Tag Archives: killed

THE GOSPEL OF MARK – NO, LORD! NOT THAT WAY

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NO, LORD! NOT THAT WAY

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Mark 8:31-33

This whole incident at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus’ question, Peter’s response and what followed is an important part of the disciples’ understanding and experience of Jesus as their Messiah. It was part of refashioning Messiah’s person and role in Israel as a nation and in their lives as individuals. Messianic expectation was very high because of the hated Roman oppression. Further, John the Baptist’s ministry had raised their hopes, topped with this man whose ability to do miracles seemed to have no limit.

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus actually acknowledged Peter’s conclusion, representing the opinion of all the disciples, as true. Then, in the very next breath He warned them to keep quiet about it. Why? Peter may have been accurate in his confession, but he was way off the mark in his understanding of Jesus’ role as Messiah. His very next response to Jesus betrayed his complete misunderstanding of what the Messiah was all about.

It was imperative that the disciples accurately represent their Messiah to their nation and to the world. Jesus did not want them to go blabbing a lot of nonsense about Him because they attached their notion of what they expected of Him to His identity as Messiah. They had to wait until the revelation was complete – until they were thoroughly instructed and convinced by the Holy Spirit of who He was and why He came.

Following His warning not to disclose His identity yet, He began to fill in the details of His mission – suffering, death and resurrection as the imperative route of victory – over a far more powerful and sinister oppressor than Rome, the power of sin and death. Sadly, His words fell on ears padded with the pre-conceived idea that the Messiah had come to conquer Rome and set up a restored kingdom like that of David’s kingdom. They could not take in His apparently failed mission. Peter vocalised their objection and received a sharp rebuke from Jesus. At that moment Satan was speaking through Peter and Jesus silenced him

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STAY WITH IT

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STAY WITH IT

“‘You’ll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, friends. Some of you will be killed. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul – even the hairs of your head! – is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it – that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, you’ll be saved.'” Luke 21:16-19.

How terrible, that a parent will betray a child and siblings each other for the sake of an ideology that has no foundation in truth! Such is the power of deception that it even overrides family loyalties.

There are countless stories of these kinds of betrayals from the Communist era, for example, that ripped family and friends apart. There are devotees of other religions today that are equally ruthless in the name of their god and teach that anyone who is not one of them must be destroyed.

But, unlike the gods who ‘require’ this kind of behaviour to protect them, Jesus assured His followers that He was in charge and would protect them, even down to the hairs on their head! Herein is the difference between lies and truth. If a god cannot take care of himself and demands that his followers go on the rampage, and riot and murder to guard his name, does he sound like the sort of god that attracts both trust and security?

What if you did something to annoy him? If he requires you to kill even your own family for him, what guarantee do you have that he won’t take you out for some infringement? How much security is there in a god who is capricious and unpredictable?

Once again, Jesus was utterly truthful. He faithfully warned His followers that there was trouble ahead for them if they remained loyal to Him. He gave no guarantee of physical safety if they followed Him but He did assure them that no part of them would be eternally lost. How many times have we already seen that He always viewed life from the perspective of eternity? Life did not end at the grave. It was only a part of the whole, a preparation for what lay ahead beyond death.

Persecution would not destroy them, however tough it was, but it would weed out those who were only in it for what they could get out of it. It would be part of a refining process by which faith in Him would be stripped of props and false expectations and would be anchored in His trustworthiness alone.

Jesus wanted His followers to trust Him so completely, in His character and His promises, that they would stake their very lives on what He had said. And they did! History reveals the story of many thousands during the first three centuries of the church who gave their lives rather than deny Jesus, and they did it joyfully because they believed His promises.

People foolishly follow the words of someone who claimed to speak for their god with no proof of their authenticity. Jesus Himself spoke these words, “‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?'” John 11:25-26 (NIV).

Once again we are left with a choice – to believe and follow the teachings of a god who never speaks for himself, who offers no infallible proof or his existence, and has to rely on fallible humans to speak for him, or to believe in the one who said He would die and rise again and did it, not for Himself but for us, so that we can entrust ourselves to His proven trustworthiness.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – PROPHET-KILLER

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PROPHET-KILLER

“Herod, the ruler, heard of these goings on and didn’t know what to think. There were people saying John had come back from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, still others that some prophet of long ago had shown up. Herod said, ‘But I killed John – took off his head. So who is this that I keep hearing about?’ Curious, he looked for a chance to see Him in action.” Luke 9:7-9.

Who was this “ruler”, this Herod who admitted to being the murderer of the prophet John whom Jesus stated to be the greatest of all the prophets?

He was Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, the one who both rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and was so afraid of a rival that he had all the baby boys in Bethlehem less than two years old put to death after Jesus was born. Herod Antipas was appointed tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and was prominent in the lives of both John and Jesus.

He divorced his Nabatean wife to marry the ex-wife of his brother Philip, and came under the scathing condemnation of John the Baptist for transgressing the marriage law of Leviticus 20:21. “If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. They will be childless.”

At the instigation of his wife, Herodias, Herod imprisoned John and later had him beheaded after a drunken promise to Herodias’ daughter who had danced at his birthday party. No doubt his conscience bothered him when that he thought that Jesus was John returned from the dead. At the same time he knew this could not be true because he had been responsible for John’s death and had been handed John’s head on a platter.

Herod had an insatiable curiosity to see Jesus in action. It was not because he had any desire to follow him but because he was intrigued by the whole idea of a “miracle worker”. Probably, like many ancient rulers, he needed some form of entertainment to keep him amused – like the kings of mediaeval times who had minstrels and jesters to entertain them.

Herod was a thoroughly secular man. He appeared to have no interest in anything to do with his inner life. He was an opportunist – marrying only for political gain and divorcing when it suited him to make a better match. He was also spineless and very much under the thumb of Herodias, choosing to kill John to satisfy her thirst for revenge because of John’s accusation rather than doing the right thing.

During Jesus’ trial before Pilate, Pilate heard that Herod was in Jerusalem and sent Jesus to him rather than condemn Him himself, since Jesus was a Galilean and under Herod’s jurisdiction. Herod was not interested in Jesus’ guilt or innocence. He wanted Him to entertain him with miracles and, when Jesus refused, he abused Him and treated Him with contempt.

Jesus stated that He had come to bring division, even splitting families right down the middle. No one could be left indifferent to Him. It all depended on what was in their hearts. Those who thirsted to know God would recognise His true identity while others would be offended by His claims and His yoke.

It’s still the same today. God has promised: “‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV), but there is a condition. “And 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 (NIV).

Herod has no desire to know who Jesus was except to satisfy his curiosity and to his dying day he would never know. To the sincere seeker, Jesus is the Son of God, the one to whom had been given the highest name and the highest position in the universe. He is Lord, and to Him every knee shall bow!

Selective Hearing

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SELECTIVE HEARING

They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again He took the Twelve aside and told them what was to happen to Him.

‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ He said, ‘and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to the Gentiles who will mock Him and spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. Three days later He will rise.’ (Mark 10: 32-34).

How many times had Jesus told the disciples that He was going to suffer and die in Jerusalem? Read his words again. Could He have been more explicit and given them more detail than this? Step by step He told them what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. Surely they would have remembered at least some of His words when it happened.

What was it in His words that either cancelled out what He told them or, alternatively, sparked faith that would not have been fazed by His death? “Three days later He will rise again.’ Every time He spoke of His death, He told them that He would rise again. Since the two events were tied together, they refused to listen to Him because rising again was outside their experience.

O yes, they were with Jesus when He raised a few people from the dead. They had seen it but His words still didn’t penetrate their reluctant brains. They could not process the idea that their Master would be ripped away from them by violent death. Why would anyone want to kill Him? People from all over followed Him. Even then, He had to take them aside from the crowd to remind them of His words to them. Surely their very presence would protect Him from anyone who had evil intent.

They knew that Jesus was not afraid to tell people the truth, even if it offended them, and offend the religious leaders He did. Sometimes they worried that He had gone too far. He seemed to provoke them deliberately, accusing them of being blind guides and whited sepulchres. That kind of talk would not win their favour. Why did He do it? Why didn’t He just leave them alone? These men were powerful and influential. They could turn the Roman authorities against Him in a heartbeat.

What offended the religious authorities even more was His claim to be the Son of God. They just could not stomach those words because to them it was blasphemy. How could a mere man claim to be God? Of course, any other man claiming to be God would have been written off as crazy, but Jesus gave no evidence of being crazy. In fact, just the opposite. Even His mother and brothers thought He had lost it but Jesus ignored them and refused to go home with them so that they could keep an eye on Him.

What was the difference between His claim and any other claim that did not even warrant consideration? Evidence! Jesus kept insisting, ‘Look at the evidence.’ There were at least three witnesses to authenticate His claim – John the Baptist, the Father and His works. For anyone to be proved guilty of a charge, there had to be two or three witnesses. Jesus produced three witnesses to prove that He was guilty of being the Son of God.

But the authorities still dismissed His claim and so did the disciples even though Peter had confessed his conviction, on behalf of the Twelve, that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. But, as far as Jesus was concerned, Peter might not have even bothered to make that confession because he had no idea what it meant.

The Holy Scriptures presented two streams of thought regarding the Messiah; He would be both a king and a Suffering Servant. Since the Suffering Servant did not fit their expectation of what Messiah would do, they dismissed it and refused to listen to His instruction about His impending death.

It was only after His resurrection that it began to make sense to them, and especially when the Holy Spirit fell on them at Pentecost and did what Jesus said He would do – lead them into all truth.

How often we are just like the disciples – uncomprehending and unbelieving until the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the truth. It’s not just that we can’t understand. We actually don’t want to understand or believe because the truth is too painful to receive. But there is always “resurrection”, and understanding and faith come when we allow the Holy Spirit to interpret life, not according to our expectations but according to the truth.

The presence of Jesus in our pain makes all the difference because only He can make sense of it all. Even if nothing changes, He is there – Emmanuel – and that’s all that really matters.

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.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

Dead Wrong, Devil

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DEAD WRONG, DEVIL

Then He began to explain to them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ He said. ‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’. (Mark 8: 31-33).

Strange, isn’t it, how a person can be so right and yet so dead wrong at the same time! Peter got it right when he confessed Jesus to be the Messiah but, in the very next breath he cancelled his confession with his foolish rebuke.

It was important for the disciples to understand the full extent of who and what the Messiah was. The Old Testament presented two streams of prophecy. Messiah would be both king and servant. What the disciples recognised in Jesus was His power and authority; they had no problem believing that He could overthrow the Roman occupation and set up His rule over David’s realm. They believed it and they wanted to believe it because they ached for the time when the Romans would be thrown out of their land once and for all.

They were so consumed by this expectation that anything Jesus said to the contrary went in one ear and out the other. After all, the very announcement that kicked off His public ministry had to do with the coming of God’s kingdom. They were commissioned to preach it and to demonstrate it by doing the same miracles He did.

What was this talk about being killed and rising again? The other stream in the Messianic prophecies that He would also be the Ebed Yahweh – the Servant of Yahweh – an office which included suffering, they dismissed without giving it a thought. They wanted and needed a powerful ruler to get rid of Rome – bottom line.

They did not understand that God’s agenda was very different from theirs. They were looking for a restoration of the greatness of David’s reign and a return to the comfort of their temporal circumstances. God was about dealing with a far more serious and sinister issue, sin and the alienation from Himself that it had caused. His kingdom was not about geographical boundaries and earthly kings but about restoring the righteousness in their hearts and lives by transforming them from within.

Why did Jesus call Peter Satan? Actually, He didn’t. He addressed the real but unwitting source of Peter’s rebuke. Just as Peter was open to the influence of God and accurately identified Jesus as the Messiah by divine inspiration, so he was equally open to the devil’s lies. He revealed his erroneous expectation of who Messiah really was by opening his mouth and blurting out his rebuke.

Jesus addressed the devil as though he were there in the flesh. “This time, Peter, it’s not God speaking through you but the devil and what he said is nothing but a distractor and I will have none of it.” At that moment, Peter was acting in the flesh. He had no understanding of God’s mind. It would take time and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for Peter to learn to view life from God’s perspective.

Jesus tried hard to prepare His disciples for His passion so that they would not be thrown into disarray when it happened. But so strong was their desire and their expectation that Messiah would deal, not with sin but with Rome that all His efforts fell on deaf ears. Even His strong rebuke did not help to get His message across. He told them the same thing time and again but when the time came, and He was arrested, tried and nailed to a cross, they still didn’t get it.

It seems that Judas even tried to force His hand by betraying Him to the Jewish authorities, which proved all the more that Rome was not on His agenda. Rather than showing His hand as Judas expected and acting against Rome, He submitted to the cross and He rose from the dead, just as He said He would. Only then and finally, after Pentecost, did the penny drop and everything He said fall into place.

We are really no different, aren’t we? Our expectations of Jesus centre so much on our creature comforts that we turn away in disappointment and disillusionment when Jesus does not meet our expectations. God is less interested in our comfort than our character. It is sin that He deals with, not circumstances. His promise is that He will transform us into the image of His Son, so matter what it takes. In the end, we decide how tough it will be by our response to His training.

As one mom said to her son when he resisted going to bed, “You can go easy or you can go hard, but you are going to bed anyway!”

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.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com