The Sadducees were cruel:
Paul was taken before the high council in Jerusalem, he found sympathy among his hearers by appealing to the Pharisees (Acts 22:30-23:10). When in 62 A.D., the Lord’s brother James, and apparently other Christians, were illegally put to death by the Sadducean high priest, the Pharisees appealed to the king, and the high priest was deposed. Taking the last case along with the two earlier ones, we can hardly avoid the impression that the Pharisees regarded the Sadducean hierocracy’s persecution of the early Christians as further proof of the manifestly unjust cruelty of this group.
Jesus, by David Flusser at 39-40 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press 2nd ed., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1998).
Friday, May 17, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Yoke of Jesus - G Mac III
[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
Matt. 11:28-30 (RSV).
This post is on G Mac's discussion of Matthew 11:28-30, a much loved saying of Jesus so precious that even some Catholics have it memorized chapter and verse. To review, the first post dealing with MacDonald discussed the need to throw off sin to be able to pray. Next came a post on those making progress in sending away sin, those poor in spirit who experience a close relationship with God to whom they "cling" as their Father in heaven.
G Mac creatively discusses this Matt. 11 passage in the context of the father and child relationship, and in doing so he raises this issue: What help comes to the child from the Father?
Giving our Father the opportunity, he will help and not fail us. He is helping us every moment, when least we think we need his help; when most we think we do, then may we most boldly, as most earnestly we must, cry for it. What or how much his creatures can do or bear, God only understands; but when most it seems impossible to do or bear, we must be most confident that he will neither demand too much, nor fail with the vital creator-help.
George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel (Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. 1892). All quotes highlighted in the green text are from The Hope of the Gospel.
God is "helping us every moment" as our loving father, and as creator of the universe he has the power to do it, to deliver this "vital creator-help." Psalm 121 ("our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth") immediately comes to mind, and that has been the subject of a previous post. If God is helping every moment the yoke of daily life is easy and the burden is light. What exactly is this yoke and burden that Jesus calls us to?
Here is where G Mac surprised me. I have always thought of the yoke of Jesus in Matt 11 as a call from Jesus to those who would obey him in all ways, but G Mac does not read Matt 11 that way. Again, the focus is on the father and child relationship. Jesus calls us to give ourselves up to the Father. Jesus took that yoke upon him, and now he asks us to do the same:
When we give ourselves up to the Father as the Son gave himself, we shall not only find our yoke easy and our burden light, but that they communicate ease and lightness; not only will they not make us weary, but they will give us rest from all other weariness. ... 'The yoke I bear is easy; the burden I draw is light'; and this he said, knowing the death he was to die. The yoke did not gall his neck, the burden did not overstrain his sinews, neither did the goal on Calvary fright him from the straight way thither. He had the will of the Father to work out, and that will was his strength as well as his joy. ...
Whoever, in the commonest duties that fall to him, does as the Father would have him do, bears His yoke along with Jesus; and the Father takes his help for the redemption of the world .... ...
And taking on this yoke of Jesus the believer finds rest. G Mac the poet and visionary pictures Jesus saying:
I have rest because I know the Father. Be meek and lowly of heart toward him as I am; let him lay his yoke upon you as he lays it on me. I do his will, not my own. Take on you the yoke that I wear; be his child like me; become a babe to whom he can reveal his wonders. Then shall you too find rest to your souls ....
Yes, but the believer wants to know what the Father expects. He expects more than words, intellectual speculations and pleasant interpretations. God is looking for obedience in our deeds, the "doing" of his will:
These wise and prudent, careful to make the words of his messengers rime with their conclusions, interpret the great heart of God, not by their own hearts, but by their miserable intellects; and, postponing the obedience which alone can give power to the understanding, press upon men's minds their wretched interpretations of the will of the Father, instead of the doing of that will upon their hearts. ...
They are cautious, wary, discreet, judicious, circumspect, provident, temporizing. They have no enthusiasm, and are shy of all forms of it—a clever, hard, thin people, who take things for the universe, and love of facts for love of truth. They know nothing deeper in man than mere surface mental facts and their relations. They do not perceive, or they turn away from any truth which the intellect cannot formulate. Zeal for God will never eat them up: why should it? [H]e is not interesting to them .... ...
Their sagacity labours in earthly things, and so fills their minds with their own questions and conclusions, that they cannot see the eternal foundations God has laid in man .... ...
[Jesus] said,—'I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.'
The next post will discuss the kinds of deeds that Jesus has in mind for those who would give themselves up to the Father.
[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
This post is on G Mac's discussion of Matthew 11:28-30, a much loved saying of Jesus so precious that even some Catholics have it memorized chapter and verse. To review, the first post dealing with MacDonald discussed the need to throw off sin to be able to pray. Next came a post on those making progress in sending away sin, those poor in spirit who experience a close relationship with God to whom they "cling" as their Father in heaven.
G Mac creatively discusses this Matt. 11 passage in the context of the father and child relationship, and in doing so he raises this issue: What help comes to the child from the Father?
Giving our Father the opportunity, he will help and not fail us. He is helping us every moment, when least we think we need his help; when most we think we do, then may we most boldly, as most earnestly we must, cry for it. What or how much his creatures can do or bear, God only understands; but when most it seems impossible to do or bear, we must be most confident that he will neither demand too much, nor fail with the vital creator-help.
George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel (Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. 1892). All quotes highlighted in the green text are from The Hope of the Gospel.
God is "helping us every moment" as our loving father, and as creator of the universe he has the power to do it, to deliver this "vital creator-help." Psalm 121 ("our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth") immediately comes to mind, and that has been the subject of a previous post. If God is helping every moment the yoke of daily life is easy and the burden is light. What exactly is this yoke and burden that Jesus calls us to?
Here is where G Mac surprised me. I have always thought of the yoke of Jesus in Matt 11 as a call from Jesus to those who would obey him in all ways, but G Mac does not read Matt 11 that way. Again, the focus is on the father and child relationship. Jesus calls us to give ourselves up to the Father. Jesus took that yoke upon him, and now he asks us to do the same:
When we give ourselves up to the Father as the Son gave himself, we shall not only find our yoke easy and our burden light, but that they communicate ease and lightness; not only will they not make us weary, but they will give us rest from all other weariness. ... 'The yoke I bear is easy; the burden I draw is light'; and this he said, knowing the death he was to die. The yoke did not gall his neck, the burden did not overstrain his sinews, neither did the goal on Calvary fright him from the straight way thither. He had the will of the Father to work out, and that will was his strength as well as his joy. ...
Whoever, in the commonest duties that fall to him, does as the Father would have him do, bears His yoke along with Jesus; and the Father takes his help for the redemption of the world .... ...
And taking on this yoke of Jesus the believer finds rest. G Mac the poet and visionary pictures Jesus saying:
I have rest because I know the Father. Be meek and lowly of heart toward him as I am; let him lay his yoke upon you as he lays it on me. I do his will, not my own. Take on you the yoke that I wear; be his child like me; become a babe to whom he can reveal his wonders. Then shall you too find rest to your souls ....
Yes, but the believer wants to know what the Father expects. He expects more than words, intellectual speculations and pleasant interpretations. God is looking for obedience in our deeds, the "doing" of his will:
These wise and prudent, careful to make the words of his messengers rime with their conclusions, interpret the great heart of God, not by their own hearts, but by their miserable intellects; and, postponing the obedience which alone can give power to the understanding, press upon men's minds their wretched interpretations of the will of the Father, instead of the doing of that will upon their hearts. ...
They are cautious, wary, discreet, judicious, circumspect, provident, temporizing. They have no enthusiasm, and are shy of all forms of it—a clever, hard, thin people, who take things for the universe, and love of facts for love of truth. They know nothing deeper in man than mere surface mental facts and their relations. They do not perceive, or they turn away from any truth which the intellect cannot formulate. Zeal for God will never eat them up: why should it? [H]e is not interesting to them .... ...
Their sagacity labours in earthly things, and so fills their minds with their own questions and conclusions, that they cannot see the eternal foundations God has laid in man .... ...
[Jesus] said,—'I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.'
The next post will discuss the kinds of deeds that Jesus has in mind for those who would give themselves up to the Father.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Spring Flowers
Taking a short break from George MacDonald, here is more tremendous photo work from Scott Fillmer:
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| Iris in Bloom in Auburn by Scott Fillmer Credit: Scott Fillmer, http://scottfillmer.com/blog/ |
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
G Mac II - Poor in Spirit
The last post discussed the struggle to send away sin. Jesus describes believers who do so as the poor in spirit. Who are the poor in spirit? MacDonald says that they are "unambitious, unselfish, and they never despise others or seek their praises." They are the lowly who see "nothing to admire in themselves ...." They "give themselves away ...." The poor in spirit "would lift every brother to the embrace of the Father. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they are of the same spirit as God, and the nature of the kingdom is theirs."
Here is G Mac commenting on those who have "the same spirit," the poor in spirit and the meek who will inherit the earth:
The same spirit, then, is required for possessing the kingdom of heaven, and for inheriting the earth. How should it not be so, when the one Power is the informing life of both? If we are the Lord's, we possess the kingdom of heaven, and so inherit the earth. How many who call themselves by his name, would have it otherwise: they would possess the earth and inherit the kingdom! Such fill churches and chapels on Sundays: anywhere suits for the worship of Mammon.
How can a person go through life looking up from the bottom of society in this manner as Jesus teaches? The believer always looks to the future, and the work which still needs to be done, clinging to the precious father and child relationship:
He who delights in contemplating whereto he has attained, is not merely sliding back; he is already in the dirt of self-satisfaction. The gate of the kingdom is closed, and he outside. The child who, clinging to his Father, dares not think he has in any sense attained while as yet he is not as his Father—his Father's heart, his Father's heaven is his natural home.
********
All quotations are from George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel (Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. 1892).
Here is G Mac commenting on those who have "the same spirit," the poor in spirit and the meek who will inherit the earth:
The same spirit, then, is required for possessing the kingdom of heaven, and for inheriting the earth. How should it not be so, when the one Power is the informing life of both? If we are the Lord's, we possess the kingdom of heaven, and so inherit the earth. How many who call themselves by his name, would have it otherwise: they would possess the earth and inherit the kingdom! Such fill churches and chapels on Sundays: anywhere suits for the worship of Mammon.
How can a person go through life looking up from the bottom of society in this manner as Jesus teaches? The believer always looks to the future, and the work which still needs to be done, clinging to the precious father and child relationship:
He who delights in contemplating whereto he has attained, is not merely sliding back; he is already in the dirt of self-satisfaction. The gate of the kingdom is closed, and he outside. The child who, clinging to his Father, dares not think he has in any sense attained while as yet he is not as his Father—his Father's heart, his Father's heaven is his natural home.
********
All quotations are from George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel (Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. 1892).
Monday, April 22, 2013
G. MacDonald - The Hope of the Gospel
I call George MacDonald "G Mac." Last post I said that I would discuss what interferes with prayer. Sin interferes with prayer, sin in what we think about, what we say, what we do, and what we fail to do. G Mac is spot on with his argument that in dealing with sin and the spiritual life we make the mistake of seeking knowledge rather than obedience. The teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount (Matt. 5-7) makes it clear that spiritual knowledge alone does not bring a person into a father and child relationship with God. In his discussion of obedience G Mac says this about repentance:
George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel (Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. 1892).
After the house is cleared, Jesus has to come in. But this movement away from sin and toward the Lord is not something that can be done by force of the will. It is a movement of the grace of God in a person's life. This life of the believer who "sends away" sin to make room for Jesus will be the subject of a series of future posts.
That he may enter, clear the
house for him. Send away the bad things out of it. Depart from evil, and do
good. ...
They must cleanse, not the streets of their cities, not their
houses or their garments or even their persons, but their hearts and their doing.
...
George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel (Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. 1892).
After the house is cleared, Jesus has to come in. But this movement away from sin and toward the Lord is not something that can be done by force of the will. It is a movement of the grace of God in a person's life. This life of the believer who "sends away" sin to make room for Jesus will be the subject of a series of future posts.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Heschel - Prayer as a Song
Every believer would like to live a life of prayer in the midst of each busy day. One of the starting points involves attitude, which has been the subject of a previous post.
The believer must open up to God's presence in the word of God, but also in all things including trees, water and sunsets. While walking in Riverside Park Abraham Joshua Heschel said, "Did you notice the trees?”
Heschel was open to the divine presence in these every day encounters. I have blogged about the revelation of God who is present in all things. But beyond that attitude of seeing God in these things, what about the activity of prayer?
Heschel in an interview said this about prayer:
First of all, let us not misunderstand the nature of prayer, particularly in Jewish tradition. The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose of prayer is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us, but prayer may make us worthy of being saved. Prayer is not requesting. There is a partnership of God and man.
http://www.philosophy-religion.org/religion_links/aj_heschel.htm (Interview with NBC news correspondent Carl Stern February 4, 1973).
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| Behind my house, Mayville, WI, September 13, 2012. |
The believer must open up to God's presence in the word of God, but also in all things including trees, water and sunsets. While walking in Riverside Park Abraham Joshua Heschel said, "Did you notice the trees?”
Heschel was open to the divine presence in these every day encounters. I have blogged about the revelation of God who is present in all things. But beyond that attitude of seeing God in these things, what about the activity of prayer?
Heschel in an interview said this about prayer:
First of all, let us not misunderstand the nature of prayer, particularly in Jewish tradition. The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose of prayer is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us, but prayer may make us worthy of being saved. Prayer is not requesting. There is a partnership of God and man.
http://www.philosophy-religion.org/religion_links/aj_heschel.htm (Interview with NBC news correspondent Carl Stern February 4, 1973).
What Heschel says speaking in a Jewish context also rings true for us who are Christian as we think of the words of Jesus, and here again we can't forget that Jesus too was Jewish. Jesus taught his friends to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven," a song of praise of the child to the father. The child has an intimate "partnership" relationship with God who is father to the one praying. Jesus goes on to pray, "give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses," and yes, those are requests, but even the requests come in a spirit of praise to God to whom we say, "hallowed by thy name."
Heschel's idea of prayer as a song helps to bring the Lord's prayer to life for me.
What interferes with prayer? That will be the subject of the next post.
Heschel's idea of prayer as a song helps to bring the Lord's prayer to life for me.
What interferes with prayer? That will be the subject of the next post.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Jesus Meets Cleopas Post Easter - Richard Bauckham
This is one of my favorite paintings of Jesus post-resurrection.
Today as I think of this scene from Luke chapter 24 I am picturing the later "testimony" of Cleopas in the Jerusalem church, describing his glorious encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. On this subject of the testimony of the eye-witnesses, Richard Bauckham explains why Luke mentions Cleopas by name:
If the names [of those named in the gospels] are of persons well known in the Christian communities, then it also becomes likely that many of these people were themselves the eye-witnesses who first told and doubtless continued to tell the stories in which they appear and to which their names are attached. A good example is Cleopas (Luke 24:18): the story does not require that he be named and his companion remains anonymous. There seems no plausible reason for naming him other than to indicate that he was the source of this tradition.
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans 2006) at page 47 (footnotes omitted).
Who was Cleopas?
[Cleopas] was very probably the same person as Clopas, whose wife Mary appears among the women at the cross in John 19:25. Clopas is a very rare Semitic form of the Greek name Cleopas, so rare that we can be certain this is the Clopas who, according to Hegesippus, was the brother of Jesus' father Joseph and the father of Simon, who succeeded his cousin James as leader of the Jerusalem church (apud Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.11; 4.22.4). Cleopas/Clopas was doubtless one of those relatives of Jesus who played a prominent role in the Palestinian Jewish Christian movement.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses at 47 (footnotes omitted). Mary wife of Cleopas/Clopas was at the cross and her husband had the blessed privilege of encountering Jesus post-resurrection. These two witnessed sacred mysteries of our faith, the death of Jesus, and his appearance to his friends after his resurrection from the dead. Their son Simon was a Torah observant Jew who led the Jerusalem church. Now I would have loved to hear the testimony of any one of those three!
 |
| Jesus and the two disciples On the Road to Emmaus, by Duccie,1308-1311, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena. Credit: Wikipedia Commons |
Today as I think of this scene from Luke chapter 24 I am picturing the later "testimony" of Cleopas in the Jerusalem church, describing his glorious encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. On this subject of the testimony of the eye-witnesses, Richard Bauckham explains why Luke mentions Cleopas by name:
If the names [of those named in the gospels] are of persons well known in the Christian communities, then it also becomes likely that many of these people were themselves the eye-witnesses who first told and doubtless continued to tell the stories in which they appear and to which their names are attached. A good example is Cleopas (Luke 24:18): the story does not require that he be named and his companion remains anonymous. There seems no plausible reason for naming him other than to indicate that he was the source of this tradition.
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (Eerdmans 2006) at page 47 (footnotes omitted).
Who was Cleopas?
[Cleopas] was very probably the same person as Clopas, whose wife Mary appears among the women at the cross in John 19:25. Clopas is a very rare Semitic form of the Greek name Cleopas, so rare that we can be certain this is the Clopas who, according to Hegesippus, was the brother of Jesus' father Joseph and the father of Simon, who succeeded his cousin James as leader of the Jerusalem church (apud Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.11; 4.22.4). Cleopas/Clopas was doubtless one of those relatives of Jesus who played a prominent role in the Palestinian Jewish Christian movement.
Jesus and the Eyewitnesses at 47 (footnotes omitted). Mary wife of Cleopas/Clopas was at the cross and her husband had the blessed privilege of encountering Jesus post-resurrection. These two witnessed sacred mysteries of our faith, the death of Jesus, and his appearance to his friends after his resurrection from the dead. Their son Simon was a Torah observant Jew who led the Jerusalem church. Now I would have loved to hear the testimony of any one of those three!
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