Merry Christmas

Mark 15:24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.


24 Καὶ σταυροῦσιν αὐτὸν καὶ διαμερίζονται τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, βάλλοντες κλῆρον ἐπ᾽ αὐτὰ τίς τί ἄρῃ.

Here we are on the day after Christmas and I find myself in Mark 15.  This seems a bit macabre given all the sugar we have been consuming to remind us of the sweetness of our Savior.  We exchanged gifts to remind us that Jesus gave us the best gift we could possibly ever receive.  We sing songs like "O Holy Night" and "Silent Night" as we contemplate that first Christmas.

I have always loved Christmas, but now that I am a parent of two small children I love the giving more than the receiving.  I never really understood that until the past few years.  I would still have trouble sleeping on Christmas Eve because of the anticipation.  Now I look forward to seeing how my children react to their gifts.  They rarely disappoint.

But here we see that, in contrast to the sweetness of Christmas, σταυροῦσιν αὐτὸν.  There's nothing fancy about this verb.  It is simply a present active 3rd person indicative.  It means what it looks like it means.  They crucified Him.

My point is that there was a shadow of a cross hanging over the manger where He was laid.  He was born to die as a ransom for mankind.  So while we think about the wonder of Christmas let us be even more amazed as we consider that His death loomed over His whole life.  I don't think that His parents quite understood that, based on how they reacted to His ministry.  As a baby He didn't understand it either.  But as we look back at the gospel accounts we can see how He was born to die as a payment for sin.  What a Savior!

On the Throne

Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever."

15 Καὶ ὁ ἕβδομος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισεν· καὶ ἐγένοντο φωναὶ μεγάλαι ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ λέγοντες· ἐγένετο ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ κόσμου τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ τοῦ χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ, καὶ βασιλεύσει εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.

There are some questions around this verse that I'm not sure if I can handle in a blog post.  But I do know that these Christological passages fascinate me.  We know from Ephesians 1 that Christ is indeed on His throne and that He is indeed in control of everything.  So what does this passage mean?

Getting back to what I wrote way back in chapter 1, it would seem that John had a very close fulfillment of these passages in mind.  Yet I know many who take this to mean that Christ is not currently ruling earth, but that Satan is now (i.e. the god of this earth).  So what do we make of this?  Ephesians 1:22 tells us that all things are under His feet.  I would consider the world to be part of "all things."  This means that there is a contradiction (which is impossible) or we're reading something wrong somewhere.

As a rule, I like to use a clear passage to help interpret a more difficult passage.  Ephesians 1 is crystal-clear.  Meanwhile, here we are dealing with apocalyptic literature that is rich with symbolism and is ambiguous as to the time of its fulfillment.  This forces me to say that this has already happened.  I may later regret writing this, but it's where I am now.  I also realize that there may be other passages I am not considering.

Theology geeks may find this conversation interesting, but I do want to keep this blog fairly devotional.  I focus on these Christological passages because I like thinking about Jesus and His reign over all of creation.  It amazes me that this God who created everything (and Colossians tells us all things were created through Him and for Him) also knows me personally and I can know Him as well.  He condescends to humanity by giving us special revelation through His Word.  It's an incredible blessing to know the Living God.

Does this fill your heart with awe and wonder?  It should certainly empower your life.  Not in a health and wealth kind of way, but in a way that encourages you to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh.  Does it?

Every Good Gift

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

17 πᾶσα δόσις ἀγαθὴ καὶ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθέν ἐστιν καταβαῖνον ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων, παρ᾽ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα.

James is an easy book to blog because it is really a bunch of long proverbs.  James may very well be the most practical book of the New Testament in the sense that it is centered primarily on right living.  It contains a bunch of imperatives telling us how we should live.  Facing trials?  Count it all joy.  Reading Scripture?  Do what it tells you to.  And so on.

Here we get a brief theological interlude.  This verse tells us much about the nature of God.  First, we see that He is good.  How do we know that?  We see that if a gift is ἀγαθὴ or if it is τέλειον then it is from above.  I don't think that it describes gifts that are "good and perfect" because there are two different words for "gift" used here.  I think what James is going after is that if we enjoy something good it must be from God.  We also see that He is good in being described as οῦ πατρὸς τῶν φώτων.  It's pretty safe to say that "light" is a metaphor for "good" when we read Scripture.

Second, we see that He is immutable, which is the theological term for the idea that He never changes.  The phrase παρ᾽ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα. is difficult in English, but I would go with something like, "for him whom there is not changing or shadow of changing."  Obviously the ESV is a lot crisper from a literary sense and that is required in translating a text, but my translation gets the wooden sense of it.

But you may wonder, "so what?"  What difference does it make that He never changes?  One thing is that this informs our Christology.  We know from Hebrews that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Here we see God the Father described that way.  This is not a proof, but it sure leads one to see a commonality between God the Father and God the Son.  It also tells us that the idea of an "Old Testament God" vs. "New Testament God" is a false dichotomy.  There is God.  He does not change.  The just and wrathful God of Joshua and Judges is also the God of John 3:16.  Jesus Christ had to die to satisfy His righteous wrath.

This is a God I want to worship.  This is the God that saved me to do just that.  My prayer is that I would not stop short with distractions like sports, video games, school, and sex.  Those are all fine things enjoyed in their place, but let me worship God alone, amen?

Prayer for Steadfastness

2 Thessalonians 3:5 May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

5 Ὁ δὲ κύριος κατευθύναι ὑμῶν τὰς καρδίας εἰς τὴν ἀγάπην τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ εἰς τὴν ὑπομονὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ.

Paul is wrapping up his letter with his usual prayers and final admonitions.  I've been reading a book on Paul's prayers and so this one kind of jumped out at me.  This is one of the prayers that he wanted to record in Scripture, so I would think that it is pretty important.  Maybe it's something we should imitate.

What I see here is that we need God's help for our hearts to be directed to love Him.  I know my own heart and I see how vital this prayer is.  My heart manufactures idols quite easily.  It also tends to focus on me.  This prayer tells me that I need to pray for a heart that loves God more.  I know I often find myself praying this over and over again some mornings as my mind wanders when I pray.  I need God to keep me focused.

And how are we to be focused?  We need our hearts directed to the steadfastness of Christ. When I see τὴν ὑπομονὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ I realize that it is Christ's steadfastness that matters here.  The word τὴν ὑπομονὴν is in the accusative case, but τοῦ Χριστοῦ is in the genitive.  It looks like τοῦ Χριστοῦ modifies τὴν ὑπομονὴν.  In other words, the steadfastness that our hearts need to be directed to is the steadfastness that Christ has.

What does this do for us?  It tells us that we can look at Christ's life for an example, to be sure.  But it also tells us much more.  It reminds us that our salvation is based on Christ's perfect obedience.  It is not based on any of our own merit, but on His.  This means that our salvation is assured because He secured it for us.  This gives me great hope as I look at my own wandering heart.

How about you?  Are you basing your salvation on your steadfastness or on His?  My prayer is that as you read this you would reflect on the steadfastness of Christ and let that be your hope.

Connecting the Dots

 Acts 1:15 In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, 16 "Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. 17 For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry."

15 Καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ταύταις ἀναστὰς Πέτρος ἐν μέσῳ τῶν ἀδελφῶν εἶπεν· ἦν τε ὄχλος ὀνομάτων ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ ὡσεὶ ἑκατὸν εἴκοσι· 16  ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί, ἔδει πληρωθῆναι τὴν γραφὴν ἣν προεῖπεν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον διὰ στόματος Δαυὶδ περὶ Ἰούδα τοῦ γενομένου ὁδηγοῦ τοῖς συλλαβοῦσιν Ἰησοῦν, 17  ὅτι κατηριθμημένος ἦν ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ ἔλαχεν τὸν κλῆρον τῆς διακονίας ταύτης.

Note: You may wonder how we got from Luke to Acts.  What happened to John?  Since Luke-Acts is one big narrative I decided to go for continuity.  We'll get back to John.

This little discourse happens as Peter addresses the gathered saints after Jesus' ascension.  What I find interesting is his declaration that ἔδει πληρωθῆναι τὴν γραφὴν which very woodenly is, "it was necessary for the Scripture to be fulfilled."  The word πληρωθῆναι is an aorist passive infinitive.  This means that it refers to an undefined time in the passive voice.  I don't want to overstate the importance of the aorist.

My point is just that Peter was connecting the dots.  Hardcore Old Testament guys will say that you only need the Old Testament.  That is true to a degree, but we can't unring the bell either, so to speak.  What I mean is that we have the New Testament.  We understand what all the references to the coming seed of Abraham mean.  We understand the true fulfillment of the Davidic dynasty.  It all points to Jesus.

Peter didn't get it at first, but he sure understood by this point.  It became his mission to tell his people about it.  "You know the one we've been looking for?  You know how our firstborn males of Judah are named Ιησους?  Well, this Ιησους was Messiah."

It's important for us not to miss this.  It's easy for us to look down on the Jews for their ignorance.  However, we tend to functionally live the same way.  We may have this idea that Jesus is indeed Messiah, but do we have other functional saviors?  I don't want to springboard too much off of this verse, but my point is that we need to look to Christ alone for our salvation.  The world offers so many attractive things.  So many other things compete for our worship and affection.  Let's focus on Christ alone.  He is the one about whom the Scriptures attest.  Let's focus on Him.

True Unity

Luke 11:23
(23)  Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

(23)  ὁ μὴ ὢν μετ' ἐμοῦ κατ' ἐμοῦ ἐστιν, καὶ ὁ μὴ συνάγων μετ' ἐμοῦ σκορπίζει.

Jesus made this statement after explaining that Satan does not cast out Satan.  He is trying to describe how He operates.  Since He is God His power is divine rather than demonic.  He does nothing by the power of Satan.

I think that this statement is rather fascinating given some of the postmodern conversation that goes on out there. We have this idea that ecumenicism is inherently good.  That is true to a sense as long as we don't divide over peripheral issues.  However, Jesus is still the focus of all true unity.  If we are agreed on Jesus then we are together.  If we disagree on Jesus then there can be no fundamental unity.

Can we feed the poor with Muslims?  Absolutely!  Can we work against abortion with Mormons?  Of course we can.  Can we argue for the existence of God with Jehovah's Witnesses.  Sure we can.  However, to lump everyone together in the name of "unity" is disingenuous to Jesus' statement here.

We first have to take a step back and define who Jesus is. Is He a God or is He God?  Is He a mighty God or is He God?  Who is He?  How we answer that determines whether or not we are for Him because it says whether we are for Him or our idea of who He is.

Let's let His Words tell us who He is.  Based on what I've seen through my walk of about 2/3 of the gospel accounts, He claimed to be God and proved it.  Let's unify over that.

Witness at Home

Luke 8:39
(39)  "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

(39)  Ὑπόστρεφε εἰς τὸν οἶκόν σου, καὶ διηγοῦ ὅσα σοι ἐποίησεν ὁ θεός. καὶ ἀπῆλθεν καθ' ὅλην τὴν πόλιν κηρύσσων ὅσα ἐποίησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς.  

This may be one of Jesus' toughest teachings.  At least it can be for me.  This is addressed to the Gerasene demoniac after Jesus cast Legion into the herd of pigs.  This man was understandably very excited to be free from this demonic oppression.  He wanted to go and follow Jesus.  Jesus instead told him to go back home and tell what had happened.  This man was obedient.

So why is this so hard?  We know from earlier studies that a prophet is without honor in his hometown.  Yet Jesus told this man to go back to his hometown.  I don't know what effect he had on the people, but I can tell you from my own experience that I have not had much success with this so far.  I have told my family all that Jesus has done for me and they think I'm a nut, even those who claim to know Him.  That is discouraging, but it shouldn't stop me from being faithful.

On a side note, I think that this verse gives us some insight into Christology.  Jesus told the man to διηγοῦ ὅσα σοι ἐποίησεν ὁ θεός.  God is the clear subject of that clause.  It was God who did things to the man.  So what did this man do?  He κηρύσσων ὅσα ἐποίησεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς.  What is the subject of that clause?  Jesus.  This gives us one of two options.  Either the man was mistaken in thinking that Jesus is God or Jesus really is God.  It's hard to think that Luke would let such a grave heresy go without comment, doesn't it?  Therefore, I think it's safe to assume that Luke is equating Jesus with God in this narrative.