Notes from Ouachita Baptist University Pastor’s Conference

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Wyman

I drove down to Ouachita Baptist University for their one-day Pastor’s Conference. This year’s conference focus was on Ecclesiastes. As I did with my SBC notes, I thought I’d offer my jottings here. They’re raw and largely unproofed, but here you go.

“Ecclesiastes – The Pursuit: Chasing Answers to Life’s Questions “
2011 OBU Pastor’s Conference
Ouachita Baptist University
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
September 29, 2011

SESSIONS 1 and 2 – Dr. Doug Nykolaishen

Wisdom literature: Proverbs, SOS, Ecclesiastes, Job (disputed)

Why do we not preach wisdom literature often?
1. Don’t know how to interpret these easily
2. Not a lot of theologians and commentators have written on wisdom writings and those that have often conflict
3. Wisdom writings don’t seem to fit the rest of the Bible naturally
4. Not a lot of “Thus saith the Lord.” human thoughts, reflections
5. Not very feel-good.

Why should we?
We get to enter into the struggles of the people and it helps us understand people’s pain better. Easier to understand Job than Paul (who had struggles followed by triumphs)

1. Who is Qohelet?
Not exactly sure what it means.
“the convener, speaker or leader in an assembly”
Probably not a name
Perhaps like the way people use the word “pastor”

2. Is Qohelet the author of the book?
Was it Solomon?
Early Jews claimed it was
“Son of David, King of Jerusalem” (would seem to be Solomon)
Many clues in ch.2 point to Solomon

On the other hand…
Tremper Longman’s PhD, “Fictional Acadian Autobiographies”
Ecclesiastes has parallels with Acadian autobiographies that were clearly fictional and understood to be so by contemporaries. It was a literary form.
Eccles. 1:12 – an odd thing for Solomon to say
Eccles. 1:16 – how many kings before Solomon? 1
1:1-2, 3rd person
1:3-11 writer or Qohelet?
12:8-13 writer speaking of Qohelet in 3rd person
All the space in between – 1st person Qohelet speaking

Perhaps all the evidence suggests the writer used a familiar literary genre from the time and adopted the persona of Solomon.
Not pretending to be Solomon, just reminding the people of Solomon.
two reasons to write like this:
1. Causes the reader to think of the ideas of Qohelet as the ideas of a wise, experienced man
2. At the same time able to distance himself from some of Qohelet’s ideas

How you view authorship will affect how you interpret the book.

Does this challenge inerrancy? No, because the author is using a persona through a literary device, not actually claiming to be Solomon. “Genre is the critical issue.” “Genre is no challenge to inerrancy.”
Everything that the author is trying to communicate is true.

How much is the author trying to distance himself from Qohelet?
Longman: argues the writer rejects Qohelet’s grim view of life.
Peter Enns: The narrator acknowledges Q’s view is valid in many ways (ch.12) but the narrator argues for a wider perspective. Narrator agrees with what Q says about life “under the sun” but thinks Q’s thoughts should be put in a wider context. We have to bring God into the equation. Distances himself slightly: Q doesn’t have the final answer

Big idea?
“meaningless” – Hebrew “hevel”
Is he saying that everything is “hevel”?
Literal meaning- “breath” or “vapor”
Commonly used figuratively in OT:
1. transitory, fleeting
2. worthless, unsubstantial, futile
3. hard to understand, enigmatic
word occurs 38 times in 12 chapters (more than 3x per chapter)
words not always used in the same way in the Bible
this word uses all 3 of these meanings in the book

Everything he considers is “hevel” in one way or another (so you need not translate it the same way every time)

“hevel” in 1:2
Longman and NIV – meaningless
KJV – vanity
other – futility

When he says something is hevel, what does he compare that too?
Hebrew parallelism (parallel meaning)
Hevel most often paired with “a chasing after the wind.”. Next paired with “nothing was gained” (no profit).
***This would suggest most naturally the idea of “futility.”

Is everything futile? Literally everything?
Refers to “everything he’s going to discuss”
Does not refer to what God does.
v.3 helps us get the point

The author lets Qohelet talk for most of 12 chapters then comments on it briefly

“Is there anything good under the sun?” is a good question.
How can this help us?
1. Gives us a good dose of realism and perspective. So much of what we do has temporary significance.
2. Helps us in pre-evangelism. Shows the futility of life outside of something greater than us and this life.

CHAPTER 1
v.4
Humans are busy, but it’s like the earth itself: a lot is happening but nothing is really changing.

v.14
What people do is largely futile

16-18
Tried to understand what’s happening
But this only leads to more frustration “under the sun”
Talking about the best thinking that man can do on his own.

CHAPTER 2
Decides to try to find meaning in partying
Same result

v.4-11
Decides to play the acquisition game
Decides to build great things
He was successful at building these things
Not the thoughts of a loser
Probably more successful than anybody in Israel’s history
v.10 – he enjoyed it / not saying there is no reward at all
But, in v.11, the results were still temporary and the empty feelings after were worse than before

Begins to nuance his views
Wisdom is better than folly, but death is the great leveler that brings the wise and the foolish to the same place
He reacts strongly: “So I hated life…”

v.18-23
Tries to console himself with the thought that his creations would last after him
After death, though, it will pass to others and he will have no control

2:24-26, “a surprising section”
Some see this as a statement of resignation. “Since I have nothing better to do, I’m going to go ahead and do it.” (Longman’s view.)
But better to take this as a meaningful statement. “There’s nothing better.” = “It’s something good.”
Following verses show he views it as a gift from God.
He is lifting the veil for a second. God is there.
v.26 – contrasts two different kinds of people. Those who please God and those who do evil and end up working for the first group. Concludes that “this too is hevel” (referring to 2nd group).
A little different take on things.

***By the end of ch.2, acquainted with Qohelet’s big program:
“No matter who you are or what you’ve got, the enjoyment of life is God’s gracious gift.”

CHAPTER 3
v.1-8
Well known but often misunderstood
The point isn’t that we figure the time for things out, but that God has His own time and control.
v.9+ shows that we can’t grasp God’s time

v.11 – “eternity”
odd verse
The letters making up that word can also spell the word for “ignorance”
This fits the context better than “eternity”

v.12-15
What God does lasts

v.16-17
Paradox 1: justice and wickedness and righteousness
Since God is in control, things will happen on God’s timeline, not ours

v.18-21
Paradox 2: people dying like animals
all have the same breath
provocative thought – consider breath in Genesis

v.22
Conclusion
Enjoy the reward God gives and don’t strive for what’s beyond our grasp

SESSION 3 – Dr. Danny Hayes

The narrator is trying to say, “This is how Qohelet approaches life.”
But there are many problems with trying to live life through human wisdom.

Ecclesiastes resonates with modern America.
People are living like Qohelet.
Qohelet has no concept of the afterlife. He writes like this is all there is.
ch.12 – the fear of old age
In the middle section of the book, when Q is speaking, we need to be careful not to pull individual statements out as universal maxims, because the narrator shows some inconsistencies in Q’s thoughts.
With Q’s approach, you end up with nothing.

This is not the book of Romans.
Qohelet is not Paul and Ecclesiastes is not an epistle

CHAPTER 4
Long section on work
Major themes: can you find meaning through work? The problems with work. Death.
Hevel – fog or cloud
It looks like something’s there but it’s not
v.4-6, work is good but people just try to get ahead
v5-6, using proverbs – work hard but don’t overdo it / dialect
v.8, work hard all your life but nobody to leave it to at the end / work taken to an extreme is not good
v.9-12, the advantages of companionship
v.13-16, political power is also futile

CHAPTER 5
worship
Don’t be foolish
Better to listen than to go through empty rituals
v.1, ritualism
v.2-3, condemns empty, rambling prayers and empty, rash vows
v.8-9, wealth
Ecclesiastes and Job are qualifying the idea in Proverbs that hard work=prosperity (normative, but not a universal promise)
v.10, It’s never enough
v.11, as you get more your overhead goes up
v.12, wealthier people don’t sleep as well
v.13, wealth can be harmful to you
You can lose it easily
v.18, Q’s conclusion: enjoy what you have and view it as a gift from God (this is wise)
The joys of this life are a gift, but the blessings of this life are not enough.

CHAPTER 6
v.1-6, many wealth people don’t enjoy it and are not happy
v.1, “heavily” may mean “frequently”
v.3, in the ancient world the two blessings were (1) long life and (2) many children
This man should be happy.
But wealth doesn’t always equate with meaning.

v.10, a new section / shifts to the future
this is the exact middle of the book
v.12, skepticism

CHAPTER 7
v.1-14, problems and contrasts
This is from Q’s perspective
v.1, he sees death as an escape / sarcasm?
v.2, death is the destiny of everyone / narrator will respond to this in ch.12
v.17, don’t be stupid
v.16, Don’t get fanatical about wisdom and righteousness
v.23, these virtues are unattainable

v25-8:1, shocking section
Doesn’t have a high view of people, especially women
searching/finding formula through this section / in ch.12 the narrator will appeal to this formula
v.26, may be referring to ungodly women
v.29, theological assessment

CHAPTER 8
v.1, either wraps us previous unit or introduces a new one
Longman – sarcasm
Possibly adopting and repeating a common proverb, not arguing it himself
v.2, how to act with the King
v.10-15, questioning justice
v,14-15, the basic problem of Job
Contrast this with Paul who did not despair
v.16, he sees God behind this but he sees no consistency so he doesn’t understand

CHAPTER 9
v.1-2, everybody dies
We see no concept of or reflection on the afterlife.
Better to be alive than dead.
If you have no concept of an afterlife, despair is inevitable.
v.5-6, death may be better
v.7-10, if that’s our fate, might as well enjoy our futile lives as best we can / pessimism
v.9, imperatives
v.10, do these things because when you die it’s over

John Stott’s Basic Christianity

Posted on September 24, 2011 by Wyman

As a boy, I remember seeing certain titles on my dad’s bookshelf: C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, a boxed set of Calvin Miller’s Singer trilogy, a hardbound Francis Schaeffer trilogy including Schaeffer’s The God Who is There, and John Stott’s Basic Christianity. There were more, but these were the ones I remember most, probably because, largely through my father’s influence, each of these books came to have quite an impact on my own life.

I should clarify: the writings of John Stott have had an impact on my life for some time, but I have only recently come to experience John Stott’s seminal Basic Christianity. “Seminal” is not a word that should be used lightly, but it justly applies to this amazing little work from the pen of one of Evangelicalism’s most prolific lives and ministries. I turned to this book after the recent death of Stott, and I regret now that it has taken me so long to do so.

Part introduction, part summary, part apologetic, Basic Christianity has achieved the unlikely goal of being both an illuminating explanation of the faith suitable for nonbelievers and an inspiring reminder of the faith suitable for long-time believers. The book is written in a style that is deceptively simple. I say “deceptively,” because, in truth, Stott has handled a number of profoundly deep truths in this little work in a style that is conversational and easily accessible. Part of Stott’s genius was his ability to communicate through clear explanation and deft illustration fundamental biblical verities that are, to steal from Luther, “shallow enough to wade through but deep enough to drown in.”

Stott covers aptly the nature of God, man’s sin nature and need for a Savior, the person, work, and ministry of Jesus, how one comes into the Christian life, and the privileges and responsibilities of one who has come into the Christian life. He writes convincingly, carefully, and with great erudition and learning. His apologetic for the resurrection is particularly noteworthy. Furthermore, his handling of the truths of justification and sanctification is tremendous and, for this believer, very helpful and thought-provoking.

If you would like a wonderful primer to give to a person with whom you are sharing the faith, I would highly encourage Basic Christianity. If you would like a compelling and, frankly, enjoyable refresher on the faith, I would highly encourage this book again.

Basic Christianity is wonderfully lucid, helpful little book that you will not regret reading or giving to a friend or loved one.

John 11:45-57

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Wyman

John 11:45-57

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, ⁴⁶but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. ⁵⁰Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” ⁵¹He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation,⁵²and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. ⁵³So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. ⁵⁴Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples. ⁵⁵Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

When we say that a person is polarizing, we do not often mean it as a compliment. On the face of it, being a polarizing person simply means that those around you are divided into differing, conflicting camps concerning what to make of you or of some position you are advocating. Many great men and women are polarizing people. Of course, many bad men and women are polarizing. People may be polarizing for any number of reasons, sometimes good and sometimes bad.

The Lord Jesus was and is polarizing. He was perfect and right, good and without sin, but His person and presence and teaching and works set men and women at odds with one another and, oftentimes, at odds with Him. Of course, Jesus acknowledge this fact. In Matthew 10, Jesus said:

³⁴ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

It almost seems like the most polarizing moments in the life of the Lord Jesus were those moments following some great display of His own power and glory. This can be seen in the aftermath of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead at the end of John 11.

The reactions to Jesus in the wake of this healing were fascinating. They reveal much about the minds, hearts, and socio-political atmosphere of first century Judaism. They are also fascinating for how they mirror the reactions Jesus receives today.

I. Acceptance and Belief (v.45)

It is a sad but realistic fact that the gospels record more instances of people rejecting Jesus than of people accepting Jesus. Most of the gospel of John is tragically tied up with Jesus’ conflict with those who rejected Him. This is sad, but also necessary, for, in point of fact, most people rejected Jesus then as most people reject Him now. So while we wish the gospels offered us long passages chronicling wave after wave of converts, we know that this neither was nor is the case.

That being said, those brief unadorned passages in which we see people coming to Jesus in acceptance and belief are indescribably beautiful. Consider verse 45 and its record of those who were moved to belief after seeing the raising of Lazarus.

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him

Like a largely-silent revolution in the midst of clamoring doubters, we see that many do come to Jesus. “Many” is not “most,” but it is still significant. Notice that those who believe are from that group that went with Mary to meet Jesus and saw what He did at the tomb of Lazarus. They believed because they saw His power exhibited and His glory displayed.

In John 20, we see that Thomas believed only after seeing the wounds of the cross. In reaction to this, Jesus spoke of those who believe because they have witnessed miracles and those who believe without having seen miracles:

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Indeed, it is even more beautiful when a person believes outside of physical evidence, but it is still no small thing when people believe because of physical evidence. These who believe here believe because of what they witnessed at the tomb of Lazarus.

Some of you have likewise believed because of what you have seen. It required more than the instruction of your parents to believe. It required more than words from the pulpit. Some of you have seen some great work of God and have been brought to faith through a great display of God’s power.

Some of you have not seen physical evidences, but you were overwhelmed at some point by the power of the gospel itself. You believed because you heard and the truth of what you heard pierced your heart. The gospel was the miracle, and that miracle was enough.

Some of you have not believed, either because you demand enough evidence to remove all question or because you have heard the gospel and you hate it. If this is you, you will see that there are those in our text who were the same way. But scripture pictures unbelief in a tragic light, not in a noble light.

Belief is the minority position in scripture, but it is the path to salvation.

II. Indecision and Appeal to Religious Authorities (v.46)

Others seem to be unable to decide. Caught in the throws of their indecision, they revert to the comfort of religious authority. In other words, they run to the religious powers-that-be.

⁴⁶but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

There is a kind of comfort in religious authority, is there not? Many people feel the pull of the gospel, the appeal and power of Jesus. Many feel drawn to Him but will not come because of how the teachings and person of Jesus conflict with their religious customs.

So many do what these indecisive people do: they run to their priest, their rabbi, their preacher, their imam, their whatever. Standing on the edge of belief, they collapse back into the safe sanctuary of religious authority.

To be sure, these who went to the Pharisees may have had more deliberately pernicious goals. Perhaps some of them simply wanted to “rat Jesus out” so that He would be caught and punished. But there can be no doubt that many ran to the Pharisees because of the comfort that their authoritative-sounding pronouncements offered those who were threatened by this new and strange teaching.

Have you ever experienced the conflict between religious tradition and the pull of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Have you experienced His attractive appeal only to be unable to break free from the religious authorities and their pronouncements?

Once again we see the conflict between religious custom and the living, breathing, Word of God. Once again we see the power of religious authorities over the God-Man, Jesus the Christ. Beware the religious customs that keep you from Jesus.

III. Rejection Based on Fear at What Acceptance of Jesus Will Cost (v.47-48)

Many of the chief priests and Pharisees rejected Jesus on different grounds. John’s gospel allows us to overhear their concerns:

⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Their concerns seem to be two-fold:

· Jesus is threatening to take their followers away from them.

· Jesus, by drawing the attention of the Roman, threatens the safety and security of the nation.

The concerns are quite different in many ways, but what they have in common is a fear of the cost of Jesus for themselves and their national identity. They fear, in other words, that Jesus might overthrow their own personal kingdoms as the religious elites as well as their national identity.

Say what you will about the priests’ and Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus, but you must admit that they rightly understood the cost of accepting Jesus. They rightly understood that Jesus is a threat to the status quo, to the normal conditions to which they had become accustomed.

There is a cost to accepting Jesus. Jesus said this Himself many times, perhaps most notably in Luke 14:

²⁵Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³²And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ³³ So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Yes, there is, indeed, a cost to accepting Jesus. William Faulkner said this well in his novel, If I Forget Thee Jerusalem.

“If Jesus returned today we would have to crucify him quick in our own defense, to justify and preserve the civilization we have worked and suffered and died shrieking and cursing in rage and impotence and terror for two thousand years to create in man’s own image…”[1]

The cost of following Jesus is the loss of our own kingdom, our own vision of reality itself. For this reason, many of the religious authorities rejected Jesus. The truth of the matter is that, in rejecting Jesus on the grounds that the cost of accepting Him was too great, many of the chief priests and Pharisees were being more honest than we are when we attempt to accept Him with no regard to the cost at all.

Let me ask you: what has it cost you to accept Jesus? What have you had to give up? What threat did or does Jesus pose to your own comfort?

It is not for me or you to make definitive pronouncements on the spiritual condition of a man or woman who claims to have accepted Christ. Only God knows the true state of a person’s standing before Him. But is it not fair and right to say that if a person claims to have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and if that person has never had to give anything up for Christ, and if that person has never felt the great threat that Jesus and His gospel poses to the status quo, to the way things were before that person came to Christ, that that person has likely never come to Christ at all?

Many are those who turn from Christ because they are unwilling to pay the price of following Him. They rightly see that Jesus comes to threaten our personal kingdoms and our personal prestige and our personal comfort.

Many, still, are those who have seen the cost, ignored it, and claimed to be in Christ anyway. But this, too, is actually a rejection. Both of these are profound mistakes.

IV. Rejection for Reasons of Personal Advantage (v.49-53)

As the priests and Pharisees expressed their concern about the threat that Jesus was posing to their lives and to the general order of their society, the high priest Caiaphas, who would figure so prominently in the events of Jesus’ passion, stepped forward with some most unusual words.

⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. ⁵⁰Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” ⁵¹He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵²and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

What is happening here? What does Caiaphas mean? On the surface of it, this sounds almost Christian, almost as if Caiaphas understands the significance of Jesus’ death for the world. But this is not the case at all.

In point of fact, in mentioning that one man could die for the nation, Caiaphas was appealing to a Jewish belief that, in some sense, one person might die for the nation’s good. It was a tradition, a general belief, prevalent in first century Judaism, that this could happen.

Please note that when Caiaphas speaks of the benefit of Jesus dying for the people, he does not have in mind the Christian gospel. He is not thinking of Jesus taking on the sins of the people, paying the price for those sins, defeating sin, death, and hell, and then being raised again. He is not thinking of Jesus’ saving substitution on the cross, of Jesus dying as a propitiation for our sins.

In point of fact, Caiaphas is viewing the death of Jesus as an act of political expediency and advantage. He has rejected Christ and His claims of deity. He wants to see Jesus die. Yes, he believes that, in some strange way, the death of Jesus might benefit the Jews. But this is not faith. This is not trust. This is not acceptance. This is a rejection born on the wings of promised advantage.

Caiaphas is being an opportunist here, a politician. He is being self-serving. Any faith he is showing here is mainly faith in the supposed benefits and general idea of one man dying for the many. It is faith in an assumption, not in a Savior. It is faith in a hope, not in Jesus. He hopes that the death of Jesus might benefit them all, might spare Roman tyranny any further advance.

His argument seems plausible, and it carries the day.

⁵³So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. ⁵⁴Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples. ⁵⁵Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

The stage is set. The motives behind the rejection of Jesus varied with the people. Most rejected and some believed. Those that rejected did so to remove a threat, to punish an assumed blasphemy, or to benefit the nation politically. Many and varied are the reasons why people reject Jesus. But those who truly come do so for one reason: because they see Jesus as Lord and Savior and King and God and Master of all. Those who reject Jesus walked many paths to reject Him. Those who come to Jesus, however, come only and always on bended knees of praise and joy.

How about you? Where do you stand in this tapestry of reaction to Jesus? Have you accepted Him, trusted in Him, embraced Him as Savior? Or have you been spurned by what it will cost to follow Him? Have you been encouraged to reject Him by some thought of personal advance and security in the world?

Oh, there is a cost to following Jesus, but it is a blessed, sweet cost. There is freedom in giving all to come to Christ. There is freedom in His yoke. There is freedom in slavery to Christ.

Do not follow the many who reject.

Come to Him in faith and receive the gift of eternal life, now and hereafter.

[1] William Faulkner. If I Forget Thee Jerusalem [The Wild Palms]. (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), p.115.

Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Wyman

Note: I wrote this review nine years ago. Since that time, for a number of reasons, I have changed much of my opinion of Metaxas’ book. I’ve decided to leave this review up but link to my recent (2020) review of Stephen R. Haynes’ The Battle for Bonhoeffer: Debating Discipleship in the Age of Trump that, I think, will explain some of my own shifting views on Metaxas’ book and Metaxas himself. It probably won’t explain it to anybody’s real liking, but I think the general idea comes through. Anyway, here’s my earlier review, unedited, but please follow the link for a more updated opinion. There is much I’d change about this review with almost a decade of reflection between then and now.

Eric Metaxas’ Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy has already achieved the status of a modern biography classic. Having just finished it (technically, having just finished listening to my Kindle read it to me over a few very long drives), I would say that this status is justly deserved. Metaxas has produced a work that is illuminating, inspiring and informative. A towering figure like Bonhoeffer is deserving of a worthy chronicler, and Metaxas does not disappoint.

Metaxas handles the nuances and complexities of the early-twentieth century theological landscape with erudition and finesse. Without lapsing into Evangelical hagiography, he depicts Bonhoeffer as a sincere believer in the Lord Jesus who had a high regard for scripture truth, for the Christian life, and for Christlikeness. His handling of Bonhoeffer’s activities in the resistance, as well as his demonstration of how Bonhoeffer’s mind and convictions developed, leading him into the resistance, was most interesting and helpful.

Bonhoeffer was a complex figure who has been claimed by various camps over the years. He does not fit neatly into any camp, however. This means that various Christian subcultures will have no problem finding things about Bonhoeffer that trouble them as well as things that delight them. This being said, Metaxas has, in my opinion, driven a stake through the heart of the supposed “liberal Bonhoeffer” by showing him to be a man with a healthy distrust of the siren songs of theological modernity and its erstwhile discontents. He demonstrates Bonhoeffer’s tenacious hold on the gospel of Christ, his desire for biblical preaching (his frustration at the liberal preaching he encountered in New York and his preference for conservative, Bible-based preaching is most telling), his rejection of empty, cultural, nominal Christianity, and his desire not to remove the scandal of the cross.

Metaxas nimbly, judiciously, and impressively reveals the heart and mind of his subject in ways that will deeply affect the reader. About the highest compliment one can pay a biography is to say, upon finishing it, “I feel that I know the man.” I daresay you will most likely say this after finishing this wonderful work.

I was deeply moved by Metaxas’ handling of Bonhoeffer’s relationship with Maria, his fiance. His treatment of Bonhoeffer’s developing thought leading up to his participation in the resistance was extremely helpful and insightful. In particular, I was struck by the sheer doggedness of Bonhoeffer’s moral vision as he looked in horror at who Hitler was and what He was about.

It is a fascinating tale of the collision between Christian conviction and evil. Like many people, I was generally familiar with Bonhoeffer’s story as I approached this biography. I have been caught up (again, like so many others) in an interest in and admiration of Bonhoeffer ever since I read The Cost of Discipleship in college, an experience that ranks right up there (almost) with my first reading of Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Even so, this biography deepened both my understanding of Bonhoeffer and my appreciation for him.

One or two sections of Metaxas’ book may be a bit much for some in terms of the difficulty of the subject matter. I’m speaking mainly of his discussion of the theological controversies and the overall theological milieu surrounding Bonhoeffer in his school days. But I would think that most people would find even these sections very interesting.

This truly is a worthwhile, significant book, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

John 11:1-57

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Wyman

John 11:1-57

¹Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.² It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. ³So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ⁷Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” ¹²The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” ¹³Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” ¹⁷Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. ²¹Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” ²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” ²⁸When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³²Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. ³⁴And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” ⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” ⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, ⁴⁶but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. ⁴⁷So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. ⁴⁸If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” ⁴⁹But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. ⁵⁰Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” ⁵¹He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵²and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. ⁵³So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. ⁵⁴Jesus therefore no longer walked openly among the Jews, but went from there to the region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and there he stayed with the disciples. ⁵⁵Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. ⁵⁶ They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That he will not come to the feast at all?” ⁵⁷Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

I once heard somebody say that the question “Why?” is the bullet we put in our gun when we want to shoot at God. The man who said this was suggesting that there is a kind of doubt that does not want answers. What it really wants is the death of God Himself. This is true of some people. Many people do in fact take the question “Why?” and put it in their guns and shoot it at God.

But “Why?” is not always a bullet. Sometimes it is simply a cry. When offered from a sincere heart burdened under the weight of some calamity, “Why?” is a natural question that God welcomes from the hearts of His children. The Lord has never hated the honesty of His children. The Lord has never scolded His children for their sincere struggles of heart and mind and soul.

This is what Jesus encountered when He received news that His friend, Lazarus, was sick. Lazarus’ sisters had sent word to Jesus that their brother was very ill. Jesus, amazingly (from our perspective), declined to run to them immediately. Instead, Jesus waited. Jesus waited and Lazarus died.

This led to Jesus being asked “Why?” by many who were surrounding Him. What we discover from Jesus is that there was, in fact, an answer to the “Why?” Jesus was not acting carelessly or thoughtlessly. Jesus waited because He wished to teach everybody involved with and surrounding this controversy a number of things about God and about Himself.

In other words, Jesus used the occasion of this tragedy as an opportunity for revelation. He reveals, here, a number of important truths and realities in the death and raising of Lazarus. As you consider what He reveals, I want to encourage you to let these revelations of Himself help you understand why the Lord might be allowing certain things to happen in your life as well. Let these revelations of Christ’s own person redeem your own questions of “Why?”

More than that, though, let us allow this story to draw us further into the person of Christ. Let us allow this story to draw us into more fervent worship.

I. Jesus Reveals the Reasons for His Allowance of this Tragedy (v.1-27)

Let us begin with the bare facts of the story. We will start at the beginning:

First, we see a family. The family consists of two sisters and a brother: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Lazarus is sick. He is sick enough that the sisters send word to Jesus to come. As many commentators point out, they never said, “Come at once!” The truth of the matter is that they did not have to. It is enough to let Jesus know that His friend is ill. Friends don’t have to tell friends to come. It is assumed in the news itself. But Jesus does something unexpected when He hears the news.

⁴But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Jesus waits. He does not go at once. There is no earthly reason why He cannot go at once. But that is one of the points. Jesus is trying to reveal something above and beyond earthly reasoning.

This is hard for us to get, isn’t it? Some of you have experienced the waiting of Jesus. Some of you know what it is to call for Him now only to receive His word, “I will come when I come.” It is a painful, soul-searching kind of experience. We do not understand when God does not work on our timetable. But oftentimes He does not. When He does not, as we will see, there is always a reason.

So He waits. Then, after His waiting, He prepares to go to His friend.

⁷Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”

The “Why?” begins immediately. “Why do you want to go back to Judea? They want to kill you there!” Jesus responds by speaking of time. The Jews viewed a day as having 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. On the one hand, He is saying something important here about time and God’s orderly plan. Jesus reveals that there is an order to things, and order than cannot be manipulated or changed by human caprice or care. Jesus knew that He would die, but He also knew that He would not die now at the home of Lazarus. It was not His time.

Of course, Jesus had already revealed Himself to be the light of the world, and He is drawing on that image as well. He is the light and the world is in darkness. He is light and truth. It is better to walk with Jesus in the light, even if that light reveals danger, than to have your mind and heart and affections darkened by worldly thinking.

They ask “Why?” and Jesus says, “Trust me. Trust me and come.” Then Jesus reveals the reason for their journey.

¹¹After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” ¹²The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” ¹³Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

It is a humorous scene, almost. “Lazarus is asleep,” Jesus says. “Let us go wake him.” “If he’s asleep, he will wake up,” they demur. I imagine Jesus pausing here. “He’s dead,” Jesus reveals. Then the collective acknowledgement from the disciples: “Aaaaaaaaaah.” All of this is punctuated with Thomas’ unknowing but noble declaration: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

I imagine Jesus shaking His head in bemused, benign frustration at this. So they set off.

¹⁷Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

Lazarus has died. Mary sits in mourning. Martha runs to meet Jesus. If you look at the story of Mary and Martha at the end of Luke 10, you will find that this is consistent with their demeanors: Martha, ever busy, and Mary, still and reflective.

Martha runs to Jesus when she hears He has come. She runs in faith but she runs with a “Why?” on her lips.

²¹Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

There is faith here, but also a kind of indictment. Martha believes that the Lord can do whatever He wants to do, but she questions as well. Not only does she question, she offers a mild rebuke: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Many of us have felt this way before. Many of us have experienced the twin realities of belief and questioning. “I still believe you can do it, God,” we say. Then we continue, “But I don’t understand why You let this happen.” We are like the father in Mark 9:24 who cries out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Jesus responds:

²³Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

In speaking to the disciples at the beginning of their journey and in speaking to Martha here, Jesus reveals the reasons for His allowance of this tragedy. There are three stated reasons why He lets this happen. They are:

· So that the Father and the Son could receive greater glory. (v.4, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”)

· So that the disciples could believe in Him on a deeper level. (v.14b-15a, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”)

· So that Martha might be brought to a point of decision about Jesus. (v.25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”)

These three reasons (the greater glory of God, the deeper belief of God’s children, and the creation of a point of decision) do not answer all of our questions. They do not provide a definitive response to the “Why?” of our limited understanding. Indeed, nowhere in scripture does God promise such a response to His children. Nowhere in scripture is it suggested that we could grasp such a response even if it was given.

But these three reasons are indeed reasons, and important ones. The Lord allowed this tragedy to befall Lazarus and his family for the same reason He allows certain tragedies to befall us: so that God might get greater glory as He works in and through it and us, so that God’s children might come to know Him on a deeper level, and so that a point of decision can be created at which we decide whether or not we really do trust in and believe in this great God.

We see here the first of Jesus’ great revelations in this situation: the revelation of His reasons for allowing it to happen in the first place.

It is a good series of questions to ask ourselves when we are going through great trials:

· How can God get further glory in this tragedy?

· How can I believe more deeply in the Lord through this tragedy?

· What point of decision is the Lord bringing me to in this tragedy?

These are the reasons Jesus reveals for His allowance of this tragedy, and these are the markers that help us through our own tragedies.

II. Jesus Reveals the Depths of His Compassion (v.28-36)

In the midst of this great drama, Jesus also reveals His heart:

²⁸When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³²Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

This is a heart-breaking, pitiful scene. Mary bursts forth in emotion before her Lord. There seems to be an even sharper edge here than there was with Martha’s approach to Jesus. Martha, ever-expressive, was probably better at letting things out as they came. Mary had been sitting, ruminating on these events, reflecting on the death of her brother and the delay of Jesus. She cries out in frustration, then is overwhelmed by tears and the mourning crowd.

³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. ³⁴And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

This is a passage of great feeling, of great emotional depth. Jesus is touched by Mary’s great grief as well as by the mourning of the ladies in the funeral procession. Middle Eastern funerals were scenes of great, expressive anguish in this day. In many ways, they seem to be that way today as well.

William Barclay reveals that, in Jewish burial custom, “women mourners walked first, for it was held that it was woman who by her first sin brought death into the world, and therefore she ought to lead the mourners to the tomb.”[1] John tells us that Jesus was “deeply moved in his spirit” at the sight and sound of this mourning. This phrase is connected to the verb embrimasthai which is connected to the idea of a horse snorting. In other words, Jesus groaned from deep in His being at this pitiful sight.

To be sure, there is genuine mourning here on the part of Jesus. But what led Him to this great grief? Why does Jesus grieve?

He grieves, first, at the death of a friend. Jesus was fully God and fully man. He was not untouched by the death of a beloved friend. He loved Lazarus and Lazarus was dead. The fact that Jesus knew how this would play out did not undo the pain of that moment.

He grieves, also, at the pain of the surrounding family. He loves Mary and Martha. They, too, are his dear friends. Their hurt and even their frustration at Him weigh heavy on His heart. He does not weep because He made a mistake in delaying. On the contrary, He did not make a mistake. His timing was and is perfect. He does not regret the decision. But He wept because of the pain of the ordeal they were going through.

The Lord God is not stoic in the face of human suffering. He is not unmoved by human tears. He is immutable, unchanging, and perfect, yes. But He is the God who weeps over suffering humanity. He is compassionate and tender in His mercies. He weeps at and with the weeping of the Jews.

But there is more that is happening here, and I think we miss something important if we miss this. Let us remember that one of the reasons Jesus delayed and allowed this to happen was so that people might know Him more deeply, might believe in Him as the Christ. He wanted God to get the glory and knew that He would be glorified in this as well.

In other words, He wanted His followers, once again, to view the world and all that happens in it through the eyes of redeemed men and women who have been let in on the great and glorious marvel of the grace of God. He wanted them (as He wants us) not to cease to be human, but to be human with minds that had been touched by holy fire and that now could see things from the vantage point of the Kingdom of God.

In this sense, Jesus’ grief is not only sorrow. There is pain and frustration in it as well.

Some suggest that Jesus’ tears are misunderstood by the crowd here (and by many of us) as being part of the mourning process, but that, in fact, that is not why Jesus cries. Francis Moloney, for instance, suggests that:

“The careful use of another verb for the weeping of Jesus (dakryo is used for Jesus’ weeping, whileklaio is used for both Mary and ‘the Jews’ in vv. 31,33) indicates that Jesus’ tears cannot be associated with the surrounding mourning process. He weeps because of the danger that his unconditional gift of himself in love as the Good Shepherd…the resurrection and the life who offers life here and hereafter to all who would believe in him…will never be understood or accepted. While Mary moved towards Jesus…there was hope that one of the characters had come to faith. Once she joined ‘the Jews’ in their sorrow and tears Jesus’ promises seem to have been forgotten, and Jesus weeps in his frustration.”[2]

There is some merit in this view. After all, in Luke 19 this is precisely why Jesus weeps:

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴²saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.⁴³For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus knows what it is to weep over the disbelief people. He did so over Jerusalem and there can be no doubt that this is happening here as well.

I want quickly to add, however, that I do not believe this is an either/or: either Jesus wept in pure grief at the death of a friend or Jesus was weeping in heart-broken frustration at the failure of those witnessing this scene to grasp who He is. Grief does not come in neat categories. There is a lot happening here, and no doubt there is a lot happening in the heart of the Lord Jesus as well.

I want to suggest that we see both of these elements in the tears of Jesus: grief and heart-broken frustration. He grieves with their tears and He grieves at what He knows their tears mean. He grieves because a friend is dead and friends are hurt and mourning. He grieves also that those surrounding Him, including His friends, cannot seem to bridge the gap between their verbalized belief in Him and what they actually believe in their hearts.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, pain and tragedy is ground zero in the battle for belief. It reveals who we really are. The Lord does not begrudge tears. The Lord does not condemn concern. The Lord does not wish us to be unmoved and apathetic in the midst of tragic loss. We do not believe less because we cry. We do not believe less because we grieve. We do not believe less because we wonder why.

But is it not true that the arena of pain is that arena in which the truth of our hearts are revealed? We may weep in the midst of tragedy, but we dare not weep as an atheist or non-believer might weep! Yes, let us mourn, but let us never mourn as people who have no hope! Let us struggle to understand, but let us never believe that there is no answer!

What do our tears say? Do we really believe? Do we really trust? Do we really know that God is with us, that He will never leave us or forsake us?

The Lord Jesus reveals a heart of compassion here. He reveals a heart that gives us hope in the deepest pain.

III. Jesus Reveals His Divine Authority (v.37-44)

Above all else, though, Jesus reveals His divine authority. I love this! Watch:

³⁷But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” ³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”

The conflict between Jesus’ true grasp of reality and the crowd’s earthly vantage point is seen here once again. Martha, ever-practical, is concerned about the smell since her brother has been dead four days. William Barclay offers a fascinating explanation of the significance of Lazarus being dead four days:

“It was the Jewish belief that the spirits of the departed hovered around the tombs for four days, seeking an entrance again into the body of the dead. But after four days the spirits finally left for the face of the body was so decayed that they could no longer recognize it.”[3]

Ah, so in their minds Lazarus is really, really dead! Jesus breaks forth more light:

⁴⁰Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

See here the reasons, again, for Jesus allowing all of this to happen: belief and glory! The drama reaches a crescendo as Jesus comes to the tomb:

⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

Imagine the scandal of this! Just imagine it: yelling at a dead man in a tomb! Dead men don’t hear us when we call to them.

I grew up attending Thomas Sumter Academy, a small school in Dalzell, SC, named after the Revolutionary War General Thomas Sumter. In my hometown you can visit the tomb of General Thomas Sumter. As a boy I had somebody tell me that if you went to General Sumter’s tomb and marched around it three times saying, “General Thomas Sumter, watcha doin’ in there?” at each pass, that after the third time if you stopped and listened General Thomas Sumter would say…“Nothing.” (Ponder that for a while and you’ll get it!)

Dead men don’t respond when we call to them! Shouting at graves is the epitome of futility for us.

Yes, but Jesus is no mere man. Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and Earth and He has authority over sin, death, and hell. So Jesus shouts, “Lazarus, come out!” What happened next was jaw-dropping:

⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Jesus, the Lord. Jesus, God with us. Jesus, the God-man. Jesus, He who has divine authority over death. Jesus, the King!

Oh, friends, did you hear what He said? “Unbind him, and let him go!” Jesus, the One who sets the captives free. Jesus, the One who unwraps our burial wraps and shouts, “Live!” over the previously dead.

Now we see, don’t we? Now we see that the Lord Jesus was not only wanting to reveal certain important truths. We see that Jesus was also wanting to reveal what He does for all who will come to Him. Jesus is in the business of removing the shackles of our lives. Jesus is in the business of calling the dead out of their tombs even today.

Marjorie Maddox has spoken of herself before she accepted Jesus as being like Lazarus:

A lazarus, dead and still dying,
I stink with the rotting
of sin wrapped tight about limbs
limp with what man is and isn’t.

by my fault,
my own fault,
my own most grievous fault…[4]

Yes, now the whole amazing truth begins to settle in on us: I am Lazarus. I am dead in my sins and trespasses. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23). I am undone in the disease of my own rebellion. “For the wages of sin is death…” I am already decomposing, stinking in my own decay. “For the wages of sin is death…”

But then I hear a voice, “Wyman, come out of there! Come out, Wyman! Come out of there and live!” “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”

Can it be? Can it be that the Lord Jesus is calling to me, here, in this place of death? Can it be that He, Jesus, has called to me in my sins to come? And you? Can it be that the Lord Jesus is calling to you, here, now?

It can be, and it is! He gets the glory and I get the life! I live! I live because He lives and because He offers me grace! I live because He has the authority to grant it and to heal me. He has the authority to free me from my sins because He took my sins into Himself on the cross and paid the price for them. As for the grave, Jesus has the authority to call me out of it because He Himself walked out of a grave once. Jesus can call you out of the grave because He defeated the grave when He walked out of His tomb on the third day.

Jesus is the victor over the grave, over death, over sin, over hell. He and He alone can call me out of this death. He and He alone can reach to me with nail-pierced hands and bring me home.

Dear friends, how many of you are bound in the burial cloths, buried in the tomb of death? How many of you still dwell in the tomb of your own sins? How many of you have not come to Jesus because you will not come?

Do you hear Him? Do you hear Him calling? “Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out! Come out and be free! Come out and live! Come out and kneel before the Son who sets you free!”

[1] William Barclay, The Gospel of John. vol.2. The Daily Study Bible (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Presss, 1968), p.103,113.

[2] Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B., The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina, vol.4. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press,1998), p.331.

[3] Barclay, 115-116.

[4] Marjorie Maddox, “The Sacrament of Penance.” First Things. (April 1999), p.9.

John 10:11-21

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Wyman

John 10:1-21

¹“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. ²But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. ³To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. ⁵ A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. ⁷So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” ¹⁹ There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. ²⁰Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” ²¹Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

As a pastor, I’ve done a lot of funerals over the years. Funerals are sacred moments, moments of remembrance, reflection, celebration, worship, and proclamation. Every funeral is a little bit different since every person is a little bit different, and yet every funeral has certain things in common. For instance, in the vast majority of funerals I’ve done, one particular text comes up time and time again. Not always, but often enough where it has made a powerful impression on me. Here is the text:

¹The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
³He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

⁴Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
⁶Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

There it is. I bet many of you guessed it before I read it! These are the words people turn to time and again in their greatest moments of loss and tragedy: “The Lord is my shepherd…”

It is a powerful and unexpected image of God. God as a shepherd certainly evoked very definite ideas in the ancient world, but it does so no less in our world today. Even in our culture (which has a bit of a distance between ourselves and shepherds) we understand that the word speaks of leadership, protection, care, provision, guidance, and even love.

It is, as I say, a powerful idea. Its power is amplified by the fact that the Lord Jesus applied the term to Himself in John 10, giving a poignant explanation of the image in the process. Let us consider, then, Jesus the shepherd.

I. Jesus is the True Shepherd Against All False Shepherds (v.1-10)

To begin, Jesus contrasts Himself with false shepherds that sought to do the people of God harm.

Jesus is the true shepherd against all false shepherds. Jesus stands always and ever against all counterfeit shepherds who seek to harm, mislead, and wound the flock of God. Jesus lists their many attributes:

· False shepherds seek to steal, take from, and profit from the flock of God. (v.1)

· False shepherds are not truly of the people of God. They are strangers. (v.5)

· The true people of God will not go after false shepherds. (v.8)

· False shepherds ultimately wish to destroy the people of God. (v.10)

Indeed, the church’s experience over the last two thousand years has confirmed the truth of this. Many are the false shepherds who seek to prey on the flock of God! Peter warned the early Christians of the same in 2 Peter 2:

¹But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. ²And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

Jude likewise spoke of these false shepherds:

¹²These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; ¹³ wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

Not all who claim to be shepherds truly care for the flock of God. Over and against these false shepherds, Jesus sets Himself. He describes His own attributes as the Good Shepherd:

· Jesus is given authority over the people of God. (v.3a)

· Jesus’ voice is the voice of truth. (v.3b)

· Jesus is the true leader of the people of God. (v.3c)

· Jesus goes before the people of God, and we follow Him. (v.4)

· Jesus is the way into the flock, the family of God. (v.7)

· Jesus is the salvation of the sheep. (v.9)

· Jesus gives life abundant to the sheep. (v.10)

You might ask, “But how can I tell when a shepherd is true or false?” Jesus answered this in Matthew 7:

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

False shepherds can be amazingly persuasive and seductive in the way that they seek to mislead the people of God, but what they cannot do is be Christ to the people of God. I would ask you if you are following after a false shepherd: Can he care for you like Christ can? Can he love you as Christ loves you? Can he save you as Christ can save you?

Of course, not even a true minister or undershepherd can be Christ, but a true minister will lead you to Christ and not to himself. A true undershepherd has only one desire: to bring you into an encounter with the risen Christ. The fruit of his ministry is nothing less than your own relationship with Christ.

Not so a false shepherd, a false minister. A false shepherd seeks to bring you only to himself. He seeks his own glory. He promises more than he can deliver. He seeks to replace Christ, but he cannot. He cannot be Christ to you. Only Jesus can be Jesus to you. The false shepherd does not bear the fruit of God. Jesus bore nothing but the fruit of God.

The false shepherd comes in disguise. He is not a shepherd at all. He is, as Jesus said, a “ravenous wolf.” Beware the wolves, church! Cling tightly to the shepherd!

Verse 3 speaks this of the true shepherd: “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name…” Here is the difference between the true shepherd and all false shepherds. The true shepherd knows His sheep by name.

Just a few nights ago, as you know, I was sitting in the hospital room with my dad. He had a terrible accident last Sunday in which he suffered a serious head injury. That night I sat with him, staying awake and watching him. About four in the morning, my dad had a serious seizure. It was a terrifying ordeal. As I cried out to the nurses for help, I could do nothing but pray and beg God to help my dad.

An army of nurses and doctors rushed into the room as my dad convulsed. One of them began loudly to call out his name: “Mr. Ewards,” she cried, “Mr Edwards!” I had been sent into the hall but I watched through the door: “Mr. Edwards,” she cried again.

After this third time I could contain myself no more. I put my head in the door and interjected, “It’s Mr. Richardson!” She immediately apologized and began to call him by his right name. It is terrifying enough to have a seizure, but to be called by a different name in the midst of it must add greatly to the confusion, and I did not want my dad to fear.

Church, your shepherd never calls you by the wrong name. He knows your name, for He is the true shepherd! False shepherds do not know the names of God’s sheep, for they do not care for the flock of God.

II. Jesus is the Self-Giving Shepherd (v.11-15,17-18)

The ultimate fruit, of course, is Jesus’ giving of Himself for the sheep.

¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And again in verses 17-18:

¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Five times Jesus says that He lays down His life for His sheep (v.11,15,17,18). He lays it down because it is His commission from the Father to do so. Earlier, in verse 7, Jesus announced, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” These two ideas (Jesus laying down His life for the sheep and Jesus as the door of the sheep) are related.

R. Kent Hughes has passed on an interesting story about the late G. Campbell Morgan, a powerful preacher and Christian from some years back. On a boat crossing the Atlantic, Morgan encountered Sir George Adam Smith, a famous Old Testament scholar. While conversing, Sir George told Morgan an interesting story.

He was one day traveling with a guide, and came across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him. The man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in. Sir George said to him, “That is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said Sir George. “I am the door,” said the shepherd. He was not a Christian man, he was not speaking in the language of the New Testament. He was speaking from the Arab shepherd’s standpoint. Sir George looked at him and said, “What do you mean by the door?” Said the shepherd, “When the light has gone, and all the sheep are inside, I lie in the open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door.”[1]

Ah, what an amazing image! In the Middle East, shepherds become the door for the sheep as they lay their bodies down. As they lay across the open space, they become the physical barrier of entry and exit.

Jesus, then, draws on this wonderful image in announcing Himself as the door who lays down His life for His sheep. But Jesus means so much more than the idea of becoming a mere physical barrier. He means that He lays down His body on the cross of Calvary to purchase all who will come to Him. He means that His life becomes the door into the family of God. We enter the flock and family of God only and always as we come to the Father through the crucified and resurrected Son. Jesus is the shepherd who gives His life. Jesus is the door, the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father except through this door that is Jesus.

Many shepherds have an affection for their sheep. They are concerned about their well-being. They wish them no harm. They will protect their sheep. They will even put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of their sheep. But how many shepherds will willingly take on death for their flocks? How many will take the sins of their sheep into themselves? How many will take on sin, death, and hell, dying a miserable death on a cruel cross for the sake of their sheep?

Ours is the self-giving shepherd who gives everything, His very life, for His sheep!

III. Jesus is the Inviting, Flock-Building Shepherd (v.16)

In laying down His life for the sheep, our shepherd calls all who will come into the fold.

¹⁶And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

To be sure, every deviant cult group on the religious horizon has claimed to be these sheep who “are not of this fold.” But Jesus is speaking here of the Gentiles, those who the Jews would have seen as outside and beyond the flock of God. To these the voice of Jesus calls. Notice that Jesus (a) brings these sheep, (b) calls them and (c) makes them a part of the one flock of God.

Our shepherd does not show favoritism. He is not content to have merely the ninety-and-the-nine! In Luke 15 Jesus tells this parable:

⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Our shepherd is the shepherd who goes out into the world gathering lost sheep into the fold. He calls and opens the way for all who will come! More than that, He uses His sheep to call others into the flock.

What a grand privilege this is! It is a privilege because we have experienced and know the wondrous love of the self-giving, inviting, flock-building shepherd. It is a privilege because He has laid down His life for us, and for the whole world. It is a privilege to call those outside the flock of God into the fold, into relationship with the living God.

Our God is the shepherd God. He is the shepherd who becomes a sheep who becomes the lamb of God offered as a sacrifice for the world. Our shepherd/lamb God is the calling, wooing, winning God. He is the saving, redeeming, protecting, life-giving God. Our God knows His sheep and we know His voice. He speaks to us and tells us that He loves us. He calls us to new life in His kingdom!

Then, through us, He calls out to the world: “Come! Come under the safety of the shepherd God! Come to the shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep! Come and see! Come and live! Come and dwell under My rod and My staff! Come unto Me, dear sheep! Come unto Me weary sheep! Come unto Me, heavy-laden sheep! Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. Come one, come all…and live!”

[1] R. Kent Hughes, John. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), p.267.

John 9:1-41

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Wyman

John 9:1-41

¹As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. ²And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶Having said these things, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud ⁷and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. ⁸The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” ⁹Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” ¹⁰So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” ¹¹He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” ¹²They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” ¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴ Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes.¹⁵ So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. ¹⁷So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.” ¹⁸ The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.²¹But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” ²²(His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.) ²³Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.” ²⁴So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” ²⁵He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” ²⁶They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” ²⁸And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. ²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ³²Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” ³⁴They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out. ³⁵Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” ³⁸He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. ³⁹Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

I hope you will forgive me if I tell you a story about my Great Grandfather. I say, “Forgive me,” because I am haunted by William Faulkner’s novel Light in August in which a minister, Rev. Hightower, drives his congregation crazy with constant stories about his Grandfather! I do not want to do that, but I would like to share something with you about my Great Grandfather, Wade Hampton Richardson. He went by “Hamp,” for short. He was my Grandaddy’s daddy. I never knew him or met him because he died when my Grandaddy was only twelve-years-old.

The story is that he grieved himself to death after the passing of his wife, my Great Grandmother Bridgette, who I likewise never knew or met. In doing some research on our family some years back, I found that the exact cause of his death was Pellagra, a vitamin deficiency disease that attacked and killed numbers of people in the American South in the early years of the twentieth century.

One of the effects of Pellagra is blindness and, in fact, Hamp lost his eyesight and went blind near the end of his life. My Grandaddy tells the story of his father calling in all the children to gather around his deathbed. He informed them that he would soon be passing away, a fact that was evident to all. He then informed the children that the Lord had restored his eyesight to him in his last days. The story is that the children looked shocked at such an idea. So Hamp said to them, “No, I’m serious. Look out that window. Just outside the window there is a bird on a tree limb.” He described the bird and the limb. All of his children looked and, behold, it was just as he had said. Shortly thereafter, he died.

It’s a comforting story to me, a nice story, no doubt, to some extent, because it involves one of my ancestors. But I like the idea of Jesus giving my Great Grandfather his eyes back just before the end, just so he could see his family one more time, just so he could see a bird on a limb one more time, or perhaps just as a symbolic reminder that the Lord is the God who gives sight to the blind.

Jesus will say, near the end of our text this morning, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (v.39). He says this in the context of His amazing, “I am the light of the world,” lesson. He taught that in chapter eight of John. Now he demonstrates it in chapter nine.

Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is He who gives sight to the blind. He did this for a man born blind in John 9, and, as we have come to expect, controversy erupted in the aftermath.

This morning, let us consider the main characters in this story: the religious crowd who opposed Jesus, the Lord Jesus Himself, and the man who received this amazing miracle. In doing so, we will witness the spiritual degeneration of the opposing crowd, the spiritual grandeur of the healing Savior, and the spiritual awakening of the man who was healed.

I. The Religious Opposition: Blind Before the Light

We see in the crowd of those who opposed Jesus a spiritual collapse and degeneration. It is not merely that they were blind. It is also that they were blind while standing in the very presence of the light. How could this be? How could those who witnessed the astounding miracles of Jesus not understand that He was from the Father? The text gives us many evidences of their blindness, but also many explanations for it.

· Theywere blinded by their religious customs. (v.13-16)

Our text significantly points out the timing of this miracle:

¹³They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. ¹⁴ Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. ¹⁵ So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”¹⁶Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

In both v.14 and v.16 the Sabbath again comes to the forefront of the discussion. In healing this man on the Sabbath, Jesus violated the religious customs that had grown up around and accumulated on the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. He did not violate or break the commandment itself, merely the customary religious explanation of what it meant to keep the Sabbath.

The Jewish opposition was blinded by their religious customs. Their secondary rules concerning keeping the Sabbath had grown so big that they could not see the Lord of the Sabbath working in their very midst!

It is a heartbreaking reality that religious people often let their religious customs blind them to the movements of God. We are, in many ways, no less guilty. When keeping the secondary rules of the religious community become so big that we cannot see God, then we have allowed those rules to become idols indeed.

· They were blinded by their refusal to believe. (v.18-21)

Of course, this opposition party simply refused to believe that Jesus was from God and doing the work of God:

¹⁸ The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight ¹⁹and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” ²⁰His parents answered, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. ²¹But how he now sees we do not know, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.”

Forget for a moment that rather humorous and sad spectacle of these parents protecting their own skin. The real tragedy here is that, faced with evidence of a divine miracle, these Jews relapse into simply denying that the man was ever sick. This is unbelief in its most pernicious form. When the evidence contradicts their assumptions, they simply deny the man was blind in the first place.

This is the blinding power of unbelief. When a person does not want to believe something, all the proof in the world cannot convince him or her otherwise. So it was with these who refused to believe. So it is today.

· They were blinded by their understanding of God. (v.24-25)

At the heart of their refusal to believe stood a conflict between what Jesus was doing and who they envisioned God to be.

²⁴So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” ²⁵He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

They fall back on their misguided creed and their own theological assumptions concerning God. “Give glory to God,” they tell this man. The assumption here is clear enough: they thought they understood God so well that anything deviating from their understanding must be deemed ungodly.

Religious convictions have often stood in the way of the gospel. Many will not come to Jesus today because of the ways in which He violates their creeds, their understanding of God. Many today oppose Jesus in the name of God. It is a position of profound irony and blasphemy, for Jesus is God among us.

· They were blinded by their refusal to listen. (v.26-27)

In their disbelief they pester this man with questions they refuse to hear answered.

²⁶They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” ²⁷He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

The man’s agitation is evident and understandable: “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

The sarcasm is justifiable here. After all, it is an exercise in folly to keep demanding an answer you will not even grant as being possible. So it was in the first-century and so it is today.

Perhaps you have experienced this before: the person who quite simply refuses to listen, the person who does not want to hear. They are not only blind to the truth of God, they are deaf to it as well.

· They were blinded by their religious pedigree. (v.28)

They next resort to one of their favorite tactics of evasion: the retreat to their religious pedigrees.

²⁸And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.

Ah! Earlier they appealed to Abraham in opposing Jesus. That did not turn out so well in chapter 8. Now they lift up Moses above Jesus. Of course, this man does not yet know enough of Jesus to know that before Moses was, Jesus was. Even so, he surely knows enough to see what is happening here. They fall back on their heritage, on their status as insiders.

Let us be perfectly clear on this: no degree of religious heritage or pedigree or ancestry will save you if you turn from the truth of God. They say, “We are disciples of Moses!” We say, “I come from generations of preachers and teachers and missionaries. I was raised in the Sunday School. My first spoken words were ‘Lottie’ and ‘Moon.’ I have the t-shirt. I’m on the inside.”

Good for you, as far as that goes, but I ask you: just how far does that go? Just how far can your religious heritage take you? I daresay not very far if you are using it to hide from the truth of God in and on your life!

· They were blinded by their arrogance. (v.29)

And, of course, they were an arrogant people, these who refused to acknowledge what Jesus was doing and Who He was from.

²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”

You will notice a repetition of certainty here: “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”

Their supposed knowledge had become the gold standard and basis by which they judged all things. This is arrogance, plain and simple. It is arrogant to plant your feet in your own mind and refuse to move from that position. It is arrogant to assert more than you can assert.

“We know…” Ah! But that’s the question, isn’t it? Do you really know? On what basis do you claim to know?

They were blinded by their own arrogance.

· They were blinded by their unteachable hearts. (v.34)

Hand-in-hand with arrogance was the assumption that they could not learn more of God. They were especially incensed at the suggestion that they might learn more of God from such a supposedly-lowly creature as this man.

³⁴They answered him, “You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?” And they cast him out.

It is always regrettable when a man or woman reaches the point that they do not believe they have anything else to learn about God. It is further regrettable when a man or woman refuses they could learn from a simple person like this man.

God will never shed new light that contradicts His Word, but He may yet shed further light from His Word in our lives. None of us have reached the point where we need learn no more. All of us are pilgrims along the way.

Do not assume, like these who opposed Jesus, that you have nothing more to learn!

II. The Savior: The Giver of Light

We see the spiritual degeneracy of those who opposed Jesus. We will see the spiritual growth of the man who received the miracle. But, in the midst of all, stands Jesus, the Savior, Lord and God of all. He neither falls nor rises in His understanding of God, for He was one with the Father.

Consider what the text reveals about Jesus.

· Jesus is the initiating giver of light. (v.1)

¹As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.

Notice that Jesus takes the initiative. He is passing by while the man is stationary. He sees the man while the man cannot see Him. Could there be a better explanation of conversion than this?

We were blind in our sins, lost, sitting in judgment. Then along comes Jesus and He casts eyes of mercy upon us. He sees us and calls to us. He touches us and heals us. He lifts us up and gives us a new song to sing.

Jesus is the initiating giver of light.

· Jesus is the displayer of God’s glory. (v.2-3)

He gives light and He does so to display God’s glory.

²And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”³Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Jesus pushes back against the assumption that this man’s blindness is a result of some particular sin. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

I agree with Theodore of Mopsuestia who pointed out that Jesus is not denying that the man and his parents are sinners. He is simply saying that, in the case of this man’s blindness, sin isn’t the issue. Rather, God wanted to work a miracle so as to display His glory in and through this man.

Let us be humble when seeking to diagnose our problems. We often attribute this or that to “an attack from the devil,” when, in fact, it may simply be a work of God in our lives to the furtherance of His great glory.

Jesus sought to display God’s glory in this man. This dear man becomes, then, the stage on which God decides to move and work. This is what Jesus does in all of His works with His people and with His church. He seeks to bring glory to God by transforming our lives.

· Jesus is the seeking Savior. (v.35a)

^35a Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said,

Like the one sheep who was lost, the Shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and seeks him out. Jesus is the seeking, searching, loving, reaching Savior. What an amazing picture! Jesus goes to the man and finds him.

· Jesus is the revealing Savior. (v.35b-37)

Having found Him, Jesus draws this man further into a relationship with Him by revealing who He is:

^35b “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”

Jesus is the revealer. First, He removes the man’s blindness. Now He fixes the man’s gaze upon Himself. Here again we see the divine initiative: the Lord Jesus reveals Himself to the man.

· Jesus is the judging Savior. (v.39-41)

Finally, the Lord announces judgment on those who reject the work of God or seek to stifle His movements in the world.

³⁹Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” ⁴⁰Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” ⁴¹Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Jesus, the Lord of mercy, likewise judges those who refuse to see. The Pharisees were guilty because they should have known the truth of God, because they were the recipients of the Law and prophets, and because they rejected the grace the Lord had shown them. Their guilt remained because they refused to accept the mercy of God in Christ.

III. The Man: The Recipient of Dawning Light

And finally we see the man himself. I like this man. He is a character. He seems mildly irritated by the religious controversy in which he finds himself even as he rejoices at what God has done in his life.

I believe it is best to speak of this man as the recipient of dawning light. We see in him a religious awakening, a passage from darkness to light. He has been healed, but he must journey to understand fully what has happened and, more importantly, by what hand it has happened.

The sun rises in his life. The light begins to spread. It illuminates all that he is and all he knows. Let us watch the progression:

· He acknowledges that something has happened to him. (v.9)

⁹Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

The man begins with the simple fact that something has happened to him. It is not a bad place to start, is it? When we are touched by Christ this is usually the sum total of our testimony in the very beginning. “I can’t explain it to you, but I know something has happened to me.”

· He recounts what happened. (v.11)

¹¹He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

He is able to recount the events of the miracle. He knows the raw facts: Jesus, mud, blindness, healing. He does not know the theological back story. At this point, how could he? But He knows the sequence of events.

· He is not in relationship with Jesus. (v.12)

¹²They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

His experience with Jesus is real, but there is no abiding relationship as of yet.

“Where is he?”

“I do not know.”

He has been touched by the Lord, but He does not yet stand in the Lord’s presence. There is still a distance in His own life and mind and understanding.

· He interprets Jesus through the lens of his spiritual upbringing. (v.17)

When the man ventures a religious explanation, he, of course, employs the religious terminology of his upbringing.

¹⁷So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he has opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

He does not yet see Jesus as an object of worship, but He knows there is something unique, something special about Him. “He is a prophet.” Again, this is not a bad place to start: a recognition that there is something special about this Jesus.

· He knows Jesus has power. (v.24-25)

Furthermore, He is a prophet with power, according to this man’s understanding. Do you see the growing light? He is progressing, learning and growing in grace.

He disclaims any special knowledge of Jesus, but this he does know: this Jesus is powerful and strong. He has touched him and healed him. He has something that others do not have.

· He grows uncomfortable with those who oppose Jesus. (v.26-27)

While he does not yet know fully what he believes, he begins to sense that something is amiss with those who refuse to believe.

One need not have a profound knowledge of Jesus to know that there is something wrong with rejecting Him. This is the position of the man. He begins to at least know what He does not believe. He does not believe what these people are saying about Jesus. He does not believe Jesus is a liar, a sinner, a demon. He does not believe Jesus is a sinner.

If you notice, they are essentially driving this man into the arms of Jesus with their absurd rejection of Jesus! He at least knows enough to know that what they are doing rings false and hollow.

· He begins to connect Jesus to God. (v.29-33)

The next step is reasonable enough. If the crowd that opposes Jesus is wrong to say that He is not of God, then it must be that He is of God.

²⁹We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” ³⁰The man answered, “Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. ³¹We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ³²Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. ³³ If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

The sun continues to rise, illuminating his mind and heart. It is still somewhat vague, but it is powerful nonetheless. This unnamed man begins to draw a connection between Jesus and God. “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

His eyes have been healed, but it is almost as if he is only now beginning to see. He sees the imprint of God on this Jesus. It is as if this man begins to entertain amazing thoughts now, thoughts that he never would have considered before. Could this man Jesus be from God in a special way, a unique way?

· He believes and worships. (v.35-38)

Then he finds himself again in the presence of the Jesus who touched Him. It is an astounding scene of soul-inspiring beauty:

³⁵Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ³⁶He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” ³⁷Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” ³⁸He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Finally! His healing is complete! The miracle is no longer a merely physical matter. He has been healed to see the truth and beauty and glory of Jesus. He has been touched by Jesus and his life will never, ever be the same.

The same Jesus calls to us today.

The same crowd opposes this Jesus.

But to those who come, He gives light and life, forevermore.

John 8:39-59

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Wyman

John 8:39-59

³⁹They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, ⁴⁰but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” ⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” ⁴⁸The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” ⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” ⁵²The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” ⁵⁴Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ⁵⁵But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” ⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

People say lots of things about Jesus, some good, some bad, some clear, some confused. The adjectives that might be offered for Jesus are too many to be counted. In the church, we have many: glorious, humble, majestic, meek, powerful, mild, strong. The list goes on and on. But I would like, this morning, to add another adjective, one that I believe the gospel of John has earned for Jesus: shocking.

Jesus was shocking.

If you read John’s gospel, which we have been working through for some time now, you will be unable to escape that conclusion. Jesus was shocking. He did shocking things He said shocking things.

At least, that seems to be what the religious authorities who confronted Him felt. It also seems to be what people feel today about Jesus, once they see Him for who He is. For instance, Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford, England, has recently argued that Christians should avoid using Jesus’ language in John 6 when speaking of the Lord’s Supper. In that chapter Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Bishop Harries writes:

“…people who are groping their way into Christianity can suddenly find themselves shocked and horrified, though they may be too polite to express such feelings, at the sacrificial, cannibalistic language of the Eucharist.”[1]

The Bishop goes on to explain that “it is very shocking imagery and needs a lot of explaining.”

To be sure, we need to make sure that people understand what Jesus said and how He said it. That is, after all, one of the purposes of preaching. But, honestly, can we hope to shield people from the shocking words of Jesus? And, more importantly, should we shield people from the shocking words of Jesus?

Shock has also been the common experience of many great believers in the past. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest minds the church has ever seen, wrote voluminously on the nature of person of Christ. His works are still read and studied today. Yet, later in his life, Aquinas had a vision of Christ that left him dumfounded. After this vision, he wrote, “I can write no more; compared with what I have seen, all that I have written seems to me as straw.”[2]

Oftentimes, it’s what I feel concerning Jesus as well: shock. Just when I think I know Him or have Him figured out, He catches me off guard with His astounding person, His confounding love, and His amazing grace.

I am shocked by Jesus all of the time.

Jesus is the unexpected, unpredictable, shocking Jesus. In fact, the many scenes we have seen thus far in John seem to start with curiosity, or bewilderment, or opposition, but they almost all end at the same destination: shock. The scenes in John build to a kind of crescendo. The tension builds in those who come to Jesus and press Him. They seem almost unable, at first, to want to hear what Jesus is saying. When they finally do, however, they fall into absolute shock. That shock then translates into either rage and opposition or awe and acceptance.

It happens time and again in John’s gospel, and it happens here in the latter half of John 8 as well. In particular, Jesus reveals three shocking things to His hostile audience.

I. The Origins of Opposition to Christ. (v.39-47)

Jesus has been in a protracted conflict with the Jewish authorities. He has been calling them to a realization of their lostness and a realization of His true nature. They are blinded by their pride and religious blindness. This is evident in their initial claim this morning:

³⁹They answered him, “Abraham is our father.”

They appeal to Abraham in an effort to bolster their religious credentials. “Abraham is our father.” Translation: “We are sure of our religious heritage. We are sure of the truth. We know who we are. We’re in the club. Our card has been stamped. We’ve got the history and the name and the pedigree. We know ourselves. You we do not know. Abraham is our father.”

Do you see? They are talking about origins, their origins. Abraham is their earthly father, their earthly origin. And, since Abraham was God’s man, they assume their biological pedigree assures their right standing before God. They think they know who their father is, but they do not.

Jesus responds by calling them out on their pretension assumptions:

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,⁴⁰but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹You are doing the works your father did.”

Ah! If Abraham was their father they would act like Abraham, and one thing Abraham definitely did was seek God’s will. If they were truly Abraham’s children, they would love what Abraham loved; they would love the things of God. They would, in other words, love Jesus, who was sent by the Father.

They respond to Jesus’ words with a none-too-subtle insult:

They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.”

Many people believe that, in saying this, the Jews were making an allusion to Jesus’ scandalous birth. This should be read with the accent on the “we”: “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father – even God.” In other words, they were suggesting that Jesus’ birth was the result of His mother being immoral. Many believe they were taking a veiled shot at Jesus, to use our terminology.

This is likely. No doubt rumors of Jesus’ shocking birth went ahead of Him wherever He went. And no doubt many made subtle and not-so-subtle accusations concerning what they considered the unseemly nature of Jesus birth.

Undeterred, Jesus takes the issue of origins to the next level by revealing to them the true nature of their father and, consequently, of their thoughts concerning Him. What He does is, to put it mildly, shocking.

⁴²Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. ⁴³ Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. ⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

I defy anyone to deny that these words are immeasurably jarring: “You are of your father the devil.”

He is speaking to the religious leaders of the land. He’s speaking to those who were considered to be the most godly, the most orthodox in their theology, the most doctrinally sound. This is what people thought of these leaders. It also happens to be what they thought of themselves.

And Jesus, the shocking Messiah King, walks right through the awe they were accustomed to eliciting and the politeness they were used to receiving and says something that was staggering in its offensiveness.

“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s will.”

Their minds must have reeled in horrified sickness at the very thought that Satan, the devil, was their father. After all, they have just reminded Him that Abraham was their father. Their objections to Jesus arose, therefore, from His, Jesus’, supposed divergence from the Abrahamic faith of the Jews. Their objections, in their minds, arose from their careful study of the Word of God, from their awareness of the rules and what they saw as Jesus’ violation of them, from their status as the religious gatekeepers. Their objections to Jesus arose, in their minds, from God Himself. They were, they thought, God’s men and this Jesus, they thought, was from the devil.

Jesus has the audacity to say to them that their true father is the devil, that they have been blinded to the truth of God, and that their minds are ensnared by the “father of lies” to such an extent that they can no longer hear or stand or abide by the truth?! Jesus dares to say to these religious upper-crusts that what they think is the truth of God concerning Jesus is really a lie from Satan concerning Jesus?! Jesus actually says that these men who live, eat, sleep, breath, study, work, talk, sing, and pray God “are not of God”?!

This is mind-boggling. Not only have these men misunderstood the nature of the origins of their disbelief, they are, in fact, completely wrong about it. They saw the origins of their disbelief as emanating from God. Jesus told them that their disbelief came from Satan himself.

Of course, we are tempted to applaud this bare-knuckled approach of Jesus. “Get ‘em, Jesus,” we cry. “Get ‘em! Let ‘em have it! That’s right! They are of the devil. They oppose you because the devil is their father! Get ‘em!”

Before you gloat, though, consider: Jesus’ words mean that all opposition to Jesus, all failure to believe and follow Jesus, all hesitancy to walk with Jesus is from the devil Himself. This means that the truth concerning the origins opposition to Jesus applies not only to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, but also to us when we do not wish to follow Him.

Of course, we have profoundly subtle ways of getting around opposing Jesus. None of us would say we oppose Jesus! But do we not struggle to really believe Jesus? Do we not struggle to follow? If we are honest, are there not times (more frequent than we would care to admit), when we ignore this or that part of Jesus’ teachings, when we fail to follow Him in this or that part of our lives?

If the Jews were following Satan when they refused to follow and believe, who are good Baptist people following when we fail to follow and believe?

“Ah,” we say, “it is not the same thing. No, I’m not a perfect follower, but my sins are different from the sins of these men. Their sins were diabolical, wicked, evil and Satanic. My sins, though, are just mistakes, oversights, occasional errors.”

Unfortunately, the words of Jesus will not allow these kinds of evasive tactics. He has ripped the polite veneer off the horrifying reality of all sin, all disobedience, all refusals to follow. He has revealed a stark, startling and, frankly, simple truth: at any moment, on any given day, regardless of who you are, you are either following the Lord Jesus or advancing the cause of Satan.

What an unsettling but potentially life-altering truth! What if we could see all of our actions as resting in either one of two spheres of reality: Jesus’ or the devil’s?

The Jews who opposed Jesus needed to see the reality of the origins of their opposition to Jesus, and so do we. The hard truth is this: our opposition to Jesus is not because we lack this or that gift that would enable us to follow this or that aspect of His teachings. Our opposition is not because we simply make mistakes. Our sins are not mere errors. The hard truth is that the devil himself is always vying for our affections, and we, in our foolishness, to avoid the uncomfortable aspects of Jesus, often grant Satan our affections.

Be aware of the shocking truth concerning the origins of our often-subtle opposition to Jesus.

II. The Future for Believers in Christ. (v.48-51)

That is not all. Jesus next reveals the shocking truth about the future of believers in Christ.

They respond to Jesus’ assertion concerning the diabolical origins of their disbelief by trying to turn that table on Jesus:

⁴⁸The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

Once again, Jesus moves to the heart of the matter. In doing so, His words continue in their incendiary vein:

⁴⁹Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

“You are the devil!” they cry.

“Not so,” Jesus answers, in essence. “I am of God, and whoever comes to me will never die.”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my words, he will never see death.”

They have only just managed to pick their jaws up off the ground after Jesus’ last revelation, and now this. Not only does He deny their accusations concerning His alleged demonic origins, He tells them that Satan is their father, that God is His Father, and that whoever keeps His word will have eternal life. A cynical man might almost think Jesus was trying to incite them, but that is not the case. The fact is that the truth of Jesus is simply shocking and the carnal mind cannot receive it.

The Jews argue that their salvation is in their past. Jesus reveals that our salvation is secured in the present and set for the future.

If you will come to Jesus, you will live forever! You will never die!

III. The Identity of Christ. (v.52-59)

Thus far, Jesus has revealed something shocking about those who oppose Him (their father is the devil) and about those who come to Him (they will never die). He saves the most shocking revelation for the end, and it concerns His own person.

The Jews begin to see the implications of Jesus’ words, and they scoff at Him.

⁵²The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?”

There it is: “Who do you make yourself out to be?” That’s the question that keeps recurring. It’s also the question that Jesus has already answered countless times in a myriad of different ways. They are completely unprepared for His answer:

⁵⁴Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ ⁵⁵But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” ⁵⁸Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Jesus has offended. Jesus has startled. Now, to the ears of His audience, Jesus has blasphemed.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

“You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was…I am.”

I love how Eugene Peterson puts this in The Message: “Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.”

Their reaction is unmitigated rage:

⁵⁹So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” and they immediately try to kill Him.

It is the most shocking thing Jesus says in this episode. It is one of the most shocking thing Jesus ever said.

Abraham, the patriarch of the faith, the father of the Jews, the greatest of the greats, had been dead for many years. His name was revered. His memory was sacred. To use a weak analogy, but one that might help, think of how we feel about the name “George Washington”…but then multiply that times a million. To take this further, imagine if I had come in today and started my sermon like this: “George Washington was thrilled to see the day that Wyman Richardson was born.” Well, that would sound absurd, and, in fact, that would be absurd.

Again, you must take that situation and magnify it times infinity to get close to understanding what is happening when Jesus says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Before Abraham was, I am.”

In saying this, Jesus was making two astounding claims. First, He was claiming to be pre-existent. “Before Abraham was, I am.” In its simplest form this meant that Jesus claimed to exist before Abraham.

Let us be clear: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but Jesus did not begin in Bethlehem. There has never been a time when Jesus was not. He is the pre-existent, eternal, always-there Jesus. He is “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). Jesus never began. He is the beginning. So Jesus could rightfully say, “Before Abraham was, I…”

But added to this statement of pre-existence is a radical claim of divinity: “Before Abraham was, I am.” This “I am” is the name and title of Yahweh God. In Exodus 3, Moses haggles with God over God’s commission for Moses to go to Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelites:

¹³Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

God told Moses that His name was “I am.”

Jesus tells the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.”

It is a flabbergasting couplet of claims: pre-existence (“Before Abraham was…”) and divinity (“…I am.”) The two together constitute a massive and shocking claim. It enraged these Jews and they tried to kill Him for saying it. It enrages people still today.

Even so, others hear these truths and come to Jesus. They are no less shocked by them, but they see the logical progression:

1. Outside of Christ we are enslaved to the devil.

2. If we come to Christ we will be set free and will live.

3. Christ is able to do this because He is the pre-existent divine Christ who has the authority to pronounce forgiveness and give life.

Jesus is the God-man who frees us from the power of the devil, of sin, of death and of hell by defeating the devil on the cross and in the empty tomb. Jesus lays down His life for His sheep and He grants life and hope and joy and forgiveness to all who will come.

Will you come?

Come.

Come to the shocking Savior.

Come to Him and live.

[1] https://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-03-013-v

[2] Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, Jesus Manifesto (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010), p.20.

John Piper and D.A. Carson’s The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Wyman

I had a few blissful moments in the Southern Seminary bookstore last weekend while traveling to Pennsylvania. While there, I noted this little volume by John Piper and D.A. Carson. Upon returning to our hotel, I Kindled it and started working through this wonderful volume. The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor consists of two talks (one by Piper, the other by Carson). The talks were originally delivered in 2009 at the request of The Carl F.H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding. (Media for the original event may be accessed here.)

This book is a wonderful addition to the whole discussion of “the Evangelical mind,” the modern manifestation of which began with Mark Noll’s seminal and recently-sequeled The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind twenty years ago and which has continued, most notably, in the works of Os Guinness, Alister McGrath, and, recently, in Piper’s own monograph, Think.

The central contention of both talks is that the radical distinction between “pastor” and “scholar” (roughly analagous in modern parlance as the distinction between “heart” and “head”) is unnecessary, unhelpful, and injurious to effective ministry. Piper and Carson effectively argue that knowledge and feeling ought not be pitted against one another. On the contrary, the rigid, careful study of the truths of God should naturally give rise to the most powerful affections and emotions, for they will instill a sense of intellectual integrity to our hearts and keep the faith from being flooded by mere emotionalism. On the other hand, we should study passionately, not in some kind of supposed vacuum in which we are untouched by the overwhelming grandeur of that which we are studying.

Piper and Carson convincingly argue that the pastor should strive for scholarly acumen and a robust development of the mind, not for social or vocational advancement, but because the verities of the faith demand nothing less than our best efforts. In a Protestant tradition which has, at times, tragically pitted knowledge against feeling, this is welcome indeed.

The authors tell their personal stories to great effect. They follow their own testimonies with practical wisdom concerning how to develope as scholar-pastors or pastor-scholars. I have benefited from and been challenged by this wonderful little book. I supposed pastors may benefit most readily, but I daresay that any believer would appreciate and be edified by the discussion herein.

Highly recommended! If you don’t care to get the book, by all means check out the other media of the event.

John 8:31-38

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Wyman

John 8:31-38

³¹So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” ³⁴Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The first concentration camp to be opened in Nazi Germany was Dachau. It was, like all concentration camps, a place of unspeakable horror. Prisoners were worked to exhaustion and many were gassed to death in the camp showers.

I’d like to show you the main gate leading to the entrance of the camp. Here it is:

Inscribed on the gate are the German words “Arbeit Macht Frei.” The words mean “Work Sets You Free.” They were placed at the entrance to Dachau and a number of other concentration camps by SS General Theodore Eicke.

People debate today Eicke’s exact motives for putting these words over the concentration camps: “Work Sets You Free.” Was it a deliberate mockery of the enslaved prisoners? Did he honestly intend to communicate that those prisoners who worked the hardest and served the most faithfully would survive longer and may eventually be freed? Or was he simply calling for conformity and obedience?

Whatever Eicke’s motives were, these words – “Work Sets You Free” – were, in fact, a derisive mockery of all those unfortunate souls who passed through the gates of Dachau and Auschwitz and other camps. They were a mockery because the prisoners were forced to work but most never saw the promised freedom. In fact, they were worked to exhaustion then discarded.

In Dachau, there was a playwright named Jura Soyfer and a composer named Herbert Zipper. They worked in the camp as “horses” and hauled carloads of heavy stone through the camp. All the while, they worked under the shadow of these words: “Work Sets You Free.” They saw the terrible irony of these mocking words, “Work Sets You Free.” They knew that their work was not setting them free. In truth, it was only making their imprisonment worse. So they responded by secretly writing the “Dachau Song” in September 1938. The song spoke sarcastically of the false hope of freedom found in the words on the gate. It was soon learned by other prisoners. It went:

Barbed wire, loaded with death
is drawn around our world.
Above a sky without mercy
sends frost and sunburn.
Far from us are all joys,
far away our homeland, far away our women,
when we march to work in silence
thousands of us at the break of day.
But we have learned the solution of Dachau
and became as hard as steel:
Be a man, comrade,
stay a human being, comrade,
do a good job, get to it, comrade,
for work, work makes you free!

I think we can all sympathize with the bitterness of these words. Not by experience, of course, but in solidarity we surely understand why these men would reject this false promise of freedom. After all, a false freedom is a true slavery. We should distrust false freedoms.

Yet, we can be blinded to false freedoms as well, no? In truth, you might say that our nation in particular is prone to blindness in this area. We like to think of ourselves as free, and, in a sense, we are. We have political freedom, and we should thank God for that great gift. But political freedom is freedom of the soul, is it? In other ways, we are the most enslaved “free” people in the world, are we not?

In 2009, Greek Orthodox theologian and philosopher, David Bentley Hart, published his astounding book, Atheist Delusions. In it, he argued that modern people have elevated freedom to the place of the ultimate good and ideal. He also argues, though, that our freedom is essentially a kind of nihilism, a belief in nothing. Whereas earlier philosophers spoke of true freedom as the freedom to become what we should become, modern people have defined freedom simply as the freedom to do what we want. But this is an empty freedom. More than that, it is a kind of slavery, for it enslaves us to our own desires. Hart explains:

“It is, at the very least, instructive to realize that our freedom might just as well be seen – from certain more antique perspectives – as a kind of slavery: to untutored impulses, to empty caprice, to triviality, to dehumanizing values. And it can do no harm occasionally to ask where a concept of freedom whose horizon is precisely and necessarily nothing – a concept that is, as I have said, nihilist in the most exact sense – ultimately leads.”[1]

This is a valid point. Like the Jews to whom Christ spoke in our text this morning, we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are free when, in reality, many of us are slaves. There are men and women in Arkansas who are enslaved to their jobs. They would never say so, of course, but, in truth, many are. There are people all around enslaved to this or that addiction, this or that need, this or that desire. People are enslaved by money, by power, by sex, by religion, by vanity, by their own desires.

We are an enslaved people, if we look at it rightly, but there is freedom to be had, and it can be found in Christ.

I. True Freedom Is Given to Those Who Truly Follow Jesus. (v.31-32)

The Lord Jesus begins by speaking to those who profess to believe in Him.

^31aSo Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him,

Now this is a fascinating and troubling verse. It is fascinating because, if you recall, verse 30 revealed to us that many believed on Jesus after He spoke of Himself as the light of the world. So our text last week ended with people believing in Jesus and our text this morning begins with Jesus speaking “to the Jews who had believed in him.”

The trouble comes in the question of whether or not those who believed in verse 30 are the same as those who believe here in verse 31. It is troubling because those to whom Jesus speaks in verse 31 will, in a short period of time, turn on Jesus and want to destroy Him.

Some suggest that the believers in verse 30 are a different group; that they were true believers but that they departed before the episode beginning in verse 31 commenced. Others suggest that this group is the same but it is a mixed bag: there are true believers among them and then others who did not really believe at all but only professed to do so.

Regardless, this much is certain from what follows: there are those who profess to be believers, who claim to have trusted in Christ, but who have never truly believed and who have no real intention of following Jesus. There are people who will say, “I believe!” but who will then turn around, when they get a real look at who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him, and will hate Jesus and want to destroy Him.

These people in verse 31 claim to believe, and Jesus immediately responds with a conditional statement:

^31b“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“If…” That is crucial. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.”

To be a believer is to (a) abide in Christ and (b) become a disciple.

This is no mere shallow, surface belief. This is no mere assent of the mind to an idea. This, on the contrary, is a giving of the entire self to Christ Jesus, a laying of one’s life at the feet of Jesus, and the resignation of one’s will to the purposes of Jesus.

They believe, but not really.

They believe, but they do not abide.

I used to meet with a group of men for a time of prayer each week. We would meet, give voice to our requests, praises, and concerns, then pray together. One young man was particularly earnest in his prayers. He consistently prayed with great passion and seriousness in the name of Jesus Christ.

Sometime later I noticed that this man began to be increasingly absent from church. I emailed him to inquire as to his whereabouts. He responded by telling me that he had been spending a good bit of time studying a particular brand of Judaism with a man on the internet. He later shared with me that he no longer believed in Jesus Christ. When I asked him to clarify exactly what he meant, he shared with me that he no longer believed in the deity of Christ, Christ’s atonement on the cross, or the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He told me that he now rejected, with no hesitation, the content of the Christian message. When I informed him that I wanted to talk face-to-face, he refused. When I told him that I intended to show up at his house to talk, he informed me that he was more than capable of handling himself and that I had best not step foot on his property.

It was a heartbreaking and bewildering thing, and one I think about often. When this became increasingly public, people would ask about how to understand what had happened. The bottom-line question seemed to be, “What does this mean? Was he a believer or not?”

Of course, the easy thing to say is that, no, he had never believed. I think, though, that that answer was problematic for those of us who had prayed with him on numerous occasions. True, it could be that he never believed. But it also could be that he had a kind of belief that never developed into genuine conviction and discipleship.

How about you? Are you abiding in Christ, walking with Him as a disciple of His daily? Are you abiding in His word, taking nourishment from His will and His glory? Or have you merely said at some point, many years ago, “Yeah, I believe in that”?

^31b“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

It is not until we believe in such a way that we abide that we are truly disciples. Only then, Jesus says, “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

True freedom is given to those who truly follow Jesus. True freedom is found in enacted faith. “Faith alone saves,” someone has said, “but faith that saves is not alone.”

You might be here this morning and you might say, “It doesn’t work. Christianity doesn’t work. I asked Jesus into my heart. I go to church. I put money in the plate. But it doesn’t work. I don’t feel free. I still feel defeated. I still am defeated. It doesn’t work.”

But you must understand that you can do all of those things and not truly be a disciple. Are you daily walking with Jesus? Have you embraced His life as your own? On Monday morning, at work, at school, at home, are you walking with Jesus?

Jesus said that He came to make us free and that, when He does so, He will make us free indeed. Jesus gives perfect freedom, but He gives it to those who abide.

In truth, many are frustrated at their lack of freedom but they do not wish to abide. They wish, instead, to live off the inertia of some prayer they prayed as a child. Some people say, “I have trusted in Jesus but I still don’t feel free.” To some the answer should be, “I expect you don’t. You prayed a prayer when you were eight, but you haven’t prayed earnestly to the Lord in the thirty-five years since. You haven’t opened your Bible to drink from the Word of God in decades. You prayed a prayer, but you are not abiding. How do you expect freedom to come to one who will not follow?”

Jesus sets free all who come to Him in faith, but this is not a faith of mere words. It is an enacted, living, trusting, abiding faith.

II. Jesus Frees Us From Slaveries That We Do Not Recognize. (v.33-34)

The Jews respond to Jesus’ promise of freedom with an astounding audacity.

³³They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

On the face of it, this is patently absurd! What do they mean, “We…have never been enslaved to anyone”? But of course they have! They have just finished celebrating the Festival of Booths in which they recalled God’s gracious delivery of His people in their wilderness wanderings. They wandered in the wilderness when they were delivered from Egypt…where they had been slaves.

The Jews had indeed been enslaved! They had been enslaved to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Persians. They were currently enslaved to Rome.

Such is the pride of man that it cannot even see its own enslavement. It was that way two millennia ago. It is that way today. Pride blinds us to slavery

I grew up in South Carolina. I grew up aware of the fact that my home state was the first to secede from the Union and the last to rejoin. The Civil War began off the coast of Charleston when Citadel cadets fired on Union troops in Fort Sumter. I grew up aware of this, but I wasn’t always clear on the fact that we lost.

I grew up hearing people say, “Lee surrendered! I didn’t!” Or, “The South’s gonna rise again!”

Such is pride. It was not until later in life that I thought, “You know, we lost. We lost!”

It’s a hard thing to say, isn’t it? Pride blinds us to the truth of things.

Pride had blinded the Jews to their enslavement. They were wrong, politically. They had been enslaved. But Jesus did not even respond to their obvious mistake. He responded, instead, to the deeper issue of their deeper captivity:

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

“You are slaves now,” He seems to say, “for you are slaves to sin.”

Forget their historical gloss for a moment. They were living in the current enslavement of sin. They were enslaved in their sin, their self-righteousness and their flesh. They did not realize their own captivity for their pride blinded them to their chains.

Listen very closely: it is difficult to receive freedom when you refuse to see that you are a slave.

Ours is the land of the tough guy and the true man. We want Jesus to be Lord, but we also want ourselves to be Clint Eastwood. We would like to say, “Jesus saved me…but I could handle things myself either way.” We are a nation of self-starters, pioneers and cowboys.

It is hard for Americans to say, “I am a slave.”

Just try that: “I…am…a…slave.”

We shudder at the very suggestion and protest with declarations of our own strength and power. But let us be clear about this: outside of the grace and mercy and deliverance of Jesus Christ, we are slaves. You have not freed yourself. Jesus is not merely a partner in your freedom. He is freedom!

Jesus says to the Jews, “I can make you free!” They respond, “We already are.”

How do you respond? Do you honestly believe that the only chance you have for freedom is to abide in, live with, and walk with Jesus? Is He your freedom?

III. Jesus’ Freedom is Complete and Perfect. (v.35-36)

Jesus next speaks of the quality of the freedom He gives.

³⁵ The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Our only hope is the freedom that Jesus gives. Political freedom is temporary. The freedom we think we gain for ourselves is illusory. Economic freedom is transient and unstable.

We need a freedom greater than the freedom we think we have.

The slave has no hope in and of himself. “The slave does not remain in the house forever.”

Outside of Christ, we are slaves to sin. When sin has had its way with us, it will destroy us and cast us aside. But what if the Son of the Master were to give you freedom? What if somebody in the family were to secure your deliverance?

Jesus is the Son who sets the slaves free.

Do you remember when Jesus went home and went to the synagogue? Do you remember when he preached back home? Luke 4 records the story, and it is fascinating indeed.

¹⁶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. ¹⁷And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
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,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

²⁰And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. ²¹And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Amazing! Astounding! Jesus claimed to be the fulfillment of the prophetic promise of coming freedom. He claimed to fulfill in His person that which Isaiah had said was coming. Isaiah said, “Freedom is coming!” Jesus responded, “It has and you’re looking at it.”

Jesus is freedom.

But how? How is He freedom? How does He set us free?

Here is the scandal of the gospel: He sets us free by becoming a slave Himself. He sets us free by taking our slavery onto and into Himself. He sets us free by paying the price for our freedom. He pays the price for our freedom on the cross. In His crucifixion, He breaks loose the shackles that bind us. His cross is the key that fits the lock of our enslavement and sets us free.

Jesus is free and He makes us free by dying in our place. Christ was the free man, and He was never more free than we He stood in the center of the Father’s will and died in our stead.

This means, amazingly, that our freedom is found in His enslavement. Our liberty is found in His captivity. Our life is found in His death. We find freedom on a hill of curses. We find liberation on the cross where they killed our Savior. And, ultimately, we find life in an empty tomb. When Jesus burst forth on Easter morning, He brought us with Him. The veil was torn in two, but so were the jail cells, the executioners’ blocks, the prisons, the dungeons, the manacles, the handcuffs, the slave markets, the whips, and the fears that enslave us.

Christ’s freedom frees us all. Or, in the words of Pennar Davies:

“Christ is the Free Man. Look at him, my soul, at his nakedness, his blood, his sweat. The Eternal Prisoner! The soldiers beat him, cursing and laughing drunkenly. They feel that they represent a higher civilization than his, a richer culture and an infinitely better race. In each blow there is contempt and greed. Are not the Roman soldiers masters of the world?

Even in his anguish and shame Christ takes pity on the soldiers in their captivity.

He is the Free Man. Gaze on him, my soul. Does he have wealth, worldly power, an influential position in the organization of the country? No. He has nothing but a body now and the soldiers treat that body as they please. Flesh, blood, skin, bones, hair – he has only these things now, and the kingdom of Hell wants to take these things from him.

Look at him my soul. He is a Free Man; the only free man in Jerusalem.

Pilate’s empire is a prison; Caiaphas’ religion is a prison; Judas’ dream is a prison; Peter’s confusion is a prison; Herod’s ambition is a prison; having been freed from his cell Barabbas’ rebellious movement is a prison. Christ alone is free.

My soul stands with him. There, by his side, under the lash of soldiers, freedom is to be found.”[2]

[1] David Bentley Hart, Atheist Delusions. (Yale University Press, 2009) Kindle, 1418-20.

[2] Calvin Miller, The Path of Celtic Prayer: An Ancient Way to Everyday Joy (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Books, 2007), p.151-152.

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