Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

Home Archives for Jesus

Jesus does not agree with this church marquee . . .

Posted on Written by 1 Comment

A friend of mine, @jimworth, tweeted a link to this picture:

Jesus Doesn't Agree

The problem with this statement is that Jesus doesn’t agree. In John 14:6, Jesus is recorded as saying, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Jesus made a definitive statement that only those that believe and trust in himself will get to Heaven. This is an exclusive claim. You must choose to accept this as true or declare it to be false, there is no middle ground. It can’t be “sorta” true. Jesus won’t allow you to think of him as just another spiritually enlightened man. He is not just another prophet. He is the way or he is not the way.

If Jesus is correct in his statement, then all other religions are false and Christianity is the only true religion.

If Jesus is wrong and there are many ways to get to Heaven, then Jesus is irrelevant and Christianity is a waste of time. If Christianity is just a bunch or rules or moral principles, then it has very little to offer.

But if Jesus is correct, and Christianity is true, then we are offered a way of being in right relationship with God. Jesus is that way.

You can’t have it both ways. You cannot worship Jesus and declare other religions to be equally true. You have to make a choice. Jesus demands that choice.

What this church presents may be new but it is definitely not Christianity.

On having a perfect brother

Posted on Written by 2 Comments

If you believe that Mary was a perpetual virgin, please stop reading now because you will end up being offended. Following the birth of Jesus, Scripture indicates that Mary went on to have other children. I quote Mark 6:3 below:

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.” (NASB)

Jesus with the Rabbis in the TempleMy question is, what would it have been like to grow up with a perfect older brother? Some of you may have had to endure being compared to older siblings. Being the first born in my family, I have not had this experience.

I can imagine what it was like to always be compared to Jesus. Jesus was the kid who hung out in the Temple when he was a pre-teen to discuss Scripture with the best of the Rabbis. He would never give an offense and Jesus would be the one that all the old ladies in the congregation would pat on the head and pinch his cheeks and proclaim him a “good boy.”

How difficult would it have been to endure punishment (deserved or otherwise) knowing that your brother never had to be punished? Even if your parents didn’t ask the question, it certainly would be going through your mind, “why can’t you be more like Jesus?” Even on your best behavior, to be compared to perfection would be humiliating.

Think about it. It would have been no use for the brothers to try to blame anything on Jesus. They might have gotten away with blaming the broken lamp on the dog, but never on Jesus.

Another problem would be that Jesus would never lie. If Mary asked him, “did you see who took the cookies from the pantry?” He would have to answer truthfully. No-one could get away with anything when Jesus was around.

As a result, it is not hard to imagine that resentment would naturally begin to form in the siblings toward Jesus. In the gospels, the few glimpses we have of Jesus’ brothers indicate that they did not understand who he was or believe in him (see John 7:5).

Yet in the end, we see two of Jesus’ brothers writing letters which are included in our New Testament. They came to belief at some point and became leaders in First Century church.

This begs the question. If this whole Jesus is the Messiah thing was a scam, why would the brothers buy in to it when they obviously did not while he was alive. Why after his death would they risk martyrdom if they knew him to be a quack or a con-man?

In my mind the fact that his brothers did acknowledge him to be God in the flesh is strong proof that Jesus’ claim to be divine is true. Every person will at some point will be forced to make a decision regarding Jesus. If he is who he claimed to be (as his brothers came to believe) then you reject him to your peril.

He sat down to teach – Sermon on the Mount Series #2

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount:

 1 When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 He opened His mouth and began to teach them . . .” (Matthew 5:1-2 NASB)

Sermon on the MountAt the end of chapter 4, Matthew informs us that “large crowds” followed Jesus. The crowds followed him because of his ability to heal their diseases, pains and birth defects. They needed physical help and Jesus was able to provide it.

What does Jesus do in response to the large crowds? He looked for a place to sit down and begin teaching them. Why would he do this?

Throughout the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) we find Jesus expanding our understanding of God and his view of righteousness and godly living. We are encouraged to move beyond physical obedience to spiritual conformity to a higher calling. We moved past doing to being and Jesus shows us that who and what we are determines what we do.

It is not enough to refrain from murder, we are called to live without hatred. It is not enough to refrain from adultery, we are called to live without lust. What we do on the outside is supposed to match what we are on the inside.

Why does Jesus take the time to tell us this? It is not so that we can be proud of our spiritual accomplishments. Apart from the work of God in my life, I cannot even begin to live up to the standards that Jesus presents in this sermon.

I believe that Jesus takes the time to preach this sermon because the crowds then and now need to know that not only do they need physical healing, they also need a spiritual one. This sermon calls me to the understanding that left to myself, my situation is hopeless. On my own, I can manufacture a pseudo spirituality that may perhaps look good on the outside, but I cannot fix the core problem of my sin.

In this sermon, Jesus provides a glimpse as to what true Godly living looks like and invites us to join him in living it out. Paul tells us in Romans:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16–17 NASB)

It is by the power of the Gospel that I can begin to live up to the standards that are presented in this sermon. So as we read these beautiful chapters of the Bible, we will be alternately scared to death and encouraged. We will be scared to the death of our self-will and encouraged as we yield control to God who promises to bring his work in us to completion (Philippians 1:6).

Jesus teaches us these things so that we look beyond our own abilities and look to Him. We need to quit the self-help movement and embrace the God-help movement. It is then, and only then, that we can begin to experience ultimate healing, healing the part of us that no doctor or pill can fix.

They asked for healing and Jesus gave it to them, though perhaps not in the form they thought they needed.

Where the wild things are . . . worshipping

Posted on Written by 1 Comment

I noticed a reference to wild beasts in Mark 1:13:

And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him. (NKJV)

Wild IbexesWhile in the wilderness, Jesus was with the wild animals. Do you suppose that the animals recognized Jesus as their creator and acted on that recognition? What would that have looked like?

During his entry into Jerusalem, when the people were hailing Jesus as king, the Pharisees demanded that Jesus rebuke his disciples for their pronouncement. Jesus replied in Luke 19:40 by telling them that if the disciples did not hail Jesus, the stones would.

If in animate objects such as stones have the potential to praise Jesus as Messiah, I can imagine that the animals could put on quite a show in deference to their Creator. I’ve seen ibexes in En Gedi, chasing each other, jumping from rock to rock in playful abandon. Would they have come to put on a jumping exhibition for Jesus? Would the other animals in the desert have come to greet him?

It seems to me that the God who enjoyed creating such a diverse animal kingdom would enjoy such interaction with his creation. Remember God’s reaction following the creation of animals? In Genesis 1:25, we have record of God proclaiming his handiwork with regard to animals as good work. God liked what he created. That very same God experienced 40 days in the wilderness as a man who could interact with the animals and derive pleasure from that interaction.

I never heard anyone ever speak or write about this, perhaps it is a stretch, but as the Pennsylvania Dutchman says, “this wonders me some.” How cool would it be to be able to pet a mountain lion or a wild ibex whenever you want to?

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama