jesus | Weaver1has's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘jesus’

The Gospel, The Ευαγγελιον in the Old Testament; The Reason for the Apostles Use of this Particular Special Theological Word

May 5, 2024

The truth is that we all want to hear good news. Some good news I saw today was the Green Wall of Africa. The United Nations with local populations south of the Sahara have started to make central Africa green again. This not only brings wealth to Africa but also community. The strange thing is though, when we look at most news sources it is usually bad news. So then in the world there different types of news, good and bad. It makes me feel happy to see hope of a better future filling Africa, I wish I could say the same thing about other parts of the world. In a sense then good news is also rather psychological. For good news to be good your have to ‘feel’ in your heart and in your mind that it is good news. One has to be convinced that the news is true, authentic and that it can change something in one’s life for the better.

The ancient people were no different to us. They also liked to hear good news. Perhaps there was a hunting expedition for food, and they were able to trap some meat to eat for a month, or that it was a great harvest so it was less likely that the villagers would go hungry next Winter. They had basic needs for survival and we are no different. It is sometimes easy to forget our basic needs of food, heat and warmth. This Winter was interesting in Finland. The temperatures in Southern Ostrobothnia dropped to about -32 c and we were running out of wood. In fact I went outside and chopped wood. The electric pump does not work that well at these temperatures. It was certainly good news that I had an axe!

So then whether you are religious or not, you must be curious what people thought two or three thousand years ago. Yes, the Bible has writings that old and even if you don’t accept it as Scripture, it does not mean it has no value to you. It is true that I see Scripture as God’s word to us, but I think if you find Shakespeare’s Macbeth interesting, something made up then; how much more valuable then might the Bible be?

At this point you have to make a choice; either you believe what I say, or you have a ‘better’ explanation. I respect your viewpoint, but I think I also have a valid point too.

Gospel in its most basic kernel means good tidings or good news. There are two things we want to discover:

The way ‘gospel’ was used in the Old Testament
How it is used and modified by the Apostles (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit)

Why did the Apostles choose the word Gospel (ευαγγελιον)?

I am taking a break this Week from the theology of the theologians and want to follow through and learn about the idea of the Gospel came from. Obviously, we need to do research in the Hebrew Old Testament and the LXX (the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament.)

Background of the word Gospel, euangelion see also bsr in the OT.

Twice it can mean ‘reward for bringing good news’ and in the piel (grammatically) it is represented in the lxx as ευαγγελιζω (to announce good news)

1 kings 1 42; While he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came. Then Adonijah said, “Come in, for you are a valiant man and bring good news.” 1 Kings 1:42

Explnation

There was some trouble in Jerusalem with planning and scheming for the throne of Judah and Israel. A conspiracy was going on to usurp King Solomon’s right to become king. Adonijah was expecting good news from Jonathan that he would be the next King and not Solomon.

‘Bring news’ here is in the piel grammatical form. Piel is intensive here showing the happy expectation of kingship for Adonijah. It did not turn out the way Adonijah had foreseen! The word ‘good’ is a modifier of the type of news that was expected.

Notes:

וְט֥וֹב = good

תְּבַשֵּֽׂר׃ = bring news (V‑Piel‑Imperf‑2ms)

Ευαγγελιζω is also a compounded word. The English word euthanasia which means a calm death has the same preposition ‘Eu’. Eu or Ευ means ‘good’. We find the second part in angels (messengers) who ‘announce’ the news.

Is Enrichment in Theology ever Possible?

April 26, 2024

Tags:bible, christianity, God, jesus, major religions, scientific discovery, theology
Posted in theology, Turkish Theology | Comments Off on Is Enrichment in Theology ever Possible?

‘I Believe That I May Understand’, How to Think Theologically

April 21, 2024

The picture on the left was taken from a wiki. It is a representation of a risen Christ. If there is a difference between Protestants and Catholics the cross is one of them. The Roman Catholic Church uses Christ on the cross and a lot of Protestants prefer an empty cross. One puts more emphasis on the Atoning work of Christ and the other puts more emphasis on the ‘resurrection of Christ’. Both images are necessary. Last Week I put a picture of John Henry Newman on my blog and I think I may have offended some readers. I’m sorry if this is how you felt. With anything we need to be grown ups about this and sometimes I may walk a route of the history of Christianity or even of religions. This blog is for everyone no matter what they believe. Just to be clearer the next paragraph explains my stand point on certain points of faith.

Before I continue, I want to begin by saying I am convinced that Adam and Eve were literal people. The reason for this position is very simple. Our Lord Jesus did not see Adam and eve any other way. Our Lord did not say that ‘Adam was generic’ therefore the fall is still seen as the Fall and hence go down a theistic evolutionary road. No, I reject that road because for me it is not helpful and goes against our Apostolic deposit, that Scripture is Holy given to us through the agency of the Holy Spirit. My proposition and presupposition have to stem from the gift of faith. As Anselm said somewhere ‘I believe that I may understand’. I start from the presupposition of worship in our Holy Trinitarian God.

This does not mean that this position is against rationality. It is not irrationality, but it is being human. We are not machines who just churn out answers at the press of a button. On the contrary from the position of faith and by the Holy Spirit we can start to try to work out how to fix this broken world because of sin. So then this brings me to the point that sometimes I may touch on scholars who do not agree with my or your point of view. By studying those we agree with and don’t agree with we are like that proverb:

As iron sharpens iron,
So one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Thus, Professor Gunton is not Herman Bavinck. In their teachings, one scholar may be seen as sour cheese to you and the other a very tasty delicacy. No matter which way we jump another proverb and I don’t know where I picked it up from:

‘You eat the meat and spit the bones out’

The ‘meat’ is the Word of God and the ‘bones’ are the left overs that not much good for anything.

Theology is about the study of God. Unfortunately, a lot of people are afraid to think about the Divine. There can be many reasons for this. Many Systematic theologies no matter what tradition tend to be prescriptive, and the thinking is done for them. As a believer in the faith there are some prerequisites. It is interesting that Karl Barth, when he wrote a very thin book called Dogmatics in outline it follows the Apostolic Creed, and he explains it. His real Dogmatics which was not completed also had a structure. The doctrines of the Christian faith have a natural structure thus they are not that difficult to follow.

Why am I saying these things. The truth is that I want you the reader to grow closer and closer to Christ in your faith. If you are an atheist who reads my blogs, then I pray for you because your soul is on the line. It maybe that a person is convinced that they are only made up of chemicals (star dust). If this is the case, then one is living in the 17^th and 18^th centuries in which reality was seen as clockwork and the human becomes insignificant in the name of progress. The 19^th century is more interesting because the whole movement of the Romantics was a reaction to this. People have imagination, they can think, feel, love, laugh, cry et al. People are more than machines. Whether you believe in God or not from the religious perspective, according to the book of Genesis, you have been created in the image of God.

Do you love God? Do you love your Bible? This is great if you do but unfortunately not everyone’s motives are pure who preach. As a believer you need to know why you believe in Jesus and why Christ is the foundation by the Holy Spirit. For myself I have a presupposition.

Christ of St John of the Cross, Dali, Salvador 1904

I believe and I want to know more about my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who died for me through his atoning work on the Cross. I believe in his resurrection and one day my hope is that I will meet my Lord again in the eschaton. Not all preachers and teachers of the Bible follow this. Many have crept into the various Churches around the world and corrupted them for self-gain. Holiness has gone through the window and utilitarianism has taken its place. I’m sure if John Calvin or Martin Luther came back to our time and place, they would be very angry and heartbroken. What looks like faith on the surface is actually corruption, evil and sin in God’s eyes.

This is why you need to think theologically yourselves by getting on your knees praying for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit so that you soul is not led away by the bright lights of sin and darkness, ‘having the wool pulled over your eyes’. In the real world I am sure that someone has probably stolen from you or pretended to be a friend but was actually a con artist. However, the con-artist needs salvation as much as anyone else no matter how low they have fallen.

I’m one of the lucky ones, If I can use that term loosely. I can read Greek and Hebrew at a very basic level to function. I have had a theological and master’s degree from a renowned college. I have read Karl Barth under Colin Gunton one of the great experts on Karl Barth. I have many smaller writings of John Owen; I have read Irenaeus’ Against Heresies and some of Saint Augustine. I now have the whole batch of Reformed dogmatics by Herman Bavinck… so on. But I am saying to you now, that as a Christian you are already doing theology. It maybe that you don’t like the word theology because it gives you the creeps.

As I said I am going though the book of Colin Gunton on learning to do theology through the theologians. It may be that as soon as I mentioned Samuel Taylor Coleridge that you switched off because he was a poet and got hooked on opium and was not a model parent and husband. Those things are actually true and yes, he became a great poet and then trashed his life. To tell you the truth this happens all the time in our news. Coleridge was however special in some ways. He knew he did wrong; he was sorry and later on in his life, he believed in the Trinity and confessed Jesus as his Lord, and he even had Martin Luther’s table talk by his bedside. He wasn’t trained as a theologian, but he questioned and read everything. A lot of the questions he had during his life have become common questions. For example, ‘free will’, various schools of thought have different explanations of this. In this blog I am not trying to win an argument, but I am attempting to offer you a way of thinking that allows you to keep your faith and at the same time to engage in discussions about your faith that you have just taken for granted. True Godly education takes a lifetime and into the beyond and even in the New Jerusalem our awe of God will get deeper and deeper as we meditate on what the Lamb of God did for us. We will see and feel even more indebted for the sacrifice God made for us so that we could be brought into the love of God by the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit. So then never judge a book by its cover but by the contents in that book. Do not judge Coleridge on the beginning of his life but by the end of his life. No one is perfect and we have to be humble enough to learn even from the imperfect perfect things.

I can see why the late Gunton found Coleridge interesting. The enlightenment made people into mere machines, and this needed a push to get our humanity back. This is what Romanticism attempted to do. Coleridge went back to Martin Luther, back to the state of the will, back to the fall, back to the Atonement which was a reversal of Schleiermacher ever stood for and back to the Trinity. Even though Coleridge made a lot of mistakes a long the way, he came to understand that Christ is the Way, The Truth and the Life.

Some of these things I should have said at the start of this blog, but the truth is that as I write these blogs I have to study and go deeper myself. Then as a good teacher I still need to break these things down so that teenagers and adults can understand.

Reflection

Which theologians do you look up to as good examples? 😊 My heroes are Irenaeus, Augustine, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Herman Bavinck et al. You may also have a list of ones you don’t agree with Schleiermacher, Oregon, Pannenberg. Hmm I’m just having a bit of fun here, but I still hope you get the idea. I’m not so sure I agree with everything Gunton says such as that a lot of ills in our society stem from Augustine. This is quite a charge, and I haven’t made my mind up yet. So, I have done a lot of Biblical exegesis over these few years, and this gives me a change. Theology does not need to be ‘a stick in the mud’ on the contrary by engaging with these theologians no matter what your predisposition is, we can learn how to think about deeper spiritual issues and in the long term become more like Christ.

Tags:Atonement, bible, christianity, cross, faith, Gunton, jesus, Karl Barth, resurrection, theology
Posted in theology | Leave a Comment »

Easter; The Easter Cross & The Death Of The Human Will

March 27, 2024

Today I ask the question Why is Easter important? I want to start off with an object lesson. In my student days I was once given an inked wood cut poster of Marin Luther. Martin Luther alongside Erasmus were somehow involved in the initiation of the Reformation. I really like this old fashioned picture painter by Edward Matthew Ward. Yes, books used to be chained in the reading room. In this particular case the chains are thicker than normal and there is an hourglass on the other side of the table and the sand has run out. On the Museum and Gallery org site (from museumandgallery.org ) He says that these chains are a symbols of the inner turmoil going on inside the heart and soul of Luther.

He then quotes a passage from somewhere:

“Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement ’the just shall live by his faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which, through grace and sheer mercy, God justifies us through faith. There upon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on new meaning, and whereas before ’the justice of God’ had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me the gate of heaven.” (From Here I stand by Bainton as well as the above web site.)

Anyhow my view at this point follows Luther and John Calvin. The following blog is my understanding of the Fall. I will finish off the blog with some discussion on the question of justification of Faith with the help of Herman Bavinck in the Reformed Dogmatics

Easter is the great festival of Christianity and the culmination of God’s word to humanity (In Scripture) and by the Word of God (in our Lord Jesus being fully God and fully man, the Mystery of mysteries.) This is very personal as Bavinck reminded me that all we were as far as being alive to God; we were dead twigs. Something that is dead cannot make decisions. God the Unmoved Mover by the Holy Spirit breathed life into me so that by faith and by grace I could follow the way of Christ. A car without an ignition cannot move so a human being without the Holy Spirit cannot be spiritually alive in terms of salvation. The third Person of the Trinity is our ignition and life Creator.

But while we were dead in our trespasses and sins Christ, The Son of God, willingly died for my sin and your sin. It is now possible by faith, by grace for a human being to enter God’s Kingdom. This fact that Jesus died on Calvary and his resurrection are not any ordinary events. These events are the crucial events for the whole of the human race. This is not another Hegel or Pannenberg thesis, antithesis and synthesis of an event, as though one event modifies another event in the making history. No, my friends, there is no modification of history here as Christianity remembers the deeds of the past. We look back to the cross and the resurrection which is the crucial and the centre of the cross, Where the two beams meet, where our roads cross, This is indeed the Divine Will for the human race.

Why do I take this view as a Christian. Scripture tells us in Genesis that Adam and Eve sinned… You may say; Do you take this seriously?

Yes, I do.

Let me reason with you.

If one takes the story of the fall literally, it is true.
If one takes the story of the Fall generically (Adam and Eve as symbols) it is true
If one takes the story of the Fall as a myth, it is true.
If one takes the story of the Fall as legend, it is true.
If you reject the story of the Fall in the name of science, it is still true.

We all sometimes in our human life do wrong. We all have our selfish ways. Even our good deeds somehow are tainted with, “What’s in it for me?”. Even if we wanted todo the right thing, God already knew that we could never save ourselves.

This is human nature, and this is the effect of the fall and even if you reject this theological, historical Fall; You still sin! The Bible says that if you sin your dead. Even reflecting on our own human nature shows that we are dead towards God as God and sin cannot live together.

Something special needed to happen in human history for us to be able to come closer to a true and living relationship with God. As far as sin in our lives are concerned there are many books to try to help us but they fail.

Self-help books to make us healthier.
How to be the next millionaire
Brain train

The list could go on. I’m not saying these books are bad but what I am saying they are trying to fill that spiritual void. Then there are various belief systems;

Buddhism, A practical religion that rains your mind to make you a more compassionate human being.
Zen that this world you see is not the real one.
Humanism to make better human beings through our own helps.

It gets a little bit more complicated after a while. I am not trashing these ideas as there is some grain of truth in all of them but in the end, they will never satisfy the human soul completely. This to me is a good enough reason to look at the Easter story in a little more depth. Each human being is different too and the way of reading Scripture will a lot of the time be influenced by our own bent on the Truth. But even here with the various types of humans:

The scientific human
The introspective human
The willing human
The doubting human
The busy human
The rich human
The power-crazy human
The sports human
The party orientated human

Lets look at a couple of examples:

The Scientific objective human

This person believes that science has all the answers, and they spend their lives looking for the possibility to cheat death. They need hard evidence from the laboratory to come to a conclusion about the afterlife. Possibly if they looked at the papyri and early documents of the Bible then they could start to believe in the power of the Scriptures.

The Feelingful introspective Human

This person goes out looking to fill their emotional needs. They may dabble in drugs and alcohol to make themselves feel better but in the end, they lose all hope. Actually, our Lord taught that it is only when we realize we cannot do anything in our own wisdom to please God, that God starts to work in our lives. So, some drug addicts and experiential searchers can get into heaven too.

When we think about peoples’ circumstances and our own circumstances, we realize how lost we are. All human beings’ sometimes have sinned or have been hurt because of sin and wrongdoing. We have all missed the mark we have all done wrong. Never mind not being able to reach God’s standards, we cannot even reach our own standards. Our consciences (the voice of God) speak to us and condemns us.

This then is a real conundrum and even if speak in non-religious terms we can see how serious the human condition is. Which ever way we look at it by our own means such as:

Self-help.
Psychological therapy.
Get rich.
Work out (sports).
Party all night get drunk and have sleep overs.
Join a political party and fight for a cause.

I’m sure the list could go on that by using our intellect that we could possibly find happiness! Outside of religion every avenue open to us will fail. I’ve painted a grim picture of a humanist future. The governments can possibly make life a little bit more comfortable or uncomfortable with who is in power.

In a way every government is capricious, and they change their minds all the time. My answer to this dilemma is that there is indeed a God, there is indeed a Creator. For the Christian there is indeed the Trinity. In the past Pagan’s were on to something when they realized that there is a season for everything. Farmers used to mark the new year possibly on the full moon or equinoxes. They looked to the signs for the future harvest that they would have enough food to eat and survive.

There is truth to this, but it points to a greater truth that there is a higher intelligence that we do not understand. People can live because there is food to eat. People can live because they have clean drinking water et al. Theologically this is known as common grace, God’s love and His gift to the whole of the human race.

Even this cannot make us happy as we look at what the human race has done to our theatre of living on this planet earth. Woe betide that we will go to other planets and cause serious harm to them too. Should we even go to other planets if we cannot even take care of planet earth? Even with all of the resources on planet earth we cannot even take care of the poor and sick of where we live.

These are very serious questions.

The Trinitarian answer is the Easter Story. The Easter Story is God’s answer to the human condition. God’s answer to the human condition, your condition and my condition are found at the foot of the cross. The story of the Incarnation, the story of God becoming an ordinary life, living a life of submission to the will of God has been brought to this point. The point above all points, the reason above all reasons. Here, this particular moment that as far as the human condition is concerned, God in Christ was nailed to a wooden cross and hung there. Our Lord had a spear stuck into his side and blood and water gushed out.

What was our Lord’s answer while he was hanging there between the sky and the ground;

The first answer was “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”. Luke 23: 34
The second answer was the resurrection! ¹⁸ … and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Revelation 1:18

People do not have power to save themselves But in Christ God comes into your life and the Holy Spirit is able to make you a new creation.

In simple terms God’s law was broken.

The Gospel is pretty straight forward:

…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Taken from biblegateway.com, Romans 10. 9-10)

In both aspects God is moving towards the sinner and the sinner is reciprocating God’s gift of salvation. It is never the other way around. No matter what a person does in their own strength, it is never possible to become a Christian. The human will of choice is dead to sin and it can never make decisions that can bring salvation in its own power. Having said that even though you are spiritually dead to the things of God, God is love and by the work of the Holy Spirit you can be brought into salvation through what Jesus did for you so that by faith you too can become a new creation with a new heart that seeks after God. Different Christians depending on their disposition come to follow Christ from different premises.

Perhaps you have been praying and you feel Jesus is close to you. You say a prayer of repentance, that you are sorry for what you did, and you want to serve Jesus…
Perhaps you had a dream and Jesus came to you in the dream and our Lord Convinced you that he is the Truth.
Perhaps you have been looking at all the historical evidence of Jesus and his life and you have become convinced that Jesus is Lord.
You have been brought up in a Christian Family and you have come to faith without realizing the point when you were a child of the world and then a child of the kingdom of heaven!

There is no one ‘right way’ a person can become a Christian as our Trinitarian God works in mysterious ways.

Reflection

Up to this point I have been writing for the casual reader. If you are a casual reader that is OK and you can stop reading and I hope you enjoyed the blog. Up to this point we learned that the human heart is very sinful and very deceitful and there is no way spiritually a person can get to heaven in their own strength. The road here however is wide open for everyone and by repentance and confession one can indeed become a follower of Christ. It may be that you have decided to become a Christian then my advice is read John’s Gospel, pray, and seek out mature Christians you can trust and ask them to help you.

The next section is more theological and if you like a challenge and want to think a little deeper about Justification by faith, its history and so on then feel free to continue reading.

Justification by faith and its relationship to good works in the thinking of Martin Luther or the forensic and effective aspects of justification by faith.

Martin Luther in the early days of the Reformation did not separate the forensic and effective aspects of Justification by faith. After Luther this kernel of truth got lost in the history of the times.

Bavinck starts to explain Luthers Position:

Faith, therefore, includes two things: believing that we are sinners and believing that out of grace God justifies us for Christ’s sake. We also have to accept the first [that we are sinners], not because we experience it ourselves, but because God says so.

(Taken from Reformed Dogmatics; page 191, Herman Bavinck, edited by John Bolt)

Bavinck makes it plain:

We need to accept that we are sinners because (God has told us that)
Because of Christ God can make us holy in his Son

Bavinck then quotes Martin Luther to show this:

“Even if we do not recognize any sin in ourselves, we must nevertheless believe that we are sinners. Hence the apostle says: “I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby justified” (1 Cor. 4:4). For just as the righteousness of God is alive in me by faith, so by the same faith sin is alive in me; i.e., by faith alone we must believe that we are sinners, because it is not obvious to us. If truth be told, most of the time we do not seem to be conscious of ourselves [as sinners]. Therefore, we must stand by God’s judgment and believe the words by which he tells us that we are unjust, because he cannot tell a falsehood. “

(Taken fromLut/Jer’x Works, 25:215 (“CIA 56:231; Ficker, I, 69); cf. Luther’s ”67365, 25:239 (W’A 56:252; Ficker, 11, 89)) (This image was taken from wikimedia)

To this justification Bavinck shows the active and passive aspects of Luther’s’ theology of justification:

“Contrition, accordingly, precedes the faith that embraces the righteousness of God in Christ. Now if people thus believe God at his word that there is no righteousness in themselves but only in Christ, they justify God, and that is passive justification. “To justify God in his words” is “for him to be made just and true in his speech, or, alternatively, for his speech to be made just and true. This happens, moreover, by believing and accepting [those works] and by holding them to be true and just.” But this passive justification by which we on our part justify God “coincides with God’s justification of us actively, because he regards as righteousness the faith that justifies his words.” ‘The two coincide: “When he is justified he justifies, and when he justifies he is justified.” Indeed: “God’s passive and active justification and faith or belief in him are the same. The fact that we justify his speech is his own gift, and on account of that very gift he regards us as just, that is, justifies us.”

Passive justification is:

Contrition, repentance precedes faith.
Believe God at his word that He is just (you confess that you are a sinner)
Holding to God’s works being holy and true

Active justification coincides with:

God regards the faith as in Christ our justification

Thus; “When he is justified, he justifies, and when he justifies, he is justified.” Thus the effects of this justification has its correlate good works in Christ: “The death of Christ is the death ofsin and his resurrection is the life of righteousness, because by his death he made satisfaction for sin and by his resurrection he brought about righteousness for us. His death, therefore, does not just signify, but also effects the forgiveness of sins. And his resurrection is not only “a sacrament of our righteousness but also effects it in us.” “All our good exists outside us in Christ, because that good is Christ,” but all of this also exists in us by faith and hope in him.19 In the same way Luther can say that our sin is covered by Christ’s dwelling in us, that God justifies believers because they confess their sins and seek their righteousness in him. (From ibid Bavinck)

Thus Bavinck saw Luther’s’ correlation of ‘forensic’ and ‘effects’ over half a century and more before Tuomo Mannermaa did, but Tuomo did well to see this. If this indeed is the situation on justification by faith, then what has been taught from the time of Melancthon through the German theologians is a theology that is not true to its Lutheran roots (Luther’s teaching). Bavinck reminds us in volume four that some of Luthers writings were lost until 1899! This has indeed affected ethics in the Finnish Lutheran Church with too much emphasis on mercy and forgiveness and not enough emphasis on contrition, repentance and so on. Obviously, this is indeed a serious situation as it allows ‘sin’ to grow in the Church and defame God’s name.

Reflection

God loves you as much as he loves me. God loves us so much that he had a plan to save us. God became a man and for a moment an instant at the cross, God the Father could not even look at his Son, as he took on the sins of the World. If we confess with a contrite heart that we are sinners (God’s gift) and if we believe in our heart Jesus as Lord, we will be saved.

We have come a long way in this blog and it is only as a child of faith that we have any hope of coming to God’s throne of grace.

We have also at the end touched on the fact that the Lutheran Church through some of its scholars got derailed from the rails of Luther’s teachings. Sin has crept into the Finnish Church thus repentance is needed and in Christ holiness to fill the Church again.

I have also learned from this blog that I need to return to the doctrine of justification again and ask God in Christ to teach me more to help the Church to grow again by faith in Christ.

Tags:christianity, faith, gospel, jesus, salvation
Posted in Easter, Lent | Leave a Comment »

Lent 6: Palm Sunday; Are you a Slave or a Master?

March 21, 2024

‘Service’ is something a lot of people nowadays do not understand. We live in a time of world history where each person thinks; “What will I get out of it for myself?” I suppose it is human nature to think about one self but it is also human nature to think about others. This Week we will be looking at Palm Sunday and if the Gospels were made into a play this event would be the last act, last part of the story of the incarnation of Christ. Usually in a country, any country the mark of the ascendancy to the throne of anyone would be a great celebration. Only the so called most important people in society would be invited to the festival. It is interesting that our Lord Jesus also was hailed as king. The king of the Jews and the gentiles. There were no important people at our Lord’s Coronation of Coronations. Sometimes there are people who really decided to serve:

“I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” (Taken from; royal.uk/21st-birthday-speech-21-april-1947)

This is what the late Elizabeth 2^ndSaid on here 21^st Birthday. She said she would ‘serve the people’. A lot of people focus on how wealthy she was, but few realize that she made a promise. This promise in effect made her a servant. As a human being she made mistakes a long the way, but she loved the Lord Jesus. Wealth was not the driving force.

What is the driving force in your life and have you ever thought about it?

We now turn to the story of Palm Sunday. A good place to start is to read it.

The Triumphal Entry
¹ When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” ⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
⁵ “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’”
⁶ The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, ⁷ and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. ⁸ Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. ⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Hosanna in the highest!”
¹⁰ When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” ¹¹ And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21:1-11 NASB

Background Information

According to William Barclay there were over two and a half million people getting ready for the Passover. It is very interesting that our Lord chose to ride into Jerusalem this way. Our Lord was not the first Royal person to ride into Jerusalem this way. In the Apocrypha before the Roman era we read that the Temple was desecrated by Greek soldiers. Antiochus Epiphanes about 175 B.C had sacrificed pigs on the Holy alter in the Temple. The Greeks were eventually overthrown and the people celebrated.

Barclay writes about this event:

“Therefore, they bare branches, and fair boughs, and palms also, and sang psalms unto Him that had given them good success in cleansing His place.” On that day the people carried the palm branches and sung their psalms; it is an almost exact description of the actions of the crowd who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem.” (From dannychesnut.com/Bible)

This is kind of interesting and also the fact that Barclay mentions Judgement starts at the sanctuary Ezekiel 9:6.

When reading the story of Palm Sunday I also think we need to keep it in it’s theological context Philippians 2. 1-11 fits the bill but we will look at this later.

For now, we can say that our Lord Came into Jerusalem on the back of two animals. John Calvin says that this signified that our Lord was sending the message that he was king over the whole world. King over both the Jews and the Gentiles. Matthew is very precise to the prophecy:

⁵ “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION,
‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU,
GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’” Matthew 21:5

The other two Gospels only mention the colt. It is also very interesting that our Lord was not riding a Stallion or some powerful horse of war. A colt by definition is only between one year and four years of age. This prophecy shows that our Lord did not come as a warrior into Jerusalem as a king that was to wage war against literal physical armies.

The crowds all two and a half million of them would have been quite a site for the High Festival of the Jewish nation as our Lord rode into Jerusalem having coats and palm branches laid in front of him as he entered the Holy City. Matthew goes on to write:

⁹ The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David;
BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Hosanna in the highest!” Matthew 21:9 NASB

The crowds new they needed help from God. For the crowds that day our Lord was their saviour, their Messiah, their King! A few days later they would be chanting ‘crucify Him’.

The crowd were on fire, they were excited about their Messiah:

^“When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” Matthew 21:10 NASB

They knew who Jesus was:

^“And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21:11

Perhaps William Barclay was right that perhaps the people of Israel looking at their history remembered their earlier deliverance from the Greeks. Perhaps this is one reason they had an image of our Lord defeating the Romans.

The means by which Jesus entered Jerusalem was as a king of peace. Riding a donkey and a colt which ever way represented peace to the Jews and the Gentiles. The crowds must have seen something odd about our Lord not riding a royal war horse.

Calvin also mentions a little bit more about this story from:

³⁸ shouting:
“BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Luke 19:38 NASB

“Luke adds a few words, Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest; in which there would be no obscurity, were it not that they do not correspond to the song of the angels, (Luke 2:14;) for there the angels ascribe to God glory in heaven, and to men peace on earth; while here both peace and glory are ascribed to God. But there is no contradiction in the meaning; for, though the angels state more distinctly the reason why we ought to sing, Glory to God ― namely, because through his mercy men enjoy peace in this world ― yet the meaning is the same with what is now declared by the multitude, that there is peace in heaven; for we know that there is no other way in which wretched souls find rest in the world, than by God reconciling himself to them out of heaven. Matthew 21:9”

The whole tenor of this story shows that our Lord was about bringing peace to humanity from heaven. The rationale and the summing up of what has been said about the incarnation life of Christ is found in Philippians 2. 1-11.

Be Like Christ
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, ² make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. ³ Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,

and bestowed on Him the name, which is above every name,

¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW,

of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1-11

Reflection

Queen Elizabeth certainly understood the ramifications of Kingship. It is a life of service. Palm Sunday was about our Lord being the servant of God. The one who would serve the people. A service that also mean that a few days later he would be crucified. The people did not understand the relationship of peace and war. What is your understanding of service?

Are you in a position of authority for yourself or are you there because you feel that this is your duty. Is your view of Jesus as a great conqueror who will walk all over the nations or is it that In Christ the barrier that separated us from a relationship with God has been broken and peace has been established.

As our Lord taught us in the Beatitudes we need to do some soul searching and start to put others needs in front of our own selfish needs, and ambitions.

Tags:faith, God, holy-week, hosanna, jesus, palm-sunday
Posted in Easter, Lent | Leave a Comment »

Lent 4: Where is the Centre and Focus of Our reliance?

March 10, 2024

All good things come to us through the gift of our Creator and we ought to remember and be thankful for what he has done for us. On the one level as human beings we rely on God to make the crops to grow and for the water that we drink. These are basic necessities. Our Lord Jesus spoke to us through the basic necessities to look beyond the literal food we eat and to come closer to the Giver of life. Upto this point Muslims Jews and Christians would agree with the goodness of God for his creation.

The differences start to come when we look at the identity of Jesus. Many Jews but not all Jews would want to disown Jesus as their Messiah and Muslims see him only as a Prophet. Christians on the other hand see in Christ’s identity that he is Fully God and Fully man , the second Person of the Holy Trinity. This last view is my view. Intellectually everyone in the world must make their minds up of who Jesus is. Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Atheist, Agnostic, Communist, Democrat, Republican et al.

This story that we start with is the Feeding of the Five thousand not including women and children who were probably there too. This story is a sign, it is a road sign to something very significant. The people who were fed saw Jesus as the Messiah and the King of Israel. Questions are however raised:

What kind of King would Jesus be?

Ultimately where should our reliance for life be put?

Five Thousand Fed
¹ After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). ² A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. ⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. ⁵ Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, *said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” ⁶ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. ⁷ Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” ⁸ One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, *said to Him, ⁹ “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise, also of the fish as much as they wanted. ¹² When they were filled, He *said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” ¹³ So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. ¹⁴ Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
Jesus Walks on the Water
¹⁵ So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. NASB John 6:1-15

The feeding of the five thousand was close to the time of the Passover. There were many who were sick and this crowd followed our Lord up the side of a mountain. A sign was about to take place. John prefers to use the word signs rather than miracle thus in these signs John has something very important to teach us about the Lord Jesus. There are many lessons to be learned here.

First of all, our Lord always had compassion for the sick even here at the nth hour of his incarnation with death about to face him around the corner.
Then our Lord was teaching the disciples that the great provider is in heaven even in the most difficult situations.
Thirdly through this sign we see that Christ is indeed the King of Kings (But what kind of King would he be?)
Obviously, it wasn’t the kind of king that the people wanted as they had the intention of taking him prisoner to make him king.

What does Kingship really mean for the Christian?

John here shows us a sign that is amazing. Our Lord fed thousands of people with some fish and bread. Not every one can do this. Only God can do this, as it necessitates creating something as in this case from something very small. Different people interpreted this miracle in various ways:

Our Lords intention
The disciples trust.
The people’s interpretation of Kingship.

Our Lords Intention

⁴ Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. ⁵ Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, *said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” ⁶ This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.

It doesn’t say but I think possibly our Lord felt compassion for the crowd and this was going to be a test to the disciples. Our Lord says:

“Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?”

This was a loaded question as there are no shops on the top or side of a mountain!

The time was coming closer to the last Passover meal our Lord was going to eat and this was a precursor to this great event. I sometimes wonder how these two events are linked. One thing I do know is that feeding the fives thousand with a few loaves is an unsurmountable situation. This event needs total reliance on our Lord.

The disciples trust.

The Apostles had now been with our Lord for almost three years, and they had seen at firsthand what our Lord Jesus could do. They followed through with his instructions. They showed complete trust here. It does not mean that they still didn’t argue because they did. Especially with Satan working in the heart of Judas Iscariot later on, in the passion narratives.

Our Lord gave thanks for the food. This is a very important lesson that all good things come from God. All bad things don’t come from God. Because of the Fall bad things can come from the world, from our own pride selfish desires or from Satanic influences. No Our Lord as the Second Person of the Trinity in his human form as a real human being thanked God the Father for what was about to take place.

The peoples interpretation of the sign of fish and bread

The people came to a correct assumption that our Lord was the Prophet, The Messiah. They became aware of Who he was. He is the Messiah the Son of God. They got excited but the crwds got the function of Kingship very wrong. They saw in the Son of God someone who could liberate them from the Romans. From a natural perspective as a human being I cannot really blame them. The Romans used to crucify many Jews who fell out of favour with the authorities this includes simple things such as stealing. The crowds could not see beyond their basic needs. They missed the point that all good things come from God including our daily food physically and spiritually. We need both to survive.

Anyhow they got our Lord’s identity correct, but they read into the situation that Jesus was to be an all-conquering King who would destroy the Romans. Our Lord did not come to destroy people because the fact is that God’s judgement already rested on every human being because of the Fall. No, our Lord came to set us free from sin. They were going to force our Lord to be a king by force. This happened before with another king in Jewish history, King Saul. According to the story the people got what they wanted but this was not God’s choice. Here in this story our Lord escaped because his kingdom is a kingdom of peace that sets people free from sin.

Karl Barth said in the preaching section of the Church Dogmatics index:

“ROMANs 51-11 (IIb)

“We have peace with God . . . ” (v. 1). Many serious and penetrating things result from this peace, as emerges in Rom. 5—8. But they result from the fact that we have this peace. Only half-serious and superficially penetrating things can result from a lack of peace with God, or from a supposed peace that we have or think we have in some other way than “ through our Lord Jesus Christ. ” The Christmas message is: “ Peace on earth to men of (God’s) goodwill. ” And what is meant is the peace with God which is included for all the children of men in the child who was born there and then. (IV, 2, p. 273. The Direction of the Son.)

Jesus Christ fought His enemies, the enemies of God—as we all are (v. IO; Col. 121)—no, He loved His enemies, by identifying Himself with them. Compared with that, what is the bit of forebearance or patience or humour or readiness to help or even intercession that we are willing and ready to bring and offer by way of loving our enemies? But obviously when we look at what Jesus Christ became and was for us, we cannot leave out some little love for our enemies as a sign of our recognition and understanding that this is how He treated us His enemies. It is indeed a very clear commandment of God which points us in this direction from the cross of shame. (IV, I, p. 244. The Judge Judged in Our Place.)

It is God first Who is for man, and then and for that reason man is for God. God precedes therefore and sets man in the movement in which he follows. He says Yes to him when man says No, and thus silences the No of man and lays a Yes in his heart and on his lips. He loves man even though he is an enemy (v. 10) and thus makes him the friend who loves Him in return. (IV, 2, p. 580. The Awakening to Conversion.)” (Taken from the Church Dogmaics, Index, page 361, 1988 version, Karl Barth)

Barth is correct here in his estimation that it is God who made the first move to save us from the clutches of evil. We talk about ‘free will’ but my view is that without the Holy Spirit breathing life into us spiritually somehow, we would continue to walk around ‘thinking we are free’. Human beings tend to put money, career, fame, fortune and power et al, as the more desirable things. We then forget our Creator, our family, other human beings, animals, nature and so on.

Reflection

Complete reliance on God entails obedience. This is only possible through our Economic Trinitarian God; The Trinity is a mystery no one actually understands fully but by faith we can confess Jesus as our lord. By believing in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus died for us on the cross, and relying on His victory over death, we too as sinful human beings, in Christ can be brought before the throne of God in the New Jerusalem, the City of Our God.

God is indeed for us, and we need to start taking stock of our souls of what is important and not important. Our Lord gives us freedom and this freedom comes through complete reliance on Him by the Holy Spirit. If you put money, career, fame, fortune and power et al, as the most important things, I can prophecy that at the end of ones life, can be full of regret.

Tags:bible, faith, God, jesus, jesus-christ
Posted in Lent, Turkish Theology | Leave a Comment »

Lent 3: The New Covenant and the Hope of Christ’s Second coming in Glory

March 2, 2024

The Lord’s Supper Instituted

This Weeks reading is about the First Holy Communion, the first Eucharistic meal instituted, For Roman Catholics the First Mass Instituted. Different Churches understand this in various ways, but this blog isn’t about finding fault or to try to put any other tradition down. I am only interested in saying that Christ loves his Church. He loved his Church so much that he died for us and through his resurrection by faith we too can have eternal life and the forgiveness of our sins. Our Lord in the Christmas story was born by humble means, and this was the beginning of all the things he would do in His Incarnation. Then at the Easter story in the closing scene of the Incarnation, he paid our dept to God the Father so that we could in Christ come boldly before the throne of Grace. Within the story of the Last Supper, we also have a glimpse of the future when Christ will come back as the king of Kings:

The scene in the book of Revelations show Christ as the king of Glory. Christ in Matthew 26:28 is speaking about this day:

How Jesus as King is described in Revelations

¹² Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; ¹³ and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. ¹⁴ His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. ¹⁵ His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. ¹⁶ In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.

Our lord Jesus, The Son of God shows John the Apostle His power over everything:

¹⁷ When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, ¹⁸ and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. ¹⁹ Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. ²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. Revelation 1:12-20

From our point of view Holy Communion points to that great day of hope. As finite beings we have an infinite future in Christ. John the Apostle however is taken into Heaven itself and he sees this beautiful picture of Christ out Lord.

Let us now look at what Matthew 26. 26-28 teaches us

²⁶ While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Matthew 26:26

My translation would be:

While they were eating, Jesus took bread and having blessed it, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Matthew 26:26

I am not using ‘some’ because it only became ‘some’ when our Lord broke it. As believers we all belong to the same loaf, the same Church. The Lord commanded by saying ‘Take eat!’. In the Greek both ‘take’ and ‘eat’ are in the imperative mood. It is a command. I would assume because this is a Passover meal that the bread would be broken rather than torn. Unleavened bread is brittle therefore it would be broken. The text does not say Jesus tore some bread and gave it. In the original story of the Passover the people were in a rush hence they took it within the range of fastest cooking. When we also read this story of the Passion of Christ things happened very rapidly. The betrayal happened, the Apostles were going to be scattered, Christ was going to be killed. The events are speeding up. Yet this Passover meal was given the fulfillment of the meaning. The Church has seen this story as Christ being the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb. The book of Hebrews spells this out.

Verse 27

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸ for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Matthew 26:28

So, on the eve of our Lord’s sacrifice, Christ gives us the second part of this institution. In the original context of the Passover, God’s people painted blood on the door of their houses so that the Angel of Death would Passover the house, so that no harm would befall that particular house. This Exodus was prophetically pointing to the Christ, the Lamb of God who takes the sins of the world away. When God the Father sees his Son’s blood, the Angel of Death would Passover us and we would not see this spiritual death of being separated from God for all eternity.

Here in verse 27 Christ gives a command ‘Drink it’. Christ the who came as a servant will not drink this again before he comes again in the End Times (the Eschaton). However the next time he comes, he will not come as a servant or slave but as the King of Kings. In his second coming every knee will bow to him willingly or unwillingly such as we find in the book of Revelations.

Verse 28

In verse 28 we can see the details of what this cup actually means. As I already said this cup which reminds us of the shedding of Christ’s blood is a reminder that the second and greater covenant is for the forgiveness of sins.

This is then the last time that our Lord would drink this cup of wine on earth as a servant. Next time Our Lord drinks this cup will be as the King of Kings, The Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

Verse 29

²⁹ But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.” Matthew 26:29

Reflection

Christ loved us so much that he came from heaven to save us. By the gift of faith and with our promised Helper the Third Persons of the Holy Trinity a way has been made for the Church by which we can enter heaven itself by Christ as an eternal gift to God the Father. Forever sharing in the love of the Eternal Trinity. It is a mystery and I do not understand all the details but this is our hope and inheritance in Christ Jesus through faith and obedience. So then let us bow our knee and hearts to Christ who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Let us follow his example of obedience which we learned in his Incarnation and let us wipe our tears of sorrow away in the expectation of His second coming. Glory and Honour belongs to the Trinity from Generation to generation amen:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

who, although He existed in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him

the name which is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW,

of those who are in heaven

and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

Notes

Verse 26

‘While they were eating’ (present active participle )

‘Jesus’ (Our Lord with his name in the Greek has a nominative definite article)

He took (2^nd aorist participle masculine singular)

After is not in the Greek

Blessed has been used for ‘Having given thanks ’ (Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Masculine ) But that is in the Textus reseptus A K W Γ Δ Matthew 26:26

Blessed εὐλογέω (aor act ptcp nom sg masc) Blessed has stronger witnesses txt 𝔓45 א‎ B C D L Z Θ Matthew 26:26

For ‘having given thanks Alexandrinus is 5^th century’ and then later centuries

For ‘having blessed ’ P45 is 3^rd century then 4^th century, 5^th century and so on.

Tags:bible, christianity, communion, faith, God, jesus, passover, religion
Posted in Lent | Leave a Comment »

Lent 2: By the gift of faith reciprocating our Love towards God in a Fallen and at Times an Ugly, Greedy, Selfish World; Matthew 26. 14-26

February 23, 2024

Last Week we looked at the woman who anointed Jesus for burial. We learned that as a general rule of thumb all the Apostles and perhaps Judas the betrayer may have been oblivious of Jesus arrest, trial and crucifixion. Judas however we learned was the money man and he was a bit of a rat in the sense that he would use dark means to achieve it. He not only betrayed our Lord but he also betrayed the rest of the disciples. They ate, drank, slept at the master feet for three years. The Apostles and our Lord became a ‘family’ and they looked out for each others needs. The Apostles really felt this betrayal and it is no wonder that the Gospels paint this negative picture of him as the son of perdition. Lets read the text and quickly look at it:

Judas’ Bargain

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

¹⁴Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶And from then on he looked for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

¹⁷Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” ¹⁸And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am keeping the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’” ¹⁹The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

The Last Passover

²⁰Now when evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the twelve. ²¹And as they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.” ²²Being deeply grieved, they began saying to Him, each one: “Surely it is not I, Lord?” ²³And He answered, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. ²⁴The Son of Man is going away just as it is written about Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” ²⁵And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” Jesus *said to him, “You have said it yourself.”

Verses 14-16

In these verse the heart and soul of Judas is laid out:

“What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?”

We can see here that our Lord carried a large sum on its head and Judas being a crooked businessman was out to claim his reward. Judas decided to be a rat in the rat race to make some serious money.

They offered him 30 pieces of silver. In those days what could you buy for 30 silver pieces?

30 pieces of silver was about 4 months wages. (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_pieces_of_silver)

I don’t think Judas would steep so low as to want our Lords death even though he was a crook as it says retrospectively in Matthew 27:

³Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

Judas was remorseful, he regretted what he did. He crossed the line even for his own personal ethics. It was enough for him to take the money back to the elders and then he killed himself. He committed suicide.

Verses 20 – 25

Judas after playing this dirty greedy trick continued with the pretense that he was a devout disciple of our Lord. He was sitting there with all the other disciples at the Passover meal that was going to have a new meaning. All the disciples were deeply grieved except Judas. In that upper room the disciples were searching their hearts. Judas asked the same question:

Judas: “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”

Jesus: “You have said it yourself.”

This is on the eve of our Lords crucifixion and our Lord and the Apostles high point of the Jewish calendar. As Jews they were remembering the Jewish nation being saved from Pharaoh. They became slaves in Egypt and this story is how the Lord God had rescued them from slavery. Here now though in this story there is new meaning to it. The Messiah (The saviour of Israel and the world) was going to be the sacrifice to turn God’s wrath away from us so that we could could come into God’s presence as children of God. As the blood at the time of Egypt was splattered on the lintels of every Jewish home so would the blood of Christ be shed at Calvary so forgiveness would be possible between God and Man. This night the most important night was when our Lord told us how we ought to remember him and thus the institution of Holy Communion was established.

This then is the Passover meal for Christians and the highlight of the three years of our Lord with the Apostles. Satan had already entered into Judas Iscariot. Even Judas hasn’t any excuse because in those three years he heard our lord talk about the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Judas allowed his heart to fill up with greed for worldly pleasures. Judas’ heart was ripe for the picking and thus Satan entered Judas and our Lord was betrayed.

The other disciples were not perfect either but they still didn’t understand what was happening to them. Even though they also had their faults, they loved our Lord and although they ran away at the moment of the soldiers arresting our Lord… this is basic human fear for self-preservation. I believe they ran away because they were confused and didn’t fully grasp the enormity of this arrest.

This story for the Christian is of enormous importance and the Holy Spirit wants to show us the enormity of this situation. So what can we learn from this. I am going to sum things up in three points;

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Guard your heart by taking on board the Lord’s teachings.
As a Christian Holy Communion demands of us to search our hearts and to be thankful

To him for the grace he has poured into us by the Holy Spirit to the glory of the father.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

God loved us so much that he sent his Son into the world to die for us. From that point of view the Sacrament of Baptism is something we ought to remember on a day to day basis. Yes baptism always refers back to this event of events. The event that the Son of God paid the highest price for us. When we entered into the waters of chaos it represents that we are dying to our old selfish life and when we come out of the waters of chaos we no longer live for our selves but for Christ and in Christ and sharing in Our Lord’s resurrection. For example Romans 8, 1 cor. 15 et al. Although the Apostles at this moment were confused they soon wouldn’t be and by the Holy Spirit in Christ would change history and the final fate of the Roman Empire.

Judas however did not keep his eyes and devotion fixed on the Lord. On the contrary his greed led to his demise. Although he showed regret he did not show that he was sorry or repentant. Although he took his own life; we do not know why he took his own life. It may have been that he was sorry but it may also be that he was ‘found out’. He was a traitor within his community; rejected by the elders that did the dirty job of having our Lord murdered and rejected by the Apostles for his treachery. There was no other place for him to go. Judas built his own gallows always to be known as the son of perdition.

Judas was just an ordinary man but we ought to stop and think that in the right circumstances this could have been my fate or your fate. We only stand by grace.

Guard your hearts by taking on board our Lords teachings.

Our hearts and minds should forever be in the Gospels. Here for example in the Sermon on the mount Jesus lays out a plan for discipleship. The beatitudes are very very deep and if we pray before God with an open and honest heart in Christ by the Holy Spirit we will find full spiritual maturity. For example:

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

When we are brought to a place in which we realize that we cannot bring anything good to God through our own effort, only then can God start to work in us. God has done everything.

Even though we disobeyed and put our pride first:

God gave us life.
God gave his Prophets.
God gave his Son.
God gave us faith.
God gave us salvation.
God gave us love.
God made it possible in Christ to have an eternal relationship with the Trinity

We didn’t give anything back but from the gift of faith and grace.

We were able to:

Reciprocate Gods love through out gratitude
Love our neighbour
Love God
Joy
Friendship trust
Fellowship
Et al

Because of the gift of faith we show gratitude to God By

Loving our Trinitarian God
Loving our Neighbour
Loving his creation, animals, plants, rivers, the air we breathe et al.

Reflection

There are no perfect human beings except our Lord Jesus. Although he was perfect, humanity was guilty of crucifying the Lord of Eternity. Even at the Last Passover Christ was still pouring his love out on us. Jesus did not condemn Judas. Judas condemned himself by not seeing the ‘real riches’ that heaven had to offer. When we reflect on Lent it is important that gratitude flows out to Christ and to our brothers and sisters in the Church, and to the whole human race if it is possible.

Tags:betrayal, bible, christianity, jesus, judas
Posted in Easter, Lent | Leave a Comment »

What is Religion?

January 1, 2024

What is Religion?

The following article is mainly etymologically based rather than theological or religious. It has been written from the point of view of showing that all humans are religious according to the basic meanings of ‘religion’. There are however people who claim not to be religious and there are others that claim to be religious. My exploratory question is about the nature of religion. The first section therefore is an exploration of various definitions from dictionaries and so forth. This will give us a beginning to our search. After this I will explore the idea that all humans by nature are religious somehow which may require a wider definition but still fits in with the definitions we have looked at.

The Definitions

The following is taken from (etymonline.com/word/religion):

“religion (n.)

c. 1200, religioun, “state of life bound by monastic vows,” also “action or conduct indicating a belief in a divine power and reverence for and desire to please it,” from Anglo-French religiun (11c.), Old French religion, relegion “piety, devotion; religious community,” and directly from Latin religionem (nominative religio) “respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods; conscientiousness, sense of right, moral obligation; fear of the gods; divine service, religious observance; a religion, a faith, a mode of worship, cult; sanctity, holiness,” in Late Latin “monastic life” (5c.).

This noun of action was derived by Cicero from relegere “go through again” (in reading or in thought), from re- “again” (see re-) + legere “read” (see lecture (n.)). However, popular etymology among the later ancients (Servius, Lactantius, Augustine) and the interpretation of many modern writers connects it with religare “to bind fast” (see rely), via the notion of “place an obligation on,” or “bond between humans and gods.” In that case, the re- would be intensive. Another possible origin is religiens “careful,” opposite of negligens.

In English, the meaning “particular system of faith in the worship of a divine being or beings” is by c. 1300; the sense of “recognition of and allegiance in manner of life (perceived as justly due) to a higher, unseen power or powers” is from 1530s.”

So then from these root definitions

Cicero; ‘to Read again’ (re+ legere = again + to read)
Servius, Lactantius, Augustine; ‘to bind fast’ (bond between humans and gods, re therefore being intensive in meaning)

The above is interesting because in the first bullet point, we can see the use of tradition, actions that happen over and over again. In this tradition there being a strong bond between the One being worshipped and the worshipper that is very spiritual.

Obviously, time has now moved on for hundreds of years but this basic idea is still found in the term religion. Reading therefore James’ use of ‘religion’ will not mean much different to a first century reader or a 21^st century reader. It is however incumbent (necessary) on us to look at some more definitions. The following is taken from (merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion)

“: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

(1): the service and worship of God or the supernatural

(2): commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

Etc.”

So then from this definition we can see religions can be:

Personal
Institutional

We also learn it can be:

Theological in content
Human experiential in content

This means that theists, atheists, agnostics, polytheists cannot escape the notion of being religious somehow. Bruce Lee once said about ‘no way becoming the way’. Perhaps I could say simpler ‘No road as the road’. All human beings are on a road whether they understand it or not and, on this road, we make choices; good and bad. The atheist has his/her road or way, or the Socialist has his/her road. The boxer has his/her road. In this sense religion therefore permeates the whole of human action including thought.

Therefore, I disagree with the following:

“Religion is probably the greatest example of rigid dogmatic belief. Many say the etymology of religion lies with the Latin word religare, which means “to tie, to bind.” Being bound to a rigid set of unquestioned ideas is an important way of controlling people and has been responsible for immeasurable human suffering in history.” (From; medium.com/@gammarat33/the-philosophy-of-bruce-lee-using-no-way-as-a-way-having-no-limitation-as-limitation-8429796b82a9)

Just because a religion can be rigid does not mean ‘suffering’. Religion can be liberating and gives many people a healthy and happy family lifestyle.

What does this mean to us?

It means that we all carry presuppositions therefore this road (religious) can be used personally as well as institutionally. This means a person who goes to a football match or is involved in politics or chooses not to believe in God and live as though there is no god is as religious as the person who goes to Church everyday Monday to Friday.

What road have you chosen?

So, then my friend what road have you chosen? We all make decisions every day and each choice has an effect on our future destiny. Not only is the Mathematical idea of the butterfly effect scientific but it also has things to say about our own destinies. With our decisions today our future has already been decided (in some ways). What could some of these choices be?

Heaven ≠ no heaven
God ≠ no god

When we make these sort of choices it becomes a way of life and the tradition being religious or not religious becomes your road. This is as far as I can take you on your spiritual journey.

The next step for me is a deeply personal one. For me God is the Prime Mover. God moved first and opened the way to Heaven. Thus, I am closer to Luther than to Erasmus.

Erasmus on free will:

“Erasmus argued against the belief that God’s foreknowledge of events caused those events, and he held that the doctrines of repentance, baptism, and conversion depended on the existence of free will. He likewise contended that divine grace first called, led, and assisted humans in coming to the knowledge of God, and then supported them as they then used their free will to make choices between good and evil, and enabled them to act on their choices for repentance and good, which in turn could lead to salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ (Synergism).”

Luther on Free Will (No Free Will)

“Luther’s response was to reason that original sin incapacitates human beings from working out their own salvation, and that they are completely incapable of bringing themselves to God. As such, there is no free will for humanity, as far as salvation is concerned, because any will they might have is overwhelmed by the influence of sin.[3]

“If Satan rides, it (the will) goes where Satan wills. If God rides, it goes where God wills. In either case there is no ‘free choice’.

— Martin Luther, On the Bondage of the Will[4]: 281

Luther concluded that unredeemed human beings are dominated by obstructions; Satan, as the prince of the mortal world, never lets go of what he considers his own unless he is overpowered by a stronger power, i.e. God. When God redeems a person, he redeems the entire person, including the will, which then is liberated to serve God.” (This and the Erasmus quotation has been taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Bondage_of_the_Will)

Thus when I said I can only take you so far on the road it meant that we hit a wall of

Universals
particulars

Universals are what we all hold to and agree. From that point of view love is a universal because it seeks out the good of another human being.

Particulars are different; When I say Jesus is Lord this is a particular because a Muslim, Hindu or Jew may not be able to say this.

Reflection

The way of religion is walked by everyone conscious of it or not. When we walk this road there are ideas that all religions can agree with such as Justice and love. When it comes to particular beliefs such as the cross and the resurrection of Christ, we go our separate ways:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16

Here in the above verse from John’s Gospel we have a universal (perhaps) and a particular. The universal that God loved the world and at the same time the particular, the ‘means’ of this love was through God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We all have our various paths, but our Lord Jesus told us that in the end there are only two roads, two gates two ways, two directions.

Tags:agnostic, atheist, Bruce Lee, christianity, erasmus, faith, God, jesus, Luther, major religions, moral beings, religion, spirituality, theist
Posted in religion | Leave a Comment »

God’s Love for his Creation and the Christmas Story

December 23, 2023

We come now to Week 4 and the theme of this Week is love. I noticed that in our Church calendar that the fourth week of advent and Christmas Day happens at the same time. This is perfect as John the Apostle wrote:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16

This is the reason why God came into the world through the incarnation. Tradition has it that there were animals where Mary had the baby. Whether or not there were animals we do know, but we do know that our Lord and Saviour slept in a manger that night in which he was born.

^“And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7

The word manger comes from

“A manger or trough is a rack for fodder, or a structure or feeder used to hold food for animals. The word comes from the Old French mangier (meaning “to eat”), from Latin mandere (meaning “to chew”).”(Taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manger)

Apart from the manger I am reflecting on where, what location inside Bethlem our Lord Jesus was born. One blogger wrote in his page heading:

“Where Was Jesus Born: A Barn, Cave, or House?”

(From: “youthpastortheologian.com/blog/where-was-jesus-born-a-barn-cave-or-house”)

It wasn’t very luxurious where our Lord was born, and I like to think that there were animals. The reason being that our Lord as the Second Person of the Trinity was present and active in the creation of the world including all the animals.

The other interesting fact is that our Lord was wrapped twice:

Swaddling cloths at his birth
Linen when he was buried.

So, our Lord had cloths wrapped around him twice and we see the Scriptural evidence below:

And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7
So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. John 19:40

We do know that there is a lot of imagery around shepherds, mangers and swaddling cloths. We also know that our Lord was wrapped in cloths twice once at his birth and once at his death. We also know that our Lord was called the ‘Lamb of God’:

^“Again, the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”” John 1:35-36

It is interesting that lambs in the second Temple era in Jerusalem usually had their feet bound before they were sacrificed. This is clearly an image for the reason of why our Lord came into the world. Even the name of Jesus from the Hebrew means the Lord is Salvation (yeshuah).

From my perspective Jesus was the true lover of our souls. That he came from heaven knowing full well that at the age of 33 he would be sacrificed for our sins. Paul writes something interesting about the advent (coming) of Jesus into the world. I quote a fuller section here from Philipians 2

^“Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, ² make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. ³ Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; ⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. ⁵ Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. “Philippians 2:1-11

Then I quote the verses that touch on our Christmas story:

“Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸ Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹ For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.” Philippians 2:5-9

In the text above a bond servant was a willing party in being in this context God’s slave.

Reflection

The story of Christmas is very deep if only we can find the clues. We have seen from the clues that even in the swaddling cloths Jesus wore at his birth was a sign of his sacrifice for our salvation and eternal life because when Christ also died, he was wrapped in linen. Lambs had their legs wrapped in linen before being sacrificed (killed). So, our Lord was wrapped in linen at his death. What can we take away from this?

Anyone can give presents away and they do at this festive season. Jesus the ultimate sacrifice was the ultimate gift with pure motives for our salvation so that we can be brought into the presence of God. The Question is how do our motives, attitudes and intentions compare to God’s?

Happy Advent and Christmas at this time as we remember the birth of our Saviour!

Addendum

I also forgot to mention that as well as the death of Christ, king Solomon was also mentioned in the Apocrypha as being wrapped as a baby Wis 7:4-5

Some scholars therefore have looked for a kingship meaning too. This is another line of thought. Below I quote the Apocrypha:

Apocrypha: Wisdom Chapter 7

1 myself also am a mortal man, like to all, and the offspring of him that was first made of the earth,

2 And in my mother’s womb was fashioned to be flesh in the time of ten months, being compacted in blood, of the seed of man, and the pleasure that came with sleep.

3 And when I was born, I drew in the common air, and fell upon the earth, which is of like nature, and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do.

4 I was nursed in swaddling clothes, and that with cares.

5 For there is no king that had any other beginning of birth.

6 For all men have one entrance into life, and the like going out.

Tags:bible, christianity, Christmas, faith, jesus
Posted in Advent, Christmas | Leave a Comment »

Weaver1has's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘jesus’

The Gospel, The Ευαγγελιον in the Old Testament; The Reason for the Apostles Use of this Particular Special Theological Word

Is Enrichment in Theology ever Possible?

‘I Believe That I May Understand’, How to Think Theologically

Easter; The Easter Cross & The Death Of The Human Will

Lent 6: Palm Sunday; Are you a Slave or a Master?

Lent 4: Where is the Centre and Focus of Our reliance?

Lent 3: The New Covenant and the Hope of Christ’s Second coming in Glory

Lent 2: By the gift of faith reciprocating our Love towards God in a Fallen and at Times an Ugly, Greedy, Selfish World; Matthew 26. 14-26

What is Religion?

God’s Love for his Creation and the Christmas Story

Categories

Tags

Year

Follow Blog via Email

Home

Bible Gateway’s Verse of the Day

Archives

Search

Posts Tagged ‘jesus’

Subscribe to continue reading

Categories

Tags

Year

Follow Blog via Email

Home

Archives

Search