Sermon and Worship Resources

Luke 13:1-9 · Repent or Perish

1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'

8 " 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

Love Over Logic

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon
by Carl Jech

Those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No. (Luke 13:4-5a)

Reward and punishment! A basic fact of life! In San Francisco there is a chain of pastry stores called "Just Desserts" - a clever name with more than one level of meaning. "You've been good. Treat yourself! You deserve a reward." But many of us would also think: "Too many of these rewards and my just desserts will be obesity and poor health." The law of reward and punishment, of cause and effect, of action and consequences, is a pervasive part of our lives. Professionals who work with emotionally disturbed children often have to put a lot of effort into creating a structure of limits in which the child learns the connection between actions and consequences.

Many people also think of religion in terms of reward and punishment. One humorous quip in this vein says, "Work for the Lord, ... The pay isn't much but the retirement plan is out of this world!"

But our text from Luke today, like the story of the laborers in Matthew 20, who all received the same payment regardless of how long they had worked, is part of a consistent emphasis in the Gospels on a dimension that transcends the simple mathematics of reward and punishment. What we learn from this obscure event, where a tower fell on some people, says Jesus, is not that some sinners are worse than others and deserve more harsh punishment. That is not the point. What we learn is a lesson about God's patience with our failings. God is not in a hurry to pass final judgment on us. To borrow an image from modern psychology, God appears to have a "B-type personality," that is, God is more interested in encouraging us over and over again to be productive, positive, to be in the process of "bearing fruit," than in assessing the final, absolute, end result. (The A-type personality is preoccupied with the final goal while the B-type personality thinks more in terms of never-ending processes.) In Hindu-Buddhist theology the doctrine of Karma is sometimes thought of as a strict law of reward and punishment, but Karma can also be thought of as having to do more with a learning process in which the goal is growth - a kind of "end that never ends."

Many of the New Testament writers want us to see that the issues of life go much deeper than the limited logic of reward and punishment. Precisely because the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures put such a strong emphasis on doing justice, being righteous, and making the world into a lovely and wonderful place, the early Christian theologians realized that one of the deeper issues would be the danger of despair and dashed hopes among those who were making valiant efforts to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." The Christian faith is about doing the will of God: "Not those who say 'Lord, Lord,' but those who do the will of my Father will enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 7:21) But, more precisely, the Christian message is about the spirit in which we go about our efforts to do good, to discover and do God's will, to make life beautiful. If we "do our best" in the spirit of trying to earn an eternal reward from God, we will realize in our moments of honesty that even our best, on those rare occasions when we may manage it, is not enough to make ourselves or our world perfect. We will be tempted either to lower our standards and expectations or to give in to despair and moral paralysis.

The Christian doctrine of sin is not an overly negative assessment of human nature. It is simply an honest recognition of the seemingly never ending tension between great expectations and tarnished realities. "The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do." (Romans 7:19) In the face of such perplexity, such a predicament, talk of mere rewards and punishment according to our desserts - or of free-will versus determinism - seems shallow indeed.

Most people are not pathologically anti-social. Most of us want to do good, to do our best, to make life beautiful. The Bible, like other great writing, both secular and sacred, offers great insights into what it means to be ethical and good. But the Gospel that focuses on Jesus is primarily interested in the attitude we take toward our efforts to do "good works" and toward the fact that our "free wills" often appear to be in bondage to negative forces. And what is that attitude? There are any number of ways to describe it:

(1) We could call it the "Struggle and Relax" attitude. To borrow a phrase from army recruiters, God wants us to "be all that we can be." The spectre of unattainable rewards and the temptation to despair cannot be dissolved by simply lowering the standards of what we expect ourselves and the world to become - by giving up on "the Kingdom of God," by giving up on beauty. The problem is solved by paradoxically combining an attitude of struggle toward the best, with an attitude of relaxation that trusts God. Knowing in advance that even our best efforts are seldom if ever "good enough," we also know that God will not punish us for our failures because God is more interested in having us keep on trying than in having us reach some abstract goal of perfection. The "genius" of Christianity, if you will, is that it teaches us how to struggle and relax at the same time, how to continue hoping for the best even when it doesn't seem to be happening.

(2) One especially good way of describing the New Testament attitude toward our efforts to be and to do good, is to say that we learn from the Gospel how to combine a sense of moral urgency with a sense of humor! It is a seemingly impossible challenge to live by the spirit of the law rather than by the mere letter of the law. The challenge to love, pray for and understand our enemies - and even to be willing to "turn the other cheek" when the occasion calls for it - seems to require a virtually super-human amount of courage and good will. The vision of ourselves as part of God's plan to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven seems grandiose and unrealistic. Yet the Christian Gospel speaks urgently of a Kingdom of God which is at hand! We are to take the Gospel of faith, hope and love with utmost seriousness. But how to do it without despairing? By combining our serious efforts with a profound sense of humor - with an overriding awareness of God's grace and forgiveness! Our sense of humor is a corollary to God's grace. A sense of humor - the ability not to take ourselves too seriously - is the opposite of a sense of urgency, but we must learn to combine these opposites in our attitude toward life. If we are too serious and self-absorbed in our efforts to produce goodness, we tend to produce evil. (Stalin was very serious about creating his version of a better world.) If we are too lighthearted we will simply laugh off our problems and never really grapple with or solve any of them. We will begin habitually to use the phrase "I'm only human" as a cynical excuse.

When a usually very serious professor cracks a joke it is twice as funny because of the contrast with the professor's usual demeanor. This may well be the most profound observation about life that we can make: let us nurture the fine art of combining a radical sense of moral urgency with a radical sense of humor/grace. (Bishop Desmond Tutu seems to have mastered this art remarkably well.)

(3) Another great way to describe the Christian attitude toward "good works," toward moral and spiritual effort, is to remember the words of Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10: "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me." We would also do well to make a motto out of a line from Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order. He expressed this same profound paradox when he wrote: "Work hard and struggle as if everything depended on you; yet pray and trust God as if everything depended on God."

(4) Martin Luther once described faith as a good work! But he did not mean by it that "believing the right doctrines about Jesus" was the ultimate good thing we could do to save ourselves. Luther was fully aware that to speak of accepting Jesus by faith was a glorious contradiction - a paradox of grace. We automatically move beyond logic when we talk about "accepting Jesus," because the name Jesus itself means that God accepts us, that God alone is the cause of our salvation, of our reconciliation. By calling our faith in Jesus both a good work and a free gift from God, by emphasizing that God accepting us is more important than our accepting God, by recognizing that God's free will to save us is stronger than our free will to do what is evil or good, Luther was struggling to move us beyond the simple logic of earning reward and punishment to an awareness of the ultimate triumph of love and grace. He was struggling, as Saint Paul does in Romans 4, to re-interpret and/or develop our understanding of what grace and faith really mean. This is a part of what Jesus is talking about when he says in Luke 13:5 "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Unless we repent of the mindset that tries to earn God's acceptance and heavenly rewards, our efforts will indeed perish in despair.

"Were there no heaven to gain, no hell to flee; For what Thou art alone I must love Thee ... not for the hope of glory or reward." (Spanish Hymn of unknown date)

Perhaps the biggest problem people have with a radical emphasis on the grace of God is that it seems to raise the controversial issue of "universalism," the question of whether a gracious God ultimately saves everyone. Quoting the old Spanish hymn where the poet says that he would love God even if there "were no hell to flee," I once preached a sermon on the ultimate redemptive power of God's grace. One parishioner later confronted me angrily: "If there's no hell, then there's no heaven!" Another complained to me that she refuses to believe that God could save or redeem, say, an Adolph Hitler. Dr. Walter F. Taylor, professor of New Testament studies at Trinity Seminary, Columbus, Ohio warned an evangelism conference in 1986 against "theories of universalism," and more than one church group has passed or attempted to pass resolutions condemning "the false doctrine of universalism."

The problem of universalism is also sometimes described as a matter of transforming "free grace" into "cheap grace." A theologian might argue that if God's grace is "too freely given" then the suffering and death of Jesus is belittled and cheapened. The average person might put it this way: "Why try to be a moral and good person if we're all going to the same place anyway?" In his article "Does Anyone Out There Care Anymore Whether People Believe in Jesus?", James Burtness attempts to show how the grace of God is not totally free: "Grace," he writes, "has been hammered at (people) in a manner so simplistic that they have become unable to distinguish between taking credit for their faith and taking responsibility for it." He feels that if we only take responsibility (not credit) for our salvation, then we have not compromised the emphasis on "salvation by grace alone." Coming at the issue from a different perspective, another theologian has written: "We can't choose not to be sinful, but we can choose to accept Jesus." Another standard way of trying to solve this dilemma is simply to say that if I am saved it is all God's doing and if I am lost it is all my own fault. Typically, this attempt to explain how grace is both totally free but at the same time not totally free, is combined with the observation that while God may want to save/redeem everyone, God is not able to do so because some folks are just beyond redemption. The Orthodox (Greek and Russian) churches frequently state their solution to the problem this way: "God does 99% of the work and humans do 1% of the work by accepting the gift of faith." Ultimately, however, all of these approaches and explanations deny the real paradox of grace and put the emphasis back on our own efforts to become right with God. (Classical Christian theology calls this the false doctrine of synergism.)

If the notion of universalism simply came out of the "humanistic doctrine" of the basic goodness and innocence of human nature, then one might easily reject it as naive and heretical. But when the radical New Testament emphasis on the grace of God is seen on its own terms as at least tending toward some form of universalistic thinking, then we realize that this issue is not easily ignored or settled. If the point is that people must "accept Christ" in order to be saved, are some people basically more sinful than others because they don't accept Christ? Or does God put more effort into saving those who do accept Christ? In either case, the radical idea of free grace, unconditionally given for all people, is compromised, and the unique message of Christianity evaporates. Neither is John Calvin's conclusion that God arbitrarily saves (elects) some people and not others a particularly good way of solving this problem. It puts arbitrariness over logic instead of love over logic.

To discuss the theological issue of universalism is to talk about what it means to go beyond the logic of eternal rewards and punishments. It is to ponder the paradox of a God who is both an absolutely just Judge and yet an absolutely gracious, forgiving Savior. The message of the New Testament is not that we should accept certain doctrinal propositions about Jesus or follow the "spiritual laws" leading to salvation, but that we should struggle in joyful hope with what it means to believe in the radical grace of God!

While the Unitarian Universalist Church believes unequivocally in universal salvation, we can be content to believe simply that universal salvation is possible when one considers the New Testament theme of the radical grace of God. I am content, in other words, to believe that it is not up to me to answer or decide this issue! Maybe God's final judgment will reveal that some people are indeed beyond redemption and will perish. Maybe it will reveal that the idea of "hell" is more than a picturesque image intended to shock us out of our ethical complacency and dullness. But let us learn what it means to say that such final judgment does indeed belong to God alone. You and I cannot pretend to know who is lost or saved. We can't even answer the prior question as to whether an ultimate separation of souls into the categories of "lost" and "saved" will in fact take place. We can only celebrate the Gospel message of the unconditional love and grace of God shown in Jesus, the Christ.

The Spanish poet had a great insight: We would learn much about the meaning of our faith if we would ask ourselves how important our religion would still be to us even if there were no heaven to gain or no hell to flee. (Would that the perpetrators of the Spanish Inquisition had asked themselves that question!) If we think that "being a good Christian" means giving up many pleasures now for the sake of heavenly pleasures later on, then we are likely to get angry even with this hypothetical question of "what if there were no heaven or hell?" We would want our self-denial rewarded and the self-indulgence of evil-doers punished. But if the values and notions of goodness proclaimed by the Gospel are valid, don't they have to be valid regardless of whether or not heaven is a part of the equation? If, as we have noted, Christian faith is about learning to live creatively in the dynamic tension between a sense of moral urgency and a sense of humor - if it is about learning to live in love - isn't it more than worthwhile to participate in such faith even if there were no "next life"? We must wonder about a person who is disgruntled with this world and can't wait for heaven. What makes us think we are going to be able to appreciate the next life if we have so little appreciation for the only life that we know about so far, namely, this life here and now? Christianity does not teach that we are put on this earth merely to earn a heavenly reward. We are here to celebrate life, love, creativity, faith and hope. We are here to celebrate what has been marvelously described as "the Eternal Now!"

Some don't care for her brand of comedy, but in her book, Enter Talking, Joan Rivers shares some profound insights. She writes: "The only way you can go into show business is to expect no reward at all ... The paradox is: If you are not in it for the rewards, they are more likely to come to you ... If you must go into the arts, go into them for yourself alone ... be willing to paint a picture and just hang it on your wall." The Spanish poet expressed this same sentiment in his fifth stanza: "Not for the hope of glory or reward, But even as thou hast loved me Lord, I love thee ..."

A young woman shocked everyone with her suicide attempt. She was an apparently successful, gifted person. In counseling she confided to her mother that her success had been motivated by an overpowering need to prove herself. She felt that she would only be loved if she competed and succeeded. L. A. Law star, Susan Dey, similarly reported in a TV Guide article that she was "petrified of everything - of not accomplishing enough, of not getting it right, of not being able to do it all." These three women are coming to realize that life is more about unconditional love than it is about success and rewards, that being loved and accepted just as we are as people must come first, with accomplishments a distant second.

At first it is hard to comprehend that Dr. Karl Menninger wrote both The Crime of Punishment and Whatever Became of Sin? The two books appear to be diametrically opposed. The one emphasizes that we must take Sin seriously while the other denounces the "philosophy of punishment" as obsolete, vengeful and itself criminal. But the two books are not contradictory. An emphasis on a gracious attitude of forgiveness, redemption and rehabilitation does not mean that we naively ignore sin and evil. Menninger writes that in place of the vengeful philosophy of punishment we should "seek a comprehensive, constructive social attitude - therapeutic in some instances, restraining in some instances, but preventative in its total social impact." He is calling for a paradoxical combination of judgment and grace.

To describe Christian evangelism as Channeling Grace is not to water down the Christian message to "cheap grace." It is not to ignore sin and evil. But it does imply a serious reproof of the attitude which objects even to the mere mention of the possibility of universal salvation out of a vengeful desire to see sinners punished. To describe Christian evangelism as Channeling Grace is to be aware of the ultimate paradox of judgement and grace. It is, simply, in the most profound sense, to value the positive over the negative, people over accomplishments, love over logic!

C.S.S. Publishing Company, Channeling Grace, by Carl Jech

Overview and Insights · Warnings about Coming Judgment (12:1–13:9)

As Jesus’s popularity soars, he talks more about the need to be ready to face God’s judgment (12:1). Much of what Jesus says in this section relates to righteousness and faithfulness before God. Beware of the hypocritical influence (“yeast”) of the Pharisees, Jesus says, since one day everything will be revealed for all to see (12:2–3). As a result, disciples should fear the Lord, who cares deeply about them (12:4–7). If we acknowledge Jesus before people, he will acknowledge us before the Father at the last judgment. If we disown him now, he will disown us then (12:8–9). And confessing Jesus means submitting to the Holy Spirit, who will empower us to witness before a hostile audience (12:11–12). Jesus gives the parable of the rich fool to illustrate what he has just said (12:13–21). The r…

The Baker Bible Handbook by , Baker Publishing Group, 2016

Luke 13:1-9 · Repent or Perish

8 " 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' "

Commentary · Repent or Perish

In 13:1–9 the necessity of repentance before the coming judgment continues as Luke’s theme. Pilate, probably at Passover, had some Galileans slaughtered while they were preparing their sacrifices (13:1). Apparently those who told Jesus about this incident thought that the Galileans were executed because of sin (13:2). Jesus does not focus on the sin of the Galileans; instead, he uses the occasion to warn everyone that they too will perish without repentance. Jesus seizes on another example to make the same point (13:4–5). The tower of Siloam was probably part of the old wall in Jerusalem, near the juncture of the south and east walls. The accidental death of the eighteen was not due to any exceptional personal sin. (Jesus does not deny that the Galileans and those who died at Siloam were sinners; he denies that the manner of their death was due to any exceptional sin.) In the parable of the fig tree (13:6–9) the necessity of repentance before the crisis of the final judgment is underlined again. Executions and accidental deaths are not definitive signs of God’s judgment (13:1–5); but if an individual is not bearing fruit, then judgment is certain. God, however, patiently waits for fruit to appear, giving people every possible chance to produce fruit. Nevertheless, people cannot put off the day of judgment forever, idly thinking that it will never come (13:8–9).

The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary by Gary M. Burge, Baker Publishing Group, 2016

Big Idea: God requires repentance before it is too late, but people are more concerned with keeping the rules than with God’s agenda.

Understanding the Text

These are two separate pericopes, brought together here simply for the convenience of this commentary.

First, repentance has been at the heart of the message of both John (3:3, 8) and Jesus (5:32), and Jesus has rebuked his contemporaries for their failure to repent in response to his preaching (10:13–15; 11:32). In chapter 15 he will illustrate God’s deep desire for sinners to repent. Here the theme is developed, but with a warning that judgment is also a reality, and the opportunity for repentance may not last forever. The message is reinforced with a short parable.

Second, we have seen in 6:1–5, 6–11 how Jesus’s uninhibited approach to the observance of the Sabbath has put him in conflict with other religious leaders, and the issue will arise again in 14:1–6. Luke keeps this key issue before us as the tension builds up between Jesus and those who saw him as a threat to the authority of the law and of those who acted as its interpreters.

Historical and Cultural Background

Josephus records a number of incidents in which the insensitivity of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate (already introduced in 3:1) led to brutal reprisals against his subjects’ resistance (Josephus, Ant. 18.55–59, 60–62, 85–87; see also Philo, Embassy 299–305). The incident mentioned in 13:1 is not otherwise recorded, but clearly it is in character. Galileans were not under Pilate’s jurisdiction, but the mention of “their sacrifices” indicates that this incident occurred in the temple in Jerusalem, which presumably the Galileans were visiting for a festival. The disaster at Siloam is also otherwise unattested; the Siloam reservoir was at the southern edge of Jerusalem, and the collapse may have been of part of the city wall, or perhaps of the new aqueduct that Pilate was constructing.

For the scribal conventions on Sabbath observance, and especially healing on the Sabbath, see “Historical and Cultural Background” on 6:1–16.

Interpretive Insights

13:1 Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Presumably, this is a vivid way of describing an act of violence targeted at a group of Galilean worshipers offering sacrifices in the temple. The report may have been intended as a warning to Jesus and his disciples as a group of Galileans bound for Jerusalem: it could be a dangerous place to be identified as a Galilean.

13:2 worse sinners than all other Galileans. The principle is more general, as may be seen from the following example in 13:4–5, which does not involve Galileans as such. The specific focus on Galileans here, however, may reflect a suggestion by some people that, as Galileans (sometimes regarded as potential rebels), this group of visitors to Jerusalem “had it coming to them.”

13:3 unless you repent, you too will all perish. Not, of course, all in the same way (as the more literal translation “you will all perish similarly” might suggest, here and in 13:5), but the physical fate of this particular group acts as a symbol of the spiritual fate of unrepentant sinners.

13:4 who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them. This seems to have been an accident (though perhaps caused by poor building standards), killing ordinary people in Jerusalem who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jesus dismisses the common tendency in such circumstances to ask “Why them?” and to assume some hidden reason why they were “selected.” Instead, he takes this too as a symbol of spiritual destruction. In view of human sinfulness, the surprising thing is not that this particular group suffered but that the rest of us have not yet faced judgment.

13:6–9 Then he told this parable. The word “repent” is not used in this parable, but the image of the fruitless fig tree that fails to change for the better is a clear symbol of failure to repent and to accept God’s rule. Bearing fruit occurs frequently in the Gospels as a metaphor for the lifestyle that God requires (see 3:8–9; 6:43–45; 8:8). The prophets sometimes used the fig tree as a symbol for Israel’s responsibility to God (Jer. 8:13; 24:1–10; Hosea 9:10, 16–17; Mic. 7:1), and most commentators regard Jesus’s cursing of the fruitless fig tree outside Jerusalem (Matt. 21:18–19; Mark 11:12–14, 20–21) as an “acted parable” of the ripeness of the temple establishment for judgment. Luke perhaps omitted that incident because this parable already carried its message.

As with many parables, it is unwise to press the details to the point of allegorical correspondence. If God is the owner, who is represented by the worker who successfully deflects God’s judgment for a time? It is better to see the story as a whole as enforcing Jesus’s call for repentance and warning that there is a limit to God’s patience with those who reject his grace.

13:11 who had been crippled by a spirit. Literally, “having a spirit of weakness.” This phrase, together with the statement that the woman had been “bound” by Satan all this time (13:16), represents one of the few places in the Gospels where a physical ailment (here apparently a spinal deformity) appears to be attributed to demonic influence. This is to be distinguished from the story of the so-called epileptic boy in Matthew 17:14–20 and Mark 9:14–29, which is clearly described as an exorcism; the diagnosis as epilepsy is a modern “rationalization.” Here there is no exorcistic language; in 13:12 Jesus refers to her condition simply as an “infirmity” (the same Greek word as in 13:11), and the healing is described in physical terms, by the laying on of hands (which is never used in Jesus’s exorcisms). But even physical illness can be traced to the devil’s influence, as in Acts 10:38, where Jesus’s healing ministry in general is described as “healing those who were under the power of the devil.”

13:14 There are six days for work. For scribal conventions with regard to healing on the Sabbath, see “Historical and Cultural Background” on 6:1–16. Clearly, after eighteen years this woman’s condition, however unpleasant, could safely be left to the next day. The synagogue leader’s rebuke is, rather disingenuously, directed at the people rather than Jesus, even though it was Jesus who had taken the initiative when he saw the woman’s condition. In bypassing Jesus, perhaps he is attempting to assert his own teaching authority, or perhaps he found Jesus too formidable a person to confront directly.

13:15 untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water. “Tying” and “loosening” were among the acts forbidden on the Sabbath (see the sidebar “Rules for the Sabbath” at 6:1–16), but there was debate about what sort of knots were intended (m. Shabb. 15:1–2). There was, however, specific provision for cattle to “go out” on the Sabbath (m. Shabb. 5:1–4) and therefore presumably to be untied. Rabbis later formulated the principle that the necessities of looking after livestock overrode the strict observance of the Sabbath (b. Shabb. 128b), and apparently popular practice had already taken this for granted. For a similar argument from animal welfare, see 14:5 (cf. Matt. 12:11–12).

13:16 should not this woman . . . be set free on the Sabbath day? Jesus argues that not only is what he has done permissible, but also that the Sabbath is the most appropriate day for such an act. The Sabbath should be a day of joy rather than of suffering; it is the day to celebrate God’s triumph over Satan, and it is a day for doing good, not harm (6:9; cf. Matt. 12:12). The woman’s release from bondage echoes the sense (though not directly the wording) of the Messiah’s mission of deliverance declared on an earlier synagogue visit in 4:18.

13:17 all his opponents were humiliated. Jesus’s uninhibited stance on Sabbath observance struck a chord with ordinary people. The religious leaders, even if they themselves remained opposed to Jesus’s “radicalism,” could not afford to be cast as enemies of the people, and so they had to concede the argument, resulting in serious loss of face.

Theological Insights

Luke 13:1–5, together with John 9:2–3, takes an important stand against the common assumption (well exemplified by the arguments of Job’s friends, and still commonly heard) that physical and material misfortune is “earned” by sin (“What have I done to deserve this?”). A simplistic solution to the problem of evil that attributes suffering to the sufferer’s sin is sub-Christian. The popular tendency in the event of an accident to ask what the injured party did to deserve it must be resisted as essentially superstitious. An accident is an accident; however such events are to be reconciled with God’s sovereignty over the world he has created, the moral culpability on the part of those affected should not be automatically assumed.

But this is not, of course, to make light of sin. This same passage teaches that all are equally sinful and deserve God’s judgment. Hence comes the centrality of the call to repentance both in Jesus’s message and in our proclamation of the gospel today. The parable of the fig tree reminds us that it is only by God’s grace that we are not immediately destroyed, but that we must not therefore presume on his generosity: there is a limit to God’s patience and therefore also a point of no return for the sinner who will not repent.

The story of Sabbath healing reinforces the message of 6:1–11: there are things more important than meticulous observance of religious conventions. The Sabbath is a day for “doing good” (6:9) even if it means bending the scribal rules. What to the scribes was a dangerously radical liberalism was for Jesus a joyfully positive affirmation of God’s gift of a special day.

Teaching the Text

These are three separate pericopes, which may be taught either together or separately. If you teach them together, you might begin with the seemingly random nature of tragedy and loss, pointing out that these are clearly not the result of personal sin (13:1–4). Yet they are a result of sin and the fallen state of humanity and of all creation. The only solution to the sin problem is repentance (13:5), accepting the free gift of God, and then bearing the fruit that results from repentance (13:6–9). The route of legalism—seeking to earn salvation through one’s own works—will only result in frustration and hypocrisy (13:15). If you teach the passages separately, the following themes could be stressed:

1. 13:1–5. Consider recent accidents or atrocities that have led people to ask “Why me?” What does this passage have to teach about such situations? How do such events relate to God’s control over his creation and to the different approaches that have been taken to the problem of suffering? Is there any place for the proposal that suffering is the result of human sin, and if so, how can this argument be put forward without suggesting the crass notion of individually earned suffering that Jesus here dismisses?

2. 13:6–9. Consider what sort of “fruit” the parable of the fig tree is calling for. What are the implications of the parable for our evangelistic and/or pastoral approach to unbelievers and also to believers who are perceived to be unrepentant and/or unfruitful?

3. 13:10–17. See “Teaching the Text” suggestions on 6:1–16, which are equally applicable here. Another point of discussion might be Jesus’s attribution of the woman’s deformity to Satan’s “binding.” How far, if at all, is this perspective applicable to illness in general? In what sense is physical healing (rather than exorcism) a contest with Satan?

Illustrating the Text

Disaster and the suffering that follows are not necessarily the result of specific sins.

Bible: Job. Certainly this principle applies to the book of Job, in which Job’s suffering is shown not to be a result of sin.

History: The year 2012 marked the centennial anniversary of the disaster of the famous ship that sank quickly into the icy North Atlantic, claiming 1,503 lives. The Titanic disappeared between 11:40 p.m. on Sunday night and 2:20 a.m. Monday morning.

Few disasters have so raised the question of cause and responsibility. The winter previous to the tragedy had been warmer; glacial ice in the Arctic Ocean had melted and broken up, pieces of it moving southward along the Labrador Current toward the popular transatlantic ship route that the Titanic traveled. It was also the time of the Industrial Revolution, when shipbuilders competitively began making their liners bigger and faster, setting travel records between Southampton in England and the United States.

In hindsight, the elements appear well placed for that fateful night. The Marconi wireless telegraph (1897) was beginning to appear on ships for passenger’s convenience. The Titanic received a number of telegrams that fateful night, warning about the icebergs; however, they do not seem to have aroused the necessary caution in the crew. The number of lifeboats carried by the Titanic met the English board of regulation requirement; as it turned out, there were not nearly enough to accommodate the need. The President of the shipping line did order the use of a somewhat lower grade of steel than recommended, and there are those who thought the mechanical rivets should be one and a half inches long instead of the one-inch size used. Nevertheless, no one explanation can sum up the catastrophe. Walter Lord (1917–2002), author of the renowned A Night to Remember, writes that survivor Lawrence Beesley felt that they were “simply in the presence of something too big to grasp.”1Few disasters have provoked more mystery and speculation than that surrounding the Titanic, cautioning us that tragedy is often beyond human reasoning.2

There are things more important than religious observance of religious conventions.

Literary Essay: Teaching a Stone to Talk, by Annie Dillard. In a little piece on the people in church, Dillard wryly describes the way people keep their church life safe and manageable, conventional as it were. She writes,

On the whole I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? . . . The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats . . . we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.3

Teaching the Text by R.T. France, Baker Publishing Group, 2016

Dictionary

Direct Matches

Blood

The word for “blood” in the Bible is used both literally and metaphorically. “Blood” is a significant biblical term for understanding purity boundaries and theological concepts. Blood is a dominant ritual symbol in biblical literature. Blood was used in sacrifices and purification rites, and it was inherently connected to menstruation, animal slaughter, and legal culpability. Among the physical properties of blood are the ability to coagulate, the liquid state of the substance (Rev. 16:3 4), and the ability to stain (Rev. 19:13). Blood can symbolize moral order in terms of cult, law, and power.

The usage of blood in the OT is predominantly negative. The first direct mention of blood in the biblical text involves a homicide (Gen. 4:10). Henceforward, the shedding of human blood is a main concern (Gen. 9:6). Other concerns pertaining to blood include dietary prohibitions of blood (Lev. 17:10–12), purity issues such as the flow of blood as in menstrual blood (Lev. 15:19–24), and blood as a part of religious rites such as circumcision (Gen. 17:10–11; Exod. 4:24–26).

Leviticus 17:11 contains a central statement in the OT concerning the significant role of blood in the sacrificial system: “The life of a creature is in the blood.” Blood was collected from all animal sacrifices, and blood was poured onto the altar (Lev. 1:5).

The covenant with Abraham was sealed with a covenantal ritual (Gen. 15:10–21). Moses sealed the covenant between the Israelites and God with a blood ritual during which young Israelite men offered young bulls among other sacrifices as fellowship offerings (Exod. 24:5). Moses read the words of the Book of the Covenant and sprinkled the blood of the bulls on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exod. 24:7–8).

During the Passover observance at the time of the exodus, blood was placed on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the Hebrews (Exod. 12:7). Not only altars were sprinkled and thus consecrated with blood, but priests were as well. Aaron and his sons were consecrated by the application of blood to their right earlobe, thumb, and big toe, and the sprinkling of blood and oil on their garments (Exod. 29:20). On the Day of Atonement, the high priest entered the holy of holies and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat to seek atonement for the sins of the people (Lev. 16:15).

Many events in the passion of Christ include references to blood. During the Last Supper, Jesus redefined the last Passover cup: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). Judas betrayed “innocent blood” (Matt. 27:4), and the money he received for his betrayal was referred to as “blood money” (Matt. 27:6). At Jesus’ trial, Pilate washed his hands and declared, “I am innocent of this man’s blood” (Matt. 27:24).

The apostle Paul wrote that believers are justified by the blood of Christ (Rom. 5:9). This justification or righteous standing with God was effected through Christ’s blood sacrifice (Rom. 3:25–26; 5:8). The writer of Hebrews stressed the instrumental role of blood in bringing about forgiveness (Heb. 9:22). In the picture of the ideal community of Christ, the martyrs in the book of Revelation are situated closest to the throne of God because “they triumphed over him [Satan] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev. 12:11). The blood of the Lamb, Christ, is the effective agent here and throughout the NT, bringing about the indirect contact between sinner and God.

Fruit

Literally, fruit is the seed-bearing part of a plant. It constitutes an important part of the diet in the ancient Near East. Common fruits are olives, grapes, and figs, though many other varieties of fruit are also available, including apples, apricots, peaches, pomegranates, dates, and melons. Fruit trees play a prominent role as a food source in God’s creation and preparation of the garden of Eden (Gen. 1 3). The law prohibits the Israelites from cutting down their enemy’s fruit trees (Deut. 20:19). The abundance of fruit trees characterizes the land that God has prepared for Israel (Deut. 8:8; Neh. 9:25) as well as the final restoration (Ezek. 47:12; Joel 2:22; Rev. 22:2).

One aspect of fruit is that it grows from a plant. This use of the term is often extended to represent what emerges from something else. Thus, fruit may represent offspring, whether human or animal (Deut. 7:13; 28:4), one’s actions (Matt. 7:16–20), the result of one’s actions or choices (Prov. 1:31; 10:16; Jer. 17:10), or words coming from one’s mouth (Prov. 12:14; Heb. 13:15). In the NT especially, producing much fruit symbolizes performing deeds that are pleasing to God (Matt. 3:8; 13:23; Mark 4:20; John 15:16; Rom. 7:4; Col. 1:10). Those who live by the Spirit produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23). The apostle Paul speaks of the first converts in a particular region as being firstfruits, probably referring to their conversion as the result of the gospel being preached in the area (Rom. 16:5; 2 Thess. 2:13).

Jerusalem

The central city and capital of ancient Israel. Throughout its history, the city has also been referred to variously as Zion, Jebus, Mount Moriah, and the City of David.

The name “Jerusalem” occurs more than 650 times in the OT, particularly in the history of Israel, and in the NT more than 140 times. The OT prophets used the city as a symbol of God’s dealing with his people and his plan. Jerusalem is viewed collectively as God’s abode, his chosen place, and his sovereignty, while its destruction is also representative of God’s judgment on apostasy among his people (e.g., Jer. 7:1 15; 26:18–19; Mic. 3:12). The rebuilding of the city represents the hope and grace of God (e.g., Isa. 40:1–2; 52:1, 7–8; 60–62; Jer. 30:18–19; 31:38–39; Ezek. 5:5; Hag. 2:6–8; Zech. 8:3–8). Like the writers of the OT, the NT authors spoke of Jerusalem in metaphorical and eschatological terms. Paul used Jerusalem to contrast the old and the new covenants (Gal. 4:24–26), and the writer of Hebrews used it as the place of the new covenant, sealed through the blood of Jesus (Heb. 12:22–24). In Revelation the concept of a new Jerusalem is related to the future kingdom of God (Rev. 3:12; 21:1–22:5).

Jerusalem is located in the Judean hill country, about 2,700 feet above sea level. It borders the Judean desert to the east. The city expanded and contracted in size over various hills and valleys. There are two major ridges (Eastern and Western Hills) separated by the Tyropoeon Valley. The Eastern Hill contains a saddle, the Ophel Hill, and north of this is the traditional site of Mount Moriah, where later the temple was constructed. The Eastern Hill was always occupied, since the only water source is the Gihon spring, located in the Kidron Valley. Two other ridges were important for the city, as they were used for extramural suburbs, cemeteries, and quarries. To the east is the Mount of Olives, which is separated from the Eastern Hill by the Kidron Valley. To the west of the Western Hill is the Central Ridge Route, separated by the Hinnom Valley.

Pilate

Pilate is known not only from the NT, but also from Josephus, Philo, the Roman historian Tacitus, and from an inscription discovered in 1961 in Caesarea identifying Pilate as “prefect” of Judea. This technical term has connotations of military authority and is more specific than the NT’s broader term “governor” (Gk. hēgemōn).

Repent

The act of repudiating sin and returning to God. Implicit in this is sorrow over the evil that one has committed and a complete turnabout in one’s spiritual direction: turning from idols—anything that wrests away the affection that we owe God—to God (1 Sam. 7:3; 2 Chron. 7:14; Isa. 55:6; 1 Thess. 1:9; James 4:8 10).

Siloam

A Byzantine-era pool on the southwest side of the Ophel Hill, near Jerusalem. Siloam is mentioned three times in the NT (Luke 13:4; John 9:7, 11). The Siloam Tunnel is one of two subterranean channels (along with “Hezekiah’s Tunnel”) bringing water from the Gihon spring to this location. These tunnels are best known for the discovery (in 1880) of the so-called Siloam Inscription, which describes the completion of work on those tunnels in some detail. The events mentioned in this inscription generally have been associated with 2 Kings 20 and 2 Chronicles 32, which describe the building projects of King Hezekiah, including “how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city” (2 Kings 20:20) and how he “blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channeled the water down to the west side of the City of David” (2 Chron. 32:30). The inscription has been dated to the late eighth century BC, based on paleographic data, and usually is associated with the preparations for Hezekiah’s rebellion against Sennacherib in 701 BC.

Direct Matches

Galilean

Someone who lives in or originates from Galilee. Jesus grew up in the extremely southern part of Galilee, at Nazareth, and his first followers were drawn from throughout the region. Galilee had a population of about three hundred thousand people in two hundred or more villages, as well as several large cities (Josephus, Life 235). Galileans shared a unique dialect (Matt. 26:73; cf. Acts 2:7). The region had a reputation for fomenting rebellion (Luke 13:1; 23:5–6). The Pharisee Gamaliel mentions Judas the Galilean (Acts 5:37), who sparked a revolt against the census under Quirinius around AD 6 (Josephus, J.W. 2.118, 433; Ant. 18.23). Galilee was also associated with non-Jews (Gentiles) primarily because of the Decapolis, a league of approximately ten cities (Matt. 4:12–17, citing Isa. 9:1–2; Mark 7:31). However, archaeological evidence and the NT suggest that Galilean Jews, many of whom colonized the area during the rule of the Maccabees, retained close cultural and religious ties with Judea and the temple (Luke 1:26–27; 2:1–7, 39–40; John 4:45).

Parable

The word “parable” is used to speak of a particular literary form that communicates indirectly by means of comparative language, often for the purpose of challenging the listener to accept or reject a new way of thinking about a particular matter. Parables regularly incorporate concrete and accessible images from the daily life of the audience, and often they are terse and pointed, mentioning only the details relevant for an effective comparison. However, any attempt to define the term “parable” in a clear and concise way is complicated by the fact that both the Hebrew (mashal) and the Greek (parabolē) words regularly translated by the English word “parable” have much broader connotations. For instance, in the OT mashal can designate proverbs (Prov. 1:1), riddles (Ezek. 17:2), prophetic utterances (Num. 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15, 20, 21, 23), and sayings (1 Sam. 10:12); similarly, in the NT parabolē denotes proverbs (Luke 4:23), riddles (Mark 3:23), analogies (Mark 7:17), and more. Therefore, no comprehensive definition of parables is agreed upon by biblical scholars, and very little said about parables in general will apply to every parable.

Parables in the Bible

Although not designated with the Hebrew word mashal, the story of the trees (Judg. 9:7–15) and the story of the ewe lamb (2 Sam. 12:1–4) may be considered to be parables. Like many parables, the story about the ewe lamb told by Nathan prompts its audience, in this case David, to condemn the actions of a character in the parable before being confronted with the fact that the character and his conduct are symbolic of David himself. The parable is the vehicle used to bring about self-condemnation of its audience.

Although Jesus is not the only speaker of parables in the ancient world, the Gospels narrate a tremendous number of parables within his teaching. The major parables of Jesus are listed in table 4. The diversity of form represented in this list is striking. Some of the parables consist of short, relatively simple comparisons that lack the development of any significant story line. This is true, for instance, of the parables of the mustard seed, yeast, hidden treasure, and the pearl. Each of these offers a simple simile to explain some feature of the kingdom of God, a frequent topic in Jesus’ parables, and may include an additional sentence of clarification.

Table 4. Major Parables of Jesus

Wise and foolish builders (Matt. 7:24-27; Luke 6:46-49)

Sower and the soils (Matt. 13:3–8, 18–23; Mark 4:3–8, 14–20; Luke 8:5–8, 11–15)

Weeds (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43)

Mustard seed (Matt. 13:31–32; Mark 4:30–32; Luke 13:18–19)

Yeast (Matt. 13:33; Luke 13:20-21)

Hidden treasure (Matt. 13:44)

Pearl (Matt. 13:45-46)

Net (Matt. 13:47-50)

Lost sheep (Matt. 18:12-14; Luke 15:4-7)

Unmerciful servant (Matt. 18:23-35)

Workers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16)

Two sons (Matt. 21:28-32)

Wicked tenants (Matt. 21:33–44; Mark 12:1–11; Luke 20:9–18)

Wedding banquet (Matt. 22:2-14)

Faithful and wise servant (Matt. 24:45-51; Luke 12:42-48)

Ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-13)

Talents (Matt. 25:14–30; Luke 19:12–27)

Sheep and goats (Matt. 25:31-46)

Growing seeds (Mark 4:26-29)

Money lender (Luke 7:41-47)

Good Samritan (Luke 10:30-37)

Friend in need (Luke 11:5-8)

Rich fool (Luke 12:16-21)

Unfruitful fig tree (Luke 13:6-9)

Lowest seat (Luke 14:7-14)

Great banquet (Luke 14:16-24)

Cost of discipleship (Luke 14:28-33)

Lost coin (Luke 15:8-10)

Lost (prodigal) son (Luke 15:11-32)

Shrewd manager (Luke 16:1-8)

Rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)

Persistent widow (Luke 18:2-8)

Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18:10-14)

Parables such as the good Samaritan and the prodigal son, on the other hand, are significantly longer, contain developed plots, and present several central characters. Stories of this sort may use the characters as examples of behavior to be either emulated or avoided, as in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Such parables may remain open-ended in an attempt to force the listeners into a decision about what should happen (the unfruitful fig tree), or they may include a clear, concluding explanation that leaves no doubt as to how the audience should change their belief or behavior as a result of the parable’s teaching (the moneylender). The degree to which each of these parables directly addresses the intended audience and the intended topic can vary greatly. For instance, although the parable of the rich fool directly addresses the subject matter of material wealth, the anonymity of the rich man in the story does not openly condemn any particular member of Jesus’ audience. Alternatively, a parable may treat a subject that differs from the intended one and expect the listener to transfer the lesson to another topic. This is the case with the parable of the weeds, which speaks explicitly about farming. Nonetheless, when the disciples seek an explanation of this parable, Jesus indicates that it is to be understood as speaking about that feature of the kingdom of heaven whereby the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one intermingle in the world until the end of the age, when the sons of the evil one will be separated to face a fiery judgment (Matt. 13:36–43).

Other parables, such as that of the lost sheep, revolve around a central question posed to the listeners. By asking “who among you” would behave in the way described, the parable anticipates a negative response that asserts that no one would act in the manner detailed in the parable. The NIV frequently inserts the phrase “suppose one of you” in places where the introductory question “who among you” appears in Greek.

Purpose of Jesus’ Teaching in Parables

It is quite clear that Jesus regularly employed parables in his teaching, but his reason for doing so is less evident. Jesus’ own somewhat perplexing statement in Mark 4:10–12 indicates that his parables have the dual purpose of both revealing and concealing the secret of the kingdom, but one may wonder how it is that parables perform both functions simultaneously. If the goal of comparative language is to make clearer a concept or idea that is difficult, then certainly Jesus’ parables function in this way. Through the simple, accessible, and concrete word pictures that are his parables, Jesus discloses many characteristics and features of the kingdom of God, which is at best something of an enigma to his audience. By speaking to the crowds, albeit at times in an exaggerated fashion, about the things that they know, such as farming, banquets, baking, and other elements of everyday life, Jesus expands their understanding of what they do not know. However, the indirect quality of parables simultaneously blocks spontaneous understanding and therefore requires the audience to engage in additional reflection to ensure that they have truly grasped what is being taught. Likewise, the ability to address an issue by slyly sneaking up on it from behind results in parables that initially conceal their true purpose of convincing the listeners of a new way of thinking or behaving such that the conviction they are meant to induce comes with a surprise kick at the end.

Interpretation of Parables

Interpretation over the centuries. Throughout church history until the nineteenth century, parables were widely interpreted by means of the allegorical method. That is, all the surface details of parables were identified as symbols of some deeper spiritual truth. A classic example of allegorizing is Augustine’s interpretation of the parable of the good Samaritan, whereby he interpreted surface details of the text according to allegorical equations (see table 5). Allegorical interpretations of the same parable by other Christians, however, did not always result in the same interpretations of the symbols. For this reason, most scholars today reject the excessive allegorization of Augustine and others throughout church history. However, how many details in a parable, if any, are to be interpreted allegorically remains a central question in parable interpretation. For instance, in the parable of the mustard seed, are the mustard seed and the plant that it produces allegories for the unobtrusive beginnings yet manifest results of the kingdom? If so, what then of the man and the birds also mentioned in the parable? Are they symbols of a deeper spiritual truth such that the man is to be equated with God, or are they included only to augment the teaching of the parable such that the birds merely highlight the extreme size of the tree into which the seed has grown?

Table 5. Augustine’s Allegorical Interpretation of the Good Samaritan

Details in the Parable and its Allegorical Equivalent:

The man = Adam

Jerusalem = The heavenly city

Jericho = The moon (a symbol of mortality)

The robbers = The devil

Beating the man = Persuading him to sin

Priest and Levite = The Old Testament priesthood

Samaritan = Christ

Binding of wounds = Restraint of sin

Oil = Comfort of hope

Animal = Incarnation

Inn = Church

Innkeeper = Apostle Paul

The work of the German scholar Adolf Jülicher at the end of the nineteenth century has widely affected parable interpretation since that time. Jülicher asserted that parables are not allegories and therefore should not be interpreted allegorically at all. Instead, he argued that parables have only one main point, normally a general, religious statement. Interpreters since Jülicher continue to debate how much of a parable is significant and how many points of correspondence are intended. More-recent views have posited that Jülicher went too far in maintaining a strict distinction between parable and allegory, and many interpreters believe that allegorical elements are present in parables, with perhaps the main characters in a parable being the most likely candidates for allegorical interpretation. This renewed openness to allegorical features in parables is due in part to the recognition that the Gospels record Jesus’ own tendency to offer allegorical interpretations of his parables when his disciples inquire as to their meaning. This is most clearly seen in the parable of the sower and the soils, which includes details such as seed, birds, the sun, and thorns. Jesus reveals that the seed is to be interpreted as the message about the kingdom, the birds stand for the evil one, the sun is representative of persecution because of the gospel, and the thorns indicate worries and wealth (Matt. 13:18–23).

Guidelines for interpreting parables. It is generally best to recognize that not all parables are identical, and that one should consider several possible interpretive strategies before determining which approach best fits any given parable. Nonetheless, some broad guidelines for the interpretation of parables include the following:

1. The characters and plots within parables are literary creations and are not historical. The parable of the lost sheep is not a historical rec-ord of a certain shepherd whose sheep went missing. No actual invitation was issued for the great banquet in the parable. Rather, in a parable the listener is brought into a narrative world controlled by the storyteller and by implication has no need for details that the speaker fails to provide. Therefore, it does not matter whether the shepherd himself was at fault in the loss of the sheep, and the choice of food set before the banquet guests is inconsequential.

2. Parables often follow the principle of end stress. Interpreters should carefully consider how the parable ends when determining the meaning the parable is intended to convey. At times an explanatory conclusion to the parable is included and may be helpful in directing the reader toward the topic that is really being addressed. This is the case in the parable of the two sons, in which Jesus’ concluding explanation identifies tax collectors and prostitutes as those who are entering the kingdom ahead of those who have received John’s prophetic message but failed to accept it.

Recent studies on parables that reflect issues raised by two fields of study respectively known as form criticism and redaction criticism are likely to question the accuracy of such concluding statements as well as any introductory comments to parables that may also be presented in the Gospel text. Many scholars ask if and to what extent the Gospel writers made changes to the parables that they record. They wonder whether it is possible to discern the original context and circumstance in which Jesus relayed his parables, or whether the details of the original context had been forgotten by the time that the evangelists wrote. Could it be that any introductory and concluding comments included with some parables are not authentic to Jesus’ ministry but instead reflect issues that arose in the early church? In spite of the doubts of some, more-conservative scholars have presented arguments for the continued trustworthiness of the Gospel accounts about Jesus’ teaching including introductory or concluding statements associated with his parables.

3. Look for the use of OT symbols in Jesus’ parables. The parables of Jesus and the parables recorded in other rabbinical literature are replete with similar figures and images. Kings, banquets, weddings, farmers, debtors, and more appear with frequency; they perhaps developed into stock images to be used in stories in the ancient world. If such details appear in a parable, the interpreter should consider strongly whether some allegorical meaning is intended whereby a kingly figure represents God, a son represents the people of God, and a banquet indicates a time of coming judgment or reward.

4. Interpreters should exercise extreme caution regarding doctrinal teaching drawn from a parable, particularly if such doctrine cannot be confirmed by the theological teaching found in a nonparabolic portion of Scripture. For instance, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, is one to conclude that conversations can occur between the dead who reside in hell and those who reside in heaven? Likewise, should one learn that it is possible for the deceased human to be sent back to the living with a message from God? These doctrinal issues seem to be outside the range of teaching intended by the parable, and support for these ideas cannot be found in other biblical texts.

5. In recognition of the indirect nature of the communication in parables, some interpreters question whether a parable’s meaning can be reproduced in propositional language. In other words, can the meaning of a parable be expressed in nonparabolic language, or is some necessary component lost when one changes the form? Similarly, is it possible for people who have heard the story of the good Samaritan repeatedly to be struck by the confrontational force that was central to its initial reception? Not only are the images of Samaritans and Levites foreign to the modern listener, but also the familiarity with the story that has resulted from its retelling over time has domesticated the parable such that the details that were meant to shock and surprise are now anticipated and predictable. In this way, are parables like jokes that have been repeated too many times until one becomes inoculated against the punch line? Because of these concerns about the inability of today’s listeners to truly hear the parable as it was meant to be heard, some interpreters may wish to consider how it could be recast with images common to today’s audience and retold in such a way that the listeners experience the surprising twist that the initial audiences felt.

Pilate

Pontius Pilate was the fifth Roman governor of Judea. He presided at the trial of Jesus, ultimately sentencing him to death. Based on the account of Josephus, he was appointed to his post in AD 26 or 27 and was removed from it ten years later (c. AD 37) by the governor of the neighboring province of Syria after he mishandled a confrontation with a group of religious fanatics in Samaria. Several previous debacles involving Pilate are known from Josephus and Philo, possibly including the event mentioned in Luke 13:1, where Jesus is told about “the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.” In one instance, Pilate offended the Judeans by introducing to Jerusalem military standards with images of the emperor. On another occasion, Pilate affronted the population when he built an aqueduct to supply water to Jerusalem, either because he took money from the temple to finance the project or because the aqueduct ran through a cemetery, rendering its water ritually unclean according to Jewish law. While Josephus’s intention is to present the rule of Pilate as tumultuous, and the Gospels are concerned to downplay his role in Jesus’ trial relative to that of the Jewish leaders, his lengthy tenure suggests that he was generally a successful governor and that his term was one of relative quiet governing what was at times a volatile population in Judea.

Pilate’s role in the trial of Jesus is mentioned in all four Gospels. As the governor of Judea, he possessed the power to execute criminals, a power denied to the Jewish authorities who arrested and initiated the charges against Jesus. The Gospels present Pilate as interrogating Jesus primarily about his political activities, reflecting the fact that Pilate’s interest in the trial was not religious or theological, but instead was based on his concern for maintaining order in his province. The general tendency of the Gospel accounts is to minimize the culpability of Pilate in the death of Jesus. According to Matthew’s Gospel, Pilate’s wife told him that Jesus was an innocent man (27:19), and Pilate later disclaimed responsibility for the death of Jesus and publicly washed his hands to signify his own innocence (27:24). According to Luke 23:4, 14, 22; John 19:6, Pilate declared that he had found no charge against Jesus. Eventually, Pilate capitulated because the crowd was growing violent (Matt. 27:24) and because they implicitly threatened to slander Pilate by saying that he was not maintaining the order of the Roman Empire: “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar” (John 19:12). Luke 23:12 reports that Pilate befriended Herod Antipas as a result of having referred the case to him on the basis of Jesus being a Galilean and therefore Herod’s subject.

Pilate is mentioned in 1 Tim. 6:13 as the audience of a “good confession” made by Jesus. This verse suggests that the trial of Jesus before Pilate was seen by the early church as the model for later confrontations between Christians and the governing authorities, a situation previously predicted by Jesus himself (Matt. 10:18).

Plants

Common and valuable for food, beans were cooked while green in the pods or after being dried. Dry beans were threshed and winnowed like cereals and other grains. Beans are mentioned twice in the NIV (2 Sam. 17:28; Ezek. 4:9).

Siloam

The extant text of the Siloam Inscription reads as follows:

. . . its tunneling through. And this was the way in which it was tunneled out. While the picks were still (in motion), each man toward his fellow worker, and while there were yet three cubits to be tun[neled through], the voice of a man [could be hea]rd calling to his fellow gang member, for there was a fissure in the rock on the right hand and on the left. Now on the day that the tunneling (was completed), the hewers struck (the rock), each man toward his fellow worker, pick against pick, and the water flowed from the spring to the pool—a distance of twelve hundred cubits. The rock was one [hun]dred cubits high over the heads of the hewers.

Suffering

The Bible has much to say about suffering. While in the OT suffering is regularly an indication of divine displeasure (Lev. 26:16–36; Deut. 28:20–68; Ps. 44:10–12; Isa. 1:25; cf. Heb. 10:26–31), in the NT it becomes the means by which blessing comes to humanity.

The Bible often shows that sinfulness results in suffering (Gen. 2:17; 6:5–7; Exod. 32:33; 2 Sam. 12:13–18; Rom. 1:18; 1 Cor. 11:27–30). Job’s friends mistakenly assume that he has suffered because of disobedience (Job 4:7–9; 8:3–4, 20; 11:6). Job passionately defends himself (12:4; 23:10), and in the final chapter of the book God commends Job and condemns his friends for their accusations (42:7–8; cf. 1:1, 22; 2:10). The writer makes clear that suffering is not necessarily evidence of sinfulness. Like Job’s friends, Jesus’ disciples assume that blindness is an indication of sinfulness (John 9:1–2). Jesus rejects this simplistic notion of retributive suffering (John 9:3, 6–7; cf. Luke 13:1–5).

The prayers of suffering people are expressed in the sixteen communal and thirty-seven individual laments in the book of Psalms. Within the laments the writers describe their problems, express feelings, make requests, ask questions (“How long, Lord?” [13:1]; “Why have you forsaken me?” [22:1]), and lodge complaints against God (“My eyes fail, looking for my God [69:3]), enemies (“You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us” [80:6]), and even themselves (“I am a worm and not a man” [22:6]).

The NT writers reveal that Jesus’ suffering was prophesied in the OT (Mark 9:12; 14:21; Luke 18:31–32; 24:46; Acts 3:18; 17:3; 26:22–23; 1 Pet. 1:11; referring to OT texts such as Ps. 22; Isa. 52:13–53:12; Zech. 13:7). The Lord Jesus is presented as the answer to human suffering: (1) Through the incarnation, God’s Son personally experienced human suffering (Phil. 2:6–8; Heb. 2:9; 5:8). (2) Through his suffering, Christ paid the price for sin (Rom. 4:25; 3:25–26), so that believers are set free from sin (Rom. 6:6, 18, 22) and helped in temptation (Heb. 2:18). (3) Christ Jesus intercedes for his suffering followers (Rom. 8:34–35). (4) Christ is the example in suffering (1 Pet. 2:21; 4:1; cf. Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 1:5; 4:10; 1 Pet. 4:13), and though he died once for sins (Heb. 10:12), he continues to suffer as his church suffers (Acts 9:4–5). (5) Christ provides hope of resurrection (Rom. 6:5; 1 Cor. 15:20–26; Phil. 3:10–11) and a future life without suffering or death (Rev. 21:4).

There are many NT examples of suffering believers (John 15:20–21; Acts 4:3; 5:18; 7:57–60; 8:1–3; 12:1–5; 14:19; 16:22–24; 18:17; 2 Cor. 6:4–5, 8–10; Heb. 10:32; 1 Pet. 5:9; Rev. 2:10). Suffering is part of God’s plan for his people (Acts 9:16; 1 Thess. 3:2–4) and is part of what it means to be a follower of Christ Jesus (Acts 14:22; Rom. 8:17; Phil. 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:21; 4:12).

The NT writers repeatedly mention the benefits of suffering, for it has become part of God’s work of redemption. The suffering of believers accompanies the proclamation and advancement of the gospel (Acts 5:41–42; 9:15–16; 2 Cor. 4:10–11; 6:2–10; Phil. 1:12, 27–29; 1 Thess. 2:14–16; 2 Tim. 1:8; 4:5) and results in salvation (Matt. 10:22; 2 Cor. 1:6; 1 Thess. 2:16; 2 Tim. 2:10; Heb. 10:39), faith (Heb. 10:32–34, 38–39; 1 Pet. 1:7), the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:10–11), and the crown of life (Rev. 2:10). It is an essential part of the development toward Christian maturity (Rom. 5:3–4; 2 Cor. 4:11; Heb. 12:4; James 1:3–4; 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:1).

Suffering is associated with knowing Christ (Phil. 3:10); daily inward renewal (2 Cor. 4:16); purity, understanding, patience, kindness, sincere love, truthful speech, the power of God (2 Cor. 4:4–10); comfort and endurance (2 Cor. 1:6); obedience (Heb. 5:8); blessing (1 Pet. 3:14; 4:14); glory (Rom. 8:17; 2 Cor. 4:17); and joy (Matt. 5:12; Acts 5:41; 2 Cor. 6:10; 12:10; James 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:6; 4:13). Other positive results of Christian suffering include perseverance (Rom. 5:3; James 1:3), character and hope (Rom. 5:4), strength (2 Cor. 12:10), and maturity and completeness (James 1:4). Present suffering is light and momentary when compared to future glory (Matt. 5:10–12; Acts 14:22; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17; Heb. 10:34–36; 1 Pet. 1:5–7; 4:12–13).

Throughout the Bible, believers are instructed to help those who suffer. The OT law provides principles for assisting the poor, the disadvantaged, and the oppressed (Exod. 20:10; 21:2; 23:11; Lev. 19:13, 34; 25:10, 35; Deut. 14:28–29; 15:1–2; 24:19–21). Jesus regularly taught his followers to help the poor (Matt. 5:42; 6:3; 19:21; 25:34–36; Luke 4:18; 12:33; 14:13, 21). It is believers’ responsibility to show mercy (Matt. 5:7; 9:13), be generous (Rom. 12:8; 2 Cor. 8:7; 1 Tim. 6:18), mourn with mourners (Rom. 12:15), carry other’s burdens (Gal. 6:1–2), and visit prisoners (Matt. 25:36, 43). See also Servant of the Lord.

Trees

Vineyard

Grape-producing plants are widely cultivated in Palestine. The first biblical reference to vine cultivation appears in Gen. 9:20, where the restoration of the earth is implied by Noah’s planting of a vineyard. The appearance of the vine in Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer’s dream implies widespread vine cultivation in Egypt (Gen. 40:9–11). Before the Israelites’ entry, the land of Canaan was also famous for the production of grapes and wine (cf. Num. 13:23; Deut. 6:11; 8:8). Several places around the region are named in the OT for their fruitful vines: Eshkol (Num. 13:23), Sorek (Judg. 16:4), Sibmah, Heshbon, Jazer, Elealeh (Isa. 16:8–10), Helbon (Ezek. 27:18), Lebanon (Hos. 14:7), and En Gedi (Song 1:14).

Vine cultivation. Vine cultivation is detailed in the Bible. A hilly terrain is terraced, stones are cleared, and soil is plowed (Ps. 80:9; Isa. 5:2). The walls are built up with stones, often with a hedge of thorny bushes, to protect the vineyard from thieves and wild animals (Isa. 5:2). Then young vines are planted where water is supplied (Ezek. 19:10). As their branches develop, they are raised up on supports (Ezek. 17:6). In the spring the vines are pruned so that they will bear good grapes (Lev. 25:3; John 15:2). Winepresses are hewn out of wood or rocky ground (Isa. 5:2). A watchtower is erected to overlook the vineyard, especially as the harvest season draws near (Job 27:18; Isa. 1:8; 27:3). When the grapes are ripe, they are gathered in baskets and taken to winepresses (Hos. 9:2), while some are dried into raisins. When the harvest is done, the poor in the village are allowed to enter the vineyard to gather the gleanings (Lev. 19:10; Deut. 24:21; cf. Isa. 24:13; Jer. 49:9; Mic. 7:1).

Since the production of grapes was of major importance to the Israelites, the continuing cycle of vine cultivation meant national peace and security (cf. “under their own vine and under their own fig tree” in 1 Kings 4:25; Mic. 4:4; Zech. 3:10; joy of the harvest in Isa. 16:10; Jer. 48:33). Thus, the characteristic expression of planting vineyards and consuming their fruits signals God’s blessing (2 Kings 19:29; Ps. 107:37; Isa. 65:21–22; Jer. 31:5; 40:12; Ezek. 28:26; Amos 9:14), whereas not enjoying the fruit signifies misfortune (Deut. 20:6) or God’s judgment (Deut. 28:30; Ps. 78:47; Jer. 8:13; Amos 5:11; Hab. 3:17; Zeph. 1:13). Likewise, a feast with wine signifies God’s blessing (Isa. 25:6; 55:1; Jer. 31:12; Joel 2:19; cf. Jesus turning water into wine [John 2:1–11]), while the lack of wine means God’s judgment (Isa. 24:9, 11; 62:8; Hos. 2:9; 9:2; Joel 1:10).

Old Testament. The vine and the vineyard are important metaphors in the OT. The fruitfulness of the vine often symbolizes the fruitfulness or blessedness of a person (e.g., Joseph in Gen. 49:22; a fruitful wife in Ps. 128:3). In Song of Songs the vineyard is not only the main place of love (2:13, 15; 6:11; 7:12) but also a metaphor for the woman’s body (8:11); also, the “beloved” is compared to “henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi” (1:14), and her breasts to the “clusters of grapes on the vine” (7:8).

The metaphors of the vine and the vineyard are also used of God’s people. In Ps. 80:8–13 Israel’s history is presented in terms of the vine-cultivation cycle (cf. Jer. 2:21; Hos. 10:1). A similar story is heard in Isa. 5:1–7, which compares the Israelites’ lack of justice and righteousness to the bearing of wild grapes (cf. “vine of Sodom” in Deut. 32:32; “a corrupt, wild vine” in Jer. 2:21). Ezekiel also uses the vine metaphor in rebuking the Israelites’ iniquity (Ezek. 15:2–4; 17:3–10; 19:10–14). If the aforementioned passages describe Israel’s history from its birth to judgment, Isa. 27:2–6 presents God’s promise of restoration through the story of the restored vineyard.

New Testament. In five parables Jesus refers to vines and cultivation (Matt. 9:17 pars.; 20:1–16; 21:28–32; 21:33–46 pars.; Luke 13:6–9). Notable is the fact that God often is portrayed as the owner of the vineyard (Matt. 20:1; 21:28, 33; Luke 13:6). In Rev. 14:18–20 God’s judgment upon his enemies is described by means of the imagery of the vine harvest, in which the enemies are trampled like harvested grapes in the “great winepress of God’s wrath” (cf. Isa. 63:1–6; Joel 3:13). In the vine metaphor in John 15:1–8, Jesus identifies God as the farmer, himself as the “true vine,” and the believers as its branches. No longer are God’s people identified as the vine, which is expected to bear good fruits; rather, Jesus is the vine, and the believers are his branches. So the fruitfulness of the branches depends on their adherence to the vine. Jesus’ use of the “fruit of the vine” at the Last Supper as the symbol of his atoning blood can be compared to his metaphorical self-identification as the vine (Matt. 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18). See also Plants.

Secondary Matches

The following suggestions occured because Luke 13:1-9 is mentioned in the definition.

Beans

Binding and Loosing

Binding can mean physically restraining a person or people (Judg. 15:13; 2 Kings 25:7; Job 16:8; Pss. 119:61; 149:8), mending, as with a wound (Isa. 61:1; Ezek. 34:16; Hos. 6:1), or taking a legally constraining oath (1 Sam. 14:27–30; Neh. 10:29; Jer. 50:5). The opposite of binding is loosing or setting free, which can describe literally being freed from bonds (e.g., Acts 16:26) or the release from something that is binding.

The law, a binding covenant between Israel and God, is to be literally bound on one’s forehead as a reminder (Deut. 6:8; 11:18). Non-Israelites who wish to identify with the God of Israel can bind themselves to his laws (Isa. 56:6). In Num. 30:6, 9, 13, an oath taken by a young woman still in her father’s house will be binding only if the father is not against it. If he is against it, it is not binding and she is loosed from it (30:5). This is the same in the case of a married woman, whose approval has to come from the husband. However, for widows or divorced women, all pledges they make are binding since there are no men in their lives to void the pledges (30:9).

While contracts were binding, some had time limits. For example, the seventh year and the fiftieth year (Jubilee) allowed for cancellation of such binding contracts as slavery or land ownership (Lev. 25:10–54; 27:24).

The binding of Isaac (Gen. 22), traditionally known as the Akedah, has theological significance for both Christians and Jews. It is interpreted as a form of resurrection, a coming from the dead for Isaac after Yahweh had instructed his father, Abraham, to sacrifice him (Heb. 11:17–19). God inquires of Job whether he can “bind the chains of the Pleiades” or “loosen Orion’s belt” (Job 38:31).

The book of Proverbs encourages the wise to metaphorically bind love and faithfulness around their necks (3:3) and their parents’ commands and teachings to the heart (6:21) and the finger (7:3); it also talks of folly being bound up in the heart of a child (22:15), perhaps alluded to by Paul in Rom. 11:32 when he says that God has bound all people to disobedience that he may have mercy on them.

Introducing his ministry in Luke 4:18, Jesus quotes Isa. 61:1, which talks of binding up the brokenhearted, a reference to his healing ministry. Further, binding and loosing are found in Jesus’ commissioning of his disciples (Matt. 16:19; 18:18; cf. John 20:23), where it may be referring to the binding of demons and loosing of demoniacs bound or oppressed by demons (cf. Mark 3:14–16; 6:7; Luke 13:6). Since Jesus has the power to bind and loose (John 8:36), he chooses to empower his followers to do the same. Binding Satan is the subject of the ultimate eschatological battle in Jewish lore (T. Levi 18:11–12) and becomes central in Christianity. Jesus encounters satanic forces embodied in humans and looses such people from the chains of Satan (Mark 5:3; Luke 13:12, 16). Ultimately, Satan is to be bound for a millennium and loosed only for eternal damnation (Rev. 20:1–3).

Paul invokes Jewish law about marriage by claiming that one is bound in marriage only as long as one’s partner is alive (Rom. 7:2). In this way, Paul explains how Christians are dead to the law, because Jesus has died on their behalf, thus setting them free from the law (Rom. 7:4–6; cf. Heb. 9:15). To the Corinthians also he talks of the binding nature of marriage but with a caveat: if the marriage is between a believer and a nonbeliever, and if the nonbeliever leaves, then the believer is not bound (1 Cor. 7). But for Paul, being set free from sin (Rom. 8:2) means being bound to God (6:22).

Castle

A strict division between fortresses and cities was not possible in much of the ancient world, since many major towns were surrounded with protective walls and fortifications. Royal figures, however, did have stand-alone fortresses built within some towns. In 2 Sam. 5:7–9 David captures Zion, a fortress-city, from the Jebusites (see also 1 Chron. 11:5–7). Solomon further enhances the defensive fortifications of Jerusalem (1 Kings 3:1; 2 Chron. 2:1), as do several kings who come after him (e.g., 1 Kings 15:18; 16:18; 18:3; 2 Kings 11:5; 2 Chron. 26:9, 15).

Royal residences, such as those of the pharaohs (Gen. 12:15) and of the kings of Babylon (2 Kings 20:18; Dan. 1:4), Tyre (2 Sam. 24:7), Samaria (2 Kings 15:25), and Persia (Esther 1:5; 5:1; 7:7–8), also served as castles. In Nehemiah’s time, Hananiah is made ruler of the palace fort in Jerusalem (Neh. 2:8; 7:2). Fortified towers also contributed to the defensive equipment of many ancient cities (Gen. 11:1–9; 35:21; Judg. 8:8–9, 17; 9:46, 49; Neh. 3:1; 12:39; Song 4:4; Luke 13:4).

In addition to palaces and fortified cities, numerous smaller castle-type structures are mentioned in the Bible. These forts, usually fairly small, were important for guarding trade routes and major entrance points into a kingdom, and they allowed a ruler to exercise control over a much larger region than would have been possible otherwise. Normally these structures were composed of stone, hardened mud-brick, or a combination of the two, and constituted a tightly packed arrangement of walls, gates, and guard towers. A system of fortresses existed throughout Israel in the time of the unified monarchy, such as those built by David throughout Aram (2 Sam. 8:6) and Edom (2 Sam. 8:14; 1 Chron. 18:13), and those built by Solomon (1 Kings 9:19). Later, Rehoboam expanded this network of forts, which included the strong fortress at Lachish, and further built up the defensive capabilities of many of the towns in Judah (2 Chron. 11:5–11). The later kings Jehoshaphat and Jotham continued this work of fortress building throughout Judah (2 Chron. 17:12; 27:4).

In the four centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great, new fortresses were built throughout what would become the Roman Empire, including Herod the Great’s palace in Caesarea (Acts 23:35). The Antonia Fortress (see Acts 21:31–37; 22:24; 23:10, 16, 32) overlooked the temple area in Jerusalem and was the headquarters of the Roman army cohort stationed in the city. Herod’s palace on the western hill of Jerusalem may have been the headquarters of Roman governors of Judea, although the Antonia Fortress is also a possible location for this building (see Matt. 27:27; Mark 15:16; John 18:28, 33; 19:9).

The image of a fortress is often invoked in poetic contexts in the Bible to signify God’s unfailing protection (2 Sam. 22:2; Pss. 18:2; 31:2; 46:8; 62:2; 91:2; 144:2; Prov. 14:26; Isa. 25:4; Jer. 16:19). Prophetic denunciation of the fortresses of Israel’s enemies is common in the OT (Isa. 23:11, 13–14; Jer. 49:27; Dan. 11; Amos 1). The destruction of Israel’s own fortresses, especially Jerusalem, is also a common judgment motif in the prophets (Isa. 25:12; Jer. 6:5; 17:27; Hos. 8:14). See also Fort, Fortification.

Conscience

An innate awareness of wrong, with an inclination toward thinking and acting rightly. The OT describes moral awareness as a willingness to obey God’s revealed will (Deut. 30:14; Ps. 1:1–2; Prov. 1:7). People are not presented as morally perfect, but, to the degree of their knowledge, they are expected to act rightly (Gen. 4:1–16; 1 Sam. 25:31). Abimelek, king of Gerar, appeals to ignorance because of Abraham’s deception (Gen. 20:1–7). Job appeals to the purity of his conscience (Job 27:6).

A fuller revelation of God’s will is given in the Mosaic law. God gives commandments in part to heighten the Israelites’ awareness concerning right and wrong, so that with their obedience they might enjoy a covenant relationship within God’s holy presence (e.g., Deut. 28:1–14). This informed social conscience was intended to curb evil behavior (Gal. 3:19). The author of Judges anticipates the need for the law by complaining that “everyone did as they saw fit” (17:6; 21:25).

However, the biblical narrative also makes room for paradoxical situations and competing values, which complicate moral reasoning (e.g., Gen. 38; Judg. 11:29–40). In the law, God expressly forbids child sacrifice, but he commands Abraham to present his son Isaac as a burnt offering (Gen. 22:1–14). On a rooftop Peter receives a vision in which the Lord commands him to kill and eat unclean animals (Acts 10:1–8). In both cases, God tests faith by commanding the believer to betray personal conscience, to open his heart to a fuller revelation of the divine plan. Even the moral reasoning of God is not always straightforward. God is committed to doing right, but he also weighs decisions with compassion and mercy. Abraham and Moses appeal to God’s character, and they are able to intercede on behalf of sinful people (Gen. 18:22–33; Exod. 32). Jonah even comes to despise this quality of God’s character, which appears to compromise justice (4:1–11).

These tensions anticipate the gospel, which claims that God loves sinners and has provided a means to express mercy toward them without compromising justice (Rom. 3:21–26). Like the Mosaic law, the gospel also provides further revelation into God’s will and therefore a more informed conscience. With citations drawn from throughout the OT, Paul claims that all people suffer from a distorted conscience (Rom. 3:9–20). God has spoken to all people through their conscience, but despite this innate awareness of right and wrong, both Jews, who possess God’s commandments, and non-Jews, who know something about God from nature (creation), have compromised their own ethical stance, so that they have only themselves to blame (1:18–32). This universal inner conflict, emphasized by Jesus and Paul, removes appealing to one’s conscience as a means of justification at the future judgment (Mark 7:1–23; Luke 13:1–5, 22–30). Furthermore, this habitual compromising leads to present self-deception and a skewed perception of the world.

But through repentance and faith in the gospel, returning to God (the Creator), a person’s conscience may be renewed and aligned with the mind and actions of Jesus Christ (Rom. 12:1–2; 1 Cor. 2:16). Despite this restoration, the complexity of moral reasoning is not always overcome. Indeed, living in Christ with others from different cultural backgrounds and values often requires deeper reflection. Paul acknowledges that there can be different perceptions by believers, which can lead to different practices. Eating meat that may have been sacrificed to idols is neutral or wrong depending upon one’s conscience and that of the observer (1 Cor. 8:1–3). He applies the same perspective to Jewish calendar observance and food laws (Rom. 14:1–23; but see Gal. 4:8–11). But the apostle also presumes that personal conscience can grow in knowledge. Ultimately, believers’ consciences should be informed by relating everything to the lordship of Christ (Rom. 2:15; 9:1; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:2; 5:11), meditating on the goodness of all creation (Titus 1:10–16), and placing the well-being of others before their own (Phil. 2:1–11).

Forgiveness

Contrary to common uses of the word “forgiveness,” which are highly influenced by modernity’s interest in psychology, the biblical concept identifies forgiveness as a theological issue to be understood in relational categories. Biblically speaking, to forgive is less about changing feelings (emotions) and more about an actual restoration of a relationship. It is about making a wrong right, a process that usually is both costly and painful. To capture the biblical sense, the English word “pardon” may prove more helpful.

Terminology

Principally, God forgives by removing the guilt from transgressors and thereby releasing them from their deserved penalty. The OT term kipper speaks to the covering of sin (Deut. 21:8; Ps. 78:38; Jer. 18:23), and its use in connection with sacrifice signifies the idea of atonement. Like salakh, it communicates exclusively God’s forgiveness of humans (Num. 30:5; Amos 7:2). The term nasa’ refers to the removal of guilt, God lifting the burden of sin from the sinner (Exod. 32:32; Num. 14:19), but it also can be used of forgiveness between humans (Gen. 50:17).

In the NT, verbs such as aphiēmi (noun aphesis) and apolyō connote the idea of sending away or releasing, whereas (epi)kalyptō expresses the idea of covering. Other terms, such as paresis (“passing over” [Rom. 3:25]) further extend the idea of God’s forgiveness: debt is canceled; God is exercising his forbearing love. Paul’s preferred term is charizomai, which underscores the close correlation between grace and forgiveness (Rom. 8:32; Eph. 4:32; Col. 2:13; 3:13).

God’s Forgiveness

Forgiveness expresses the character of the merciful God, who eagerly pardons sinners who confess their sins, repent of their transgressions, and express this through proper actions. Forgiveness is never a matter of a human right; it is exclusively a gracious expression of God’s loving care. Human need for forgiveness stems from actions arising from their fallen nature. These actions (or nonactions), whether done deliberately or coincidentally, destroy people’s relationship with God and can be restored only by God’s forgiving mercy (Eph. 2:1).

Under the Mosaic covenant, sin placed offenders under God’s wrath among the ungodly. Rescue from this fate could be obtained by God’s forgiveness alone, which was attained through repentance and sacrifice. Although sacrifice was necessary to express true repentance, it is a mistake to consider it a payment that could purchase God’s forgiveness (1 Sam. 15:22; Prov. 21:3; Eccles. 5:1; Hos. 6:6). The forgiveness of God remains his free, undeserved gift.

Although the sacrificial system is done away with, or rather completed, through Christ (Heb. 10:12), NT teaching continues to recognize conditions for forgiveness. Since forgiveness restores relationship, the offender remains involved and must desire the restoration (Luke 13:3; 24:47; Acts 2:38). God does not grant his forgiveness without consideration of the offending party.

Jesus expresses this most clearly in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–24). The son rebels against his father, squanders his wealth, and violates their relationship. The gracious and loving father remains willing to restore the relationship, but the reunion does not occur until the prodigal replaces rebellion with repentance; then, before he can even utter his sorrow, the eager father welcomes him back to a restored relationship. God remains free to forgive or not forgive, but sinners can rest assured of God’s relationship-restoring forgiveness when they seek it in repentance. The forgiveness that God grants is full and restores things to an “as before” situation (cf. Ps. 103:12; Jer. 31:34), a point that the older son in the parable (Luke 15:25–32), who exemplifies religious self-righteousness, did not comprehend.

Human Forgiveness

The biblical description of forgiveness between humans is rooted in this theological understanding and articulates a clear analogy between divine and human forgiveness. Human relationship with God provides a pattern for their relationship to each other (Matt. 5:23–24; 6:12, 14–15). They forgive because they have been forgiven (Luke 7:41–47; Col. 3:13). If, or when, their forgiveness of others remains absent, it questions, or even jeopardizes, their own relationship with God (Matt. 18:22–35).

Again, since forgiveness is a theological matter, the one being wronged remains obligated to work for the restoration of the relationship even if the wrongdoer does not repent. The one wronged should seek to win the offender back by showing mercy and eagerness to forgive as learned from God (Rom. 12:19–20). There is no formula for this God-inspired forgiveness and no limit to its zeal. Jesus met Peter’s suggestion that the offer of forgiveness could be exhausted with an unequivocal no (Matt. 18:21–22). The offended must offer forgiveness every time the wrongdoer asks for it (Luke 17:3–4).

Most radical is the biblical mandate to forgive enemies. The OT often follows the common ancient Near Eastern notion that enemies are expressions of foreign deities, whom their own god(s) desires to destroy. It was therefore unimaginable that Israel (or Yahweh) should forgive a pagan god (e.g., Ps. 137:8–9). Jesus transforms this thinking and makes forgiveness a Christian duty (Matt. 5:43–48; cf. Rom. 12:20).

Governor

Old Testament

The English word “governor” is used to translate a number of Hebrew words. The term indicates one who has been designated with authority over a certain region, especially under the rule of a king or emperor. The position of governor is found throughout the Pentateuch, the Writings, and the Prophets. Notable in the OT are the governors appointed by the foreign kings both at home and in occupied territories.

There are several notable governors in the OT. After being sold into slavery in Egypt, Joseph was exalted to governor of Egypt, second only to the king. Thus, his brothers bowed before him (Gen. 42:6). Solomon, during his reign, established twelve governors, each one responsible for supplying provisions to the king one month out of the year (1 Kings 4:7), and Solomon received tribute from them (1 Kings 10:15; 2 Chron. 9:14).

One notable governor was Gedaliah, ruler of the Jewish remnant left in Judah during the deportation, who reported to the king of Babylon (Jer. 40:11). Later, he was assassinated by Ishmael (Jer. 41:2). This provoked great fear, causing some to flee to Egypt (Jer. 41:17–18).

Another notable individual who governed the Jewish people upon their return to Jerusalem after the captivity was Sheshbazzar, governor under Cyrus (Ezra 5:14). He had been entrusted with the vessels for the house of God in Jerusalem that had been taken by Nebuchadnezzar (1:7–8). This same Sheshbazzar had begun building the foundation of the temple by the legal decree of Cyrus the king (5:14–6:6). Subsequently, Zerubbabel (under Darius I) became governor and completed the foundation and the rest of the temple (Ezra 3–6; see also Hag. 1:1–15). He and the other workers are said to have had their spirits stirred to do the work (Hag. 1:14).

Nehemiah, who led the people in restoring the wall of Jerusalem for the safety and restoration of the city, was governor over his people (under Artaxerxes I) and had a true heart of compassion toward the poor. His sympathy for them was so deep that he did not take the regular allotment of food and other goods that the other governors took by right (Neh. 5:14–15). The governors who had gone before ruled and taxed heavily. Nehemiah deemed this an illegitimate way to live among God’s people. At the reading of the law along with Ezra the priest and the other Levites, Nehemiah directed the attention of the people to the proper response to the word of God (Neh. 8:9–10).

New Testament

In the NT, the most common word for governor is hēgemōn. As in the OT, governors were appointed by higher authorities who delegated to them the authority to rule.

The office of governor was very important in Israel during the NT period. Herod the Great had ruled Israel during the years 37–4 BC. At his death in 4 BC, three of his sons took over the kingdom with the approval of Caesar Augustus. Archelaus ruled Judea and Samaria, Herod Antipas (Herod the Tetrarch) was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, and Philip was tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitus (see Luke 3:1; Josephus, J.W. 2.93–97). The Jewish people revolted against Archelaus in the ninth year, and he was stripped of his rulership and banished in AD 6 (Josephus, J.W. 2.111). His kingdom was turned into a Roman province, with Coponius ruling as governor. From this time until the reign of Herod Agrippa I, Judea was ruled by a line of governors (called “prefects” or “procurators”). In AD 41 Herod Agrippa I began to rule and eventually governed roughly the same territory as did Herod the Great, his grandfather. His rule, however, lasted only three years. In the period AD 44–66 governors again ruled in Judea, among them Felix and Festus, with whom the apostle Paul had audience.

Of note among these governors was Pontius Pilate, appointed in AD 26 by Tiberius. Pilate’s fortunes seemed to wax and wane with those of General Sejanus, with whom he shared many political and social views. When he first arrived in Palestine, Pilate provoked protests by secretly bringing army standards bearing the images of Roman emperors—idols in Jewish eyes—into Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. 18.55–59). On another occasion demonstrations broke out when Pilate used money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct for Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. 18.60–62). Pilate sent soldiers to surround and attack the protestors, many of whom were killed. Luke 13:1 refers to a similar episode near the temple mount in which Pilate massacred some Galileans, “whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.” Typical of the Romans, Pilate met protest with ruthless and overwhelming force. At Jesus’ trial, though Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent (John 18:38), he condemned Jesus to crucifixion to avoid antagonizing the religious leaders. This kind of action was characteristic of Pilate. He was an unscrupulous and self-seeking leader who loathed the Jewish leadership but feared antagonizing them. Josephus notes that during the tumult of the Samaritans (to assemble at Mount Gerizim), Pilate put them to flight, killing some of them. The Samaritans complained about Pilate’s murderous ways to Vitellius, who was friendly to them, and he recalled Pilate to Rome to answer before Tiberius, but Pilate took so long getting there that Tiberius was dead when he finally arrived (Josephus, Ant. 18.85–89). Pilate was eventually removed from office, and we hear nothing else from him.

Two other Judean governors who appear in the NT are Felix and Festus, who played a role in the apostle Paul’s trial (Acts 24–26). Felix’s wife, Drusilla, was a Jewess, and she was with him at Paul’s second hearing. On this second occasion Paul reasoned powerfully with Felix, so much so that Felix became frightened about the future and sent Paul away. His fear notwithstanding, Felix sought to exploit the situation for monetary gain (no doubt, bribes were common), but Paul made no response. Two years later Felix was replaced by the next governor, Porcius Festus. Festus heard the defense of Paul (Acts 26) and sent him to Rome after his appeal, though both Festus and Herod agreed that Paul could have been set free had he not appealed to Caesar (Acts 26:30–32).

On one occasion in the NT, the word “governor” is translated from the word ethnarchēs. Aretas of the Nabateans was the ethnarch in Damascus and laid siege to capture the apostle Paul, but Paul escaped through a window in the wall, probably at night (2 Cor. 11:32–33).

As opposed to a governor, a “proconsul” (anthypatos) was a ruler of a senatorial province and so was appointed by the Roman senate rather than the emperor. These provinces were usually more loyal and peaceful and thus had little need of a strong military presence. Such was the case with the proconsul on Cyprus who lived in Paphos, Sergius Paulus. This man is noted by Luke as intelligent and ready to hear the message of Paul and Barnabas. The sorcerer Elymas (Bar-Jesus) sought to turn the proconsul from the faith and so was struck blind at Paul’s command. This Roman proconsul, a man of political stature on Cyprus, then became a believer (Acts 13:4–12). Another proconsul, Gallio, ruled in Achaia during Paul’s sojourn there on his second missionary journey. From information gained from ancient written sources, chiefly the Gallio Inscription, the beginning of his tenure as proconsul in Achaia occurred between AD 50 and 52. When Paul was brought to trial before Gallio, Gallio tossed the case out as a religious squabble (Acts 18:12–16). In another reference to the proconsulate, Paul’s detractors in Ephesus were told by the town secretary to take their complaints against Paul to the proconsuls of that area, lest they be accused of provoking a riot and an illegal assembly (19:38–41).

Jesus himself had previously prophesied that the disciples would testify before kings and governors (Matt. 10:18), something that was fulfilled by Paul as he spoke before Herod, Felix, Festus, and Nero. Additionally, Luke noted Quirinius as the governor of Syria when the first census was taken, around the time of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:2).

The apostles note that the community of faith is to submit to rulers such as governors as they execute their God-ordained task, since the praise of good and punishment of evil is also the interest of the divine creator and ordainer of such persons (1 Pet. 2:14; cf. Rom. 13:1–5). The community of faith is also to pray for all in authority (including governors, though not mentioned specifically), so that the church will be able to lead a quiet existence in godliness (1 Tim. 2:1–2).

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1. A Modern Day Job

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

American culture is a culture of fixing blame -- fixing blame on others. Whenever the President of our land slips a bit the media ask, "Why? Who is to blame?" When our favorite sports team loses, the question is asked, "Why? Who is to blame?" And on and on it goes. We are anxious to fix the blame somewhere. This "blame" culture may nowhere be so clearly seen as in the mountain of court cases brought in our land. It's getting to the point that when anything wrong happens to anyone the first thought is to go to court in order to assign the blame to someone else.

There lives a man whose name is J. B. J. B. is a lot like an Old Testament character named Job. J. B. protests his innocence when anything goes wrong. His method of choice for assigning blame is a lawsuit. J. B. is a rugged, athletic man. He is very proud of his body. He boasts of his feats of strength. So when the local YMCA advertised a "Refrigerator Race" J. B. signed up immediately. In this kind of race a refrigerator is strapped to your back. The one who can move ten yards the most quickly with a refrigerator on his back wins the race. This was just the kind of stuff that J. B. loved. He strapped on the refrigerator and away he went. And then the strap broke. Down came J. B., refrigerator, and all. His back was hurt to be sure. But his pride was hurt more than his back.

"Who is to blame?" J. B. thought. His answer: The company that made the strap. What to do? He thought it over and said, "I'll sue." He sued the strap company for one million dollars. They were to blame. He was innocent. He sued and he won! The blame was not his!

On another occasion J. B.'s equally physical son crashed the seat of a swing into the head of another young man. There was brain damage to the other boy. What was more important to J. B., however, was the damage to his own reputation. "Who is to blame?" J. B. thought. His answer: The company that made the wooden swing seat. What to do? He thought it over and he said, "I'll sue." He sued the company that made the swing seat for making a seat that could hurt someone. They were to blame. He was innocent. He sued and he won! Two million dollars this time! The blame was not his!

J. B. lived in suburbia. He took pride in his house and his yard. One day while he was out working in his yard he noticed that his neighbor, Mike, was also working on his yard. They each paused for a bit in their work and talked over the hedge. They began discussing the fact that the hedge between them needed trimming. Since Mike was standing with his lawn mower, J. B. suggested that they hold the lawn mower up by its four wheels, two men on each side of the hedge, and use the lawn mower as a hedge clipper. Great idea! And it worked -- for a while. Then J. B. stepped into a hole, lost his balance and down he went with the mower on top of him. His hand was badly cut.

As always, J. B.'s first thought was, "Who is to blame?" It just couldn't be his fault. It couldn't be his stupidity. The last place he would think of looking to assign blame was to himself. Who is to blame? The lawn mower company, of course. Nowhere in their directions did they indicate that this machine should not be used as a hedge clipper. What to do? He thought it over and he said, "I'll sue." And sue he did. The lawn mower company was to blame. The court agreed. He was innocent. The blame was not his!

P.S. The legal facts in this parable are true!"

2. Acting Bulletproof

Illustration

John R. Steward

Most people think of AIDS as being transmitted sexually or through intravenous drug use. There are few actual cases of anyone contracting the virus in other ways. However, there is the case of two brothers. One of the brothers had advanced symptoms of AIDS. The other brother was not infected at all with the deadly disease. Then one day the two brothers got into a very violent fight. The infected brother continuously smashed his head against his brother's head. Both men bled a great deal into each other's exposed wounds. Soon after this episode the non-infected brother tested positive for the virus.

It is stories like these that have caused the medical community to revisit how they view sports. The Center for Disease Control did conduct one study a few years ago, reviewing eleven NFL teams playing 155 games. The scientists recorded 575 bleeding injuries. From this they calculated that the risk of getting AIDS on the field was 1 in 85 million. According to official records there has not been a case of transmission on the field to date.

However, minds were challenged again in the sport of boxing. In February of 1996, a boxer by the name of Tommy Morrison announced to the world that he is HIV-positive. It turns out that Tommy had been very active in areas beyond boxing. Because of his fame, which had also extended into some television appearances, Tommy was very attractive to a lot of women. Tommy soon discovered that he could have almost any woman he wanted at any time. Because of this philandering activity, Tommy became HIV-positive.

Tommy Morrison described himself and many others when he tried to explain how this could happen. Yes, he gave the normal reflection that he never thought that this could ever happen to him. No, he was not careful but instead very reckless. Perhaps he stated the situation best when he said, "I thought that I was bulletproof."

Wasn't that the problem that Jesus saw in the many arrogant religious leaders of his day? Isn't that our problem when we try to live lives that are distant from God? Couldn't we say along with Tommy Morrison, "I thought I was bulletproof"?

Adapted by Time (New York City: Time-Life Syndication), February 26, 1996, p. 59.

3. Our Chaotic Life

Illustration

This notice appeared in the window of a coat store in Nottingham, England: "We have been established for over 100 years and have been pleasing and displeasing customers ever since. We have made money and lost money, suffered the effects of coal nationalization, coat rationing, government control and bad payers. We have been cussed and discussed, messed about, lied to, held up, robbed and swindled. The only reason we stay in business is to see what happens next."

4. Suffering and Repentance

Illustration

John Bergland

Trevor Beeson stood at the high altar of Westminster Abbey to celebrate the marriage of his daughter, Catharine, to Anthony, aged twenty-three. Nine months later he stood before the same altar for Anthony's funeral, who was killed when his car ran into a wall in East London. Four months later, Trevor returned to the altar beside the coffin of his friend and hero Earl Mountbatten, who died when his fishing boat was blown to pieces by Irish terrorist. Reflecting on the experience, he said he could not blame God for these senseless tragedies. He wrote:

I should find it impossible to believe in, and worship, a God who arranged for the great servants of the community to be blown up on their holidays and who deliberately turned a young man's car into a brick wall. . .. This is not the God of love whose ways are revealed in the Bible and supremely in the life of Jesus Christ.

Beeson found two insights that helped him to cope with his tragedy and to look beyond it: "The first is that, although God is not responsible for causing tragedy, he is not a detached observer of our suffering. On the contrary, he is immersed in it with us, sharing to the full our particular grief and pain. This is the fundamental significance of the cross."

Second, although we naturally ask, "Why did it happen?" Beeson discovered that the more important question is "What are we going to make of it?"; "Every tragedy contains within it the seeds of resurrection." This is, after all, the whole point of our pilgrimage through Lent, to Good Friday, and Easter morning.

Are those who experience innocent suffering worse than anyone else? Of course not. It can happen to any of us. But is there a connection between innocent suffering and human action? Of course there is, and unless we change our way of living, we may all experience the same suffering. What does Jesus offer us when we experience this kind of suffering? The power of God to hold us firm, to give us strength, and to see us through.

5. Work Hard and Trust in God

Illustration

Carl Jech

Another great way to describe the Christian attitude toward "good works," toward moral and spiritual effort, is to remember the words of Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:10: "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me." We would also do well to make a motto out of a line from Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order. He expressed this same profound paradox when he wrote: "Work hard and struggle as if everything depended on you; yet pray and trust God as if everything depended on God."

6. Our Chaotic Life

Illustration

Staff

7. Judgment and Grace

Illustration

8. Cramming for the Finals

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

Johnny was going home one day past his grandfather's house with a couple of his chums. As they passed the house they spied the old gentleman out on his sun porch in his rocking chair with a big black book (the bible) on his lap reading rather intently.

"What's your grandfather doing", asked one of Johnny's friends.

"Oh, grandpa - he's cramming for the finals", Johnny replied.

Our Lord and Savior is patient with us my friends. He cultivates us and tends to us, even when we ignore him, even when we fail to trust him, even when we produce nothing for him.

But not forever can we put off the day when we are called home for the finals - home to account for what we have done and what we have not done.

9. You Got Them Today Preacher!

Illustration

C. Robert Allred

A young and fearless preacher had a problem with a somewhat worldly parishioner who would remark sarcastically every Sunday as he shook the preacher's hand at the door, "You got them today preacher!" Sunday after Sunday this fellow never seemed to feel that he needed to repent and always felt that the sermon was for everybody else. Then one Sunday there was a bad snow storm and the preacher and this one fellow were the only ones that could show up. The preacher seized the opportunity and preacher his entire three point sermon on, "Hell, Fire, and Damnation." Well, the one congregant again walked out the door and shook the preacher's hand and said, "If they had been here today preacher, you would have gotten them real good!"

10. Bad Luck

Illustration

Medieval theologians argued that since a ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle and a triangle is a symbolic reminder of the Holy Trinity, anyone who carelessly blunders through this mystical space is risking divine wrath! Even when that argument lost itself in history's muddle, condemned Englishmen about to be hanged at Tyburn or some other notable place of execution were required to walk under the ladder that stood against the gallows for convenience of the executioner. In those circumstances, you could say the man was certainly in for a spell of very bad luck.

11. Ice Cream for the Soul

Illustration

James W. Moore

Tim Bruster tells a powerful story about a mom who took her children to a crowded restaurant one day. Her six-year-old son asked if he could say the grace. He prayed: “God is great and God is good, Let us thank him for the food, and God I would thank you even more if Mom gets us ice cream for dessert. And liberty and justice for all! Amen!” Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby, the woman at the very next table growled loudly: “That’s what’s wrong with this country. Kids today don’t even know how to pray. The very idea… asking God for ice cream! Why I never.”

Hearing this, the little six-year-old boy burst into tears and he asked his mother: “Did I do it wrong? I’m sorry. Is God mad at me?” The little boy’s mother pulled him over into her lap. She hugged him tightly and assured him that he had done a terrific job with his prayer and God was certainly not mad at him. Just then an elderly gentleman walked over to the table. He winked at the little boy and he said: “I know God really well. We visit every day and I happen to know that God loved your prayer. It may have been the best one He has heard all day.” “Really?” the little boy asked.. “Cross my heart,” said the man. Then he leaned over and whispered into the little boy’s ear. Pointing at the woman at the next table who had made the remark that started the whole thing, he said: “Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes.”

Naturally, the mom ordered ice cream for her kids at the end of the meal. The little six-year-old boy stared at his for a moment and then he did something that no one in that restaurant that day will ever forget. He picked up his sundae and without a word walked over and placed it in front of the woman at the next table. With a big smile he said to her: “Here, this is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes and my soul is good already!’ The people in the restaurant applauded and somewhere in heaven Jesus was smiling… because that little boy had already learned how to look at others with the eyes of sacrificial love. Sight (true sight) is always a matter of the heart… not the eyes.

12. ‘Goodness Sakers’

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

H.G. Wells once wrote an essay on a tribe of people he called the "Goodness Sakers". These were the folks who when they saw something that needed to be done, or when they saw a social evil, or detected some moral shortcoming, would stand around and wring their hands and say, "For goodness sakes, why doesn't someone do something about this?"

I know a lot of "goodness-sakers". They're always saying "for goodness sake, something ought to be done." But they never get around to sharing in the doing of it. So the obvious truth of the parable is that unfruitfulness is not allowed God's vineyard. Uselessness is a sin because it means that when we are useless we fall short of God's intention for us.

13. How Can God Know All About Us?

Illustration

Unknown

A man named Gerhard Dirks, the "father of the modern computer," was one who had to face up to life's most important question. During the years of the Second World War he made many inventions that led to the development of the first computers. He and his family escaped from Hitler's Germany and later Russian occupation to the west. He was a brilliant man, reported to have an IQ of 208. He had over 140 patents with IBM and even attempted theoretically to reconstruct the human brain. But he became completely bewildered and shaken when confronted with the complexity and utter impossibility of such a reconstruction. He didn't know what to do or where to run. He had to face a choice: Either the human brain came about by a fantastic chance or by intelligent planning. Dirks re-established contact with an old friend and found out this friend had become a Christian. He saw the change in this man from being selfish and impatient to being patient and at peace. But, Dirks clung to his atheism because he could not understand how God can know all about us, every person in the entire world. He couldn't understand where God could possibly store all the information about every person that ever lived.

Dirks went with his friend to a discussion group where a man talked about God. Someone asked "What do you say to someone who thinks they are not a sinner?" The leader of the meeting told the man to take four pieces of paper and number them 1 to 4 and write a list of things on each piece of paper. On page 1, he said: write down every time you can remember when you said "yes" and meant "no" or said "no" and meant "yes." Then write down every time you can remember when you told an outright lie. Write down every time you gave someone a shady answer, every time you made a promise and broke it and every time you made a promise and never intended to keep it.

On page 2 write what it is that you hide from everybody. You don't have to show this to anyone, but to yourself. And, write down something that, if anyone found out about it, something inside you would wither.

On page 3 he said make a list of friends to whom you have done something that you would not want them to do to you. Never mind if they did something to provoke you, just put down your part.

On page 4 write the names of the people for whom you have done something good, and done it without hope of any compensation or reward of any kind. He then said "I think that any man who does that honestly will see that he is a sinner and that he is desperately in the need of salvation. He will know that the sin and the wrong he has written down is only the tip of an iceberg."

Dirks went home and did it, and the imbalance between paper 4 and papers 1, 2, and 3 were self-evident. He had to admit he was a sinner. And, suddenly it hit him. He knew where God stored data. He got his answer without even looking for it. God stored the information about Dirks IN DIRKS. Everything he had ever thought, seen, heard, said, done - everything was there in his own mind. He was his own "file." Every human being was his own "file." Now, he lost all his excuses for not believing in the Savior. People CAN change, because he saw the real changes in his friend. And, there is information for a final judgment - because every person carries his own data. He realized that he did not like himself and the way he lived. Just like when a computer has errors he needed to be "debugged." He fell onto his knees and prayed "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me and wash me in your blood."

In a few minutes he stopped crying. He knew that something had happened. A wall had come down, the wall that had stood between him and his Creator. He hadn't known the wall was there, until it came down. It was the wall that Christ had demolished. Now, for the first time in his life, he knew what it meant to have fellowship with his Heavenly Father. Then he thought, it wasn't a wall, it was more like a sphere made of stone - a sphere that formed a prison. It had kept him in, and God out. He was now free of that prison!

14. Repentance

Illustration

Paul Lee Tan

The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be joined face-to-face with a dead body, and to bear it about until the horrible effluvia destroyed the life of the living victim. Virgil describes this cruel punishment:

The living and the dead at his command
Were coupled face to face, and hand to hand;
Till choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied,
The lingering wretches pined away and died.

Without Christ, we are shackled to the dead corpse of our sinfulness. Only repentance frees us from certain death, for life and death cannot coexist indefinitely.

15. Dead Works

Illustration

Stephen Craig Jennings

Simply changing outward behavior is not repentance. We at times change our behavior for self-centered reasons. Sometimes we change in an attempt to atone for my sins. Such change will only make my sinfulness more sinful.

This is the basis for the reference in Hebrews of repenting from ‘dead works'. A dead work is a work that is not done with the leading and empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Hence any good work a non-Christian would attempt is a dead work. And many types of good works that Christians do could be devoid of the Spirit's leading and empowerment.

A dead work is giving to charity because it is a good tax break.
It is going to church because it is good for my business reputation or my resume or my politics.
It is tithing because I am afraid God will ‘get me' if I don't.
It is sending my kids to a Christian school, not because I want them to learn the truths of the Christian faith and surrender their lives to the Lordship of Christ, but because there they will run in the right crowd.
It is the giving up of a sinful habit, not because I want to be controlled by the Spirit of God instead of the habit, but because the habit inhibits my performance at work and is harming my professional reputation.

In all these ways, I have actually changed, but the change has not accomplished what Jeremiah said was impossible:

Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil.

16. The Evening News

Illustration

Frank G. Honeycutt

Imagine for a moment that Jesus is watching television with his twelve disciples. They're on furlough from teaching and healing, taking it easy in the living room of Peter's mother-in-law, doing a little mindless channel surfing. Maybe they catch a little of an NCAA Tournament game, March Madness. These are guys, you know, just relaxing from a demanding schedule.

But eventually the evening news comes on. They put down the popcorn and listen intently to the day's tragedies. One disciple says, "Hey, Jesus, that horrible bombing over in France where that guy drove a bus into a crowd of people. Do you think that because these people in Paris suffered in this way, they were worse sinners than the rest?" It was a popular question in Jesus' day. Still is. If something bad happened, it must have been for a reason. Jesus scratches his beard for a moment. "No, they didn't die because of anything they did. It was a purely random thing. But let me tell you something. Unless you guys clean up your acts, you'll die just as tragically."

There is a low murmur in the room. The disciples look at each other like Jesus has missed his morning medication. As two begin to leave to find a bathroom, the newscaster reports another catastrophe, this one halfway across the world. Jesus pipes up this time. "Hey, guys," he says, "those people over in El Salvador. What about them? The earthquake that hit there killed hundreds of people. Does that mean that these Salvadorans were worse sinners than their neighbors in Guatemala?" Jesus waits for his question to sink in. "No, the tragedy had nothing to do with their morals. Those people were just in the way when an earthquake hit." The disciples breathe a sigh of relief, gladdened to know that God doesn't work that way. But then Jesus looks at them all. "Let me tell you something, though. Unless you people start going in the right direction, you will share a similar fate as those Salvadorans and it will seem like a building falling on your head to crush the life out of you." I believe somebody got up and changed the channel after that.

17. Yes, But How?

Illustration

Lee Griess

A friend of mine tells a story about a man who borrowed a book from an acquaintance. As he read through it, he was intrigued to find parts of the book underlined with the letters YBH written in the margin. When he returned the book to the owner, he asked what the YBH meant. The owner replied that the underlined paragraphs were sections of the book that he basically agreed with. They gave him hints on how to improve himself and pointed out truths that he wished to incorporate into his life. However, the letters YBH stood for "Yes, but how?"

And that's the question for us this morning: "Yes, but how?" "I ought to know how to take better care of myself, but how?" "I know I ought to spend more time in scripture reading and prayer, but how?" "I know I ought to be more sensitive to others, more loving of my spouse, more understanding of the weaknesses of others, but how?" These are all good qualities and we know that, but how can we acquire them? As Christian people we know the kind of life we ought to live, and most of us have the best of intentions to do so, but how? We are afraid because we know where the road paved with only good intentions leads!

This morning we hear Jesus' parable of the fig tree, telling us to repent and bear good fruit. We know what the Christian life requires of us and yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we also know how far short we fall. So the question that confronts us this morning is: "Yes, but how?"

18. Using Up the Ground

Illustration

Jerry Goebel

Soil was at a premium in Israel. It was not unusual for a vineyard owner to give a little bit of his soil up for a fruit tree but the tree took up the best soil, the deepest soil, and required the most water. A fig tree doesn't grow fruit until three years after planting. The owner in this story, had given the tree "due season" to bear fruit and yet the tree bore no fruit. It took up valuable space and resources. The owner questioned why the tree was allowed to "even use up ground."

God had given the Israelites the choicest ground. Their land possessed everything necessary to make themselves a great nation, indeed, a light to all nations. They were strategically positioned to send the fruit of God north and south, east and west; but instead, in-fighting continued to make them a worthless fruit tree.

Every one of us and all of our churches will have to answer (from God's perspective) this same question; "Why does it even use up the ground?"

19. He Has One More Move

Illustration

William Beausay

A story is told of former world chess champion Bobby Fischer when he was a young boy. His mother took him to a museum, and he happened upon a painting that caught his eye. It depicted a bedraggled, exhausted older man slumped over a chessboard. Few of his pieces were left on the board, and he was conceding the game. On the other side of the board was his fresh and snappy opponent, Satan.The painting was entitled Checkmate. Already a chess prodigy, young Bobby Fischer stood looking at the painting for a long time. His mother soon tired of it and moved around the remainder of the gallery, finally returning to find Bobby still entranced by that painting. "Come now, Bobby, we have to go." Bobby Fischer did not stop staring, thinking. One more time his mother insisted, "Bobby, we have to go. Come now!" "But, Mom," he pleaded, "he has one more move!"

What the lay eye could not see the trained eye did. The painter had intentionally left an option open for the old man that he could not see. Fisher did. There IS always an option open to us, even in the face of our fiercest opponent. Satan cannot checkmate God!

20. Not Nearly as Big a Man

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

It seems that the University of Tennessee coach bought a bolt of cloth thinking he would have a suit made out of it. He took the material to his tailor in Knoxville where the tailor measured him, examined the bolt of cloth, did some computations on a piece of paper, and said, "I'm sorry, coach, there just isn't enough material in this bolt to make a suit for you." The coach was disappointed, but he threw the bolt of cloth in the trunk of his car, wondering what he was going to do with it.

A couple of weeks later he was in Tuscaloosa, Alabama the home of the Crimson Tide arch enemies of the Vols. He was on his way to the coast for a vacation. Driving down the main street in Tuscaloosa, he noticed a tailor shop, which reminded him that he had that bolt of cloth in the trunk. He stopped, thinking he would give it a try. He told the tailor he had bought this bolt of cloth and wondered if he could do anything with it. The tailor measured him, measured the bolt of cloth, did some computations. Finally he said, "Coach, I can make you a suit out of this bolt. What's more, I can make you an extra pair of pants. And if you really want it, I can give you a vest out of this, too." The coach was dumbfounded. "I don't understand," he said. "My tailor in Knoxville told me he couldn't even make one suit out of this bolt of cloth." The tailor said, "Coach, here in Tuscaloosa, you are not nearly as big a man as you are in Knoxville."

I tell the story to make the point that things are not always what they seem. Our Scripture lesson the parable of the fig tree is clearly a parable of judgment. But at the very heart of it is a marvelous word of grace.

21. Lewis on the Importance of Salvation

Illustration

John Piper

C. S. Lewis, the brilliant English scholar and Christian writer died the same day President John Kennedy did. Even today his books on the Christian faith are being reprinted by the thousands. One of the reasons I think God so greatly blessed the ministry of C. S. Lewis, and still blesses it, is that Lewis never had an elitist, artsy love for fine literature or fine music or fine culture in any form, though he himself was a great artist. In his life everything is subordinate to the salvation of lost sinners.

I find what he says a tremendous inspiration to keep the perishing before our eyes as we do our work and pray how God would use us to wake them up. Listen to Lewis for the sake of your own ministry:

"It is hardly possible for [us] to think too often or too deeply about [the glory] of our neighbor. . . It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit immortal horrors or everlasting splendors." (The Weight of Glory, pp. 14f.)

So he says of his own scholarly discipline:

"The Christian will take literature a little less seriously than the cultured Pagan. . . The Christian knows from the outset that the salvation of a single soul is more important than the production or preservation of all the epics and tragedies in the world." (Christian Reflections, p. 10)

This tips us off to what C. S. Lewis' life was really devoted to. In 1952 and American liberal theologian criticized Lewis for using simple analogies to try to shed some light on the Trinity. Lewis' response was passionate and shows where his heart really was in all his work:

"Most of my books are evangelistic, addressed to [those outside]. I was writing to the people not to the clergy. Dr. Pittinger would be a more helpful critic if he advised a cure as well as asserting many diseases. How does he himself do such work? What methods, and with what success, does he employ when he is trying to convert the great mass of storekeepers, lawyers, realtors, morticians, policeman and artisans who surround him in his own city?" (God in the Dock, pp. 181-3)

22. Never Give Up!

Illustration

Brett Blair

In the middle of WWII on October 29, 1941 Winston Churchill delivered a short address at the Harrow School. England had been through some of its darkest days. But Churchill was equal to the task. He said to the students:

"You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period - I am addressing myself to the School - surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated.

[Churchill continues:] Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer."

The church at times forgets that this is also God's message. God has promised never to give up on us. Old Testament and New Testaments together, are a record of how God never, never, never, gave up.

Adam and Eve disobeyed the very First Rule. But God never gave up.
Abraham wandered, and Sarah laughed. But God never gave up.
Moses hid and shook with fear. But God never gave up.
Saul went insane. But God never gave up.
David plotted against Uriah. But God never gave up.
Ahaz sold out to Assyria. But God never gave up.
Israel fell into pieces. But God never gave up.
The Jewish people became exiles. But God never gave up.
John the Baptist was beheaded. But God never gave up.
Peter denied he even knew him. But God never gave up.
The disciples all ran away. But God never gave up.

God never, never, never gave up and he has not given up today!

23. Becoming What We Are

Illustration

King Duncan

Somerset Maugham said it best in his autobiography, Summing Up, "I knew that I had no lyrical quality, a small vocabulary, little gift of metaphor. The original and striking simile never occurred to me. Poetic flights...were beyond my powers. On the other hand, I had an acute power of observation, and it seemed to me that I could see a great many things that other people missed. I could put down in clear terms what I saw...I knew that I should never write as well as I could wish, but I thought, with pains, that I could arrive at writing as well as my natural defects allowed." Somerset Maugham discovered the secret of genius.

The point is that life does not ask us to become what we are not. The fig tree was only required to produce figs. No more. You and I are asked only to accomplish what our natural gifts allow, but we are asked to accomplish just that.

24. Two Kinds of Life and Death

Illustration

John R. Brokhoff

Two Kinds of Life: The Greeks had two words for "life" and both appear in the New Testament. One is bios from which we get "biology." It refers to biological and physical life. It is not true life but mere existence. This is life in terms of quantity and extension. Methuselah, the oldest man in the Bible, had this kind of life. He lived 969 years, but there is no record of any contribution he made to the welfare of society.

The other Greek word is zoe. It is used to denote true life, the quality of life. It is spiritual life with God as the source of life. While bios is temporal, zoe is eternal. The one deals with the body and the other with the soul. But this eternal life also has quantity, for it extends through eternity. To distinguish this type of life from the former, the New Testament uses "eternal life."

Two Kinds of Death: As there are two kinds of life, there are two kinds of death. The bios type of life ends in physical death. The body declines, deteriorates, and dies. This is in accord with the natural order, for all living things die, including Homo sapiens. If a human were only a physical body, the person would come to an end. In this case, death has the last word and is the ultimate victor over life.

There is another kind of death. The Bible speaks of death in terms of separation from God. "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4). Sin is the dreadful agent that separates us from God. To be apart from God, from life, love, joy, and peace, is to be dead. Does this mean that the soul is exterminated or extinguished? If so, there would be a merciful nothingness. However, the Bible teaches that a soul apart from God, living in death, is in hell, a state of misery. Paul describes the condition in hell: "They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" (2 Thessalonians 1:9). As there is eternal life, there is also everlasting death. It is to save us from this fate that God gave his Son to die for us and to reinstate us with God in whom we have eternal life. The scriptures repeatedly assure us that God does not want a single soul to perish or to be lost or to go to hell. In Christ, God the Father gave his very self to prevent people from going to everlasting death.

25. DEATH: THE SAD CELEBRATION

Illustration

John H. Krahn

Before one becomes very old there comes the startling realization that one day you will die. Death is the universal enemy of humankind. Although life has been extended through medicine, all eventually die. Death is always decisive. It holds the only perfect winning record.

But for the Christian, death loses some of its sting. It loses the sting of finality and eternal separation from loved ones. There is no sadness for us who die in the Lord. It is replaced by a wonderful, eternal life with God. There is only sadness for those who remain, for when someone loves, then loses, they grieve because they first loved.

Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection is still the most important news for humankind. With the empty tomb, death was put to death. Jesus now gives each of us the possibility of an eternal lease on life. We simply must claim his promises for our lives.

I like to think of life as a long hallway with a door at each end. We have all gone through the first door called birth. Someday we will all pass through the second called death. For each of us the hallway is a different length. For some it is very short: three years, ten years, twenty-one years. For others somewhat longer: thirty-three, forty-seven, fifty-eight years. Still others, rather long: sixty-six, seventy-eight, ninety years. The length of the hallways is not as important as what happens in our lives.

As we meet and know Christ in the hallway of life, he has promised to know us in death. Then as we pass through that second door we are assured of his company. Jesus goes with us and takes us to the celebration of the saved in the Father’s house.

For those who die in the Lord, death is never a funeral march to the grave but a triumphant march to the throne of God.

26. The Iniquity of us All

Illustration

James Packer

Why did the Father will the death of his only beloved Son, and in so painful and shameful a form? Because the Father had "laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). Jesus' death was vicarious (undergone in our place) and atoning (securing remission of sins for us and reconciliation to God). It was a sacrificial death, fulfilling the principle of atonement taught in connection with the Old Testament sacrifices: "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Heb. 9:22; Lev. 17:11).

As the "last Adam," the second man in history to act on mankind's behalf, Jesus died a representative death. As a sacrificial victim who put away our sins by undergoing the death penalty that was our due, Jesus died as our substitute. By removing God's wrath against us for sin, his death was an act of propitiation (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2,; 4:10 "expiation," signifying that which puts away sin, is only half the meaning). By saving us from slavery to ungodliness and divine retribution for sin, Jesus' death was an act of redemption (Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19). By mediating and making peace between us and God, it was an act of reconciliation (Rom. 5:10-11). It opened the door to our justification (pardon and acceptance) and our adoption (becoming God's sons and heirs Rom. 5:1,9; Gal. 4:4-5).

This happy relationship with our Maker, based on and sealed by blood atonement, is the "New Covenant" of which Jesus spoke in the Upper Room (1 Cor. 11:25; Matt. 26:28).

27. Death and Resurrection

Illustration

We, as human beings, whoever we are and whatever station in life we are in, all stand on common ground when we realize that we all at sometime in life fear death, we all live in the presence of death, that all men, in some way or another, have been hurt by death. And it does not only touch the life of the elderly. In his preface of "Bread For the World", Author Simon reminds us that before we complete reading this brief preface that four people in the world will have died of starvation, most of them children. So no matter who you are, whether you are in the sunset years and expect to live fewer years than you have lived to date, or whether you are just beginning life's journey—death is real. All of the wars in the world have not increased the death toll by one. It robs people of valuable years of their life but it in no way increases the death toll, for all of us, one day, shall have to go through the experience of death.

I have always wondered about the cynics and non-believers. What do they do at Easter? Have you ever wondered about that. On that day when the Christian church joyfully celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what do they do. Humanism is all right for the classroom, but it leaves you nothing at an icy graveside. It is precisely at that point that Christianity responds: Yes, we shall see our loved ones again and all be reunited.

Some demand that they need proof and documentation. I wonder what kind proof that they desire. There is more documented evidence that Jesus Christ rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived. There is more evidence of the resurrection than there is that Alexander the Great died at age 33. I have always found it interesting that some will accept thousands of facts for which there are only shreds of evidence, but in the face of overwhelming evidence of the resurrection they cast a skeptical doubt, because it is so unique. We say that we want the facts. Well the facts are that in the history of the ancient world the resurrection has been attested to as much as most of the events that we routinely accept and read in the history books.

In the early nineties the ABC news show 20/20 had an interesting segment on the shroud of Turin. If you were completely out of touch at that time and have not heard of the shroud of Turin, let me tell you that it is supposed to be the cloth that Jesus was buried in. And on this cloth is an imprint of the person of Jesus. It is now housed in a cathedral in Turin, Italy. Several years ago an international team of scientists, consisting of Christians, Jews, Moslems, and non-believers, set about to prove or disprove the story behind this ancient cloth. The results of their findings were published in an issue of National Geographic magazine.

The interesting thing to me about the 20/20 story was an interview that they had with one of the scientists, an Air Force colonel who was a specialist in laser technology. He openly admitted that he began the project not only as a non-Christian, but as a person who was openly anti-religious. I relished this opportunity, he said, to debunk what I considered a childish myth. Haraldo Rivera asked him: Now that you have spent four years on this project what is your response. His response not only shocking, but it was shocking that 20/20 allowed it to go on the air. He said: After four years on this project, I now fall upon my knees and worship a resurrected Christ.

It would be nice if we could hold some physical evidence in our hands to prove it all, but I would mislead you this Easter Day if I left the impression that the resurrection was a matter of fact. For in the end, the resurrection is a religious belief. In the end you cannot prove it or disprove it. And that is why some brilliant people believe and why some brilliant people do not believe. Because you cannot prove it one way or the other. There just are not any photographs. In the end we must fall back upon the words of the resurrected Christ to the disciple Thomas: Thomas, you have believed because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.

28. Playing at Little Games

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Tonight, Shanghai is burning,
And we’re dying, too.
What bomb more surely mortal
Than death inside of you?
For some men die by shrapnel,
And some go down in flames,
But most men perish inch by inch,
In play at little games.

What could be more descriptive of our flabby indifference -- the little games we play from day to day, our obsession with material security, our neurotic efforts to be accepted by the crowd, the fanatical devotion we give to seeking entertainment. But most men perish inch by inch in play at little games.

The daily routine interests of our lives tell the story of who we really are. How we spend our money, our time, our energy, what we read, what we give our attention to, are all the tell-tale marks of who we are. Take a look at yourself. Are you perishing inch by inch in play at little games?

29. Jesus Brings Life

Illustration

Will Willimon

With whom do you most identify in today's gospel? There are plenty of characters here who are being stung by death. There is a woman whose whole life has been caught, dominated by a terrible, life-demanding illness. There is a distraught father. A little girl whose young life is being cut short. There are the baffled disciples, the crowd who doesn't know what to think of all this. Where are you?

And yet, intruding into the story is another face, the strong, live-giving face of Jesus. Mark says that Jesus was forever intruding into fixed, settled, hopeless situations and bringing life. Hear his strong voice speaking over the laments and dirges in today's gospel? Hear him as he calls to the little girl, "Get up!"

I think he may be calling to you. "Get up!" His voice is strong, commanding, vital. "Get up!" You have perhaps heard his comforting, soft voice before, stilling the waves of the storm, bringing peace to troubled waters. Now hear his other voice, that strong, shattering, enlivening voice. Evoking "fear and trembling" (verse 33) in all who heard it that day, it may do the same for us. Life is frightening, when it intrudes into the realm of death. Hear his voice now. I think it is a shout. There is so much death. We are asleep with death so it takes a loud voice to wake us.

The great tower of the CastleChurch in Wittenberg overlooks the church where Luther preached and is today buried.

On the anniversary of the Reformation the Socialist government took it upon itself to paint, in large, tasteless letters, a quote for the first line of Luther's famous hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God, a bulwark never failing."

Believers in Wittenberg, for whom the words were more than an advertising slogan, whispered among themselves "The communists should have quoted from the first line of the second verse of the hymn, 'If we on our own strength confide, our striving would be loosing.'"

And it's true. Left to our own devices, we are caught, trapped, dead. Face facts. There's a lot of deadness out there and in here.

But Jesus does not leave us be. In this story, we don't have to wait to Easter for life to intrude and death to be defeated. Get up! he says. In the name of Jesus Christ, the victor over pain and death, enslavement and despair, Get up!

30. Eluding Death

Illustration

Michael P. Green

The story is told of a certain man who was walking in his neighborhood when he came face to face with Death. He noticed an expression of surprise on the creature’s horrid countenance, but they passed one another without speaking. The fellow was frightened and went to a wise man to ask what should be done. The wise man told him that Death had probably come to take him away the next morning. The poor fellow was terrified at this and asked how ever he could escape.

The only solution the two could think of was that the victim should drive all night to a distant city and so elude Death. So the man drove to the other city—it was a terrible journey that had never been done in one night before—and when he arrived he congratulated himself on having eluded death.

Just then, Death came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Excuse me,” he said, “but I have come for you.”

“Why,” exclaimed the terrified man, “I thought I saw you yesterday near my home!”

“Exactly,” said Death. “That was why I looked surprised—for I had been told to meet you today in this city.”

31. GOD - THE STILL POINT IN A TURNING WORLD

Illustration

John H. Krahn

I believe that most of us are experiencing the crunch - the crunch of living - of doing business on the planet called Earth. The simple life has somehow eluded our grasp - even things that we could once take for granted like enough gas for our cars, sufficient oil for our homes, uninterrupted education for our children, and the prospect for a raise that would provide us a little higher standard of living - these things are no longer commonplace.

Often we are tempted to ask the question, "Where is God in this whole mess of living?" And the answer, I believe, is that God is the still point in a turning, increasingly chaotic world. God can still bring calm to chaos; he is still a source of hope in the face of despair; with him we can even snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Yes, God is the still point in a turning world.

The psalmist knew that, for the world of chaos was turning even in his day. He said it this way, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult." God is the only answer to chaos, for he is our refuge and strength. From him alone we can receive strength to go on. He is the source from which we must draw the power to overcome. There is no situation that can be deemed impossible, a lost cause, or insolvable as long as we continue to entreat the help of the Almighty. "We shall not fear," the psalmist says, even if our whole world is blowing up around us, for the Lord is still with us; he has not abandoned us.

"Be still, and know that I am God," the psalmist continues. Oil isn’t God. Cancer isn’t God. Money isn’t God. Yahweh, the God of Jacob, is God. He is still present, he has not abandoned the world. He is the author of life and love, so he doesn’t send cancer, sickness, or death. He doesn’t place greed and anger in the hearts of people; chaos and grief are not from him. He is the still point in the turning world; his love is constant - it doesn’t change.

Only the fool says in his heart there is no God. Only the fool tries to go the world alone. Martin Luther looked at all the pressures of his life one day and said, "I have so much to do today, that there will be no chance of getting it all done unless I spend at least four hours in prayer."

If your life is crowded, if grief or worry is consuming too much of your world, return to the still point and seek refuge in God. Receive renewed strength from the God of our fathers who spared not even his only Son so that we could not only have victory after death but also victory in life. Be still, and know that God is still God.

32. Mr. Hooper Is Dead

Illustration

Brett Blair

In the summer of 1981, Will Lee, the actor who played an adult character named Mr. Hooper on the children's television show SESAME STREET, died. This posed a difficult set of issues for The Children's Television Workshop, producers of the show. Should they deal at all with the subject of death? If so, how would they explain it to their 10 million viewers, most of whom are under the age of six? A staff writer describes it this way: "We asked ourselves: What do we want the kids to know? What can they absorb? What might open up things we can't answer? We try to create boundaries around what we can safely teach without doing any damage."

Child-development experts who specialize in loss and separation provided some specific don'ts for dealing with death on the show: Don't say Mr. Hooper got sick and died, because you don't always die when you get sick. Don't say he was old, because children think their parents are old. Don't say he went to the hospital and died, because people go to the hospital all the time. The staff also decided to avoid religious issues, such as saying that Mr. Hooper had gone to heaven. What about the do's? Early on they decided they were going to say a few basic things. He's gone--acknowledge the reality. He won't be back. He'll be missed.

They also wanted the cast to express how they felt about Will. And they wanted the kids to know that death stimulates a full range of emotions. You're sad, you're angry, you're frustrated--all at the same time. The show that resulted aired on Thanksgiving so that parents could watch with their children.

In one segment, Big Bird walks on camera and says to the cast: "I just drew pictures of all my grown-up friends on Sesame Street and I'm going to give them to you." He passes out sketches and the cast members ooh and ahh over the likenesses. He's left with Mr. Hooper's picture. "I can't wait till he sees it," says Big Bird. "Say, where is he? I want to give it to him."

One cast member explains: "Big Bird, don't you remember? We told you . . . Mr. Hooper died. He's dead."

Big Bird says, "Oh yeah, I remember. Well . . . I'll give it to him when he comes back." Another cast member gets up from her chair and touches Big Bird saying, "Big Bird, Mr. Hooper's not coming back."

"Why not?" Big Bird asks innocently.

"Big Bird," explains the cast member, "when people die, they don't come back."

No they don't. That is the sad reality Big Bird that you and I learn as we grow older. But hidden under the dirt of the grave is a story, told in the death of Mary and Martha's brother, told in the death of Jesus their friend, told in the death of everyone of you brothers and sisters of Jesus. Resurrection! It is the greatest unfinished story of our times. Its author is penning the finish even as we speak. It is His story. He knows the conclusion. The curtain will soon fall. And then shall begin the end that shall not end. Resurrection! It's almost Easter Big Bird…and Easter tells me they do come back. Amen.

33. The Sting of Death

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

The master preacher Donald Grey Barnhouse was widowed at a young age. The death of his wife left him and a six-year-old daughter in the home. He had real difficulty working through his own grief, but the hardest part was to comfort and explain the death to his daughter. He later recalled that all of his education and theological training left him at a loss.

One day he and the little girl were standing on a busy corner at a downtown intersection waiting for a light to change. Suddenly a very large truck sped by the comer, briefly blocking out the sun and frightening the little girl.

To comfort her, Dr. Barnhouse picked her up, and in a moment, the wisdom of God broke through and he was able to explain to his daughter:

"When you saw the truck pass it scared you, but let me ask you, had you rather be struck by the truck or the shadow of the truck?" She replied, "Of course, the shadow."

He went on to explain that when "your mother died, she was only hit by the shadow of death because Jesus was hit by the truck (death)."

The Psalmist reminds us that God is with us even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

34. The Peace that Jesus Gives

Illustration

Lee Griess

There is a road in southern Italy that begins in the city of Eboli and ends in the mountain village of Gagliano. To anyone who makes that journey, it is an ascent to hell. Gagliano is no more than a scattered cluster of fallen down whitewashed old buildings, hanging desperately to barren slopes near a rocky cliff. The village has been there for centuries and for as far back as the oldest person can remember it has always been a place of severe poverty, unrelenting disease, frightening superstition, monotonous despair, and death. Oppressed and defeated by those conditions, it is said that the peasants of Gagliano do not sing and there is a saying among them that "Christ stopped in Eboli," that somehow God had forgotten them and Christ stopped at the other end of the road. Because hope and joy, the fullness of human life that God means for us to have, are not found there, the road to Gagliano is a road that leads to hell.

Likewise, there are some stairs in a New York City tenement that go up six flights to an apartment that houses a family of ten -- a grandmother, her two daughters and their seven children. Anyone who has climbed those stairs and shared in the experiences of that family this past year has made an ascent to hell. Unemployed, with few or no job skills, the family subsists on welfare payments and the meager wages one daughter brings home from work at a fast-food restaurant. Often the heat does not work and there is no hot water. Many days there is no food, for alcohol and drugs often eat up their money. Five days before Christmas, while the grandmother was down on the first floor to fetch the mail, one of the little boys climbed up on the gas stove, turned it on and set himself ablaze. While the rest of the world was singing "Joy to the World," that family, already dead to the world around them, mourned the painful death of one of their children.

In another part of the world, there is a trail in eastern Turkey that winds its way through the rocky barrens to the squalor of a refugee camp. Here thousands of people are housed in makeshift tents -- tattered blanket homes. If you were to take that road and visit those camps, you would hike yourself into hell. Sickness and disease are rampant there. Death is a frequent visitor where fresh water and food are scarce and sanitary conditions are unheard of. The people who live in those camps are trapped -- unable to move forward into Turkey and, because of war and fighting behind, unable to go back to their homes.

In this so-called modern world, which is supposed to be undergoing a revolution of change in the direction of a "new world order," so many of its roads lead not up, or forward, into the future, but back and down into hell. Sickness stalks the streets of Zaire under the name of the Ebola virus. In fact, all over our world, and even here in the United States, there are streets and stairways, elevators and superhighways that lead to hell, places of evil where people are trapped in boredom, bigotry, loneliness, leukemia, poverty, psychosis, despair, and death.

Trouble is all about us and the words of Saint Paul ring true when he wrote, "Outwardly we are wasting away. Daily we are being given over to death." To us Jesus speaks this morning, saying, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled. Neither let them be afraid."

35. For He Shall Save His People - Sermon Starter

Illustration

I have a Christmas dilemma. When I was a kid there was no Christmas dilemma. You filled out your wish list and you waited for Santa to fulfill it on the 25th. That was pretty awesome. The rest of the year didn't work like that so it made Christmas a strange and wonderful time. But you know what happens? Slowly the tables get turned on you until one day you're being handed the wish list. Such is life!

This is when the dilemma enters in too. Not for everyone. There are still some sad sacks out there who are 40 years old still filling out their wish list like their 4. But for those who are keenly aware and can read between the lines, you will take note that when the Angel meets the shepherds out abiding their fields he says, "Peace good will toward men." That's well and good and fits my four year old concept of Christmas. But the second part of the verse never gets quoted. Our culture curiously ignores its presence. Here is the whole verse: "Peace, good will toward with men, with whom he is pleased."

What does that mean? It makes me want to run and hide more that it makes me want to sing Jingle Bells. Look at our text in Matthew 1:21. The same strange thing occurs. The angel tells Joseph, "Don't be afraid to take Mary as you wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus" Sounds like the Christmas we all know. But then there's the matter of another unfinished verse which ends, "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

That's the dilemma. That baby is the greatest gift ever given. But it's as if someone handed you a beautifully wrapped gift and said, John, I am giving you this because I love you. And when you open it it's a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, or When Bad Things Happen To Good People, or a new copy of Miss Manners. You can't miss the message that someone is trying to tell you something. Christmas tells me that God has launched a great rescue mission. That is the message that is presented in the Advent story over and over again. In fact, the name Jesus (which is, of course Greek because the New Testament was written in Greek) is the Hebrew equivalent of Joshua, which translated means: The Lord will save.

The Advent message says to us that in the midst of our depressions, our fears, the mundane of living, a rescuer is coming because we need rescuing. The church teaches that sin is like quicksand. You know what happens when you get stuck in quicksand and try to get yourself out. You only end up getting in deeper and deeper. The Unitarian church affirms that man is capable. If he is just shown the right way and is properly motivated he will do what is right. The Christian church says just the opposite. It says that man is not capable of extricating himself from the messes that he gets into. He is in need of a rescuer, and that is precisely what God has given us in the person of Jesus. Someone to save us. And the price of the rescue mission is a costly one. Blood is shed. Christ who was born in Bethlehem was also born to die. That is why one of the gifts that the wise men bring the Christ child is the gift of Myrrh. It was an embalming agent. It is to remind us always that the child was sent to die.

But the great tragedy is that after this costly rescue mission has been launched, so often our response to it is thanks but no thanks. We don't want to be rescued. We did not ask for a rescuer and we do not want one. That is the dilemma that we find ourselves in. God has sent us a Savior, and there are a whole lot of people who don't want to be saved.

Well, you say, how ridiculous. Everyone wants to be saved. On an intellectual basis, perhaps, but on an emotional basis where decisions are really made (and I am convinced that most of our decisions in life are emotional ones and not intellectual ones --I think studies prove this) I am not so sure that we do want salvation. Indeed, I think that we even resist salvation. Oh, it is true that we sing songs in church like Rescue The Perishing but the problem is that we usually don't have us in mind when we sing it. We have someone else in mind. Who of us wants to be counted among the fallen, the erring, the perishing. Who of us wants to change or be changed? We rebel at the thought of being snatched in pity from sin. That is the truth of the matter. This morning I would like for us to look at several reasons why we reject this great rescue mission that God had given to us. We reject it because...

We have a misconception of what salvation really means.
We believe we can save ourselves through their own cleverness.
We are uncomfortable with the Biblical image of power - power through vulnerability.

36. Christ Is Willing to Heal

Illustration

Let me share a story about Michael Wayne Hunter who was put on death row in California in 1983, in San Quentin Prison. After his third year on death row something happened. One day he was getting ready to spend time exercising when the guard said, "You're going to miss Mother Teresa. She's coming today to see you guys." Yea, sure, he said, "one more of those designs they have on us." A little later he heard more commotion about it and thought it might be true.

Another guard said, "Don't go into your cells and lock up. Mother Teresa stayed to see you guys." So Michael jogged up to the front in gym shorts and a tattered basketball shirt with the arms ripped out, and on the other side of the security screen was this tiny woman who looked 100 years old.

Yes, it was Mother Teresa.

This hardened prisoner wrote about his experience, he said, "You have to understand that, basically, I'm a dead man. I don't have to observe any sort of social convention; and as a result, I can break all the rules, say what I want. But one look at this Nobel Prize winner, this woman so many people view as a living saint, and I was speechless."

Incredible vitality and warmth came from her wizened, piercing eyes. She smiled at him, blessed a religious medal, and put it in his hands. This murderer who wouldn't have walked voluntarily down the hall to see the Warden, the Governor, the President, or the Pope, stood before this woman, and all he could say was, "Thank you, Mother Teresa."

At one point Mother Teresa turned and pointed her hand at the sergeant, "What you do to these men," she told him, "you do to God." The sergeant almost faded away in surprise and wonder.

That day was a turning point in the life of Michael Wayne Hunter. This San Quentin Death Row prisoner was cleansed by that experience. Life changed. Suddenly there was meaning to it. So drastic was the change a new trial was set and the death penalty was not sought. The verdict was guilty on both counts of first degree murder but a new sentence was given: Life without the possibility of parole. Prosecution did not seek the death penalty because Mr. Hunter was now a model prisoner and an award-winning writer. He is one other thing: A testimony that Christ still is willing to heal, still willing to touch the untouchable, and to make us whole.

37. Return Home and Tell How Much God Has Done for You

Illustration

Scott Hozee

As Ted Peters once pointed out, in the English language, it's curious that the word evil is "live" spelled backwards. And indeed, evil always destroys. Life is diminished if not wiped out where the demons rule. The death of the pigs reflects that. What's more, in the Ancient Near East, the sea represented one of the forces of chaos that people feared. So it's a double-whammy: first there is death but second there is death by drowning in the sea, thus piling up and compounding the sense of chaos and evil in this story.

But the sad spectacle of those hapless pigs rushing headlong into the sea also reminds us that the expelling of evil from our world always involves sacrifice. For whatever the reason, God does not simply wave a magic wand to eliminate evil. Rooting out evil takes time, takes effort, and takes above all sacrifice. This should hardly come as any surprise, however, to people who live their lives in the shadow of a cross.

One final point, however: Jesus was chased away by the townsfolk but the healed man remained and according to verse 39, he kept on talking about what Jesus had done. Something about his ongoing witness reminds us that this is also our role: lots of people in this world try to chase Jesus away. Our task is to hang around anyway and to just keep talking, just keep witnessing to Jesus' work, and just keep hoping that at the end of the day, that witness will bring people back to the very Jesus they once chased away. "Return home and tell how much God has done for you," Jesus told this man.

He tells the rest of us the exact same thing.

38. A Shroud Unto Life

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

Who will ever forget those first pictures? There were pictures of starving men and starving women and starving children. These pictures stunned the world when they first hit our television screens. Pictures of Ethiopia. Pictures of an incredible famine. Millions of lives were at risk. And the world hardly knew about it until we saw the pictures. It was the pictures of the starving children that probably carried the most power. Babies sucking desperately at mother's empty breast, sucking for their life. Large brown eyes filled with tears and flies and fear. Distended stomachs. Bodies unimaginably lean. Innocent young lives were being snuffed out. The world shook its head in disbelief. The pictures, of course, motivated the world to action. Relief agencies from all over the world began to pour into Ethiopia. Christian organizations from our country also rushed to the scene of the disaster. Kathleen O'Meara was sent to Ethiopia on behalf of her church. Kathleen looked forward to the challenge. She had offered her life to her church for just such an occasion and now she would have a chance for service to humankind that would call forth her best gifts of serving.

When Ms. O'Meara arrived in Ethiopia, however, she was nearly overwhelmed by the devastating power of the famine. She was assigned to work in a feeding station in the northern part of Ethiopia. She went north with a convoy of trucks bearing sack upon sack upon sack of food. After two days of arduous travel the caravan finally arrived at its destination. Kathleen had seen many people along the roadside on the way north begging for food. At the feeding station, however, starving 57 people were just about all she saw. It seemed that for as far as her eye could see she saw nothing but starving, dying people. There were faint sounds from the youngest children. There were wails of despair from the lips of many of the women. There was an utter look of resignation and defeat in the eyes of men whose bodies were long and gaunt. Now there was work to be done. Kathleen was assigned to help distribute the many sacks of food that had been brought by the convoy. Sacks! Night and day that's all she would think of; all she could do. She saw those sacks in her troubled sleep each night. Sacks of food. Sacks that could bring life. Sacks were her mission and her hope. For Kathleen it was a daily round with the life-giving sacks of food. She came to see those sacks in her mind as a kind of symbol of hope in the midst of the devastation.

And then one day her eyes caught sight of an event that shattered her vision of the sacks as life-giving agents. That day she saw several hundred dead Ethiopians being carried to their graves in a funeral shroud. To her dismay the empty food sacks had now been filled with dead bodies. Sacks of life had become shrouds of death. The bitter irony of it all was almost too much for Ms. O'Meara. Sacks of life had become shrouds of death. She pondered deeply on this awful turn of events. "What the world needs," she mused to herself, "is for someone wrapped in the shrouds of death to bring new life and hope to the world." Sacks of life had become shrouds of death. What if a shroud of death became a garment of life? Would anyone believe such a story? Or would the world pass it off as just an idle tale?"

39. A Revolution in Seven Verses

Illustration

Mickey Anders

Walter Wink, in his book Engaging the Powers, suggests that Jesus' action represented a revolution happening in seven short verses. In this short story, Jesus tries to wake people up to the kind of life God wants for them. He often talks about the Kingdom of God where people have equal worth and all of life has dignity. But in the latter part of his ministry, he begins to act this out. In the midst of a highly patriarchal culture Jesus breaks at least six strict cultural rules:

1. Jesus speaks to the woman. In civilized society, Jewish men did not speak to women. Remember the story in John 4 where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well. She was shocked because a Jew would speak to a Samaritan. But when the disciples returned, the Scripture records, "They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman?" In speaking to her, Jesus jettisons the male restraints on women's freedom.

2. He calls her to the center of the synagogue. By placing her in the geographic middle, he challenges the notion of a male monopoly on access to knowledge and to God.

3. He touches her, which revokes the holiness code. That is the code which protected men from a woman's uncleanness and from her sinful seductiveness.

4. He calls her "daughter of Abraham," a term not found in any of the prior Jewish literature. This is revolutionary because it was believed that women were saved through their men. To call her a daughter of Abraham is to make her a full-fledged member of the nation of Israel with equal standing before God.

5. He heals on the Sabbath, the holy day. In doing this he demonstrates God's compassion for people over ceremony, and reclaims the Sabbath for the celebration of God's liberal goodness.

6. Last, and not least, he challenges the ancient belief that her illness is a direct punishment from God for sin. He asserts that she is ill, not because God willed it, but because there is evil in the world. (In other words, bad things happen to good people.)

And Jesus did all this in a few seconds.

40. Why Be Afraid of Death?

Illustration

Maltbie D. Babcock

Why be afraid of death,
As though your life were breath?
Death but anoints your eyes
with clay. O glad surprise.

Why should ye be forlorn?
Death only husks the corn.
Why should you fear to meet
The thresher of the wheat?

Is sleep a thing to dread?
Yet sleeping you are dead
Till you awake and rise,
Here, or beyond the skies.

Why should it be a wrench
To leave your wooden bench!
Why not, with happy shout,
Run home when school is out!

The dear ones left behind?
Oh, foolish one and blind!
A day and you will meet--
A night and you will greet.

This is the death of death
To breathe away a breath
And know the end of strife,
And taste the deathless life,

And joy without a fear,
And smile without a tear;
And work, nor care to rest,
And find the last the best.

Note: Maltbie Davenport Babcock was a noted American clergyman and writer of the 19th century. He authored the familiar hymn, This is My Father's World, among others.

41. Death in Jesus Christ

Illustration

J. Dudley Weaver

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who lost his life for the sake of the Gospel, literally, wrote: "When Christ calls a (person), he bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow him, or it may be a death like (Martin) Luther's who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world, but it is the same death every time - death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old (person) at his call... Only the person who is dead to his own will can follow Christ." (from The Cost of Discipleship).

The cross, Bonhoeffer, tells us, stands not as "the terrible end to an other-wise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ." Thus our life with Christ begins and ends. That's pretty radical stuff, but Christianity is pretty radical stuff, counter-cultural even.

42. God's Work of Art

Illustration

Mickey Anders

Well-intentioned people often take on the role of God's defense attorney. Sometimes when bad things happen to us they "defend" God by telling us that the ways of God are mysterious, and we do not understand them. That which seems to be a bad thing - a child who is born blind - is really a beautiful thing. We should give thanks for the blindness or tragedy. It is all God's Will.

Perhaps our friends will use the famous illustration of Thorton Wilder from his book The Eighth Day, where he compares life to a beautiful tapestry: "Looked at from the right side, it is an intricately woven work of art, drawing together threads of different lengths and colors to make up an inspiring picture. But turn the tapestry over, and you will see a hodgepodge of many threads, some short and some long, some smooth and some cut and knotted, going off in different directions. Wilder offers this as his explanation of why good people have to suffer in this life. God has a pattern into which all of our lives fit. His pattern requires that some lives be twisted, knotted, or cut short, while others extend to impressive lengths, not because one thread is more deserving than another, but simply because the pattern requires it. Looked at from underneath, from our vantage point in life, God's pattern of reward and punishment seems arbitrary and without design, like the underside of a tapestry. But looked at from outside this life, from God's vantage point, every twist and knot is seen to have its place in a great design that adds up to a work of art."

Telling someone that the tragedy that has just befallen them is "God's will" is the worst possible thing you could say to them.

43. Death's Sting Is Lost Forever

Illustration

Martin Luther

Christ Jesus lay in death's strong bands,
For our offenses given;
But now at God's right hand He stands
And brings us life from heaven;
Therefore let us joyful be
And sing to God right thankfully
Loud songs of hallelujah.

It was a strange and dreadful strife
When Life and Death contended;
The victory remained with Life,
The reign of Death was ended;
Holy Scripture plainly saith
That Death is swallowed up by Death,
His sting is lost forever.

Then let us feast this Easter Day
On Christ, the Bread of Heaven;
The Word of Grace hath purged away
The old and evil leaven.
Christ alone our souls will feed.
He is our meat and drink indeed;
Faith lives upon no other.

44. The Cost of Discipleship - Sermon Starter

Illustration

Brett Blair

The mark of a great leader is the demands he makes upon his followers. The Italian freedom fighter Garibaldi offered his men only hunger and death to free Italy. Winston Churchill told the English people that he had nothing to offer them but "blood, sweat, toil, and tears" in their fight against the enemies of England. Jesus demanded that his followers carry a cross. A sign of death.

Andrew died on a cross
Simon was crucified
Bartholomew was flayed alive
James (son of Zebedee) was beheaded
The other James (son of Alphaeus) was beaten to death
Thomas was run through with a lance
Matthias was stoned and then beheaded
Matthew was slain by the sword
Peter was crucified upside down
Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows
Philip was hanged

The demands that Jesus makes upon those who would follow him are extreme. Christianity is not a Sunday morning religion. It is a hungering after God to the point of death if need be. It shakes our foundations, topples our priorities, pits us against friend and family, and makes us strangers in this world. We sing, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." But, we must come to see that on many occasions he is not our friend but our adversary.

One day, as Jesus was being followed by a large crowd, he turned on the them, sensing that the demands of discipleship were not getting through, he told two parables. In these parables we learn the three great requirements of Christianity. To follow Jesus:

1. We must establish our priorities.
2. We must count the cost.
3. We must pay the price.

45. A Deal With Death

Illustration

Staff

According to an old fable, a man made an unusual agreement with Death. He told the Grim Reaper that he would willingly accompany him when it came time to die, but only on one condition that Death would send a messenger well in advance to warn him. Weeks winged away into months, and months into years. Then one bitter winter evening, as the man sat thinking about all his possessions, Death suddenly entered the room and tapped him on the shoulder. Startled, the man cried out, "You're here so soon and without warning! I thought we had an agreement." Death replied, "I've more than kept my part. I've sent you many messengers. Look in the mirror and you'll see some of them." As the man complied, Death whispered, "Notice your hair! Once it was full and black, now it is thin and white. Look at the way you cock your head to listen to me because you can't hear very well. Observe how close to the mirror you must stand to see yourself clearly. Yes, I've sent many messengers through the years. I'm sorry you're not ready, but the time has come to leave."

46. An Enormous Answer

Illustration

Frank Lyman

John Dunne writes of the impact of the resurrection upon humankind: "The Resurrection is an enormous answer to the problem of death. The idea is that the Christian goes with Christ through death to everlasting life. Death becomes an event, like birth, that is lived through."

What a magnificent statement of faith. Death is merely another event in the ongoing process of life something one lives through with Christ. The resurrection of Jesus reinforces these words from The Wisdom of Solomon: "The souls of the just are in God's hand, and torment shall not touch them…they are at peace."

47. The Covenants of the Scripture

Illustration

Merrill F. Unger

Scripture's covenants and their significance:

Eternal covenant, Hebrews 13:20 :The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the 'God of peace', through the death and resurrection of the Son.

Edenic covenant, Genesis 1:26-28: The creative covenant between the Triune God, as the first party (Genesis 1:26), and newly created man, as the second party, governing man's creation and life in Edenic innocence. It regulated man's dominion and subjugation of the earth, and presented a simple test of obedience. The penalty was death.

Adamic covenant, Genesis 3:14-19: The covenant conditioning fallen man's life on the earth. Satan's tool (the serpent) was cursed (Gen 3:14); the first promise of the Redeemer was given (3:15); women's status was altered (3:16); the earth was cursed (3:17-19); physical and spiritual death resulted (3:19).

Noahic covenant, Genesis 8:20-9:6: The covenant of human government. Man is to govern his fellowmen for God, indicated by the institution of capital punishment as the supreme judicial power of the state (Genesis 9:5-6). Other features included the promise of redemption through the line of Shem (Genesis 9:26).

Abrahamic covenant, Genesis 12:1-3; confirmed 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 17:1-8: The covenant of promise. Abraham's posterity was to be made a great nation. In him (through Christ) all the families of the earth were to be blessed (Galations 3:16; John 8:56-58).

Mosaic covenant, Exodus 20:1-31:18: The legal covenant, given solely to Israel. It consisted of the commandments (Exodus 20:1-26); the judgments (social) - (Exodus 21:1; 24:11) and the ordinances (religious); (Exodus 24:12-31:18); also called the law. It was a conditional covenant of works, a ministry of 'condemnation' and 'death' (2 Corinthians 3:7-9), designed to lead the transgressor (convicted thereby as a sinner) to Christ.

Palestinian covenant, Deut 30:1-10: The covenant regulating Israel's tenure of the land of Canaan. Its prophetic features include dispersion of disobedience (Deuteronomy 30:1), future repentance while in dispersion (30:2), the Lord's return (30:3), the restoration (30:4-5, national conversion (3:6), judgment of Israel's foes (30:7), national prosperity (30:9). Its blessings are conditioned upon obedience (30:8,10), but fulfillment is guaranteed by the new covenant.

Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel 7:4-17, 1 Chr 17:4-15: The kingdom covenant regulating the temporal and eternal rule of David's posterity. It secures in perpetuity a Davidic 'house' or line, a throne, and a kingdom. It was confirmed by divine oath in Psalm 89:30-37 and renewed to Mary in Luke 1:31-33. It is fulfilled in Christ as the World's Saviour and Israel's coming King (Acts 1:6; Rev 19:16; 20:4-6).

New covenant, Jeremiah 31:31-33; Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; Hebrew 8:8-12: The covenant of unconditional blessing based upon the finished redemption of Christ. It secures blessing for the church, flowing from the Abrahamic covenant (Galations 3:13-20), and secures all covenant blessings to converted Israel, including those of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants. This covenant is unconditional, final and irreversible.

48. Be Afraid of Not Living

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Are you afraid of dying? Listen to the poet Elsie Robinson.

“Do not be afraid of dying -- rather be afraid of not living. Do not grieve for loss by death, grieve instead for lack of life. Do not worry about facing death. Worry rather about dodging life . . . death is not the hard thing; life is the hard thing ... death can only lay you low, but life can show you up!...It is not hard to die; any fool can; every fool must die someday. But it is extremely hard to live. It takes a strong and brave, understanding person to be willing to live each day and not merely exist. You shudder and say to yourself, ‘I will die someday.’ But you’re wrong. You die every day and every day you take your choice between living and dying; between getting on and going on.”

It takes no courage to die, but it takes enormous courage to say, “I choose to live -- regardless of the cost.”

49. The One That Will Be Sacrificed

Illustration

William B. Kincaid, III

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any [man]. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Those words, spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr., the night before he was assassinated in Memphis, still haunt us. To this day, they generate speculation and debate. Some are convinced that King knew he would be killed. With the kind of turmoil King was creating and the general upheaval that was being witnessed from courthouse squares to college campuses, it doesn't require much imagination to envision a scenario wherein King would be gunned down. King noted on that very night that the "... nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around."

Others are equally certain that King did not have a premonition about his own death. John Cartwright, who holds the professorship at BostonUniversity which bears King's name, believes that King was not predicting his own death. Rather, according to Cartwright, Dr. King was only aware that the arc of justice is long and that significant changes only happen over an extended period of time. In other words, King knew that his words might articulate the dream, but the reality of the dream might not be experienced until generations later.

We have debated the same issue with Jesus. Did Jesus know he was going to die? Did God send Jesus to earth to die? Or, as events evolved and pressure mounted, did it then become evident to Jesus that his faithfulness to God may bring about his own death? There are those who believe that Bethlehem and Calvary were interwoven into Jesus' life from the beginning. When John the Baptist declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God, it sounded like Jesus' crucifixion was certain from the outset. In a culture that sacrificed lambs twice a day in the temple, those words are a kiss of death. "Here is the Lamb of God" can be loosely understood to mean, "Hey, look here, everyone, here's the one that is going to be sacrificed."

50. Appointment in Samarra

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Legend says that it happened in the streets of Damascus. A merchant sent his servant to the market. When the servant returned, trembling and agitated, he said, "While I was at the market, I was jostled by someone in the crowd. I turned to look and saw that Death had jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Master, please lend me your horse so I can escape. I want to ride to Samarra. There I will hide so that Death cannot find me."

Later that same day the merchant himself was in the marketplace, and he also saw Death in the crowd. He said to her, "Why did you startle my servant this morning by making a threatening gesture?"

Death replied, "That was no threatening gesture; it was simply a start of surprise. I was startled to see your servant in Damascus, for we have an appointment tonight in Samarra."

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