Bible Reading Challenge Blog

I use Jesus’ first miracle every single time that I do premarital counseling.  Turning water to wine at a wedding is a wonderful symbol of Jesus wanting the celebration of a marriage to continue and not allow it to stop.  I know it may be a bit of a stretch, but there is some real affinity to Jesus knowing that the party would end, and thus bring shame upon the couple, and wanting it to continue, and thus bringing them praise.  But there was also another lesson in this miracle.  If you notice how vs. 11 describes this miracle you will see a theme that will continue throughout the book of John.  John calls this first miracle a “sign”.  If you look later in the chapter you will see in vs.23 that many believed because of the “signs” that he was doing.  If you back up just a little bit you see them asking in vs. 18 for a “sign” that he was capable of doing all that he said he was able to do.  

The word “sign” in Greek is semenion.  What Jesus is wanting to portray and what John allows us to understand is that every single thing that he did on the earth was a sign pointing to His Father.  The signs that Jesus performed can also be called miracles.  The miracles of Jesus all point to who Jesus is.  Jesus was not quite ready to perform his first sign of turning water to wine, but his mom insisted and who can say no to their mom?

His next sign, which wasn’t much of a miracle but sure did leave a mark on the temple, was to drive out the money changers from the temple.  I know, if you were paying attention to the other Gospels then you would have noticed that Jesus normally drives out the money changers at the end of the Gospel and right after he rides triumphantly into Jerusalem.  This is why I’m loving John because it gives us such a different perspective than the other Gospels.  

I’m lying prostrate on the couch.  I just finished running a marathon and every single muscle, joint, toe, and a plethora of other body parts simply hurt.  I’ve been training for 5 months, and what I can’t get out of my mind is that tomorrow starts a life without training for a marathon or for triathlon.  I’ve been in training mode for over a year now, and I think it is time to take a break and move on.  We just finished the Gospel of Luke and as you open the Gospel of John you will feel like you are taking a break from the Gospels, when in fact you are not.  John is different, very different.  John is my favorite Gospel because he is so different.  His emphasis is completely on showing his readers that Jesus is God.  The divinity of Jesus is underlined over and over again.

As Luke was also the writer of the Acts of the Apostles so John is the writer of Revelation and possibly the Letters of I, II, and III John.  Look near the end of Scripture and you will find those three letters.  They are a lot more like Revelation than they are like the Gospel of John.  The Gospel was thought to be the last one written, and so potentially around 80-90AD.  It is thought to be written to a primarily Jewish audience, as we can see with John stressing the Jewishness of Jesus and his disciples.  The temple and the synagogue are the primary places of teachings and most of what happens in the Gospel happens within a Jewish religious context.  Having said that, unfortunately, John has also been used throughout history as anti-semitic fodder.  The term “Jesus Killers” is picked out of John and others have used this Gospel to underline the culpability of the Jewish race while dismissing, if not completely disregarding, the culpability that we all have in our own betrayal of Jesus.  

Now on to the first chapter of John.  There is honestly too much in the first chapter for me to put in this blog.  As you read it I want you to think about what it means that we say that Jesus is God in the flesh.  Jesus is one of us, and yet also totally other.  John 1 gives us the trinitarian theology that tells us that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all present at creation.  Did you hear what I said?  The Son was present at creation.  Our single God never separates from Himself, but rather all three persons are present at the same time at all times.  

As you read this chapter I would love for you to focus on the verses 1-16 and you will find so much of the heart of our Christian theology.  I can’t wait to break into John, I hope you will love it as much as I do.

Luke has a great celebration to end his Gospel.  While at the beginning you find the women terrified and (vs.5) bowing their faces to the ground you find the men amazed and disbelieving that God could act as he had promised all along.  Poor guys, they were absolutely clueless on the road to Emmaus.  Twice we read that the men thought the women were just telling idle tales (vs.11,22).  Now we can excuse them somewhat because Scripture says (vs.16) that their eyes were kept from seeing Jesus.  This is the same concept that we read when God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus.  We also read Jesus’ words when he states that the Pharisees are kept from seeing as well in John 9:40.  I know that is coming up next but we do find in Scripture that not only are people not understanding but that God actually makes people not understand.  Okay, that’s a bit troubling.  Why would God make people not understand?  That really isn’t fair, is it?  Moses responds that the reason why God closed Pharaoh’s heart was so that God’s glory could be revealed even more powerfully, which in fact did happen.

The road to Emmaus is a classic Scripture and it is one that we will be using for Easter this year.  I have a request for all of you that are reading this.  If you have a smartphone go ahead and download the following App:  Augment (the image should be a white box inside a red border inside a black border).  Just have it handy with you on Easter Sunday and what you will see take place is a bit hokie, but effective in understanding the Scripture that we have before us.  The disciples have no idea that it was Jesus in their midst, and he lets them know what they are missing.   At verse 25 he tells them that they are foolish and slow of heart to believe.  That does sound like us, doesn’t it?  

Starting at vs. 50 you have one of the most genuinely joyful scenes of Scripture even as Jesus is raised in the Ascension.  We read that he lifted his hands and blessed them and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and every day they were in the temple blessing God.  Now that sounds good!  We get a hint that there are greater things to come with this body of people.  Remember that Luke is the author of the Acts of Apostles so we know that the early church has really just begun.   

Luke gives us an image of what an innocent Pilate could look like.  If you read these verses carefully you will see the pains to which the Gospel writer goes to show how Pilate did everything in his power to free Jesus.  Three times (vs.22) he tells the religious leaders that he sees no fault in Jesus and that he is going to just torture him and then let him go free.  But he was so swayed by the people that he could not stand up to them and eventually allowed them to have his way.  A reticent Pilate becomes an enabler.  

How often do we see things that we just know are not the way that God had planned them to be in our families, or in our neighborhoods, or in our churches and we just don’t think that we have any power or any control over  what happens next so we do nothing, we just remain quiet.  If nothing else, Pilate is a great case study for someone like us who knows what the right thing to do is and yet don’t do it because we don’t trust that God has our back. 

I find it interesting that Herod and Pilate have their own little love story in this Scripture.  We rarely see a personal touch as Luke includes in vs.12 and it almost seems as if they were having fun.  

What is not fun to read is what happens to Jesus in all of this.  It is interesting that Luke does not have Jesus being whipped and beaten like the other Gospels.  Instead we have this Via Dolorosa that Jesus takes, which literally means the way of pain or suffering.  He has an interaction with Simon of Cyrene who is compelled to carry Jesus’ cross.  He didn’t volunteer, I just think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Jesus addresses a group of women, probably hired, who were mourning Jesus’ eventual death.  He turns to them and tells them to knock it off.  Well, not really, but he does tell them not to worry about him, but rather about themselves as the future does not look promising.

The two thieves are good cop and bad cop with the good cop chastising the bad cop for not realizing the position in which they were in.  I wanted to include a link to Monty Python’s “Always look on the bright side of life” but there is a bad word in the song and I couldn’t do it.  But whenever I get to the story of the thieves I can’t help but see that scene.  What we often forget in that scene is Jesus’ promise to the good thief that this day he shall join him in paradise.  

The death of Jesus allows those who are witnessing to realize that they missed the opportunity and this was truly, as the centurion stated, an innocent man.  Joseph of Arimathea comes around and lays Jesus’ body in the tomb and the women witnessed  and they will return in a few days.

It seems like there should be 5 chapters wrapped up into one chapter here.  So many events in the life of Christ take place, and they are extraordinarily memorable events.  Think about the progression that takes place in the chapter, and try to follow the mood and the excitement that ebbs and flows during the chapter.  Jesus begins the chapter as the Alpha in that region.  We read that the religious leaders “were afraid of the people” because of Jesus.  He is without a doubt one of the most popular and influential people in the region in that time period.  But then all it takes is one person to begin to sow seeds of discontent that can then escalate into a train that is running which cannot be stopped.  Judas’ motivation, according to Luke, was money.  He consented because they agreed to pay him.  Some of the other Gospel writers may have different approaches to the motivation behind Judas’ betrayal (the realization that Jesus was not instilling a political kingdom, the recognition that there never would be an opportunity to be with the front runner and at the helm of a movement that would bring the kingdom of God on the earth with Israel in charge militarily).  But here Luke is very clear, money was behind his decision making.  

But the disciples and Jesus were not privy to Judas’ decision making.  Okay, Jesus knew, but the disciples were still flying high.  I’m guessing that throughout this whole last week of his life Jesus was pretty reflective and maybe was even considered moody.  I don’t think he joined in the celebrations of Palm Sunday, but was much more serene and stoic than his disciples as he rode into Jerusalem.  That’s my take.  

The last supper takes place and Jesus gives the Words of Institution in the midst of trying to describe who it would be that was going to betray him.  This leads them to ask of themselves who is it that will betray Jesus.  This then leads, and I’m not sure how they get here, to who is the greatest among them as far as being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Can you imagine that conversation: “I wonder who it is that is going to betray Jesus.  It is probably that John guy, he is so quiet and maybe even mischievous.  Maybe it’s Peter, he seems to be pretty puffed up on himself.  Wait, isn’t Peter the greatest among us, Jesus seems to think so.  Peter?  No way!  I’m the greatest among us, no I’m the greatest.”  It sounds like a room full of Mohammed Ali’s arguing over who is the greatest of all time.  Jesus tells them simply that he has given to them all a seat at the kingdom and that kingdom allows them to eat and drink at the Lord’s table.  Appropriate that on this evening of the Last Supper he gives his disciples the right to eat and drink at His table.  

I love what he does with his disciples starting at vs.35.  He really builds a case for their being able to trust and rely upon his word.  Do you remember when I sent you out without a purse, bag or sandals?  Did you ever find yourself in need?  Now I’m adding this part, and didn’t you think at the time that it was a crazy idea and that it would never work?  Remember that?  Well, did it work out?  Were you ever in need?  So just trust me that things are going to work out.  It is hard to trust someone until you have a bit of a track record with them.

At this point things start to go south.  Jesus prays in the garden and Luke has the very illustrative verses of 43-44 that depict him sweating drops of blood.  I can think of no other more graphic representation of Jesus’ agony than this one.  Judas betrays him, Peter betrays him…three times, the chief priests betray him.  Nuff said.  Things only get worse.

I couldn’t help but think of this image when I read vs. 5-6.

This church is located in the Italian Alps near Turin in a region called the Waldensian Valleys.  It is a Protestant Church, reformed and Presbyterian in governance.  In those valleys the cathedrals are Protestant because the people for the most part are Protestant.  I know, Protestant valleys in Italy, doesn’t quite make sense.  There is a long history which is tied in with the Huguenots that created safe havens for those fleeing from the government authorities who wanted to persecute them for their religious beliefs in the 15th and 16th centuries and even later.  The actual image above is a scene from just a few months ago of Pope Francis meeting with Waldensian representatives.  This marked the first time that a Pope has ever met officially with representatives from the Waldensian Church.  I remember when I was a pastor in the Waldensian Church and meeting and speaking with then Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict, who said he was basically waiting for us as Protestants to come back to the real church.  Needless to say, he was not my favorite Pope.  This guy is much, much better.  He seems to get it.

But it is the building and the space that reminds us of what we are capable of in order to worship God.  These structures for many are a sign of opulence and exaggeration.  God doesn’t need temples, He doesn’t need gold inlay, He doesn’t need any of the costly materials or buildings that we say we need in order to do ministry.  But the point that Jesus is making is not so much about the opulence of the temple as much as the transience of anything temporal.  “As for all that you see, these things will be thrown down and not one stone will be left upon another.”  The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when he will come back and claim us as his children.

The entire rest of the chapter sounds a lot more like Revelation than it does Luke.  Jesus says: “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” For us today it really means no compromise, which is the principle message from Revelation.  If we endure and keep our faith in our Savior, then our souls will be saved.  If we wander and stray away from the Lord and do not rely and trust in him, then we do need to be aware of the judgment that is coming.  Boy, it all sounds very scary.  As I heard today, if we know Jesus as Savior it doesn’t need to be scary at all.  If we don’t know Jesus, I don’t want people to be disciples out of fear, but fear can be a motivating factor.  I don’t want people to turn to Jesus because of their fear of hell, but I also don’t want to deny that hell exists.

When Jesus states in vs. 32 that this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place, I wonder to which generation he was referring.  What he does tell us is the daily plan that we ought to have: “Be alert at all times…”  That is the key, isn’t it?  We don’t know when those times are going to come, but being alert means being constantly wedded to Christ and his purposes here on this earth.  This is our mission and our calling.

The questioning of Jesus’ authority is nothing new.  But in what context do we see the authority of individuals questioned?  In a similar context the authority of a pastor is not normally questioned within the congregation, especially within the Presbyterian Church (USA) where the session is the governing authority.  If I were to say something on a Sunday morning I don’t believe that people would question that I would have the right to say whatever it might be, as long as it was Scriptural and followed what at least seemed like a lesson from the Scripture.  Authority is that which allows one to speak freely and without reservation.  Authority is that which allows a person to say something and even do something and the ensuing result is not questioned, but rather embraced.  Does a pastor have authority within the church?  Certainly the pastor has influence and hopefully that influence translated into authority.  But even more fortunately within our church there are even more checks and balances than in most churches.  You wouldn’t want me barging ahead thinking I could do anything I want.  It wouldn’t be pretty.

Interestingly those testing Jesus aren’t even able to answer the question of authority in regards to John the Baptist.  They were too afraid of what kind of a response they would get from the people.  So those testing Jesus said they didn’t know by what authority John taught.  Jesus responds in regards to his own authority not with an I don’t know, but rather with I’m not going to tell you.  There is a big difference between these two responses.

The question about the widow and the resurrection is an interesting one.  We fully believe that once we die then immediately we will be with Jesus.  The question often arises, but will we recognize and know each other?  Absolutely, I believe that we will.  I don’t really have a Scripture to back that up, but I don’t have a Scripture that refutes that claim, but this one comes close.  Jesus states that in heaven we will not be marrying and giving away in marriage.  We will not be in the types of relationships that we have here on earth.  Here on the earth we have relationships of give and take, of compromise, of trying to serve the other while making sure our own individuality doesn’t disappear.  Relationships on earth are complicated, and become even more complicated when you have mixed and extended families.  But Jesus says in heaven we will be simply children of God.  When you are a child you don’t worry about marriage.  You have a whole group of friends that you go out with and play.  

As I was growing up in Ventnor, NJ we lived at the Overseas Ministries Study Center right there on Ventnor and Portland Avenues.  It was a massive complex of building a block away from the beach.  Every summer there would be tens of kids who would be back in the United States for the summer as their parents, who were missionaries, were on furlough.  We would have a band of close to 100 kids that would play, roam around the town, make up games, and in short, just have an amazing time.  It was an enchanted childhood.  Every summer a new set of kids would come in, and over time since I was the one who was kind of permanent there, the kids tended to not shy away from me.  It was a setting where during the summer you really didn’t have anything to worry about.  The relationships were easy, quickly made, and then just as quickly the gang of kids was gone, only to be replaced with another a year later.  

When Jesus speaks about being a child of God he expects and wishes for us relationships that are not complicated, or at least certainly relationships that we don’t complicate.  So often we complicate the relationships in which we find ourselves.  

A wee little man named Zaccheus hosted Jesus at his home.  The Scripture says that he jumped down off the tree and was so pleased that Jesus had noticed him.  Then in vs.6 it states that he was happy to welcome him to his home.  People were not happy with this new found friendship.  Jesus should not be at the house of sinners.  This sinner has a surprise for Jesus and everyone else who is in attendance.  It is a statement that he makes unsolicited and without Jesus asking him to step up.  “How about this Jesus?  Half of that which I own I will give to the poor, and if anyone has a beef against how I collected, I’ll pay them back four times.”

On a recent plane ride I saw the beginning (the plane landed before the movie was over) of Spotlight.  It was the investigation into the Roman Catholic Church and the systemic abuse that was being covered up.  Let me be clear, this could have been, and just may be, any church at all.  The fact that there is a protective statute of limitations for these institutions is sickening.  Zaccheus does not have a statute of limitations for how far back they could go if they were wronged by him.  “If I have defrauded anyone of anything…”  When he encounters Jesus his life is changed and the sky is the limit.  What a great example.  

After our first two years as missionaries in Russia we were required to come back to the United States and itinerate, that is to speak in churches about our experiences.  Before we began our speaking tour Stacy and I had to come up with a Scripture that we were going to use as our basis for what we said about our ministry in Moscow.  We chose Luke 18:1-8.  Our experiences in Russia were ones that we had never come across before, they were so dramatic and impossible, seemingly impossible, to overcome that we realized that the more we prayed, the more God was able to take the impossible and bring out miracles.  Jesus explains what these verses are all about from the very beginning.  Look at vs.1.  Jesus tells this parable so that people would see the need for prayer and not lose heart if they felt like their prayer was not being answered.  Can I get an amen from the choir?  Have you ever prayed, and prayed, and prayed, and after an hour, okay, maybe after a week, even for some of us after a few months and even years it seems like God is that cruel judge who doesn’t care?  Jesus says that even that cruel judge who doesn’t believe in God and has no regard for humanity will eventually respond if we are persistent enough.  How much more will God, who loves us, created us, and calls us His very children, respond in due time?  It is a great lesson in patience for those of us wired to expect a response from God immediately.  That is not the way that God works.

Jesus’ next moral of the story is centered around vs.14 where he tells us that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  I’m wondering if any events that are happening within the United States right now just might make us think about this verse and how this truth will be carried out.  The pride that we see on so many different fronts in our country is staggering.  If Jesus were to wander around our country for a few days I am sure that he would say that these verses were spoken exactly for people and situations in which we find ourselves.  We have a certain pride about ourselves that is unhealthy.  That pride generates a belief that we are self-sufficient and that all we need is ourselves in order to be successful and in order to be the best at what we do.  Often times humility is equated with weakness.  For Jesus our weakness is found in what we consider our strength.  That’s just the way Jesus works and he encourages us to work the same way.

I just noticed the emphasis on vs.15 of infants being brought to Jesus.  I had always thought that it was children, but the Greek here in these verses actually says: “Even infants were being brought to Jesus.”  Now the rebuke by the male disciples, and that is a key point, male disciples, is probably along the lines of: “Your infants if they are out with the crowds will get all sorts of sicknesses that they should not be exposed to at such an early age.”  I’m making this part up, but from my experience of living in a Mediterranean culture like Southern Italy, you learn immediately what the saying means: “It takes a village to raise a child.”  We were often stopped on the streets when Rachel and Naomi were infants and given advice on what we should be doing with them from perfect strangers.  If it was a little bit windy and we didn’t have a hat on Rachel and we went out for a walk, oh boy did we hear about it.  Perfect strangers would nearly accost us on the street telling us what bad parents we were for not putting a hat on her head.

This played out every single time that we went out with our infants.  Every person in that congested town of Portici felt like they were the rightful parents of any child that they might happen to come across.  The generations of advice and insight into child rearing would be poured into the unsuspecting and helpless parent who just might be crossing their paths.  By the end of it, we were a little tired and we would pretend that we didn’t understand what they were saying and just say some words in English.  Then they were much more forgiving because foreigners didn’t know anything anyway, so how could you expect this foreign couple to know what was good for their child.  Maybe, just maybe, the disciples were rebuking the parents because obviously their infants should not have been exposed to the chaos that surrounded Jesus.  Well, Jesus was not so sure.  He blessed them.

The story of the ten lepers is one of my favorites to tell the preschool kids on chapel day.  It is an easy one and one that the kids quickly pick up on.  No, it wasn’t right that only one returned and gave thanks to Jesus for what he had done.  But one aspect of this story that we never cover in preschool is the fact that the one who returned was actually a Samaritan.  Jesus sure uses Samaritans a lot in his stories and really underlines their worth in his interactions with them.  Think about the Samaritan woman at the well whom Jesus engages and makes her an evangelist.  His disciples are shocked not only that he is speaking with a woman, but a Samaritan woman at that!  Then we have the parable of the Good Samaritan who is the quintessential protagonist who shows up the religious leaders on what it means to love thy neighbor.  It isn’t just Luke, but it is Jesus who engages the foreigner and does not in any way make them feel like…well, a foreigner.

At our Revelation study on the first Wednesday of the month we had a lengthy conversation about the rapture.  Now, I take the position that one thing we know for sure is that Jesus is going to be coming back.  We know that, it is a given.  What we do not know is what is it going to look like, be like, or what events will take place before he comes back?  There is only circumstantial evidence that this concept of a rapture is ever going to take place.  I wonder, as you hear me say that, does it in any way cause you to question a person’s salvation based upon their belief in the rapture?  I think we have created guidelines and fantasies where people have taken a few verses out of context: Jesus coming from the clouds and meeting us – I Thessalonians 4:17, or that some will be left behind – Luke 17:22ff.  These verses in Luke have been used consistently as proof texts for those who would want to prove that the rapture is going to happen.

If the rapture happens, great, I’ll be with Jesus.  If the rapture doesn’t happen, great, I’ll be with Jesus.  We know that consistently Jesus warns his disciples and others that we should not in any way try to predict how these end time events are going to take place.  We know that people are going to be living their lives normally, that’s what these verses tell us, and then it is going to happen without any warning and without anyone knowing that it is about to take place.  From one day to the next, it is not a progression, Jesus will come back.  I do not believe that the rapture is in any way anti-Christian.  But then again, I think Christians who don’t believe in the rapture should also be given the same benefit of the doubt.  

I found this online.  I don’t think they meant it to be funny, but it kind of is.  I love the smoke, it is a nice touch.  Again, Jesus speaks in these verses not to prepare his disciples for the rapture, but rather to make sure that they know how ready they have to be for his second coming.