John 3:14-21
14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.
21 But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
One thing accepted by almost all people is that men sin. It may go by different names and have different parameters, but one thing is the same: it is something wrong that man should not to.
A thousand solutions have been offered to sin, from social reform, sacrifices, nihilism and the removal of all emotions, strict obedience, and many other things. Few people, however, grasp that the correction of sin is beyond the power of man, that is, it requires divine. It says in Ephesians “for by grace you have been saved by faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,” (emphasis mine). The Christian Truth is that God has come to us to save us, yet we continually rejected him.
In the Old Testament, we see God continually trying to save his people, sending prophet after prophet, preaching repentance and salvation, but they are ridiculed and ignored. Occasionally the people would turn from their wicked ways, but it would not be long before they returned to their sins, like a dog to its own vomit.
To save his people, God established a New Covenant through his Son, providing a hope to be looked at, just as the bronze serpent was the hope of the Jews in the desert, after they were bitten by venomous snakes for disobeying God. Man sinned, was sentenced to death, but was healed through obedience to God.
When the Israelites faced the serpents and looked to God for healing, it was a singular occurrence. When they sinned again, the snakes did not suddenly pop out of a whole and bite them, forcing them to once again look to God. For us, however, we must continually look to Christ, for sin (and death) is a continual presence in our lives. We look to the Son of Man raised up and are saved, yet we return to sin and death later, and must turn our eyes again to him.
Thus we are called to a perpetual conversion. We are to turn away from the darkness when ever it appears and become people of the light. This is not simple, nor is it a single event. The darkness is a continuous presence in our lives, as we are still fallen man and subject to temptation and sin, but the light is always there with us as well, and to be saved, all one must do is turn and look at the Son of Man raised up on the cross for our salvation. Do not neglect this, and be forever in conversion to Christ.
John 2:13-25
13 Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there.
15 He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables,
16 and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
17 His disciples recalled the words of scripture, "Zeal for your house will consume me."
18 At this the Jews answered and said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?"
19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
20 The Jews said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?"
21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22 Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
23 While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.
24 But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
25 and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.
“Destroy this temple” Jesus says to those demanding a sign. They stare up at the temple, surprised at his gusto, but Jesus shakes his head at their lack of understanding. They look to stone, yet he speaks of flesh. They ask for evidence of his power and he offers proof of his divinity.
This exchange will play an important role in the passion of the Lord, when those accusing him bring forth witnesses who falsely say that Jesus claimed the ability to tear down the stone temple and rebuild it in three days (there is a great danger in listening to words without meaning). Yet the sign they demanded was made to come to pass by man’s unwillingness to believe without a sign.
Else where in the Gospels when people demand I sign Jesus says they will receive no sign but the sign of Jonah, that is, three days in the earth followed by a resurrection. This is the sign of our faith, the only sign Christ offered to those who demanded one. It is here that our belief hinges, from death to life, from sorrow to joy.
Christianity is inherently paradoxical. The first shall be last, and the humble shall be exalted. So it is here, that from the greatest sorrow, the death of the Messiah, comes the greatest show, the resurrection of eternal life. It is this dichotomy which separates Christianity from the rest of the world, a religion (not solely a relationship) which does not make sense, one which demands the abstraction of logic and loss of human reason (one does not reject all reason, but does not live by reason alone, for the reason of mankind is limited).
Further, we read that Christ did not trust the Jews, for He knew their human nature well. This is the other paradox of the passage. Despite the untrustworthyness of human nature, Jesus chooses to trust us to further His Kingdom. We have failed many times in the past, yet we are given the chance to fail many times in the future (or rather, the chance to succeed).
This failing of human nature takes us back to the fact that man has despoiled the temple of God, the resting place of the Shekinah (the cloud of the Presence of God), yet God chose to come down in physical form and create a new temple, and incorruptible temple which would stand to the end of time. And it is in this new temple, the Body of Christ, that one finds the greatest paradox of God: that He, the creator and holder of all being should choose to become like us, that we may become like him.
Mark 9:2-10
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,
3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
4 Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.
5 Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
6 He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
7 Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
8 Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.
9 As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.
People change. It is, ironically, one of the unchanging facts of life. Children grow up, adults marry, and people age. We often think of change as bad, particularly among our close friends, as the more they change, the farther they drift from us. But at the Transfiguration we say the glorious change awaiting all of us who believe, the change that is nothing but good.
On the Mount of Transfiguration (traditionally considered to be Mount Tabor), the Glory of Christ shown forth, his divinity overtop his humanity. Here he is revealed as the Son of God, the glorious one, to whom we are supposed to listen.
This change, however, is not limited to Christ. Peter, James, and John say, along with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, also glorified (the text does not explicitly say this in Mark. Luke, however, says that the other two were “glorious”). In heaven, we are without sin and without any trappings of the fallen world. Our bodies will remain, or rather will be remade, new creations with Christ. Without sin, the Glory of God shines forth from his creations.
As they journey down the mountain Jesus orders his disciples to tell no one of what has happened until after he is resurrected, at which point his Glory will be visible to all. The three apostles got a foretaste of what was to come on earth, which is in itself a foretaste of what will come in heaven, the great wedding feast of the Lamb.
This change is facilitated through Christ, for we are “more than conquerors” through him. We get to partake in the divine nature of Christ, for he became like us in order that he may make us like him (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). On the mountain Truth and Glory were revealed together.
Mark 1:12-15
12 At once the Spirit drove him out into the desert,
13 and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.
14 After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
15 "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."
Forty days. Throughout the Bible, this set of time appears. It rains for forty days in the story of Noah, Moses spends forty days atop Mount Sinai, and Jesus partakes in a forty day fast in the desert, leading up to his public ministry.
Each of these forty days are times of separation, when someone is no longer connected to the world at large (though in Noah’s case, the world at large is, in fact, not there). During this exit, they approach closer to God, seeking more of Him and preparing for their mission, whether it was to repopulate the earth, lead a people, or preach that the kingdom of God is at hand.
Jesus spends his journey in the wilderness with two opposing forces. On one side, Satan was tempting him, while on the other, angles were ministering to him. He was not separated from the struggles of the world, but he was also not left alone to face them, rather he was given that which he needed to endure them.
So it is with us. We know we are to suffer during our journey on this earth (cf. 1 Peter 3:18), and very likely we may be driven to that suffering. But we must not despair, for God will send his Angels and his Spirit to us, to minister to us, that we may be able to resist temptation, and come out of the desert, ready to proclaim his kingdom.
Mark 2:18-22
18 The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast. People came to him and objected, "Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
19 Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
20 But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21 No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
22 Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins."
When ever I read this passage, one single question always comes up in my mind: what under heaven does it mean? I understand the first part of the passage perfectly well, but the later half seems to be completely unrelated to what came before, yet the author clearly intends for the two parts to be considered complimentary and part of the same story, and, in fact, the same quote.
Let’s look at the beginning, as it is a wonderful place to start. Jesus is fairly clear as to why his disciples do not fast, as he is still with them. But then he begins to talk about mixing the new with the old, how neither will come out okay. What does this have to do with fasting and bridegrooms?
When we come before Christ, we are old creations, and he then makes us new, as I noted in my previous entry (cf. 2 Cor 5:17). The old is gone and the new has come, thus we must no longer partake in our old activities. They do not mesh with the ‘new creations’ that we are. Thus, we do not put into ourselves that which is old, or we will be ruined.
The verses themselves speak of putting a new on the old, however, not an old on the new. Christ is looking at this in a different way than anybody else. If we take the new things of God (here I am looking at new as meaning good, or quality) and place them in the old things of the
world, they do nothing good. If the pharisees fast without holiness, doing it only for their own good, they not only do nothing for themselves but in fact damage the very thing that fasting is. Those people who do ‘good’ while not being good themselves actively destroy the good they are doing, for it loses all meaning.
Thus when Paul says that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life, he is saying much the same thing (cf. 2 Cor 3:6). It is not the empty actions that saves man, but the Spirit working through him. Earlier in that letter Paul says he needs no letter of recommendation, for the Corinthians are his letter, written on their hearts (2 Cor 3:2). What those people did was enough witness for both Paul and Christ, that they were putting the new things to good use.
I hope this made a bit of sense to you. The passage is really not to clear and exactly why this two things go together, but God has a funny way of working out confusion for his better good.
Mark 2:1-12
1 When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home.
2 Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them.
3 They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
4 Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Child, your sins are forgiven."
6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
7 "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?"
8 Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk'?
10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"--
11 he said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."
12 He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."
Today I am touching on one of the better known healings in the Bible, the cure of the paralyzed man. This is a favorite story of those who teach the younger generation, as the excitement attached to lowering a man through a roof can capture even the most wild child.
To adults, however, it often comes up lacking, not because it is a boring or bad story, but because we have heard it so many times and have no heard anything new. But, given that this is the Word of God, we can trust that God will keep up with fresh ideas. As it says, “ See, I am doing something new!” (Isaiah 43:19). This story is old, but more can be brought out of it.
This story itself is about newness. The man who comes to Jesus (not necessarily by his own volition) is damaged in two important ways. Physically, he is incapable of productive work and was forced to beg. Spiritually, he is under the burden of sin, for the sacrifices of the temple did not truly cleanse people. When he is brought before Jesus, however, his damage is wiped away. As is said in the book of Revelation, “Behold, I make all things new!” (Revelation 21:5), and this Christ does.
At its very core, this is what healing is about. Why are some people healed, rather than brought up to be with the Father? Many reasons. Perhaps there is more for them to do on earth, or maybe they are not yet right with God. But, behind every reason, is the reflection of the end of the world, where the old things pass away, and the new Heaven and new Earth come.
This passage also teaches us an important point about healing. When we pray for healing, whether for ourselves or for others, we always seem to aim for the physical healing, yet here, before Christ cured the man, he forgave him. The scribes were scandalized at this, for who but God could forgive sins. Of course, as a friend of mine put it, Jesus is God, but we can’t expect them to know that yet.
After the physical healing, however, “they were all astounded” and praised God (emphasis mine). Even the scribes realized that this Jesus is something else, and they are renewed in their faith. By the end of this story, the only thing which has not been made new is the roof of the house, but we can bet Jesus got around to that in his spare time (not that he likely had much, given the crowds).
Come to God in faith, and you shall be renewed, you and all those around you, for “ whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
