Presented to Nipawin Corps, 1 February 2009,
Presented to Weetamah Corps and Stony Mountain Penitentiary, March 2007
By Captain Michael Ramsay
I remember when I was in Training College – The Salvation Army equivalent to (or at least our closest approximation to a) seminary – a number of the fellows joined a Salvation Army hockey team that played in the city league in Winnipeg and one day something really exciting happened:
We won a game. One game. Really. We actually won a game. It was the second to last game of the season and we actually won one whole game. I can tell you that there was celebration that night. The game ended past midnight and people could actually hear phones ringing in the residences – particularly at the houses of the guys who weren’t at the game that night. The season was almost over and we finally won our first game. We only won one game but it felt as if we won the playoffs.
I say ‘us.’ I never went anywhere near the arena. Growing up in a place that never really gets any snow, let alone ice. I never did learn how to skate – led alone play ice hockey. I wasn’t on the team but you know how it is? Like when the Roughriders won the Grey Cup the other year, we all like to celebrate successes of ‘our teams.’ And the next day after our team’s victory, every one of us in our class was celebrating with the players as they told their stories.
We back our teams. We stick together. Some people at the College (not me!) even headed out to watch a lot of the late night games. They were our team. They are our friends and we are apart of them. When they win, we win. We stick with them. And they stuck with their hockey right from the beginning and in the end it produced fruit: they won; we won.
In the chapter we read from earlier, John 15, Jesus tells us a parable about staying with Him and producing fruit. He does it in an interesting way too.[1] He speaks about a vine.
Jesus tells his disciples, his friends, (verse 1) ‘I am the vine’ and ‘my Father is the gardener.’ And (verse 4) you must remain in me to bear fruit. Now this passage here, in Chapter 15, is part of what is known as his farewell discourse (John 14:1-16:33). This is when Jesus is alone with his disciples and this is his final big talk with them before he is arrested, tried, and ultimately executed. It is probably either taking place at the last supper itself or maybe even after that. It could be taking place even as they are walking en route to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will actually be arrested.[2]
Now, at this time, Israel is an agricultural society and the grape vine is a very important part of its culture: so much so that their national symbol at this time is actually a golden vine.[3] There is even a golden vine on the Temple itself.[4] The Israelites here know gardening and how vines work. Jesus may even have had a vine beside him (as an object lesson of sorts) while telling this story as he is walking to Gethsemane. This passage here is part of his last good heart-to-heart talk with his disciples. This is where he is giving them their final instructions before He dies. This is his final discourse and as such we know that what he is saying is important.
What is he saying? He is saying, stick with me. Remain in me. Abide in me (verse 4), abide in my love (verse 9, verse 10, verse 11); remain in my love to produce fruit, to produce works of love. [5] Remain in the vine and I will do it, Jesus says. I will produce my fruit in you.
Now, this isn’t just a neat story. This is also warning. Take a look closely. Look with me at Verse 4. Unless you remain in Christ you cannot bear fruit. If you do not bear fruit, GOD will remove you (verse 2) and you will be thrown into the fire and burned (verse 6). Remember that these are his closest disciples with whom Jesus is speaking right now; it is even after Judas has already left to betray Jesus. It is the remaining 11 disciples and Jesus is telling them as he’s about to be handed over to die and that if they don’t stick with him even they may be cut off and burned.
How much more so for us, a few generations later? We too have to stick it out, if we don’t want to get burned. I don’t know how many of us follow hockey too closely but do you remember the Quebec Nordiques in the early 1990s? Now I know there aren’t a lot of Quebec fans on the prairies but in their last few years there they had what I thought was potential – and I can remember even cheering for them for a season or two – and I can remember feeling burned.
I remember that they picked the number one draft pick over all – a young Eric Lindros. He was a player with great promise. He is picked to be a part of the team as they pursue the Stanley Cup. But Eric Lindros refuses to stick with the team. He refuses to remain with the team that drafts him. He demands to be traded because he says he only wants to be on a team that has ‘realistic chance’ of winning the Cup.
So the Nordiques trade him and you know what happens? Shortly afterwards, the Nordiques become the Colorado Avalanche (one of the greatest teams of the 1990s) and they bear fruit. A lot of fruit: in their first year there, they win the Cup and they win more than one Stanley Cup – without Eric Lindros!
And you know what happens to Lindros? He never enjoys that fruit. They produce it without him. He is retired now and he never won the Stanley Cup. He, even though he was the first picked of all those picked that year, he didn’t remain. He didn’t stick it out. He was cut from the team and metaphorically speaking, he was burned. Likewise If we don’t remain with the team –or the vine- we will be burned.
And even the disciples – Jesus is telling them if don’t remain on his team; if even they, his closest friends and followers; if they don’t remain in him, they will be cut off and burned. Look at Verse 16: Even though Jesus chooses them, he has to remind them that they need to remain to bear fruit. Jesus isn’t speaking to outsiders here, he is speaking with his own chosen disciples, member of his own team. Like Lindros was chosen but he didn’t remain and so bears no fruit for the team. Jesus is telling his disciples if they don’t continue to play for the team, if they don’t remain in him and bear fruit then they too will be cut.
And even more than that, look at this. Verse 2: It is not only those who don’t stick it out that are cut in our story. It is also those who do remain. They are pruned. You know what being pruned is? It is getting cut! So both those who stick it out and those who don’t stick it out are cut in this story; so ultimately then who can remain? Who can do it? Who can abide in Christ? Who can last?
Who can last? I can remember some other struggles of trying to last. I remember many years ago, when I am training to be an elementary school teacher, it is a rigorous programme. We all work really hard and a number of us are chosen. We are chosen, based on our grades and other criteria to be part of the special programme. We are told that we are among the best, the chosen ones.
Janet is my friend. She works really hard. She has as much talent as anyone else in that programme but she is cut. She is cut from the programme for whatever reason. She is pruned. She is cut and she does not bear fruit that year. She does not even graduate then. Even though she was especially chosen for this elite programme, she does not complete university with her session mates. So, if some of those who are chosen don’t last, who can last? Who can survive the cut?
The remaining 11 disciples lasted. They did. They lasted until the very end. Even though they faced imprisonment, they remained in Jesus. Even though they faced torture, they remained in Jesus. Even though they faced death, they remained in Jesus. They even lasted in the face of death. They remained and what happened when they remained? Jesus (the vine) bore the fruit of ‘works of love’ through them (the branches). Acts Chapter 2 says that even shortly after Jesus went to be with the Father, more were added to their numbers daily. He was bearing fruit in them, his disciples. They remained. This is great news.
Recorded in our passage of scripture today, Jesus is actually comforting his disciples; he is not condemning them. Jesus is about to be led away to be executed, to be crucified, and he is telling them not to worry. Don’t worry. He assures them. If they remain true to him, he will still bear the fruit of love in them even as he has gone on ahead.
How did they remain in Jesus? How are they able to be branches bearing fruit even while they are imprisoned, tortured and killed – see Verse 9 – how? By keeping his commandments. And what does Jesus command? Verse 9 that they abide in his love; Verse 10, that they remain in his love; and Verse 12, that they love one another. Love God and love your neighbour (Luke 10:27) and what is the greatest way to show that you love someone else? It is, Verse 13, to lay down your life for your friends. And that is what his disciples did for him. And that is what Christ first does for them. And that is what Christ does for us too. We can have his love show through us precisely because he loves, lives and died for us.
Christ chose the disciples to remain and they did and the Father grew the vine and Jesus produced the fruit of love through his disciples. This is good news but it isn’t new news. In the OT Law, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 declares, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” And Jesus says, “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31-33, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14). Remember that the disciples can’t produce fruit by themselves anymore than a branch off a vine can produce fruit - but Jesus can produce fruit! The vine can and Jesus does produce this fruit of love and so much fruit…there is still fruit being produced from this vine today. Isn’t this amazing?
And we too can have that fruit produced through us. There can be Jesus’ fruit produced through me. There can be Jesus fruit produced through all of us. As we turn to him, as we remain in him, we will obey his commandments, we will remain in his love, we will love one another and he will produce his fruit of love in us.
This is good news: There is good news (Verse 16): I chose you, Christ says. And I appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Whatever you ask for me, - on my behalf - Jesus says, God will give you. The Father will not deny the son anymore than the gardener will deny his prize vine, even if he has to cut some branches…cutting?
What about cutting? – Do you remember those branches in Verse 2? Remember Jesus says that even those that do remain in Him he will cut. He will prune them. This is significant. And this is good news too – believe it or not. Let me explain it in terms of a story I told you earlier here.
Recall Janet –my friend- she was one of the chosen few from the teachers’ college. She was one of the elite, she worked really hard but she was cut anyway. She wasn’t allowed to graduate with everyone else…well Janet applies to redo her practicum. Janet goes back to Teacher’s College the next year. Janet was pruned and Janet grows backs. She becomes a teacher. She does. She is cut and she grows back.
This is exciting. In verse two it is evidently an intentional play on words in the original Greek between the branch that is removed and the branch that is pruned. The key difference though is that the pruned branch, though it is cut, it remains.[6] The pruned branch, it grows and it bears fruit.
We all must go through times of pruning in this life but, remembering this, as we remain in Jesus, as we abide in him, as we show his love for God and our neighbours, we will bear his fruit of love. We will bear Jesus’ fruit. We will represent the fruit of Christ himself. We will bear fruit of his wonderful works of love and life and so much so that even though we may even die, yet we shall live.
Are we bearing fruit? Do we want to bear fruit? Do we want to bear more fruit? Do we? This is exciting. All we have to do is remain true to Jesus. Seek ye first His kingdom. Love our neighbour as ourselves and keep our eyes upon Jesus, remaining in his wondrous grace.
Appeal:
Jesus is here and he is the vine. If you have never been a part of Jesus and would like to be we have this place of here called the mercy seat where you can come and be grafted into the vine and show these acts of love.
Jesus is here and he is the divine. For those of us here today who are already a part of the vine, it is okay. Maybe you are being pruned; it is okay. It will be all right. Somehow. Remain in Jesus and it will be all right. He will never leave you nor forsake you. If you have made that commitment to Jesus (or if you would like to), I invite you, if you would like someone to pray with you, to come forward and show your acts of love before God. Jesus loves you. Keep your eyes upon Jesus. Remain in his wondrous grace.
http://www.sheepspeak.com/
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[1] Cf. Frank H. Caldwell, “‘Contact!’: a homily on John 15:1-12,” Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 1, no 1 (Jan 1947): 63-66. And Cf. Frances Taylor Gench, “John 15:12-17,” Interpretation: a Journal of Bible and Theology 58, no 2 (Apr 2004): 181-184.
[2] Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1995), 730. Cf. Lenski 1029.
[3] Merrill C. Tenney Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/III. The Private Ministry of the Word (13:1-17:26)/B. The Last Discourse (13:31-16:33)/2. The discourse on relations (15:1-27)/a. The relation of the disciples to Christ (15:1-11), Book Version: 4.0.2
[4] Cf. R.C.H. Lenski, “The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel” (Ausburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1943), 1025.
[5] Gail O’Day, 757.
[6] Gail O’Day, 757.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
John 11:17-27: Giving Hope Today
Presented to the Nipawin Corps, 25 January 2009
614 Warehouse Mission Corps, 02 April 2017
By Captain Michael Ramsay
The passage of Scripture that we are looking at today takes place around a memorial service, a funeral. Funerals are a part of life. They are an important part of life. I say life because they are really for the living rather than the dead. Funerals are for those of us who are left behind rather than for those of us who go on ahead, of course. They are where we comfort those who mourn and celebrate the hope of the future resurrection (Matt 5:4; Acts 23:6; 24:15, 25; 1 Cor 15, Phil 3:11,12; 1 Pet 1:3, 3:21;Rev 20:4-6).
Funerals have been a big part of my life these last couple of years. It seems that every time I leave town Basil, of Heritage Funeral Homes, is calling my cell phone about another service. I’m sure he thinks that I’m always off at retreat or somewhere – rather than here.
Andrew from our corps not too long ago went to Ontario to celebrate (correct term) Major Neil Voice’s 'Promotion to Glory'. In my family you know that my dad’s mother just passed away and it was only a few months ago that my cousin was promoted leaving her husband young daughters behind.
Funerals are the way we mark people’s passing. They are a way for us to grieve our own loss even as we recognise that the ones we love who love the Lord will be bound for a better place. We can share the hope that they have for the future resurrection of the dead where the dead in Christ will rise first (Acts 23:6; 24:15, 25; 1 Cor 15, Phil 3:11,12; 1 Pet 1:3, 3:21;Rev 20:4-6).
What is happening in our text today is not unlike our funerals but it takes place in first century Palestine. The family and friends have all gathered. It has some things similar to contemporary memorial services. It takes friends and family a while to arrive at the home of the bereaved. In our day people usually have a lot farther to travel but in those days instead of catching the first flight out of Nazareth, they had to walk so it took a while for some people to get there. Because of the travel time and other factors they would gather for a period of days.
Like we sometimes hire pianists or funeral directors these days, people in the first century sometimes hired professional mourners and so there may have been professional mourners hired for the occasion. If there are, they are already at the house. The home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, is undoubtedly full of friends and family and others and they are just waiting for the teacher. They are just waiting for their friend – their very close friend. They are just waiting for Jesus and his entourage (companions) to arrive.
Now Jesus wasn’t very far away (10:40-42) – about 20 miles[1] - when he heard the news that his friend was ill but he didn’t rush to see him (11:1-6). He had his reasons for this (11:15) and his disciples are certainly concerned that if Jesus does go back to Bethany now, where Mary and Marth live and where Lazarus is buried, he might be killed (11:8) but to his credit anyway, the disciple Thomas is willing and eager to lay down his life with Jesus since Jesus (in his own time) is determined to go to see Mary, Martha (his friends) and their family (11:16). It is in this context that our story opens up today, John 11:17-20:
On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
We can picture this; we can identify with this, can’t we? The crowds are all at the house. Mary and Martha are there with them. There are inevitably people preparing food, people talking, people eating. (It actually reminds me very much of the First Nation wakes that I been privileged to be a part of.) There are all sorts of people going in and coming out, offering their support and comfort. Most people are probably at Mary and Martha’s already but the family and friends are still gathering.
In our world today it would be as if, with all this going on, they hear that Jesus and his companions have just arrived at the bus depot or the airport and Martha goes out to meet them while Mary stays home to keep an eye on all the friends and family and everything else that is happening at the home front. But look how Martha greets Jesus. Jesus has just arrived to see his friends and the friends and family of his recently deceased friend and how does Lazarus’ sister, how does Jesus' friend Martha, greet him?[2]
Verses 21 and 22: “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask of Him.” At first she reproaches Jesus[3] – she says, Vs. 21, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
This is interesting. It really expresses two things. 1) She had the hope, she has the faith that Jesus could have saved her brother from dying – you know that she and her sister have probably been praying for that. And 2) she is angry, upset, or not happy anyway that Jesus did not come right away even though they sent for him.
He did not answer her request right away. His friend and her brother was dying. Martha, Mary and Lazarus all have a strong personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Mary and Martha don’t want Lazarus their brother to die but Jesus doesn’t come when they want him to come. Jesus doesn’t come to heal Lazarus, their brother (11:6), who loves him (11:5). Jesus, who could have saved him, let her brother die (11:14,15,21).
Today this is not an uncommon charge against our Lord is it? Particularly when young people are affected; I certainly heard of people who ask this very question: ‘How can a loving God let this sort of thing happen when it is certainly within his power to stop it?’ These are the kind of things that Martha here is demanding of Jesus. She asks him, ‘How could you – who say that you love me – how could you let my brother die?’ She reproaches him. She is grieving.
This past week – there was a significant story about grieving in the news. I don't know if you saw it on the TV, in the papers. I read of the tragic story of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish[4] on CBC.ca.[5] The following is a paraphrase of that account.
Dr. Abu al-Aish,a peace activist and a Palestinian doctor in Gaza, openly spoke to Israeli television as his community was being invaded by the Israeli forces. He reported the suffering there in nightly interviews with Israel's Channel 10.
Friday night, he was speaking with an Israeli news correspondent when Israeli soldiers launched two shells directly into his own home. Everyone listening could hear him wail. "My daughters!" he screams. "Oh, God, my daughters!" he cries as the Israeli forces kill his niece and his three daughters live on TV.
Before his community was invaded, Dr Abu al-Aish had already been planning to move his family for start fresh in Canada, but not soon enough as no one in Gaza is immune to the brutality of the invasion which left in excess of six thousand Palestinian causalities – more than 1800 of those them children.[6]
The horror and the terror of this event does not end here for the good doctor. Eighteen members of his extended family were in the house at the time it was attacked.
An Israeli television correspondent choked up as the doctor's cries were broadcast across the nation. The cameras followed the reporter as he appealed to the soldiers to get an ambulance to the scene, at least to help the others who were wounded. They don’t usually help Palestinians in this way but Dr. Abu al-Aish was able to transfer two of his injured daughters to an Israeli hospital. Probably because of the media presence, the Israeli army for the first time allowed a Palestinian ambulance to go straight to the Erez border crossing, where they were then transferred to be taken by to a hospital in Tel Aviv.
Now much of Abu al-Aish's world has been shattered. His wife had died six months ago but then there was hope for the future of the rest of the family, and he said that at the very time of the attack, he was sitting there with them, his daughters, planning, because he got an offer in Canada, from the University of Toronto.
Now they are dead and even while he was in the hospital grieving for his daughters and speaking - even on TV calling for peace instead of war - even while all this is happening an Israeli man visiting the hospital begins to verbally attack at him – blaming Dr. Abu al-Aish and his countrymen for the loss of his own daughters. Even as this man was forgiving the killers of his children, a bigot was blaming him for his troubles.
Where is God in all this? Why did God not come and save this man's family?
Why did Jesus not come and save Lazarus? This is what Martha is asking Jesus in her distraught state after having just lost her only brother. But this isn't where she leaves her questioning.
This is important. Even in her grief, even in her distress she doesn’t end her approach with this reproach. Instead after she says, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she says, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask of Him.”
This is important. Even now, in the midst of her grief, even now in the midst of her suffering – like Job (whom those of us reading through the Bible together have just read about) – even now, Martha believes; even now Martha has hope; even now Martha has faith in God and she even now believes that God will give Jesus whatever he asks of Him.
Now Lazarus has been dead for four days. Respected Johnine scholar Gail O’ Day tells us that, “according to popular Jewish belief at the time of Jesus, the soul hovered around the body in the grave for three days after death, hoping to re-enter the body. But after the third day, when the soul ‘sees that the colour of its face has changed;’ the soul leaves the body for Good.”[7] It is now that fourth day. All those present know that Lazarus is indeed dead.
Verse 23: Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha does believe in Jesus but she knows that Lazarus is dead and she is sad so it is no wonder that she interprets Jesus’ words as comfort and a hope in the final resurrection (as opposed to an immanent resurrection) – and she is not yet fully realising (how could she?) what is about to happen. Verse 24, Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
The people of first century Palestine – with the exception of the Sadducees – knew that there would be this resurrection “on the last day.” Martha knows that on the last day the dead will rise, like we know that on the last day the dead will rise and the dead in Christ will be the first to be raised. Martha here, you will notice then, even in her grief, even in her distress, Martha shows her belief, her faith, her hope in God. She doesn’t just believe in a nebulous idea that Lazarus is in some unknown ‘better place’ or that he has gotten wings or a harp or something like that. Martha hopes that – like all of us – She knows that Lazarus will rise on the last day. Martha has this hope in the resurrection of the dead.
Now, of course, we know that this truth isn’t all that Jesus is speaking about here. Jesus is speaking about something different and even more immediate as well - but Martha, who couldn’t possibly be expected to know that, is showing that she believes in Christ in the midst of her suffering.
Verses 25 and 26: ‘Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"’
To this she responds with the clearest declaration of faith to this point in John’s account of the gospel. Verse 27: "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
Martha believes in Jesus and we know that Jesus will do even more here. We know that he will even raise Lazarus before the final day. Jesus reveals to us the truth that indeed he is the resurrection. He is the one who gives us hope and he is the one in whom we should place our hope.
Do we believe? Do we have the faith of Martha (and of Mary)? Do we have the same hope in the resurrection of the dead? Do we believe that even now, in the midst of our own sufferings, that Jesus can pull us through? Do we have this hope today? Do we believe? Do we believe in Jesus?
For those who have just read Job, we saw how everything that Job could have ever of hoped for was realised end the end as he had possessions, status, and family restored unto him - even more than before - and a renewed spirit, a renewed hope and faith in God.
Mary and Martha: Jesus, as we will read in the rest of this chapter, raised Lazarus even from the dead fulfilling more than they could possibly hope for.
And Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, he leaves us with these thoughts even as he was being verbally assaulted on live TV: He says, "From our pain we can learn," he said. "We may disagree, but we should learn from that… It's beneficial to us all."
During the whole invasion to that point, the invaders had remained largely unmoved by the death and destruction in Gaza, but as Dr. Abu al-Aish's story was followed closely by every Israeli news agency, it struck a chord: A man who has lost almost everything still has hope that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace.
"Maybe the blood of my daughters was the price," he said, "and if it was, I am happy about it. The cost of ceasefire to save lives to be my daughters' and my niece's blood — honestly, I am proud of it. I am fully proud of it."
Just like the death of the good doctor's daughters served to stop the invasion and bring peace (albeit temporarily) so that no more innocent people would need to die; the death (and resurrection) of great physician, the Prince of Peace, Jesus, God's own Son came about so that none of us needs to perish; we can have that same hope today - if only we just believe.
So my question for us today is, do we believe? Do we believe as much as Dr Abu al-Aish believes in peace? He has forgiven his attackers. Do we believe as much as Mary and Martha in the resurrection? Do we believe and do we have that same hope today? De we believe in Jesus?
http://www.sheepspeak.com/
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[1] Merrill C. Tenney. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The conversation with Martha and Mary (11:17-37), Book Version: 4.0.2: the death of Lazarus must have occurred not long after Jesus was first informed of his illness. The trip each way would have taken not much less than a day's travel since Bethany was more than twenty miles distant from Jesus' refuge in Perea.
[2]Cf. , Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 688.
[3]Cf. Gail O’Day, 688, and Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The conversation with Martha and Mary (11:17-37), Book Version: 4.0.2.
[4] Live video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=655_1232202860
[5]Before ceasefire, Gaza doctor's grief was heard on live Israeli TV 'Oh, God, my daughters!' he cried after Israeli shells hit house Last Updated: Sun, Jan 18/09 10:29 PM ET With files from AP: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/18/gaza-doctor.ht
[6] UN: …the death toll stood at 1,003, with 4,482 people wounded. Mr. Ging has previously called Palestinian casualties figures credible, with 42 per cent of the dead and nearly 50 per cent of the injured listed as women and children – mostly children. (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29543&Cr=gaza&Cr1=&Kw1=palestinian&Kw2=deaths&Kw3=)
[7]Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 687.
614 Warehouse Mission Corps, 02 April 2017
By Captain Michael Ramsay
The passage of Scripture that we are looking at today takes place around a memorial service, a funeral. Funerals are a part of life. They are an important part of life. I say life because they are really for the living rather than the dead. Funerals are for those of us who are left behind rather than for those of us who go on ahead, of course. They are where we comfort those who mourn and celebrate the hope of the future resurrection (Matt 5:4; Acts 23:6; 24:15, 25; 1 Cor 15, Phil 3:11,12; 1 Pet 1:3, 3:21;Rev 20:4-6).
Funerals have been a big part of my life these last couple of years. It seems that every time I leave town Basil, of Heritage Funeral Homes, is calling my cell phone about another service. I’m sure he thinks that I’m always off at retreat or somewhere – rather than here.
Andrew from our corps not too long ago went to Ontario to celebrate (correct term) Major Neil Voice’s 'Promotion to Glory'. In my family you know that my dad’s mother just passed away and it was only a few months ago that my cousin was promoted leaving her husband young daughters behind.
Funerals are the way we mark people’s passing. They are a way for us to grieve our own loss even as we recognise that the ones we love who love the Lord will be bound for a better place. We can share the hope that they have for the future resurrection of the dead where the dead in Christ will rise first (Acts 23:6; 24:15, 25; 1 Cor 15, Phil 3:11,12; 1 Pet 1:3, 3:21;Rev 20:4-6).
What is happening in our text today is not unlike our funerals but it takes place in first century Palestine. The family and friends have all gathered. It has some things similar to contemporary memorial services. It takes friends and family a while to arrive at the home of the bereaved. In our day people usually have a lot farther to travel but in those days instead of catching the first flight out of Nazareth, they had to walk so it took a while for some people to get there. Because of the travel time and other factors they would gather for a period of days.
Like we sometimes hire pianists or funeral directors these days, people in the first century sometimes hired professional mourners and so there may have been professional mourners hired for the occasion. If there are, they are already at the house. The home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, is undoubtedly full of friends and family and others and they are just waiting for the teacher. They are just waiting for their friend – their very close friend. They are just waiting for Jesus and his entourage (companions) to arrive.
Now Jesus wasn’t very far away (10:40-42) – about 20 miles[1] - when he heard the news that his friend was ill but he didn’t rush to see him (11:1-6). He had his reasons for this (11:15) and his disciples are certainly concerned that if Jesus does go back to Bethany now, where Mary and Marth live and where Lazarus is buried, he might be killed (11:8) but to his credit anyway, the disciple Thomas is willing and eager to lay down his life with Jesus since Jesus (in his own time) is determined to go to see Mary, Martha (his friends) and their family (11:16). It is in this context that our story opens up today, John 11:17-20:
On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
We can picture this; we can identify with this, can’t we? The crowds are all at the house. Mary and Martha are there with them. There are inevitably people preparing food, people talking, people eating. (It actually reminds me very much of the First Nation wakes that I been privileged to be a part of.) There are all sorts of people going in and coming out, offering their support and comfort. Most people are probably at Mary and Martha’s already but the family and friends are still gathering.
In our world today it would be as if, with all this going on, they hear that Jesus and his companions have just arrived at the bus depot or the airport and Martha goes out to meet them while Mary stays home to keep an eye on all the friends and family and everything else that is happening at the home front. But look how Martha greets Jesus. Jesus has just arrived to see his friends and the friends and family of his recently deceased friend and how does Lazarus’ sister, how does Jesus' friend Martha, greet him?[2]
Verses 21 and 22: “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask of Him.” At first she reproaches Jesus[3] – she says, Vs. 21, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
This is interesting. It really expresses two things. 1) She had the hope, she has the faith that Jesus could have saved her brother from dying – you know that she and her sister have probably been praying for that. And 2) she is angry, upset, or not happy anyway that Jesus did not come right away even though they sent for him.
He did not answer her request right away. His friend and her brother was dying. Martha, Mary and Lazarus all have a strong personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Mary and Martha don’t want Lazarus their brother to die but Jesus doesn’t come when they want him to come. Jesus doesn’t come to heal Lazarus, their brother (11:6), who loves him (11:5). Jesus, who could have saved him, let her brother die (11:14,15,21).
Today this is not an uncommon charge against our Lord is it? Particularly when young people are affected; I certainly heard of people who ask this very question: ‘How can a loving God let this sort of thing happen when it is certainly within his power to stop it?’ These are the kind of things that Martha here is demanding of Jesus. She asks him, ‘How could you – who say that you love me – how could you let my brother die?’ She reproaches him. She is grieving.
This past week – there was a significant story about grieving in the news. I don't know if you saw it on the TV, in the papers. I read of the tragic story of Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish[4] on CBC.ca.[5] The following is a paraphrase of that account.
Dr. Abu al-Aish,a peace activist and a Palestinian doctor in Gaza, openly spoke to Israeli television as his community was being invaded by the Israeli forces. He reported the suffering there in nightly interviews with Israel's Channel 10.
Friday night, he was speaking with an Israeli news correspondent when Israeli soldiers launched two shells directly into his own home. Everyone listening could hear him wail. "My daughters!" he screams. "Oh, God, my daughters!" he cries as the Israeli forces kill his niece and his three daughters live on TV.
Before his community was invaded, Dr Abu al-Aish had already been planning to move his family for start fresh in Canada, but not soon enough as no one in Gaza is immune to the brutality of the invasion which left in excess of six thousand Palestinian causalities – more than 1800 of those them children.[6]
The horror and the terror of this event does not end here for the good doctor. Eighteen members of his extended family were in the house at the time it was attacked.
An Israeli television correspondent choked up as the doctor's cries were broadcast across the nation. The cameras followed the reporter as he appealed to the soldiers to get an ambulance to the scene, at least to help the others who were wounded. They don’t usually help Palestinians in this way but Dr. Abu al-Aish was able to transfer two of his injured daughters to an Israeli hospital. Probably because of the media presence, the Israeli army for the first time allowed a Palestinian ambulance to go straight to the Erez border crossing, where they were then transferred to be taken by to a hospital in Tel Aviv.
Now much of Abu al-Aish's world has been shattered. His wife had died six months ago but then there was hope for the future of the rest of the family, and he said that at the very time of the attack, he was sitting there with them, his daughters, planning, because he got an offer in Canada, from the University of Toronto.
Now they are dead and even while he was in the hospital grieving for his daughters and speaking - even on TV calling for peace instead of war - even while all this is happening an Israeli man visiting the hospital begins to verbally attack at him – blaming Dr. Abu al-Aish and his countrymen for the loss of his own daughters. Even as this man was forgiving the killers of his children, a bigot was blaming him for his troubles.
Where is God in all this? Why did God not come and save this man's family?
Why did Jesus not come and save Lazarus? This is what Martha is asking Jesus in her distraught state after having just lost her only brother. But this isn't where she leaves her questioning.
This is important. Even in her grief, even in her distress she doesn’t end her approach with this reproach. Instead after she says, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she says, “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask of Him.”
This is important. Even now, in the midst of her grief, even now in the midst of her suffering – like Job (whom those of us reading through the Bible together have just read about) – even now, Martha believes; even now Martha has hope; even now Martha has faith in God and she even now believes that God will give Jesus whatever he asks of Him.
Now Lazarus has been dead for four days. Respected Johnine scholar Gail O’ Day tells us that, “according to popular Jewish belief at the time of Jesus, the soul hovered around the body in the grave for three days after death, hoping to re-enter the body. But after the third day, when the soul ‘sees that the colour of its face has changed;’ the soul leaves the body for Good.”[7] It is now that fourth day. All those present know that Lazarus is indeed dead.
Verse 23: Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha does believe in Jesus but she knows that Lazarus is dead and she is sad so it is no wonder that she interprets Jesus’ words as comfort and a hope in the final resurrection (as opposed to an immanent resurrection) – and she is not yet fully realising (how could she?) what is about to happen. Verse 24, Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
The people of first century Palestine – with the exception of the Sadducees – knew that there would be this resurrection “on the last day.” Martha knows that on the last day the dead will rise, like we know that on the last day the dead will rise and the dead in Christ will be the first to be raised. Martha here, you will notice then, even in her grief, even in her distress, Martha shows her belief, her faith, her hope in God. She doesn’t just believe in a nebulous idea that Lazarus is in some unknown ‘better place’ or that he has gotten wings or a harp or something like that. Martha hopes that – like all of us – She knows that Lazarus will rise on the last day. Martha has this hope in the resurrection of the dead.
Now, of course, we know that this truth isn’t all that Jesus is speaking about here. Jesus is speaking about something different and even more immediate as well - but Martha, who couldn’t possibly be expected to know that, is showing that she believes in Christ in the midst of her suffering.
Verses 25 and 26: ‘Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"’
To this she responds with the clearest declaration of faith to this point in John’s account of the gospel. Verse 27: "Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
Martha believes in Jesus and we know that Jesus will do even more here. We know that he will even raise Lazarus before the final day. Jesus reveals to us the truth that indeed he is the resurrection. He is the one who gives us hope and he is the one in whom we should place our hope.
Do we believe? Do we have the faith of Martha (and of Mary)? Do we have the same hope in the resurrection of the dead? Do we believe that even now, in the midst of our own sufferings, that Jesus can pull us through? Do we have this hope today? Do we believe? Do we believe in Jesus?
For those who have just read Job, we saw how everything that Job could have ever of hoped for was realised end the end as he had possessions, status, and family restored unto him - even more than before - and a renewed spirit, a renewed hope and faith in God.
Mary and Martha: Jesus, as we will read in the rest of this chapter, raised Lazarus even from the dead fulfilling more than they could possibly hope for.
And Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, he leaves us with these thoughts even as he was being verbally assaulted on live TV: He says, "From our pain we can learn," he said. "We may disagree, but we should learn from that… It's beneficial to us all."
During the whole invasion to that point, the invaders had remained largely unmoved by the death and destruction in Gaza, but as Dr. Abu al-Aish's story was followed closely by every Israeli news agency, it struck a chord: A man who has lost almost everything still has hope that Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace.
"Maybe the blood of my daughters was the price," he said, "and if it was, I am happy about it. The cost of ceasefire to save lives to be my daughters' and my niece's blood — honestly, I am proud of it. I am fully proud of it."
Just like the death of the good doctor's daughters served to stop the invasion and bring peace (albeit temporarily) so that no more innocent people would need to die; the death (and resurrection) of great physician, the Prince of Peace, Jesus, God's own Son came about so that none of us needs to perish; we can have that same hope today - if only we just believe.
So my question for us today is, do we believe? Do we believe as much as Dr Abu al-Aish believes in peace? He has forgiven his attackers. Do we believe as much as Mary and Martha in the resurrection? Do we believe and do we have that same hope today? De we believe in Jesus?
http://www.sheepspeak.com/
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[1] Merrill C. Tenney. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The conversation with Martha and Mary (11:17-37), Book Version: 4.0.2: the death of Lazarus must have occurred not long after Jesus was first informed of his illness. The trip each way would have taken not much less than a day's travel since Bethany was more than twenty miles distant from Jesus' refuge in Perea.
[2]Cf. , Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 688.
[3]Cf. Gail O’Day, 688, and Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The conversation with Martha and Mary (11:17-37), Book Version: 4.0.2.
[4] Live video: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=655_1232202860
[5]Before ceasefire, Gaza doctor's grief was heard on live Israeli TV 'Oh, God, my daughters!' he cried after Israeli shells hit house Last Updated: Sun, Jan 18/09 10:29 PM ET With files from AP: www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/18/gaza-doctor.ht
[6] UN: …the death toll stood at 1,003, with 4,482 people wounded. Mr. Ging has previously called Palestinian casualties figures credible, with 42 per cent of the dead and nearly 50 per cent of the injured listed as women and children – mostly children. (http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29543&Cr=gaza&Cr1=&Kw1=palestinian&Kw2=deaths&Kw3=)
[7]Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 687.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
John 10:1-6: Stop! Thieves!
Presented to the Nipawin Corps, 18 January 2009
By Captain Michael Ramsay
John 10:1 “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.
I grew up in Victoria BC, a city that has around 300 000 people; so, It was very busy and it is a little bit different from Nipawin, Saskatchewan. One thing of the many things that is a bit different is that here – most people use the side door or the back door but back there people always come to the front door. Always. I confess that we were confused more than once when we first arrived here because, inevitably, the doorbell would ring, the kids and I would then run to the wrong door wondering why nobody was there.
I remember when I was little: one day when I was 7 or 8 (about Rebecca’s age) I stayed over at my grandparents for the night. They lived on Shelbourne Street, which is a main street, a busy road that runs towards downtown from the Gordon Head area where we lived. It was 2 or 3 in the morning and the traffic or something else had woken me up and no one else was up so I decided to get up and go downstairs – and since no one else was up, I decided to help myself to a cookie or some cereal or something like that…
The stairs down came past the side door of the house and I remember nearing the bottom of the stairs at 2 in the morning and looking right at the door when, all of a sudden, there is a burglar. He is on the other side of the door: the handle starts to turn. I freeze. I don’t know what to do. It is a robber, a burglar of some sort, someone trying to break into the house; I know because he is at the side door and he can’t open the door and instead after a couple of attempts he goes away. As an eight year-old, the momentary panic of being only a few steps away from a prowler is really quite scary. I am sure that I did not even breathe much less move in that very tense moment.
I also remember that later that year I had another similar encounter. This time I was at home. Now my bedroom at home was at the front of the house – right by the front door (which was the door that everybody used) and my room was literally walled with widows. Each window had a long opaque blind that ran from the ceiling down to the bottom of the window.
Again it is 2 or 3 in the morning and this time I hear a noise outside so I peek out the window nearest my bed and I see a strange car out front. I slowly crawl to the next window and look out again and I see a strange man emerging from the car. I creep along, out of view, nearer to the door and look out the next widow as the man is walking up our front walk. I then sneak up to our front door – it has a large window in it as well and there is no blind on it – I sneak underneath the window and make sure that the door is dead-bolted. I then sit underneath that window I hear the man come thump, thump, thump, quietly but audibly up the stairs. Then the man reaches out and… rings the doorbell…
Then I shoot up like a bolt (of lightening) quickly, right in front of him and – as surprised as I was – this poor fellow was even more so as he falls halfway down the staircase in fright! It appears that he was a cab driver who had gotten the wrong address.
Our text today (John 10:1-6) speaks more about the first of my two stories than the second. It says, Verse 1, “…the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, [he] is a thief and a robber,” it says.
What does this mean? What is Jesus talking about? We know that someone who needs to sneak into some place, someone who hasn’t been given the key or the alarm code probably is a thief,[1] a prowler, or someone who is up to no good[2] but what is Jesus talking about here in this passage?
Jesus is talking about the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the previous would-be messiahs.[3] He is speaking about the religious leaders. He is calling them the thieves. He is accusing them of trying to lead the people of Israel astray. He is accusing them of trying to steal God’s sheep.
In our own world today who might be the equivalent of these religious leaders of Jesus’ day? Who are the one’s who are trying to lead us astray? Who are the ones that are trying to steal God’s sheep? John tells us that indeed there are many antichrists (1 John 2:18ff, 4:3; 2 John 1:7) and we know that the devil himself is like a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8) but who are those who are trying to climb into the fold and carry us away?
In Canada, one such thief is most certainly the Atheist. Canada was intentionally founded on Christian principles. The Christian God is not only mentioned in our constitutional act of 1867 (the BNA act) but also our constitutional act of 1980 and our motto claims for Canada the promises of Psalm 72: including but not limited to the promise that the Lord will have dominion from sea to sea in this country.[4]
In BC, Atheism is now the largest worldview/religion represented.[5] They have succeeded in their fight to have only their worldview re: prayer, etc. represented in the schools across this country. In municipalities in Ontario, of course, the atheists are hunting down people who dare to pray in meetings and having them charged with a crime. [6]
In Ottawa, recently the government decided that we will no longer open every session of parliament in prayer. (No wonder things are going as poorly as they have been for the last couple of years! – really). Across the ocean, in England, I learned this week that atheists are even taking out ads on billboards in order to provoke God and lead us away from the security of Jesus, our shepherd. And in Tisdale here in NE Saskatchewn, as we have mentioned before, the old age home has given away the Bibles that were for the seniors to use, telling ministerial that they do not want to have them there anymore. The atheist is sneaking into the world’s sheepfold, the Canadian sheepfold, the prairies and Saskatchewan sheepfold and carrying off both the young and the old – whomever he can lay his hands on.[7]
It is not only the atheist though. The polytheist is also climbing over the fence. The polytheist calls out to the sheep that Jesus is not your only shepherd. You can follow whomever you want, he says: one god is as good as the next. The polytheist believes that there are many gods – each a god like the other. ‘Anyone of them can be your shepherd,’ they cry from over the fence, ‘you don’t need Jesus,’ they claim as they climb into our pen.
These days too there is the pantheist (and the panentheist)[8] sheep stealer: she is climbing over the fence and telling the sheep to not only follow her or some other shepherd but she is happy if the sheep to follow even the trees and the stars. The pantheist believes that God is in everything, anything: even the snow-covered bush, even possibly the fence of our very sheep pen, the food we eat, and the people we meet, this thief says are all part of the same shepherd. ‘Anyone of them can provide the same protection and love for us that our shepherd, the true shepherd can,’ the pantheist claims. ‘Anything at all – even this pen [hold up a pen] - can take care of you as much as any great shepherd,’ the pantheist shouts, ‘What do you need your shepherd for?’
There is more than that climbing over our fences in this country here today too. Judaism and Islam – always in the news these days; they each claim to worship the God of Abraham (Cf. John 8:30-59; Matt 3:9.10, 8:10-12; Luke 3:8ff, 13:22-30, 16:19-31.). They each claim to worship the God who created the heavens and the earth. They each say, ‘forget about your shepherd, Jesus, climb over here to us. We know the way. Trust us’ (Cf. John14:16). (We can see from the Middle East today what happens if we trust them and their apparent ‘gods of war’ instead of our shepherd, the ‘Prince of Peace’)
And speaking of the gods of war – let us not forget the capitalists and the democratic republicans, who are climbing over our fence - the latter tells us that we should just follow the other sheep because the majority is right the majority of the time (like secular humanism /atheism) and the former tells us that indeed we should follow our pocket books, the stock market, and the economy because the economy could never let us down could it? … Oh wait, it is. The world is in an economic crisis right now actually!
There is even more than that. There are also people climbing not only into the pen of our country but also into the fold of our churches. Paul tells us to be aware of anyone who teaches us a false gospel or a different gospel (2 Cor 11:4, Gal 1:6). We have denominations that have thrown out the gospel, the good news, entirely from their churches. We have churches that use the name of Christ/Christianity who do not officially hold that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. On the other extreme, we have pseudo-Christians (I have heard them on the news) who are so filled with hatred that they encourage us to war for some secular government or a particular political or an economic system. We even have churches in this country and in this very town that promote the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’, which upon one read of Job, the Pentateuch, the prophets, the gospels or any of the Bible actually will let the discerning lamb know that this is no shepherd, no gospel at all…
And these are only a few of the thieves that are climbing over our fences. Any, John says, who deny Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22, 4:3), any who are with us and then preach against Jesus (cf. 1 John 2:19), anyone who preaches that Jesus is not the Christ and that he did not come himself in the flesh (2 John 1:7), John says, is a thief and an antichrist.[9]
Ten verse two records that “The man who enters by the gate [however] is the shepherd of his sheep”. Verses four and five: “… he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
Well, we know that Jesus is the Christ. We know he is the shepherd – do we recognise his voice? How do we know that we are following him and not some impersonator? How do we recognise his voice?
By obeying him (3:36, 7:16-17), by accepting his testimony (3:33), and by doing what is true (3:21), by believing and obeying (4:49-50; 14:15, 23-24; 15:10), Jesus says that his very food is to do the will of God (4:34; cf. 6:38). It is only as we hear and learn from the Father (6:45), as we really do search the scriptures that we will notice that they point to Jesus (5:39) so that indeed we can come to him and believe and if we continue in his word then John tells us that then we are truly Jesus’ disciples (8:31). We are his sheep.
Jesus laid down his life for us like he said the good shepherd would do (1:11) and he asks no less of us. He tells us (13:45) that they will know we are Christians because we love one another, and if we love Christ we will obey his commandments (14:15, 23-24; 15:10) and he says, John 15:13, that no one has a greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends. We are to love Jesus and love each other as he has loved us so that indeed we will offer up our very life for Christ and for ourselves…how do we recognise the voice of God?
By hearing, testing, believing and obeying. As we trust and obey we will find indeed that there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey – we should obey but we should not worry for indeed there is comfort in the scriptures today. We read in 10:3, that Jesus calls us all by name and we – because he loves us – we will recognise his voice (10:4). He promises that we will recognise his voice.
I am reminded of a story, a children’s book by P. D. Eastman from 1960 entitled, “Are You My Mother?”
In this story, a mother bird leaves her egg in the nest to go look for some food. While she’s gone, the egg hatches, and the baby bird sets off to find his mother – but, because he was born after she left and before she returned – he doesn’t know what she looks like. His search leads him to ask a variety of animals and machines. He asks a kitten, a hen, a dog, and a cow, in turn, “Are you my mother?” They each reply, “No.” Then he sees an old car. This can’t be his mother for sure. Desperately, he calls out to a boat and a plane, and at last, hoping he has found his mother, he climbs onto the teeth of an enormous steam shovel, a power shovel. But he is surprised by this giant machine, as it shudders and shakes and it roars into motion. He can’t escape. “I want my mother!” He cries. Finally, it deposits him back in his nest, where his mother is returning. When she returns, when he sees her – even though she had gone before he was born – when she came back, he knows her and he loves her because she knew and loved him first.
So it is with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: He promises that we will recognise his voice, just like the little bird, just like the sheep. We need not be tempted out of the nest – or out of the sheepfold - by all the false shepherds. We need not worry, for Jesus promises when He returns we will indeed recognise His voice. This is the comfort of today’s scripture passage. Jesus promises that indeed, we will recognise his voice.
Let us pray.
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http://www.sheepspeak.com/
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[1] Merrill C. Tenney The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The Good Shepherd discourse (10:1-21), Book Version: 4.0.2 : “’Thief’ and ‘robber’ are different in meaning. "Thief" (kleptes) implies subtlety and trickery; "robber" (lestes) connotes violence and plundering. The latter term was sometimes used of bandits or guerrillas. The purpose of both was exploitation; neither was concerned for the welfare of the sheep.”
[2] But cf. police dog story from Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else? (Matthew 11:1-11) . Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on December 16, 2007 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-lie at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/12/are-you-one-to-come-or-should-we-expect.html
[3] The argument will develop that the thief is any who try to lead God’s sheep astray (false prophets, cf. v. 7) which is what in is fact anyone does who points not towards Jesus. Towards the end of the discourse Jesus points out that those who do not recongnise his voice also are simply ‘not his sheep’. Cf. also Merrill C. Tenney The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The Good Shepherd discourse (10:1-21); Everett F. Harrison, Everyman’s Bible Commentary: John The Gospel of Faith. Moody Bible Institute. (Chicago, 1962), 61-62, Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 669.
[4] Cf. for a detailed discussion of this point, Psalm 72: the Credit Card of Justice and Righteousness. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 01 July 2007 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-line at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/psalm-72-credit-card-of-justice-and.html
[5] No religion / Atheism is now the largest religion / World View in BC: StatsCan: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/rel/bc.cfm
[6]cf:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1040356828066_95///?hub=TopStoriescf. also Christianity Today: Parents Flee Public Schools: "Christians in British Columbia, Canada, are worried that courts are undermining their religious rights in the classroom.” http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/march/12.23.html Cf. also the Atheist website, nodeity.com: http://nodeity.com/chamberlain_v_SD36.html re 'One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dads, Blue Dads' - You can read the Supreme Court Decision re. Questionable books: http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/index.html - The following phrase is interesting - 'The School Act's insistence on secularism;' this begs the question why must our be subjected to the secularist Worldview; neither BC not Canada were settled or founded upon that mythology. There were other problems with the books as well. CBC.ca: "This story has problems with punctuation and grammar throughout. The spelling of 'favourite' is inconsistent, switching from the Canadian to the American," said board chair Mary Polak about Asha's Mums. The board also criticized the book's depiction of men.(http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2003/06/13/samesex_books030613.html).It is serious that even though the book is unsatisfactory for education young people, that it was deemed necessary for our children to be exposed to it. The courts it appears are more interested in promoting a secular-atheist worldview than they are about providing a quality education for our children. The federal government has the jurisdiction to make laws to protect its citizens. The Supreme Court is only allowed to interpret the laws in theory. Cf. The National Post: ‘Gay couple gets input into school curriculum’, http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=80dd8007-ef56-40a7-809d-37936b9d4179&k=51593&p=1. Cf. also ‘Secular-Atheist's religion secures making the promotion of Homosexuality mandatory in the BC school system.’ Lifesite.net: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06060101.html cf. also 'Documents Reveal Government Signed Over Control of Education to Homosexual Activists': http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06061907.htmlcf. also: Peter Corren (né Cook) and Murray Corren (né Warren) — 'Corren is a combination of their former names — are LGBT-rights activists from Vancouver, British Columbia whose complaint before the BC Human Rights Tribunal led to an agreement by which the provincial Ministry of Education will consult them on how gays are presented in the school curriculum': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Murray_Corren. Cf. http://www.secularontario.ca/peterbexam06dec13.html, CBC.ca: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/01/26/prayer.html , CanadianChristianity.com: http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/070201prayer
[7] Cf. for a detailed discussion of this point: Michael Ramsay. The Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 56: Be Bold for the Gospel: a look at Philippians Chapter 1. Avail on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/JAC/article6-54.html
[8] Pantheism definition From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy. First published Tue Jun 4, 1996; substantive revision Thu May 17, 2007. “Pantheism is a metaphysical and religious position. Broadly defined it is the view that (1) "God is everything and everything is God … the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature" (Owen 1971: 74). Similarly, it is the view that (2) everything that exists constitutes a "unity" and this all-inclusive unity is in some sense divine (MacIntyre 1967: 34). A slightly more specific definition is given by Owen (1971: 65) who says (3) "‘Pantheism’ … signifies the belief that every existing entity is, only one Being; and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it.” Available on-line at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pantheism. Cf also the Panenthesist (http://www.gotquestions.org/panentheism.html). Related to Process Theology, panentheism is essentially a combination of theism (God is the supreme being) and pantheism (God is everything). While pantheism says that God and the universe are coextensive, panentheism claims the God is greater than the universe and that the universe is contained within God. Panentheism holds that God is the “supreme effect” of the universe. God is everything in the universe, but God also is greater the universe. Events and changes in the universe effect and change God. As the universe grows and learns, God also increases in knowledge and being.
[9] Cf. Mark 13:32-37: Hope for a Happy New Year! Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 30 November 2008 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html.
By Captain Michael Ramsay
John 10:1 “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.
I grew up in Victoria BC, a city that has around 300 000 people; so, It was very busy and it is a little bit different from Nipawin, Saskatchewan. One thing of the many things that is a bit different is that here – most people use the side door or the back door but back there people always come to the front door. Always. I confess that we were confused more than once when we first arrived here because, inevitably, the doorbell would ring, the kids and I would then run to the wrong door wondering why nobody was there.
I remember when I was little: one day when I was 7 or 8 (about Rebecca’s age) I stayed over at my grandparents for the night. They lived on Shelbourne Street, which is a main street, a busy road that runs towards downtown from the Gordon Head area where we lived. It was 2 or 3 in the morning and the traffic or something else had woken me up and no one else was up so I decided to get up and go downstairs – and since no one else was up, I decided to help myself to a cookie or some cereal or something like that…
The stairs down came past the side door of the house and I remember nearing the bottom of the stairs at 2 in the morning and looking right at the door when, all of a sudden, there is a burglar. He is on the other side of the door: the handle starts to turn. I freeze. I don’t know what to do. It is a robber, a burglar of some sort, someone trying to break into the house; I know because he is at the side door and he can’t open the door and instead after a couple of attempts he goes away. As an eight year-old, the momentary panic of being only a few steps away from a prowler is really quite scary. I am sure that I did not even breathe much less move in that very tense moment.
I also remember that later that year I had another similar encounter. This time I was at home. Now my bedroom at home was at the front of the house – right by the front door (which was the door that everybody used) and my room was literally walled with widows. Each window had a long opaque blind that ran from the ceiling down to the bottom of the window.
Again it is 2 or 3 in the morning and this time I hear a noise outside so I peek out the window nearest my bed and I see a strange car out front. I slowly crawl to the next window and look out again and I see a strange man emerging from the car. I creep along, out of view, nearer to the door and look out the next widow as the man is walking up our front walk. I then sneak up to our front door – it has a large window in it as well and there is no blind on it – I sneak underneath the window and make sure that the door is dead-bolted. I then sit underneath that window I hear the man come thump, thump, thump, quietly but audibly up the stairs. Then the man reaches out and… rings the doorbell…
Then I shoot up like a bolt (of lightening) quickly, right in front of him and – as surprised as I was – this poor fellow was even more so as he falls halfway down the staircase in fright! It appears that he was a cab driver who had gotten the wrong address.
Our text today (John 10:1-6) speaks more about the first of my two stories than the second. It says, Verse 1, “…the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, [he] is a thief and a robber,” it says.
What does this mean? What is Jesus talking about? We know that someone who needs to sneak into some place, someone who hasn’t been given the key or the alarm code probably is a thief,[1] a prowler, or someone who is up to no good[2] but what is Jesus talking about here in this passage?
Jesus is talking about the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the previous would-be messiahs.[3] He is speaking about the religious leaders. He is calling them the thieves. He is accusing them of trying to lead the people of Israel astray. He is accusing them of trying to steal God’s sheep.
In our own world today who might be the equivalent of these religious leaders of Jesus’ day? Who are the one’s who are trying to lead us astray? Who are the ones that are trying to steal God’s sheep? John tells us that indeed there are many antichrists (1 John 2:18ff, 4:3; 2 John 1:7) and we know that the devil himself is like a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8) but who are those who are trying to climb into the fold and carry us away?
In Canada, one such thief is most certainly the Atheist. Canada was intentionally founded on Christian principles. The Christian God is not only mentioned in our constitutional act of 1867 (the BNA act) but also our constitutional act of 1980 and our motto claims for Canada the promises of Psalm 72: including but not limited to the promise that the Lord will have dominion from sea to sea in this country.[4]
In BC, Atheism is now the largest worldview/religion represented.[5] They have succeeded in their fight to have only their worldview re: prayer, etc. represented in the schools across this country. In municipalities in Ontario, of course, the atheists are hunting down people who dare to pray in meetings and having them charged with a crime. [6]
In Ottawa, recently the government decided that we will no longer open every session of parliament in prayer. (No wonder things are going as poorly as they have been for the last couple of years! – really). Across the ocean, in England, I learned this week that atheists are even taking out ads on billboards in order to provoke God and lead us away from the security of Jesus, our shepherd. And in Tisdale here in NE Saskatchewn, as we have mentioned before, the old age home has given away the Bibles that were for the seniors to use, telling ministerial that they do not want to have them there anymore. The atheist is sneaking into the world’s sheepfold, the Canadian sheepfold, the prairies and Saskatchewan sheepfold and carrying off both the young and the old – whomever he can lay his hands on.[7]
It is not only the atheist though. The polytheist is also climbing over the fence. The polytheist calls out to the sheep that Jesus is not your only shepherd. You can follow whomever you want, he says: one god is as good as the next. The polytheist believes that there are many gods – each a god like the other. ‘Anyone of them can be your shepherd,’ they cry from over the fence, ‘you don’t need Jesus,’ they claim as they climb into our pen.
These days too there is the pantheist (and the panentheist)[8] sheep stealer: she is climbing over the fence and telling the sheep to not only follow her or some other shepherd but she is happy if the sheep to follow even the trees and the stars. The pantheist believes that God is in everything, anything: even the snow-covered bush, even possibly the fence of our very sheep pen, the food we eat, and the people we meet, this thief says are all part of the same shepherd. ‘Anyone of them can provide the same protection and love for us that our shepherd, the true shepherd can,’ the pantheist claims. ‘Anything at all – even this pen [hold up a pen] - can take care of you as much as any great shepherd,’ the pantheist shouts, ‘What do you need your shepherd for?’
There is more than that climbing over our fences in this country here today too. Judaism and Islam – always in the news these days; they each claim to worship the God of Abraham (Cf. John 8:30-59; Matt 3:9.10, 8:10-12; Luke 3:8ff, 13:22-30, 16:19-31.). They each claim to worship the God who created the heavens and the earth. They each say, ‘forget about your shepherd, Jesus, climb over here to us. We know the way. Trust us’ (Cf. John14:16). (We can see from the Middle East today what happens if we trust them and their apparent ‘gods of war’ instead of our shepherd, the ‘Prince of Peace’)
And speaking of the gods of war – let us not forget the capitalists and the democratic republicans, who are climbing over our fence - the latter tells us that we should just follow the other sheep because the majority is right the majority of the time (like secular humanism /atheism) and the former tells us that indeed we should follow our pocket books, the stock market, and the economy because the economy could never let us down could it? … Oh wait, it is. The world is in an economic crisis right now actually!
There is even more than that. There are also people climbing not only into the pen of our country but also into the fold of our churches. Paul tells us to be aware of anyone who teaches us a false gospel or a different gospel (2 Cor 11:4, Gal 1:6). We have denominations that have thrown out the gospel, the good news, entirely from their churches. We have churches that use the name of Christ/Christianity who do not officially hold that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. On the other extreme, we have pseudo-Christians (I have heard them on the news) who are so filled with hatred that they encourage us to war for some secular government or a particular political or an economic system. We even have churches in this country and in this very town that promote the so-called ‘prosperity gospel’, which upon one read of Job, the Pentateuch, the prophets, the gospels or any of the Bible actually will let the discerning lamb know that this is no shepherd, no gospel at all…
And these are only a few of the thieves that are climbing over our fences. Any, John says, who deny Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22, 4:3), any who are with us and then preach against Jesus (cf. 1 John 2:19), anyone who preaches that Jesus is not the Christ and that he did not come himself in the flesh (2 John 1:7), John says, is a thief and an antichrist.[9]
Ten verse two records that “The man who enters by the gate [however] is the shepherd of his sheep”. Verses four and five: “… he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
Well, we know that Jesus is the Christ. We know he is the shepherd – do we recognise his voice? How do we know that we are following him and not some impersonator? How do we recognise his voice?
By obeying him (3:36, 7:16-17), by accepting his testimony (3:33), and by doing what is true (3:21), by believing and obeying (4:49-50; 14:15, 23-24; 15:10), Jesus says that his very food is to do the will of God (4:34; cf. 6:38). It is only as we hear and learn from the Father (6:45), as we really do search the scriptures that we will notice that they point to Jesus (5:39) so that indeed we can come to him and believe and if we continue in his word then John tells us that then we are truly Jesus’ disciples (8:31). We are his sheep.
Jesus laid down his life for us like he said the good shepherd would do (1:11) and he asks no less of us. He tells us (13:45) that they will know we are Christians because we love one another, and if we love Christ we will obey his commandments (14:15, 23-24; 15:10) and he says, John 15:13, that no one has a greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends. We are to love Jesus and love each other as he has loved us so that indeed we will offer up our very life for Christ and for ourselves…how do we recognise the voice of God?
By hearing, testing, believing and obeying. As we trust and obey we will find indeed that there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey – we should obey but we should not worry for indeed there is comfort in the scriptures today. We read in 10:3, that Jesus calls us all by name and we – because he loves us – we will recognise his voice (10:4). He promises that we will recognise his voice.
I am reminded of a story, a children’s book by P. D. Eastman from 1960 entitled, “Are You My Mother?”
In this story, a mother bird leaves her egg in the nest to go look for some food. While she’s gone, the egg hatches, and the baby bird sets off to find his mother – but, because he was born after she left and before she returned – he doesn’t know what she looks like. His search leads him to ask a variety of animals and machines. He asks a kitten, a hen, a dog, and a cow, in turn, “Are you my mother?” They each reply, “No.” Then he sees an old car. This can’t be his mother for sure. Desperately, he calls out to a boat and a plane, and at last, hoping he has found his mother, he climbs onto the teeth of an enormous steam shovel, a power shovel. But he is surprised by this giant machine, as it shudders and shakes and it roars into motion. He can’t escape. “I want my mother!” He cries. Finally, it deposits him back in his nest, where his mother is returning. When she returns, when he sees her – even though she had gone before he was born – when she came back, he knows her and he loves her because she knew and loved him first.
So it is with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ: He promises that we will recognise his voice, just like the little bird, just like the sheep. We need not be tempted out of the nest – or out of the sheepfold - by all the false shepherds. We need not worry, for Jesus promises when He returns we will indeed recognise His voice. This is the comfort of today’s scripture passage. Jesus promises that indeed, we will recognise his voice.
Let us pray.
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http://www.sheepspeak.com/
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[1] Merrill C. Tenney The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The Good Shepherd discourse (10:1-21), Book Version: 4.0.2 : “’Thief’ and ‘robber’ are different in meaning. "Thief" (kleptes) implies subtlety and trickery; "robber" (lestes) connotes violence and plundering. The latter term was sometimes used of bandits or guerrillas. The purpose of both was exploitation; neither was concerned for the welfare of the sheep.”
[2] But cf. police dog story from Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else? (Matthew 11:1-11) . Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on December 16, 2007 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-lie at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/12/are-you-one-to-come-or-should-we-expect.html
[3] The argument will develop that the thief is any who try to lead God’s sheep astray (false prophets, cf. v. 7) which is what in is fact anyone does who points not towards Jesus. Towards the end of the discourse Jesus points out that those who do not recongnise his voice also are simply ‘not his sheep’. Cf. also Merrill C. Tenney The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/ The Good Shepherd discourse (10:1-21); Everett F. Harrison, Everyman’s Bible Commentary: John The Gospel of Faith. Moody Bible Institute. (Chicago, 1962), 61-62, Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 669.
[4] Cf. for a detailed discussion of this point, Psalm 72: the Credit Card of Justice and Righteousness. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 01 July 2007 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-line at: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/psalm-72-credit-card-of-justice-and.html
[5] No religion / Atheism is now the largest religion / World View in BC: StatsCan: http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/rel/bc.cfm
[6]cf:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1040356828066_95///?hub=TopStoriescf. also Christianity Today: Parents Flee Public Schools: "Christians in British Columbia, Canada, are worried that courts are undermining their religious rights in the classroom.” http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/march/12.23.html Cf. also the Atheist website, nodeity.com: http://nodeity.com/chamberlain_v_SD36.html re 'One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dads, Blue Dads' - You can read the Supreme Court Decision re. Questionable books: http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/index.html - The following phrase is interesting - 'The School Act's insistence on secularism;' this begs the question why must our be subjected to the secularist Worldview; neither BC not Canada were settled or founded upon that mythology. There were other problems with the books as well. CBC.ca: "This story has problems with punctuation and grammar throughout. The spelling of 'favourite' is inconsistent, switching from the Canadian to the American," said board chair Mary Polak about Asha's Mums. The board also criticized the book's depiction of men.(http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2003/06/13/samesex_books030613.html).It is serious that even though the book is unsatisfactory for education young people, that it was deemed necessary for our children to be exposed to it. The courts it appears are more interested in promoting a secular-atheist worldview than they are about providing a quality education for our children. The federal government has the jurisdiction to make laws to protect its citizens. The Supreme Court is only allowed to interpret the laws in theory. Cf. The National Post: ‘Gay couple gets input into school curriculum’, http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=80dd8007-ef56-40a7-809d-37936b9d4179&k=51593&p=1. Cf. also ‘Secular-Atheist's religion secures making the promotion of Homosexuality mandatory in the BC school system.’ Lifesite.net: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06060101.html cf. also 'Documents Reveal Government Signed Over Control of Education to Homosexual Activists': http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jun/06061907.htmlcf. also: Peter Corren (né Cook) and Murray Corren (né Warren) — 'Corren is a combination of their former names — are LGBT-rights activists from Vancouver, British Columbia whose complaint before the BC Human Rights Tribunal led to an agreement by which the provincial Ministry of Education will consult them on how gays are presented in the school curriculum': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Murray_Corren. Cf. http://www.secularontario.ca/peterbexam06dec13.html, CBC.ca: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/01/26/prayer.html , CanadianChristianity.com: http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/na.cgi?nationalupdates/070201prayer
[7] Cf. for a detailed discussion of this point: Michael Ramsay. The Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 56: Be Bold for the Gospel: a look at Philippians Chapter 1. Avail on-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/JAC/article6-54.html
[8] Pantheism definition From the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy. First published Tue Jun 4, 1996; substantive revision Thu May 17, 2007. “Pantheism is a metaphysical and religious position. Broadly defined it is the view that (1) "God is everything and everything is God … the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature" (Owen 1971: 74). Similarly, it is the view that (2) everything that exists constitutes a "unity" and this all-inclusive unity is in some sense divine (MacIntyre 1967: 34). A slightly more specific definition is given by Owen (1971: 65) who says (3) "‘Pantheism’ … signifies the belief that every existing entity is, only one Being; and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it.” Available on-line at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pantheism. Cf also the Panenthesist (http://www.gotquestions.org/panentheism.html). Related to Process Theology, panentheism is essentially a combination of theism (God is the supreme being) and pantheism (God is everything). While pantheism says that God and the universe are coextensive, panentheism claims the God is greater than the universe and that the universe is contained within God. Panentheism holds that God is the “supreme effect” of the universe. God is everything in the universe, but God also is greater the universe. Events and changes in the universe effect and change God. As the universe grows and learns, God also increases in knowledge and being.
[9] Cf. Mark 13:32-37: Hope for a Happy New Year! Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 30 November 2008 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/11/mark-1332-37-hope-for-happy-new-year.html.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
John 7:1-5: Do you believe?
Presented to Nipawin Corps 11 January 2009
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Do you believe? This is a central question to the gospel according to John, “Do you believe?” In his gospel John mentions belief quite a bit (49 times). John repeatedly asks the question and then offers a new way of presenting the idea that we should believe that Jesus is the messiah. Jesus is the one. Here in our text today, however, we run into a bit of a problem...
We read in the previous chapter (6:66) that many of the disciples have left Jesus. These are the same disciples who have been following him around. These are the same disciples who were part of the crowds that were fed miraculously with the fish and the loaves, these disciples were part of the same crowd of people who heard Jesus explain that he was the ‘bread of life’; these disciples were part of the same crowd that recognised him as an important historical-political figure, they tried to seize Jesus and make him King (6:14-15) and now they have left him.
Many of Jesus’ own disciples it appears even don’t believe in him and now in 7:5 it appears that even many of his own relatives don’t believe him. It says that in 7:5: It says, “for even his own brothers did not believe in him” (NIV).
Now if we remember back to when we were studying Mark last year, this should not be such a surprise to us (Mark 3:20-35: The family of God). We remember in Mark Chapter Three[1] that we are confronted head on with the parallels between the Pharisees that are calling Jesus demon-possessed and his own mother and brothers who come to the house he is at to arrest him because they believe he is ‘out of his mind’. And now John tells us today in 7:5 that these brothers do not believe in him.[2]
So this is an interesting passage to look at in January with the Christmas story so fresh in our memory, isn’t it? Mary and Joseph were certainly present during many of the miracles that we remember at Christmas time: the angles, the shepherds, the magi. We remember as well that the archangel Gabriel appears directly to Joseph (one of Jesus’ custodial parents) as well as to Mary, his mother.[3] I don’t imagine that they forgot all of this did they? So how come Jesus’ brothers don’t believe? Did they forget to share this with their other sons? …as strange as this might sound actually this is a possibility.
I never would have thought that to be the case but I remember along this vein a situation that quite a few years ago –long before I ever became an Officer - that I will never forget: After work I went out with a group of my colleagues. We had a temporary contract and this was our first week there so many of us were just getting to know each other. We decided to head out to the local pub after work. Some of us had worked together on other contracts before and some of us have just met so cliché conversation developed the way it normally does in situations like these…until something very strange happened.
Mark was there.[4] I had known Mark for many years – Mark was quite a few years younger than I. I had known his family for years and someone asks me how I know Mark. “Matt, Mark’s half-brother is one of my closest friends, I say. We’ve known each other for years” – at the time I think Matt and I were even living together – In response to this Mark surprisingly starts to get upset. You should have heard the silence from everyone else in the place as Mark stands up and I look up in bewilderment wondering what on earth is going on.
“Take it back” Mark says. I stare at him still wondering what it is that I have done and trying not to laugh in my confusion as I can see that he is quite upset. “Take it back.”
Not knowing if he is trying to play some kind of a strange joke – and realising too that the whole section of the pub is now looking at us…I extend my arms and ask him, “what!?”
“Take it back,” he says.
“What?”
“Take it back…you said that Matt was my HALF brother…my HALF brother. Take it back.”
“He IS your half brother…you have different dads” Thus began a very long evening… as I – stunned – explain to this 19 or 20 year-old that this brother that he had grown up with all of his life had a different biological father. And as all of the acquaintances, strangers and other people in the pub looked on. I, not on purpose and with no mal-intent, I explain to this friend that his brother that he had grown up with, his brother with whom he’d lived in the same house his whole time growing up, his brother did not have the same biological father. This is a little awkward to say the least.
Still in shock, after he sobers up a bit, and calms down a lot, I drive him to his parents’ and then to his brother’s and explain honestly to them that I had know idea that I was sharing a family secret… to which both his dad and then his brother in turn explain first to me and then to Mark (in detail) that they didn’t realise that Mark didn’t know. They didn’t realise that Mark didn’t know who Matt’s father was; they thought he knew.
You see all the signs were there. At different times when Matt and Mark were young and growing up as well, Matt’s biological dad even stayed with them in their house and even only a year or two before this evening’s revelation, Matt’s sister had stayed with them for the summer. All the signs were there. Everyone around Mark, Matt’s youngest brother knew. No one had kept it a secret from him but he didn’t know that his brother really had a different biological father and when I told him - at first - he didn’t believe me.
In our text today Jesus’ brothers don’t really know who their half brother is and they don’t immediately (though they will later when all the evidence is presented) believe.[5]
It certainly is similar to what is playing out in John Chapter 7. You’ll notice that his brothers do know that there is something special about Jesus. They do know that he has been performing many miraculous signs. They do know that he has all these followers. They do know that Jesus is important in some way. They do seem to care even that some of his followers are leaving him and they do offer, in our text today (7:1-5), what they think is some good advice. They say, 7:4, “No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 7:3: Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do.” But John 7:5 says that even with all their quite possibly good intentions here, they still don’t believe. They still don’t fully understand (at the very least) the implications of the fact that Jesus has a different biological father and that Jesus has a very specific mission to fulfill. They do not recognise him YET as the Christ who will die and be resurrected so that we all may live.[6]
But there is even more. We remember from looking at Matthew (Matthew 11:1-11: Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else?)[7], a while ago that even John the Baptist who is there with Jesus when the heavens open up and God declares, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matt 3:16)” and still John the Baptist later asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Well this is interesting then – if John, who knows Jesus so well; if the disciples who wanted to crown Jesus king; if Jesus’ own brothers, who grew up with Jesus and know Jesus so well; if they recognise the miraculous signs that Jesus is performing, who other than the Messiah, the expectant King, could they think he is?
Could it be that his brothers are expecting that Jesus is Elijah?[8] Some theorists have posited that John the Baptist may have thought that Jesus was Elijah; certainly other people at the time did (cf. Matt 17:10-12; Mark 6:15, 8:28; Luke 9:19). After all – even though Jesus claimed that John was Elijah (Matt. 11:14; cf. also 9:11-13; Luke 1:17), John himself at one point denies that very claim (John 1:21). So then if John the Baptist does not realise that he himself is fulfilling the role of Elijah, then certainly Jesus’ brothers could have thought Jesus was Elijah – maybe.
Jesus certainly could appear to be a prophet of some sort (Jeremiah; cf. Matt. 16:14); he did have many followers but what exactly does it mean to be a prophet and who, who is Jesus? Is he the one? Do we believe more than his brothers that indeed he is God’s own Son who came to die for our sins and be the first fruits of the resurrection?
Well this is an important question for us today then, isn’t it? Do we believe any more than Jesus’ own brothers? What do we answer when we are asked, ‘who is Jesus’? Many of the most educated, religious people of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and Sadducees did not accept him as the Messiah, the Christ, the King to come, and in Matthew’s account of John the Baptist, someone who knows Jesus even before he is born, someone who is his cousin, someone who baptises him, someone who teaches the same message of ‘repent for the Kingdom is near’ (cf. Matthew 3-4), someone as close to Jesus as John asks him the question, ‘are you the one to come, or should we expect someone else’? Jesus’ disciples, who wanted to make him king, desert him.
In our story today, even Jesus’ very own brothers. Those who have grown up with him, those who have at times - I’m sure - been there when his biological Father (in essence anyway) visited him in their very own home. They who know that he is someone important because indeed they are telling him to go down to Jerusalem to show everybody what he can do. It says here that even after spending so much time with Jesus, even after living with him daily and seeing miracles and hearing testimonies that still at this part of our story – like Mark when he fell about Matt – they don’t believe. Well, do we? Who do we say Jesus is?
Do we say he is a good man? - I have heard people say that. An imaginary figure? I have heard that too – this one is rather silly though since we have much better evidence for Jesus as Christ than we do for Julius Caesar as Roman Emperor or the even the very existence of Socrates.
Was Jesus just a prophet as some – such as the Muslims and the Jews – suggest? Was he a mere man? Was he only a voice calling from the wilderness? Much of the world today would say that he was some kind of the prophet.
Could he just have been a religious teacher from a minor Roman province who developed a cult following that continued to grow for well – thousands of years now – there are more Christians in the world than ever before and, of course, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book. But all that aside, could he be just a dead teacher?
These are all answers with which people today answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is Jesus the Son of God and the first fruits of the resurrection? Is he the one who died and was raised so that we can all be resurrected from the dead? Do we – more than his brothers – do we believe in Jesus?
This is important because it changes everything. If Jesus is our Lord; if he is our king and his kingdom is at hand; if he is our wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace (Isa 9:6) – then we need to submit to his authority don’t we? So who is this Jesus? I am reminded of a story, that I may have even shared from this pulpit before, by Margaret Forrester.[9]
James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country dressed like everyone else: a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived.
One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid.
Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, known as Cramond Brig, now Jock unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is.
The King responds – in a Scottish brogue that I am not even going to attempt – ‘Ach, I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’
‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’
‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’
‘The palace, is it? I’d like to see the palace; if I could see the King, I’d tell him a thing or two…’
‘About what?’ asks the man.
‘I’d tell him that I should own this land that I am on. I work it every day and he never comes here & gets his hands dirty working this land’
‘You’re right enough’, says the man. You come tomorrow to the palace at Holly Rood and I’ll show you around. Come at two.’
So the next day at two o’clock, Jock Howieson, is washed, dressed and at the palace to meet his new friend at the back door. The good man, whom Jock had saved the day before, shows him around the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms – the whole place. Then, at last, the two of them come to the great rooms of the State.
‘Do you want to see the King?’ the man asks Jock.
‘Oh yes indeed’, says Jock, ‘I do. I do want to see the King.’
So they enter the great hall and as they come in, men bow and ladies curtsey. It is really quite a thing to see.
So Jock whispers to his friend, ‘How will I know who the king is?’
‘He’s the only one who keeps his hat on’
Jock says, ‘But… there’s only us two with our hats…’ and Jock immediately takes off his hat as he realises that James is indeed the King of Scotland.
And so it is with us today. Jesus is King. Believe it. He is walking around with each of us showing us his domain here on earth and just waiting for us to take off our hats as we realise that indeed Jesus is the one to come and he has arrived (and he’s coming back too, soon!)
If there are any of us here today who do not yet believe; if there are any of us here today who have not taken off our hats and lain them before the Lord, I invite you to come up front here to the mercy seat and do just that – acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.
----
[1] Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[2] Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/II. The journey (7:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2:To "believe in him" may carry with it a recognition of his purpose and sympathy with it, which his brothers did not have. Consequently their counsel may have been for him to abandon the idealism of teaching multitudes in obscurity and of risking death. If he possessed the powers his miracles seemed to imply, he should display them to the best advantage and capitalize on them.
[3] Cf. Matthew 1:18-25: Do You Believe? and Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe?
[4] I have changed the names of the people involved in this otherwise accurate story.
[5] Actually – there is even more irony to this story – as I was telling Susan about it in preparation for this sermon, she had the TV in the hotel on. And on the show on the TV happened to be unfolding this exact scenario – so maybe this is not as uncommon as it seems.
[6] Cf. Gerard Sloyan, “John” in Interpretation. Eds. James L. Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier (John Knox Press, 1988), 86. Cf. Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 616, for very brief discussions on the brothers’ disbelief. I think it is significant that they come to believe in Jesus after his resurrection. I think this points to the fact that they do have a certain level of understanding/belief but at this point it is not yet crystallised into a full blown, informed faith. After all, if the disciples at this point don’t understand exactly what it means to be the Messiah, how can his siblings?
[7] Matthew 11:1-11: Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else? Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[8] Cf. D.A. Carson. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/IV. Book Version: 4.0.2.
[9] Margaret Forrester. The Expository Times. Vol. 119 Number I Pages 47-48.
By Captain Michael Ramsay
Do you believe? This is a central question to the gospel according to John, “Do you believe?” In his gospel John mentions belief quite a bit (49 times). John repeatedly asks the question and then offers a new way of presenting the idea that we should believe that Jesus is the messiah. Jesus is the one. Here in our text today, however, we run into a bit of a problem...
We read in the previous chapter (6:66) that many of the disciples have left Jesus. These are the same disciples who have been following him around. These are the same disciples who were part of the crowds that were fed miraculously with the fish and the loaves, these disciples were part of the same crowd of people who heard Jesus explain that he was the ‘bread of life’; these disciples were part of the same crowd that recognised him as an important historical-political figure, they tried to seize Jesus and make him King (6:14-15) and now they have left him.
Many of Jesus’ own disciples it appears even don’t believe in him and now in 7:5 it appears that even many of his own relatives don’t believe him. It says that in 7:5: It says, “for even his own brothers did not believe in him” (NIV).
Now if we remember back to when we were studying Mark last year, this should not be such a surprise to us (Mark 3:20-35: The family of God). We remember in Mark Chapter Three[1] that we are confronted head on with the parallels between the Pharisees that are calling Jesus demon-possessed and his own mother and brothers who come to the house he is at to arrest him because they believe he is ‘out of his mind’. And now John tells us today in 7:5 that these brothers do not believe in him.[2]
So this is an interesting passage to look at in January with the Christmas story so fresh in our memory, isn’t it? Mary and Joseph were certainly present during many of the miracles that we remember at Christmas time: the angles, the shepherds, the magi. We remember as well that the archangel Gabriel appears directly to Joseph (one of Jesus’ custodial parents) as well as to Mary, his mother.[3] I don’t imagine that they forgot all of this did they? So how come Jesus’ brothers don’t believe? Did they forget to share this with their other sons? …as strange as this might sound actually this is a possibility.
I never would have thought that to be the case but I remember along this vein a situation that quite a few years ago –long before I ever became an Officer - that I will never forget: After work I went out with a group of my colleagues. We had a temporary contract and this was our first week there so many of us were just getting to know each other. We decided to head out to the local pub after work. Some of us had worked together on other contracts before and some of us have just met so cliché conversation developed the way it normally does in situations like these…until something very strange happened.
Mark was there.[4] I had known Mark for many years – Mark was quite a few years younger than I. I had known his family for years and someone asks me how I know Mark. “Matt, Mark’s half-brother is one of my closest friends, I say. We’ve known each other for years” – at the time I think Matt and I were even living together – In response to this Mark surprisingly starts to get upset. You should have heard the silence from everyone else in the place as Mark stands up and I look up in bewilderment wondering what on earth is going on.
“Take it back” Mark says. I stare at him still wondering what it is that I have done and trying not to laugh in my confusion as I can see that he is quite upset. “Take it back.”
Not knowing if he is trying to play some kind of a strange joke – and realising too that the whole section of the pub is now looking at us…I extend my arms and ask him, “what!?”
“Take it back,” he says.
“What?”
“Take it back…you said that Matt was my HALF brother…my HALF brother. Take it back.”
“He IS your half brother…you have different dads” Thus began a very long evening… as I – stunned – explain to this 19 or 20 year-old that this brother that he had grown up with all of his life had a different biological father. And as all of the acquaintances, strangers and other people in the pub looked on. I, not on purpose and with no mal-intent, I explain to this friend that his brother that he had grown up with, his brother with whom he’d lived in the same house his whole time growing up, his brother did not have the same biological father. This is a little awkward to say the least.
Still in shock, after he sobers up a bit, and calms down a lot, I drive him to his parents’ and then to his brother’s and explain honestly to them that I had know idea that I was sharing a family secret… to which both his dad and then his brother in turn explain first to me and then to Mark (in detail) that they didn’t realise that Mark didn’t know. They didn’t realise that Mark didn’t know who Matt’s father was; they thought he knew.
You see all the signs were there. At different times when Matt and Mark were young and growing up as well, Matt’s biological dad even stayed with them in their house and even only a year or two before this evening’s revelation, Matt’s sister had stayed with them for the summer. All the signs were there. Everyone around Mark, Matt’s youngest brother knew. No one had kept it a secret from him but he didn’t know that his brother really had a different biological father and when I told him - at first - he didn’t believe me.
In our text today Jesus’ brothers don’t really know who their half brother is and they don’t immediately (though they will later when all the evidence is presented) believe.[5]
It certainly is similar to what is playing out in John Chapter 7. You’ll notice that his brothers do know that there is something special about Jesus. They do know that he has been performing many miraculous signs. They do know that he has all these followers. They do know that Jesus is important in some way. They do seem to care even that some of his followers are leaving him and they do offer, in our text today (7:1-5), what they think is some good advice. They say, 7:4, “No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.” 7:3: Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do.” But John 7:5 says that even with all their quite possibly good intentions here, they still don’t believe. They still don’t fully understand (at the very least) the implications of the fact that Jesus has a different biological father and that Jesus has a very specific mission to fulfill. They do not recognise him YET as the Christ who will die and be resurrected so that we all may live.[6]
But there is even more. We remember from looking at Matthew (Matthew 11:1-11: Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else?)[7], a while ago that even John the Baptist who is there with Jesus when the heavens open up and God declares, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased (Matt 3:16)” and still John the Baptist later asks, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Well this is interesting then – if John, who knows Jesus so well; if the disciples who wanted to crown Jesus king; if Jesus’ own brothers, who grew up with Jesus and know Jesus so well; if they recognise the miraculous signs that Jesus is performing, who other than the Messiah, the expectant King, could they think he is?
Could it be that his brothers are expecting that Jesus is Elijah?[8] Some theorists have posited that John the Baptist may have thought that Jesus was Elijah; certainly other people at the time did (cf. Matt 17:10-12; Mark 6:15, 8:28; Luke 9:19). After all – even though Jesus claimed that John was Elijah (Matt. 11:14; cf. also 9:11-13; Luke 1:17), John himself at one point denies that very claim (John 1:21). So then if John the Baptist does not realise that he himself is fulfilling the role of Elijah, then certainly Jesus’ brothers could have thought Jesus was Elijah – maybe.
Jesus certainly could appear to be a prophet of some sort (Jeremiah; cf. Matt. 16:14); he did have many followers but what exactly does it mean to be a prophet and who, who is Jesus? Is he the one? Do we believe more than his brothers that indeed he is God’s own Son who came to die for our sins and be the first fruits of the resurrection?
Well this is an important question for us today then, isn’t it? Do we believe any more than Jesus’ own brothers? What do we answer when we are asked, ‘who is Jesus’? Many of the most educated, religious people of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and Sadducees did not accept him as the Messiah, the Christ, the King to come, and in Matthew’s account of John the Baptist, someone who knows Jesus even before he is born, someone who is his cousin, someone who baptises him, someone who teaches the same message of ‘repent for the Kingdom is near’ (cf. Matthew 3-4), someone as close to Jesus as John asks him the question, ‘are you the one to come, or should we expect someone else’? Jesus’ disciples, who wanted to make him king, desert him.
In our story today, even Jesus’ very own brothers. Those who have grown up with him, those who have at times - I’m sure - been there when his biological Father (in essence anyway) visited him in their very own home. They who know that he is someone important because indeed they are telling him to go down to Jerusalem to show everybody what he can do. It says here that even after spending so much time with Jesus, even after living with him daily and seeing miracles and hearing testimonies that still at this part of our story – like Mark when he fell about Matt – they don’t believe. Well, do we? Who do we say Jesus is?
Do we say he is a good man? - I have heard people say that. An imaginary figure? I have heard that too – this one is rather silly though since we have much better evidence for Jesus as Christ than we do for Julius Caesar as Roman Emperor or the even the very existence of Socrates.
Was Jesus just a prophet as some – such as the Muslims and the Jews – suggest? Was he a mere man? Was he only a voice calling from the wilderness? Much of the world today would say that he was some kind of the prophet.
Could he just have been a religious teacher from a minor Roman province who developed a cult following that continued to grow for well – thousands of years now – there are more Christians in the world than ever before and, of course, the Bible is the world’s best-selling book. But all that aside, could he be just a dead teacher?
These are all answers with which people today answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is Jesus the Son of God and the first fruits of the resurrection? Is he the one who died and was raised so that we can all be resurrected from the dead? Do we – more than his brothers – do we believe in Jesus?
This is important because it changes everything. If Jesus is our Lord; if he is our king and his kingdom is at hand; if he is our wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace (Isa 9:6) – then we need to submit to his authority don’t we? So who is this Jesus? I am reminded of a story, that I may have even shared from this pulpit before, by Margaret Forrester.[9]
James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country dressed like everyone else: a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived.
One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid.
Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, known as Cramond Brig, now Jock unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is.
The King responds – in a Scottish brogue that I am not even going to attempt – ‘Ach, I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’
‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’
‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’
‘The palace, is it? I’d like to see the palace; if I could see the King, I’d tell him a thing or two…’
‘About what?’ asks the man.
‘I’d tell him that I should own this land that I am on. I work it every day and he never comes here & gets his hands dirty working this land’
‘You’re right enough’, says the man. You come tomorrow to the palace at Holly Rood and I’ll show you around. Come at two.’
So the next day at two o’clock, Jock Howieson, is washed, dressed and at the palace to meet his new friend at the back door. The good man, whom Jock had saved the day before, shows him around the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms – the whole place. Then, at last, the two of them come to the great rooms of the State.
‘Do you want to see the King?’ the man asks Jock.
‘Oh yes indeed’, says Jock, ‘I do. I do want to see the King.’
So they enter the great hall and as they come in, men bow and ladies curtsey. It is really quite a thing to see.
So Jock whispers to his friend, ‘How will I know who the king is?’
‘He’s the only one who keeps his hat on’
Jock says, ‘But… there’s only us two with our hats…’ and Jock immediately takes off his hat as he realises that James is indeed the King of Scotland.
And so it is with us today. Jesus is King. Believe it. He is walking around with each of us showing us his domain here on earth and just waiting for us to take off our hats as we realise that indeed Jesus is the one to come and he has arrived (and he’s coming back too, soon!)
If there are any of us here today who do not yet believe; if there are any of us here today who have not taken off our hats and lain them before the Lord, I invite you to come up front here to the mercy seat and do just that – acknowledge the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord.
----
[1] Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[2] Merrill C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/II. The journey (7:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2:To "believe in him" may carry with it a recognition of his purpose and sympathy with it, which his brothers did not have. Consequently their counsel may have been for him to abandon the idealism of teaching multitudes in obscurity and of risking death. If he possessed the powers his miracles seemed to imply, he should display them to the best advantage and capitalize on them.
[3] Cf. Matthew 1:18-25: Do You Believe? and Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe?
[4] I have changed the names of the people involved in this otherwise accurate story.
[5] Actually – there is even more irony to this story – as I was telling Susan about it in preparation for this sermon, she had the TV in the hotel on. And on the show on the TV happened to be unfolding this exact scenario – so maybe this is not as uncommon as it seems.
[6] Cf. Gerard Sloyan, “John” in Interpretation. Eds. James L. Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier (John Knox Press, 1988), 86. Cf. Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 616, for very brief discussions on the brothers’ disbelief. I think it is significant that they come to believe in Jesus after his resurrection. I think this points to the fact that they do have a certain level of understanding/belief but at this point it is not yet crystallised into a full blown, informed faith. After all, if the disciples at this point don’t understand exactly what it means to be the Messiah, how can his siblings?
[7] Matthew 11:1-11: Are You The One To Come Or Should We Expect Someone Else? Available on-line at http://www.sheepspeak.com/
[8] Cf. D.A. Carson. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/IV. Book Version: 4.0.2.
[9] Margaret Forrester. The Expository Times. Vol. 119 Number I Pages 47-48.
Friday, January 2, 2009
John 6:22-40: The Bread of Life.
Presented to Nipawin Corps 04 January 2009
By Captain Michael Ramsay
This Christmas season was a lot of work. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people who helped the Army serve the Lord by showing our love for our neighbour in the way we do during the Christmas season.
The income from our Christmas campaign and kettles was a record high this year – surpassing even last year which was the previously highest year by far (I believe that Nipawin may have even been the highest givers per capita in the entire province). We are very thankful to all the people and groups who helped with this ministry –standing on the kettles, organising the kettles, helping me count the money from the kettles.
We also had the opportunity to help out a number of people who were dealing with terrible loss this season; the Lord allowed us to provide counselling, emotional and spiritual support as well as material assistance to many in need.
From Nipawin here we coordinated the hampers for the Yellowquill reserve and for Tisdale as well as for Nipawin. I thank the Lord for the help of the Hildebrandts (for their hard work and organisation), the Gages (especially for all their heavy lifting and keeping me company as I headed up and down between the towns) and for all of those who volunteered to pack the hampers.
The Lord used Sheila effectively in coordinating the Christmas meal as well. We had many volunteers, two seatings, lots of food and no one went away hungry.
In our text today, John 6:22-40, Jesus calls himself the ‘bread of life’ and the day before he makes this claim, John tells us that Jesus performed the miraculous feeding with the fish and the bread, where no one needed to go away hungry. Do you remember? Chapter 6:1-15, Jesus feeds as much as the population of Nipawin – even more than that actually, it says there were 5000 men alone – and all these men (and others) were following Jesus around the countryside and they didn’t have any lunch. It says that six months wages would not by enough bread to feed them but one small boy brought a few fish and loaves of bread and as Jesus broke this little bit of bread for his disciples to give out. When they were handing out this little bit of bread and fish, they found out that it did not run out! Not only did they have enough to feed the 5000+ people but they also had twelve baskets of bread pieces left over… this was the miraculous feeding of the 5000, the miracle of the bread (and fish) that did not run out.
In our text today this crowd catches up with Jesus, who had escaped from them in the interim, and Jesus tells the crowd that he knows – verse 26 – that they are looking for him because he fed them and in the miraculous way that he did but that indeed –verse 27– they should really be looking for him because he will give them eternal life.
Answering him, the crowd acknowledges that they would like to do the work of God themselves –verse 28 – if he would just tell them what they must do. Believe in me, Jesus says –verse 29 –believe in me …and then they, these same people who had just eaten the miraculous bread (and fish), these same people who had just been a part of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, these same people who had just tried to seize him and make him king because of this miraculous sign, these same people they ask him for a sign. How short our memories are, it seems…
I know in our own lives this is sometimes the case too, isn’t it? Sometimes, one day we are praising God because He has miraculously fed, clothed, healed, or saved somebody and the next day we are asking – well, what have you done for me lately? This is sad but I fear all too true.
With the crowd in our story, rather than getting mad at these people or refusing to discuss these things with them any further (as he is sometimes apt to do), Jesus addresses their concerns while making reference to this miracle of the bread that he performed yesterday. He compares himself also to the bread from heaven, the manna that God sent down to Moses and the rest of the Israelites in the desert at the time of the exodus. Jesus says that indeed, he himself is even more than these; Jesus says that he is this ‘bread of life’, as it were (v.35); he is this bread of life so that anyone who eats him, anyone who eats this bread will not perish but have everlasting life. Now this is important – but this is also confusing.
What does it mean to eat this bread of life, that once we eat it we are never hungry again? This is an important question to the people of Palestine here as well as to us today. Apparently in general there weren’t too many times in the history of Palestine and of the Israelites when they weren’t on the verge of starvation and in specific these people, we remember, have just been hungry and have just been fed by Jesus himself.[1]
Today there is also this problem across the whole world where people are starving to death (up to 50 000 every day!) [2] and even in Canada, whose parliamentarians pledged in 1989 to end child poverty; even in Canada, which in the past used to be much better off than most first world countries even; even in Canada now, we are not so high on the list of nations who bother provide for the poor and the needy as we should be given our nation’s great wealth[3] (cf. Matt 19:21, 25:31ff, 26:9-11; Mk 10:21, 14:5; Lk 6:20, 11:41, 12:33, 14:13, 18:22, 19:8; John 12:5-8, 13:29).
We know that the poor will always be with us (Matt 26:11, Mk 14:7, John 12:8) We know also that how we treat them is indicative of our nation’s very salvation (Matt 25:31ff) and we will notice as well that spiritually we, in most of Canada now (maybe not Saskatchewan yet), are starving.
Atheism is at an all-time high in Canada; pornography production and consumption has reached incomprehensible rates and more and more people have become more and more desensitized to sex and violence: many here even offer it up to their own children in the form of unsupervised television access and even interactive video games that promote sex, violence and self before others and instead of God - (Children spend more time watching television than any other activity!).[4] Nationally, we are indeed a starving society. But what is the solution?
What is the solution to hunger that Jesus offers to the people of Palestine in the first century? When they ask him about it, he says, ‘eat me’. He says whoever eats him we not perish but will have everlasting life. Well, that is great but what does it mean? It doesn’t mean to physically eat him, does it? I don’t think so.
How can one actually eat Jesus? After all he died two thousand years ago, rose from the dead, and we right now are still awaiting his imminent return; so how can we eat his flesh if we are still waiting for him to return in the flesh? I don’t think we can eat something that is not here, can we? And right now his flesh is not here. Now some people would argue in favour of transubstantiation or consubstantiation saying that somehow when a Lutheran, Roman Catholic priest, or another distributes communion, the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper to his parishioners, that the bread (or wafer) actually turns into Christ’s skin, his flesh, his body; I personally don’t think so. I am pretty sure, at any rate that this part of the Gospel of John is not talking about this kind of thing anyway.[5]
So what does it mean for us to eat him so that we can have life (6:35, 49-50, 53-56)? John says later in this chapter that as well as eating this bread of life, we must listen to it (6:45, 63, 68). How do we do that? How do we eat it and listen to it at the same time? Is it like Rice Krispies – Snap, Crackle, Pop? When is the last time that you listened to your food? How do we listen to this food that will make us never hungry again while at the same time we eat it? What does it mean to actually listen to (and not just hear) this food?
Jesus tells us that indeed, by itself, ‘the flesh is useless’ (6:63)[6]; the bread is the body of Christ but the body by itself, ‘the flesh is useless’ in that it does not provide eternal life.[7] Just like those who ate the manna, the bread in the desert died, and just like those who ate the little boy’s fish and loaves yesterday are hungry already (cf. 6:27, 49) and they are not spared death by eating them, physical feeding by itself at best delays death. Likewise simply listening to the spiritual is no guarantee of life. You can go to a church every Sunday of your life and never go to be with Jesus at the resurrection of the just.[8]
We can’t just hear the word of God; we have to listen to it and to do it. In our world today the equivalent of simply hearing the word without doing it would probably be heading out to church on Sunday, listening to Christian radio, reading Christian books, or watching preachers on TV. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day did the equivalent of all this and more and many of them, it seems from the NT scriptures, will not be by his side on the last day.
We can’t just watch as the bread of life is being distributed and decline to eat it as if we are on some kind of a diet, as if we were partaking of some kind of a fast. We need to consume, we need to internalize the whole life of Jesus Christ. In the book of John alone, we are told many (49) times that we must believe, we must put our actual faith and trust in Christ, if we want to live. We must, John tells us, as recorded in Chapter 15, we must be willing to lay down our lives for God and for our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ just like Jesus laid down his life for us.
Isaiah 50:10-11 and 55:1-2 calls the bread of heaven the word of life. The Prophet Isaiah (2nd Isaiah) calls the bread from heaven, the word of life. John tells us in Chapter One of this very letter, like Susan[9] preached on last week that Jesus is this word of life and that this word was with God from the beginning and this word that is also the bread of life is indeed God himself. This bread of life that we must eat is indeed the same bread and the same word that we must listen to. This bread and this word is Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to eat this bread? What does it mean to listen to and to eat this bread?
Jesus tells us that if we love him we will obey his commandments (John 14,15) and he commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves. He commands us to look out for the poor, the widow, the immigrant. Doing this, and fulfilling the great commission (Matt 28:16ff), is a physical application or response, maybe even a manifestation of sorts of the spiritual reality that is love for God and that is Christ in our lives.
Eating the bread in this way is how we display that indeed we believe. It shows that we indeed have accepted his salvation and indeed these actions, these works only mean anything if we do believe. Because if we believe the word that became flesh, if we truly believe and consume and internalise his teaching, through prayer and Bible study, if we truly commune with the Lord in this way then we will eat of the bread of life and you will see that we will perform the acts of righteous, and then we will truly enjoy our salvation.
Remember that God did not send His son into the world to condemn that world but to save the world (John 3:17-16) and that whosoever of us believes in Jesus Christ in this way; whosoever listens to the Word of God and consumes this bread of life; whosoever actually believes in the Lord in this way and eats of his eternal bread will not perish but will have everlasting life.
---
[1] See also the story of the women at the well in Chapter 4 where Jesus refers to himself as possessing living water; cf. also John 7:37-39.
[2] “At the start of the 21st century 1.2 billion people live in abject poverty, most of them women. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry and 50,000 people die every day from poverty-related causes.” - makepovertyhistory.ca
[3] Cf. makepovertyhistory.ca – “in the midst of wealth, almost 5 million Canadians live in poverty. Poverty is increasing for youth, workers, young families and immigrant and visible minority groups. Poverty among Aboriginal groups remains appallingly high both on and off reserve. In fact, if the statistics for Canadian Aboriginal people were viewed separately from those of the rest of the country, Canada's Aboriginal people would slip to 78th on the UN Human Development Index — the ranking currently held by Kazakhstan.”
[4] Children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep; 54% of kids have a TV in their bedroom.- Huston and Wright, University of Kansas. "Television and Socialization of Young Children." 44% of kids say they watch something different when they're alone than with their parents (25% choose MTV). 66% of children (ages 10 to 16) surveyed say that their peers are influenced by TV shows. 62% say that sex on TV shows and movies influences kids to have sex when they are too young - http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/facts/mediafacts.asp
[5] Cf. For a discussion of this: Gerard Sloyan, “John” in Interpretation. Eds. James L. Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier (John Knox Press, 1988), 76. Cf. Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 613, where she argues that the author of John argues for a full spectrum of meaning in the words. Neither author argues for either transubstantiation or consubstantiation.
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay. “Ulrich Zwingli: the Third Reformer.” Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (October 2008) available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Zwingli : “Zwingli argued that when Jesus is recorded as saying, ‘this is my body’ as it relates to the sacrament, the word ‘is’ can and should be translated ‘signifies’. Zwingli, who generally rejected the authority of the church fathers, draws on Augustine, Tertullian, and Origin’s arguments to make this point. He further cites John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is of no avail” claiming that this text renders impossible all views of eating the flesh (including but not limited to ideas such as transubstantiation and consubstantiation). He cites from 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, “we many are one bread and one body”, to argue that by eating the bread we are merely binding ourselves to an oath (much like he argued for baptism) rather than consuming Christ in any practical way. Communion like Baptism is a sign, a symbol.”
[7] Cf. George Richard Potter, Zwingli. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 288;Ulrich Gabler, Huldrych Zwingli: his Life and Work. Translated by Ruth C.L. Gritch, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986),133; and Rillet, 213-225 and Potter, 287-315 for detailed discussions on the differences between the stances of the Reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli on the matter of the Eucharist.
[8] Cf. Gail O’Day, 612.
[9] Captain Susan Ramsay
By Captain Michael Ramsay
This Christmas season was a lot of work. It was a lot of fun. There were a lot of people who helped the Army serve the Lord by showing our love for our neighbour in the way we do during the Christmas season.
The income from our Christmas campaign and kettles was a record high this year – surpassing even last year which was the previously highest year by far (I believe that Nipawin may have even been the highest givers per capita in the entire province). We are very thankful to all the people and groups who helped with this ministry –standing on the kettles, organising the kettles, helping me count the money from the kettles.
We also had the opportunity to help out a number of people who were dealing with terrible loss this season; the Lord allowed us to provide counselling, emotional and spiritual support as well as material assistance to many in need.
From Nipawin here we coordinated the hampers for the Yellowquill reserve and for Tisdale as well as for Nipawin. I thank the Lord for the help of the Hildebrandts (for their hard work and organisation), the Gages (especially for all their heavy lifting and keeping me company as I headed up and down between the towns) and for all of those who volunteered to pack the hampers.
The Lord used Sheila effectively in coordinating the Christmas meal as well. We had many volunteers, two seatings, lots of food and no one went away hungry.
In our text today, John 6:22-40, Jesus calls himself the ‘bread of life’ and the day before he makes this claim, John tells us that Jesus performed the miraculous feeding with the fish and the bread, where no one needed to go away hungry. Do you remember? Chapter 6:1-15, Jesus feeds as much as the population of Nipawin – even more than that actually, it says there were 5000 men alone – and all these men (and others) were following Jesus around the countryside and they didn’t have any lunch. It says that six months wages would not by enough bread to feed them but one small boy brought a few fish and loaves of bread and as Jesus broke this little bit of bread for his disciples to give out. When they were handing out this little bit of bread and fish, they found out that it did not run out! Not only did they have enough to feed the 5000+ people but they also had twelve baskets of bread pieces left over… this was the miraculous feeding of the 5000, the miracle of the bread (and fish) that did not run out.
In our text today this crowd catches up with Jesus, who had escaped from them in the interim, and Jesus tells the crowd that he knows – verse 26 – that they are looking for him because he fed them and in the miraculous way that he did but that indeed –verse 27– they should really be looking for him because he will give them eternal life.
Answering him, the crowd acknowledges that they would like to do the work of God themselves –verse 28 – if he would just tell them what they must do. Believe in me, Jesus says –verse 29 –believe in me …and then they, these same people who had just eaten the miraculous bread (and fish), these same people who had just been a part of the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, these same people who had just tried to seize him and make him king because of this miraculous sign, these same people they ask him for a sign. How short our memories are, it seems…
I know in our own lives this is sometimes the case too, isn’t it? Sometimes, one day we are praising God because He has miraculously fed, clothed, healed, or saved somebody and the next day we are asking – well, what have you done for me lately? This is sad but I fear all too true.
With the crowd in our story, rather than getting mad at these people or refusing to discuss these things with them any further (as he is sometimes apt to do), Jesus addresses their concerns while making reference to this miracle of the bread that he performed yesterday. He compares himself also to the bread from heaven, the manna that God sent down to Moses and the rest of the Israelites in the desert at the time of the exodus. Jesus says that indeed, he himself is even more than these; Jesus says that he is this ‘bread of life’, as it were (v.35); he is this bread of life so that anyone who eats him, anyone who eats this bread will not perish but have everlasting life. Now this is important – but this is also confusing.
What does it mean to eat this bread of life, that once we eat it we are never hungry again? This is an important question to the people of Palestine here as well as to us today. Apparently in general there weren’t too many times in the history of Palestine and of the Israelites when they weren’t on the verge of starvation and in specific these people, we remember, have just been hungry and have just been fed by Jesus himself.[1]
Today there is also this problem across the whole world where people are starving to death (up to 50 000 every day!) [2] and even in Canada, whose parliamentarians pledged in 1989 to end child poverty; even in Canada, which in the past used to be much better off than most first world countries even; even in Canada now, we are not so high on the list of nations who bother provide for the poor and the needy as we should be given our nation’s great wealth[3] (cf. Matt 19:21, 25:31ff, 26:9-11; Mk 10:21, 14:5; Lk 6:20, 11:41, 12:33, 14:13, 18:22, 19:8; John 12:5-8, 13:29).
We know that the poor will always be with us (Matt 26:11, Mk 14:7, John 12:8) We know also that how we treat them is indicative of our nation’s very salvation (Matt 25:31ff) and we will notice as well that spiritually we, in most of Canada now (maybe not Saskatchewan yet), are starving.
Atheism is at an all-time high in Canada; pornography production and consumption has reached incomprehensible rates and more and more people have become more and more desensitized to sex and violence: many here even offer it up to their own children in the form of unsupervised television access and even interactive video games that promote sex, violence and self before others and instead of God - (Children spend more time watching television than any other activity!).[4] Nationally, we are indeed a starving society. But what is the solution?
What is the solution to hunger that Jesus offers to the people of Palestine in the first century? When they ask him about it, he says, ‘eat me’. He says whoever eats him we not perish but will have everlasting life. Well, that is great but what does it mean? It doesn’t mean to physically eat him, does it? I don’t think so.
How can one actually eat Jesus? After all he died two thousand years ago, rose from the dead, and we right now are still awaiting his imminent return; so how can we eat his flesh if we are still waiting for him to return in the flesh? I don’t think we can eat something that is not here, can we? And right now his flesh is not here. Now some people would argue in favour of transubstantiation or consubstantiation saying that somehow when a Lutheran, Roman Catholic priest, or another distributes communion, the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper to his parishioners, that the bread (or wafer) actually turns into Christ’s skin, his flesh, his body; I personally don’t think so. I am pretty sure, at any rate that this part of the Gospel of John is not talking about this kind of thing anyway.[5]
So what does it mean for us to eat him so that we can have life (6:35, 49-50, 53-56)? John says later in this chapter that as well as eating this bread of life, we must listen to it (6:45, 63, 68). How do we do that? How do we eat it and listen to it at the same time? Is it like Rice Krispies – Snap, Crackle, Pop? When is the last time that you listened to your food? How do we listen to this food that will make us never hungry again while at the same time we eat it? What does it mean to actually listen to (and not just hear) this food?
Jesus tells us that indeed, by itself, ‘the flesh is useless’ (6:63)[6]; the bread is the body of Christ but the body by itself, ‘the flesh is useless’ in that it does not provide eternal life.[7] Just like those who ate the manna, the bread in the desert died, and just like those who ate the little boy’s fish and loaves yesterday are hungry already (cf. 6:27, 49) and they are not spared death by eating them, physical feeding by itself at best delays death. Likewise simply listening to the spiritual is no guarantee of life. You can go to a church every Sunday of your life and never go to be with Jesus at the resurrection of the just.[8]
We can’t just hear the word of God; we have to listen to it and to do it. In our world today the equivalent of simply hearing the word without doing it would probably be heading out to church on Sunday, listening to Christian radio, reading Christian books, or watching preachers on TV. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day did the equivalent of all this and more and many of them, it seems from the NT scriptures, will not be by his side on the last day.
We can’t just watch as the bread of life is being distributed and decline to eat it as if we are on some kind of a diet, as if we were partaking of some kind of a fast. We need to consume, we need to internalize the whole life of Jesus Christ. In the book of John alone, we are told many (49) times that we must believe, we must put our actual faith and trust in Christ, if we want to live. We must, John tells us, as recorded in Chapter 15, we must be willing to lay down our lives for God and for our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ just like Jesus laid down his life for us.
Isaiah 50:10-11 and 55:1-2 calls the bread of heaven the word of life. The Prophet Isaiah (2nd Isaiah) calls the bread from heaven, the word of life. John tells us in Chapter One of this very letter, like Susan[9] preached on last week that Jesus is this word of life and that this word was with God from the beginning and this word that is also the bread of life is indeed God himself. This bread of life that we must eat is indeed the same bread and the same word that we must listen to. This bread and this word is Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to eat this bread? What does it mean to listen to and to eat this bread?
Jesus tells us that if we love him we will obey his commandments (John 14,15) and he commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves. He commands us to look out for the poor, the widow, the immigrant. Doing this, and fulfilling the great commission (Matt 28:16ff), is a physical application or response, maybe even a manifestation of sorts of the spiritual reality that is love for God and that is Christ in our lives.
Eating the bread in this way is how we display that indeed we believe. It shows that we indeed have accepted his salvation and indeed these actions, these works only mean anything if we do believe. Because if we believe the word that became flesh, if we truly believe and consume and internalise his teaching, through prayer and Bible study, if we truly commune with the Lord in this way then we will eat of the bread of life and you will see that we will perform the acts of righteous, and then we will truly enjoy our salvation.
Remember that God did not send His son into the world to condemn that world but to save the world (John 3:17-16) and that whosoever of us believes in Jesus Christ in this way; whosoever listens to the Word of God and consumes this bread of life; whosoever actually believes in the Lord in this way and eats of his eternal bread will not perish but will have everlasting life.
---
[1] See also the story of the women at the well in Chapter 4 where Jesus refers to himself as possessing living water; cf. also John 7:37-39.
[2] “At the start of the 21st century 1.2 billion people live in abject poverty, most of them women. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry and 50,000 people die every day from poverty-related causes.” - makepovertyhistory.ca
[3] Cf. makepovertyhistory.ca – “in the midst of wealth, almost 5 million Canadians live in poverty. Poverty is increasing for youth, workers, young families and immigrant and visible minority groups. Poverty among Aboriginal groups remains appallingly high both on and off reserve. In fact, if the statistics for Canadian Aboriginal people were viewed separately from those of the rest of the country, Canada's Aboriginal people would slip to 78th on the UN Human Development Index — the ranking currently held by Kazakhstan.”
[4] Children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep; 54% of kids have a TV in their bedroom.- Huston and Wright, University of Kansas. "Television and Socialization of Young Children." 44% of kids say they watch something different when they're alone than with their parents (25% choose MTV). 66% of children (ages 10 to 16) surveyed say that their peers are influenced by TV shows. 62% say that sex on TV shows and movies influences kids to have sex when they are too young - http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/facts/mediafacts.asp
[5] Cf. For a discussion of this: Gerard Sloyan, “John” in Interpretation. Eds. James L. Mays and Paul J. Achtemeier (John Knox Press, 1988), 76. Cf. Gail O’Day, “John” in NIB IX, Ed. Leander E Keck (Abingdon Press Nashville, 1995), 613, where she argues that the author of John argues for a full spectrum of meaning in the words. Neither author argues for either transubstantiation or consubstantiation.
[6] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay. “Ulrich Zwingli: the Third Reformer.” Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (October 2008) available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Zwingli : “Zwingli argued that when Jesus is recorded as saying, ‘this is my body’ as it relates to the sacrament, the word ‘is’ can and should be translated ‘signifies’. Zwingli, who generally rejected the authority of the church fathers, draws on Augustine, Tertullian, and Origin’s arguments to make this point. He further cites John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is of no avail” claiming that this text renders impossible all views of eating the flesh (including but not limited to ideas such as transubstantiation and consubstantiation). He cites from 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, “we many are one bread and one body”, to argue that by eating the bread we are merely binding ourselves to an oath (much like he argued for baptism) rather than consuming Christ in any practical way. Communion like Baptism is a sign, a symbol.”
[7] Cf. George Richard Potter, Zwingli. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), 288;Ulrich Gabler, Huldrych Zwingli: his Life and Work. Translated by Ruth C.L. Gritch, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986),133; and Rillet, 213-225 and Potter, 287-315 for detailed discussions on the differences between the stances of the Reformers Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli on the matter of the Eucharist.
[8] Cf. Gail O’Day, 612.
[9] Captain Susan Ramsay
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