11.22.63

Stephen King wrote a fascinating TV series about a man going back in time and saving J. F. K. from being assassinated. It is an interesting sci-fi series with many twists and turns in it. In the series finale, there is a poem that Stephen King wrote that is pretty amazing:

"We did not ask for this room,
or this music;
we were invited in.

Therefore,
because the dark surround us,
let us turn our faces toward the light.

Let us endure hardship
to be grateful for plenty.

We have been given pain
to be astounded by joy.

We have been given life
to deny death.

We did not ask for this room,
or the music.

But because we are here,
let us dance."

Constantine the Movie

A few years ago I went to see the Keanu Reeves new movie "Constantine." It was an action movie of John Constantine who was a fallen angel who did demon possessions even though he really no longer had any faith in God. The whole movie was a kind of hodge-podge theological mess. My brother was scared watching some of the scenes in the movie while I laughed my fool head off as the absurdity of it all. Keanu Reeves goes to hell and then he at the last minute rises back up to life and is given another chance as a fallen but restored angel.

The one redeeming conversation of the whole movie I thought was this conversation as the two angels are looking over the city:

Gabriel: You are going to die young because you smoked 30 cigarettes a day since you were 15... and you're going to go to hell because of the life you took.

John Constantine: But when you cross over time stops. Take it from me, two minutes in hell is a lifetime. When I came back I knew all the things I could see were real. Heaven and hell are right here. Behind every wall, every window. The world behind the world, and we're smack in the middle.

I guess there's a plan for all of you. I had to die twice just to figure that out. Like the books says, he works his works in mysterious ways. Some people like it, some people don't.

Confronting Canaanites

Right after this conflict with the religious leaders, Jesus runs into a Canaanite woman whose child is demonized. The Canaanites were the worst of the worst according to Jewish history. It almost sounds like Jesus has the same Jewish prejudices and possibly racist attitudes as other Jews of his day in how he responds to this woman. This is an incredibly subversive story because this is the only time recorded in Scripture Jesus loses a debate.

          Jesus tells the woman in Matthew 15:21:24 that he had only come for the lost sheep of Israel. Here comes a very teachable moment for Jesus disciples since this was a common belief even among those who followed after him. This is like a play acted out powerfully to show that Israel is to be a blessing to the whole world and not just an exclusive club for the few.

          Now it gets even worse, Jesus it sounds like calls the woman an pejorative term, a Gentile “dog.” Dogs are not these cute cuddly pets we think of today but they were filthy scavengers in Jesus day. This insult by Jesus seems rude and so out of place for one who has shown so much compassion to other people but he won’t give it to this poor woman and oppressed child. Some may say Jesus is just following the standard beliefs of Jews of his days but when one examines closer the details and outcome of this conversation, it is more possible that Jesus is testing the woman and provoking her towards faith. What better example to destroy false prejudices and heal this woman’s child.

          The remarkable things about Jesus is not only does he commend this woman’s faith in her sly answer to him about even dogs eat the breadcrumbs from the table but Jesus highest praise repeatedly are to outsiders of Israel who show great faith, even Israel’s oppressors, a Roman soldier (Matthew 8:5-13).

        Mark 7:1-13 parallels Matthews story verysimilarly. How Jesus handles his opponents in Mark even gives some insights in how we might today handle our own critics of the faith. The religious leaders asked Jesus by what authority was he doing the things he was doing.? Jesus

said he would only answer their question if they answered his question.  They refused to answer Jesus question so he refused to answer theirs! (Mark 11:27-33).

        It amazes me that our conventional Christian wisdom of the day is so far from Jesus that we can call it "Christian" when it resembles so little of Jesus and the way he lived. We teach our kids to get a good education and fit well into society. In other words, we want our children to be successful. Jesus lived a whole counter cultural lifestyle but we tell our children we want them to fit neatly and safely into society. 

   

     We tell people who have doubts that doubts are bad, ignore them, hide them, and surely, don't talk about them. When John the Baptist doubted who Jesus was, Jesus still commended him for his faith (Matthew 11:1-11).  Doubt unchecked can lead people away from God but doubt explored and challenged can lead to greater faith in Christ.

        Jesus used humor, irony, satire in his teachings but for today's conventional wisdom, this is too impolite, mean-spirited, or just in bad taste. Jesus drank wine but Christians can not. Jesus hung out with all the wrong people and we are told using another Bible axiom, "bad company corrupts good morals." Worse, people we see as opponents to the Christian faith we neither respect nor show them our love but all they get is our contempt. Either they are to be pitied for being so foolish or they are simply a fool who has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1). Never mine that the fool says with his mouth he believes in God. Never mind that the larger context is about Israel's apostasy where they say one thing with their mouth and their lives tell a different story. This text better applied to the Christian who lives like there is no God rather than the atheist who defines oneself as against God or God's existence.

        Somehow in this world with all it duplicity and conceit, we are supposed to play its power and manipulation games over one another. The world says ‘come out and play’ and Christians are expected to play by the world's rules. Some of us are taking a more ancient path that is neither playing the game at all or changing the rules and then asking the world to play by Jesus kingdom playbook.

        The late Robert Webber in his book "The Younger Evangelicals" wisely told atheists he was not playing the apologetic philosophy game any more when it came to whose arguments are better and who is the smartest person in the room. Webber challenged atheists to play a new game. This game was not about ideas and arguments but stories. Let me tell you a story of God, Israel, Jesus, and the church and how that has shaped the world and you tell me how your story of atheism makes this world a better place?

        Webber comes off too much like Jesus so I am  surprised that it is not atheists but other academic Christian scholars who take Webber to task. "That is not fair or how the game is to be played!" Or as one academic Christian scholar said in an article that Webber is going into retreat and simply refuses to answer legitimate intellectual objections people have to belief. He rightly says that people will probably then not hear your story. But isn't this exactly the point and what happens to Jesus in his encounters? His critics did not want to listen to Jesus, they wanted to make him look bad. The religious leaders did not want to follow Jesus, they wanted to destroy him.

        In the end, how far does a Christian really think he is going to get with a person actually believes that Christianity is the real enemy to life and world peace? How far does the Christian have to go before he or she realizes one is dealing with some people who are not skeptical seekers but hostile antagonists.  How long does it take before Christians wake up to realize that our time may be better spent in quiet discipleship and spiritual disciplines that feeds the soul rather than loud debates and long drawn out arguments that are typically a waist of everyone’s time. 

        I certainly believe Christians have to give answers to questions of faith but sometimes a Christian may need to be more like Jesus and answer a question with a question. And if others refuse to answer our questions, rather than arguing with them, we may be doing them and ourselves a favor to refuse to enter into a whole debate that often makes God's people look bad.

         A very real difference between Christians and skeptics are Christians through the ages have read the Scripture as an icon, image, and full of Christ whereas the atheists and skeptics read it as logic, argument, and a flat one dimensional book. The sad reality is too many believers and unbelievers read the Bible this one dimensional way and then fight violently for the acceptance or rejection of this image of an angry Father who endorses every kind of violence imaginable.

Maybe the ghost that haunts some skeptics is the ghost of a higher love? Atheists who are quick to say they don't believe in God will just as quickly suggest they believe in love. I want to tear down the false idols and illusions of the Christian faith just as much as the atheists do on some issues.

I also want to point them to the real living God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not the small god of the philosophers. I want them to see the glorious truly human-God man of Jesus stripped of all the confusions and modern human projections. I want the atheists to understand that the love they believe in is God because God is love (1 John 4:8).

Well Did Isaiah Prophecy of You

“God wants you to shut up because you are embarrassing him!”
- John Denver (from the movie, ‘Oh, God!’)

“The wrath of God is understood as divine consent to our own self-destructive defiance.”

- Brad Jersak

Jesus is a master of turning his critics arguments back onto his critics. His parables are masterpieces of reversals and when it comes to the art of satire and irony, he stood head and shoulders above his opponents. Several times the religious elite of Jesus day tried to insult him or argue with over his healing people on the wrong day (the Sabbath) and not following all the rituals of ceremonial cleaning and holding tightly to the traditions of man.

          Jesus would show their hypocrisy by turning their arguments against their own religious duplicity. They nullified the Word of God by adding and subtracting and treating God’s commandments like a rule book rather than a love letter. So like the old western classic showdowns, its Jesus against the religious elites. It looks likes Jesus is out numbered and outgunned but Jesus continually emerges the victor in episode after episode until they literally nail him to a tree.

          Jesus is in another confrontation with the religious leaders, notice Jesus does not start these confrontations but they keep getting initiated by his critics. Where is the gift of being a critic a fruit of God’s Spirit? Jesus at times blasts them for their sheer hypocrisy and spiritual blindness. Followers of Jesus need great spiritual discernment on when to give a gentle answer and when only a stern answer may shake somebody out of their spiritual complacency. I suspect the Pharisees and scribes are so tough on Jesus because they see him as a young upstart and one of their own. Why is it Christians so often shoot each other?

          The discussion in Matthew 15 is over the traditions of man and the commandments of God. The conversation hits a crescendo when Jesus forcefully says,

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men (Matthew 15:7-9)

Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 stern rebuke to the leaders of Israel. Israel no more wanted to hear Isaiah’s rebuke as the religious leaders of Jesus day wanted to hear Jesus prophetic rebuke. What is interesting is how Jesus changes the second part of Isaiah’s quote in verse 9. Jesus is generalizing Isaiah’s words to his own particular context. What Isaiah actually says “their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.” Jesus adds “in vain do they worship me” Jesus takes a canonical view of reading this verse in the broader context of the whole book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah begins with the wickedness of Judah and contextually how their worship is vain in the eyes of God (Isaiah 1:12-17)

          It is amazing not only to see Jesus grasp of Scripture but how he can quote it at will and even add the larger context in when quoting from one particular section. This should challenge us today not just to memorize certain verses of Scripture but to understand the whole canonical context of the whole book to even the whole of Scripture. It was more important for early Jews to get the overall context right rather than can one get every word and detail of a certain passage right. Again, this should challenge contemporary readers of Scripture that it does not do much good to recognize certain trees in the forest if we can not even see the forest because of all the trees blocking our view.

          If we are honest, did not Isaiah prophesy about us? My spiritual blindness, hypocrisy, and saying one thing with my mouth but my actions say something very contrary. Jesus gets at the very heart of the issues by starting with the heart. It’s not what food or outer body washings that makes someone clean before God, but what comes out of our mouths reveals what is in our hearts. Bad attitudes lead to bad words which further leads to bad behavior.

          Isn’t it our quest for absolute certainty that gets us in trouble with God and turns other people off to our faith? Isn’t it like Isaiah says we care more concerned about our man made traditions like no running in the church building with our children but we totally miss the behavior our children are participating outside the walls of the church building. Can we be more honest, vulnerable, and like one man who came to Jesus say, ‘Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (Mk.9:24).

          There is nothing wrong with tradition but when it nullifies the Word of God or becomes more important than people, it turns into an idol and becomes full of dead men’s bones. How many people have been turned away from a worshipping body of Christian believers because they were wearing the wrong clothes or did not know the rules like ‘no wearing a hat in the church building.’ What is really crazy is they did not even have church buildings in the early church. Put your thinking cap on and chew on that one for a moment.

          Jesus continually witnessed to the compassionate heart of God that people are more important than rules, traditions, or denominational handbooks! People are what matter to God and Jesus shows this over and over in his teachings and actions and even in his conflicts with his opponents.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus

To better understand the implications of Jesus statement, “Today the Scriptures are fulfilled,” we need to consider some of the diversity within the Scriptures and view them canonically from the perspective of all of Scripture. We have already looked at Matthew’s Gospel chapter 19 where Jesus says divorce is off limits except for the one exception clause he state in verse 9 of sexual unfaithfulness.

          Mark’s gospel on the other hand simply says divorce and remarriage are forbidden with no exceptions listed (10:1-11). If the Gospels were all that we had to go by, there would be only one ground for divorce listed. But later progressive revelation with new circumstances has Paul adding another exception and that was desertion (1 Cor.7:15). What about new circumstances so many fragile families find themselves in today like physical abuse, destructive addictions, ongoing mental abuse and sheer disrespect and belittling of their marital partner? Certainly new situations demands new listening to the voice of Jesus and what the Holy Spirit may be speaking to God’s community today.

          If Jesus is the last Adam to free and liberate all people into God’s kingdom, what are we to do with the Scriptures that speak of death, destruction, torment, and universal restoration (Rom.5:18; 11:32; 1 Cor.15:22; Phil.2:11). Certainly there is judgment and hell to come but no one knows exactly what that entails when it comes to the afterlife. There is a coming and certain judgment that Scriptures speaks about but there is also this universal restoration Jesus tells us about.

          Jesus speaks about “the year of the Lord’s favor” in Luke 4:19, this is a reference to the year of Jubilee where all slaves are to be set free. Notice that Jubilee was not about setting a few slaves or some slaves free, but all slaves were to be set free. Take a moment to let that one sink in! Luke 3:6 says ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ Jesus famous parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son is where all are restored back to God (Luke 15).

          Listen and see with new eyes what the gospel of John says about salvation in Jesus. John 6:37-40 says,

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

What does the Father give Jesus? Everything! What is God’s will? All people would not perish but have everlasting life. I love the way 2 Peter 3:8-9 says it,

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Jesus will lose nothing given him by God the Father and God will raise it all up on the last day. Can we even imagine or picture what this might even look like?

          If you still don’t know what all things given to Jesus is, look at John 17:2.  Jesus prays to his heavenly father and then he says these words, “since you have given him (Jesus) all authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.”

Are you starting to get a grander cosmic picture of what God is doing in reconciling the world (cosmos) through his Son?

          Can we imagine with Isaiah that God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts? When people stumble over the doctrine of hell seeming unfair, some who support this doctrine resort to this verse in Isaiah 55:8-9. But if people would read the broader context of Isaiah 55:6-7, it is not a picture of a vengeful punishing God but a God of abundant mercy who abundantly pardons people (v.7).

          A God of love does care about divine judgment. God is always putting things right and making all things new! If we actually read Jesus words more carefully, we might even see that heaven and hell for Jesus is not just about the afterlife but about present realities right here on planet earth. Jesus did not talk about outside sinners but inside religious leaders when it came to hell. In other words, Jesus was turning the Pharisees own critical judgments about the judgment of God back upon themselves. The sad truth is too many Christians have preached about hell more like some of the religious leaders of Jesus day and not like Jesus did.

          Well, what about the eternal language of judgment in Jesus’ parables? I’m always bewildered when people want to talk about the clearest examples of biblical teaching comes from parables which are highly figurative and often use hyperbole to make a point. Jesus wants his hearers to take the hell language seriously but not necessarily literally.

We get ourselves into all kinds of interpretive problems if we press various points in Jesus’ parables too literally. God in some of Jesus parables appears unjust and Matthew 25 about the sheep and the goats if pressed too far, one can say it also teaches a works righteousness doctrine which totally goes against the nature and teachings of the rest of Scripture. Jesus parables are more often about this life rather than what some people think about the after life. If we don’t start understanding how these stories work, we will end up straining at gnats while we swallow camels.

          Heath Bradley in his book Flames of Love says so provocatively,

Hell is not used by Jesus as a threat for outsiders, but as a challenge for insiders . . . Can we believe as Peter did in the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). Or as Paul did in the reconciliation of all things (Col.1:20). And as John did in the renewal of all things (Rev.21:5) this does not hamper our motivation for evangelism but just the opposite . . . it inspires us to preach fearlessly, love limitlessly, and obey unconditionally (p.70, 140)

Robert Wild once said, “What a burst of new life would penetrate the human race if everyone believed God is love and that they were already safe in the arms of love.” One of the greatest theologians of the last century was a Catholic scholar whose name was Hans Von Balthasar. He was an incredibly compassionate person and had a remarkable intellect he used for God in his writings. If we are to really believe in grace, not cheap grace or hyper-grace but biblical free unearned grace, here is what Balthasar wrote:

If we think of Hell as a place of punishment, the logical contrast would seem to indicate that heaven is a place of reward. Yet, the Christian conception denies that heaven is fundamentally a reward for faithful service; it is rather, the free gracious gift of a loving God, unmerited by anything we have done

Why? Because Jesus has done it all! He has completed what he started and on the cross, he said, “It is finished.” He accomplished all that he sought out to do for his mission was complete. Some of my friends answer the question, ‘when were you saved?’, with the response, “I was saved two thousand years ago when Jesus died on the cross!” Even death is not the end, it’s only a new beginning!

Today The Scripture Is Fulfilled

“We have to start with Jesus and refigure our ideas around him, rather than trying to fit him into our existing worldviews.”
- N. T. Wright

“I knew Jesus before he was a Christian . . . And I liked him better then.”

- Rubel Shelly

How is it that Jesus is rejected in his own home town of Nazareth? Maybe the saying is true, “Over familiarity breeds contempt!” Jesus is assigned to read from the Prophet Isaiah scroll. He puts his finger on this place and begins to read:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon,

Because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

And recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Jesus rolls up the scroll and in the synagogue with his fellow towns people, he says prophetically, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1-2 but breaks off the ending of the verse of God’s judgment and God’s vengeance. If someone were to read the Scriptures today and do this, people might yell, read the end of the verse! For God’s sake, read the end of the verse! The people were looking forward to the day when all of Israel’s enemies would be destroyed and they would go back to the glory days of how it was during the time of the reign of King David and King Solomon’s reign.

          What happens next is unbelievable. The people cry out for a sign because they heard stories of Jesus doing mighty miracles and works of God but they had not personally witnessed any themselves. I mean, ‘C’mon, isn’t this Joseph son who did day labor for other people in town? We know this kid, and he seems liked an average Joe in our community.’   

          So Jesus does the unexpected. The crowd in the Synagogue were somewhat admiring his reading of Scripture but Jesus begins to tell how God used Israel’s enemies in the past from other Older Testament Scriptures like Elijah went to the widow in the land of Sidon and the prophet Elisha only healed a leper who was from Syria. The crowd went from being impressed to being enraged. They actually tried to physically push Jesus off a cliff. Can you see the hometown newspaper the next day? “Riot breaks out and home boy falls off a cliff!”

          We neglect the Scriptures or read them to bring us some comfort or help us to fall asleep reading at night. Yet reading the Scriptures can be quite dangerous and get you killed in certain places. God’s message to Israel was good news for the whole world. The problem was Israel just saw it as good new for themselves while it was bad news for everybody else. What many Jews believed was salvation was their exclusive right and they were willing to fight and do violence over that belief.    

          Can we come to the point to understand what Jesus is driving at over and over when it comes to what some people call the doctrine of election? Wars and divisions have been fought over the meaning of this little word. Election gives us no claims on God and certainly not a privileged status over other people. God’s incredible love is for the whole world and all people of every nation.

          When Jesus comes on the scene, Israel had failed throughout most of biblical history to live out their covenant faithfulness to God. We read over and over of their failures and their extended exiles. When all of Jesus disciples abandoned him and he was left standing alone, it was because Jesus represented the sole elect one for all of humanity. Where all others failed, he remained true to his calling and identity for God. If election means anything, it more means a vocation of suffering and greater responsibility in living for others. We are all elected corporately into Christ who was the faithful elect one of God.

          What Israel had a hard time understanding about Jesus was not only his willingness to hang out with all the wrong people but salvation and God’s kingdom were both universal and cosmic in scope. Jesus continually reversed everything where people who thought they were in God’s kingdom are out and those who thought they were out were actually in (Matt.25). No one for Jesus was beyond God’s redeeming love and the last will find oneself first and the first will find oneself last (Matt. 20:16).

Canonical Course Corrections

The canon of Scripture that Jesus read and studied from is often referred to as the Old Testament. The canonical books that made up that testament are the Scriptures that Jesus was taught and studied from the time he was a child. When Jesus selects or makes some course corrections in his use of the biblical material, he is not doing anything different than what earlier Rabbis and prophets did in utilizing Scripture to one’s present circumstances.

          The Ten Commandments are actually listed in three places (Duet.5:6-21; Ex.20:2-17; 34:12-26). Progressive revelation of God’s Word is always putting new light onto new situations and one will see some slight variations in these three lists because the Jewish people are dealing with social changes when it came to new forms of idolatry, Jewish holidays, and agricultural changes. God’s Word is not static or unmoving but changes and accommodates people with their changing circumstances because God’s Word is a living document and not a dead fossil.

          God’s commandments and laws change over time to accommodate people where they are at in the moment of history. Israelites are told they can have slaves (Ex.21:2-11; Duet.15:12-18) but they are told in Leviticus 25:39-43 that they are not to have slaves because they were once an enslaved people themselves.

 What about worship and sacrifices? Deut.12:13-14 and Lev.17:1-8 spells out clearly that the only place to offer God sacrifices is in the sanctuary. Exodus 20:24-26 says you can make alters of stone and do sacrifices any where on God’s good earth.1 Then the later prophets come along and they say God does not want sacrifices at all but desires mercy (Hosea 6:6 & Micah 6:6-8). Jesus later affirms Hosea and Micah and not the earlier revelation in Matthew 9:13 and 12:7. God’s progressive revelation is fully expressed in Jesus God’s holy Son.

And the Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful to divorce one wife for any cause?’ He answered, Have you not read that he who created them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and ‘the two shall become one flesh?’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’

They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,     but from the beginning it was not so    (Matthew 19:3-8).

The Pharisees quoted Deuteronomy 24:1-4 which is in the larger context of all the laws that God had given Moses to instruct his people (Deut.1:3). The Pharisees question was not just why did Moses say but as good biblicists, they knew the law came straight from heaven from God to Moses and then to the people. One could ask, then why did God tell Moses to say it?

          What is both shocking and surprising is Jesus undercuts this teaching by saying that the only reason God allowed this at this time was because of the hardness of men’s hearts. Understand, women could not divorce a husband and men were the only one who could file charges against their wives. There were many abuses going on so God gives a concession at this time and tries to limit the scope of abuse that was going on in that particular time. What sounds like God’s eternal Word is actually an accommodation to people of that particular time but this was never God’s eternal will. God hates divorce as Malachi 2:16 says (in some translations) because it does damage and harm to the whole family.

If we take Jesus words to heart and apply them to other difficult situations in the Bible, one could say, why genocide or polygamy or slavery or violence in the Old Testament? Jesus answer is not that God wants or even causes these things to happen but it is because of the hardness of our hearts that such things like these exist. The problem is not the Bible or God but us! How we read and misapply God’s Word. How we end up supporting the very things God actually hates.

          The Sadducees who don’t even believe in the resurrection of the dead try to trap Jesus who more followed the teachings of the Pharisees who did believe in the resurrection of the dead. They make up this ridiculous “what if” story of a woman who marries seven different brothers and ask, ‘whose wife will she be in heaven?’ Don’t you love these kinds of “Gotcha!” questions that people like to throw at followers of Christ? Jesus rebukes them for neither knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God (Matt.22:29). How well do I really know the Scriptures? Do I ever limit the power of God?

            Jesus goes on to reply to the Sadducees that in the resurrection, there is no marriage but people will be like the angels (Matt.22:30). Many people have taken Jesus statements here to mean that no one will be married in heaven, and even the strange teachings I’ve heard by the older generation that people will not even know their wives or husbands in heaven as if that would be a good thing? The issue here is not that nobody s married but everyone is married to Jesus in heaven. Jesus is the bridegroom and the community of faith is Jesus bride. 

          Here comes the big punch-line for Jesus in verses 31-32.  Jesus says,

And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ He is not God of the dead, but of the living.’

Mark 12:18-27 says something similar to Matthews account. Here two gospel writers quote Exodus 3:6 where God introduces himself to Moses at the burning bush and tells Moses his name. But how does one go from that Old Testament story to the cryptic God of the living and the dead is some kind of hidden code for “I will raise the dead?” We need to at least be honest that the deeper meanings of Scripture and their original contexts are not as important as the full meaning that Jesus and his disciples give to the Hebrew Bible. Christ is the key to unlocking all the mysteries of Holy Scripture and he is also the doorway into the deeper dimensions of God’s glorious kingdom.

          Probably one of the most often quoted Old Testament Scripture in the New Testament canon is Psalm 118:22-23. It is quoted several times in the gospels and even by the Apostle Peter (Matt.21:42; Mk.12:10; Lk.20:17; Act 4:6; 1 Pet.2:7). Is Jesus marvelous to our eyes or is he somehow obscured and hidden away by other ancient texts of Scripture? If Jesus is our rock and refuge, why do so many people act like it is the written word that is their rock and refuge rather than the Living Word Jesus? Do we stumble and trip over some of these difficult hard passages in the Old Testament or are we liberated like Jesus to view them through the lens of Christ and him crucified and resurrected and ascended?

          When I read the Scriptures with a Christ-centered focus of seeing the God of both testaments through the eyes of Jesus, it is almost too marvelous to behold. God in Christ is doing more than we can ever imagine or hope for. I love the way Keith Giles says it,

But When Jesus arrived that Word took on flesh and blood; that Word laughed out loud and cried tears of sorrow and joy; that Word breathed and sang and taught and healed and came alive like never before in history (Jesus Unbound, p.33).

Have You Not Read

“Most Christians go on professing that God is beautiful while trying to ignore the biblical depictions of God that are ugly. Whether we do it consciously or not, we subject the Old Testament to a ‘textual cleansing’ in order to create ‘an acceptable Bible lite’ for ourselves.”

- Greg Boyd

Jesus critics said he did not follow the Law of Moses, he was a Sabbath breaker and broke with the sacred traditions of Holy Scripture. If one does not recognize who Jesus is or where he came from, these conclusions from the religious leaders were understandable. Jesus was continually pushing the limits of healing on holy non-work days and pushing the boundaries of orthodoxy by his actions of casting out demons and healing people in strange ways never before witnessed within the scriptures.

          Jesus did all kinds of miracles and deliverances that had not biblical precedent in the Hebrew Bible. When God is doing a new thing, it’s new. Progressive revelation not only begins a new start but even contradicts at times old precedents that are no longer to be followed. Can’t you hear the critics of Jesus, he turned water into wine. My Bible says, ‘Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler, whoever is led astray by them is not wise (Proverbs 20:1)

          Jesus says all kinds of counter-intuitive things like to be his follower, you had to hate your parents. Are you kidding? My Bible and Moses says honor them. And nothing could be more offensive than telling kosher Jews to eat Jesus body and drink his blood (John 6:56). No wonder many people and even some of Jesus own disciples walked away from him at times. It is easy to use the Bible as a weapon against even Jesus if one is not careful. We need to be gently reminded at times that when some things are not found in the Bible, they are extra-biblical rather than necessarily unbiblical.

          I can not tell how many times conventional wisdom often trumps either what Jesus said or is read into the Bible like a foreign invader that is not actually following faithfully the teachings of God’s Word. I have heard things like if it is strange or weird or bizarre, it can’t be from God. Where in the Bible does it list this principle as a truth of Scripture? There are all kinds of things in the Bible that do not pass this test. What about Isaiah walking naked barefoot for three years in the desert as a sign against Egypt and Cush? (Isaiah 20:3). Or who wants to follow the prophet Hosea example and marry a prostitute? (Hos.1:2). What about Elisha’s dead bones actually raising somebody from the dead? (2 Kings 13:21). Our problem today is some of us would rather be biblically right than following Christ. We would rather be biblical than Christ-like.  

          But it was common for Jesus to challenge his listeners when their practices did not reflect the heart of God by the repeated phrase, “Have you not read?” Matthew 12:1-8 is another confrontation between Jesus healing on the Sabbath where the religious leaders are rightfully telling Jesus he is doing work which is nullifying God’s word. Jesus selectively chooses an obscure situation when David was on the run from King Saul where he ate some consecrated bread that was reserved for only the priests (1 Sam.21:1-6). David not only went against the Mosaic Law in this dire situation but Jesus basically overturns Moses here by saying “God desires mercy and not sacrifice” and Jesus himself was actually Lord over the Sabbath. People are more important to God than rules. Jesus authority is not only over the Sabbath, it’s over the Bible.

The Myth of Redemptive Violence

Jesus continually spoke in riddles and in cryptic language. In Luke 11:29-30, Jesus says,

This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign but no sign will be given except for the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Ninevah, so the son of man will be to this generation.

How does Jonah point to Jesus? Perhaps by spending three days in Sheol and then returning---a human son who goes to hell and back. When Jonah finally meets the Ninevites and warns them about God’s judgment, he speaks with the conviction of one who has experienced that judgment---not as condemnation, but as salvation. He knows that Hell’s eternity is not literal eternal, and that those who find themselves alone in their sufferings there are not literally alone (Doug Frank, A Gentler God, p.310)

Jesus descent into Hades or hell is well attested in the Apostles Creed of the church. An ancient Eastern Orthodox liturgical song says Christ emptied hell. Although some Christians do not know what to make of such ancient liturgies, if should make us pause about any kind of certainty one way or another of what one believes about the after life. Can people believe that Jesus went to hell to put an end to its tortures? Maybe to get into hell, as one old preacher once said, we have to walk with muddy boots over the body of Jesus before one can enter there.

          And how are we to interpret the Scriptures that say God commanded all kinds of different people to be mercilessly slaughtered? (Duet.7:2, 20:16 as a few examples). The critics of understanding these Old Testament texts in light of Christ may think the character of God trumps Scripture, maybe we should ask, does Jesus trump Scripture? It appears as we see how Jesus interpreted, reinterpreted, and chose various Scriptures over others that Jesus progressive understanding of God’s character is what truly counts in the end.

          Brian Zahnd in his Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God powerfully shows in Jesus reading of the Scripture in Luke 4:17-20, that while he was quoting Isaiah 61, he quotes only half the verse and leaves off “the day of the vengeance of our God.” The Gentiles were God’s enemies and there were many Jews of Jesus day that either believed that being born a Jew automatically saved you or the doctrine of hell developed in some circles simply to mean the place where all Gentiles go. Does this sound familiar today at all? Heaven is a place made for Christians and all other people will automatically go to the default position which is hell. Tribalism and triumphalism are turning more people off to Jesus than leading people into God’s heavenly kingdom.

          Not only did Jesus’ use of the Old Testament get him in trouble at times, but listen to how a later visionary and follower of Jesus used the Older Testament. Derek Flood in his Disarming Scripture shows how when Paul used the Old Testament, he chose specific texts that spoke of violence against the Gentiles and turned them on their heads selectively quoting certain parts while leaving the violent parts out. 

          It’s almost like after Saul’s (who became Paul) violent quest for God as an observant Jew for the tradition of his religious faith, his conversion not only opens his eyes to Jesus but also away from violence to following Jesus the enemy-loving non-violent Messiah. Now the one who hunted down Jesus followers has been tracked down by the love of God.

          For example, in Romans 14:9, Paul quotes Psalm 18:41-49 and Duet.32:43 leaving most of these texts out that speak of God avenging and destroying His enemies and only quoting the parts of these Scriptures that promote restoration and God’s mercy to the Gentiles. Notice Paul does not try to sanitize these texts or reinterpret them, but like Jesus, he follows a more flexible selective approach of his rabbinical upbringing. Not only does Paul have a conversion to Christ but he has a conversion away from violence. What we need to regain today is this kind of Christ-centered ethical reading of the scriptures.

          Some of the most violent texts are in the book of Psalms. What are we to do with them? These violent feelings and anger are very real so we need to engage them with wisdom and with spiritual discernment. Has anybody ever noticed that the longest book in the Bible is a song book? We need to pray and sing and wrestle with God through these Scriptures. Maybe the hardest parts of the Psalms are not their violent imagery but how they often reflect like a mirror into our very own violent hearts.

You Have Heard It Said, But I Say Unto You . . .

“The whole point of Jesus’ teaching was to frustrate his listeners, so they would give up trying to save themselves and throw themselves into the arms of a loving Savior.”

- John Crowder

“In Jesus parable, the rich man ends up in hell, not because he failed to believe the right things, but because he failed to love Lazarus.”

- Brian Zahnd

I’ve already mentioned in chapter one how people try to get around and avoid the hard sayings of Jesus. One only has to read modern commentaries to see Kierkegaard’s concerns are still in play today. Jesus sermon on the mountain is one that seems like high idealism or simply impossible to live. Maybe that is the point—without God help, you can not live them out!

          These are some of Jesus greatest teachings and probably most misunderstood today. We are over familiar with these texts as well as hearing high sounding conventional wisdom of explaining the difficulty of these texts away. Just like Jesus hard sayings concerning wealth and deposing one self for the poor, they are simply basic instructions of having the right attitude towards money and one can go back to business as usual.

          If we are not careful, we miss the shock value of these disturbing sayings within there Jewish rabbinic context. Remember, Jesus is a Jewish theologian speaking to Jewish disciples in an occupied Jewish country. Jesus miracles resemble the prophet Elijah and Jesus here on the mountain sounds like a new Moses.

          The reality of God’s kingdom is upside down when one reads the Beatitudes that precedes Jesus words in Matthew 5, “You have heard it said, but I say unto you” statements. Jesus is not listing a bunch of new Mosaic laws to follow but he does get after the real issue of our hearts. Each time Jesus says these words, he is reflecting the deeper truths of God’s kingdom which is anger is overcome by reconciliation, lust is kept in check through spiritual disciplines, marriage is honored through life long faithfulness, and loving one’s enemy replaces hate. These are not some kind of new legal code but illustrations of what God’s kingdom community looks like.

          There is a sense of urgency to Jesus words that one should not worry about what kinds of judgments earthly courts make, it’s the court’s rulings from heaven that counts. The heavenly court not only knows our offenses but even the intentions of our hearts. Jesus repeatedly challenges people’s hearts whereas the religious leaders were more interested in judging people external behaviors and their doctrine. 

          Jesus message challenges the cultural assumptions of his day. Oaths are a poor substitute for integrity. Revenge and dividing oneself from one’s spouse is not permissible in God’s kingdom. Jesus most disturbing teaching is for the oppressed Jews to even love their oppressors. Again, without heavenly help, Jesus demands for discipleship seem impossible. But what seems impossible for man is possible with God (Matthew 19:29).

          Jesus is not giving these teachings to make people feel bad, or guilty, or threaten them with hell. Yes, he does talk about hell but hell is this refiner’s fire that is to purge the sin out of our lives, not destroy the sinner (Malachi 3:3). Jesus embodies the very teachings he is giving showing people what God’s character looks life through his life.

There are some grape juice critics of wine Christians that can not understand that the God they are presenting to other people makes God look like an angry, mean, petty, vindictive God. Jesus is the highest revelation of God on earth and God ultimately reveals himself not through a book but through a person because the God of the scriptures is a relational personal God. 

Jesus ultimately models his own teachings of suffering obedience rather than the way of violence. How is it that we resist Jesus on the very issue that he centered his teachings upon. The reason there is so much sacred violence in the Old Testament is not because God is a blood thirsty violent God but because we are. Jesus did not die on the cross because God needed human blood for a sacrifice but Christ hanging on the cross with outstretched arms shows how far God’s love will go to save sinful people from themselves and their violent ways.

         Jesus sacrifice on the cross reveals that sacrificial violence does not come from the heart of God but from the heart of man. Jesus sacrifice was a sacred surrender to help end all violent sacrifices!  In the end, it was humans that put Jesus on the cross, not God.

Jesus embodiment of the heart of God is so revolutionary, that where the Torah restricts retaliation, Jesus abolishes all together. By responding to unkindness with enemy-love, Jesus reflects the character of God which is shown equally to the righteous and unrighteous alike.

          The sinners and society outcasts loved Jesus because he included them into God’s kingdom. God is not a respecter of persons. In Matthew 9:9-13 and Luke 14:15-24, Jesus invites everyone, good or bad into God’s heavenly kingdom. Jesus does not care about religious boundaries or walls that religious people build. These are not from heaven but from our carnal ways where we are threatened by people who look different or act differently than we do.

          Everyone looked up to the religious leaders of Jesus day. When he says unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter God’s kingdom (Matt.5:20). He is not suggesting that this was an easy thing since all the religious leaders of his day were corrupt and unrighteous. No, it’s like Jesus saying today, your righteousness has to surpass that of ministers, missionaries, and Bible university professors. People would respond, how in the world and I to do that? This is exactly the point. You can’t do it without the help of God in control of your life.

          Jesus says, you have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Again, Jesus is using a Midrash technique where some of the cultural assumptions of the people before Jesus believed this but it is not specifically stated within the Hebrew Bible.

There is a kind of beauty, rhythm, and fluidity to Jesus words that goes against the grain of much of popular religiosity  of his day.