Monthly Archives: May 2009

Martha, Martha– Look at What She Says About Jesus!

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John hasn’t said anything about Mary or Martha until chapter 11. Their brother, Lazarus, has died. Jesus loved them very much (11:5). He understands the circumstances that are unraveling are for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it (v. 4). He is acting so that they may believe (v. 15).

I don’t know exactly why John tells us what he does about Mary and Martha. Both were mourning. Martha goes to meet Jesus when she heard he was coming, Mary just remains seated in the house (v. 20). I don’t think that the difference of response here has any moral significance. It would be easy for us to read Luke 10:38-42 into this story. We might think that Martha is anxious, Mary is chill. Martha goes in haste to nag Jesus, Mary just relaxes until he gets there. Speculation can be like walking on the moon. We need more gravity here. What does John say!?

Don’t overreact here as if there is a brutal juxtaposition between the two sisters. They actually say the exact same thing when they see Jesus–if you had been here!… (v. 21, 32). It is just that John gives us a little with Martha. And what he shows us is that she believed Jesus. In a Peter-Matthew 16-like fashion she confesses Jesus as the Christ. Jesus’ intention to procure faith by this miracle is definitely finding its fulfillment in Martha, before He has even done anything.

She acknowledges Jesus’ unlimited power (v. 22). She affirms the resurrection and is sure of her eschatological hope (v. 24). She believes Jesus is the Messiah (v. 27). That He is the Son of God (v. 27), that He is the One promised and sent and accomplishing redemption (v. 27).

And this is it. After this story we only see Martha one more time in 12:2 over dinner.

She is for the reader. I love Martha. She reminds me of my mom. Martha is a realist. Jesus is coming but she goes ahead to meet Him. He is about to call Lazarus forth and she mentions that he smells bad. Her motion is amoral. There is no “one thing necessary” scene here with background choir music and a sparkling head. But John shows us one of the most beautiful dialogues between Jesus and anybody. Martha believes in Jesus. Look at how she believes in Jesus!

John wants us to believe in Jesus the same way.

My Summer Kick Off with Vanhoozer

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Theology involves both theory (knowledge) and practice (life) for the sake of its pastoral function: assisting people to enjoy and glorify God.

Perhaps the best way to overcome the theory/practice dichotomy is to let the subject matter of Christian theology determine theology’s task. Jesus Christ is the word and wisdom of God, the revealer and the redeemer: the way, the truth, and the life. Several points follow for theology from this astounding identification. First, theology must be concerned with what each of these terms represents; it must deal with truth, with ways of living, and with the meaning of life. Second, it must keep all three in mind at once. Focusing on truth to the exclusion of way and life leads to a preoccupation with theory; conversely, a preoccupation with way and life can lead to pragmatism. Christian doctrine, similarly, should serve the purpose of fostering truthful ways of living. Faith gets understanding when it lets the history of Jesus Christ govern the meaning of “way”, “truth,” and “life.” Finally, theology must make the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture its primal and final norm.

Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, 14

He’s got me.

Don’t Waste Your Memorial Day: It’s Not About Patriotism!

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There are a hundred different ways that we could waste Memorial Day.

 The 25th of May stands as one of the oldest national holidays in America, being first commemorated in memory of the Civil War’s dead. Over generations the response has been mixed.

Many people are sad, and rightly so, the holiday commemorates the dead. The dead who have died for a noble cause. Many families feel it. Our country is in war and Memorial Day in 2009 has an unfortunate, deeper significance for some. People are hurt and in pain today. But the pain could easily move to messianic patriotism. A justification is needed for the loss. The answer is to be sure that death was not in vain, but was for the glory of America.

For others Memorial Day simply nods to the fallen and soon elicits a revived patriotism. “Proud to be an American” is sung and celebrated. ‘God Bless America’ is heralded. Hearts are filled with a nationalistic superiority complex. The talk is about military achievement, international relations, and the American agenda. The response is to bulk up, to ‘fortify the wall.’

I want to offer a third way, much more akin to the first response. We should be sad this Memorial Day. Soldiers have died, America has lost good men over the last 233 years. American soldiers have died to protect the American people. I thank God for them and for their families. My generation is stupid to find hipness in a critical attitude. We should never take our nation’s freedom’s for granted…

But let us realize our pain and sadness and memory in a context beyond the ‘stars and bars.’ Memorial Day means there is war. There have always been wars, there are wars now, and there will always be wars here. Memorial Day is about how we view the world. People die in war and war exists in the world because the world is broken. Things are not how they are supposed to be.

Memorial Day makes us feel this is a truer way. Our soldiers died for a good cause and they died because the planet is jacked up. The world is fallen. Justification for our memory is not patriotism, but peace. The aim is not American dominance, but global harmony. No more fighting, no more killing, no more tears of loss–for all people. And this achievement will not come by any human government. We look to Another. We look to Him whose mission has been to redeem the cosmos since before the cosmos was.

Jesus Christ came to save this broken world. He suffered and died and was buried and was raised from the dead to save a people, and to make for them a new world–one void of war and loss, only joy and gladness in the sovereign God of it all. Look to Jesus, embrace Him, believe Him.

So let us remember the valiant who have fallen, and oh let us behold Jesus Christ as our hope to make right this broken world!

Richard Sibbes on Sanctification for ‘the Average Joe’

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Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed has been good.

It is a book about sanctification. It is for those who are weak, who struggle, who are not self-sufficient spiritual giants. It is for those who find themselves crawling the race sometimes instead of running. It is for sinners who believe Jesus and want to believe Him more. It is for those who really only have a grain of mustard seed. The bruised reeds, the smoking flax’s. 

It is about Jesus… His sovereign gentleness not to devour the lowliest. He is a kind Savior. A patient Savior. A glorious Provider of everything we could ever need. In Him there is no lack, no weakness, no deficiency. He is our all. He is the worker of all this in us. He does all that He wants and He does it all well. He is the founder and the perfecter. 

 

And, if the wicked spirit is never idle in those whom God has delivered up to him, we cannot think that the Holy Spirit will be idle in those leading and government is committed to him. No, as he dwells in them, so he will drive out all that rise up against him, until he is all in all.

What is spiritual is eternal. Truth is a beam of Christ’s Spirit, both in itself and as it is engrafted into the soul. Therefore it, and the grace wrought by it, though little, will prevail. A little thing in the hand of a giant will do great things. A little faith strengthened by Christ will work wonders.

Richard Sibbes, 92.

That is, He who began it will complete it (Phi 1:6).

I could not last an hour if that were not true.

Ugliness, Redemption, and Coming to the Mountain

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Isaiah is sweet to me this morning. The prophet begins with so much ugliness. Judah is not in good shape. God’s people are rebellious children. They have despised and rejected the One who has loved them and brought them up. The formerly faithful city has become a whore. What was promising is now demolished. A bright future is now bleak.

But God is rich in mercy. Even in the midst of the ugliness, He gives us the promise of redemption. He tells the sinful people that though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). God will restore Judah. Zion will be redeemed. Moreover, in the latter days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established and exalted above all. And nations shall flow to it, peoples shall come to it to worship the God of Jacob, to know His ways and walk in His paths (Isaiah 2:3). 

I pray for grace to see who we are in this glorious narrative of redemption. We are those drawing near to the mountain. We are the ones from the nations who were separated from the covenants of promise, having no hope in the world. The Americans and the Mili and the Sininkere have that in common, you know? We can only come to the mountain because God is faithful to do what He said He would in Isaiah 1-2. And one day we will know it more real than now.

I Didn’t Know How ‘White’ I Am Until We Moved to Minneapolis

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I never knew how white I am until we moved to Minneapolis.

For the first time ever I live in a place where there are more people ‘not like me.’

I walk sidewalks with men who wear dresses and dye their beards red. The women keep their faces covered. I think they drink coffee all day long–which I think is really cool–because I always see them carrying cups. Most brown-skin people I see don’t speak English.

And even with the brown-skin people who do speak English, there are levels of culture here that I feel ages away from really getting. Especially today…

We took my class to a nearby park. As we were walking back a group of girls already at the park began to jeer at two of my students. My students kept walking ahead with the rest of the class and talked back in a ‘wag-the-head-attitude’ fashion. My girls and the park girls started a verbal brawl, at this point still a good distance apart. But the park girls started following us. I stayed back to step into the situation. These older park girls are coming after my students. They are angry. They want to fight. My girls were ‘mugging them in their hood’ and it did not fly well with them.

One vulgarity after another is hurled. Now we have been walking blocks. My students are up ahead and I have stayed back to talk to the park girls as they continued their pursuit. That was the sight. This young white guy from North Carolina is jumping into the middle of this inner-city brawl between a group of African-American girls. I was embarrassed, especially with all the traffic and bystanders watching. 

I had to do something. I incessantly talked begged them to let my students go. I explained that they were much younger and didn’t get it and were wrong. I apologized for them. The pursuit continued and then they met. Like a wave crashing the two groups collided in a verbal war. Hands waving. Cussing. Taunting. And there I was standing between them trying to mediate. One of my male students jumped in to defend his sister’s honor. Then one of the park girls signaled for her brother who had covertly been following far behind.

It was about to get nasty. I had no control. I had no voice. I don’t think I have ever felt more out of place. I asked God to come, to stop the park girls. And then the same thing I had been saying for four blocks landed. They pulled up. They stopped. I met the brother and said the same line. He stopped too. My students were far ahead now. The park girls and the brother turned around.

My heart was still beating fast. But now I felt relieved. It was over. It was a big deal to me. Yet I realize now that it was probably nothing to my students. Nothing keeps that from happening everyday with them. I just got the chance to see it this time. God had me where He wanted me, incredibly uncomfortable and all, right in the middle of that brawl. And although I probably would not have handled the situation the way they did, I see that the pride in them that makes them demand respect to the point of fighting is the same pride in me that makes me think I can do this exegetical paper on my own. The same in me that makes my gut hurt when I feel like I’ve lost countenance in someone’s eyes.

We are very different. But we are very much the same. We have the same problem. And only Jesus Christ can help… and His help is not by altering our moral compass. But He died for our pride. He died for me. He bore the wrath that I deserve in my place.

So I pray that this dorky white guy, along with my students who are ‘not like me,’ would only look to Him.

Jesus Christ

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I believe…

… in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

begotten of the Father before all ages;

God from God,

Light from Light,

true God from true God;

begotten, not made,

of the same essence as the Father,

through whom all things were made.

Who, for us men and for our salvation,

His kingdom shall never end.

came down from heaven,

He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary,

and was made human;

He crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;

He suffered and was buried;

The third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;

He ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He shall come again, with glory,

to judge the living and the dead;

 

from The Nicene Creed, AD 325

Not Solomon, but He is Coming: The Theology of Expectation in 1 Kings 8

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This section plays an important role within the narrative strategy of 1 & 2 Kings. The focus is undoubtedly on the Messiah. First, I want to show that it is Messianic. Second, I want to show what is said about the Messiah. 

The broad context has the end of 2 Samuel in mind. King David has died and now the concern is the son of David who will succeed him as king. We see early on that it is Solomon (2:12). Solomon builds the temple (2 Sam 7:13). Here in chapter 8, Solomon has assembled Israel to bless them and dedicate the temple. Now there are three connected themes at work here to be clear that this text is about the Messiah: 1) Recalling the Davidic covenant; 2) Exile, Repentance, New Covenant language (back to Pentateuch); and 3) Conversion of the Nations

It goes like this…

1)     Recalling the Davidic Covenant (8:12-21)

  1. Solomon interprets his building of the temple to be the fulfillment of God’s promise to David in 2 Sam 7
  2. He views himself as this son that it talked about (8:20, 24-26)

2)     Exile, Repentance, New Covenant

  1. It is interesting the in a dedication of the temple there is so much said of the people’s sin and God’s faithfulness to forgive (8:30, 31-40). And even exile (8:44-53).
  2. This echoes the Pentateuch.

    1. First, the steadfast love and faithfulness of God (Exod 34:7) foundational to his prayer for mercy.
    2. Second, the reference to exile (8:34, 44-53) sounds like Deut. 30:1-6. The point there is New Covenant.

3)     Worship of the Nations

  1. There is the mention of the foreigner in 8:41-43, 60.
  2. This is reminiscent of Gen. 49:10…

 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

 These themes are thoroughly Messianic. The author is trying to make this clear to his reader. He wants us to have the Messiah in our minds and the expectation of his arrival the beat of our hearts.

In line with that, he wants to show us that Solomon is not the guy.

This is especially seen in 8:25. In hope that he is the one, Solomon rehearses the Davidic covenant (the Messiah as a Son of David reigning on his throne as King). He understands the stipulations of this King, “if only your sons pay close attention to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.” There are conditions.

Where else are there stipulations for the King?

 

Deuteronomy 17:14-20

1 Kings 10-11

Not acquire excessive gold (v. 17)

10:14-18

Not acquire many horses (v. 16)

10:26-29

Not acquire many wives (v. 17)

11:1-3, 6

So it is not Solomon, nor any other King of Judah in 1 Kings (14:31, 15:8, 24). There is clear expectation. The author’s eyes are in the future. That the Son who is King is not Solomon is important. The theology of expectation is important. Psalm 72 picks up this theology in a prayer looking to the King.

So what?

Old Testament expectation puts into perspective the wonder of the church. It clarifies our self-understanding. That we worship Jesus Christ right now is the fulfillment of God’s promise (Psa 72:17). Thousands of years after it was written. They looked for Him and now He has come. Now we are seated here together, Gentiles who worship the Messiah, who bless the LORD—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are Gentiles who though we were far have been brought near by the blood of Christ!

The LORD is glorious.