In the local newspaper, proponents and opponents of the marriage amendment lobbed scriptures back and forth as if a couple of verses settled the matter. That’s wrong for at least three reasons.

• A text without a context is a pretext. The authors had their minds made up and sought favorable verses as ammunition.
• The Bible is the unified word of God. All of the verses are true. All of them fit together. Anyone who uses one passage to argue agains what another passage says understands neither one.
• We are an increasingly secular society. Christians should not suppose that quoting Scripture will persuade non-Christians. Political discussions need political talking points. Christians ought to take their principles from Scripture, but find different language for taking part in political discussions.

My own position, as far as the amendment is concerned, is that marriage anywhere in the world and throughout all time has between men and women. Sometimes it’s one man and one woman, sometimes one man and more than one woman, or even between more than one man and one woman.

Societies have had varying degrees of tolerance for homosexual relationships, but none have included them within the definition of marriage. In our society, people can do pretty much whatever they want, but no minority has the right to redefine an entire institution and force everyone else to go along

In the absence of any compelling reason to redefine the whole concept of marriage, I am opposed to it. In the arguments made by opponents of the North Carolina marriage amendment, same sex marriage actually got lost in an avalanche of scare tactics about people losing insurance or protection orders. Others warned that it would be bad for the business climate.

Oh? Did any of that happen in any of the other states with similar constitutional amendments? Transparent lies about side issues while completely ignoring the main issue don’t win many elections, or shouldn’t.

So much for my political opinions. What does the Bible say about homosexuality, marriage and, love?

Homosexuality and marriage

Gay rights parade

The first explicit mention of homosexuality in the Bible comes in Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.” (Unless otherwise noted, I quote from NKJV in this post.) That comes near the end of a long list of prohibited sexual behavior.

After the end of the list, the chapter goes on to say that the land of the Canaanites was defiled by such practices. The Israelites were commissioned to wipe them from the face of the earth in order to put a halt to them. If Israel ever became similarly defiled, the land would vomit them out, too.

Leviticus mandates a more immediate consequence of homosexual behavior in 20:13: both men shall be put to death. Is there any possibility, then of gay marriage under Old Testament law? Of course not.

But that’s the law. Christians live under grace. The entire theme of this blog concerns how grace (God’s unmerited favor) and judgment (the inevitable outcome when sin encounters God’s holiness) fit together.

In the first eight chapters of Romans, Paul describes a new kind of righteousness, based on grace and not works of the law. Remember the goal of his argument as you read Romans 1:26-32. And notice that I include four verses more than most people quote on the subject of homosexuality.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Of course in order to understand the passage fuller, you need to start reading no later than v.18: “For the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men [used as generic for humanity], who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”
In other words, the longer passage I quoted is only incidentally and partially about homosexuality. That is, the application of the passage is much, much broader.
Verses 18-32 taken as a whole do not describe some special class of depraved people. It describes the condition of the entire human race. God’s grace saves people from that condition, but it does not in any way make the saved people superior to anyone who is still in it. But about the shorter part I quoted, notice the following points:

1. Paul calls homosexuality a vile, unnatural passion. And while Leviticus did not mention lesbian homosexuality, Paul does.
2. God essentially gives all people determined to continue in sin (including but certainly not exclusively homosexuals) a debased mind. Basically, sinners have told God that they have no interest in knowing about him, so he takes that knowledge away.
3. That debased mind makes repentance more difficult, but not impossible.
4. Not only practicing homosexuals (among other sinners) deserve death, but so does anyone who does not practice a listed sin, but approves of it.

Once again, the concept of homosexual marriage is totally incompatible with the will of God as revealed in Scripture. But when Paul says people are deserving of death, don’t forget where he takes his argument, which does not finish until the end of the eighth chapter:

Everyone deserves death. God’s grace has found a way for sinners to be justified in his sight and not suffer the death they deserve. And that way is through faith in Jesus Christ.

God’s grace for homosexuals

"Adam's skull on Calvary" / Fra Angelico

Here’s another passage frequently quoted on the subject of homosexuality. As far as I’m concerned, it adds nothing to what the Bible says about homosexuality beyond what I have already quoted, but it adds a great deal about grace. Again, I’ll quote one verse more than I usually see.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

1. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll go to hell, but that discussion will have to wait for another time.
2. Homosexuals are included among the unrighteous. People who practice homosexuality will not inherit the kingdom of God. But let’s be serious. It’s prevalence of adultery and the resulting divorce within the church that has weakened marriage to the point where our society can entertain the idea of same-sex marriage at all.
3. Paul is writing to Christians, some of whom used to be homosexuals (etc.), but God’s grace has delivered them from it. Upon repentance and deliverance from former sins, they are now not only justified, but sanctified.
4. Christians are under grace, not under law. There is no longer any point in appealing to the law (the Leviticus verses, for example) to govern Christian behavior. All things are lawful.
5. That doesn’t mean that all things are okay. Sin still has consequences. And as long as we’re still breathing air, all of us will sin occasionally. As long as we don’t cling to habitual sin (homosexual or anything else), it doesn’t matter much. We can confess it, repent of it, and God nails it to the cross with all our other sins. But habitual sin still holds Christians under its power.

Human love for homosexuals

A loving family. Are any of them gay? If so, it doesn't divide them.

Whenever Christians use the passages from Leviticus, Romans, and 1 Corinthians to oppose homosexuality or gay marriage. Other Christians will toss various commandments about love back at them.

Now, non-believers are pretty good at cherry picking scriptures and using them as weapons, but there were plenty of ordained ministers tossing love scriptures into the battle. I have been around enough to know that the categories of non-believer and ordained minister are not mutually exclusive, but I know one of the ministers who wrote to the paper. He’s definitely a believer, and I’m willing to assume most of the others are as well.

It’s not only preachers getting into the fray, saying to vote against the marriage amendment out of love. I have some good Christian friends with a gay son. My more casual acquaintances include other fine Christian people with gay children who love them dearly. And I know that there are vast numbers of others I have never met or heard of.

Some Christians cast their gay children out of the family. In theological terms, they refuse to extend the grace to their children that their heavenly Father extends to them. I applaud Christian parents who continue to love their gay children without judgment or restraint.

But remember. No one who really understands Scripture can use any passage to argue against what some other passage says.

What does it mean, biblically, to love a homosexual?

Rmember the Galatians passage: people who do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you love someone, surely you want them to inherit the kingdom of God!

Remember the end of the Romans passage: people who approve of homosexuality (or any of the other listed behaviors) deserve death as much as people who practice it.

Love for homosexuals, in the context of the revelation of God’s will and character, cannot include approval of homosexual behavior. Period. Paragraph. End of discussion.

So how is it possible to love a homosexual without judgment or restraint and at the same time disapprove of homosexual behavior? Learn to love them the same way God does: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34, NIV–The punctuation there is clearer than NKJV, which has similar word order).

Photo credits:
Men arguing. Some rights reserved by o5com
Adam’s skull. Public domain
Gay rights parade. Some rights reserved by Guillaume Paumier.
Loving family. Some rights reserved by HazPhotos.

What do we want from a church service or other similar gathering? Is what we want the same thing Jesus wants to offer?

Feeding of the 5000

The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (ca. 1413)

Jesus hadn’t intended to minister to a crowd. He wanted to find a quiet place where he could grieve for the murder of John the Baptist, and where he could hear his disciples’ reports on what they accomplished when he sent them out two by two. But of course a crowd came anyway.

Jesus’ ministry sometimes seems like a long stream of interruptions, where he took care of people’s needs instead of whatever he had planned. Late in the day, they were hungry, so he had to feed them, too. The feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels.

They all describe how the disciples rowed across the sea and left Jesus by himself, too. Of course the crowd went to Capernaum to find him. John 6:22-35 records a very strange dialog.

The crowd, knowing nothing about the miracles that had happened overnight, were surprised that Jesus had gotten to town before they did and asked him when he had arrived.

Jesus was not as glad to see them as they were to see him. He said that they looked for him not because they had seen signs of God in action, but because they had had an unexpected good meal.

He told them not to work for food that only satisfies for the moment, but for food that endures for eternal life. He told them that eternal life was a gift of the Son of Man, and that God the Father had set his seal on the Son.

The crowd very properly asked what kind of work he meant, but the only thing they knew about work was works of the law. They wanted to hear some religious task they could perform and receive eternal life as a reward. Jesus told them that the work of God is to believe Jesus.

And here’s where it gets weird.

What did the crowd want in Capernaum?

These are people who had flocked to hear Jesus preach, and he preached all day. They could have left at any time, but they hung on every word until they got hungry, and then he showed his compassion by producing more than enough food for all of them out of next to nothing. But somehow they didn’t take it as a sign from God!

So when Jesus said the work of God was for them to believe him, they asked what sign he would show them. Their fathers had eaten manna in the wilderness for 40 years. Jesus had only provided one meal. How could he top Moses?

And when Jesus told them to seek the true bread from heaven that God, not Moses, had provided, they were still thinking of filling their stomachs. Jesus told them that he himself was both bread and water from heaven, and whoever came to him would never hunger or thirst again. He would satisfy the deepest longing of their soul, but as long as they were fixated on their stomach instead of their soul, they could never get it.

The Bible doesn’t record what Jesus had preached to the crowd the day before, only that they had interrupted him and he had fed them bread and fish. Whatever he preached obviously didn’t register at all, and the more he tried to explain what he meant, less willing they became to hear him out. By the end of the chapter, even long-time disciples decided to call it quits (John 6:60-71).

Do modern Christians want what Jesus offers?

There is only one good reason to come to church or to go to a coliseum or stadium to hear a preacher. And that’s to have an encounter with the living God. We get that encounter by actively seeking it with our whole heart and entering into worship. Entering into worship simply means giving God our entire attention and waiting expectantly for him to make his presence known.

Enjoying singing the hymns or listening to the other music is a byproduct. Benefitting in any way from the sermon is a byproduct. Any good conversations we have with other members of the congregation is a byproduct. Anything else that happens in Sunday school, in the hallway, in the parking lot is a byproduct.

Too many of us are too much like that crowd. We care more about what to eat, what to wear, what comfortable furniture to sit on, what technological marvels to entertain us—all kinds of mere stuff—than we do about doing the work of God, which is to believe in Jesus.

Um, no, but that attitude's a quick road to disappointment with Jesus

Nowhere does Scripture tell us it’s good enough to believe that Jesus existed or to agree that the Bible stories and some set of doctrines are true. Believing Jesus means actively living according to what he still teaches through Scripture and through speaking to our hearts.

Believing Jesus is hard work, much harder than simply agreeing with a set of statements, much harder than coming to church and taking part in its activities, much harder than trying our best to be a good person between services. That’s undoubtedly why we so easily slip into the same mindset as the people who followed Jesus to Capernaum.

We want simple explanations, simple tasks, something we can do with little trouble, confident that it’s good enough. Then we want to be left alone to enjoy ourselves. God doesn’t offer that. Will we continue with him, anyway?

Photo credits:
It’s all about me. Some rights reserved by Randy Willis.

When in v. 5 of the same psalm David writes, “Come and see what God has done,” he turns his focus from telling God how wonderful he is to reminding those who sang it of a familiar and beloved story.

Looking back

Worshiping the golden calf, as in Exodus 32:1-35, illustration from a Bible card published 1901 by the Providence Lithograph Company

The escape from Egypt through the sea and entrance into the Promised Land through the Jordan River at flood stage formed the backdrop for the Jews’ entire national and religious identity.

In the same way, Christians look back to the birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. We are invited to identify with them as if we were there at the manger, in the towns and villages where Jesus ministered.

Mathis Grünewald - Isenheim Altarpiece (c. 1515)

And yes, we were there when they crucified the Lord. We were also there at the tomb or in the upper room or on the roadway when we discovered he was no longer dead. We were there as he rose into heaven, and there as the church grew by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Neither our presence in the formative events of our faith nor the presence of generations of Jews during the Exodus invite or allow us to live in some idealized past. In both cases, we partake in the depths of sin and degradation by being the same kind of sinners who rebelled in the wilderness or refused to pay enough attention to Jesus to discern who he was.

From the time of the Exodus until the time David wrote this psalm and beyond, the children of Israel had known some rough times, and they knew that their disobedience and rebellion had been the cause.

From the time the church began with tongues of fire and the sound of a mighty, rushing wind until now, Christians have suffered all manner of troubles, and we, too, should know that our disobedience and rebellion have been the cause.

When times are rough, it’s easy to blame God and wonder why he lets us go through them. Just listen to the way even church people today complain about sickness, bad economic times, and all manner of tragedies that happen to us or all around us.

Atheists and church people alike take these things to mean that either God doesn’t really love us or that he lacks the power to save us from them.

It’s time to seriously entertain the concept that he loves us enough to lead us through some really yucky circumstances in order to shape us into the people he plans for us to become. And whenever anyone suffers through no sin of their own, we all partake of Adam’s original sin. That’s why anything goes wrong

Praise amid self-inflicted consequences

What does that have to do with praise?

In v. 8, the psalm turns from the awesome display of power long ago in the Exodus to the present day. Let the sound of praise be heard, David writes.

• God has kept us among the living. Lots of people have died before us. We ourselves will eventually die. We haven’t yet. That’s reason enough to praise God.
• God has not let our feet slip. It doesn’t always feel like it, but if we can see past our feelings and connect with God in the midst of trouble, we will experience and know his provision and protection in those times.
• God has tested us, tried us like silver is tried. That is, he subjects us to intense heat from a fire until all the impurities have burned off. It’s not very comfortable. It’s not intended to be comfortable.
• God has brought us into the net. Think fish net. Do fish like being there? But Peter and all who have since followed his leadership have the title fishers of people. It’s death to fish to be in the net, but life to us. Or rather, our flesh dies and our spirit comes to life.
• God has put burdens on our backs.
• He has let people ride over our heads. That is, we’ve fallen in heavy traffic and no one will stop for us to get off the ground.
• We have gone through fire and water.

Does any of that sound to you like reasons why we should tell God, each other, and everyone else how great and wonderful he is?

If we stop to think about it, yes it is.

The Resurrection of Christ / Noel Coypel, 1700

We have his promise that when we walk through the water, he is with us. We will not be drowned. We have his promise that when we pass through fire, he is with us. We will not be burned.

In other words, we have his promise that we will go through trouble. In hard times, we just need to remember that he’s keeping that promise. Therefore, we need to remember the other part of the promise.

• He is going through the trouble with us.
• He is shielding us from the worst consequences.
• We will, by his promise and his action, come through the trouble.
• We will live to tell about it no matter how awful it seems.

And what about people who literally do drown and who literally do burn? People who go through troubles and do not live to tell about it? When they wake up in God’s presence in heaven, they can tell about it there.

Here is David’s conclusion (v. 12) after he told people to praise God so everyone could hear them doing it and then went through that entire list of unpleasant conditions we all go through:

We suffer all of that, and yet God has brought us out into a spacious place.

Photo credits
Crucifixion, by Grünewald. Some rights reserved by Cea.
Worshiping the golden calf. Public domain.
Noel Coypel–Resurrection. Public domain

Light of the World / William Holden Hunt (1853)

The risen Lord can’t be a historical character that we read about, but a person whom we know as much or better than any other person we know. We can’t see him. We can’t touch him. We can’t hear the sound of his voice. How, then, do we know that we know him?

“Now by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:5, NKJV)

Much of the passage this verse starts echoes what Jesus taught the night before he was betrayed. I have recently written that when Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” he was making a promise. John is not. He intends obedience as a test of whether we know Jesus at all.

Obedience can not mean having a checklist of commandments to measure ourselves against. Honest people will always recognize failure to measure up to any checklist. That’s how so many of the Pharisees missed the point of the gospel entirely.

Jesus’ new commandment

Helping a stranger

How is this a new commandment? Because reference to self-love is no longer required. The way Moses expressed the commandment, people had to think of themselves, notice how they loved themselves, and love others the same way. Jesus said to look at his love instead. In other words, he took away the imperfect, flawed measurement for loving others and gave us the perfect measurement.

The old way is a commandment of the law. It has no power to help us live up to it. It condemns our failure. The new way is a commandment of grace. We measure our love for others against his perfect love for us. That means we have to pay enough attention to notice how Jesus loves us.

In his first epistle, John says the new commandment is true in Jesus and true in the believer. The darkness of the cloud out of which Moses came with the law is gone. The darkness of this sinful world with its temptations to self-centeredness is gone. The light, Jesus himself, has driven it away.

We see by the light if and only if we respond to it in love–for God and for neighbor. Our love will not be perfect, but paying careful attention to God’s perfect love and relying on the power of grace, it can become more nearly so.

And that’s when and how we can know that we know Jesus, the risen Lord of glory.

Photo credits:
Light of the World. Some rights reserved by D Flam
Helping a Stranger. Some rights reserved by Ed Yourdon

“I can see the mountains very dimly!”

This picture was also taken from eastern Colorado, but we traveled for hours from Bennett before the mountains looked this close.

My little brother’s excitement woke the whole family after what had been a very difficult night. It became the turning point of our trip to California.

My father had accepted a visiting professorship at the University of California and decided to buy a trailer. The plan was to take a leisurely trip from the flat lands of northwestern Ohio and then explore California on weekends.

So far, it had seemed like a bad plan. We had spent the first two nights with two different grandmothers. Unfortunately, the person who was supposed to get the trailer ready for the trip didn’t do a good job. Our first taste of anything hilly, the Ozarks of Missouri, nearly led to a disastrous crash as the trailer brake failed and pushed the car down a steep slope.

Commercial campgrounds in Kansas and Nebraska had proved unpleasant, and we were looking forward to Colorado, where it was legal to camp overnight in roadside parks. We picked one near Bennett as our destination, but our map was obsolete. It took a while to realize that the state had abandoned the highway we wanted. All we could do was find where the roadside park used to be and hope we could successfully set up camp.

By the time we found a bare spot in the weeds and fixed something for supper, it was dark. That’s when the first freight train went past. Dad vowed that he’d turn around and go back home and tell UC that he wasn’t coming.

Mountains in Psalm 121

Somehow, the sight of the mountains in the distance refreshed all of us and encouraged us to go on. That’s not the effect that the sight of distant mountains had on the psalmist.

Mount of Temptation, Jericho. Since Jericho is only six miles from the Dead Sea, the top of this mountain is probably below sea level!

Jerusalem, where the major Jewish festivals took place, sits high above most of the rest of Palestine. A ridge of mountains occupies the area between the coastal plain and the Jordan valley. The hills of Galilee are mostly less than 600 feet above sea level, although some peaks are higher than 1600 feet. The mountains to the south are progressively taller. Jerusalem, not the highest place in Judea, is about 2600 feet. Meanwhile, the Jordan River flows south to the lowest place on earth, almost 1300 feet below sea level.

Trade routes connected the various parts of Palestine, but they hardly counted as a road system. Pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem traveled the distance on foot. They faced not only a steep climb and rugged terrain, but the danger of wild beasts and bandits.

As pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem, they passed many other high places where pagans had built shrines to Canaanite gods. Those gods required child sacrifice. As disgusting as the practice of burning babies to a crops sounds today, it was a constant temptation in Israel. Eventually even some of the kings of Judah embraced those pagan gods and their abominations.

So when the psalmist looked at the mountains, he didn’t see scenery or fun times. He saw a variety of dangers and wondered where he’d find help. The Lord who had appeared to Moses and initiated a covenant with the Israelites would help him.

The psalm enumerates many ways that anyone who sang it could expect God’s protection: from stumbling, from dangers along the road, from the sun, and from the moon.

Psalm 121 and human experience

Ouch!

In everyday experience, people stumble and fall all the time. People suffer dangers along modern roads all the time. People get skin cancer and heat stroke from the sun. We no longer ascribe mental illness to the moon, but we still use the word “lunatic.” And there is plenty of mental illness.

How, then, is this psalm true?

Not to make light of anyone’s suffering, but whatever happens to a believer could have been much worse. As Psalm 37:23-24 puts it, “The steps of a man are established by the Lord and he delights in his way. When he falls, he shall not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the one who holds his hand” (NASB, emphasis added).

Also, we must remember that the real world is the world of spirit. We live in that world but cannot apprehend it with sense knowledge. Danger there comes from Satan. He can hurt us only as much as we ourselves allow him to.

According to 1 Corinthians 10:13, God will not allow Satan to tempt us beyond our ability to resist. He will always provide a way for us to escape from Satan’s devices, whether we notice and take advantage of it or not.

Whoever wrote Psalm 121 probably knew Psalm 37, for David wrote that one. Implicitly, he knew the same truth Paul wrote. That’s why he expressed such absolute confidence that the Lord is our protector.

Photo credits:
Distant mountains. Some rights reserved by Ben Mason
Mount of Temptation, Jericho. Some rights reserved by Michele Benericetti
Ouch! Some rights reserved by Adam Engelhart

Women at the empty tomb, by Fra Angelico, 1437-1446.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ closed the era of law and opened the era of grace. Some Christians still haven’t caught on. No wonder the world hasn’t.

Under law, people must obey or face punishment. Old Testament law defined God’s will so stringently that no one could possibly live up to it. Some people thought they kept the law and harshly judged others. Failing to keep love, they failed to keep the law. Very likely others recognized the impossibility of ever being “good enough” and gave up in despair. Certainly many figured out some decent minimum observance and hoped God would be satisfied.

What do we find in the church today?

• Some people so concerned about others’ sex life, what others drink, choose for entertainment, etc. that they come across as harsh and judgmental.
• Some people who come to church and leave feeling condemned because they measure their feelings against what they hear in the sermon or see in everyone else’s Sunday behavior.
• Some people who consider themselves good Christians because they try to live a good life.
• And fortunately, some people who, to some extent or another, understand grace.

But unfortunately, in one poll after another, the behavior of church people is not discernibly different from that of the world. No wonder the world thinks the church is full of hypocrites. Too many of us have only the dimmest idea of how Christians ought to live. It’s too easy to fall into the trap of living under law.

The promise of grace

The Resurrection of Christ / Noel Coypel, 1700

Before he died, Jesus explained the coming new world to his disciples. He said much more than one blog post can ever cover, but I’d like to point out one short passage:

If you love me, you will obey what I command, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. — John 14:15-17

Let’s not misread the first part. Jesus doesn’t say that obedience is the test of our love for him, as some may suppose. It’s not a burden; it’s a promise. Whoever loves Jesus will keep his commandments. Moses could never have made such a promise, but Jesus did.

And how can Jesus promise that when we love him we will obey? Because the resurrected Jesus would ask the Father, who would send the Holy Spirit to the church. The disciples already knew the Holy Spirit.

After all, that is the Spirit of Christ. Jesus had lived with them and taught them in bodily form. In one passage or another, Jesus promises that the entire trinity will actually take up residence in the believer’s heart.

The law says, “behave or else.” Grace says that the Lord of the Universe is not only among us corporately as a church but within us individually as believers. And what does that mean? For openers,

• We can read Scripture and the Teacher will open its meaning to us in a way that will influence our daily choices.
• We can confess our struggles, and the Councilor will advise us on how to change our thoughts, words, and deeds to become more Christlike.
• We will develop such exquisite pain at our own sin that we become less concerned about others’. And of course, we will recognize that soothing that pain by more radical obedience becomes almost easy. The Helper lives in us.
• Eventually, we reach a lever of spiritual maturity that those under law can’t imagine. In that state, we have a more profound impact on others around us by gentle counsel than we ever had back in the days when we judged others’ sin harshly.

What do you think when you read or hear John 14:15? Does it seem like a burden? You’re still under law even though Jesus has offered his grace. Does it seem like a promise? Cling to that promise and be transformed by how it will renew your mind.

Photo credit: Public domain, from Wikimedia

Judas Iscariot (right), retiring from the Last Supper, painting by Carl Bloch, late 19th century

Surely everyone knows that Judas, one of the Twelve, accepted 30 pieces of silver from the temple treasury to betray Jesus. He attended the Last Supper with the rest, left early, and led a large armed group to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was arrested. After Jesus was sentenced to death, Judas threw the money back at the priests and committed suicide.

For centuries, many in the church have regarded Judas simply as the most despicable traitor in history. Even today, some writers seem to assume that he was a hypocrite who intended to betray Jesus from the start, that he gained nothing from three years of following Jesus, and that he hid his hypocrisy from everyone but Jesus.

If Judas is nothing more than some shifty-eyed villain dressed all in black so that we know to hiss at him whenever we see him appear on stage, there’s not much anyone can really learn from reading about him. More to the point, hardly anyone will identify with him in any way. Now there’s a dangerous place to be!

What the Bible says about Judas

Besides the verses that describe his villainy, the Bible reveals little explicitly about Judas, but it is certainly worth knowing that little. For one thing, he is known as Judas Iscariot. “Iscariot” is not his family name, as Guion is mine. It transliterates the Hebrew expression ish Kerioth. “Ish” is Hebrew for man, male human being. “Kerioth” is the town in Judea where he grew up.

Judas, a Judean, was therefore the only one of the Twelve who didn’t grow up in Galilee. Several of the Twelve were blood relatives of each other. Most of them appear to have had some kind of relationship with at least some of the others before Jesus called them. But not Judas. He may have conceivably met some of the Galileans if he followed John the Baptist, but the Bible doesn’t say.

That Judas was a relative stranger to everyone before Jesus called him invites some questions, for which the Bible gives us no basis for an answer. Did the Galileans form cliques that excluded Judas at any time? Whether they did or not, did Judas feel like the odd man out? On the other hand, did Judas, as a Judean, look down on Galilean bumpkins? Or was that only the urban prejudice of Jerusalem?

His birth and upbringing set him apart, but he had plenty of important characteristics in common with all the rest. He was a very ordinary man of no particular distinction. He did not choose Jesus; Jesus chose him. He followed Jesus willingly and left behind whatever life he had before.

What the Bible says about the disciples in general

The gospels make numerous statements about the disciples or the Twelve collectively. Each statement describes each individual. Occasionally, another gospel’s version of the same story singles out a disciple, but that shouldn’t take away from the implication that the entire group had the same basic experience or attitude.

For example, the synoptic gospels say that the disciples were indignant when Mary broke open an expensive bottle of perfume and anointed Jesus with it. John’s account put the words in Judas’ mouth, the only time any gospel story singles him out until he went to the priests to get the money. John calls Judas a thief who had embezzled from the group’s money box. That does not change the fact that other accounts say that all the disciples were indignant. Nor does it offer sufficient explanation of Judas’ motives shortly afterward.

I have looked up general references to the disciples and put them in roughly chronological order according to a harmony of the gospels at the back of one of my Bibles. Here is what some of these passages tell up about Judas. (There are too many to use them all.)

• Judas put faith in Jesus after the miracle at Cana (John 2:11).
• Judas had the privileges of a kingdom insider and wanted to understand Jesus’ teachings (Matthew 13:10-17, 36). Perhaps he thought he did understand.
• Jesus sent Judas out with one other disciple, and he preached, cast out demons, and healed people (Mark 6:7, 12).
• When other disciples began to fall away because of the difficulty of Jesus’ teaching, Judas continued to follow (John 6:60-70). It says in v. 64 and again in v.70 that Jesus announced at that time that 1) not all the disciples [not limited to the 12] believed, 2) no one could come to Jesus whom the Father had not enabled, and 3) that one of the 12 was a devil. Jesus knew it was Judas. Did Judas know at that time that he was the devil Jesus spoke of?
• Jesus predicted his death and resurrection for the first time. Scripture does not record a general response from the disciples, only Peter’s rebuke (Matthew 116:21-28; Mark 8:31-38; Luke 9:18-21).
• While Jesus, Peter, James, and John were on the Mount of Transfiguration, Judas and the rest failed to drive out a demon for want of prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:18).
• Jesus predicted his death and resurrection a second time, and Judas was filled with grief (Matthew 17:22-23) and afraid (Luke 9:45).
• Jesus predicted his death and resurrection a third time, and again Judas didn’t know what he was talking about (Luke 18:34).
• Judas was numbered among the apostles at the Last Supper, even though he had already decided to betray Jesus (Luke 22:14).
• When Jesus announced that the betrayer was in the room on that last Thursday night, no one except Peter and John knew where Judas was going when he left. They knew only because they asked quietly and Jesus answered quietly (John 13:29).

Why did Judas betray Jesus?

Stone relief from west choir screen, Naumburg Cathedral, depicting Judas kissing Jesus and Peter cutting off Malchus' ear

Only sheer intellectual laziness can ascribe Judas’ motives entirely to hypocrisy and greed. Self-delusion and pride provide better explanations, and must be included in the mix in any case.

Did he, as a Judean, consider himself superior in understanding to the Galileans? He may have intellectually grasped Jesus’ teachings more quickly than the others. That would have inoculated him from grasping them spiritually.

In John 6, when many disciples stopped following Jesus, did Judas continue to follow Jesus with growing misgivings? Or on the other hand, did he think Jesus was moving too slowly to usher in the kingdom that would drive out Rome and go to the chief priests to try to force his hand?

The greatest evil cannot come from corruption of the lowly:

• Satan himself was the highest and most exalted of archangels before he rebelled. No one less could have succeeded as well has he did or caused as much damage.
• Ordinary people were worshiping as pagan shrines while David was kings. Sin did not begin to destroy the moral fabric of the kingdom until the king and the chief priests descended into paganism.
• After Judas followed Jesus and walked in supernatural power with the rest of the disciples, he was not yet the extraordinary spiritual giants the other apostles later became, but they had all become all far above ordinary. Judas was one of the most spiritually exalted and mature people in the world when he chose to betray Jesus.

Jesus may have known from the beginning that Judas would betray him. Judas himself certainly did not. None of the disciples understood Jesus’ warnings of his death and predictions of his resurrection. They all seem to have forgotten. So surely Judas had put it out of his head. Had he both remembered and believed those predictions, his actions–for whatever combination of reasons–would have been unthinkable.

The tragedy of Judas

In remorse, but not repentance, Judas returned the money to the temple and hanged himself. Obviously he could not have rejoined the Eleven under any circumstances before the resurrection. But I firmly believe that if he had hung around somewhere until then, Jesus would have found him, restored him, and given him a ministry of surpassing greatness, just as he restored Peter.

If Judas had been a mere hypocrite, his life and death would have no particular meaning for us. If he fell by pride, spiritual laziness, and self-deception, he becomes a cautionary tale of how anyone can fall.

If acting from remorse and not repentance cost him not only his earthly life but his earthly and eternal inheritance, he becomes a cautionary example in a different way. We will all fall short of what God intends for us at some time or another. What then? Will we repent, or just be remorseful? Will we wait for Jesus to come restore us and fit us for a greater ministry? Or will we throw it all away by avoiding him?

Who sinned?

Healing of the Blind Man / by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-11)

A blind man sat near the entrance to the temple. He had been blind from birth and could support himself only by begging. If people pitied him, they tossed some change to him. Maybe a few people even stopped to chat for a while. But basically, nearly everyone passed by.

Back in the days when people hadn’t forgotten that sin is real and has real consequences, it seemed obvious that the man was under some kind of judgment for being blind. The disciples only asked a question out loud that many people must have wondered over the years: was the man born blind because he sinned? But how could anyone sin in the womb? Or perhaps was he born blind to punish his parents for some sin?

Jesus answered that neither the man nor his parents sinned to cause his blindness. If he had had any interest in continuing a theological discussion, he could have gone on to explain that Adam sinned to cause it. I almost wish he had. After all, don’t American Christians often ask the same questions?

When misfortune strikes, self-pity causes many to wonder why they’re being punished. Perhaps judgmentalism causes many more to survey the situation and wonder the same thing. Or, in the case of a natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane, earthquake, etc., religious leaders too often come out of the woodwork to explain that it’s God’s judgment on something or another. The whole discussion betrays a deficiency of both humility and love.

So what? In the Bible, some calamities were caused by identifiable sin. That hardly means that anyone can explain all calamities, or even any particular one, as a judgment on that sin. Adam (that is, generic humanity) sinned. The fall of man was high treason against God, because the humans he created decided to obey Satan instead of God. And Satan wants only to steal, kill, and destroy. We all partake of Adam’s sin. Who sinned when calamity strikes? If you’re not an immediate victim, just look in the mirror. Then look around you at everyone else you see. Who sinned? We did, from the Garden of Eden to the present day.

What does it matter who sinned?

But Jesus wasn’t interested in a theological discussion. He wasn’t interested in explaining anything. I’m no Greek scholar, but I’d like to suggest that some of our translators haven’t noticed that fact. Here is an excerpt from the NASB

And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day. . .

I chose to quote from NASB simply because that translation makes it obvious which words are not in the original text, but were added by translators to make sense. It is hardly possible to translate any extensive work or part of a work without resorting to various workarounds. So far as I know, only Bible translators, and not all of them, ever let the readers in on just which words they have supplied.

In this case, I contend that the added words do not clarify the meaning. They change it. I also point out that ancient Greek had none of our punctuation marks, or indeed, spaces between words. Translators must supply that as well. Here is what the same passage looks like without the added words and with the last period changed to a comma:

And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man sinned, nor his parents; but so that the works of God might be displayed in him, we must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day. . .

And the point?

• The disciples gave Jesus two choices. He rejected both of them.
• When we see suffering, Adam’s sin is sufficient reason. If a more immediate sin isn’t obvious, don’t look for it.
• The man was not born blind either for some sin of his parents or infantile sin of his own.
• He was not born blind because God knew he would otherwise commit some heinous sin.
• He was not born blind so that Jesus could come along later and heal him.
• He was not born blind to punish anyone for anything. In our fallen world, these things happen.
• Jesus wanted to display the works of God in the man. Discussing sin and judgment as an intellectual exercise can never accomplish that goal. Only doing the works of God will display the works of God.

So what are we to do when we see someone suffering? At the very least, pray that God’s will will be done. God might not intend to end the trouble right away, or ever. Whatever else God intends, he always wants to build faith and Christ-like character. He always intends for the light of Christ to shine into the darkness of the world.

Maybe you can do something besides praying. Maybe you have no choice but to try to do something more. If God gives you his work to do, work in faith for the sake of displaying God’s work while it is still day.

In many churches, maybe most churches, the congregation recites every Sunday. Everyone has it memorized from the familiar King James translation. It is one of the few parts of today’s services where the language hasn’t been updated. It takes less than a minute. How many people actually pray it? Daniel did, as recorded in Daniel 9.

Praying the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew

The Lord's Prayer, in Gregorian chant notation

Jesus gave the church a model prayer, not merely to be words to memorize. It is like scales in music: a beginning point for practice, not a completed project. Now that we all have it memorized, we can use it in our personal quiet time by thinking through each clause in turn, praying whatever comes to mind. That can easily fill up an hour.

There are undoubtedly many ways to approach the Lord’s prayer as a model. One is to think of it as addressing various feelings that we all have, and that we all need to get rid of:

• Inferiority: the prayer begins our Father, and among other things, that means Jesus’ Father and mine.
• Depression: as we pray that God’s will be done, we acknowledge that he is in control. There is no need for us to feel like our lives are out of control.
• Anxiety: God is the source of our daily bread. He supplies our needs.
• Guilt: we ask for God’s forgiveness, knowing that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
• Resentment: after all, we need to forgive others, and can’t expect to receive God’s forgiveness if we refuse.
• Temptation: God will test us, but when he does, he expects to prove that we can pass it. God will not induce us to do evil. That’s the work of the devil.

Praying the Lord’s Prayer in Daniel 9

Daniel's Prayer (1865) by Sir Edward Poynter (1836-1919)

If the Lord’s Prayer is a model to fill out, not a script to follow, it should be no surprise to find one of the great Old Testament prayer warriors discovering the same outline. Follow along with Daniel 9:1-19 and see an entirely different approach to the Lord’s Prayer from the one I just suggested.

Daniel knew that Jeremiah had prophesied that Israel would be in captivity for 70 years and recognized that the promised time of return was near. Therefore, he confessed his people’s sin to God. Confession, by the way, acknowledges both that God’s will ought to be done and that we are not doing it. Even as godly a man as Daniel did not dare to suggest that he himself did not partake of the sins of his people.

Of course, no one in the Old Testament ever conceived of God as Father. That’s something new that Jesus taught. But we can surely see “hallowed be thy name” in v. 4, where Daniel acknowledges that God is “great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant.” It would be too much to expect that an Old Testament prayer would include all the clauses of the Lord’s Prayer in order, but we can see most of the clauses, some restated in different ways, in Daniel’s prayer.

Hallowed be thy name

6) . . . Your servants the prophets, [who] spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.

14) . . . for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.

15) And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day . . .

17) . . . and for the Lord’s sake . . .

19) Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

Thy will be done

The united kingdom of Israel, established by David, was supposed to be the kingdom of God. Not until Jesus’ time would God’s kingdom mean anything “not of this world.” No concept of a heavenly kingdom is necessary to recognize that God’s will is better than human sin and pray that his will, not ours, be done.

5) we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.

7) O Lord, righteousness belongs to You . . .

12) And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

13) As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth.

as it is in heaven

4) . . . God, who keeps His covenant . . .

Forgive us our tresspasses

Daniel does not pray about daily bread or acknowledge the need for Israel to forgive its oppressors. Following Jesus’ model requires following all of it, but not necessarily all of it in every time of prayer.

Actually, since so many of us so often pray about little besides our needs of the moment, the absence of the daily bread clause here is both instructive and refreshing.

9) To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.

16) O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain . . .

18) O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.

Deliver us from evil

17) . . . cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate.

19) . . . O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay . . .

For thine is the kingdom

19) . . .for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.

Someone else comparing the Lord’s Prayer with Daniel’s prayer may well parse it differently. That doesn’t matter. The important thing is that we recognize Jesus’ model when we see it and let our own prayer life grow and develop in the process.

It’s still Lent. It’s still a time for us to reflect, as Daniel did, on our own sin and rebellion, and on what we have to show for it.

Every one of us is suffering. We suffer partaking in general human sin. We suffer because of sins committed against us. But we completely miss the point if we fail to recognize that we suffer because of things we have done and should have known better.

Jesus committed no sin and therefore had no need to confess. The Bible does not record whatever personal confession Daniel made over his long life. No matter. In these prayers we can find inspiration for any kind of confession this year’s Lenten season requires of us. And even after we pass from the sorrow of Lent to the joy of Easter.

Photo credits:
Lord’s Prayer: Some rights reserved by Randy OHC
Woman at prayer: Some rights reserved by nanny snowflake

Death Valley, California

The season of Lent recalls Jesus’ 40-day temptation in the wilderness. All Christians sooner or later go through their own spiritual wilderness. And so, in the Old Testament, did one of the Sons of Korah, who left behind Psalms 42 and 43to instruct and comfort us in our own struggles with wilderness experience.

These two psalms appear to have been originally one song of three verses with refrain: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (I use “verse” in the sense of familiar songs or hymns, not in the sense of a verse of scripture.)

Verse 1: Psalm 42:1-4

The first verse expresses spiritual dryness. When a deer is thirsty, it finds a brook and drinks, but where is God? The psalmist ask that question, and lots of people ask it of him. He used to go to the temple with the multitude to observe the feasts. Now he no longer does. He may have been a backslider. He may have been in exile. In 2 Kings 12:17-18, King Joash sent all the treasure of the temple to King Hazael of Syria. Perhaps the psalmist was among those sent out on that sad mission and had to miss one of the feasts.

It really doesn’t matter why he puts going to the feast with the multitude in past tense. Anyone can relate to the spiritual struggles of lonely times, when we may indeed be feeling alone. Even feeling alone sitting in church surrounded by people who, we feel, are experiencing a joy that we don’t. Are you struggling with spiritual dryness? Join the psalmist and pray his refrain (v. 5). In your spiritual wilderness experience, it may be your own Good Friday now, but Sunday’s coming.

Psalm 42:6-10

The second verse expresses bewilderment. God has apparently forgotten about the psalmist. Why? Why? Deep calls to deep. The depth of human need calls out to the depth of God’s provision:

• Brokenness calls out to love.
• Despair calls out to hope.
• Captivity calls out to freedom.
• Sin calls out to mercy.

In times of great need, that is not met as quickly as we would like, we often feel that God has forgotten us. That feeling causes intense spiritual struggles. Yet it is the noise of God’s waterfall from which deep calls to deep. It is the Lord’s waves and breakers that sweep over us. His love and song are with us day and night. We must go to God in order to complain to him about being forgotten! And how can we find him to complain unless he makes a way for us to do so? Are you feeling bewildered? Join the psalmist and pray his refrain (v.11). In your spiritual wilderness experience, it may be your own Good Friday, but Sunday’s coming.

Verse 3: Psalm 43:1-4

Light after darkness

In the third verse (Psalm 43), the psalmist pleads for vindication against the ungodly. He still wonders why God allows such injustice and oppression. He pleads for God to send light, faithful care, or as another translation puts it, truth to lead him to God’s holy hill. Is that a prayer for return to literal Mount Zion? Or is it for a figurative place where he can renew his worship? Either interpretation would satisfy and answer the prayer.

However the answer comes, we can go to the altar with joy and worship with the fervor and devotion of our fondest memories. Have light and truth overcome injustice in your life and led you back to a place of unclouded worship? Join the psalmist and pray his refrain (v.5)–this time, not with dogged determination as before, but with joyful confidence. You have prevailed in your spiritual struggles. You have walked through your spiritual wilderness experience. You have endured your own Good Friday. Sunday has come. Praise God!

Photo credits: Death Valley. Some rights reserved by Pamela Carls
Light after darkness. Some rights reserved by JD|Photography

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