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Miserable Money-Minded Misers!

Bible Study, , , ,

MISERABLE MONEY-MINDED MISERS!

Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill Him. ‘But not during the festival,’ they said, ‘or the people may riot.’

While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly (Mark 14: 1-5).

Funny, isn’t it, how people suddenly have sympathy for the poor when someone else spends his or her money extravagantly! Of course, however, in their own way of life they never give the poor a thought.

Jesus was invited to a meal at the home of Simon the Leper. That’s strange. Lepers were outcasts of society. They were diseased and “unclean”. They had to remain in isolation, cut off from friends and family because their condition was infectious. Since “leprosy” was a term for a variety of skin diseases, not only true leprosy as we know it, the sufferer could recover and return home once he had been declared “clean” by the priest and had offered a sacrifice for his cleansing.

So, was Simon the Leper a recovered “leper” or was he perhaps one that Jesus had healed during the course of His many visits to Simon’s hometown, Bethany? We don’t know, but whoever he was, for some reason Simon had invited Jesus to a banquet. Luke tells the story of a bad woman who poured perfume on Jesus’s feet during a banquet at the home of Simon the Pharisee. Could they ne one and the same person? John records a similar incident in the home of Lazarus and his sisters after Jesus had raised him from the dead. His sister, Mary, showed her devotion and gratitude to Jesus by anointing His feet with expensive ointment.

For whatever reason the gospel records differ according to the writer’s purpose, this incident brings home an important lesson, one that Jesus encapsulated in His statement:

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Matt. 6: 24).

Jesus used a rabbinic teaching method here, called a chiasm, to drive home an important point. There is a central thought in this construction to which two supporting statements lead up to and away from. Let me set it up as it should look to help you understand.

A  No one can serve two masters.

B  Either you will hate the one

C  and love the other

C’ or you will be devoted to the one

B’  and despise the other.

A’  You cannot serve God and money.

Can you now see how A and A’ match, and B and B’ and C and C’ are similar statements with C and C’ as the centre of the teaching? The rabbis used this very effective method of teaching for emphasis. The main point of what Jesus was saying was not that you cannot serve two masters, although this is true, but why you cannot serve two masters. You will either serve God or money depending on the one you love and are devoted to.

Those who criticised the woman for “wasting” her dowry did not understand the measure of her devotion to Jesus. It was not about the value of her gift but the measure of her love that they were, in the end, questioning. Their miserable, money-minded judgment of the woman showed up the identity of the one they served.

In John’s account, it was Judas who objected to Mary’s expression of love for Jesus because he obviously loved money, not his Master. In Luke’s account, the host was Simon the Pharisee, and he proved that he had no love for Jesus by withholding the common courtesies of a host for his guest; washing the dust off His feet and anointing His head with oil. It was left to an unsavoury, but repentant woman from the street to do what Simon failed to do for Jesus, with her own tears, her own hair and her valuable perfume which was her wedding dowry.

The lesson is clear. We can only show how much we love the Master by what we do with what is most valuable to us. When we lavish our love and our resources on those in need, we do it for Him and to Him.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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A Wild Olive Branch

Bible Study, , ,

A WILD OLIVE BRANCH

“If some of the branches have been broken off and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself superior to those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will then say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either.” Romans 11:17-21.

The picture of the olive tree as a symbol of Israel is common in the Old Testament. The olive tree thrives all over Israel, in any soil and in any conditions. Its fruit and especially the oil pressed from the olives was used for a variety of purposes – for cooking, lighting, healing and anointing, to name just a few.

The olive tree, which is virtually indestructible, is a symbol of faithfulness and steadfastness. Its ability to regenerate when it is cut down makes it a fitting symbol of God’s promise to those who fear the Lord. They will be blessed and prosperous; their wives will be fruitful and bear many children.

“Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.” Psalm 128:3.

Our faith is deeply rooted in the history, culture and religion of the Jewish people. No amount of reasoning and or trying to argue this away will alter the fact that the Christian gospel cannot be divorced from its Jewish roots and makes no sense if we ignore the Old Testament. There are many false notions and teachings that are perpetuated in the church because spiritual leaders have ignored the Old Testament foundations and come up with their own interpretations of what the Bible actually says.

There is no room for the Gentiles to boast. It is arrogant of them to take up the attitude, “God got rid of you so that we could come in. Now we’re in and you’re out!” The only reason the Jews were “out” was because of their unbelief. And anyone, Jew or Gentile, will be rejected if they do not believe what God has said.

God has no time for people who think they are better than others because they enjoy a position of favour in His kingdom. Anything we receive from God is because of His grace and not because of our worth. Without faith, we are worthless to Him even though we have been created in His image. It is through faith that we take possession of everything He has promised.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.

It is not for us to look around and compare ourselves with others but to “tremble”, recognising that we have no call on God except for His mercy.

“Christianity did not spring forth from a vacuum. It sprang from the highly developed religious tradition and culture of ancient Israel. It is all too easy for us Gentiles to forget this all-important fact…

“Likewise the earliest church was a Jewish church. It was headquartered in the Jewish capital, Jerusalem, and presided over by a Jewish leader…

As Christians we should see that Yeshua epitomised the Law and the teachings of the prophets as the living Word of God. And yet, so many of us know so little of the Tanach, the Hebrew Scriptures. Christians refer to these writings of the “Old Testament” as though the term “old” means it is of little value when compared with the “new”. Yet, without the “old”, the “new” loses much of its meaning and it often misinterpreted or not fully interpreted. When we do this we are missing out on much God has for us in His Word.”

http://www.pray4zion.org/LessonsfromtheOliveTree.html

It would be wise for us Gentile believers, then, not to despise or ignore our roots but to learn what we can and to remember with gratitude that God has “grafted” us Gentiles in because of our faith in Him and not because we have replaced Israel.

“Israel is Israel, even in the New Testament. And when the Gentile church is included in that concept, we are given that position by virtue of “grafting in”, “adoption”, being made “partakers”, and being “made near”; and never by “replacing.”

http://www.pray4zion.org/LessonsfromtheOliveTree.html

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.