Devotion for March 23, 2016

            As Jesus was leaving the temple during Holy Week, His disciples commented on the splendor of the temple and its surrounding, supporting buildings. Jesus replied that no stone would be left on another.

            That might not mean much to us, but to a first century Israelite it was huge: it was like the destruction of a city’s cathedral and the city hall. Everything that identified Israel as Israel was tied up in that temple, and Jesus rather offhandedly declares its doom.

            The disciples naturally want to know when that will happen, and Jesus responds with what is sometimes called the eschatological discourse (a speech about the last thing). Other times it’s called the Olivet discourse because Matthew and Mark tell us He made the speech while sitting on the Mount of Olives, looking across the valley at the temple. I think it might be preferable to use the latter title. The first one presupposes an awful lot about what Jesus is talking about.

            Go ahead and read the speech (Luke 21:5-36), and you’ll think, “Well, it makes sense to call it the eschatological discourse. Jesus is talking about recognizing His second coming, after all.”

            Here’s the thing: I’m not sure that Jesus is talking about His second coming there. I think the horizons are different. I think He’s talking about the impending judgment of Jerusalem, which will take place within 40 years of Him uttering these words. And I think the nearer horizon of His words is the great catastrophe of Good Friday and Easter.

            It would take a massive amount of time and argumentation to prove that case and a blog is no place for that kind of work. Ask about it Bible study some time and I’ll make my case. For now, consider this: we often treat the last day as if it’s the big deal in Biblical history. But the real focal point of human history was Good Friday and Easter. On Good Friday the old age of sin and death was defeated by Jesus’ atoning death, and on Easter the new age of the Spirit dawned in Christ, the firstfruits from the dead. This is my Wednesday devotion, and I’m first posting it on Thursday—Maundy Thursday, to be specific. The Church’s liturgical tradition says that what begins tonight in the upper room and Gethsemane, what passes through the darkness of Golgotha, and what ends in joy on Easter morning is all one thing, the turning point of human history.

Devotion for March 22, 2016

            Jesus spent a good portion of Holy Week teaching in the temple. Well, teaching might not be the most apt description. He was tested in the temple, that’s for sure. There were questions about Jesus’ authority to occupy the temple; there were tests about whether or not Jews should pay the imperial Roman taxes; and there were challenges about the resurrection. Each one would be an incredible study all by itself. We’ll just look at a few brief things here.

            First, the chief priests questioned Jesus about His authority. Jesus didn’t answer; instead he asked them a question about John the Baptizer: was his authority of human or divine origin. The chief priests couldn’t answer—not because they didn’t have an opinion but because they were scared of what that opinion might stir up. They were pretty sure John’s mission was not God’s mission but they were equally sure the people thought otherwise. To bash John was to risk the ill will of the people. Jesus knew this and backed them into a corner.

            The question about taxes was a subtle piece of work. If Jesus had said that people should pay the Roman tax, then the chief priests could have painted Him as a Roman collaborator. If Jesus were to say they shouldn’t, then the chief priests had an accusation against Jesus before Pilate. After all, if Jesus could paint them into a corner, it’s only fair that they should try to paint Him into a corner, too. Of course, Jesus smelled them coming and headed them off with His famous, “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s.”

            Lastly, the challenge about marriage in the resurrection was a typically Sadducee move: the Sadducees didn’t believe there was a resurrection. Trying to catch Jesus in with an absurd argument, they find themselves trapped when Jesus outright contradicts them: “You don’t understand the resurrection.”

            What does this mean for us? Well, certainly, in terms of the story of Jesus, it helps us understand the hostility that led to His crucifixion. It also helps us see a little bit how we, in our sin, challenge Jesus, trying to hold on to our viewpoints, trying to make Him say what we want Him to say. And, it reminds us of 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Human reasoning must always place itself under God’s own words.

Devotion for March 21, 2016

            The four Gospels don’t give us an exact historical timeline of the events of Holy Week. They each give us a few clues, but in general they each have a story to tell and they emphasize the things that help them tell that story. For example, Luke’s telling of the Palm Sunday story brings Jesus directly into the temple, because the temple is important for Luke’s story—since Luke 2 and on. Mark, though, is a little more clear on chronology and tells us that Jesus went to the temple but that he left for Bethany almost immediately because it was late and returned the next day. The evangelists don’t contradict each other; they tell the same story from different points of view and for different purposes, so they highlight or minimize certain details in their presentations.

            Be that as it may, here’s my point: we don’t’ know exactly what happened on what days during the first Holy Week. On the other hand, the events that did happen are consistently told by the evangelists.

            So, this Monday of Holy Week, let us focus for a moment on Jesus’ action in the temple.  We typically call it the cleansing of the temple, but it’s a harder question than we usually admit what exactly Jesus is up to. Jesus’ criticism quotes both Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7. In the first, the Lord declares that His temple shall be a house of prayer for all nations. Although the Gospels don’t’ quote the part of the verse about ‘for all nations,’ I think it’s an important part of the critique. The temple was meant to be a place where Israel (and through Israel all humanity) could be in the gracious presence of God. By Jesus’ day, though, the temple had become a means of exclusion from God’s presence. Certainly part of the Jesus’ action was a critique of that loss of mission. Second, the Jeremiah passage uses the Greek word lestes, which might be better translated brigand or terrorist. The idea was not simply that there was unjust buying and selling going on but that Israel’s national ideology too often resorted to violence, and part of Jesus’ action was a warning that ‘those who live by the sword will die by the sword.’

            What does that mean for us? It means that the church must retain and nurture its sense of mission to the world. If we lose that we lose a significant portion of what we are called to be. It also means that we are to embrace the virtues of the kingdom—humility, peace-making, gentleness, and so on. Jesus is clear: if he wanted his followers to fight, he could call down all kinds of legions of angels. No, our call is to bear the cross, just as He did.

Devotion for March 18, 2016

Friday: Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’” (Luke 20:17; NIV)?

            Here is the wonderful irony of the Gospel. On the one hand, the story can be read as the opposition of humanity against its God. After all, Jesus is the stone the builders (chief priests) rejected. On the other hand, though, God uses exactly the weight of the opposition to accomplish His purposes. That rejected stone becomes the cornerstone of God’s new project—a renewed humanity and a renewed earth. It is a remarkable thing that our God can co-opt even the worst of human behavior and work His gracious work in spite of and through it.

            The idea that He can take a terrible evil like the cross and bring salvation out of it ought to give us pause. What can He bring out of the struggles our lives, then?

Devotion for March 17, 2016

Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’” (Luke 20:17; NIV)?

            A common theme through Luke’s Gospel is the way that Israel rejected the Lord’s messengers, always favoring her own rather selfish understanding of what God wanted. In that way, ancient Israel was not so different than we moderns. After all, how often do we hear someone (and even ourselves) saying things that presume God’s desires are exactly the same as what we desire? When we say or think that, we have two choices: we can acknowledge that we’re recasting God in our own image, or we have to imagine that we have an extraordinary maturity in the faith that allows us to see the things of God clearly. (The former seems more likely.)

            I was having this conversation just this week with my confirmation class. God has given us His Word; He’s told us what we need to know. It’s our task to make sure that all of our thoughts and beliefs conform to what He actually said. If ever we let our thoughts shape what the Scriptures say instead of the other way around, we are in danger of rejecting the stone that is actually the very cornerstone.