim to you what is to come.  He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and proclaim it to you.

John 16:12-14 (CEB)

I make you uncomfortable
When I'm around
You always find a reason
To shut me out
You don't understand me
So you push me away
And you claim
Jesus lets you live that way

From "Unlovable" by Plumb

In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that one day the apostle Peter, a leader in the growing community of Jesus' followers, finds himself in hot water.  Some of his fellow believers in Jerusalem are appalled by some of his recent actions, so he shares with them a surprising story.¹

One day not long ago, while Peter was staying with a friend in Joppa, he withdrew to the rooftop to pray.  As he grew hungry, he fell into a trance and saw a strange vision.  A giant sheet was lowered to Earth from Heaven, and on this sheet were animals of all kinds.  A voice from Heaven called out to Peter, saying, "Get up, Peter; kill and eat."²

Peter was born and raised in the Jewish faith, so he was taught to faithfully follow the Jewish Law, including dietary rules found in the Book of Leviticus.  Many of the animals on the sheet lowered from Heaven were forbidden to eat or even to touch.³  Surprisingly, Peter was being instructed by God to do something he had been explicitly taught not to do, something contrary to the holy scriptures of his religion.  Naturally, Peter objected to the voice's instructions, claiming that he had never eaten anything "profane or unclean."⁴

The voice from Heaven called out to Peter again, saying, "What God has made clean, you must not call profane."  This verbal exchange happened three times, and then the giant sheet covered with animals was taken back up to Heaven.  Peter sat on the rooftop, trying to figure out what in the world he had just seen.⁵

Peter would soon realize that the strange vision he was just shown was not about food specifically.  It was meant to teach him that God will sometimes call him to do something he had been previously taught was out-of-bounds.

While Peter was still mulling over what he had just seen, some men arrived at the house and started asking for him.  The Holy Spirit said to Peter, "Look, three men are searching for you.  Now get up, go down, and go with them without hesitation; for I have sent them."  Peter met with the three men and learned that they had been sent by a Roman centurion named Cornelius, whom they described as "an upright and God-fearing man."  Peter invited the messengers to stay with him for the evening, and, the next day, he set out with them to Cornelius's house in the city of Caesarea.⁶

Cornelius was a "God-fearer,"⁷ meaning that, though he had not fully converted to the Jewish religion and started following the Jewish Law, he worshiped in the God of the Jewish people.⁸  He was also known for his generosity.⁹  All that said, there were a couple of things that would make Peter hesitant to associate with him.  First, Cornelius was a Gentile, a non-Jewish person.  In the same way that Peter had been taught to not eat any foods considered unclean, he had been taught to not closely associate with Gentiles, who were also considered unclean.  Second, Cornelius was a high-ranking officer in the Roman military, meaning that Peter's people would have considered him an oppressor.¹⁰

When Peter arrived at Cornelius's house, he saw that the centurion, his family, and his friends had all gathered to hear what Peter would say to them.  Peter, who had come to realize that his strange vision was not about animals or food but about human beings, said, "You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean."¹¹

Peter asked Cornelius why he sent for him, and Cornelius revealed that a messenger of God appeared to him and instructed him to send for Peter.  Peter then said, "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him."¹²

Peter proceeded to tell everyone gathered at Cornelius's house about the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  While he was still speaking, the Holy Spirit descended upon the centurion, his friends, and his family and empowered them to speak in languages they did not know previously, in the same way that the Holy Spirit descended upon Peter and Jesus' other disciples on the day of Pentecost.  Astonished, Peter asked, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"¹³

Peter concludes his story, asking, "If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?"  Those who had questioned Peter's actions now find themselves awestruck and full of praise.¹⁴

Peter's surprising story had some profound implications for the early Church.  The first followers of Jesus were Jewish like He was, and naturally they thought that the movement He started was for people of their own faith.  The Holy Spirit called Peter to reach out beyond the boundaries of his own faith tradition and to welcome people he had been taught to exclude, and his story showed his fellow believers that God's intentions for the Church were greater than they ever imagined, that not just their own people but all people were called to follow Christ.

Is it possible that Peter's story also has implications for the modern-day Church?  Is it possible that God is calling us to minister to others in ways that we were taught were out-of-bounds?  Is it possible that God is calling us to start including certain people we were taught to exclude?

I wonder how many Christians nowadays are capable of being led and taught by the Holy Spirit in the surprising way that Peter was, because so many of us assume that God will abide by our theology or our interpretations of the Bible.  Jesus told His first followers that they had not yet learned everything they would ever need to know and that they would need to continue learning from the Holy Spirit.¹⁵  The same is true about His followers today.

---

For more thoughts on including those we've been taught to exclude, see my 2020 perspective "What Matters Most."


Notes:

1. Acts 11:1-4
2. Acts 10:9-13 (NRSV)
3. Leviticus 11
4. Acts 10:14 (NRSV)
5. Acts 10:15-17 (NRSV)
6. Acts 10:17-24 (NRSV)
7. Acts 10:1-2
8. William Barclay.  The Acts of the Apostles, Revised Edition.  1976, Westminster Press.  p. 79
9. Acts 10:2
10. William H. Willimon.  Acts (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching).  1988, John Knox Press.  p. 95
11. Acts 10:24-28 (NRSV)
12. Acts 10:29-35 (NRSV)
13. Acts 10:36-47 (NRSV)
14. Acts 11:17-18 (NRSV)
15. John 16:12-13

The illustration of Peter's preaching at Cornelius's house is from The Story of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation by Charles Foster.

Introspection: Sifting through the Ashes

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Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Sifting through the Ashes

Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped:

Naked I came from my mother's womb,
naked I'll return to the womb of the earth.
God gives, God takes.
God's name be ever blessed.

Job 1:20-21 (The Message)

What ever happened to the young man's heart?
Swallowed by pain, as he slowly fell apart

From "45" by Shinedown

In mid-February of this year, during the Ash Wednesday service at my church, Brian Gilmer, one of my pastors, described how the ashes imposed on people's foreheads are traditionally obtained.  The palm branches that are waved during the previous year's Palm Sunday service are saved.  Having dried out over the course of the year, they are burned and ground up, and the ashes are collected.  Pastor Brian noted that there is usually some debris that must be sifted from the ashes before they can be used, and he went on to suggest that Lent is a season of sifting through our lives.¹

Most strangely, this year the fourteenth day of February happened to be both Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day, the latter of which is probably my least favorite holiday.  That day, before I attended the Ash Wednesday service at my church, Facebook reminded me of something I posted on Valentine's Day twelve years earlier.  I wrote, "Happy Valentine's Day!  Enjoy the day, whether you're married, single, or seeing someone."  Pushing forty and still single, I decided to vent some of my bitterness after the service.  I shared that Facebook post, adding, "To my 27-year-old self: Shut your word hole."

A few people reacted to my post in different ways, and on that day it was nice to feel seen.  In the days that followed, I was struck by the hostility with which I reacted to my younger self.  It occurred to me that, when I was twenty-seven years old, life was looking up for me, and I had yet to experience the pain I have since endured.  In the last twelve years, I experienced a lot of loss, and I was put into a number of seemingly impossible situations I did not handle gracefully.  A lot of people emerge from their trials as better people.  I cannot say the same about myself.  In fact, I like myself a lot less than I did when I was twenty-seven years old.

It was as if a fire slowly started spreading through my life, slowly consuming everything bit by bit.  I thought the fire had stopped burning five years ago, when my life started to look up again, but then the pandemic came along and accelerated the fire.  Sometimes I feel like there's not much of my life left.  The image of sifting through the ashes seemed appropriate this Lenten season.

So what did I find in the ashes?

Amid the ashes that were once my life, I found bitterness, blame, shame, anxiety, loneliness, and a damaged self-image, all of which are the kind of things one would confront during Lent.  I also found the same sad story I habitually tell myself about my life, which is a story of pain and loss.  It's an awful story, and even I, as melancholic as I tend to be, am growing tired of hearing it.  Over time, I emerged from the funk in which I started the Lenten season, and I started to see that I really don't need to spend any more time sifting through the ashes of my life.  I need to stop telling myself the same tired story I've been telling, to sweep away the ashes of what was, and to start building something new in its place.

I've been putting off writing this introspection for a while now.  The reason is that, if I'm tired of hearing the story I keep telling myself, then I couldn't imagine that you, dear reader, would want to hear it either.  There's a time to sift through the ashes and a time to sweep them up and move on, and it's time that I finally did the latter.


Notes:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvUtywCdGKU

The photograph featured in this introspection was taken by Alex Grichenko, and it has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: A Good Word for the Reader

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Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

A Good Word for the Reader

Jesus said to [Thomas], "Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

John 20:29 (NRSV)

When all around me starts to fall
And when my faith it seems so small
Even in my darkest hour, I will believe
Even if the sun begins to fall
Even when I feel nothing at all
Even if I'm all alone, I will believe

From "Believe" by Mainstay

In the Gospel of John, we read that, a few days after Jesus was arrested, put on trial, and executed by crucifixion, the Disciples are huddled in their meeting place with the door locked.¹  That morning, Jesus' tomb was found empty,² so naturally, when the authorities discover that the body is missing, they will be looking for the Disciples.  Suddenly, Jesus appears among the Disciples, alive and well, and says, "Peace be with you."  He shows them the scars from His crucifixion and says, "Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  He then breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit."³

Unfortunately, the disciple named Thomas is not with the others when Jesus appears to them.  The ten who saw Jesus find Thomas and tell him that their Teacher is alive, but Thomas says to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."⁴

Three times we are told in the Gospel of John that Thomas is also known as "Didymus" or "the Twin."⁵  Oddly, we are never told whose twin Thomas is.  It has been suggested that Thomas is the twin of the person reading the story.  The Gospel of John, like the other Gospels, was written for people like Thomas who were not present when the Risen Christ first appeared to the Disciples.  Like Thomas, the readers are invited to believe that Jesus Christ has been resurrected from the dead and that evil and death have been defeated.  Like Thomas, the readers will have to decide whether they will dare to believe the Good News or assume that it's all too good to be true.

One week later, the Disciples are once again gathered in their meeting place, but this time Thomas is with them.  Once again, Jesus appears in their midst, even though the door is locked, and says to them, "Peace be with you."  He then turns to Thomas specifically and says to him, "Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt but believe."⁶

Astounded, Thomas exclaims, "My Lord and my God!"⁷

Jesus then says, "Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."⁸

When a television show is filmed, actors typically perform on a set that was built with only three walls.  Where the other wall of the room would be, there are cameras, camera operators, directors, other stage hands, and maybe a live studio audience.  The term fourth wall is used to describe the metaphorical boundary between the characters of the show and their audience.  One might think of it more directly as the television screen itself.  Basically, a separation between a story and its audience is understood.  On rare occasions, a character within the story will subversively "break" the fourth wall and address the audience directly.

When Jesus blesses the people who have not seen Him but still believe in Him, He is not speaking to anyone present in the story.  All of the Disciples have seen Him, and they all believe because they have seen Him.  I would like to suggest that maybe Jesus is "breaking the fourth wall" in some sense and directly addressing the people reading the Gospel story.  Thomas has had the opportunity to see the Risen Christ for himself, but very few people will have such a privilege.  Jesus blesses those who dare to believe anyway.

Some people have had powerful mystical experiences that have led them to faith in Christ.  Many more people have had no such experiences but have chosen to put their faith in Christ anyway.  The latter are no less important to Christ than the former, for Christ blesses all who believe.  No two people's journeys of faith are the same, but all people matter to God.


Notes:

1. John 20:19
2. John 20:1-7
3. John 20:19-22 (NRSV)
4. John 20:24-25 (NRSV)
5. John 11:16; 20:24; 21:2
6. John 20:26-27 (NRSV)
7. John 20:28 (NRSV)
8. John 20:29 (NRSV)

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas was painted by Caravaggio in the early seventeenth century.

Perspective: That Whole "Take Up Your Cross" Thing

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Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

That Whole "Take Up Your Cross" Thing

I had made up my mind not to think about anything while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and to preach him as crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:2 (CEB)

Lead me to the Cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord, I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Oh, lead me
Lead me to the Cross

From "Lead Me to the Cross" by Brooke Fraser

In the Gospels we read that one day Jesus starts speaking rather ominously to His followers.  Specifically, He tells them that, once they reach Jerusalem, He will "undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again."¹  The disciple called Peter, who has just declared that he believes that Jesus is the Messiah,² does not like what he is hearing, so he takes Jesus aside and tries to set Him straight.  Jesus says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."³

What Jesus then says to the people following Him is something all people with the audacity to call themselves Christians need to start taking seriously.

First, Jesus says, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."⁴  Like Peter, many of Jesus followers believe that He is the Messiah, their long-awaited liberator, and they expect Him to be a conquering king like His ancestor David.  Jesus has come instead to be a "suffering servant" who takes up a cross instead of a sword, and He wants everyone to know that truly following Him will mean doing the same.

Jesus continues to call us to take up our crosses and to follow Him.  Nobody takes up a cross, whether it is literal or figurative, without being crucified on it in some way.  Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once famously claimed, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."⁵  If we truly follow Jesus, we might not have to literally lay down our lives as Jesus will, but we will surely have to let go of some of the things that are important to us, like our expectations, our preferences, and our comforts.

Next, Jesus says, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."⁶  I would like to suggest that these seemingly paradoxical words are perhaps a warning that we must not hold on too tightly to our lives as they are.  When Jesus first announced that "the kingdom of God has come near," He also called people to repent.⁷  The Kingdom of God is unlike any kingdom of this world, so, if it has indeed come near as Jesus says, then we need to be willing to rethink everything, because everything is going to change.  We cannot receive the abundant life Jesus offers us if we are clinging to our lives as they are.

I would also like to suggest that Jesus' words might be a warning that, if we start thinking that we have something to lose, we will inevitably act in ways that are contrary to the way of self-sacrificial love Jesus calls us to follow.  The way of this world is the way of self-preservation and even self-aggrandizement, but followers of Jesus are no longer of this world.

Jesus then asks rhetorically, "For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?"⁸  In two of the Gospels, we read that, shortly before Jesus began His ministry, the devil showed Him the kingdoms of this world and said to Him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."  Jesus replied, quoting the Hebrew Scriptures, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him."⁹  Jesus could have chosen the path of conquest, but He would have inevitably lost Himself.  Instead He has chosen the path of service and self-sacrifice, which He knows will lead Him to a cross.

In the words of one early Christian thinker, "God is love."¹⁰  If we worship any god who isn't love itself - a god like power, money, or influence - we will forfeit our souls and sacrifice our neighbors in service of that god.  If we worship the God embodied by Jesus, the God who is love itself, we will love our neighbors and give of ourselves in service of God.  The path of self-sacrificial love, the path Jesus calls us to follow, is the path that truly leads to life.

Finally, Jesus says, "Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."¹¹  Peter doesn't like hearing what Jesus says about taking up a cross, because he wants to be on the winning team.  Only losers end up getting tacked up on crosses.  Later on, after Jesus is arrested without putting up a fight, Peter will deny even knowing Him.¹²  Luckily, Peter will see the light, and he will continue to follow the path Jesus has shown him.

I suspect that a lot of people who claim to be Christians are a lot more ashamed of Jesus and His words than they want to admit.  I suspect that a lot of them would like a savior who didn't get crucified.  A number of pastors have reported that people in their congregation have started calling some of Jesus' teachings as "weak" and dismissing them as "liberal talking points."¹³  One so-called "pastor," who evidently likes to portray Jesus as an "ultimate fighter," once felt the need to tell his hearers that "Jesus will never take a beating again," as if the Cross was a one-time embarrassment Jesus had to endure¹⁴ and not a revelation of His character.

Jesus still calls us to deny ourselves, to take up our crosses, and to follow Him.  He still calls is to serve our neighbors, not to dominate them.¹⁵  He still calls us to love our enemies, not to destroy them.¹⁶  The call to take up one's cross is no easier for us to hear than it was for the first Disciples, but anyone who refuses to take up their cross is not following Jesus.


Notes:

1. Mark 8:31 (NRSV)
2. Mark 8:29
3. Mark 8:32-33 (NRSV)
4. Mark 8:34 (NRSV)
5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The Cost of Discipleship (translated by R.H. Fuller and Irmgard Booth).  ch. 4
6. Mark 8:35 (NRSV)
7. Mark 1:15
8. Mark 8:36-37 (NRSV)
9. Matthew 4:8-10 (NRSV)  (See also Luke 4:5-8 and Deuteronomy 6:13.)
10. 1 John 4:8
11. Mark 8:38 (NRSV)
12. Mark 14:66-72
    
13. Tori Otten.  "Christianity Today Editor: Evangelicals Call Jesus 'Liberal' and 'Weak.'"  The New Republic, 08/10/2023.
14. Mark Driscoll.  "Thug Jesus."
15. Mark 10:45
16. Matthew 5:43-45

The photograph of the crosses was taken by Lubos Houska and has been been released into the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: The Spirit of the Law

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Spirit of the Law

Then [Jesus] said, "The Sabbath was created for humans; humans weren't created for the Sabbath."

Mark 2:27 (CEB)

If everything comes down to love
Then just what am I afraid of?

From "Hope Now" by Addison Road

In the Gospels, a major point of contention between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day is the matter of how one should observe the Sabbath Day.  One of the Ten Commandments states, "Remember the Sabbath day and treat it as holy.  Six days you may work and do all your tasks, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  Do not do any work on it..."¹  Observing the Sabbath Day is extremely important to Jesus' people.  Religious scholars even went so far as to compile detailed lists of actions prohibited on the Sabbath Day.²  Jesus and the religious leaders clash because they have different ideas about what is appropriate to do on the Sabbath Day.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that, on one Sabbath Day, some religious leaders catch some of Jesus' disciples picking wheat to eat.³  Harvesting and preparing food are among the actions forbidden on the Sabbath Day.⁴  Any food eaten on the Sabbath Day is to be gathered and prepared ahead of time.  To the religious leaders, these disciples are in violation of the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day, so they confront Jesus about His disciples' behavior.  Jesus responds by appealing to Scripture, recounting instances in which people break religious rules out of necessity and are not considered guilty for doing so.⁵

Later that day, Jesus goes to the local synagogue, where there happens to be a man with a deformed hand.  Trying to entrap Jesus, the religious leaders ask Him if He thinks the Law of their religion permits acts of healing on the Sabbath Day.⁶  In their eyes, acts of healing are off limits on the Sabbath Day.  Medical attention may only be administered if a person's life is in immediate danger.⁷  The man with the deformed hand is clearly not in such a situation.  Jesus responds to the religious leaders by appealing not to Scripture but rather to reason.  First He asks rhetorically, "Who among you has a sheep that falls into a pit on the Sabbath and will not take hold of it and pull it out?"  Next He proclaims, "How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!"  From these two points, He reasons, "So the Law allows a person to do what is good on the Sabbath."  Jesus then proceeds to heal the hand of the man in the synagogue.⁸

I think that these confrontations between Jesus and His detractors highlight the importance of understanding the spirit of the law as opposed to merely knowing the letter of the law.

It is important to consider the context in which rules are made.  The Ten Commandments, including the prohibition against working on the Sabbath Day, were given to the people of Israel while they were camped at the foot of Mount Sinai.  Just a few months earlier, they lived as slaves in Egypt.⁹  There, they were treated not as human beings but as machines, and merely asking for a break would be rewarded with a greater workload.¹⁰  The Sabbath Day was a gift from God to the people of Israel.  It upheld their humanity and reminded them that they were worth more than what they produced.¹¹

The Sabbath Day does not exist to prevent something that needs to happen from happening.  It does not exist to ensure that animals that fall into pits on that day remain trapped.  It does not exist to prevent hungry people who do not already have something ready to eat that day from being able to obtain food.  It does not exist to prevent people in need of healing from being healed on that day.  It does not exist to make people's lives more difficult or more complicated one day per week.  The Sabbath Day exists to prevent people from being dehumanized and exploited.

Later in the Gospel of Matthew, we read that one day a religious scholar with ulterior motives asks Jesus which commandment in the Law of their religion He considers the most important.  Jesus replies, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself."  Interestingly, Jesus then says, "All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands."¹²  Jesus is telling the religious scholar that every instruction in their Scriptures is a derivative of the commandments to love God and to love their neighbors.  He is essentially revealing the spirit of the Law.

A lot of Christians act as if the instructions in the Bible exist merely to be followed and enforced.  Jesus teaches us that the instructions in the Bible exist specifically to help us to love God and to love our neighbors.  This means that any prohibition in the Bible is meant to prevent us from harming our neighbors.  If we fail to keep in mind the reason that the teachings in the Bible exist, we run the risk of applying them in harmful ways.  If we really want to follow Jesus, then we must read Scripture as He reads it and put our focus on love.


Notes:

1. Exodus 20:8-10 (CEB)
2. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  pp. 25-26
3. Matthew 12:1-2
4. Barclay, p. 25
5. Matthew 12:1-5
6. Matthew 12:9-10
7. Barclay, p. 34
8. Matthew 12:11-13 (CEB)
9. Exodus 19:1-20:21
10. Exodus 5:1-18
11. Rob Bell and Don Golden.  Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for a Church in Exile.  2008, Zondervan.  p. 34
12. Matthew 22:34-40 (CEB)

The painting featured in this perspective was painted by Ferdinand Oliver around 1840.

Introspection: The Correct Answer

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Correct Answer

And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

Mark 1:11 (NRSV)

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still, You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours

From "Who Am I?" by Casting Crowns

In late December, as I was looking back on some of my introspections from the previous year, I took some time to think about my career.  I noted that there were some things I like about it and some things I dislike about it, and I confessed that I'm struggling to figure out what I actually want to do going forward.  I wrote that "I've been wrestling with my identity and my purpose in life."  It was a rather peculiar thing to write regarding my career.  The truth is that, for me, who I am and what I do are interconnected - or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they're entangled.

I'm starting to realize that part of my problem is knowing that there are stereotypes and expectations associated with every occupation.

For the last sixteen years, I have worked as a professional computer programmer.  In college, I decided to study computer science, because I knew that it was a practical field and because I actually understood how to write computer programs.  I think it also appealed to my creativity and my affinity for problem solving.

As I noted last year, even though computer programming is a fitting job for me, I do not like to be associated with computers.  The reason is stereotyping.  IT professionals like computer programmers are thought to be nerds.  Nerds might be known for their intelligence, but they are also considered uncool, unattractive, and generally undesirable.  Naturally, I don't want people to think of me in this way, so I don't want to be identified as a computer programmer.

And I don't know who needs to hear this, but telling someone that he looks like he works with computers is not flattering.

My first job as a professional computer programmer was in the gambling industry.  It was a job I hated, because working in such an amoral industry brought me a lot of shame.  As I was praying for a way out, I started to wonder if maybe I had chosen the wrong field in college.  Wondering if maybe I had a future in Christian ministry, I asked my pastor for some opportunities to preach.  By the grace of God, I got out of the job that brought me shame and into a programming job in which I could take pride, but I continued preaching.  Eventually I was certified as a Lay Speaker, a layperson who fills in for pastors when needed.  I've been an amateur preacher almost as long as I've been a professional computer programmer.

In the last few years, I've had a problem with being identified as a preacher, which is very similar to my problem with being identified as a computer programmer.  The problem is people's expectations.  People expect preachers, pastors, and other "professional" Christians to be especially Christlike individuals.  I know that isn't true about me.  I enjoy writing sermons and preaching on occasion, but sometimes I feel like a total fraud.  In fact, I'm surprised that, in all my years preaching, the church ceiling hasn't fallen on me!

I'm starting to realize that, as I try to figure out what I want to do with my life going forward, some of the internal work I need to do is to disentangle my identity from the things I do.  I will have a difficult time of figuring out what I am meant to do with my life if I think my identity somehow depends on it, and I will not faithfully or effectively do what I am meant to do if am not secure in who I am.

If I am not a computer programmer or a preacher, then who exactly am I?

I know the correct answer to the question of who I am.  I know that I am a beloved child of God.  To be honest, I find this answer unsatisfying, because it doesn't tell me anything specific about myself.  It is true about everyone.  Every child of God is different, and I want to know who I am as a particular child of God.  That said, if I am not happy with the correct answer, then maybe I think it isn't enough.  Maybe I think I need to stand out from the crowd for some reason.  Maybe I need to sit with the correct answer for a while before I try to figure anything else about about myself.

To define oneself by one's work is a common mistake, but it is a critical mistake.  This is a mistake I must correct in my own life.  I may write computer programs, but I am not a computer programmer.  I may preach on occasion, but I am not a preacher.  I am a beloved child of God, just like everyone else.


The image featured in this introspection was created by Eviatar Bach, and it has been released to the public domain.  The creator is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: Reflecting on the Psalms (Part 3)

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Reflecting on the Psalms
(Part 3)

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.

Psalm 147:5 (NRSV)

Indescribable, uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky
And You know them by name
You are amazing, God

All powerful, untameable
Awestruck, we fall to our knees
As we humbly proclaim
You are amazing, God

From "Indescribable" by Laura Story

A little over nine years ago, I took a short class on public prayer.  It was one of the classes I was required to take in order to be certified as a Lay Speaker in my denomination.  At one point, the instructor gave the participants the assignment to write a "prayer of pure praise."  The assignment proved to be a bit of a challenge, as it exposed the tendency people have to make prayer all about themselves and their needs.  As I sat with my pencil and paper, my mind turned to gratitude, and I realized that I could praise God for creating the things for which I was grateful.

Some of the psalms I've encountered this year have been prayers or songs of "pure praise," like the one hundred forty-seventh psalm.  For psalms like this, I find it interesting to consider the things about God the psalmist finds praiseworthy.


Psalm 147

The one hundred forty-seventh psalm begins,

Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.¹

Right off the bat, the unnamed psalmist tells us that he is composing a song of praise because God is gracious.  In the mythologies of many ancient cultures, the gods are depicted as capricious or even cruel.  Even in modern times, the phrase act of God is used to describe something destructive.  The psalmist believes in a God who is not like other gods, a God whose grace and mercy are praiseworthy.

The psalmist praises God for God's care for his people.  He proclaims,

The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds.²

The psalmist is writing his song of praise after a time in his people's history known as the Exile.³  At one point, the Kingdom of Israel was divided by a civil war.  Both kingdoms eventually fell to larger empires, and the people of both kingdoms were taken into exile.  Eventually these empires fell, and the people were allowed to return to their homeland to rebuild their temple, their homes, and their lives.  The psalmist praises God for sustaining the people of Israel through the Exile and for finally bringing them home.

Next the psalmist praises God's power at work in the creation of the universe.  He proclaims,

He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.⁴

The psalmist lives at a time before light pollution, so when he looks at the sky at night, he can see an uncountable number of stars.  The psalmist also lives at a time before space telescopes, so I highly doubt he has any idea how many stars there really are.  At this time, it is estimated that there are two hundred billion trillions of stars in the universe.⁵  The psalmist is telling us that God created all of these stars, named all of them, and is mindful of all them.

If God is mindful of each of the stars, we can trust that God is mindful of each human being as well.

The psalmist then praises God's justice.  He proclaims,

The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
he casts the wicked to the ground.⁶

The psalmist believes in a God who will set right everything that is wrong in this world.  God hears the cries of the oppressed, and God will bring their oppressors to justice.

The psalmist praises God's ongoing care for creation.  He proclaims,

He covers the heavens with clouds,
prepares rain for the earth,
makes grass grow on the hills.
He gives to the animals their food,
and to the young ravens when they cry.⁷

God has provided for the lifeforms in this world by creating and setting into motion a world that sustains itself.  The rain waters the plant life, and the plant life feeds the animals.  When the animals die, their bodies decompose and provide nutrients for the plant life.

The psalmist goes on to once again praise God's care for his people.  He proclaims,

Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
He grants peace within your borders;
he fills you with the finest of wheat.⁸

God's love for the psalmist's people is praiseworthy, as is God's love for all people.

Finally, the psalmist praises God for creating the weather.  He proclaims,

He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down hail like crumbs -
who can stand before his cold?
He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.⁹

I think that, when the psalmist praises God for creating the weather, he praises God's creativity and attention to detail.  God did not create a world that is uniform or static.  Different regions of the earth have different climates.  Furthermore, the weather around the world changes throughout the year.


The Psalms turn our attention to God, and the psalms of praise remind us of why God is praiseworthy.  The one hundred forty-seventh psalm in particular calls our attention to the things God created that we might commonly take for granted, like the weather, the stars, and the ecological systems at work in our world.  I hope my recent reflections on various psalms have inspired you to spend some time with the Psalms for yourself.


Notes:

1. Psalm 147:1 (NRSV)
2. Psalm 147:2-3 (NRSV)
3. Michael D. Coogan, et al.  The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Third Edition.  2001, Oxford University Press, Inc.  Hebrew Bible p. 901
4. Psalm 147:4-5 (NRSV)
5. Brian Jackson.  "How many stars are there in space?"  Astronomy.com, 09/28/2021.
6. Psalm 147:6 (NRSV)
7. Psalm 147:8-9 (NRSV)
8. Psalm 147:12-14 (NRSV)
9. Psalm 147:15-18 (NRSV)

The image of the NGC 4414 galaxy was created by the Hubble Space Telescope.