God, Self, and Neighbor

Matthew 25:31-46

If you saw someone with a backpack on you may assume they are backpacking, but they also could be homeless.  Sure it may be easy to guess which by the quality of the items or where you see the individual, but you might be wrong.  The real difference between the two is there is a planned end to the hike and no certain end to one who is homeless.  However, when I hiked I did not take each step with the end in mind, it was assumed. 

Jesus reminds us that we are to think eschatologically; that is about the end.  In this passage He tells us the end will be like separated goats and sheep.  Well when I have been on farms where there are these animals, and I spooked them they would run in their respective groups.  At the end it will be easy to separate the two, but the judgment is less about then than it is about now.  For we have received unconditional boundless grace which we do not deserve, so I believe Jesus is not making salvation based on one’s action, yet rather is reminding those that do believe this would be their reaction.  They will run with the sheep.

For when Jesus adds himself as being part of the least of these, He is reminding us that love we do is to God, Self, and Neighbor.  We realize we receive this grace we do not deserve and feel very unworthy, but Jesus wants us to take care of those that are considered unworthy'; the least of these.  We are therefore to respond with love to ourselves, God and Neighbor as He states in  Matthew 22:37-40:

He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

This is the Law, according to Jesus and thus is where one would place judgment.  However, it is all wrapped in grace, so it is not what we do that saves us, but we respond as if we would be running with the goats.  We live as Christians doing what God commands for we do not live wandering, we live with the purpose of God.

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

We know there is a final victory over all evil, and we live that way not simply with the feeling of “love,” but acting on love to God, Self, and Neighbor, for we know what fold we run with. 

God Doing

Matthew 21:23-32

The chief priests and the elders asked Jesus where His authority came from, and Jesus turned the question upon them by asking about John.  They answered, “we do not know,” which generally is a great answer coming from a religious authority.  However, we are privy to their argument.  They know they had not been heeding John’s message, so they cannot answer from Heaven, yet they were terrified of the crowd who certainly believed John to be a prophet.  So Jesus refused to answer them, yet rather told them a parable.

He told the parable of the two sons.  The first said he would not do it and yet went out in the field to work, while the second responded with an affirmation, but never went out to the field.  When they answered the obvious question so clearly, I believe they were reminded of David’s emphatic answer to the story of Nathans in 2 Samuel 12, about two men.  One was rich and the other only had one lamb, which the rich man took for a meal.  David thought it was so awful, Nathan giving his famous line, “you are the man.” (v.7) Which is what the temple authorities should hear especially when Jesus explains the parable. 

Jesus tells us that the prostitutes and tax collectors, may not have said the right things before but they have gone and done the work.  While they, the chief priests and the elders simply just say the right things but do not go do the work.  This parable is for all of us who worry more about the legalism of church then the work of church.

I remember working on projects with my dad. He would want me to anticipate what tool he would need next.  I learned through trial and error and often got good at it, but even when I was wrong he was much happier with me for trying.  God simply wants us doing the work.  God wants us to be righteous not right.  God is doing is God’s authority, we also must follow God, for as Jesus called His disciples, called us, to follow him.  We do not wait to be called into the vineyard, we are there with Him.  We end up in the field for we found Him, not rules. 

Light of the World

John 9

July 7, 1974 a woman pregnant with her second child had a vivid dream she would not be able to find her husband when she gave birth and that the child would be born with a heart problem, which there was no reason for her to believe.  On July 8th she did go into labor and as you might have guessed, by the fact that I shared this story, her husband was not found.  Thus when she was told by the doctors that her newborn girl would need heart surgery, her comfort came from that dream, that vision.  God was with her during such a hard time.

In this chapter, Jesus, is asked about the man born blind, if it was the man’s parents or his sin that caused him to be born blind.  Jesus clearly answers them “Neither.” Which is also confirmed by his statement in Luke 13:2-3:

He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.

Jesus is clear that an ailment or suffering is necessarily connected to sin of a individual or their family.  I could not imagine my God would punish children because of their parents or grandparents, nor can I believe newborn know sin.  Yet within the Old Testament there are many times that the writers did attribute a military loss or the exile as a punishment from God.  Thus they seemed to believe that sins could cause punishment for others. 

Many of the prophets do talk about punishment for the entire chosen people for living in sin, however they do begin to understand that it is not about passing sin, but an individual.  A great example of this is when Ezekiel is warning that a punishment is coming and he says (14:14) “even if Noah, Daniel, and Job, these three, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord God.”  Showing that only an individual can save themselves, and Jeremiah goes on in chapter 31 to talk of a new covenant that will be on our individual hearts. 

The Pharisees don’t interpret sin as Ezekiel and Jeremiah are trying to demonstrate.  Their interpretation is rule oriented.  They call Jesus a sinner, because He healed on the Sabbath, not because of the miracle or even his identity claims.  They are concerned only about the rules for to them it is about the societal order not the relationship with God.  When Moses brought the covenant down to the people it was in response to their liberation that the people would follow the covenant with God.  Once powers and principalities got involved it became follow the rules to prove your in relationship with God.

One could follow exacting directions to get through a pitch black room or field, but it is much easier with light.  Jesus defines sin as not having a relationship with the one “who sent me.”  And that while it is day Jesus is the light of the world.  Jesus made it clear that ailments and suffering are not directly because of sin, but rather allow God’s work and glory may be known in the healing and comfort God provides.  For my mom in 1974 with that vision that comforted her and the miracle of the surgeons working on my sister with Jesus’ guidance and the miracle of the man being able to see because of Jesus opening his eyes, are signs of Jesus as the light.  If you are in relationship with Jesus you will be able to see the righteous path (no creed or rules as the only compass) but using only the rules of the power and principalities as your light one may say “we see,” and Jesus says “your sin remains” (v. 41). 

We need Jesus as our Vision, our Dream!

Low Salt Area

Matthew 5:13-20
We have to follow the law even greater than the Pharisees and Scribes?  That seems quite difficult since they were the experts in the Jewish Law, the Torah.  Jesus says He came to fulfill the law not abolish it, so we need to explore what is the law according to the Rabbi Jesus.  The best example would be in the Gospel of Luke when a young lawyer tests Jesus on the law.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.’ And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’ (Luke 10:25-28)

The lawyer answers with the Shema with an additional caveat of loving your “neighbor as yourself,” which is confirmed by Jesus as being the right answer.  Of course the young lawyer is not satisfied with this, and asks who is his neighbor, which is when Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan.  Making it clear our neighbor is not simply the person who lives next door.

There is this children’s book about two boys living in Jerusalem.  One Jewish and one Muslim, who were both feeding the same stray white cat.  Both had been raised on the rules of their religious tradition, and both thought the other was not their neighbor, until the day they both worrying about the cat who had been missing for a while.  When they went looking for the cat and  met each other, they followed the rules of their society and fought (specifically over whose cat the stray was).  They followed the cat to a litter of kittens as a rare snowfall began concerned about her freezing.  They realized that she wants peace and they worked together for their love of the cat.  The book is called “Snow in Jerusalem” and is truly a oversimplification of peace in the Middle East.  Or is it?  The boys realized that love took precedent over the rules they had learned.  They saw how the snow fell, as we noticed this week in Durant, on everything.  Reminding me of Jesus’ saying in the end of this chapter five of Matthew:

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters,what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The boys realize that the snow represents the Grace of God that falls upon everyone, so we are to love everyone as God does.  That is the real law.  It is not simply about the rules.

So what about this salt?  It is a very strong metaphor that is understood when you explore how it was used in Old Testament.  How the first believers would have understood salt as a religious metaphor.  First of all culturally, one would say in the first century, “sharing salt” to refer to table fellowship.  That is certainly powerful for Christians, whose worship centers around a holy feast.  In Leviticus 2:13, “  You shall not omit from your grain-offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” Which tells us to specifically to put salt in all offerings, because as the first half of the text says, it is a metaphor for the covenant itself.  The next piece of scripture I have us turn to is Numbers 18: 19, “All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord for you and your descendants as well.” Again telling us that salt is a sign of the everlasting covenant.  And a very powerful sign of the covenant.  We have been iced over the whole week and we have not had salt to through out on the roads to melt the ice.  Up north we would call it a Low Salt Area, which you would see signs for such areas around reservoirs.  Salt is so strong it  contaminates the water supply, and I have known of houses whose wells are no longer good to drink from because of the salt that is put down on the roadway.  This idea of salt being so powerful is also found in 2 Kings 2: 19-22

Now the people of the city said to Elisha, ‘The location of this city is good, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.’He said, ‘Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.’ So they brought it to him. Then he went to the spring of water and threw the salt into it, and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, I have made this water wholesome; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.’ So the water has been wholesome to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

Now we know that salt is seen as very powerful and even purifying, a symbol of table fellowship, and the Covenant, the Law.

Jesus says to the believers who were listening to him on the mountain, “You are the salt of the earth”  You are the very powerful purifying, table fellowship that is the covenant.  You are the Law.  You are the law as He teaches and fulfills which is love of God and of humanity, our neighbor.  We are not to lose our saltiness but to permeate the world and change it.  To be a light for the true covenant that is embodied by Jesus’ love that He went to the cross for all of us, leaving us to be the church the body of Christ, the fulfillment of the Law, SALT.

Go out in the world as salt demonstrating this love and flavoring the earthly world with Heaven’s law.

Peace

Luke 2: 1-20

Luke and Matthew both write that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and emphasize that Joseph was of the house of David.  Why was it important that Joseph and thus his adopted son Jesus be of the house of David?  Those awaiting the Messiah were taught that the anointed one would be from the House of David.  David was the idealized King and it all began when he brought peace to the land with one sling.  David brought many other military victories for Israel, and why wouldn’t a people oppressed by Roman occupation, dream of such a King, such a savior.  The Chosen People celebrated being freed from Egypt which included the Red Sea swallowing up those in pursuit, and they attributed God being on their side when they took the land they were promised by God from all the inhabitants.  Yet Matthew and Luke knew by the time they recorded these Gospels that Jesus did not come as a military leader.  All the disciples did not realize it until the resurrection, but they did eventually.  So is it still important that Jesus be linked to the House of David?   And the answer is found in the prophets that wrote of this new David, for they understood that it was not going to be the same type of kingship, or the same type of peace.  I share three prophets and five texts to make my point:

Amos 9:11

On that day I will raise up   the booth of David that is fallen, and repair its breaches,   and raise up its ruins,   and rebuild it as in the days of old;

Jeremiah 33:15

In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Jeremiah 23:5

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

Isaiah 16:5

then a throne shall be established in steadfast love in the tent of David, and on it shall sit in faithfulness  ruler who seeks justice and is swift to do what is right.

Isaiah 9:7

His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.  He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore.  The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

These prophets make it clear that the new David will bring peace through justice and righteousness and not through violent victory.  This is clear from Jesus’ time on the tree, as He did not call down the Heavenly Army (the Heavenly Hosts), rather he triumphed over sin and death through the resurrection.  A peace that surpasses all understanding as it is tied to the hope and faith we have in God’s inevitable victory over evil.  Jesus’ victory and peace are tied to the eschatological Kingdom we have one foot in as we live in this world, as well.  His peace is not simply about no war today, but no violence or death forever.

“Divine, Son of God, God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, and Savior of the World” (Borg & Crossan, Location 928).

These are terms used a generation plus before Jesus was born for Caesar Augustus.  These terms we would think were unique to Jesus were exactly what people would call the victorious Octavian, who ended 20 years of civil war, to earn the term Augustus, which in Latin is One Who Is Divine. (Borg & Grossman, Location 904)  Thus it was Augustus’ victory and actions that lead to his “divinity” status.  That is even evident in his ancient biography as his “divine” conception was recorded not in the chronological beginning, but after the accumulation of his victories, while of course the Gospel writers make it clear of Jesus’ Divinity from the beginning, despite knowing it through the resurrection.  Augustus followed “…the four successive elements of Roman imperial theology—religion, war, victory, peace.  You worship the gods, you go to war with their assistance, you are victorious with their help, and you obtain peace from their generosity.  …For Augustus and for Rome it was always about peace, but always about peace through victory, peace through war, peace through violence.” (Borg & Crossan, location 949) This is his claim to peace.

When the Gospel writers call Jesus Divine, Son of God, God, God from God, Lord, Redeemer, Liberator, and Savior of the World, they were committing high treason.  We too are also to commit high treason to peace based only on violence.  Peace based simply on the absence of fighting is not the peace Jesus brings.  Jesus brings us a peace that surpasses all understanding and is based in righteousness and Justice.

Peace through violent victory is not real peace.

Peace through Justice & Righteousness thus gives us

Victory through Peace

Work Cited:

Borg, Marcus & John Dominic Crossan “The First Christmas; What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Birth”  HarperCollens e-books Kindle Edition, 2007.