Preparing for the Invasion - #12 - Jesus Taught About the Kingdom of God

I took this picture on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

In my Philosophy of Religion classes at MCCC I teach, at times, on the major comparative religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). When it comes to Christianity I have asked students the question: "What was the main thing Jesus taught about?" They give a variety of answers, but no one ever gets this right. The correct answer is: Jesus' main message was about "the kingdom of God."

The parables of Jesus were all about this kingdom. Many begin with Jesus saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like..." (Note: "kingdom of God" and "kingdom of heaven" mean the same thing. Observant Jews of the time would prefer "kingdom of heaven" so as not to say the sacred name of God [YHWH].) In the Lord's Prayer Jesus tells us to pray for God's kingdom to come on earth, as it is in heaven. After Jesus was baptized and tempted in the wilderness he began to preach "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (Matthew 4:17))

What, to Jesus and his hearers, did "kingdom of God" mean? It did not mean a place, or a location. It meant, and means today, the rule or reign of God.   Because Jesus said, “If you see me cast out demons by the finger of God then the kingdom of God has come to you.” (Matthew 12:28) By this Jesus does not mean a place. Further, Jesus said his kingdom “is not of this world.” (John 18:36)

Few things have impacted me as deeply as coming to understand the kingdom of God. New Testament scholar Michael McClymond writes that this term “is meant to conjure up the dynamic notion of God powerfully ruling over his creation, over his people, and over the history of both… the kingdom of God means God ruling as king. Hence his action upon and his dynamic relationship to those ruled, rather than any delimited territory, is what is primary.” (McClymond, Familiar Stranger, 74) 

N.T. Wright asks: What would it "look like if we really believed that the living God was king on earth as in heaven? That, after all, is the story all four gospels tell." (Wright, N. T., How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels, K62) What would it look like in your life, in your church family, in your community if, in the midst of it all, the reign of God was established? 

When I understood more about the kingdom of God I began to pray The Lord's Prayer in a different way. Now I pray like this, because I believe this is how the early Jesus-followers understood it.

God, let your kingdom come...,
not only in the future,
but here
and now.
God, reign over my heart and mind
NOW.
As I am typing this sentence
As I take my next breath
As I walk into whatever this day has for me
Let things be here
in my home
in my church family
in my community
and beyond,
on this earth,
as things are in heaven.

Truly!

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Search Me, O God, Before I Destroy Others

Tea for Nightlight International at Redeemer

Search me, God, and know my heart;

    test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 

See if there is any offensive way in me,

    and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

Notice this doesn't say, "Search them, O God; Show me their offensive ways so I can recoil in horror and fascination."

The first temptation of power, writes Jamin Coggin and Kyle Strobel, is viewing the problem as "out there." "We recognize it in other churches, pastors, fellow Christians, or political and cultural leaders, but we ignore the problem in our own hearts." (Coggin and Strobel, The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus' path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It, p. 4) 

The first step in spiritual formation into Christlikeness is The Need. It's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. I have nothing to say to "them" until God has cured me. As Jesus said, I must first have the log in my eye removed before I can be used, by the Holy Spirit and with permission, to take the speck out of the other person's eye.

God desires to remove the log from my eye. And, God can do this, if I consent to it.

Because God is all-knowing. It follows from this that God knows us completely. C.S. Lewis said we are completely known to God - known like earthworms, cabbages, and nebulae, as objects of divine knowledge. Lewis wrote: "This is our destiny whether we like it or not. But though this knowledge never varies, the quality of our being known can." (In Yancey, Prayer, K1157)

While it's true that God knows us completely and thoroughly, we may not consent to being known by God. Philip Yancey writes:

"We can assent with all our will to be so known; we can unveil before God; we can offer ourselves to view. We can invite God into our lives and ourselves into God’s. When we do that, putting ourselves on a personal footing with God, so to speak, relationship heats up and a potential for extraordinary friendship stirs to life. For God is a Person, too, and though a person unlike ourselves, One who surely fulfills more of what that word means, not less." (Yancey, Philip, Prayer, Kindle Locations 1158-1161)

God will not force himself on us. Like the psalmist who prayed "Search me, O God, and know my heart," we must consent to be searched-out by God. Without this prayer will often be a one-way street, with God being disinvited to the conference. Without being search-out, as a lifestyle, we will destroy others. 

Coggin and Strobel write:

"Jesus is not saying the solution is to ignore the sins of others. We should name sins, just as Jesus did. However, we must recognize that only after naming the truth of our own sin can we come in grace and truth to name the sins of others. Only when we see the truth of ourselves can we have mercy to address others in God’s grace. As those forgiven by God, we pray, “Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” (Matt. 6:12 NLT)." (p. 5) 

Pray today: Search me, O God, and know my heart. 

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Preparing for the Invasion - #11 - Jesus Was Baptized by John the Baptist

Baptisms in my backyard

(C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, referred to the incarnation as "The Great Invasion.")

I was baptized by one of my campus ministry leaders, Ray Anderson, in a Wesleyan church in DeKalb, Illinois. I was 21. My parents came to witness this. 

For all of us this was a great day. Baptism is an identification rite. I had cast off the old clothing of my life in the kingdom of blindness and put of the new garment of Christ. (Colossians 3:12-15) This was a joyful and serious thing, and its effect continues in me today.

Baptism is serious and joyful business. I found this out when I was teaching at an Assemblies of God Bible college in Singapore. One of my Chinese students was named Kek (pronounced 'cake'). I asked Kek a question: "What was the hardest thing for you when you left primitive Chinese religion and becamae a follower of Jesus?" 

Immediately Kek said: "It was when I was baptized. Then my parents knew I was serious. They knew I would not be a son who bowed before their graves. They knew I would not be a son who kept a family offer and offered sacrifices and prayers to them after they died." 

This is baptism as revolutionary activity.

Jesus got baptized. To understand the Real Jesus we must understand his baptism, in the River Jordan, by John the Baptist. New Testament scholar Michael McClymond writes: 

“The story of Jesus’ adult life begins with John the Baptist… [T]he beginning of Jesus’ ministry and the beginning of the gospel message lie in John and his preaching. John the Baptist is part of Jesus’ identity... John is important for understanding Jesus because the gospel accounts consistently portray Jesus’ baptism as a major transition… Once he had been baptized by John, Jesus began to announce that “the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15).” (McClymond, Familiar Stranger, 66)

Jesus, in allowing himself to be baptized by John, identified with John's cause. So... who was John the Baptist, and what was his mission? McClymond nicely summarizes for us. 

“John was the leader of a sectarian baptizing movement centered in the wilderness of Judea – a place with eschatological as well as ascetic associations. Like earlier prophetic and apocalyptic figures, John announced the imminent end of the world and the time of divine judgment. John also spoke of a “Coming One” who would carry out the judgment. He summoned people to repentance because the remaining time was short, and the end was drawing near… " (McClymond, 62)

John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. To repent is to turn and go in the other direction. Jesus, in submitting to John's baptism, identified with the idea that our world is a freight train rushing headlong towards destruction. 

Eventually, John was imprisoned. Jesus left Nazareth, withdrew to Galilee, and lived in Capernaum. "From that time on Jesus began to preach, 'Repent......'" (Matthew 4:17)

Today think about Jesus as your Rescuer, who turned your soul away from death, and called you to run in the other direction towards life.

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

The People are Listeners in the Presence-Driven Church

Listening is the first thing. Before acting, listen. Listen, before you speak. (I explain more in my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.)

In 2017 we celebrated our family Christmas on a Sunday night with Dan, Allie, Josh, and Nicole. On Saturday I went out into the snow and cold and bought food for the evening. 

Linda wrote a list. The list represents the voice of Linda. At the grocery store, I looked at the list before I put things in the cart. The list came before the purchase. 

This is how it is with the Presence-Driven Church. First, God speaks. We listen. Then, we obey.

First, hear from God. Then, respond as indicated. In the Presence-Driven Church this is for all the people, not just the pastor. Pastors do this, and show their people how to do this. In the Presence-Driven Church all the people are listening for the voice of God, in counsel and direction.

This is the core. 

This is not an add-on, something that is cool to do but peripheral to "church business." To learn to listen for God's voice is to discover the mother lode. Without this, we're just holding fool's gold.

Adam McHugh writes:

"Throughout the Bible listening is the central act of the people of God. They are those who are gathered and formed by his voice and held together by his word. They hear his promises and judgments, instructions and warnings, reassurances and exhortations." (McHugh, The Listening Life: Embracing Attentiveness in a World of Distraction, Kindle Locations 38- 40)

The Hebrew word shema means "listen." This is the first word in the core wisdom of Judaism: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

Hear, before you do. This ancient wisdom, when lived and applied, slows things down. The Presence-Driven Church is a slow-cooking, simmering stew of auditory acuteness. In this mixture, disciples are formed, followers are fashioned. "Make disciples," said Jesus. To do that, Slow Church is required.

Pastors - get into God's presence and listen. Teach your people to do the same. Listen to what God is saying to your people, through your people. 

***

I write about listening to God in my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Preparing for the Invasion - #10 - Jesus Was a Jew Who Wore Torah on His Sleeve

Streets of Jerusalem

(C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, describes the Incarnation as The Great Invasion.)

Linda's mother, Martha, was Jewish. One of her lifelong dreams, which was never fulfilled, was to travel to Israel and see her homeland. 

I'll never forget when Linda and I got to go to Israel. I remember flying over the Mediterranean, and seeing Tel Aviv below us. We looked at one another - "We are in Israel!" For Linda this was fulfilling a dream, and was a way of honoring her mother as well.

When you visit Israel you walk the very land that Jesus walked. Why did Jesus walk there? Was he a tourist who flew in from some other country, only to visit? No. Jesus was Jewish. In order to understand the Real Jesus we must understand this.

A few years ago I read Vanderbilt University professor Amy-Jill Levine's The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. Of this book Ben Witherington writes: "The Misunderstood Jew is simply the best book ever written about the Jewishness of Jesus and his earliest followers. This book is such a seminal work that it makes us all reexamine what it really means to be a Jew or a Christian." (From the back cover.) 

Levine writes:

"Jesus had to have made sense in his own context, and his context is that of Galilee and Judea. Jesus cannot be understood fully unless he is understood through first-century Jewish eyes and heard through first-century Jewish ears." (Levine, 20) 

Just as I could not understand you apart from understanding the ethnic, social, and temporal context into which you were born and now live, so we will make a big-time mistake if we try to understand Jesus from our current cultural perspective.

For example, Jesus spoke, at times, using parables. "Parables" are from first-century Jewish culture, not 21st-century North American culture. 

Here's another example. The healings of Jesus made sense and were assessed according to the first-century Jewish worldview, not our Western anti-supernaturalistic worldview. 

And another: the debates going on in the four Gospels about how to follow Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) only make sense within Jewish first-century legal parameters and ways of talking, not our legal system and modern language. Levine writes: "To understand Jesus' impact in his own setting - why some chose to follow him, others to dismiss him, and still others to seek his death - requires an understanding of that setting." (21)

The Gospels are more relevant and powerful when we uncover their meaning as it was understood and apprehended within their first-century Jewish worldview. I like how Levine expresses this. She writes: "When Jesus was located within the world of Judaism, the ethical implications of his teachings take on a renewed and heightened meaning; their power is restored and their challenge sharpened." (21)

Here is another example. Jesus dressed like a Jew (but of course, right?). He wore tzitzit, or "fringes." The book of Numbers instructs all Israelite men to wear fringes, and today many Orthodox Jewish men still wear them. They can be seen on the prayer shawls Jewish men wear in the synagogue during worship. Numbers 15:37-40 reads:

The Lord said to Moses, 

“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 

‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, 

with a blue cord on each tassel. 

You will have these tassels to look at 

and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them 

and not prostitute yourselves 

by chasing after 

the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. 

Then you will remember to obey 

all my commands 

and will be consecrated to your God.

These tassels (tzitzit) were the WWJD bracelets of the time. Levine writes: "Just as the bracelets remind their Christian wearers to ask, "What would Jesus Do?" so the fringes remind Jewish wearers of all 613 "commandments," or mitzvot. The Gospels do not shy away from the fact that Jesus wore these fringes." (24)

Those were the fringes the woman with the twelve-year bleeding touched in hopes of a healing (Matthew 9:20). Wherever Jesus went, people begged to simply touch the fringe of Jesus' cloak (Mark 6:56). And Jesus, in Matthew 23:5, accuses the Pharisees and scribes of making their fringes long, which suggests that Jesus' fringes were shorter. Levine concludes: "Jesus thus does not dismiss the Torah; in the modern idiom, he "wears it on his sleeve."" (Levine, 24; emphasis mine)

Jesus dressed like a Jew, ate like a Jew (see Levine pp. 24 ff.), and spoke like a Jew. In Jesus, God came to us and took on, specifically, Jewish flesh. 

The Christmas outcome for us today is that, in and through the death and resurrection of Christ, we Jesus-followers gain family status "God's chosen people, holy and deeply loved" (Colossian 3:12, which is a very Jewish way of speaking as it reduplicates the family status of Deuteronomy 7:6 and applies it to us).

Rejoice, rejoice
Immanuel
Shall come to thee
O Israel

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

When Reading the Bible, Let the Bible Read You

This pillow was at the ranch in Bozeman, Montana, where I was with my HSRM colleagues.

When I lead a prayer retreat, or teach a spiritual formation class, I send the students out to pray for an hour, using Psalm 23 as their meditative focus. 

I tell them that they are not to exegete the verses, but instead be exegeted by them, via God's Spirit. That is, they are not to figure out the meaning of the verses, but assume the verses have them figured out.

This is an anti-Cartesian, anti-Western hermeneutic. It's more Jewish than American, and has affinities with the hermeneutical theory of Hans-Georg Gadamer in his book Truth and Method. There is an interplay between the text and the reader, with the text being-read by the self, and the self being-read by the text.

The idea is that God, through the biblical text, knows you. Therefore, place yourself before the text and be interpreted. 

This syncs with the idea in the book of Hebrews, which describes the word of God as living and active, like a sword that penetrates your deepest being. The result is a knowing by being-known. The text is no longer a dispassionate object of study, but is more like a passionate surgeon opening you up and studying you.

Henri Nouwen, in his book Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life, writes about this:

"Spiritual reading is different. It means not simply reading about spiritual things but also reading about spiritual things in a spiritual way. That requires a willingness not just to read but to be read, not just to master but to be mastered by words. As long as we read the Bible or a spiritual book simply to acquire knowledge, our reading does not help us in our spiritual life." (Nouwen, Discernment, pp. 41-42)

Preparing for the Invasion - #9 - Jesus is God and Man

Door, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

(In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis referred to the Incarnation as "the Great Invasion.")

Back in the 1970s I read German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg's magnum opus Jesus: God and Man. I was so inspired by Pannenberg's study, especially his analysis of the resurrection of Christ, that I incorporated his thinking into my doctoral dissertation. 

My studies began focusing more and more on the matter of the nature of Christ, and led to a doctoral qualifiying exam on what the early Church Fathers said about Christ as both divine and human, and the eventual development of the great Christological Creeds. (See, e.g., J.N.D. Kelly's Early Christian Doctrines and Early Christian Creeds.)

I grew up in a Lutheran Church (ELCA), and on Sunday mornings we recited The Nicene Creed. The word "creed" is from the Latin word credo, which means "I believe." The Nicene Creed begins with "We believe..." 

It reads:

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

eternally begotten of the Father,

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made of one Being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven:

by the power of the Holy Spirit

he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,

and was made man.

As I read this today, I see that I still believe it, now more than ever. In Jesus, true God was made man. Here's a brief look at this.

Jesus is True God

In the four Gospels we see many places where Jesus acts like he is God and even claims to be God. This is recognized by the religious leaders, who accuse him of claiming to be God. They pick up stones to throw at him, viewing his claim as blasphemous.

For example, Jesus claims to forgive sins. From the ancient Jewish point of view, only God can do this. This still holds today. 

Imagine you are in a heated conflict with someone. I walk by, see you arguing, and invite myself into it. I raise my hands before you both and say, "Why not use some conflict resolution and anger management techniques to work this thing out?" Presumably, you would not have a problem with me saying that. 

But if I said to you, "I forgive you both for acting this way," you would wonder, "Does John think he is God?" 

The religious leaders asked, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Jesus walked around doing that. He went to a bloody death because of that and to accomplish that. Jesus was speaking and acting as if he were God.

N.T. Wright explains this God-thing about forgiving sins in his excellent book Simply Jesus. Wright writes:

"How does God normally forgive sins within Israel? Why, through the Temple and the sacrifices that take place there. Jesus seems to be claiming that God is doing, up close and personal through him, something that you’d normally expect to happen at the Temple. And the Temple— the successor to the tabernacle in the desert— was, as we saw, the place where heaven and earth met. It was the place where God lived. Or, more precisely, the place on earth where God’s presence intersected with human, this-worldly reality." (Wright, N. T., Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters, pp. 79-80)

There are many examples in Scripture where Jesus acts like he is God. He claims such an intimate relationship with the Father that it causes the religious leaders to accuse him of making himself equal with God. (For example, Jesus said, "I and the Father are one.") Their accusations were on target. In Jesus, God's very presence intersected with earth in the form of humanity.

Jesus is Human - The Humanity of Jesus

For this reason he had to be made like them, 

fully human in every way, 

in order that he might become 

a merciful and faithful high priest 

in service to God, 

and that he might make atonement 

for the sins of the people. 

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

- Hebrews 2:17-18

"What if God was one of us? 

Just a slob like one of us?"

- Joan Osborne

Jesus is fully and completely human. He was conceived in a human womb. Jesus had a physical, human body, like we have. Jesus got tired (John 4:6), hungry (Matt. 4:2), and thirsty (John 19:28).

Jesus went through a learning process, as we do. We read: 

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, 

and in favor with God and man. 

(Luke 2:52)

Jesus felt a variety of different emotions, as we do. He marveled (Matt. 8:10), he wept (Jon 11:35), and he was inwardly troubled (Matt. 26:38; John 12:27).

Jesus was like us in every way except one. Jesus was without sin (1 Peter 2:22).

OK. Jesus was fully God. But why did he have to be also fully human? Wayne Grudem writes: "Jesus had to be fully human to serve as our perfectly obedient representative... If Jesus wasn't fully human, his obedience in our place would be meaningless. Just as Jesus had to be human to live in our place, he had to be human to die in our place."

Hebrews 2:17 says: 

It’s obvious, of course, 

that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. 

It was for people like us, children of Abraham. 

That’s why he had to enter into 

every detail of human life. 

Then, when he came before God as high priest 

to get rid of the people’s sins, 

he would have already experienced it all himself—

all the pain, all the testing—

and would be able to help 

where help was needed. 

(The Message)

I have always loved and held closely to Hebrews 4:15:

 -We don’t have a priest 

who is out of touch with our reality. 

He’s been through weakness and testing, 

experienced it all—

all but the sin. 

So let’s walk right up to him 

and get what he is so ready to give. 

Take the mercy, accept the help. 

(The Message)

In Jesus full God-ness and full human-ness converge. The everlasting, world-creating Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Christmass is coming, and I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, true God from true God, who came down from heaven and was made man.

Preparing for the Invasion - #8 - Jesus Is "Immanuel"

Ancient village of Korazin, in Israel

(In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis describes the birth of Christ as "the Great Invasion.")

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: 

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son,

and will call him Immanuel.

- Isaiah 7:14

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, 

and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

- Matthew 1:22

Robert Wilken writes:

"Among the ancient Jewish prophets Isaiah was the most beloved, the most esteemed, and the most quoted by early Christians. His book contained all the mysteries of the Lord, his birth from a virgin, his miracles, his suffering, death, and resurrection, as well as prophecies from the Church's mission to the nations. Augustine said that Isaiah contains more prophecies of Christ and of the Church than all the other prophets. Over time Isaiah's soaring language and unforgettable imagery were woven into the tapestry of Christian worship, life, and thinking." (Wilken, Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian Medieval Commentators, xx) 

Isaiah has been referred to as the "Fifth Gospel" because the Messianic prophecies point so clearly to the description of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. See, e.g., The Gospel According to Isaiah 53: Encountering the Suffering Servant in Jewish and Christian Theology (eds. Darrell Bock and Mitch Glaser). If this interests you then see the entire article from this book by the great Messianic Jewish scholar Michael Brown - "Jewish Interpretations of Isaiah 53."

In Isaiah 7:14 the birth of the promised Messiah is prophesied, whose name shall be "Immanuel." J. Alec Motyer says that "the title Immanuel is peculiar to Isaiah but the thought is part of the Davidic-Messianic fabric." (Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 85) 

I like how Motyer then explains this amazing verse. He writes:

"It is impossible to separate this Immanuel from the Davidic king whose birth delivers his people (Isaiah 9:4-7) and whose complex name indicates the designation Mighty God (Isa. 9:6). Following these pointers, we have a sign that lives up to its promise. Heaven and earth will be truly moved. Isaiah foresaw the birth of the divine son of David and also laid the foundation for the understanding of the unique nature of his birth." (Ib.)

"Immanuel," as we see in Matthew 1:22, means "God with us." Michael Brown says that the term "Immanuel" is unique to Isaiah - it is "a name found nowhere else in the Bible or the Ancient Near East." (Michal Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: Messianic Prophecy Objections, 25) 

Brown continues: "We ask again, who was this Immanuel? He was a king promised to the line of David - with an important, symbolic name - whose birth would serve as a divine sign." (Ib., 26)

Today think about God who loved us so much that he came to us, tabernacled among us ("pitched his tent with ours," "dwelt with us"), and is with you.


***
Notes

For an explanation of the meaning of the Hebrew word alma ("virgin") in Isa. 7:14, see J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 84-85. Motyer writes: "Isaiah thus used the word which, among those available to him, came nearest to expressing 'virgin birth' and which, without linguistic impropriety, opens the door to such a meaning." (85)

For a lengthy, detailed study of alma, see Michael Brown's Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: Messianic Prophecy Objections. Section 4:3.

***

My two books are:

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God