Saturday, June 1, 2019

A Different Reaction ...

Have you ever noticed how the same written content will often inspire a completely different reaction across a group of readers?  The words on the paper (or in the email) do not change an inch.  But the tone of how it is read, and the agenda behind how we perceive what was written between the lines, changes to nearly every reader who takes the time to read it.  Some folks might have a relationship with you already, and when an email or a post is made, they interpret those writings based on that pre-existing relationship.  Where it comes to matters of religion, specifically Christianity, entire denominations have arisen purportedly because each group of folks reads the same words in the Bible just a little bit differently.  Then those differences became matters of doctrine.  That doctrine then becomes a test of faith.  And before you know it, we are ready to condemn each other for not teaching truth, because of the differences in how we perceive scripture – even though we are not actually arguing about the words themselves – those words do not change.  But how we read them does.
Sadly, in matters of religion, those who are quick to condemn and use the Bible to do so, share another characteristic they are probably not even aware they have.  It is not so much having a “bad” thing, as it is a lack of an “awesome” thing.  Sin is sin.  And sin is never good, should never be endorsed, and frankly is something all of us struggle with, and something all of us want real relief from.  But when we focus on the sin itself, we become people who are quick to condemn.  When we focus on the redemption from sin, on the cure for sin, we become people who realize only love will ever get us to that cure.  It is the love of Jesus Christ, that moves Him to want to cure us.  It is our love for Him, that moves us to want to be cured.  Love then, underlies everything in our own salvation.  And when we are people of love; we start to care about others, in effect, Jesus alters our hearts in the process of salvation to begin to see the treasure of others.  When that overtakes us, we are no longer people who focus on condemnation, we are people who focus on re-creation and redemption in the here and now.  Same words.  Same Jesus.  But a different us.
In our last study, Luke tells us the back story to the gospel of Jesus Christ, by focusing on Zacharias the father of John the Baptist, or rather soon-to-be father.  Zacharias is confronted by the angel Gabriel who “stands in the presence of God”.  Zacharias is given an awesome revelation of what is to come.  But he is old, his wife is too, and they have been barren all their lives.  So Zacharias looks at his humanity, and doubts he could ever accomplish such a thing.  Zacharias was a good man, a blameless man, but he looked in the wrong place for the miraculous.  He looked to human strengths and abilities (namely his own).  Instead He should have looked to God to accomplish what no man (or science, keep in mind Luke is a physician), could ever accomplish.  When God predicts the impossible, He performs the impossible.  He does not ask you to do it.  The same is true of how you will be saved from you.  It is impossible for you to ever reach perfection, so you are not asked to do that work, you are asked to let Jesus do it in you, and for you.  You are not asked to stay in your sins but allow Jesus to lift you out of your sins entirely.  As you submit yourself, your human ideas, strengths, desires, and weaknesses to Jesus – He does exactly that, He does the impossible in you.  The question becomes, how will you respond.  Zacharias was a believer, a priest by trade, and he practiced what he preached every day.  But when Gabriel himself came to him with great tidings, Zacharias doubted. 
Time to change the scene.  Luke will tell the story of another angelic revelation with a very different outcome.  Luke picks up in his letter (chapter one) of our gospel, in verse 26 continuing … “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, [verse 27] To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. [verse 28] And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”  We move from a focus on the men in this story, to a focus on the women.  And Luke starts not with the birth of Jesus, or even the conception of Jesus, but with an angelic revelation of Jesus to a simple virgin girl named Mary.  Now Mary herself was no different then or now, than any other virgin girl engaged to be married.  She was excited about spending her life with Joseph as her husband.  She loved him, and he loved her.  The engagement process was just like a time delay for Joseph to prepare to marry her with a place to live and ability to take care of her.  The engagement delay also allowed for them to be sure of their feelings, and not make mistakes they might regret later in life.  So Mary was like any other girl no real difference there.
Mary might have been pretty, but likely no super model.  The conditions of life back then required outdoor physical labor to survive.  Preparing food took effort (harvesting, washing, cutting, cooking over open fires, and cleaning in a nearby stream).  There were no microwaves, and prepared meals in plastic containers we simply “throw away” when we are done.  Keeping clothes clean took effort (carrying them to an outdoor water source, hand washing them over grates, using soap if you could afford it, drying them on lines or tree branches, then carrying them home again).  There were no machines that do all the work for you except folding them.  You get the idea, life was much more difficult.  And should bad weather appear, it might change everything for you from what you could do, to what you could eat.  So there were no pampered super models who survived by the publicity of their looks, untouched by the outdoor rigors of life back then.  In this Mary was no different than any other girl in her town, her region, or her age.
Luke continues in verse 29 saying … “And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.”  Notice, Mary is not afraid per se, but troubled at this greeting, because from her point of view, she is far from highly favored and blessed among women.  That pronouncement does not fit with a simple, humble girl, who lives life, like any other simple woman might.  And to keep us men humble – while Joseph may be the love of her life – he is no Brad Pitt such that every other woman in her hometown would recognize her luck by marrying him.  He is just another simple humble man, likely a virgin himself, who is excitedly waiting to marry the love of his life.  And perhaps that love between them might be enough to warrant the angels pronouncement in our day, or any day come to think of it.  But Joseph, while faithful and nice, has nothing to do with this.
Luke continues in verse 30 saying … “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. [verse 31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. [verse 32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: [verse 33] And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”  There is immediacy in what the angel proclaims.  This does not sound like a future someday proclamation to her it sounds like a right now kind of thing.  She gets that.  But then, same words different reaction.  We know, because of hindsight, that the angel was describing the Messiah, and the references to a kingdom without end, does not mean the removal and overthrow of the Roman empire, it means a spiritual kingdom where evil is defeated once and for all time.  But she hears these words and can easily associate them with every commonly held belief about the Messiah at that time, meaning He was to ascend to David’s throne, and establish a kingdom (earthly) without end as He grows up.  The words of the angel did not change, but perception, and preconceived ideas about belief would have colored them greatly.
Luke continues in verse  34 saying … “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? [verse 35] And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. [verse 36] And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. [verse 37] For with God nothing shall be impossible.”  Mary responds by asking the most obvious simple logistical question – how will this be considering she is still a virgin.  Mary knows how it is supposed to work, and this has never happened.  The angel responds by telling her that the Holy Ghost will come upon her, and beyond that, that the power of the Highest will overshadow her.  That could be a reference to God the Father (particularly as she would have understood it).  And all of this to insure there is no doubt as to who the Father of Jesus would truly be – it would not be human – it would be divine.  Jesus would rightly be called the Son of God.
Notice too, Mary does not ask for a sign.  She only asks how it is possible, given how it is supposed to work.  But Mary is given a sign anyway.  The angel refers her to her cousin Elisabeth (perhaps obedience runs in the family) as being already 6 months pregnant.  Elisabeth who is known to her family and around the region as barren.  Elisabeth who is old, WAY too old to be even thinking about being pregnant.  But all of this is to prove, that with God, NOTHING is impossible.  And the parallels to our salvation remain just as pertinent, what we are unable to do to save ourselves, we were never meant to do – but with God nothing is impossible including changing you from who you are, to who He intended you to be.  You cannot cure your sin problem.  But God can.  Not just forgive mind you, but cure.  Not just overlook your past, but make for you a new future, absent of sin altogether.  [Take in that oil of the wise virgins while there is yet time.]  Mary is not meant to solve this problem herself, she is meant to witness the power of the Lord in solving it.
And so Mary responds as Luke continues in verse 38 saying … “And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”  Mary does not argue.  Mary does not debate.  She accepts.  And irony of ironies, she accepts no matter the cost to her personally.  For what the angel has said, is how history will view her from those who believe.  But it is NOT how she will be viewed in her own time and age.  Not even the love of her life Joseph will believe her at first (it will take an angelic visit of his own before he is willing to accept the impossible).  And so beyond Joseph, the virgin mother of Jesus will be called an adulterous whore by those who will not believe, and by those who employ common sense to guide their thinking, not faith in an impossible God who routinely does do the impossible.  At best, she will be condemned as breaking her engagement with Joseph to make him the Father earlier than when they were to be formally married.  At worst, she will be no better than a whore that deserved to be stoned for betrayal in which she was caught.  But no personal cost to her or her reputation would be considered.  Instead just a simple yes.
It is particularly interesting to me, the contrast in response of Zacharias and of Mary.  Zacharias was a good man, there is no condemnation here of him by me, nor should there be.  Yet even a priest was prone to human doubt.  The simple virgin bride to be, made no request for a sign, and simply submitted even when she did not have to, and even when it will cost her reputation forever.  Even though it might even cost her, her pending marriage.  She responded with a simple yes.  For the Bible being a book that is supposed to be hard on women, that is not what I read.  I read women who keep defining themselves of those with cast iron faith, while the men around them do far less, in the same circumstances at the same time and age.  I see women who follow God without question, while men seem to have so much harder a time trying to do the same.  Mary will have a normal life after the birth of Jesus.  She will be wife and mother of several more children.  She will go on to be nothing more extraordinary than any other woman of her age, but in this single act of submission and faith, she will carry the honor of having been mother to Love incarnate.
Perhaps it was the love within her, that made all the difference.  Perhaps it is the love in you and I, that can still make all the difference.  For we serve a God where nothing is still impossible, no matter what it looks like in our age.  I pray our responses are different when we are yet called …
 

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