Sugar bowls & Choc Strawberries

Matthew 8 The Cost of Heaven's Citizenship

In Matthew 8, Jesus has just finished the Sermon on the Mount and continues His ministry by means of healing and responding to people. He first heals a leper based on His 'willingness'. Jesus then is approached by a Roman soldier who asks healing for a servant who is paralyzed. Based on parallel accounts this servant is more like a son to the Centurion soldier. The key teaching in this paragraph concerns the authority of Jesus. The point is that those who recognize the authority of Jesus will have a strong faith in Him.
After more healing, Jesus is approached by two would-be followers. The first offers to follow Jesus wherever He goes. Jesus response is that His followers may have to homeless. Jesus shows that those who are committed to growing as citizens of His kingdom will have to set aside significant earthly comforts. The second would-be follower asks if he can first 'bury his father' and then follow Jesus. Undoubtedly, one of the most difficult things that the followers of Jesus must set aside are family priorities. We still have huge family responsibilities as followers of Jesus, but we also are called upon to establish heavenly priorities in taking care of those family responsibilities. The key phrase that this would-be follower uses is, "Permit me first..." That is one thing that Jesus cannot do for him or for us. Rather, we must follow the example of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and pray, "nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will..."
The final 'setting aside' that the followers of Jesus are asked to do, is to set aside fear. Jesus had informed the disciples that they were going to the other side of the lake. When an incredible storm (called a 'mega' storm in the Greek) threatens the ship and their lives the disciples are greatly afraid. Jesus exhorts them to have more faith, and therefore to not be afraid.
1 John 4.11-18 helps with the idea of us setting aside fear. Loving others is our calling and as we develop that calling it leads to 'perfect love' which 'casts out fear'.
There is nothing easy about following Jesus. Salvation is free, but growth in the Christian life is filled with difficulties and costs. As followers of Jesus we need to be willing to set aside earthly comfort, earthly priorities and earthly fears.

The Only Begotten Son

According to John 1.18; 3.16 &18 and 1 John 4.9 Jesus is “the only begotten Son” [monogenase]. Begotten means born, it is the word we derive generate and generation from. In the above verses the prefix ‘mono’ is added to the word ‘begotten’.

In newer translations and paraphrases, like the NIV and The Message the composite word is translated “one and only Son” (NIV) and “only Son” (The Message). These versions capture some of the meaning of ‘only begotten’ or ‘only born’ [monogenase], but they do not communicate the idea of being born which is essential to the word.

The difficulty with translating the word ‘only born’ is the fact that in our western culture one would immediately think of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, which is not the primary meaning. Acts 13.30-34 states, “But God raised Him from the dead… And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today i have begotten You.’” Clearly, the fact of Jesus being the “only born Son” is based on His resurrection not His incarnation.

In the context of John 3, Nicodemus has come to Jesus to ask about how to obtain a significant relationship with God. Jesus answered that the way one gains a significant relationship with God is by being born into it (‘born again’ or ‘born from above’). It is the “only born Son” alone who provides an invitation to “whosoever” a new birth. Those who receive this new birth gain the significant relationship with God, and they gain it from the One who gives life from the dead.

Faith & Love

I have been studying Luke 7.1-17 where Jesus heals a centurion's slave and then raises a widow's son from the dead. The focus of Jesus healing the centurion's slave is on the centurion's faith. The centurion, a Roman military officer, often having authority over 100 men, sends some Jewish leaders to Jesus to request healing for his slave who is close to death. History indicates that to the wealthy, slaves were considered expendable. This centurion saw his slave from a different perspective. When Luke narrates concerning the young man he calls him a slave. When Luke quotes the centurion, however, the young man is called a child.
Basically, the centurion was making a prayer request on behalf of his servant. The soldier's faith in Jesus moved him to a simple act of kindness toward someone else (maybe a person who would be considered "one of the least of these"). My faith should regularly do the same.
When requested by the Jewish leaders to heal the centurion's slave, Jesus begins walking toward his house. As Jesus approached the house the centurion sent a messenger. The centurion's message was, "I do not consider myself worthy" of Jesus coming into his home. The soldier offered that Jesus could just heal the slave at a distance if that suited Him. Jesus was amazed at the centurion's faith. I note that the faith of the centurion was based on his humble attitude of not considering himself worthy. I find this in contrast to the the 'one who would follow Jesus' in Luke 9.59 who declined by saying, "Permit me first to bury my father." The implication is that the would be follower wanted to wait for his father to die so as to gain his inheritance, and then he would follow Jesus. There is no indication that this heir's father was even sick. I also find that most of my prayers fit into the "permit me first" genre.
After healing the servant of the centurion Jesus moves on towards the village of Nain where He meets a funeral procession coming out. Jesus stops the procession and raises the widow's dead son. I believe the connection with the preceding narrative is found in the issue of Jesus' love. The text of Luke 7 states that Jesus was moved with compassion and therefore raised the dead man.
As I acknowledge that I do not have the centurion's faith, it may cause me to be discouraged except when I see the love of Jesus that does even greater than a healing for one who had no faith (you might say the widow's son had a dead faith). I understand that I should be moving toward a centurion-like faith, but even when I am far from it, Jesus will still act powerfully on my behalf based on His great love.

Finding the Will of God Christmas Style

When I look at the narrative of Joseph (and Mary) in the Christmas story an interesting means of discerning God's will emerges. Joseph becomes aware of his fiancee's pregnancy (and implied immorality) and "he decided to divorce her privately not wishing to cause her shame." I infer that Joseph was making a decision based on his being a "good man" (Matthew1). His decision was founded on grace. He didn't want to cause her shame (the NASB reads 'disgrace'). He was not deciding to divorce her due to vindictiveness or anger. In fact, clearly he based his decision on God's Word (the allowance that Moses made for people so that they could divorce). He seems to have logically interpreted the Scripture and was moving toward action based on that logic. In summary Joseph was about to make a difficult decision based on grace, common sense and Scripture. Wow! He had to be on the right track ( I wish I could more often make decisions based on grace, common sense and Scripture). Except he was about to go against God's will.
God did intervene and redirected Joseph's decision clearly, aligning it with the revelation that Mary had received and the revelation of an ancient prophet (Isaiah). So God's plan was consistent and in place from centuries before and He made it clear to those who were faithful.
Mary's example adds to my understanding. She hears the good news (that will mean a considerable amount of bad news in her life) and yet she welcomes the Word of God, saying, "Be it done to me according to all that you (the angel Gabriel) have said."
I conclude that although we should make decisions based on grace, common sense and Scripture that does not guarantee that we will always make the correct decision. It is still important to recognize human weakness within us and seek a clear directive (conviction?) from God, always welcoming the Word of God and its principles into our lives.

The Real Grinch of Christmas

In the time of Jesus there was a real 'grinch', his name was Herod the Great. The world still sees him as one of the greatest builders of all time. This is an amazing accomplishment when one thinks of all the great builders, like the builder of the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and other fabulous building ventures. Herod is probably best known for his building of the fortress of Masada, the port city of Caesarea and the Temple in Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, Herod may have been more prolific in murder than in building. It is known that he had a large number (in the hundreds) of rabbis killed. He killed among others two of his sons, his brother-in-law and his 'favorite' wife. Imagine the danger of being less than his favorite wife. After he murdered his sons, Caesar is said to have commented that it was safer to be one of Herod's dogs than one of his sons.
In approximately 4 BCE some Eastern astrologer/philosophers came into Herod's capital city of Jerusalem looking for a child "born to be king". Matthew 2 notes that, "Herod was troubled at this and all Jerusalem with him." According to Matthew it took two supernatural and very direct dreams to thwart Herod's attempt to kill the One born to be king. When Herod recognized that the baby Jesus had escaped, his anger boiled over. He ordered his soldiers to kill all the baby boys in the vicinity of Bethlehem that were two years old and younger. Undoubtedly, hundreds of baby boys were killed.
Thus Herod attempted to destroy Christmas before it got started. God thwarted Herod's evil attempts to kill Jesus before His time. And God would ultimately thwart 'the murder of the innocents' by sending Jesus to die on a cross so the world could overcome death.
So Herod is known as the builder of great buildings and the destroyer of lives, while the One he tried to kill never built a single building, yet He is the Savior of all our lives.