Gospel for October 30, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 19:1-10
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus is passing through Jericho on the way to Jerusalem for Passover — and on his way to the cross.  Jericho has a storied history in the Bible.  Jericho is situated just to the west of the Jordan River in the Jordan River Valley.  From Jericho, Jesus and his disciples would begin the climb along the mountain roads to the Judean highlands, and to Jerusalem.

Jesus’ fame has preceded him.  Crowds are lining the streets in Jericho to see the wonder-worker who has come their way.  Even the elites wish to see this itinerant preacher!

We learn of Zacchaeus that he is the:

chief tax collector, and he was rich.

We also learn a little later just how unpopular he is with the Jewish people of Jericho.  Zacchaeus was undoubtedly himself a Jew — his name in Hebrew means “pure” or “innocent.”

The fact that he is not only a tax collector, but is the chief tax collector quickly explains why he is despised.  He is not despised simply because he is rich.  In the popular theology of the day, the rich were normally honored as especially favored by God.

But tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman authorities.  Usually they were recruited from among the citizens of the occupied vassal nation.  They were charged with collecting the taxes required by the Roman Empire — relying on the threat of Roman military violence to extract their revenue.  However, tax collectors tended to add a surcharge to their set tax fees so that they could skim the surplus off the top for their own profit.  So tax collection was really a kind of extortion.

And yet this small man desires to see Jesus.  He races ahead and, in what seems to be a rather undignified move, climbs into a sycamore tree along the road.

Jesus, of course, sees Zaccheus.  We aren’t told how Jesus knows his name.  But Jesus, who has already offended the priests and the Pharisees because of his fellowship with “sinners,” invites himself home to Zaccheus’ house!

Now, however, it isn’t just the religious authorities who are scandalized by his willingness to spend time with “sinners”:

When they saw it, they all [my emphasis] murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.”

Zacchaeus is overwhelmed with joy at this generous outreach by Jesus. After he clambers down from his perch in the tree, he makes an emotional confession to Jesus:

“Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”

Note that Zacchaeus doesn’t merely call Jesus Rabbi.   He calls Jesus Lord.  This is the Greek kurios.  While Zacchaeus may not have fully understood what he meant by this title, it is clear that Lord denotes more than teacher.  This does seem to be a kind of confession of faith in Jesus.

This is reinforced by the willingness of Zacchaeus to be morally accountable to Jesus.  We are reminded of the message of John the Baptist early in the ministry of Jesus:

Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, and don’t begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father;’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones! (Luke 3:8).

Zacchaeus makes an extraordinary commitment — half of his goods he pledges to give to the poor!  This certainly exceeds the tithe that was given to the temple!  And his fruits worthy of repentance include redistributive justice — he is willing to repay any unjust collections four times what he has received!

This certainly seems to indicate sincere repentance.

Jesus confirms this:

Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.”

Like his cousin John, Jesus is declaring that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham not merely because he is a Jew, but because he has repented of his sin and turned to God.

And then Jesus reminds everyone of his own purpose and mission:

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

The title, Son of Man, that Jesus uses throughout the Gospels to describe himself, has obvious Messianic connotations.  And he makes it clear that his outreach to Zacchaeus and other sinners is his mission.

This is a reminder of his message at the very beginning of his ministry, when the scribes and Pharisees grumbled that Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus’ response was:

“Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).

APPLY:  

The story of Zacchaeus tells us everything we need to know about the nature of Jesus, and our hope as sinners for redemption.

Jesus is Lord, as Zacchaeus recognizes; and he is the Son of Man.  Upon titles like these and ample Biblical evidence, the church has concluded that Jesus is fully God and fully man.  This alone qualifies Jesus as our Savior.

And what is extraordinary is that Jesus comes looking for us, just as he seeks out Zacchaeus perched in the tree.  Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, has come among us to seek and to save that which was lost.

And then there is Zacchaeus.  I avoid the temptation to see any symbolism in his small stature.  But we can identify with his response to the coming of Jesus into his neighborhood. Zacchaeus is so eager to see Jesus that he is willing to lose his dignity by climbing up into a sycamore tree, like a schoolboy!  And when Jesus reaches out to him, he responds with eager enthusiasm — and with repentance.

Repentance is not mere remorse.  Repentance = a changed life, and:

fruits worthy of repentance.

RESPOND: 

Like most kids who grow up in Sunday School, one of the first songs I ever learned was the tale of Zacchaeus:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed up in the sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see.
And when the Savior walked that way
He looked up in the tree.
And he said: “Zacchaeus, you come down —
For I’m coming to your house today,
I’m coming to your house today.”

The thought that Jesus might want to come to my house was awesome!  And that is precisely what Jesus wishes to do with all of us.

I also can’t help but think of another tale that I remember from my childhood — the animated Dr. Seuss story that almost always played on TV around Christmas — The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

The Grinch hated the village of the Whos who lived down in Whoville, and he especially hated everything about their celebration of Christmas.  It was noisy and annoying to him.  So, the Grinch undertakes to steal Christmas!  By that, he means to steal all the Christmas presents, and the stockings, and the Christmas trees, all the way down to the very last Christmas ornament.  He even:

took the Whos’ feast,
He took the Who pudding, he took the roast beast.
He cleaned out that ice box as quick as a flash.
Why, the Grinch even took their last can of Who hash.

And then, as he is pushing his grossly overloaded sleigh back up the mountain, Christmas morning dawns in Whoville.  And to his astonishment, the Whos all gather together in the town square, and sing a song welcoming the coming of Christmas Day — despite the loss of all their presents and trees and trimming.

And it also dawns on the Grinch that maybe, just maybe, Christmas is about more than just presents and trimming.  And Dr. Seuss says:

And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say
That the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!
And then the true meaning of Christmas came through,
And the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!

The Grinch returns all of the Christmas accoutrement that he has stolen, and

He brought everything back, all the food for the feast!
And he, he himself, the Grinch carved the roast beast!

Repentance isn’t merely changing one’s mind, but it is acting on that changed mind, and restoring what has been stolen.

Lord, I find myself “up a tree” at times in my life.  In order to climb down and meet you, help me to repent and turn my life back over to you.  Amen.

 

PHOTOS:
"Luke 19-10" by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 30, 2022

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Sometimes when we read the Bible we begin to realize that we are walking into a flower garden — in which someone seems to have buried landmines!  What may seem clear on the surface actually becomes uncertain, and maybe even dangerous to one’s faith.

So it seems with Biblical commentaries, and with Lectionary Texts.  In the case of Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians, there are disputes among scholars about its authorship and its date.  Historical-critical scholars in the late 18th century questioned whether Paul had actually written 2 Thessalonians because the language seems different than 1 Thessalonians. They also believed that there is a less urgent tone in 2 Thessalonians concerning the Second Coming of Jesus.  However, the traditional, orthodox view has maintained the Pauline authorship of 2 Thessalonians.

In the final analysis, even scholarly opinions are conjectures that cannot overshadow the fact that the books of the New Testament were completed no later than the early 2nd century. The Bible is ultimately the Church’s book, not a landmine in a flower garden.

Although formal canonization of all 27 of the New Testament books by the councils of bishops didn’t come for several centuries (Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa 393; the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419; Pope Damasus I’s Council of Rome in 382), 2 Thessalonians was one epistle whose authority was never in doubt.

Having said all of that, I assume that 2 Thessalonians was written by Paul.

Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy had established a church in Thessalonica around 50 A.D., one of the very first churches in Macedonia after Philippi.  Thessalonica was a key port city on the Aegean Sea.  It was also situated on the Egnatian Way, a Roman highway which a traveler could take from Byzantium to the East, through Philippi, and all the way through Thessalonica to the coast of the Adriatic Sea.  From there a traveler could catch a ship at Dyrrachium and sail to Brundisium in the heel of Italy.  Needless to say, Thessalonica was a strategically located city.

Paul had already written a first letter to the Thessalonians, seeking to comfort them and to clarify Christian teachings about the Second Coming of Jesus.  Although 2 Thessalonians is shorter, it addresses many of the same issues that the first letter does — with information about the Second Coming, and how they are to live in the meantime.

Paul writes in the name of himself and his co-workers, with a greeting that is somewhat typical of his letters:

 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of his thanksgiving for the church, and praises the growth of their faith and mutual love.  He tells them that he boasts of them wherever he goes:

we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

Already, we are seeing the persecution of the church as a counter-cultural organization, although Paul doesn’t specify the source of the persecution.  From Acts 17 we learn that there was stringent resistance to Paul and his message by some of the members of the synagogue.   We also learn that these folks enlisted the help of a mob and accused Paul and his cohorts of sedition by seeking to promote the kingship of Jesus over Caesar.  Paul may be aware that though the church at Thessalonica has been successfully planted, they are still being falsely accused of acts that are:

contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus! (Acts 17:7).

Their accusers were right about one thing, though.  These Christians had:

turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).

Now we come to a second problem with our epistle for this week — the lectionary editors skip from verse 4 to verse 11.  So when we read in verse 11, To this end we also pray always for you, we don’t know what Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy are praying for unless we connect the dots by reading verses 5 to 10.

There, we see Paul’s continuing argument from verse 4, that the persecutions are a sign of the coming judgment of God, and that God will requite those who afflict God’s people.  His language is quite dramatic:

it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,  giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,  who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

This is why Paul and company are praying so fervently, because of the persecutions that the Thessalonian church is suffering.  He is seeking to encourage them so that:

God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The goodness and faith and power of the persecuted church are a compelling witness to their character.

APPLY:  

I sometimes think that only Christians in the persecuted church around the world should be allowed to read the apocalyptic books in the New Testament, like 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, and certain other books.  The reason I say that is that they understand these books better than those of us in the West whose Christianity is fairly easy.

All the more reason that the “un-persecuted church” must be even more faithful than we are now. When the world sees us, do they see that we are:

worthy of our calling, fulfilling every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power?

Or do they see a country club of congenial consumer Christians who conform the Gospel to their own lifestyles, rather than taking up the cross and being conformed to Christ?

RESPOND: 

I sometimes wonder how I would handle real persecution.  Not the imagined persecution that Christians sometimes become a little too hysterical about in the U.S. — “we can’t wish each other a Merry Christmas anymore!   Why can’t we have public invocations and prayers at ball games and graduations?” 

I have the feeling that Christians in Iraq and Syria and Egypt and Indonesia and China would gladly exchange the fear of beheading, desecration of their churches, and job discrimination with our petty concerns.

What I am hearing in my own American culture is that Christianity is becoming increasingly irrelevant. “Christians” don’t look or act particularly different than their non-Christian neighbors. Christians tend to divorce at the same rate, tend to have similar rates of alcoholism, tend to be just as materialistic, etc., etc., etc.

There is room for improvement.  How are we to be the leaven, the salt and the light in our secularized culture?  Perhaps we can do no better than seek to replicate the observation by pagan Romans as they described Christians in the early church:

See how these Christians love one another (Tertullian).

May our faith, our power and our love be our Christian witness!

Lord, give me the faith and power to be the witness you have called me to be.  Amen.  

 PHOTOS:
"Thessalonians" by Ian Wakefield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for October 30, 2022

The letter Tzadi is near the end of the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm — each stanza begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Verses 137-144 begin with Tzadi.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 119:137-144
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Psalm 119 is an acrostic Psalm, with each of its 22 stanzas beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from Aleph to Tav.  Psalm 119 is devoted almost exclusively to the celebration of Yahweh and his holy law.

Our Psalm in this week’s lectionary reading focuses on the section of Psalm 119 with the letter Tzadi.

The Psalmist begins with an affirmation about the nature of Yahweh and the reliability of his law, which rests on his own character:

You are righteous, Yahweh.
Your judgments are upright.
You have commanded your statutes in righteousness.
They are fully trustworthy.

However, the Psalmist reveals that obedience to the commandments of God does meet with opposition and even derision:

My zeal wears me out,
because my enemies ignore your words.
Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
and your servant loves them.
I am small and despised.
I don’t forget your precepts.

Despite the opposition of enemies to the law of God, the Psalmist cleaves to the promises of God.  Though the Psalmist may feel small and despised, the precepts of God sustain him:

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.
Your law is truth.
Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me.
Your commandments are my delight.

This stanza of Psalm 119 is a study in contrasts — the Psalmist admits that he is worn out, small and despised, and experiences trouble and anguish.  And yet, the truth and reliability of the law delight him and give him life:

Your testimonies are righteous forever.
Give me understanding, that I may live.

APPLY:  

The laws and promises of God provide boundaries and certainty in an uncertain world.  Though we may feel worn out because of those who deride our faith and our convictions, God’s promises have stood the test of time.  Though we may feel small and despised,  when we remember God’s precepts we are reminded of something much, much bigger than we are.  When we feel we are taken hold of by trouble and anguish the assurances of God’s commandments can be a source of delight.

This is a reminder to us that we are to read, study and apply God’s Word on a daily basis in our lives.

RESPOND: 

We live in a world of moral relativism and casual ethical boundaries.  It is so difficult to know exactly where we stand as believers in a culture devoted to narcissism, materialism and consumerism.

God’s laws and commandments ground us, and provide foundation.  When we are in a moral fog, they are the light that pierces through the gray confusion.  We are reminded that we are not to conform to this age but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (from Romans 12:1).  There is no better place to start than the study of Scripture.

Lord, I feel so worn out sometimes by the moral fog of this world; and I feel small and despised, and troubled and anguished by some of the directions our culture has taken. May your commandments be my delight and the source of my moral guidance.  Give me understanding, that I may live. Amen.

PHOTOS:
"Tzaddi.gif" is in the public domain.

Old Testament for October 30, 2022

Although I am not a Baptist, all Christians can identify with Habakkuk’s question:
“How long Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen?”
Habakkuk reminds us that God does hear.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Except for the prophet’s name, mentioned in Habakkuk 1:1, we know almost nothing about the prophet himself.  Most likely, Habakkuk lived in that tumultuous time just preceding the end of the rule of Judean kings in Jerusalem, around the 6th century B.C.  We deduce this because Habakkuk mentions the Chaldeans, a.k.a., the Babylonians, who have been chosen as God’s instrument of judgment:

 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs (Habakkuk 1:6).

The Babylonian empire conquered the Assyrian empire around 606 B.C.  Nebuchadnezzar (the ruler of the Babylonians after 604 B.C.) besieges Jerusalem in 598 B.C., and around 597 B.C. begins the first deportation of Judean nobles and their families to Babylon.

So this is the crisis which faces Judea, and which alarms Habakkuk.

Habakkuk begins with an age-old question when it comes to suffering — why?

Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.

Unlike Jeremiah and Ezekiel and other prophets, Habakkuk doesn’t focus on the sins of Judah.  Instead, he is focused on the unjust suffering that his people are about to experience because of the unrestrained power of Babylon.

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

Habakkuk recognizes that Chaldea‘s  armies are coming to besiege even Jerusalem:

Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it (Habakkuk 1:10).

But ultimately Habakkuk’s hope is in Yahweh.  He uses the same figure of speech that Ezekiel uses to describe the role of the prophet — the Watchman (Ezekiel 33:1-9).  But Habakkuk describes himself as a watchman who is watching for Yahweh.  In fact, he portrays himself as one who has appealed to Yahweh for help, and is waiting a little impatiently for an answer!

 I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

And Yahweh does answer, and instructs the prophet to write down his vision.  Yahweh’s answer to Habakkuk is that though this time of judgment and destruction must run its course, there will be an end to it. Though Babylon is the instrument of God’s judgment, this nation is arrogant, and is itself guilty of many sins, denounced in five woes — extortion (Habakkuk 2:6); violent plunder (Habakkuk 2:9); the use of violence and iniquity to establish their kingdom (Habakkuk 2:12);  debauchery and sexual immorality (Habakkuk 2:15); idolatry and worship of false gods (Habakkuk 2:19).

In contrast, Yahweh promises that the true solution to the terror and arrogance of Chaldea is for his people to trust in him:

the righteous will live by his faith.

Thus, Habakkuk can conclude his oracle in a triumphant mood.  Though he has expressed his questions and complaints openly, he closes with a Psalm of praise set to victorious music (Habakkuk 3:1):

Yahweh, I have heard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh.
Renew your work in the middle of the years.
In the middle of the years make it known.
In wrath, you remember mercy.

APPLY:  

The problem of suffering and theodicy (the justification of God’s goodness in the face of evil) is a persistent problem for believers in particular, and Christian theology in general. It is addressed at great length in the book of Job and many of the Psalms (particularly Psalm 73).

Here in Habakkuk, the answer is also addressed.  Without the back-story of the other prophets, we might think that all of Judah is completely innocent.  But Jeremiah and Ezekiel know better.

Still, there is the question of those who weren’t unfaithful to God who nonetheless suffered right along with the unrighteous.  That seems to be Habakkuk’s real audience — those who are innocent of the most egregious sins of their fellow citizens.

There is a fascinating verse in Deuteronomy 29:19 that may shed light on this phenomenon — that the innocent get swept away by the same calamities that affect the guilty.  In Deuteronomy 29, Moses assembles all the nation to swear them to an oath with Yahweh.  He warns them that there are those among them even then who are tempted to turn away from Yahweh and worship the gods of their neighbors.  And then Moses says that if and when judgment comes it will bring:

disaster on moist and dry alike.

The Greek Septuagint translation of this verse is even more clear about what this means:

lest the sinner destroy the sinless along with him.

Clearly, the Biblical interpretation of suffering suggests that there are consequences to our moral choices — sometimes suffering is the result of poor choices, but sometimes even the innocent suffer because of the moral choices of others.

Paul explains that creation itself, though innocent of wrongdoing, has been infected by the evil that is the result of human sin:

creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21).

The answer to the problem of suffering is hope, and ultimately, faith.

RESPOND: 

I don’t want to overlook the fact that the great New Testament doctrine of justification by faith is grounded in the Old Testament.  Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38 each quote Habbakkuk:

the righteous will live by his faith.

What this suggests is that faith is not merely intellectual assent — as in “I believe in gravity.”  The kind of Biblical faith we see here is dynamic — we live by faith.  And we live by faith in a living God with whom we have a real relationship.

I had a conversation with a young skeptic who derided Christians with whom he’d discussed the claims of Christianity in the past.  He said they always fell back on that one word — faith.

I had no comeback for him, because of course he’s right! Faith is to the Christian what breathing is to a living being — we breathe the invisible oxygen that sustains our very lives!  Faith is the assurance that the wings of the airplane we are flying in will lift us to altitudes high in the sky.

Everyone has faith, perhaps without admitting it — the only difference is that the Christian’s faith is focused on the Person and Work of God.

Lord, there will be challenges and setbacks in this world.  Please empower me to live by faith so that I may see beyond those setbacks into the world that awaits.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Lectionary reflection from the honest and challenging verses found in Habakkuk 1.” by Baptist Union of Great Britain is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for October 30, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Luke 19:1-10 

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus is passing through Jericho on the way to Jerusalem for Passover — and on his way to the cross.  Jericho has a storied history in the Bible.  Jericho is situated just to the west of the Jordan River in the Jordan River Valley.  From Jericho, Jesus and his disciples would begin the climb along the mountain roads to the Judean highlands, and to Jerusalem.

Jesus’ fame has preceded him.  Crowds are lining the streets in Jericho to see the wonder-worker who has come their way.  Even the elites wish to see this itinerant preacher!

We learn of Zacchaeus that he is the:

chief tax collector, and he was rich.

We also learn a little later just how unpopular he is with the Jewish people of Jericho.  Zacchaeus was undoubtedly himself a Jew — his name in Hebrew  means “pure” or “innocent.”

The fact that he is not only a tax collector, but is the chief tax collector quickly explains why he is despised.  He is not despised simply because he is rich.  In the popular theology of the day, the rich were normally honored as especially favored by God.

But tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman authorities.  Usually they were recruited from among the citizens of the occupied vassal nation.  They were charged with collecting the taxes required by the Roman Empire — relying on the threat of Roman military violence to extract their revenue.  However, tax collectors tended to add a surcharge to their set tax fees so that they could skim the surplus off the top for their own profit.  So tax collection was really a kind of extortion.

And yet this small man desires to see Jesus.  He races ahead and, in what seems to be a rather undignified move, climbs into a sycamore tree along the road.

Jesus, of course, sees Zaccheus.  We aren’t told how Jesus knows his name.  But Jesus, who has already offended the priests and the Pharisees because of his fellowship with “sinners,” invites himself home to Zaccheus’ house!

Now, however, it isn’t just the religious authorities who are scandalized by his willingness to spend time with “sinners”:

When they saw it, they all [my emphasis] murmured, saying, “He has gone in to lodge with a man who is a sinner.”

Zacchaeus is overwhelmed with joy at this generous outreach by Jesus. After he clambers down from his perch in the tree, he makes an emotional confession to Jesus:

“Behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor. If I have wrongfully exacted anything of anyone, I restore four times as much.”

Note that Zacchaeus doesn’t merely call Jesus Rabbi.   He calls Jesus Lord.  This is the Greek kurios.  While Zacchaeus may not have fully understood what he meant by this title, it is clear that Lord denotes more than teacher.  This does seem to be a kind of confession of faith in Jesus.

This is reinforced by the willingness of Zacchaeus to be morally accountable to Jesus.  We are reminded of the message of John the Baptist early in the ministry of Jesus:

Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, and don’t begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father;’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones! (Luke 3:8).

Zacchaeus makes an extraordinary commitment — half of his goods he pledges to give to the poor!  This certainly exceeds the tithe that was given to the temple!  And his fruits worthy of repentance include redistributive justice — he is willing to repay any unjust collections four times what he has received!

This certainly seems to indicate sincere repentance.

Jesus confirms this:

Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.”

Like his cousin John, Jesus is declaring that Zacchaeus is a son of Abraham  not merely because he is a Jew, but because he has repented of his sin and turned to God.

And then Jesus reminds everyone of his own purpose and mission:

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.

The title, Son of Man, that Jesus uses throughout the Gospels to describe himself, has obvious Messianic connotations.  And he makes it clear that his outreach to Zacchaeus and other sinners  is his mission.

This is a reminder of his message at the very beginning of his ministry, when the scribes and Pharisees grumbled that Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus’ response was:

“Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).

APPLY:  

The story of Zacchaeus tells us everything we need to know about the nature of Jesus, and our hope as sinners for redemption.

Jesus is Lord, as Zacchaeus recognizes; and he is the Son of Man.  Upon titles like these and ample Biblical evidence, the church has concluded that Jesus is fully God and fully man.  This alone qualifies Jesus as our Savior.

And what is extraordinary is that Jesus comes looking for us, just as he seeks out Zacchaeus perched in the tree.  Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, has come among us to seek and to save that which was lost.

And then there is Zacchaeus.  I avoid the temptation to see any symbolism in his small stature.  But we can identify with his response to the coming of Jesus into his neighborhood. Zacchaeus is so eager to see Jesus that he is willing to lose his dignity by climbing up into a sycamore tree, like a schoolboy!  And when Jesus reaches out to him, he responds with eager enthusiasm — and with repentance.

Repentance is not mere remorse.  Repentance = a changed life, and:

fruits worthy of repentance.

RESPOND: 

Like most kids who grow up in Sunday School, one of the first songs I ever learned was the tale of Zacchaeus:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man
And a wee little man was he
He climbed in the sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see.
And when the Savior walked that way
He looked up in the tree.
And he said: “Zacchaeus, you come down —
For I’m coming to your house today,
I’m coming to your house today.”

The thought that Jesus might want to come to my house was awesome!  And that is precisely what Jesus wishes to do with all of us.

I also can’t help but think of another tale that I remember from my childhood — the animated Dr. Seuss story that almost always played on TV around Christmas: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

The Grinch hated the village of the Whos who lived down in Whoville, and he especially hated everything about their celebration of Christmas.  It was noisy and annoying to him.  So, the Grinch undertakes to steal Christmas!  By that, he means to steal all the Christmas presents, and the stockings, and the Christmas trees, all the way down to the very last Christmas ornament.  He even:

took the Whos’ feast,
He took the Who pudding, he took the roast beast.
He cleaned out that ice box as quick as a flash.
Why, the Grinch even took their last can of Who hash.

And then, as he is pushing his grossly overloaded sleigh back up the mountain, Christmas morning dawns in Whoville.  And to his astonishment, the Whos all gather together in the town square, and sing a song welcoming the coming of Christmas Day — despite the loss of all their presents and trees and trimming.

And it also dawns on the Grinch that maybe, just maybe, Christmas is about more than just presents and trimming.  And Dr. Seuss says:

And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say
That the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day!
And then the true meaning of Christmas came through,
And the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!

The Grinch returns all of the Christmas accoutrement that he has stolen, and

He brought everything back, all the food for the feast!
And he, he himself, the Grinch carved the roast beast!

Repentance isn’t merely changing one’s mind, but  it is acting on that changed mind, and restoring what has been stolen.

Lord, I find myself “up a tree” at times in my life.  In order to climb down and meet you, help me to repent and turn my life back over to you.  Amen.

 

PHOTOS:
"Luke 19-10" by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for October 30, 2016

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Sometimes when we read the Bible we begin to realize that we are walking into a flower garden — in which someone seems to have buried landmines!  What may seem clear on the surface actually becomes uncertain, and maybe even dangerous to one’s faith.

So it seems with Biblical commentaries, and with Lectionary Texts.  In the case of Paul’s Second Letter to  the Thessalonians, there are disputes among scholars about its authorship and its date.  Historical-critical scholars in the late 18th century  questioned whether Paul had actually written 2 Thessalonians because the language seems different than 1 Thessalonians. They also believed that there is a less urgent tone in 2 Thessalonians concerning the Second Coming of Jesus.  However, the traditional, orthodox view has maintained the Pauline authorship of 2 Thessalonians.

In the final analysis, even scholarly opinions are conjectures that cannot overshadow the fact that the books of the New Testament were completed no later than the early 2nd century. The Bible is ultimately the Church’s book, not a landmine in a flower garden.

Although formal canonization of all 27 of the New Testament books by the councils of bishops didn’t come for several centuries (Synod of Hippo Regius in North Africa 393; the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419; Pope Damasus I’s Council of Rome in 382), 2 Thessalonians was one epistle whose authority was never in doubt.

Having said all of that, I assume that 2 Thessalonians was written by Paul.

Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy had established a church in Thessalonica around 50 A.D., one of the very first churches in Macedonia after Philippi.  Thessalonica was a key port city on the Aegean Sea.  It was also situated on the Egnatian Way, a Roman highway which a traveler could take from Byzantium to the East, through Philippi, and all the way through Thessalonica to the coast of the Adriatic Sea.  From there a traveler could catch a ship at Dyrrachium and sail to Brundisium in the heel of Italy.  Needless to say, Thessalonica was a strategically located city.

Paul had already written a first letter to the Thessalonians, seeking to comfort them and to clarify Christian teachings about the Second Coming of Jesus.  Although 2 Thessalonians is shorter, it addresses many of the same issues that the first letter does — with information about the Second Coming, and how they are to live in the meantime.

Paul writes in the name of himself and his co-workers, with a greeting that is somewhat typical of his letters:

 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of his thanksgiving for the church, and praises the growth of their faith and mutual love.  He tells them that he boasts of them wherever he goes:

we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure.

Already, we are seeing the persecution of the church as a counter-cultural organization, although Paul doesn’t specify the source of the persecution.  From Acts 17 we learn that there was stringent resistance to Paul and his message by some of the members of the synagogue.   We also learn that these folks enlisted the help of a mob and accused Paul and his cohorts of sedition by seeking to promote the kingship of Jesus over Caesar.  Paul may be aware that though the church at Thessalonica has been successfully planted, they are still being falsely accused of  acts that are:

contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus! (Acts 17:7).

Their accusers were right about one thing, though.  These Christians had:

turned the world upside down  (Acts 17:6).

Now we come to a second problem with our epistle for this week — the lectionary editors skip from verse 4 to verse 11.  So when we read in verse 11,  To this end we also pray always for you, we don’t know what Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy are praying for unless we connect the dots by reading verses 5 to 10.

There, we see Paul’s continuing argument from verse 4, that the persecutions are a sign of the coming judgment of God, and that God will requite those who afflict God’s people.  His language is quite dramatic:

it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,  giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,  who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,  when he comes to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired among all those who have believed (because our testimony to you was believed) in that day (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10).

This is why Paul and company are praying so fervently, because of the persecutions that the Thessalonian church is suffering.  He is seeking to encourage them so that:

God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power; that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The goodness and faith and power of the persecuted church are a compelling witness to their character.

APPLY:  

I sometimes think that only Christians in the persecuted church around the world should be allowed to read the apocalyptic  books in the New Testament, like 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Revelation, and certain other books.  The reason I say that is that they understand these books better than those of us in the West whose Christianity is fairly easy.

All the more reason that the “un-persecuted church” must be even more faithful than we are now. When the world sees us, do they see that we are:

worthy of our calling, fulfilling every desire of goodness and work of faith, with power?

Or do they see a country club of congenial consumer Christians who conform the Gospel to their own lifestyles, rather than taking up the cross and being conformed to Christ?

RESPOND: 

I sometimes wonder how I would handle real persecution.  Not the imagined persecution that Christians sometimes become a little too hysterical about in the U.S. — “we can’t wish each other a Merry Christmas anymore!   Why can’t we have public invocations and prayers at ball games and graduations?” 

I have the feeling that Christians in Iraq and Syria and Egypt and Indonesia and China would gladly exchange the fear of beheading, desecration of their churches, and job discrimination with our petty concerns.

What I am hearing in my own American culture is that Christianity is becoming increasingly irrelevant. “Christians” don’t look or act particularly different than their non-Christian neighbors. Christians tend to divorce at the same rate, tend to have similar rates of alcoholism, tend to be just as materialistic, etc., etc., etc.

There is room for improvement.  How are we to be the leaven, the salt and the light in our secularized culture?  Perhaps we can do no better than seek to replicate the observation by pagan Romans as they described Christians in the early church:

See how these Christian love one another (Tertullian).

May our faith, our power and our love be our Christian witness!

Lord, give me the  faith and power  to be the witness you have called me to be.  Amen.  

 PHOTOS:
"Thessalonians" by Ian Wakefield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Psalm Reading for October 30, 2016

The letter Tzadi is near the end of the Hebrew alphabet.
Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm — each stanza begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Verses 137-144 begin with Tzadi.

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Psalm 119: 137-144

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Psalm 119 is an acrostic Psalm, with each of its 22 stanzas beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from Aleph to Tav.  Psalm 119 is devoted almost exclusively to the celebration of Yahweh and his holy law.

Our Psalm in this week’s lectionary reading focuses on the section of Psalm 119 with the letter Tzadi.

The Psalmist begins with an affirmation about the nature of Yahweh and the reliability of his law, which rests on his own character:

You are righteous, Yahweh.
Your judgments are upright.
You have commanded your statutes in righteousness.
They are fully trustworthy.

However, the Psalmist reveals that obedience to the commandments of God does meet with opposition and even derision:

My zeal wears me out,
because my enemies ignore your words.
Your promises have been thoroughly tested,
and your servant loves them.
I am small and despised.
I don’t forget your precepts.

Despite the opposition of enemies to the law of God, the Psalmist cleaves to the promises  of God.  Though the Psalmist may feel small and despised,  the precepts of God sustain him:

Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness.
Your law is truth.
Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me.
Your commandments are my delight.

This stanza of Psalm 119 is a study in contrasts — the Psalmist admits that he is worn out , small and despised, and experiences trouble and anguish.  And yet, the truth and reliability of the law delight him and give him life:

Your testimonies are righteous forever.
Give me understanding, that I may live.

APPLY:  

The laws and promises of God provide boundaries and certainty in an uncertain world.  Though we may feel worn out because of those who deride our faith and our convictions, God’s promises have stood the test of time.  Though we may feel small and despised,  when we remember God’s precepts we are reminded of something much, much bigger than we are.  When we feel we are taken hold of by trouble and anguish the assurances of God’s commandments can be a source of delight.

This is a reminder to us that we are to read, study and apply God’s Word on a daily basis in our lives.

RESPOND: 

We live in a world of moral relativism and casual ethical boundaries.  It is so difficult to know exactly where we stand as believers in a culture devoted to narcissism, materialism and consumerism.

God’s laws and commandments ground us, and provide foundation.  When we are in a moral fog, they are the light that pierces through the gray confusion.  We are reminded that we are not to conform to this age but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (from Romans 12:1).  There is no better place to start than the study of Scripture.

Lord, I feel so worn out sometimes by the moral fog of this world; and I feel small and despised, and troubled and anguished by some of the directions our culture has taken. May your commandments be my delight and the source of my moral guidance.  Give me understanding, that I may live. Amen.

PHOTOS:
"Tzaddi.gif" is in the public domain.

Old Testament for October 30, 2016

Although I am not a Baptist, all Christians can identify with Habakkuk’s question:
“How long Lord, must I call for help, but You do not listen?”
Habakkuk reminds us that God does hear.

Start with Scripture:

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Except for the prophet’s name, mentioned in Habakkuk 1:1, we know almost nothing about the prophet himself.  Most likely, Habakkuk lived in that tumultuous time just preceding the end of the rule of Judean kings in Jerusalem, around the 6th century B.C.  We deduce this because Habakkuk mentions the Chaldeans, a.k.a., the Babylonians, who have been been chosen as God’s instrument of judgment:

 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs (Habakkuk 1:6).

The Babylonian empire conquered the Assyrian empire around 606 B.C.  Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the Babylonians after 604 B.C., besieges Jerusalem in 598 B.C., and around 597 B.C. begins the first deportation of Judean nobles and their families to Babylon.

So this is the crisis which faces Judea, and which alarms Habakkuk.

Habakkuk begins with an age-old question when it comes to suffering — why?

Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save? Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.

Unlike Jeremiah and Ezekiel and other prophets, Habakkuk doesn’t focus on the sins of Judah.  Instead, he is focused on the unjust suffering that his people are about to experience because of the unrestrained power of Babylon.

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

Habakkuk recognizes that Chaldea ‘s  armies are coming to besiege even Jerusalem:

Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it (Habakkuk 1:10).

But ultimately Habakkuk’s hope is in Yahweh.  He uses the same figure of speech that Ezekiel uses to describe the role of the prophet — the Watchman (Ezekiel 33:1-9).  But Habakkuk describes himself as a watchman who is watching for Yahweh.  In fact, he portrays himself as one who has appealed to Yahweh for help, and is waiting a little impatiently for an answer!

 I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

And Yahweh does answer, and instructs the prophet to write down his vision.  Yahweh’s answer to Habakkuk is that though this time of judgment and destruction must run its course, there will be an end to it. Though Babylon is the instrument of God’s judgment, this nation is arrogant, and is itself guilty of many sins, denounced in five woes — extortion (Habakkuk 2:6); violent plunder (Habakkuk 2:9); the use of violence and iniquity to establish their kingdom (Habakkuk 2:12);  debauchery and sexual immorality (Habakkuk 2:15); idolatry and worship of false gods (Habakkuk 2:19).

In contrast, Yahweh promises that the true solution to the terror and arrogance of Chaldea is for his people to trust in him:

the righteous will live by his faith.

Thus, Habakkuk can conclude his oracle in a triumphant mood.  Though he has expressed his questions and complaints openly, he closes with a Psalm of praise  set to victorious music (Habakkuk 3:1):

Yahweh, I have heard of your fame.
I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh.
Renew your work in the middle of the years.
In the middle of the years make it known.
In wrath, you remember mercy.

APPLY:  

The problem of suffering and theodicy (the justification of God’s goodness in the face of evil) is a persistent problem for believers in particular, and Christian theology in general. It is addressed at great length in the book of Job and many of the Psalms (particularly Psalm 73).

Here in Habakkuk, the answer is also addressed.  Without the back-story of the other prophets, we might think that all of Judah is completely innocent.  But Jeremiah and Ezekiel know better.

Still, there is the question of those who weren’t unfaithful to God who nonetheless suffered right along with the unrighteous.  That seems to be Habakkuk’s real audience — those who are innocent of the most egregious sins of their fellow citizens.

There is a fascinating verse in Deuteronomy 29:19 that may shed light on this phenomenon — that the innocent get swept away by the same calamities that affect the guilty.  In Deuteronomy 29, Moses assembles all the nation to swear them to an oath with Yahweh.  He warns them that there are those among them even then who are tempted to turn away from Yahweh and worship the gods of their neighbors.  And then Moses says that if and when judgment comes it will bring:

disaster on moist and dry alike.

The Greek Septuagint translation of this verse is even more clear about what this means:

lest the sinner destroy the sinless along with him.

Clearly, the Biblical interpretation of suffering suggests that there are consequences to our moral choices — sometimes suffering is the result of poor choices, but sometimes even the innocent suffer because of the moral choices of others.

Paul explains that creation itself, though innocent of wrongdoing, has been infected by the evil that is the result of human sin:

creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21).

The answer to the problem of suffering is hope, and ultimately, faith.

RESPOND: 

I don’t want to overlook the fact that the great New Testament doctrine of  justification by faith is grounded in the Old Testament.  Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38 each quote Habbakkuk:

the righteous will live by his faith.

What this suggests is that faith is not merely intellectual assent — as in “I believe in gravity.”  The kind of Biblical faith we see here is dynamic — we live by faith.  And we live by faith in a living God with whom we have a real relationship.

I had a conversation with a young skeptic who derided Christians with whom he’d discussed the claims of Christianity in the past.  He said they always fell back on that one word — faith.

I had no comeback for him, because of course he’s right! Faith is to the Christian what breathing is to a living being — we breathe the invisible oxygen that sustains our very lives!  Faith is the assurance that the wings of the airplane we are flying in will lift us to altitudes high in the sky.

Everyone has faith, perhaps without admitting it — the only difference is that the Christian’s faith is focused on the Person and Work of God.

Lord, there will be challenges and setbacks in this world.  Please empower me to live by faith so that I may see beyond those setbacks into the world that awaits.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
“Lectionary reflection from the honest and challenging verses found in Habakkuk 1.” by Baptist Union of Great Britain is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.