Tag Archives: jail

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – THE FATHER’S BLESSING

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THE FATHER’S BLESSING

“There was a lot more of this – words that gave strength to the people, words that put heart into them. The Message! But Herod, the ruler, stung by John’s rebuke in the matter of Herodius, his brother, Philip’s wife, capped his long string of evil deeds with this outrage: He put John in jail.

“After all the people were baptised, Jesus was baptised. As He was praying, the sky opened up and the Holy Spirit, like a dove descending, came down on Him. And along with the Spirit, a voice: ‘You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.'” Luke 3:18-22.

What an amazing series of events! John preached “fire and brimstone” and the people flocked to him. Words that put strength and heart into them? How did that work?

Then Jesus appeared to be baptised. The Son of God – baptised? How could He be answering the call to repent? What did He need to repent about? And then the Holy Spirit came in visible form and enveloped Him; and then the Father Himself affirmed Him! Nothing like this had even happened before. What did it all mean?

In John’s Gospel the writer tells us that these things were a sign to John the Baptist that this was the Messiah. It would seem then that though they were related, Jesus and John did not have childhood connections. One lived in Galilee and the other in Judea. This was not a family affair. Each was involved in his own preparation for this climactic event. John needed to be absolutely sure of the one he was presenting as Messiah to the world.

Jesus’ baptism was not about repentance. It had much deeper significance than that. Baptism was about initiation into something – an office, a movement – and identification, agreement, with what was being presented. It was the right thing for Him to do – to make a public statement through baptism that He was one with John in what he was preaching and doing. He could not stand aloof as though He had no part in this prophetic action. After all, He was the subject of John’s message.

Just like Zachariah, who pronounced his fatherly blessing over his new-born son, affirming him as his son and speaking the prophetic words of the angel Gabriel over him, so the Father spoke His Fatherly blessing over Jesus as He stood at the brink of His ministry that would take Him on a road of submission, obedience and suffering.

Jesus was the Son of God. Did He need the Father’s blessing? Like any other human child, it was His Father’s affirmation, ringing in His ears over and over again, that energised Him to fulfil His commission with absolute loyalty. How could He state with such confidence, ‘I and the Father are one”? The Father was the stake to which He was tethered and to whom He gave unswerving obedience because the Father had owned him as “My Son”.

Just imagine how different the lives of many “fatherless” children would be if they could hear those words, “My son; my daughter.” Fathers may be present but absent in the lives of their children – measuring their worth only by what they can produce or achieve. “If you are good, I will love you. If you measure up, I will own you. Otherwise you have no value to me.” What a tragedy that children are valued only for what they can contribute to a father.

God’s love is not like that. There is no clearer picture for humans to understand the nature of the Father’s love than the simple story Jesus told of a rebellious and wayward son whom the father loved anyway because he was his son. To him his son had worth because he was his son, not because he measured up. That bond can never be severed, no matter what. A son is a son is a son.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – NO PUSHOVERS

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NO PUSHOVERS

“At daybreak, the court judges sent officers with the instructions, ‘Release these men.’ The jailer gave Paul the message, ‘The judges sent word that you’re free to go on your way. Congratulations! Go in peace!’

“But Paul wouldn’t budge. He told the officers, ‘They beat us up in public, and threw us in jail, Roman citizens in good standing! And now they want us to get out of the way on the sly without anyone knowing? Nothing doing! If they want us out of here, let them come themselves and lead us out in broad daylight.'” Acts 16:35-37 (The Message).

Hey, Paul! I thought you were supposed to be meek and humble, and take abuse without complaining, like Jesus did.

Why did Paul pull rank on these judges? Should they not have simply left quietly as though nothing had happened; turned the other cheek as Jesus taught His disciples?

Is that really what He taught? Does Jesus want His disciples to be jellyfish, pushovers?

What exactly did Jesus mean when He said, ‘Turn the other cheek’? If someone slapped another person on the right cheek, it was meant as an insult. To slap him on the right cheek, he had to use his left hand which was considered unclean because the left hand was used for toilet purposes. To turn the other cheek meant that he had to slap the other person with his right hand, forcing him to acknowledge that they were equals.

When Israel was rescued from slavery in Egypt, they had to unlearn centuries of abuse from their Egyptian masters in a new society where they were free. God built into their constitution and culture a new way of life where He taught them to treat one another with human dignity, recognising that every person was created in the image of God.

God hates oppression of any kind and, in the case of Paul and Silas, the Roman judges differentiated between Romans and Jews. They got the Jewish end of the stick because their oppressors hadn’t taken the trouble to carry out their job properly. Paul wanted the Roman judges to acknowledge their unjust treatment by publicly escorting them from the prison where they had been publicly humiliated by the treatment they had received.

Good for you, Paul! It was a lesson these arrogant Romans would not easily forget. Perhaps they were saving someone else from being treated as they had been treated.

“When the officers reported this, the judges panicked. They had no idea that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. They hurried over and apologised, personally escorting them from the jail, and then asked them if they wouldn’t please leave the city. Walking out of the jail, Paul and Silas went straight to Lydia’s house, saw their friends again, encouraged them in the faith, and only then went on their way.” Acts 16:38-40 (The message).

Apparently, although this kind of behaviour was common practice, it was not Roman policy. The judges were using their position of power to abuse Jews whom they despised. If the authorities got to hear about it, they were in big trouble. Mistreating non-Romans was bad enough but mistreating Roman citizens, Jews or no Jews, was serious.

They not only personally escorted Paul and Silas out of jail, they also wanted them out of the city because they were a source of embarrassment to them. Having got the justice they deserved and taught these men a lesson, Paul and Silas reported back to Lydia who was their hostess and must have wondered what had happened to them, encouraged the fledgling believers and then went on their way as requested.

But it was not the last that Philippi had seen of them. There was a baby church to nurture and Paul had no intention of abandoning them, judges or no judges.

A Costly Commission

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A COSTLY COMMISSION

“They took the road south through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica, where there was a community of Jews. Paul went to their meeting place, as he usually did when he came to a town, and for three Sabbaths running he preached to them from the Scriptures. He opened up the texts so they understood what they’d been reading all their lives: that the Messiah absolutely had to be put to death and raised from the dead — there were no other options — and that ‘this Jesus I’m introducing you to is the Messiah.'” Acts 17:1-3 (The Message).

Day two after their release from jail! How could these men, who had just been severely beaten and were covered in welts and raw wounds, travel such long distances on foot without painkillers, antibiotics or anti-inflammatories? What was it that produced such determination in them to proclaim this message all over the empire regardless of the hostility they encountered from their fellow Jews and from the Roman government?

God had called them to press into Europe and to Europe they would go, regardless of the cost, because they knew that He had commissioned them and He would accompany and support them no matter how people responded. He had never promised them immunity from trouble and suffering. He promised them His own presence, with all His resources, so that they would fulfil their mission, no matter what.

Why could they be so sure of what they were doing? They had at least three reasons for sticking to their ministry, no matter how high the price:

1. They had the Scriptures. Centuries before, Hebrew prophets had recorded, in detail, prophecies about the Messiah. Every one of those prophecies had been fulfilled in Jesus, the Christ. As Paul preached, he matched prophecies with Jesus and the people recognised the truth that Jesus was their Messiah, just as the Scriptures had predicted.

2. They had personal contact with those who had lived with Jesus for three years, those who had watched and listened to Him; who had been present at His crucifixion and talked with Him after His resurrection over a period of forty days. Paul had had an encounter with Him on his way to Damascus that changed the course of his life.

3. Through the miracle of faith, their own lives had been changed, giving them an inner peace and joy that not even the experience of the past days could erase. How could they pray and sing instead of cursing and complaining when they were treated so cruelly and unfairly by civil authorities? They had a Master who had suffered for them. His grace was enough to see them through adversity until they had completed their assignment.

All these experiences added to Paul’s CV, giving him all the testimony he needed to pen the letters that became part of the Scriptures of the New Testament. Paul could never have written words of encouragement and hope to the believers in so many churches had he not had personal experience to which he could testify. Every word he wrote about living the life was first hammered out on the anvil of his own experience. It had to be so otherwise his words would have been nothing but untested theory and useless for his readers.

This life Jesus came to give us is free but costly. Paul found it so, and so shall we if it is our purpose to follow the Master closely and faithfully. It will cost our plans and desires. The Master’s way may take us along rough and even dangerous paths but the rewards will far outweigh any price we are called to pay.

Paul could say, at the end of his journey, that there was a crown of righteousness awaiting him and all those who are looking forward to the Master’s return.

Are you?