Luke 8:26
I read this one verse and go no farther. Something in its few words grabs me. “They sailed to the other side, to that side of the lake.”
“They” are Jesus and his disciples. “The lake” is the Sea of Galilee, a mere 14 miles at its longest stretch, and home to several of the disciples. “that side” is foreign country to them, the land of the Gentiles, a group of Greek towns known as the Decapolis stretching south and east from those shores.
I wonder why Jesus makes the effort to come here. It’s not that far, but he rarely ventures outside of Jewish/Samaritan territory. It is light years away by cultural and religious standards. I know why Jesus has come; I’ve read the passage many times. How he heals the man possessed by so many demons and living in isolation from any form of human community. But that only tells me what he does when he gets there. It doesn’t really answer why he comes and does what he does.
Is it to show that he loves people more than pigs? Any follower of Abraham’s God knew the answer to that one. Is it because he wanted to demonstrate that he’d go to great lengths to reach just one person? Maybe, and it makes a great sermon, but the text doesn’t make this point obvious. Is it to prepare the disciples for reaching beyond their own kind? Lots of good ideas here, but the fact is that the text provides no overtly stated reason.
Greater scholars than me may find something solid on which to hang their shingle. I am left with just a feeling, a sense that whatever cosmic reason Jesus may have had – and the violent storm they had to breach to get there lends itself to a cosmic connection – he doesn’t reveal the reason. He only leads his disciples into Gentile territory to rescue, redeem and restore this wild and crazed man.
Before jumping into the encounter with that man and his tormentors, I linger at the arrival on the shore of Jesus and his band. The disciples must be still in awe of what they’ve just experienced. All three of the synoptic writers link the calming of the storm with this visit to this pitiful loner. There is no reason to doubt the chronology.
You experience something like that storm and how Jesus shuts it down and you don’t move on to something else very quickly. And yet here they are. On foreign turf, forbidding territory, the stuff of uncleanness – and that was before they even saw the man known only as “Legion.”
As a kid there were always places you just didn’t go. You knew better than to get near them – either because your mother said “no” in terms you understood all too well or because the place just left you with the feeling that it was not worth a dare. These guys weren’t the touristy kind anyway, let alone the type that would venture into the land beyond the covenant of protection.
Yet here they were. I wonder what was going on in their minds – something like, “Jesus, you are out of yours”? Or were they in that misty state between having just seen the miraculous and having just entered the unmarked door, the haunted house, and their brains were still in neutral.
They knew better than to let Jesus move ahead without them – no way were they going to allow him out of their sight here. So they followed. They went with Jesus into the unknown.
He doesn’t beckon them to come along, but they do. For they’ve learned that he is the man to follow, no matter what may come.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
The Mission
Luke 9
We’re just starting chapter 9 of Luke in this weekly blog, The Gatekeeper’s Key. While I’m finishing a couple of major writing projects, I’m taking a short break from my normal blogging. Here is an excerpt (in the rough) on Luke 9 from my manuscript, Night Shift: On a Mission Crossing Borders in the Night, just sent off to my editor:
[Concerning Jesus’ mission, he] came to earth to die so that we could live, but that dying only took a few short hours. It took him three plus years to accomplish the other part of his mission, which was to raise up a people who would extend his work of Blessing throughout the world. It is this very thing we see Jesus doing in Luke 8-10.
In between parables and other teachings in these three chapters, Jesus calms down the weather, exorcises a mega-demoniac, raises a dead girl back to life, heals an incurable sickness, miraculously feeds the multitudes … and that’s just for starters. Actually it is just for starters, because these teachings and miracle stories are an integral part of a very calculated strategy. Remember Mark 3 where we see Jesus calling his followers to be with himself and to send them out? Well, now we see the sending out.
Look at the beginning of Luke 8, the first few verses. Jesus is traveling about, going from one town or village to another. He is both declaring and demonstrating the Kingdom of God. Now, take note who is with him. The Twelve, of course … [and] several women….
[At the beginning of Chapter 9,] Jesus has just finished a whole package of ministry – declaring and demonstrating what his mission is all about – with this mixed band of followers accompanying him. At the beginning of chapter 9, he calls the Twelve together, gives them authority to demonstrate God’s kingdom in his name and sends them out to declare – just as he has been doing. How do they know what to do? They have just been with Jesus watching him declaring and demonstrating. And, Luke says, that is just what they do – “they set out and [go] from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.” (9:6)
Interestingly, Luke records less of Jesus’ own preaching and miracle-working in this chapter and more of the disciples’ activities. The miracles recorded here, feeding the multitude and healing the boy with seizures, involve the participation of the disciples. This is Ministry Lab 101. Jesus’ teachings become opportunities to help guide the Twelve on their initial endeavors. We see Jesus almost exclusively engaged with all or part of the Twelve in helping them grow in character and understanding of the work, and the chapter concludes with quite an altar call of commitment for the Twelve and for anyone else who might be listening.
Then we come to chapter 10. Here, Jesus starts sending out a whole bunch of other people. He is also beginning to push many other followers out of the nest to do just exactly what he and the Twelve have been doing in the previous two chapters. And lest there is any question of this, they return all excited that they too have the requisite authority to demonstrate the power of the Kingdom. While Jesus without hesitation shares their excitement, he is ever quick to remind them that bragging rights belong only to those who have been granted eternal life and nothing more.
….
Now look at what Jesus sends his followers out to do. As we have been saying, he sends them all on a two-fold mission, to declare the Good News and to demonstrate the Good News. There is around this principle a debate that never quits. Which is more important? Declaring or demonstrating? Some say the essential thing is to preach the Word of God. Some say it is to do good deeds. For God, all this debate is a splitting of theological hairs at best and a robbery of energy from God’s ultimate purpose at worst. You can’t have one without the other. There is no declaring God’s Good News without putting it into action. There is no demonstrating God’s Good News without explaining what it is all about. Word and deed go hand in hand.
Wherever Jesus goes, he both declares and demonstrates the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Wherever his followers go, they declare and demonstrate the Good News of the Kingdom of God. And by the time the gospels end, we get the point that anyone who follows Jesus has the same two-fold mission of declaring and demonstrating the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
We are agents on a mission of grace from an alien race. This then is our mission, to bring God’s Blessing to the nations “far as the curse is found," as Isaac Watts penned famously in the carol, “Joy to the World.” To do so means to cross borders – geographically, culturally, socially, materially and spiritually. Thus part of our training beyond learning how to build altars, how to allow ourselves to dream God’s dreams, and how to become advocates and priest trainers, is to learn how to cross borders – and we learn to do that Jesus’ way. How we declare and demonstrate are not necessarily time or place bound. There are some basic principles, one of which is what is called in bibliospeak, “Incarnation.”
We’re just starting chapter 9 of Luke in this weekly blog, The Gatekeeper’s Key. While I’m finishing a couple of major writing projects, I’m taking a short break from my normal blogging. Here is an excerpt (in the rough) on Luke 9 from my manuscript, Night Shift: On a Mission Crossing Borders in the Night, just sent off to my editor:
[Concerning Jesus’ mission, he] came to earth to die so that we could live, but that dying only took a few short hours. It took him three plus years to accomplish the other part of his mission, which was to raise up a people who would extend his work of Blessing throughout the world. It is this very thing we see Jesus doing in Luke 8-10.
In between parables and other teachings in these three chapters, Jesus calms down the weather, exorcises a mega-demoniac, raises a dead girl back to life, heals an incurable sickness, miraculously feeds the multitudes … and that’s just for starters. Actually it is just for starters, because these teachings and miracle stories are an integral part of a very calculated strategy. Remember Mark 3 where we see Jesus calling his followers to be with himself and to send them out? Well, now we see the sending out.
Look at the beginning of Luke 8, the first few verses. Jesus is traveling about, going from one town or village to another. He is both declaring and demonstrating the Kingdom of God. Now, take note who is with him. The Twelve, of course … [and] several women….
[At the beginning of Chapter 9,] Jesus has just finished a whole package of ministry – declaring and demonstrating what his mission is all about – with this mixed band of followers accompanying him. At the beginning of chapter 9, he calls the Twelve together, gives them authority to demonstrate God’s kingdom in his name and sends them out to declare – just as he has been doing. How do they know what to do? They have just been with Jesus watching him declaring and demonstrating. And, Luke says, that is just what they do – “they set out and [go] from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.” (9:6)
Interestingly, Luke records less of Jesus’ own preaching and miracle-working in this chapter and more of the disciples’ activities. The miracles recorded here, feeding the multitude and healing the boy with seizures, involve the participation of the disciples. This is Ministry Lab 101. Jesus’ teachings become opportunities to help guide the Twelve on their initial endeavors. We see Jesus almost exclusively engaged with all or part of the Twelve in helping them grow in character and understanding of the work, and the chapter concludes with quite an altar call of commitment for the Twelve and for anyone else who might be listening.
Then we come to chapter 10. Here, Jesus starts sending out a whole bunch of other people. He is also beginning to push many other followers out of the nest to do just exactly what he and the Twelve have been doing in the previous two chapters. And lest there is any question of this, they return all excited that they too have the requisite authority to demonstrate the power of the Kingdom. While Jesus without hesitation shares their excitement, he is ever quick to remind them that bragging rights belong only to those who have been granted eternal life and nothing more.
….
Now look at what Jesus sends his followers out to do. As we have been saying, he sends them all on a two-fold mission, to declare the Good News and to demonstrate the Good News. There is around this principle a debate that never quits. Which is more important? Declaring or demonstrating? Some say the essential thing is to preach the Word of God. Some say it is to do good deeds. For God, all this debate is a splitting of theological hairs at best and a robbery of energy from God’s ultimate purpose at worst. You can’t have one without the other. There is no declaring God’s Good News without putting it into action. There is no demonstrating God’s Good News without explaining what it is all about. Word and deed go hand in hand.
Wherever Jesus goes, he both declares and demonstrates the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Wherever his followers go, they declare and demonstrate the Good News of the Kingdom of God. And by the time the gospels end, we get the point that anyone who follows Jesus has the same two-fold mission of declaring and demonstrating the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
We are agents on a mission of grace from an alien race. This then is our mission, to bring God’s Blessing to the nations “far as the curse is found," as Isaac Watts penned famously in the carol, “Joy to the World.” To do so means to cross borders – geographically, culturally, socially, materially and spiritually. Thus part of our training beyond learning how to build altars, how to allow ourselves to dream God’s dreams, and how to become advocates and priest trainers, is to learn how to cross borders – and we learn to do that Jesus’ way. How we declare and demonstrate are not necessarily time or place bound. There are some basic principles, one of which is what is called in bibliospeak, “Incarnation.”
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Storm-Buster
Luke 8:22-25
The plot is simple enough. Jesus and his disciples are crossing a lake, the very same lake several of these disciples have spent much of their entire lives fishing. They know it like the back of their hand. A tricky body of water, it often rises suddenly with much fury and just as quickly settles back down. Even so, these same fishing pros are overwhelmed in battling this particular storm. Jesus, on the other hand, has fallen asleep in the boat, resting blissfully while those around him are worked up into a panic.
Jesus awakes to the cries of the disciples fearing they are about to drown. First he rebukes the storm, then he rebukes his disciples for their lack of faith, and then he moves on. As the storm is subdued, the disciples marvel that Jesus is able to command even nature itself to obey him.
Some readers extract the miraculous out of this tale, others take it as it is. More troubling for me than the “whether” or “how” in this story, however, is the “why.” Why is it in the Bible? What purpose does it serve? The same story is recorded in two other gospels (Matthew and Mark) and a similar story appears in Mark and John, albeit there Jesus is not in the boat to start with, but comes walking on the water to meet the disciples in a storm. In both stories’ cases, Jesus’ presence guarantees the safety of the disciples and affirms him as Master of the Elements.
So is this story about his power of protection and/or is it about his power over nature? Or is it more about the disciples learning about faith, which is clearly mentioned in Jesus’ rebuke to them. Does he expect them to calm the sea themselves or to calmly and with an inner peace rely on him to get them safely to the other side in spite of the storm? Should they have cried out to him as they did, or done so more laid back?
Whatever the case case, the fishermen among them come to realize they are not necessarily masters in their own familiar environment, that what is needed is a faith that goes beyond what they had understood as fishermen. Such a faith is surely needed if this storm is out of the ordinary, supernatural even, the nature of which the disciples have never before faced.
For those who note what follows (the healing of the Demoniac called Legion), the storm takes on added significance as Jesus works through obstructions to get to a man in need of Jesus’ healing and Good News. It is certainly true that all kinds of barriers inhibit people from receiving Jesus’ message and that part of the mission as Believers is to remove those obstacles so that the Good News can effectively be communicated.
All the above may indeed be true about this story. Certainly, the result is that the disciples continue to grow in their understanding of who this Jesus really is. Every such encounter strengthens their faith and expands their vision of their Master, to the point that in the next chapter Peter comes to call him the Messiah.
As I reflect on this story, I realize that when I think Jesus is not responding to my needs, when he doesn’t seem to be present or involved, he very much still is. He is with me in the boat.
I wonder what would have happened if the disciples had not cried out to their Master? Would they have all drowned, including Jesus? I don’t think so. Such an idea fits with nothing I know about God. But all this does remind me that no matter what comes, no storm in life is beyond my Master’s control, and even my expressions of doubt and fear don’t faze him. At times he may ask me where my faith is, but he is still my Master and he always gets me safely to the other side. As the old hymn concludes, “O for grace to trust him more.”
The plot is simple enough. Jesus and his disciples are crossing a lake, the very same lake several of these disciples have spent much of their entire lives fishing. They know it like the back of their hand. A tricky body of water, it often rises suddenly with much fury and just as quickly settles back down. Even so, these same fishing pros are overwhelmed in battling this particular storm. Jesus, on the other hand, has fallen asleep in the boat, resting blissfully while those around him are worked up into a panic.
Jesus awakes to the cries of the disciples fearing they are about to drown. First he rebukes the storm, then he rebukes his disciples for their lack of faith, and then he moves on. As the storm is subdued, the disciples marvel that Jesus is able to command even nature itself to obey him.
Some readers extract the miraculous out of this tale, others take it as it is. More troubling for me than the “whether” or “how” in this story, however, is the “why.” Why is it in the Bible? What purpose does it serve? The same story is recorded in two other gospels (Matthew and Mark) and a similar story appears in Mark and John, albeit there Jesus is not in the boat to start with, but comes walking on the water to meet the disciples in a storm. In both stories’ cases, Jesus’ presence guarantees the safety of the disciples and affirms him as Master of the Elements.
So is this story about his power of protection and/or is it about his power over nature? Or is it more about the disciples learning about faith, which is clearly mentioned in Jesus’ rebuke to them. Does he expect them to calm the sea themselves or to calmly and with an inner peace rely on him to get them safely to the other side in spite of the storm? Should they have cried out to him as they did, or done so more laid back?
Whatever the case case, the fishermen among them come to realize they are not necessarily masters in their own familiar environment, that what is needed is a faith that goes beyond what they had understood as fishermen. Such a faith is surely needed if this storm is out of the ordinary, supernatural even, the nature of which the disciples have never before faced.
For those who note what follows (the healing of the Demoniac called Legion), the storm takes on added significance as Jesus works through obstructions to get to a man in need of Jesus’ healing and Good News. It is certainly true that all kinds of barriers inhibit people from receiving Jesus’ message and that part of the mission as Believers is to remove those obstacles so that the Good News can effectively be communicated.
All the above may indeed be true about this story. Certainly, the result is that the disciples continue to grow in their understanding of who this Jesus really is. Every such encounter strengthens their faith and expands their vision of their Master, to the point that in the next chapter Peter comes to call him the Messiah.
As I reflect on this story, I realize that when I think Jesus is not responding to my needs, when he doesn’t seem to be present or involved, he very much still is. He is with me in the boat.
I wonder what would have happened if the disciples had not cried out to their Master? Would they have all drowned, including Jesus? I don’t think so. Such an idea fits with nothing I know about God. But all this does remind me that no matter what comes, no storm in life is beyond my Master’s control, and even my expressions of doubt and fear don’t faze him. At times he may ask me where my faith is, but he is still my Master and he always gets me safely to the other side. As the old hymn concludes, “O for grace to trust him more.”
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Sower and the Seed - Part V
Luke 8:19-21
We don’t hear much about Jesus’ biological family in the four gospels, other than during his childhood and around his death and resurrection. The gospel of John alone refers to Jesus’ mother and brothers being with Jesus at the very beginning of his ministry.
There is that famous passage (John 2) where his mother encourages him to do something about the shortage of wine at a wedding. Jesus tries to get out of it, but his mother persists and so Jesus obliges, turning the water into wine and causing stress ever after among Sunday School teachers everywhere. After that wedding, perhaps of some distant relation, Jesus goes down to Capernaum along with his mother and brothers, his small flock of disciples tagging along. But at that point, these family members seem to drop away and Jesus is left alone with his growing following.
Whatever the occasion for their visit now, it follows (in Luke, anyway) the parables of the Seed Sower and the Lamp, and Jesus is pictured using their visit to bring home the point even more clearly that the life of faith is all about how we are to be receptive to God’s Word. This point and the family visit are so linked in the minds of his followers years later that Matthew and Mark also connect the event and the teaching together. It leaves a very deep impression on all who witness it, including Jesus’ brothers.
Jesus has just finished telling his followers to consider very carefully how they listen to God because the more they receive from God the more they are able to receive from God. While Jesus is saying all this, someone lets him know that his mother and brothers are outside, wanting to see him. They can’t get in because the crowd is too big – and perhaps they really want Jesus to come out to see them because they want to talk with him concerning a private matter away from all these strangers.
Jesus’ brothers haven’t yet bought into Jesus’ mission. I suspect they have struggled with Jesus leaving the family business and running around with all these groupies. Jesus is the first-born after all and has an obligation to his mother, if no one else. He really does have familial responsibilities he is ignoring, a concern echoed by another man not much later when that man struggles with his own family obligations and whether he can follow Jesus because of them. What Jesus says to that man is what he himself is now practicing: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) In fact, it this very kind of family divisiveness Jesus will soon enough explain he has come to bring, all in the name of God’s will.
So they come to Jesus, hoping to sort out some matter with him, family-like. Social etiquette of the day says that a person should interrupt his business to respond to a family request. But Jesus apparently doesn’t even respond to them. He simply goes on speaking to his disciples, continuing his train of thought about what it means to really hear or listen to the word of God. What it means is that we don’t just listen, we actually do something about it. Moreover, the only family Jesus has any more, the only people Jesus sees as his mother and brothers are those “who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”
I wonder how many of Jesus’ teachings his biological siblings heard in person. It may be that this was just such a rare message – and it was aimed directly at them. I consider my family, Jesus said, to be those who hear God’s message and actually do something about it.
If that is the case, then it is no wonder that James, understood to be the brother of Jesus, later places such great emphasis on obedience to God’s word, particularly when he writes “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). James had heard that clearly enough in that terse sermon so long ago, so much so that he dared add counterweight to Paul’s teachings on grace by declaring that we must demonstrate our faith by our deeds of good will. Even demons believe, he writes, but only those who are true followers of Jesus actually do the will of God (James 2:14-19). James had learned his brother’s lesson well.
We don’t hear much about Jesus’ biological family in the four gospels, other than during his childhood and around his death and resurrection. The gospel of John alone refers to Jesus’ mother and brothers being with Jesus at the very beginning of his ministry.
There is that famous passage (John 2) where his mother encourages him to do something about the shortage of wine at a wedding. Jesus tries to get out of it, but his mother persists and so Jesus obliges, turning the water into wine and causing stress ever after among Sunday School teachers everywhere. After that wedding, perhaps of some distant relation, Jesus goes down to Capernaum along with his mother and brothers, his small flock of disciples tagging along. But at that point, these family members seem to drop away and Jesus is left alone with his growing following.
Whatever the occasion for their visit now, it follows (in Luke, anyway) the parables of the Seed Sower and the Lamp, and Jesus is pictured using their visit to bring home the point even more clearly that the life of faith is all about how we are to be receptive to God’s Word. This point and the family visit are so linked in the minds of his followers years later that Matthew and Mark also connect the event and the teaching together. It leaves a very deep impression on all who witness it, including Jesus’ brothers.
Jesus has just finished telling his followers to consider very carefully how they listen to God because the more they receive from God the more they are able to receive from God. While Jesus is saying all this, someone lets him know that his mother and brothers are outside, wanting to see him. They can’t get in because the crowd is too big – and perhaps they really want Jesus to come out to see them because they want to talk with him concerning a private matter away from all these strangers.
Jesus’ brothers haven’t yet bought into Jesus’ mission. I suspect they have struggled with Jesus leaving the family business and running around with all these groupies. Jesus is the first-born after all and has an obligation to his mother, if no one else. He really does have familial responsibilities he is ignoring, a concern echoed by another man not much later when that man struggles with his own family obligations and whether he can follow Jesus because of them. What Jesus says to that man is what he himself is now practicing: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) In fact, it this very kind of family divisiveness Jesus will soon enough explain he has come to bring, all in the name of God’s will.
So they come to Jesus, hoping to sort out some matter with him, family-like. Social etiquette of the day says that a person should interrupt his business to respond to a family request. But Jesus apparently doesn’t even respond to them. He simply goes on speaking to his disciples, continuing his train of thought about what it means to really hear or listen to the word of God. What it means is that we don’t just listen, we actually do something about it. Moreover, the only family Jesus has any more, the only people Jesus sees as his mother and brothers are those “who hear God’s word and put it into practice.”
I wonder how many of Jesus’ teachings his biological siblings heard in person. It may be that this was just such a rare message – and it was aimed directly at them. I consider my family, Jesus said, to be those who hear God’s message and actually do something about it.
If that is the case, then it is no wonder that James, understood to be the brother of Jesus, later places such great emphasis on obedience to God’s word, particularly when he writes “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). James had heard that clearly enough in that terse sermon so long ago, so much so that he dared add counterweight to Paul’s teachings on grace by declaring that we must demonstrate our faith by our deeds of good will. Even demons believe, he writes, but only those who are true followers of Jesus actually do the will of God (James 2:14-19). James had learned his brother’s lesson well.
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