The Preamble ...

Most of our New Testament is made up of letters to fellow believers, and in general to encourage them to hang on to what they have been taught.  Even the Gospel of Luke itself begins in letter form to a believer called Theophilus.  It reminds me of some of our reality TV programs, where contestants may be separated from their families in order to participate.  Often the TV show allows letters from home to be handed out, as a form of reward, and generally only on rare occasions.  But each recipient that gets that letter from home, treasures it.  I can imagine that in these early days of the Christian church it is much the same.  The postal service was not as developed back then.  To transport a letter was dicey thing.  They could have been intercepted and destroyed by enemies of the faith, if they had been able.  Satan was no fan of the church or of believers, so you can bet his full attention was on doing just that.  To see that any of these letters survived his onslaught, and remain part of our gospel in the Bible, is already a testament to the miraculous power of our God.  For our God wants us to know His love, and every written volume that remains for us, is intended to reveal just that.  These letters then, are for us to treasure, for they were bought at great price and great consequence.

Luke himself, was known as a physician, a doctor.  Those healing skills in the early church would have been a tremendous help, but the power of healing was not confined to the limits of science, then or now.  Even though he was a doctor, Luke was not limited to being just that.  Luke emplored the Holy Spirit to do a healing work that was well beyond the limits of any science, except a re-creative one.  So Luke does not just examine Jesus from a scientific point of view, He examines Jesus from the power of the Holy Spirit point of view as well.  It seems sad, that so many of the excellent doctors we have in our world today, who also claim to be Christians, have allowed their scientific training to put limits on the power of God in their own lives.  Miracles (if they will even allow for the possibility of such a thing), are brought about by the power of prayer of others, who when confronted with the impossible, choose to look to Jesus rather than accept their scientifically proscribed fate.  Doing our best to heal, was never a prerequisite to seeing a miracle take place.  Instead trusting fully to God was, and remains the way to open that door.  This is not a contest between how to medically treat, it is an expansion of how to do it.  If you wish to employ the best of our knowledge to date, have at it.  And so you should.  But do not think the end of that road, is the end of all roads, it is not – as Luke can provide first-hand testimony to.

Luke was an educated Gentile.  Writing this letter, this gospel, was not denied to him by right of his birth.  It was opened to him by his choice to embrace the faith, and the power behind it.  Luke was converted and wanted to serve, and so his chance to serve was put in front of him.  Further proof, that God did not want an exclusively “Jewish” church, but a church of any who would choose to believe in it.  Luke’s upbringing was not in synagogue per se (such as would have been a Pharisee).  The Sanhedrin would not have accepted Luke in their upper ranks because of Luke’s gentile birth.  The Old church had become a social-status factory where the service of Luke would have been politely denied.  Have our churches become just like this as well?  Would we deny the service of one we believe to be caught up in too much sin (as we define it)?  Or because the doctrinal understanding is just not deep enough yet (when is it ever)?  Those facts did not deter Jesus.  Jesus accepted Luke and the Holy Spirit inspired him to write, and then preserved his writings for now nearly 2000 years.  There is a lesson here for us.

Luke opens his gospel in chapter one, in verse 1 saying … “Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, [verse 2] Even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word;”  You will note the motivation of Luke as he sets down to write out this good news letter.  This is a declaration of the things which are surely believed among us.  This is an affirmation letter.  This is a letter of encouragement.  It is not meant to dispute other versions of the gospel but to add a different perspective and result in achieving the goal of encouraging the faith.  Luke also here testifies that this account will be aided by first-hand eye-witnesses, as well as ministers of the word.  He likely is pointing out the original 11 disciples (without calling any by name).  He may also be referring to folks like Nicodemus, or the woman of Samaria at the well, who also encountered Jesus.  Is it any wonder this will be a letter to treasure?

Luke continues in verse 3 saying … “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, [verse 4] That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”  And there it is, the first reference to the effects of what salvation is able to do to you.  To be saved from oneself by the power of Jesus Christ (that is through submission to Him in full, our desires, our thoughts, our motives, etc.) – has the power to “perfect” our understanding of our beliefs.  We let Jesus lead, we find a whole new trail of love through the letters written and preserved for our benefit.  Scripture is no longer a means to condemn sin, it is a means to find redemption from our all-so-evident condemnation of self.  We already know we are lost.  We do not need the Bible to make that any clearer.  Just look at the pain we cause ourselves and others as evidence.  Look at the death we bring to ourselves.  It is in our real world; we are living it.  We desperately need the Bible to throw us a life-line.  We need scripture to point us to the way away from our pain and death.  To the source of love meant to redeem even the worst of us.  A perfect understanding is not a tolerance for sin and pain, but instead a direct path away from both.  Luke wishes for his friend Theophilus to see this, to not let go of it, and to cling to it forever. 

Those with a perfect understanding of how to condemn do the work of another player in the battle for our salvation, namely that of Satan.  Satan is forever condemning the world, and the believers who reside in it.  Satan condemns both those who sin and do not care, as much as he condemns those who sin and know better.  His entire role is one of prosecutor.  He condemns without ceasing.  No, a perfect understanding of our beliefs, points one to Jesus Christ, to find relief.  Not just relief from accusation, but relief by a change in our motives, in our behavior, in how we love each other.  That is true relief.  We do not need an excuse to keep sinning and causing ourselves and each other more pain.  We need a way of escape from who we are, and from our desires to sin in the first place.  That kind of relief brings a perfect understanding of what we have been taught.  Perfection is not a pipe-dream.  It is a miraculous gift we can begin to experience in the here and now.  Let us give doctor Luke’s gospel letter a second look and begin to see how this perfection can begin to be established in each of us, and in our real lives now …

 

The Apostles of Christ ...

One could say the “Apostles of Christ” begin in the aftermath of Jesus Christ.  The writers of the Old Testament all had a direct connection with Jesus Christ through the means of prophecy and vision.  But they all lacked the history of His life.  They knew Him but only through the means that a prophet can know God, through inspiration.  And finding other people/prophets with similar experiences was going to be rare.  The Apostles of Christ had this same means of inspiration, but it was buffeted by the deeds, and witnesses, and stories of Jesus that were common in the first century after the ascension of Jesus Christ.  Imagine being a writer, and on your journey of mission, encountering another person who had a direct exposure to Jesus.  You would not be alone in talking about Him, you would be in a crowd of witnesses.  Everyone from young children who may have sat on His lap, to those whose bodies were fully restored because they did nothing but touch the hem of His garments as He walked by.  The Apostles would apt’ly be called prophets, but they lived in an age, where exposure to Jesus was not just a rare thing, it was a more common thing.

In our first volume of “A Second Look”, we studied the authors who had direct personal experience with Jesus Christ.  Those authors included Jude and James (likely His brothers as well as disciples).  They also included John (the beloved), Peter (the little rock), and Matthew (the former tax collector).  Between these men the story of the gospel was told very well.  However, while the story of our salvation is a great start, the story of our evangelism would seem to follow next.  It is the chronicles of that evangelistic message of the early Christian church, where the letters of the Apostles seem to add great context to our doctrines and understanding of God.  We will begin our study of this next phase of the work, with the author Luke (the physician).  Luke wrote another version of the gospel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and with ample second-hand testimony by others who witnessed it.  Luke then went on to write the next chapter “The Acts of the Apostles” meant to show how the work would spread across the region.  During his travels with fellow apostle Paul (formerly Saul the Pharisee); it is believed Luke likely wrote the book or letter to the Hebrews. 

Understand that there is absolute unity among the disciples and apostles in pointing the new believer to Jesus Christ.  But beyond that, philosophy, perspective, education, and personal histories are all different.  Different parts of the body of the church, that present different attributes, each important, and each part of the Mosaic that makes up the body of Christ (His church).  There were no entirely separate denominations in these early days.  But there was a rift coming, between what the church would become in Rome, and what the church remained in the rest of the world.  Luke and Paul traveled together through much of these early evangelistic missions.  But that does not make them identical twins in what either wrote.  How could it?  Paul was a former Pharisee.  Luke was a current physician.  Both educated, but Luke was a gentile.  Both were converts, but both came from a completely different upbringing.  Just like all the others.  Jesus did not pick 12 men, then later 70 more disciples, as well as the women He invited to carry the gospel, because they were all cookie cutter images of each other.  He picked them for their diversity.  And He intended for them to cover each other’s weaknesses, and nuture each other’s strengths.  One body made of different parts.

In the end, most all of the passionate followers of Jesus, did not die deaths from old age, in comfort.  They died martyr’s deaths before their time, because of the fury of Satan against Jesus and His church.  Jewish persecution mounted the first attacks.  Which was followed by Roman persecution in the later years.  The early Christian faith was not born in a time with no opposition, but perhaps in a time when opposition was at its greatest.  Yet the ones who seem to have known Him best died these deaths and did not keep silent.  For a knowledge of Jesus does not inspire silence in us, but demonstrations of love in us, even to those who would name themselves our mortal enemies.  If today, we call ourselves Christian, yet pray for the death of our enemies, perhaps it reveals just how little we truly know Jesus Christ.  Perhaps instead we should take a second look at what has been written and see if we can find insight, that Jesus will lead us to find.  For now, let us put away our preconceptions, and read as if it were the first time, what has been preserved through miracle for us to freely read.

 

One For The Road ...

There comes that time, when something appears bound to end, that we begin to crave just one more of it, before it is completely gone.  For some, this happens in a bar at closing time.  For others, this happens near the end of a relationship that for some unexplainable reason is about to end.  For a lucky few, it happens in my daughter’s Bible school class, where the participants wish we just had ten more minutes to keep talking and learning any fine Sabbath morning.  But whatever context you are most familiar with, the sentiment, the feeling is the same.  We look back at something, and begin to relish it, cherish it, perhaps more at the end of it, than when it was just “there” and we took it for granted.  At that moment of realization, we desperately reach out to cling to it, even if just for one moment more.  If your most familiar context for this happens in a bar, there is a place that can offer so much more happiness, and that can last so much longer.  And if you find the context that serves you best is in the form of romantic relationships, there is a way to base them in the cement of faith, rather that the shifting sands of human interests.  And for those unlucky few, who search for this in church, but rather than wanting to stay longer, are burning up the aisles to get out faster – there is a way to “do church” that is so much better than perhaps you do it today.

The short answer to all of this, is Jesus.  The gospel of Matthew concludes by making this point very well in chapter 28 in the last few verses, picking up in verse 16 saying … “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. [verse 17] And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.”  Talk about a one-for-the-road situation.  Matthew makes the point that Judas is gone, by subtling stating the number of the remaining disciples.  But what Matthew omits, is the number of women disciples who were likely there at this same mountain as well.  Jesus had summoned all of them there to say His temporary goodbyes.  This was about 40 days after His resurrection.  And if you believe the risen saints who were the first fruits of His Kingdom walked the earth for 40 days and not 3 days, they would have been gathered there as well.  The point is that this was not just an isolated event for only the eleven main disciples to share, but for all those who deeply loved and believed in our Savior to share.  Keep in mind it was the women who FIRST received this very invitational message.

But then, as often happens in matters of religion, particularly before the entrance of the Holy Spirit, the devil tempts us to doubt.  This is another one of those situations, it is hard for those of us, who have never even seen the beautiful face, hands, and feet of Jesus to understand.  Despite all the evidence, the personal and up-close evidence, doubt reared its head in not just one disciple, but in “some”.  How does this happen in those who knew Him best, and knew Him longest?  How are we able to sit at the feet of Jesus (in our day at church, or perhaps at a parent’s knee) and still come to doubt, what we have always known was the truth of our beliefs?  They had Jesus in person.  We have Him enumerated throughout an entire collection of works we call the Bible.  And yet both of us are subject to the weakness of doubt.  We look at them in no small amount of contempt, and ask, how is that possible, given where you were, and what you witnessed first-hand?  These disciples saw the miracles we wish we could see.  They experienced first-hand what it was like to move through time and space across the Sea of Galilee after Jesus calmed the storm.  Those were first-hand accounts.  As were the healings, and casting out of demons, they had first-hand exposure to doing themselves.  They even saw the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

But now, in the final moments they would ever spend in the physical presence of Jesus who was leaving for heaven.  Knowing He was crucified.  And seeing Him risen.  Some doubted.  Is it any different with us?  Do we spend precious moments we have on earth, taking a “for granted” stance about them?  Instead of appreciating the brevity of our lives, and therefore taking the most care to enjoy our moments in the love of Jesus – we doubt where Jesus has brought us.  We let doubt seep in, and start raising the banner of circumstances for our victories, or worse claiming self-made victories in our past.  Our journey with Jesus is not about what “we” have done or not done.  It is about allowing Him to guide us, remake us, and lead us to where we are.  That journey happens outside of the written Word, and inside of the reformation of our particular hearts.  It is a real-life thing for each of us.  And that real-life experience then amplifies what we read of the stories of others who have encountered Jesus in the written Word.  One does not contradict the other, but both amplify the impact of Jesus in our lives.  If the Bible is still just a story book for you, and Jesus is still someone you have never met; there is still time to correct those positions.  Meet the One, then see the other go from story book, to His Word in printed form.

Jesus does not immediately address the doubt of His own disciples.  But He does communicate what He must.  Matthew picks back up in verse 18 saying … “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”  There has been a change of ownership of our world.  Adam was its caretaker, until he surrendered it to Satan, when he broke trust with God.  Satan made the argument that it was impossible for man to keep God’s Laws.  But Jesus came, lived, died, and was ressurected in perfect harmony with God’s Law of love.  As such, because Jesus surrendered His own will to the will of His Father – His Father “gave” Jesus “All” power in both heaven and in earth.  There will still be opposition to the will of God in our world.  But that opposition will come from an angry tenant, not from the landlord.  The landlord of our world is now Jesus, whether we like that or not.  This new fact, of which Satan is well aware, makes that angry tenent even more angry.  Satan looks now to shred this planet, and shred as many of us as he can, before the landlord (Jesus) throws him out, and remakes the place all over again.  Satan knows his time is short, he knows he is on a clock.  And each second that ticks by is one more second closer to his demise.  So each passing second only serves to increase his desperation at shredding us all.  Ironic, that Satan sees time more acutely, than we do, when our life expectancy is far more brief.

Jesus continues in verse 19 saying … “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: [verse 20] Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”  These are the last two verses in the book of Matthew to his contemporaries, to his Jewish counterparts.  That was the focus of the ministry of Matthew, and of the audience of this book.  Jews would understand perfectly the concept of baptism.  Matthew takes this concept and enumerates through the words of Jesus an alteration to its historical context.  Instead of baptizing for repentance only, they would add, doing it as a public sign of accepting not only Jesus, but God the Father, and the Holy Spirit as well.  Our God, better described as three-in-one – three entities in perfect harmony, with unique roles, unique personalities, but perfectly aligned in goal and practice to redeem we who were lost.  That was something new to the Jews who would read this.  Using baptism as a public statement of accepting the role of Jesus in this trio of God was something new.  Even the introduction or better stated re-introduction of the Holy Spirit as part of the baptism statement was something new.

But Jews who understood the need for baptism understood why this might make sense.  And while Matthew was targeting his Jewish contemporaries, he was not ONLY targeting them.  For us Gentiles, the right of baptism would be equally valid and equally meaningful as our next author of study Luke, would begin to chronicle.  Matthew also knew his Jewish contemporaries would easily understand the next words of Jesus as well.  “Teaching them to observe”, was a concept deeply rooted in Jewish tradition.  The Jewish mind at that time and place would easily grasp this idea because it was one they were intimately familiar with.  The “art” of study of all things religious made sense to the Jewish mind.  Switching from naked tradition as taught by the Pharisees, to Jesus who rooted His teachings in the same scriptures, but from a motivation of love for others – was a radical change, but still a familiar idea to the people of God at this time and place.  Most Christians seem to forget that Christianity itself started as a Jewish religion, founded by Jews, whose leader was and is still a Jew, and whose first practioners were ALL Jewish.  It was only later that this new Jewish faith, became inundated with Gentiles from around the then known world.

“Things whatsoever that I have commanded you”.  This phrase in other gospels might find its closest expression in “Love one another, as I have loved you”.  We will be known as followers of Jesus, as Christians, by how we love one another.  When asked which commandment of the Law was greatest, Jesus summarized saying Love God first with all your heart, then love each other as you would love yourself.  That is to say, love the life of others so much you would lay down your own life for them.  That kind of love, that kind of self-sacrificing love.  It starts with loving God.  We know from practical experience that by allowing God to remake us, He puts His love inside of us for others.  Only then are we able to love them, to the extent that Christ would have us love them.  But in all these references whether by example of Jesus Himself, or by His teachings, we find that love itself is at the center of everything.  Love to God.  Love to others.  In that is the fulfillment of ALL of the Law, and of the prophets.  These were the teachings of Jesus we are commanded to observe. 

What we were NOT commanded to observe, are the unique interpretations of scripture that each denomination currently holds.  Those interpretations are meant to bring you closer to God.  But they are decidedly NOT on the Jesus-said-so list.  Love is.  Love is the only thing that is.  This is why it is so unfortunate when entire groups of Christians, decide that other groups of Christians are both wrong and evil, because they hold different interpretations of the same scriptures we all read.  Who is wrong, and who is not, is not important – if you believe we all seek the same Jesus, who alone is responsible for saving us, and leading us, into His truth, in His way, in His time, and in a manner that each one of us can comprehend and over time assimilate.  If you trust Jesus with your own salvation, then you must trust Jesus with mine.  We do not need to educate each other.  We need to love each other, and let our combined education flow from Jesus and the Holy Spirit as they see fit.  We are to be led by God, not to try to do the leading.  It is the interjection of unique doctrines, and interpretations into these verses than begin to make them of none effect.  If we boiled our teachings down to the same Love that Jesus asked of us, our differences would become meaningless.  For our journeys lead to the same place.

And what we seem most to forget about these words of Jesus written down by Matthew is the last phrases.  “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”  We are NOT alone.  We never have been.  We are not just accompanied by our guardian angels who keep us safe from the unseen war that rages around us.  But we are accompanied by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit who is everywhere at once, and with each of us, as we have permitted Him to be.  The eye of God Himself is on each of us.  He does not watch with pen in one hand, and tablet in the other, recording each and every wrong doing we embrace, by choice or by accident.  That list only has meaning if we reject His love.  It would serve as evidence to other humans who will one day ask “why is so-and-so not with us here in heaven”.  Then the list will be produced that shows an entire life of rejected love, the rejection of God’s love.  But for those who embrace God, that list has ALREADY been wiped clean by the blood of Christ and tossed into the deepest recesses of black holes the universe has to offer.  So when God Himself looks at us, he does not see the plethora of what is wrong with His child – He sees the infinite potential He could do and will do for that same child.

That kind of parental love is something we should understand.  When my parents looked at me at 2 years old sitting in the kitchen with gold paint everywhere.  They were surely not happy about my artistic skills.  But they did not love me any the less.  They cleaned me up (that was pretty rough).  They cleaned up what I had done (again no easy feat).  And they loved me each and every day after that.  Neither wanted a repeat of my golden paint fiasco, so paint cans were sealed tight, and moved beyond my reach.  They gave me a set of finger paints that were safer for me to use, and caused much less permanent damage.  This is the love of a parent.  Encourage the art, remove the danger, love the effort.  Would God look at us, at you, any different?  Would He not act as much as He could to take you out of the danger of your life.  Remove the desire to injest that which you should not injest.  Remove the desire to engage in what you should not engage.  He cannot prevent you from running away from Him or His wisdom.  But He can and does clean up your mess, clean you up, and love you everyday.  His efforts with you are the efforts of a parent who deeply loves their 2yr old.  And He looks to make the life of that toddler better every day.

This is what Jesus being with us, is like.  A Friend to talk to.  A Savior who cleans the mess.  A Creator who re-creates who we are, so that the future messes seem to just disappear.  And through all of it, love is at the center of it all.  We don’t need to know everything.  But if we are to have just one more for the road, let that one thing, be more of His love …

 

Point / Counter-Point ...

In the old days of Saturday Night Live (SNL), they used to run a skit entitled Point / CounterPoint during their weekend update news segment.  The humor came not from the topics they discussed, but from the incredibly rude and horribly anti-politically correct language they used to discuss them.  The name calling was most of the fun for viewers, and generally so distracting, that it was hard to pay attention to any real debate or substantive statements made during the verbal brawl.  Humor aside, for any point-of-view, you can bet there is a different point-of-view, a competing point-of-view.  And in the decades that have passed since this skit was in its prime, the name calling and personal attacks, have moved from a clear attempt to illicit laughter, to mean-spirited attacks meant to illicit tears, and break any thought of self-esteem in the other party.  What has changed is how we see each other, and worse, what motives we ascribe to each other.  And when one side believes it has the only truth, it is easy to see any other side as not only wrong, but evil.

This phenomenon did not start with us.  It began in heaven of all places.  God was truth, He is still is.  He has a way of doing things that works, it is also the best way.  It turns out, His ways, are the only ways, that can avoid pain, and even death.  These ways of God were not developed to be punitive.  They were developed because He loves us, He loves the entire universe.  And who would not want more joy, instead of more death?  It is rather a silly comparison.  But Lucifer did just that.  For every way God naturally followed, Lucifer looked closely and set up an alternative way of doing things.  Most of them involved loving self, instead of loving others.

As an example, God creates monogamy to foster intimacy, so that 2 people can come to know and love each other in a way so strong, no one else could come close to understanding it.  Within the bounds of this kind of intimacy and vulnerability and trust, procreation becomes a by-product.  Satan looks at all of this and offers instead his alternative, his counterfeit.  He offers the momentary high of biology.  Reducing others to meat sacks of mutual consent.  Not pursuing intimacy but destroying it altogether, until people mean nothing, and are only objects that can provide a moment’s pleasure.  To have children in this venue, is a risk to be avoided.  A punishment for not thinking ahead and being careful, while you pursue an endless line of self-worth-destruction in the form of others for a moment’s pleasure.  It turns out the “alternative” is not just “different”, it sucks.  It is not happiness packaged in a different way, it is pain, wrapped up to look like happiness, but with no fulfilling characteristics at all.  In short, it is a lie.  But then, when you choose to deviate from truth, where else would you expect to wind up, but in a lie.

And so what started in heaven, by no means ended there.  Satan has been creating counterfeits, and telling lies about God since the very beginning, with no intention of ever stopping, until he is stopped once and for all at the end of all things.  Satan ascribes his own motives on to God, hoping you will believe the worst about God, and nothing about the devil.  Where it comes to the Word of God, Satan has been lying about that since Moses first picked up a quill and parchment to begin writing it down.  Matthew, in his gospel to his contemporaries, in chapter 28 records one really significant case of “point / counterpoint”.  And honestly if I had been Matthew, I might have seen the wisdom of opening by talking to Satan, and saying something like the old SNL skits started … “Satan, you ignorant slut”.  Might still be good for a laugh, but in this case, it is also true.  Instead Matthew takes us back, picking up in verse 1 saying … “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

The women of cast-iron-faith, are again first to go to Jesus, even though He is dead.  They have no reason to do this, at least no logical reason.  Dead is dead.  When a Messiah is killed, that is pretty much the end of it, at least it has always been so.  But for these women where love drives their faith, something naws at them.  They remember His words.  He predicted that He would rise again on the third day.  There is a nagging hope within them that defies logic, and will not go away, and will not be silent.  So women do what men continue to be too afraid to do.  They travel to his burial site, in spite of the fact they are sure to encounter the 100 Roman soldiers, and who knows how many temple guards sent as well.  These women of cast-iron-faith are sure to be surrounded by the enemy, and make no mistake, the enemy sure looks to be in charge.  They have the swords.  They have the spears.  And they have the anger that will not go away.

Matthew continues in verse 2 saying … “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. [verse 3] His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: [verse 4] And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.”  Here is where a hundred Roman killers are made as scared as a flock of sheep.  All their spears and swords, and pent up cruelty, are worth nothing against a single angel of the Lord.  The stone which took several men to put in place, is rolled away like so many paper towels in a kitchen.  The seal is broken without so much as effort.  But this angel is not there to kill lost souls the Lord was sent to redeem.  The Romans keep their lives.  And the angel takes no threatening posture with his own sword drawn and ready.  Instead he hops up on the stone he rolled away and sits down like a teenager might do.  From here he casually begins talking to the women.

Matthew continues in verse 5 saying … “And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. [verse 6] He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. [verse 7] And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.”  The first evangelists of the Christian faith are commissioned.  The first preachers of the gospel are commissioned.  And they are ALL women.  This had nothing to do with a preference by God, for one sex or the other.  But it had a great deal to do with who faced their fears and went to seek Jesus, despite it not making sense or being logical.  When loves drives the motives, miracles happen.  When love is not in the motives, miracles are prevented.  Women were here.  So women were commissioned.  God works with whoever comes to Him.  He makes no distinction of the sex, or age, or color.  He loves us all.  He will work with us all.  Who of us, will come to work with Him?

The entire gospel message is summed up in what the angel has said.  Jesus is risen.  Go and tell, in this case his disciples.  These women must preach to the future preachers, because the future preachers are hiding allowing their fear to overcome their faith.  They heard the same words of Jesus regarding his resurrection at the same time the women heard them.  But nothing was nawing against the hearts of the disciples except the fear of self-preservation.  Fear can be drowned-out by love, and it cannot be drowned out without it.  When love is an after thought, fear can hold sway.  And so it did.  Love, as what men think of love, was in the hearts of the disciples.  But the Love of Jesus was not there just yet.  Later when that love of Jesus did enter the disciples, they feared nothing, and endured everything for the cause of Christ.  But now, the early adopters, were the women of cast-iron-faith, tempered by the furnaces of love.

Matthew continues in verse 8 saying … “And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. [verse 9] And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. [verse 10] Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.”  And just in case you could doubt the word of an angel of God, we have his words reaffirmed by the Jesus they all knew, up close, and in person.  This was the point of the gospel.  This was the love of the gospel made manifest.  Jesus takes the time to personally greet His new evangelists, to appear FIRST to the women.  This was I believe a reward for their faith.  Faith that drove them to move, even when it made no logical sense at all.  Faith that drove them to hope, because they remembered the words of their Lord and trusted in His Truth.  The “Point” goes to God.

Now for the counterpoint.  Time for the ignorant slut to spin his lie.  Matthew continues in verse 11 saying … “Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. [verse 12] And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, [verse 13] Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. [verse 14] And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. [verse 15] So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”  The lie has teeth.  It spreads.  It makes common sense.  It is more logical, and therefore more believable, than say a miracle.  Occam's Razor would side in favor of the lie.  The soldiers risked their lives to spread it, for sleeping on duty, would get them placed on crosses of their own.  The priests vouching for them with Pilate, would be the only way, they “might” escape that fate.  Counterpoint goes to Satan.

And in this situation, ascribing evil motives to the alternative story to the resurrection is understandable.  After all, Satan is evil.  And he has nothing but evil intent.  God’s story is the story of your redemption, and re-creation.  It is the story of your personal reconciliation with God.  You get to go home.  You get to hang out with God, eat dinner with Him, listen to Him, talk to Him, laugh with Him.  God is not just about sitting on a distant throne in heaven, you are a thousand miles away from.  He is about getting close and personal with you, being with you.  God being God, He can do that with you, at the same time He does it with me, and so on, and so on.  Everywhere at once.  This is not a “thousand mile away” proposition.  It is about going home, to be “with” God.  Never parted again.

And what does the counterpoint offer?  Meaninglessness.  Your life is a random accumulation of circumstances that mean nothing.  You mean nothing.  You are all alone.  You will die alone.  And no one will care.  In a thousand years, or ten thousand, you will be a speck in a memory long forgotten.  Your pain, your joy, are all random, and mean nothing.  Your suffering means nothing.  In short, in the counterpoint proposal, you have no meaning to anyone, so … why live?  Take the yoke of morality off of you and swing for the rafters.  Be Hitler if it pleases you.  Or be Gandhi.  But no matter.  Both are dead now.  So what difference do either make?  Counterpoint has NOTHING to offer you, it is based on lies, that would rob you of infinite joy, and infinite life.  It is meant to deceive you, and distract you, to keep you from a faith that overcomes fear, because it is driven by love.  And love does matter.  In the here and now, and throughout the eons of time, love will always matter.  Do not let the lie, rob you of your meaning.  Do not let logic, rob you of the love you have coming, and the love you are capable of sharing.  There is no alternative to truth, only lies that lead to pain.

The gospel allows us to see each other, past the struggles with evil, and to what potential He would bring in our lives.  Instead of ascribing any motives to our brothers and sisters, what if we just loved them unconditionally instead.  What if our love for them, looked like God’s love for them?  Might that offer a reason to seek Jesus in the first place?  The Truth is revealed when Love is revealed.  The Truth is not revealed by debate, by words, but by love in action.  Because of Love, I care more about you than I do about convincing you of anything I believe – except to seek Jesus in everything.  My doctrines can wait.  If my doctrines are truth, then I can trust Jesus to reveal them to you in His time, in His manner, and in the way in which you will come to need to hear them.  That is a wildly different approach, than me trying to cram what I believe down your throat, all the while showing as little concern for you as I do the mosquito biting my arm.  And becoming frustrated if not angry with you, when you refuse to see things the way I do.  That kind of doctrine-based approach to evangelizing should go the way of the dodo-bird.  It does not work, and it does not last.  My beliefs are not as important as my love.  And how I can benefit you will be more determined by how much I love you, than what I esoterically believe about anything.

God has the point.  Satan has nothing.  You can see the truth of it, when you look at the life of Jesus Christ.

 

Radical Transformation ...

If you knew the end from the beginning, you wouldn’t choose it any other way.  This assertion will be verified in heaven (look me up, if it turns out I was wrong 😊).  But because we don’t know: it feels much more like a rollercoaster doing 90mph and its just certain there is some track missing up ahead.  Roller coasters at high speed are dangerous enough when guided by the flimsy track we all realize was built by a team earning minimum wage dying to get home for the weekend.  But if track is actually missing, if the ride itself is frankly incomplete: then the ride is not only dangerous, it is certain death.  And nobody here is looking for that outcome.  After all we signed up for this, we bought tickets, we chose to be here, wait in line, do whatever it takes to ride.  If you told me however, that the “surprise” of this ride, was missing track, I would tell you – thanks, but no thanks.  That kind of “radical” is just way out of my league.  And yet here I sit waiting in line, really close to my turn to ride.

The basic problem with transformation of any kind, is that the future me, is just not going to look anything like the current me.  No, I am not talking about physical body alteration of any kind.  I am talking generally about what it means to have character or personality “one” today – and through a series of events I cannot predict, anticipate, or sometimes even understand – finding myself down the road with personality “two” instead of who I am today.  The promise of God, is that what He will remake me into, will be something I would love to be.  But what is that?  He offers no road map.  He does not set any time limits on all this.  It could take minutes, or it could take decades.  Perhaps the timing is something I directly influence.  He does not even tell me what “I” will look like in that future model.  I have no idea what features, strengths, or weaknesses I will have.  It may even be possible weaknesses will have left my vocabulary.  God tells me He will put His love inside of me.  Just like He does for literally everyone else.  So while some of the outcomes are known, the parts that make me unique from everybody else are not known.  Will I still be able to play the violin (goes the old joke)?

And more to the point, will the parts of me I lose in this process, be parts of me I will miss in the future?  That is kind of the most burning question that crosses my mind when I ponder transformation of any kind, let alone radical transformation.  I am kind of fond of some of who I am today.  Even if those parts are perhaps not the best things for me, or anybody else really.  Then comes the scariest part of all.  When you read scriptures about radical transformation, it tends to use language like “having to die” to achieve it.  I foresee the missing track right there on this roller coaster.  “Death” words are never very comforting for any mortal.  Even if they only refer to my personality or character, they are still very frightening.  And for a marketing campaign, this is probably the worst one I have ever heard.  Who cares if it is truth in advertising, it is not a truth most of us want to hear.  You start telling me that the end of the rainbow lies behind the death-door number one, and I start wondering if there is a door number two, or three to choose from.  That’s just human nature.  And it is human nature God intends to redefine in me, even if some sort of death is required to do it.

So my first response is … you first.  Ego crazed, selfish creature that I am, choosing to be blind to the infinite glory God is offering – and in this state, I demand He does it first – to prove that it works.  You would think a Santa Clause version of God who doles out rewards and punishments (emphasis on punishments) would just strike me down in my arrogance.  But our God is NOT any version of Santa Clause.  He is a saving God.  And instead of debating with me, He leads me to scriptures to show me where He ALREADY has gone first.  Talk about missing tracks on the Roller Coaster.  Matthew chronicles how real radical transformation begins, not just ours, but our God’s.  He writes of experiences the author of Life should have never known.  But to save us our God did way more than He would ever ask of any of us, in order to see what future me could see.

Matthew picks up in chapter 27 in verse 45 saying … “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. [verse 46] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  There will be pain in our transformation.  Pain brought on by sin, and its consequences, and the choices others continue to make while bound to sin like the strongest cocaine addiction the world has ever known.  How do I know radical transformation is not a recipe for a pain-free-life – look what sin did to God.  Jesus sits atop a Roman cross, and for three hours He writhes in agony, nearly deprived of all His blood.  The Creator is to experience death first.  The Author of life is to experience its ultimate opposite, in order to save us.  And for those three hours, nature refuses to look upon what is happening.  An eery darkness covers the land.  This is no normal thunderstorm, no normal cloudy day.  This is a thick blackness like the plague that once covered Egypt.

The Romans assigned to this detatchment must light torches to see; when usually the sun is high in the sky.  No stars can be seen.  No moon.  No Sun.  No reflections of light anywhere but from the torches the soldiers must light in order to see.  And humanity is now terrified.  Radical Transformation is anything but predictable.  How could anyone have prepared for this?  But what Jesus says reveals a pain infinitely greater than the pain His body suffers from.  He has never known a millisecond without absolute unity with His Father.  It is the light of the Father, that has sustained Jesus throughout this ministerial tour through torture-ville.  It is that harmony, that unity, that keeps Him submitting to God, deferring His own will, in order to show us what we need to do.  Jesus is to be our living example.  But now, near the moments of His death, He can feel no Father God.  He is now truly alone.  He is now experiencing what separation from the Father feels like.  And folks – that is the very definition of HELL.  Hell is NOT about the flames.  Hell is not even about the eternal consequences.  Hell is the infinite torture of being separated from the source of all life and love even if only for a moment.  To endure that separation, is to endure HELL, and Jesus has been dealing with it for a while now.

I am sure in His darkness, Jesus must be asking Himself, what good can come from this?  Is it possible that having carried the weight of the sins of this world upon Him, He will forever be stained with it?  If so, might He ever have to endure separation from His Father?  Jesus is walking through the doors of Hell, with zero exit strategy.  Even after He is resurrected, He might still be stained, and forever driven from the presence of His Father.  Our sin could easily be that great.  Mine alone perhaps that great.  Talk about death wording.  Jesus is going to die.  But perhaps Jesus will endure a fate worse than death.  And from this side of the cross, He cannot see past it.  The risk is real.  The risk is overwhelming.  And so He cries out in agony, to mark this extreme pain.

Matthew continues in verse 47 saying … “Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. [verse 48] And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. [verse 49] The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.”  The priests have fled the darkness back to Jerusalem.  Only the soldiers, the curious, and the faithful remain here.  Those listening misunderstand Him, how typical.  They prepare a pain dulling sponge for Him, to see if Elijah will come to save Him.  Another sign that could not happen, perhaps no matter how bad Elijah wanted it to.  For Elijah, Moses, Enoch, and any other human translated into heaven, must now sit in silence witnessing the price of God’s love for us.  There was no adequate road map for any of this.  When Father and Son, plan all of this out in heaven 4000+ years ago, it is different knowing it will come, than being now in the middle of it, unable to see past the fog of our sins, to know if redemption is even still possible.

We complain about what might be required of us during a radical transformation.  But we have endured nothing next to our God, who did go first.  We may even lose the life we have in this world of sin, but like the theif on the cross, we will surely see our loving God in the next one when it comes.  What Jesus did was risk both lives.  The human one on the cross.  The divine one from being stained with our great sins.  It might have been planned.  But it was here, and unexpected.  All radical transformations are unexpected.  If we knew about them.  We would defer them.  They happen to us, in spite of us.  And Jesus will die with those in attendance still not understanding what He was doing for them.  Those onlookers meant no sympathy with the vinegar to dull the pain.  They meant to extend His life by dulling the pain long enough to see if Elijah would descend out of the darkness all around them.  Radical Transformation often happens to us alone.  When comfort does not come from those around us.  It is just between us and our God.  Here Jesus must endure it, even without the comfort of His Father God.

Matthew continues in verse 50 saying … “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. [verse 51] And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;”  The agony is too great.  The separation too intense.  Jesus cries out in a blood-chilling cry of a heart physically rending in His own chest.  And He dies.  No escape.  No alternative pathway for our salvation.  He does what must be done.  His death not only before our own, but in place of our own.  Our transformation will now be possible because Jesus did what He must do to save us.  Even if He does not know it yet.  His sleep begins.  He knows nothing for now. 

But radical transformation is not just meant for people.  It can and just did happen to a belief system.  The most holy place was where the mercy seat sat atop the Ark of the Covenant.  This most holy chamber was hidden in the Temple at Jerusalem behind a 20ft curtain insolated with three different kinds of heavy materials & colors sown together, and embroidered with gold angels throughout.  The curtain weighed several hundred pounds and took many men to hang it.  It was not intended to be moved offering only a slight possible opening at the center base where a man could pass from one chamber to the other once a year.  To look upon the most holy artifacts, was to see the presence of God, and be struck dead from the intensity of our sin, and purity of His love by contrast.  No Jew ever dared to do it.  They knew the consequences.  They tied bells on the hem of the High Priest, and a rope around his ankles, when he entered this sanctum only once per year, in case the bells went silent and he died, they pulled him out by that rope, never daring to look in. 

And now on the day of atonement, with hundreds of worshippers packing the Temple site, and the high priest making ready to go in – the curtain is torn by an unseen angelic hand from top to bottom.  It falls away revealing not only a small passageway, but the entire Most Holy place sanctum, Ark of the Covenant and all.  The mercy seat is empty; the One who normally occupies it just gave up His Ghost over on Calvary at that moment.  The entire crowd stares in to the most Holy place in terror and amazement.  They are all still alive.  And their faith has just undergone a radical transformation.  No longer will Jerusalem be its center.  No longer will any Temple building be where God is found.  He will be found with each of us who seek Him, where we happen to be.  And the cornerstone of the faith, Jesus Christ, who was cast aside by the priests charged with building the base of believers, will become the very foundation of the new faith that emerges from the Old faith that has met its fulfillment at the cross, on the Day of Atonement.  It is also the year of Jubiliee, all the slaves are to be set free.  A symbolic representation of what Jesus will do for us if redemption worked.  The timing of everything is perfect.

But this is not just a silent event.  At the death of her Maker, the earth trembles as you would expect it to, when the Creator God is put to death.  The earthquake is felt here and hundreds of miles away.  It tears rocks into pebbles.  It rips great holes in the earth, though preserving Jerusalem, and the cross site where He has laid down His life.  But there is purpose in this quake.  It tears deep into the earth, to reveal graves that have been covered over by ages of shifting sands and sediments.  Matthew continues in verse 52 saying … “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, [verse 53] And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”  The graves of many sleeping saints were exposed by the quake.  When Jesus would come forth, they would arise as well, a first fruits offering for what was to come.  In addition to the sightings of Jesus after His own resurrection, would be sightings and encounters of saints long asleep in the earth, who would come forth and testify in full body form about their risen Lord.

Radical Transformation, that follows death.  Radical Transformation none can deny, and none would oppose.  Those sleeping saints were not disembodied spirits wandering the halls of a heaven forced to see their loved ones continue on in their absence in a world of sin.  They were instead asleep as scriptures describe, knowing nothing, not the passage of time, not the decay of their bodies, nor the conditions that occurred after their sleep began.  Until now.  They arose in full body form, not as spirits.  They emerged from death, as we all will also emerge from death.  Radically transformed into new creations, even if that process began before our sleep did.  Future them, is radically better than past versions of them.  Their characters are not burdened with the addiction to sin, but are completely free of it.  They are made pure by our Savior, and are now able to ascend with Him when He ascends into heaven.  But whether their influence was witnessed for three days, or for forty days, it was undeniable, profound, and radically different than what ANYBODY expected, including them.

The reaction to all of this by those who least believed, and were most responsible for the cruelty of all of this was the admission believers seem so reluctant to admit.  Matthew continues in verse 54 saying … “Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.”  You will note these pagan men made no reference to pagan deities.  They proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God, the Jewish version of who the Messiah would be.  This statement affirms the Jewish version of who God is, and does nothing to support any kind of previous pagan belief.  And it comes from the most cruel, military men, who are bound by orders to witness all of it.  But then, Radical Transformation was meant to occur in the Roman soul, as easily as it occurs in the Hebrew one.  It does not matter who you are now, who you can be is so infinitely better.  You do not need to worry.  Even if death comes, so what.  Death comes to us all.  But real change to so few.  Real change, from real love, makes real life so much better.  Future you will never dispute this.  But to encounter future you, you must be willing to let current you, go.  It might sound radical, but some missing track is just what this ride was supposed to have.

 

An Atheist's Anthem ...

 “If I only saw a sign, I would believe.”  This is a familiar chorus I have heard from nearly every non-believer I have encountered.  Sadly, it is also a familiar refrain I have heard from many Christians.  We look for the impossible to validate a faith that does not make any sense.  We ask to see the impossible for ourselves, unwilling to take the words or testimony of others on this account.  It needs to be personal.  It needs to be tangible.  Or else, how could I believe?  And in this we destroy our journey-of-faith and wish for certainty in its place.  But be honest, how could you ever be certain, of the impossible?  Even if you witness a single incident of it, will one witness be enough to believe in all the others, and for the rest of your life?  So if you must witness more than one incident, how many will be enough?  All of them?  Would it really take time travel to finally make us believe that what is recorded in scripture was real?  If you are looking here, you are cheating yourself.  There is another venue, and something a lot more personal for each of us.

To begin, certainty is not the goal.  If I asked you to trust me, how would you go about it?  You might evaluate our interactions, our history together.  You might conclude that if my behavior was always in line with your expectations, that you could extend trust to me, and then see what happens.  But therein lies the catch.  No matter how I have behaved with you in the past, no matter how consistent our history may be, each time you extend trust to me, you take a risk.  If past is prologue, then you may believe the risk to be low.  But that “belief” is still a “belief” you hold about my trustworthiness, based on a myriad of factors, but none the less a “belief” that I will not let you down.  This is how trust works. 

You may trust your mom for example, because your mom has demonstrated that she loves you.  Even if she screws up, she still loves you, though her mistake proves her human.  You may even elect to extend trust to her again after a huge mistake, because there has been only one (or few you know about), and generally she does not make them.  But even with mom (mistakes or no), every time you extend trust, you hold a “belief” that it is worth it, to trust her.  Certainty is impossible.  Because you cannot absolutely predict what anyone else (including God) may do, or why they do it.  In the end, you have ideas about it, guesses about it, even educated guesses about it.  But behavior is a tricky thing to absolutely predict, and so people surprise us sometimes (for better or for worse).  To trust anyone, is to embrace “belief”, at the exclusion of absolute certainty.

But where God is concerned, it is more blame that goes around, than trust.  That has directly to do with our picture of “who or what” God is.  The media, our parents, our church, our friends, our professors, may have all played a role in forming an image in your mind about who God is.  Suffice it to say, it boils down to one of 2 main images.  Most folks think God is a version of Santa Clause.  We go to Him to ask for stuff.  We are happy when we get it.  Mad when we don’t.  But are generally quick to ruthlessly blame God for anything bad that happens, under the logic that Santa should have been watching and been able to prevent the bad stuff before it ever happened.  After all, He has done it for others, why not me?  Way too many Christians have this exact image of God, despite all the scriptures.  Most Atheists just don’t believe in any kind of Santa Clause, or any god, but if there were a God, He would be to blame for everything.

In the Santa Clause picture of God, no trust is required.  Neither is certainty.  If you get the stuff you asked for, hallelujah.  If not, it must not be in God’s time yet.  So Santa has a slot machine sort of response to what you ask for, the odds are low, but you never know.  How could faith ever grow in you, if this is the image of God you believe in, or have the most experience with?  And believe me, Satan is WAY too happy to keep this image of God in your mind.  Perhaps enough to grant you some of those wishes himself, in order for you to never shed this image of the God you pray to.  But our real God, needs us to trust Him.  That trust is a critical component of His ability to save us – from us.  Denying yourself to let some random God you don’t really know remake who you are, is just not likely.  Better to keep the Santa image, and just hope for the best.

So God’s problem is getting you to stop thinking of Him in terms of doling out rewards and punishments, and start thinking of Him for the Being He truly is.  The other image of God (a saving God).  God wants to save you, from you.  He loves you (being the primary and singular motive of His).  God sees sin as the punishment and the addictive disease.  And He has only one way to rid you of it.  But for that to work, you have to trust Him enough to let Him do it, in spite of how it looks.  Trust, in spite of common sense.  Trust, in spite of what everyone else tells you.  Trust, that He is able to do the impossible in you, where history demonstrates, you are clearly unable to do it.  So if that is His mission, and trust is what He needs from you.  Offering you certainty does nothing to accomplish it.  If you witness a 1,000 different acts of the impossible, all you will have learned is that it is possible for God to do the impossible.  You might have already imagined that.  But you will still have no reason to let Him reconstruct who you are.  A thousand elements of certainty do not build trust, they build resentment.  Back to the Santa Clause image – now that I have seen 1,000 impossible things – I intend to open complaints about why I did not benefit from any of them.  A thousand acts of love and impossibility for others, does me not one bit of good.  So now I am mad at Santa, because there was only coal in my stocking, while my neighbor got Barbie’s playhouse.

The first problem with asking for signs, is that it does not bring trust.  The second, is that it will only make you mad they were not for you, or selfish if they were (who does not want more miracles in their own lives).  And lastly they are usually requested as a condition of belief (instead of a result of it) doing nothing to foster trust, so there will never be enough of them, to really make a believer out of you.  You will either find a way to let your skepticism reduce the impossible, to a scientifically explainable trick (or perhaps a random set of circumstances that worked out just right despite the incredible odds, like say the hypothesis of evolution) - or you will find you have an insatiable appetite for more signs, at the cost of what you profess is a belief.  In any case, the mission God has to save you, from you, by remaking you fails because He grants your wishes for signs as a condition of belief.  A change in thinking, on the other hand, will pull back the veil that has blinded your eyes to the impossible.  What you witness after a change in how you perceive life, is going to be mind blowing.  Sounds crazy right now, but that’s the point.  It is crazy.  But it is also real.  And it will be a lot more personal to you than you could possibly imagine now.

Take as a case in point the story of two types of people in the gospel of Matthew the 27^th chapter.  Picking up in verse 38 it reads … “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.”  You could argue these men might have been believers in the Jewish faith (though obviously not perfect observers of the Law).  It is not known exactly what they believed at least from Matthew’s account.  However we know from other versions of the good news, that one repented before he died, the other did not.  Dieing in the company of known criminals tends to make one look like a criminal even if this is not true.  This death will do nothing to uplift the reputation of Christ.  But Jesus does not care about His reputation.  In His trial all manner of lies were told about Him, and His response was perfect silence.  No condemnation, no calling people out on their sins, only silence.  But Jesus was eager to speak to anyone who seeks salvation.  When the dying theif seeks Jesus, Jesus responds, no matter what kind of physical pain He was in.  When that same theif was hurling insults at Him, Jesus remained silent.

Matthew continues in verse 39 saying … “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, [verse 40] And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”  Dying in the company of thieves, and up on a Roman cross, was decidedly NOT the sign the Jewish people were looking for where it comes to proving Jesus was God.  These were believers.  These were those who studied scriptures.  And yet their ideas about what God was supposed to do – that is, to throw off Roman oppression and setup a Kingdom that would last forever – overpowered all the other texts and prophecies that predicted exactly this part of the mission of God to save us.  “Believers” who desired something else of God, and refused to accept what God was actually doing to truly answer their prayers.  When Santa does not behave how we want Him to, what good is Santa right?  And so in this case, the very fact Jesus was actually fulfilling prophecy, was the very fact that disqualified Him as being the Messiah in their minds.  Sound familiar?

How often do we ask God for a thing, and threaten Him that if He does not do it, we will believe no longer?  Save me.  Save my child.  Save my spouse.  From the disease and death that stalk them.  If the results are not what we expect – we become angry and decide there cannot be a God – or else why did He not answer my prayer.  But perhaps He did, just not in the way you expected.  Perhaps from Gods point of view, saving you, your child, your spouse, for eternity is most important to all of you.  Should earthly life end today, and infinite life begin tomorrow, reunited, with infinite love in all of your hearts – is this not the preferred outcome all of you would want, even if it comes at the price of shortening how long you live in this world today?  Let’s say instead of focusing on the eternal, that God allowed you the answer to your prayers, and saved that life in the here and now.  As time passes, you, or your child, or your spouse, begin to change (not for the better).  Perhaps over time, one of you decides there is no God at all, and if there is, He is not worth following.  Sin is more “fun”, instead of the disease it truly is.  If that is how you meet your end in this world, and the eternal world is sacrificed in the process.  Did God really do what was in your best interest all those years ago when He saved you only to meet this new end?  And God knows what you will choose long before it happens.  Santa might let this play out.  But God would rather it didn’t.  God would prefer to cherish you while your free will choice reciprocates that love, rather than let you exist long enough to discard it under the weight of sin’s embrace.

So because God does not do what we want or expect, does not make Him any less trustworthy.  Keep in mind Jesus was doing what ALL of us need for salvation.  Not trying to prove Himself to nay-sayers at the time and place of His death.  Matthew continues in verse 41 saying … “Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, [verse 42] He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.”  And there we have it, the Athiest’s Anthem coming right out of the mouths of the very top leadership of the church at that time.  What image of God do you suppose they had, the one of a saving God who would die in our place, and fulfill prophecy – or the one of Santa who doles out punishment and reward emphasis on punishment.  And had Jesus descended off that cross in front of their eyes, gliding right down in front of them fully healed, what do you suppose their response would have been?  They would have hated Him all the more, because now Roman oppression still abounded, and Jesus would be impossible to kill after all.  Think about it, they already had ALL the previous miracles Jesus did to consider in weighing whether or not He was the Messiah, and NONE of them changed their course of action or belief.  They chose to dismiss every previous sign and still pursue killing Him.

And should Jesus have chosen to assuage His own ego, by proving to these priests He truly did have this power, what kind of God does that truly make Him?  A God of ego?  Who would gladly sacrifice our eternal considerations for those of the moment?  How could we be saved then?  It is often our expectations of what God should do, that could never be met anyway.  Because we come from a place of ego and selfishness, where God comes from a totally opposite perspective.  Jesus believes it is better to die to save all of us, than to do anything shortsighted, and gain nothing.  Jesus never used any of His power to benefit Himself.  Instead He used it unceasingly on us, the objects of His love, restoring us, removing the pain of sin and death from us.  Our restoration tops the mind of a saving God.  Not just getting rid our physical diseases, but getting rid of the way more deadly sinful disease of bad motives driving bad choices we continue to embrace.  Curing us of our desire to sin, is way more important.  Saving us from an eternal perspective way more important than saving us in the moment.

The ridicule continues as Matthew writes picking up in verse 43 saying … “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. [verse 44] The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”  Matthew hears the mockery of the thieves, but misses the repentance of the one.  Here we have an example of Jesus suffering the same fate as we do from time to time.  Jesus trusted in His Father.  And yet, He was dying, very painfully in this world.  The Father had NO interest in seeing His Son be tortured and die.  But the Father had a GREAT interest in seeing all of humanity be saved and reconciled unto Himself.  The death of His Son was that price.  In order that the need for Justice be satisfied.  So Jesus dies, in extreme pain we inflicted.  And the Father must sit there in silence and watch.  The eternal salvation outweighing the salvation of the moment.  This is how great our God desires to save us in the eternal realm, not just the here and now.  It is a different way of thinking.

So the repentant thief represents one kind of person, the mocking priests another.  For those mocking priests, no sign would ever be enough.  And frankly the next section of texts are going to have some doozies.  For the repentant thief however, for those of us who seek salvation from Jesus, what will happen in us is a change.  You will note that repentant theif was NOT saved from the cross.  He died in this world, but with certainty about his own place in the next one.  And change began to occur even in the worst dying circumstances any of us can imagine.  We too will become different than we are today.  Not because we work for it.  But because we begin to choose to trust Him, and allow Him to remake us however He sees fit.  Then change is surely on its way in us.  We read scripture differently.  We begin to see love as the primary motivation, instead of some wild afterthought.  We begin to reason differently.  And over time, the blinders of bad choices, the blinders of doubt, fall away – and what is revealed is a regular diatribe of the impossible happening all the time.  For example, the changing of hearts.  Not just of others, but of my own.  Learning how to love differently, and more deeply, than you had ever imagined.  No seminar could ever get this done.  But allowing Jesus full access sure does.  Without Jesus, things tend to degenerate.  But with Jesus, things tend to improve, especially in areas where it matters the most.

That sign, that impossibility, is very personal, very tangible, and you will live with its benefit every day of your life.  Does it cure your cancer?  No.  It could.  But it does not have to.  It fixes something more important.  The quality of your days expands exponentially, whether you are beset by physical pain and disease, or whether you are healed from them.  Keep in mind, disease does not exist in heaven.  So whether here or there, you are destined to see disease, pain and death no more.  And what happens to the desire to see a sign now?  You lose the selfishness part of that.  Instead of asking for goodies for yourself, you have no thought of yourself.  But you are swamped with thoughts of others.  You want to BE a sign for someone else, help them, meet their need if you can, no matter how you are feeling at the time.  And where you are powerless to meet their need, you do ask God for the impossible.  Not as a condition of belief, but because you are SURE He can, and will do what is right for that person’s eternal interest.  Where it comes to the removal of sin, 100% guarantee He wants that.  Where it comes to all the other worldly stuff, His gifts must fall in line with our salvation.  Knowing He longs to give them, and knowing He must hold them back, if they would add to our downfall.

Life, instead of existence, is a very tangible, and personal thing.  No one else can define it for you.  No one else can deny the impossible you are witness to in your heart and life.  For you know what is true for you.  You see what God does in your life.  What you suffer from in the eyes of others matters not.  Whether you are burdened with wealth, sickness, persecution – those do not represent the favor or curse of God.  They represent the danger of evil in this world, and are used by Satan to try to get people to believe in a Santa Clause image of God doling out rewards and punishments.  But for the one who truly believes, and chooses to truly trust, the curtain is pulled back – and the impossible is revealed every day no matter what our circumstances or positions may be.  Certainty has never been the goal.  Trust in spite of not knowing has always been it.  That kind of trust prevents the next Satan in the world to come.  And creates a new creature of you in the world we live in today.