Escape Artist Christianity?

A few years ago my kids and I came across a TV show called “Masters of Illusion” featuring magicians doing all sorts of interesting tricks.  It got our attention so we watched for a few minutes and saw that “coming up next” was a guy who was going to strap himself lying down in a coffin shaped box.  That didn’t seem like too big of a deal until they showed the lid.  It was hinged to the box and contained 5 or 6 huge spikes that would fatally pierce anyone in the box when it closed.  To complicate things further, the hinges on the box were held open by a string that was attached to a fuse.  Once the fuse was lit, the man in the box would have seconds to escape before the string was set ablaze.

Okay, maybe I should have changed the channel but by now my 7 and 4year old were hooked.  They had to see what would happen.  Well, so did I.  So we watched.  The tension built as an assistant from the audience fastened all the straps and lit the fuse.   We watched nervously as the man used his teeth to undo the straps on his chest.  The fuse was burning fast.  There wasn’t a second to waste!  He then wiggled, twisted, and turned until he was able to slip his arms out of the straps.  But the fuse was inches away from igniting the string that would release the spikes!  We squirmed and wiggled toward the edge of our seats as we watched as if we were the ones in the box.   The fuse was burning fast!  No time left to escape!  But in a split second, the man freed his arms, bent toward toward his feet, undid the straps, and rolled out of the box as the spike laced top came crashing down.  We breathed a sigh of relief and cheered his perfectly timed escape.  I gasped in relief that I hadn’t just scarred my kids for life by allowing them to see a man getting horrifically gored to death by metal spikes!

I wonder if most Christians live their lives as escape artists?   After all, we’re taught that it’s “all” going to burn anyway, right?

The way a person views a particular thing directly influences the way they treat that thing.  If something is seen as disposable, it will be valued only for the moment it is being used.   If, however, something is seen as deeply good and long lasting it will be treated with great care.  Sadly when it comes to God’s Creation, Christians most often fall into the “disposable” category.

Secularists have accused the Christian community of contributing to ecological disaster and, as Wright points out, “there’s more than a grain of truth in the charge.”¹  One of God’s first commands was to care for the Creation (Gen. 1:28-31) and God gave provisions to protect the land from being overworked (Lev. 25:3-7).²  The following discussion will seek to provide a framing story for Creation-care by looking at the redemptive nature of God’s Creation and the role that the Christian community plays in caring for all of God’s Creation.

Christian’s often times live their lives as escapist.  By simply listening to hymns that are sung on a given Sunday at a Christian gathering, one might be led to see the Christian community as on board a sinking ship.  The pages of Christian hymnals are filled with language of temporal living, escape, and future rewards.  The Christian is depicted as “just a pilgrim in search of a city”³ making his or her way “to Canaan’s land…where the soul of man never dies.”   The escapist echo continues as a Christian sings of how he or she will “fly away”⁴ to a land where joy will never end” and ultimately receive “a mansion just over the hilltop in that bright land where we’ll never grow old.”⁵

These hymns are often followed with a fiery (pun intended) sermon on how “it’s all going to burn when the Lord comes” to warn against attachments to this world.  As Wright notes, some, especially in the Western church, have argued that “since God intends to destroy the present space-time universe…it really doesn’t matter whether we emit twice as many greenhouse gases as we do now, whether we destroy the rain forests and the arctic tundra, whether we fill our skies with acid rain.”⁶

This approach has ignored the grand narrative and distorted the telos of Creation.  As Wilson points out well, the Christian community must think like the Hebrew community who believes that everything God created is good and sacred.⁷  Time is not merely a passing object to be “killed” but rather redeemed.⁸

This has implications on how the Christians addresses world issues such as poverty, how the Christian treats the physical body, and how the Christian treats the earth itself.  Christians, who should be leading the way in Creation care, have instead led the discussion of what a “worldly” attitude it is to be concerned with things that are going to soon pass away.  This ignores the vital narrative and the “struggle” to develop an ethic of Creation-care that is so vital to all of Creation.⁹   McClendon rightly reflects the role of the Christian community in what he calls “watch-care.”¹⁰  This care is not only for the community of God but for all of Creation.   What then does the narrative say about the Creation?

First, the narrative of Scripture declares that the Creation is “good.” This declaration is made six times as “God kisses his fingers with each new delicacy that he brings from his creative workshop, until, after the piece de resistance, in a seventh and final verdict on whole achievement, God declares it all, ‘very good.’”¹¹   Often times this obvious beginning is distorted by later entries in the narrative which will refer to the earth being destroyed by fire.

For many Christians this means the telos of Creation is to self destruct.  This view declares that what started “good” has been decaying ever since.  On the surface, this approach seems in harmony with both Scripture and the reality of what is taking place in the surrounding world.  Wickedness and evil spread.  The hole in the ozone layer and global warming become progressively worse.  Terrorism and war continue to breed fear and destruction.  Poverty runs rampant in over half of the world.  Disease ravages human bodies.  It is no wonder then that Christians are the first to remind all that this world is temporary.  They do so mostly in the name of hope.  It is a hope that God will hurry to the rescue by destroying everything and ushering mankind away from this sinking ship that is quickly going down.

While intentions may be good in declaring this “hope” there is a deep price to pay for trading the narrative of Scripture for an “it’s all going to burn” theology.  This approach misses the foundational truth that the identity of the cosmos is deeply connected to the identity of humanity.  As Christopher Wright declares, “we ourselves are part of the whole creation that God already values and declares to be good” which means “we need to be careful to locate an ecological dimension of mission not primarily in the need-supplying value of the earth to us, but in the glory-giving value of the earth to God.”¹²

Not only does this approach fail to see the entire Story, it ends up playing a role in the destruction.  Rather than declaring the telos that starts “good” ands ends “good,” the Christian is tempted to help accelerate the destruction.  In his book Radical Together, David Platt goes as far as to say that the motive for evangelism is to usher in the return of Christ.  While this may not be participating in destruction, it misses something valuable – the telos of evangelism.

Much like the Billy Graham Crusades of the 20th century, the goal is get as many “saved” before the ship completely goes under the surface of the water and descends to the deep.  Is evangelism, however, simply about crossing a line into salvation or is it about calling others to participate in the Story of God through a relational discipleship that transforms life NOW, in the present moment, as well as the future?  The only place to find the answer to this question is by turing to the entire narrative of Scripture from beginning to future.

God’s Story begins with a garden centered around a tree of life.  Surprisingly for most, it also ends, or better stated, never ends, in a garden centered around a tree of life.  Life then should be seen as a journey between those trees.    The grand narrative of Scripture has a redemptive trajectory of returning to where the Story begins.

Typically the Christian sees the Story in decay.  This is evidenced by the view Christians have of death.  Death is seen as an unstoppable force pushing all living things towards a day of complete expiration.  McLaren helps show another trajectory.  Rather than seeing death as a pushing force, McLaren paints a portrait of life being like a baby learning to walk.¹³  This baby is being called forward by his Father, step by step, until he reaches his loving arms that have been outstretched toward him the entire time.  This may seem like a subtle difference but these two ways of seeing are quite distinct.  One is a pessimistic view that death is coming and there is nothing that can be done to stop it.  This view sees life as decaying constantly.  The trajectory is downward.  A redemptive trajectory, however, sees life as guided by a loving Father who cares about each step and is lovingly calling the Creation to participate.  Grenz states well that God is “ordering our story to its intended goal,” and “the grand culmination of history arrives only because God stands at the end of the human story.”¹⁴  This does not mean there will be the absence of missteps, bruises, and bloody knees, along the way.

The difference then is that one view sees each fall as “just what happens in a fallen world” while the other seeks to learn from each misstep and press onward toward the loving Father who participates in each moment.  Creation care is participating with God in the journey.  That journey is heading somewhere and that “somewhere,” as Grenz says, “is not an illusive human utopia in history, which we are ultimately powerless to create” but rather is “the realization of God’s purposes for his creation.”¹⁵

In returning to the narrative between the trees in the Scriptures, God is telling a Story that is redemptive.  The creation begins good.  There is a Garden and it serves as a beautiful portrait of all that God intended.  It is a harmonious place where man lives in harmony with all of Creation including the animals and the environment.  At the fall of mankind, Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden.  Interestingly, the Genesis story describes this banishment as losing access not just to the Garden but to the tree of life.  Everything changes at the fall.  The harmony is disrupted.  Animals will become wild and will now be consumed as food.  The creation is marred. This is represented perhaps best by the weeds that bring about toil and labor.  A redemptive process is needed.

God brings this redemptive process forward by calling a people.  He names them Israel and he calls them his “olive tree” (Jer. 11:16).  Why an olive tree? They are to be a people who will take the world back to the Garden.  They will be called to do this by displaying for the world what Garden living looks like in a beautiful, intimate relationship between God and man.  When Israel fails in its mission to truly be “a light to the Gentiles” (Isa. 49:16) then God must prune.  He sends prophets to warn but interestingly the messages of impending doom are almost always coupled with hope and restoration.  When Israel ultimately fails to repent God does more than prune, he raises the axe to the olive tree.  Within the tree metaphor, this is essentially a cutting down of the tree to the stump.  From this stump a “tender shoot” is promised (Isa. 53) from the “stump of Jesse.”   As Israel is being cut down, there is a redemptive plan at work.  The Messiah comes into the world bearing the name that represents his mission.¹⁶

The gospel story has often been reduced to Jesus coming and dying for sins but the metaphor of the trees keeps the narrative in focus.    He came to bring about new, or better said, “renewed” Creation.  As Jesus grows up as the tender shoot he does what Israel failed to do in showing the world a display of Garden-living.  He undoes the curses placed upon humanity.  His miracles can be seen as a reversal of the fallen creature.  His casting out of demons loosens the grip of Satan on a fallen world.  His raising of the dead challenges the curse of fallen bodies inherited in the fall.  At the cross, Christ reverses that curse by “becoming the curse for us” (Gal. 3).  As Jesus hangs on the cross, the words he speaks to one of the thieves are traditionally translated, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”  The word paradise here can also be translated, “garden.”  This translation better reflects his intent.

The cross and the resurrection have made all things new and when he cries, “It is finished,” that work is accomplished.  It should therefore be no coincidence then that John records that Jesus will be buried in a “garden tomb” and be mistaken at his resurrection for “the gardener.”  This is a deeply theological statement.  Jesus is the Gardener.  He has come to restore and to redemptively call all of Creation back to what was “good” in the beginning.

This reversal sets forth a redemptive trajectory not just for sin but for all of Creation.  As Paul describes, the community then can join Christ in his death (Romans 6) and in his resurrection and follow this trajectory towards an apocalypse in which “all things are made new.”  The present tension of the cosmos is within the overlap of the aeons.  Paul reflects the tension in between the old  and the new “in a crucial intersection of Gospel and eschatology.  The old aeon is one in which chaos reigns and the world is under the curse of fallenness.  It is within this tension that an ethic is formed and embodied.  Christians live in a Story that is moving forward with hope and renewal.  Virtue then can be described in Paul as the ways in which a Christian lives within the new aeon as opposed to the “vices” of the old aeon.   Anything that participates in the old is a vice.  Not caring for the Creation is one of those vices.

The telos of Creation care can be seen in the apocalyptic vision of Isaiah who sees all creation being renewed in which the “lion will lie down with the lamb” and the “child will play near the hole of the cobra.”  Creation is moving not toward a linear destruction but instead is in more of “circling” trajectory that is heading back to the shalom of God in the Garden at Creation.  The church and the cosmos lives in the overlap as a witness.  This witness does not participate in destruction but rather joins in the process of renewal.

Creation care ethics are about presently participating in the apocalyptic trajectory that is moving toward a hopeful and redemptive future.  This calls the Christian community then to join the life giving narrative of God now in a way that calls for an embodied ethic that produces “fruit.”  This fruit that Paul describes is a metaphor for the  Spirit filled life that is to be experienced and witnessed to and in the present.  Life then is not about simply “going to heaven when you die.” This leads to little witness and little virtue and leads to a desire to abandon the “decaying” Creation rather than playing a role in its renewal.

Finally, in a narrative that knows no ending, John sees an apocalyptic vision that is revealed in the book of Revelation.  It is a glimpse into a restored world.  What will that “new heaven” and “new earth” look like?  The tension builds as the story unfolds.  As Hays points out, John is not revealing an eschatoology that is “otherworldly” as is best seen in the way heaven comes down to earth (Rev. 21:2-3).¹⁷  As the book draws to the conclusion and brings the Biblical account of the narrative to a close, John has his final revelation. It is a tree but not just any tree.  It is the tree of life.  Access has been restored.  The curse is no more.  God’s people will return to the Garden.

What will the Christian community do with the Creation from now until that glorious moment?  Passivity and complacency are not an option as is seen in the scathing indictment of Laodicea.¹⁸  For the Christian community, an ethic of Creation-care is lived out of the present reality of “new creation.”  This is not only a communal calling but a cosmic one.  Paul writes that “all creation” groans for complete redemption. (Rom. 8).  Until that day the church community lives with an apocalyptic vision that seeks to participate in new creation now.  The Christian community joins with God “in rescuing nature from an exploitative urban industrial society.”¹⁹  As Hays says, “the church embodies the power of the resurrection in the midst of a not-yet-redeemed world.”²⁰

The old aeon is gone and the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17).  Creation ethics then become a way of deciding which age in which to participate.  This is why Paul can write in Romans 12 how the Christian community should no longer live according to the patterns of the old “aeon” but should instead be “transformed” into living into the new.

 It’s time to see life in God’s Kingdom as a present reality.  We are not merely passing through. We are on a redemptive mission.  There will be a day when all things are made new.  It is a day when heaven and earth will come together in beautiful harmony.  As we journey toward that day we participate in the beautiful and organic kingdom of God that is presently at hand in our lives between the trees.

Sources:

¹  N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, (New York: Harper Collins, 2008), 90.

² Tony Campolo and Brian McLaren, Adventures in Missing the Point:  How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel (Grand Rapids:  Zondervan, 2003), 167.

³ “This World Is Not My Home” hymn arranged and copyrighted by Albert E. Brumley

⁴ “I’ll Fly Away” hymn written by Albert E. Brumley, 1929. Interestingly, Brumley admits that he actually wrote the song as he imagined himself flying out of the cotton field where he was hard at work. www.brumleymusic.com

⁵ “I’ve Got a Mansion” hymn written by Ira Stamphill, 1949.

⁶ Wright, 90.

⁷ Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham (Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), 162.

⁸ Wilson, 162

⁹ McClendon, Ethics: Systematic Theology, Vol. 1 (Nashville:  Abingdon Press, 2002), 17.

¹⁰ McClendon, 53.

¹¹ Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Downers Grover, IL:  InterVarsity, 2006), 398.

¹² Wright, 399.

¹³ Brian D. McLaren, The Story We Find Ourselves In (San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass, 2003), 148-151.

¹⁴ Stanley J. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God (Nashville:  Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1994), 791.

¹⁵ Grenz, 791.

¹⁶ His Hebrew name, Yeshua, means salvation

¹⁷ Hays, 180

¹⁸ Hays, 182

¹⁹ Campolo and McLaren, 167.

²⁰ Hays, 198

He Took My Place – Another View of the Cross

I originally wrote this several years ago as a monologue that I performed as Barabbas.  I have edited it slightly for print so I could share it here.

I was supposed to have died on this cross. I’d stolen, killed, and led a rebellion… and now my time had come, or at least I thought. Today I stood before the angry crowd and they mocked me. And I mocked them back and cursed them. They screamed, “Barabbas!  Murderer!  Give him what he deserves!” I screamed back at them! “Fools! You don’t know what you’re talking about!  I killed those Romans for people like YOU!”  I knew I was guilty. I wasn’t just leading a rebellion for my people.  I was in it for myself.  A power hungry rebel.  A freedom fighter.  A bandit who would stop at nothing to get what I wanted.” Today I would get what I deserved. “How did my life come to this?”  I waited to hear my death sentence.  These despicable Romans will have the last word after all.  To die at the hands of these mongrels.  Now that is the real mockery.

Beside me was another man. He didn’t look much like a criminal. How did a rabbi get arrested anyway?  What kind of a true man would just stand there and not even try to defend himself? Didn’t he care what they were saying about him?  The crowd mocked him the same way they did me.  But he said nothing. “Some rebel,” I thought. What did he get arrested for, trying to convert a Roman? Ha! Coward! I’ll show him a true insurrectionist.

Then I heard Pilate say something to the crowd. Go ahead.  Get it over with you corrupt fool!  You’re nothing but a pawn for Caesar.

“As you know, it is tradition for me to release one prisoner to you today. So today I ask you, whom shall I release to you? Jesus, ‘King of the Jews’,or Barabbas, convicted murderer and rebel?”

What a mockery!  As if they would ever really let me go…over this deranged, harmless lunatic who thinks he’s a king. A few people started to cry out my name. “I hate you too!” I screamed back at them. I knew they must have been mocking me. Everyone hated me. They were afraid of me, as they should have been. I was the worst of criminals.  As if anyone anyone would call for my release. I now stared death in the face.  I would get what I deserve.  The chant grew louder and louder, “Give us Barabbas. Give us Barabbas! Release to us Barabbas!”  These people are relentless! But slowly, I began to realize that they weren’t taunting me. They were serious. I looked at them in disbelief and then locked eyes with the criminal who stood beside me. Who was this man? What could he have done that would have possibly been worse than my crimes? Suddenly, although I didn’t understand why, the guards released my hands and feet from the shackles that had bound me for weeks. I was free. I walked away from the chains… away from the punishment that I deserved…away from a hill that I was supposed to have climbed…and away from a cross that belonged to me.

Now I stand here at this hilltop. They call this hill Golgotha – the place of the skull.  There is no worldly beauty.  Only blood remains.  There are no beautiful trees; no flowers, no beautiful scenery. But atop this hill there is a view like no other.  I stand here in the shadow of the cross that belonged to me.  But someone took my place.

They said his name was Jesus.  Some say he came to die so that people like me could live.  I don’t know exactly who he was but I do know this…THIS was MY cross and he took my place. All I know to do is climb this hill every day to say thank you.  I was supposed to have died on this cross. Instead I have found new life.  Where do I go from here?  I don’t know.  I am no longer a prisoner. But I can never escape this kind of love.  All I know to do is embrace it, to live in it, and to follow the one who set me free and then captured me.  Maybe this is still my cross.  Maybe I will die on it but not the way I once thought.  I will indeed die here, because here, in this death, I have found life.

What do YOU see?

What do you see when you look at the image to the right?

Okay, I know…it’s a trick question.  But why did you say, “a black dot?”  Why didn’t you say, “I see a whole lot of white space!  Oh yes, and there’s also a tiny little something on it.”

Scholar and preacher, George Buttrick (1892-1980), used this example once to illustrate God’s “widespread mercy” that overcomes the “black dot.”  We all have “dots” in our lives.  Calling them “dots” doesn’t reduce the incredible pain and challenge to our lives that can be inside of them.  But in the midst of them, it helps to zoom out and see the surrounding, bigger picture of how God is at work in your story.

George Buttrick (1892-1980)

Over the last few weeks I’ve been co-leading a series on Sunday mornings with my good friend Mike Cagle called The Good and Beautiful God based upon an excellent book by James Bryan Smith.  This past week we have been focusing on truly believing that God is trustworthy.  Our spiritual exercise for this week is to write down things for which we are thankful.   When we focus on our blessings we are reminded of God’s “vast treasure” (as Buttrick put it), even in the midst of pain, difficulties, and suffering.

Let’s focus this week on those vast treasures and focus on the things in life that God has given us that are beautiful and wonderful.  Try to think of even the simplest things in life that we often take for granted.  I’m guessing that as we do this, we will begin to see just how vastly blessed we truly are.  And hopefully…the dots, no matter how painful or how difficult, will begin to be put into perspective in the larger, beautiful story of God at work in our lives.

Whether you are a part of this class or not, I would love for you to make a list of your “vast treasures” to share with our online community.  You can do this by simply clicking the COMMENT button to the left and typing your list in the REPLY box.  I look forward to sharing and focusing on the blessings that come from our truly beautiful, good, and trustworthy God!

The Two Tables

Have you ever noticed… how many things take place in the Gospels around a table?  With Thanksgiving coming in a few days, most of us will be focusing our attention on a table as we gather with those we love and celebrate the “blessings” in our lives.  This blog entry is a retelling of a famous parable that contains a common theme in the Gospel of Luke – the table.  I’ll let you figure out which parable as you read.  My goal here is to recreate the original shock that Jesus’ audience would have experienced when he told this parable.  And then to show what it may mean to us today.  This parable is crucial to our understanding of both the present and future Kingdom of God.  Jesus seems to show that both center around…a table.  The following story is written from the perspectives of two men and two tables…

Table # 1

“This is my table.  I am so blessed to recline here.  The food is amazing and plentiful and I have all I could ever need, not to mention the fellowship of those chosen ones who share my likeness.  Ahhh… the benefits of being a son of Abraham and a son of  Father God who is so good to bless me this way.  I have lived my life in obedience to Him. He is so kind to take care of me and to reward me. Oh Lord God of Israel I take my place at the covenant meal!  A purple robe and the finest of linen He has provided to show where I belong and to Whom I belong to.  It’s not that I’m proud…but don’t I have reason to boast in Him?  It is an honor to wear my allegiance for all to see. I love to proclaim where my loyalty lies and to proclaim the results of living for the Father.   To and from the Temple courts I greet my brothers who, as fellow sons of Abraham, share in the blessings of the Father.  Proudly I enter the Sanctuary to worship the One who has provided both now and forevermore.   Forever and ever I will fellowship with the righteous and recline with the rich, those chosen to share in the inheritance.    Oh to be a part of the community of the redeemed and to be on the side of the Redeemer.

If only the one who begs understood.  For even now he sits outside the gate and cries out for my help in the name of Father Abraham.  A little relief is all he asks.  But doesn’t he understand?  I know the misery of that poor soul must be ever so intense but there is a fundamental distance between us that cannot be traveled, a divide that cannot be traversed.  The die has been cast, the distance has been fixed.  It’s not that I do not wish to help but, how can I when it is not really my place?  God has made His assignments and who am I to change what He has established?   The “set apart” he has blessed and invited to the table.   My table is before me and I have been chosen and called to share in the feast of the elite.  But will I see him every day – he who cries out for my help?  Couldn’t his family have taken care of him?  Were his brothers so ignorant too?  It’s not that he has asked me for very much but that he has failed to understand his place in this life and his destined future.

But one thing is for sure.  I know my place and I know my future.  The Father has called me by name and invited me here to the table.  I am Lazarus, the comforted one, the blessed one, the helped one, the child of the King.  I have traded rags for riches, crumbs for the eternal presence of the Creator, begging for Banquets, uncleanliness for unashamedness, sores for salvation…and I’ve traded my tears for …Table.  Yes, this is my table and I will dine with my Provider and my family here forever.  It is the Feast of the Forgiven with the One who forgives.  The haves and the have-nots of the world gathered here in harmony for here we are all truly rich.  Those who once longed for a share of the crumbs from the tables of the rich and those who once shared the wealth of the table with the poor now commune at the Heavenly Table in the Eternal Banquet.  Yes, I am so blessed to be seated in the heavenlies!”

Table # 2

“I was so blessed to recline there.  A roof over my head, a servant at my side, and the favor of the Almighty. The banquet was the finest and the food  plentiful and I had all I could have ever needed at the table.  Am I not a chosen seed of Abraham and a son of Father God who selected me and blessed me?  I lived my life in obedience to Him and I prospered.   It was my reward, my place, my heritage, my destiny. Hadn’t he provided from birth the wealth of the world to those who belonged to Him?  My purple robe and fine linens showed everyone my status in the Kingdom and who I belonged too.  My splendid home on the hill proclaimed the favor of the righteous.  And my gates…they protected me from an unclean and defiled world.  Yes, Lord, I have kept myself pure before You.  I was so proud to be a part of the family of the righteous, the clean, the unadulterated – and I wore my allegiance with honor for all to see the benefits of the chosen ones.  Oh how I knew and kept the law.  I studied the commands day after day after day, keeping every letter of the law, proclaiming it boldly from the Temple courts.  Couldn’t everyone see that I lived my life for the Lord my God?  Didn’t my blessings prove His preference and confirm my standing? Every day I went to and from the Temple courts fixing my eyes on the path before me, guarding my gaze from unclean things and joining my fellow brothers in the worship of the Almighty.  We were sons of our wealthy father Abraham and didn’t we share in his favor and in his riches?

Even the punished ones who sat at my gate knew who I was in the Kingdom and longed to walk in my shoes and to share in the abundance of the God who provides for the righteous and blessed.  Yes, I gave thanks to Almighty God, the Giver of all, the One who provides both now and forevermore, the One… who is my help.   Eleazar! God is my help?  Lazarus!  God is his help?    But I lived inside the gate and communed with the righteous.  I reclined with the rich and took my place with the chosen ones!    I kept myself pure and my ways upright.  I lived according to the Law.  I walked among the righteous.  I gave my alms.  I shared my crumbs.   I, I, …I claimed my seat of honor and my table overflowed and was always  full.      Oh…Father Abraham…my table was always… full.    There were no vacant seats – I had given them to the “blessed” ones, the “chosen” ones, to my five brothers…my…brothers!”

Two men, two tables.  With which will you dine?

Conclusion:  Making “Seven”

There is no clear evidence of the “numerology” in this parable  but I’d like to suggest there is more than meets the eye.  I believe it has to do with a number Jesus uses in this parable.  I think Kenneth Bailey’s chapter on this parable in his book Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes would agree.

The number six represents evil in the world.  Why does Jesus specifically choose “five” as the number of brothers the rich man has in this parable?  Perhaps it is to show that the 5 brothers + the rich man = 6.  They embody evil.  What was their crime?  Jesus does not tell us of specific laws they have broken but he tells this parable in a way for the listener or reader to discover the “crime” that lands the rich man even in hell.  So what’s the crime Jesus is suggesting here?  The crime of inequality.  The crime of injustice.  The crime of ignoring poverty.

Did you know that if you make more than $25,000/year  you are among the top 10% of the world’s most wealthy?  If you make more than $50,000/year then you move into the top 1%.   The only reason Jesus suggests in the parable that the rich man is guilty is…he failed to care for poor Lazarus.  He failed to invite him to the table.

What if…just what if…on one of those days…the rich man had stopped as he entered his gate?  What if he’d allowed his eyes to meet the eyes of poor, forsaken Lazarus?  Maybe, just maybe, he would have felt a twinge of compassion and invited him to his table.

Salvation is not just “going to heaven when we die” it is about bringing a piece of heaven to earth while we live.  I believe Jesus is suggesting here that the implications of such an invitation are truly life-saving.   But not just for Lazarus.  Yes, the rich man could have helped “save” Lazarus from hunger and from shame on any one of those days.  But he could have also “saved” himself from…himself.  He cared for his five brothers and himself.  What if he’d cared for Lazarus?  You do the math.  5 brothers + 1 rich man + 1 poor Lazarus.  Seven.  The number associated with God.  Maybe our mission in life isn’t just serving others for their sake but also for our own.  What could have happened around that table of seven?  Attitudes could have been revealed.  Selfishness could have been exposed.  Eyes could have been opened.  And the Kingdom of God could have been experienced both then and perhaps forevermore.

Who is your “Lazarus?”

Identify the “sixes” in your life that keep you from seeing the Kingdom.  Now pull up an extra chair.  And turn them into “sevens.”  Invite Lazarus to the table.  Experience the Kingdom of God.  It may “save” both him…and you.

The Living Scroll

It happens almost every time. It happens when I’m teaching. It happens when I’m listening to a sermon.  It happens in classes I’m in. When the Word of God is read people tune out.  As soon as the speaker begins to speak or teach again they tune back in.  I understand that people sometimes think the Bible is boring to read.  Maybe that’s because they are genuinely not interested.  But usually it’s because we think we’ve heard it all before.   But there is always, always, always….so much more.  What I find when I read and study God’s Word is that the more I look at it, the more I hunger over it, the more I realize how much deeper it goes.  I could spend the rest of my life studying it and it will continue to speak to me in fresh ways.  That’s what makes the Bible a LIVING literature!  We hunger over each word of it (see past entry titled “Hagaaaahhhhh” for more on that).  Today I’d like to share another of those “hagah” (hunger) moments I had recently.

Last week while preparing to teach one of my freshman Story of Jesus classes at Lipscomb University I found something that I’d never seen.  It may be totally “off” but I wanted to share a discovery from Luke 4 which I thought I was quite familiar with.  It’s the story of Jesus going into His hometown synagogue in Nazareth.  I love this story.  As a rabbi, Jesus has been invited to participate in the Sabbath service in the synagogue.  The scene is far more dramatic than we can imagine when we place it within its cultural context.  The synagogue attendant (more on that in a moment) has just brought the sacred scrolls into the room.  Some are crying in reverence that the Word of God has come into their presence.  Some are dancing with joy that God’s voice will be heard in the Text on this day.  All eyes follow the scrolls as they are carried and intentionally placed in the middle of the synagogue to show their importance.  The excitement grows as each person, young and old, anxiously waits to hear a Word from the Creator, the Almighty God who spoke then and still speaks today.

On this Sabbath day, Jesus is one of the “Scripture readers” (as we call them today).  I know you’ve heard it before, but stay with me for a moment.

During Jesus’ time the synagogue attendant, called the hazzan, was responsible for, in addition to other duties, arranging the Sabbath “service.”  Today this would be like the person who sets our Sunday morning “order of worship.” But most “church goers” today might tune out if we did things the same way today.  Why?  Because most of the service consisted of readings from the Word of God.  The “sermon” portion of the service would have lasted only a few minutes.  The hazzan would select “Scripture readers” to read a lengthy portion of the Torah. He would also select a reader to read a shorter selection from the prophets and then offer the short “sermon” called a dereshah.  So the synagogue Sabbath service was arranged around three specific parts as follows:

• A lengthy reading from the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
• A shorter series of readings from the Haftorah  (the prophets – typically Isaiah or Jeremiah)
• A Dereshah (short “sermon” showing how the Haftorah had been experienced in the reader’s life)

These assigned Sabbath readings were believed to have originally been put into order by Ezra and the scribes.  The Torah was broken down into 52 readings which equalled about 5 or 6 chapters per Sabbath.  There was also a corresponding haftorah reading from the prophets that was assigned to accompany the Torah readings. To this day, Jews still follow this same Torah and Haftorah reading schedule on the Sabbath.

So on this particular Sabbath in Luke 4, the Torah reading and the accompanying Haftorah reading have already been scheduled.  The hazzan has selected rabbi Yeshua (Jesus) on this day to read the Haftorah and give the short dereshah (a short “sermon” telling how it can be applied).

The Torah has been read by the selected reader.  And now it is Jesus turn to stand.  You ALWAYS stood to read from the Word of God. He is given the selected Haftorah reading which on this day was from the scroll of Isaiah.  What a beautiful passage He has been given on this day.  It is one of hope and freedom.  As a rabbi Jesus does something that would have been permissible. He strings together a series of Texts from the scroll of Isaiah He has been handed.  According to the reading schedule that is still in place today, the assigned reading appears to have been Isaiah 42:6-7.  But Jesus weaves together this passage with Isa. 61:1-2 and Isa. 58:6.  These are Messianic prophecies of hope about how a coming Messiah would declare a Jubilee with “the Spirit of the Lord.”  The Jubilee was essentially about release, return, and renewal.

Early on in Israel’s history (Leviticus 25) God had crafted a year of Jubilee for the Israelites.  In the 50th year all prisoners were to be set free and land was to be returned to original owners.  It was also a year of rest for the land as no crops were to be harvested in the 50th year.

Luke tells us that when Jesus reads these Texts from Isaiah, “the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.” (4:20).  You could hear a pin drop.  The Word of God has been declared!  And now…they anxiously await…”what is this rabbi going to offer in the dereshah about this wonderful passage of hope!”

It may have been the shortest dereshah they’d ever heard.  It was also the most unbelievable.

Jesus sits down, hands the scroll back to the hazzan and offers 8 words that change everything.   “Today… this Scripture…. is FULLFILLED in your hearing.”    What has He just said?  Right there in the midst of his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus has just declared that Jubilee is here…in the form of… HIMSELF!    He is proclaiming Himself to be Messiah, the ONE who would proclaim Jubilee for Israel!  He has come to “preach good news to the poor.”  He has come to “proclaim freedom for the prisoners.”  He has come to “give sight to the blind.” He has come to “release the oppressed.”  He has come to proclaim God’s Jubilee!!!!!

Most people think that at this part in the Story that the Jews in the synagogue are angry.  They will become angry alright.  But not yet.  Luke shows us clearly that after Jesus declares Jubilee they “spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.” (4:22)  In fact, the “question” they ask next  is more affirmative of this than we’ve typically read it.  They ask, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”  We should hear this as more of a declaration than a question.  ”This is our hometown boy!  He’s the son of our very own Joseph!  We’ve watched Him grow up right here in Nazareth.  He’s one of ours!”  The God who spoke then is now speaking to them in the present.

It’s a whole additional aspect to this story that I won’t delve into much here but many people from Nazareth believed the Messiah would indeed come from their hometown.  So they believed at first that Jesus WAS indeed that Messiah.  Until he quickly shows them that his Messiahship is not exclusive to them.  How quickly they turn on Him.  They go from being ready to proclaim Him the Messiah to wanting to push him over a cliff to stone Him.

You’ve held on this long, so come with me a little further to let me show you the “hagah.”

If you follow what I’ve mentioned above there is something obvious missing in Luke 4 that I can’t believe I’ve never thought to look up! And I must give credit to one of my students for asking. So what is it that do we NOT have in the Story that might give additional insight?  The Torah reading for that Sabbath day!

I excitedly reverse-traced it  by looking through all the Torah readings to see which one of them connected to the passages that Jesus read aloud from the Isaiah scroll. I had a feeling this might give us even more depth to what Jesus was showing His audience in the synagogue that day.  And what I found stunned me!  While there wasn’t a reading that accompanied Isa. 61:1-2, the Torah reading that accompanies Isa. 42:6-7 was…Genesis 1:1-6:8!

Why is that such a big deal?  This reading of course contains the story of Creation.  But what’s WITHIN the Story of Creation?  The first Sabbath!  On the seventh day, God rested.  Now look back with me at Jesus’ usage of the three Isaiah passages in Luke 4.

¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Do you see it?  As previously mentioned, for the Haftorah Jesus takes the liberty to weave together a tapestry of SEVEN specific phrases from the assigned Isaiah scroll!  Why does he take this liberty and why seven?  I am suggesting here that it is to  parallel the Creation Story in the Torah reading!  Here’s what I mean.  Creation begins with:

The “Spirit of God hovering over the waters.”  Look at the parallel in Jesus’ beginning – “The Spirit of the Lord is on me…”

Jesus is not only declaring the Jubilee He’s showing us, like at His baptism when the Spirit also comes down and “hovers over Him,” that what He has come to offer the world is a NEW creation!

And what is the seventh phrase Jesus uses?  ”To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  It’s a parallel to the seventh day of Creation when God “rests” and enjoys His creation.

So what does all of this mean?  I believe that Jesus uses these seven phrases to both declare Jubilee AND declare that He is offering to recreate our fallen world through his life, death, and resurrection.  Paul picks up on this and declares now that WE are made new when he says in 2 Cor. 5:17 that “If anyone is IN Christ, he is a NEW CREATION.”

This is truly “life between the trees!”  Jesus has come to restore Garden living by making “all things new.” He has come to declare the Jubilee against the curse placed upon the world by Satan.  He has come to restore what God started with “in the beginning.”  Those seven phrases from Isaiah declare that mission. And it was a mission that started in the Garden.  God recreating, through Jesus, a new and restored way of life.  Jubilee in the beginning.  Jubilee through Jesus.  And Jubilee for disciples today.

The next time the Word of God is read aloud, tune in and then dig deep.  He might be saying more than meets the ear.