Roman Coinage (bit of a tid)

While catching up on my TableTalk devotional reading I came across this in reference to Mark 12:13-17.  It's the famous tax paying confrontation.

"A second bit of irony is seen in the pharisees' and Herodians' giving Jesus a denarius when He asked for one.  First-century Jews, for the most part, did not embrace Roman rule enthusiastically.  In fact, many considered the payment of Roman taxes to be a form of idolatry, particularly since the Roman Coinage in which taxes were paid featured the image of the Emperor and his title, which gave him the status of deity.  The Pharisees and Herodians knew that if Jesus were to openly teach people to pay this tax, the Jewish citizens would be upset and would even stop listening to Him.  But note that Jesus did not have the detested Roman coin on His person; His opponents, Jewish leaders who were supposed to be adamantly against idolatry, did.  If paying the Roman taxes was inherently idolatrous, the Jewish authorities were complicit, not Jesus."

Galatians 4:9

This morning I sat down with my cup of coffee hoping to make some headway in my devotions.  It's pretty much been a week since I last did so.  I had every intention of cramming in all of the verses and "TableTalk" articles I had missed...that is until the Lord started working on me with a single verse.

"But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?"
Galatians 4:9

In its perfect context this is a part of Paul's defense against "the Circumcision" that had spread about.  The members of "the Circumcision" spread about the idea that Christians were still subject to Jewish law, specifically that they needed to circumcised.  Paul's letters often have some defense against this idea.  You can almost hear the indignation in his writing voice as he calls it quackery.  Grown men having to get circumcised would certainly keep people away from the faith never mind the fact that Jesus was the atoning sacrifice that paid for the Law for all time.

The way it hit me this morning, not having been pushed to eschew bacon nor put my faith in the Law, was in relations to my life with the world.

For the past few years, and most intensely within the past few months, I've been feeling a massive drawing towards Christ and towards rejecting the world; to IN the world but not OF the world.  It's kind of difficult to explain and I'll probably get all rambley with it.  I'd feel guilty but it is after all my blog, and you can check out any time.

About a year ago I had a feeling that things are going to get bad for Christians in the United States.  I'm not talking "You have to make this cake whether you like it or not" kind of bad.  I'm talking the way Christians are treated in other countries bad.  Second or third class citizens bad.  The government monitoring our public pulpits bad.  I sincerely felt there was going to be a separation that would naturally occur between those who are culturally Christian (those who see Christianity as a good idea, good psychology and a social gospel) and those who have been absolutely changed by Jesus and will stand on His word and in His strength even in the face of injury or death.

Am I prophet?  Nope.  Not my gifting, though, in accordance with Paul's advice, I eagerly desire that.  Instead I just look at the signs.  I see the country shifting.  When the Right on the political spectrum is as left as the Left was in the 90s...something's not quite right.  When we've replaced the concept of Absolute Truth with the concept of Absolute Relativism, to the point that chromosomes and DNA can scream that you are one gender while you feel another and feeling trumps reality, then the culture has built on not just sand, but quicksand.  When societies fall apart they look for people to blame.  When societies fall apart few ever blame their own actions or the actions of their own party.  It doesn't take much to see that we are headed not for a glorious resurgence of the Enlightenment, but for the darkness eerily akin to the Dark Ages.  We have replaced knowing with feeling.  Logic is the slave of whim.  Critical thinking has had sand kicked in its face, been pushed down, bloodied, and its lunch money taken by the will of the mob.  The above is just the things going on in the World apart from the spiritual aspect which is far more grim.  So many people craving tickled ears rather than submitting to God and the truth of the scriptures...So many prominent pastors twisting the gospel to line their pockets...So many craving to be led astray by an "I'm OK, You're OK, And God's OK with everything and everyone no matter what" kind of gospel.  Yes, God is sovereign...but God is also just...and both of those things should be a wake up call, and prompt respectful fear because from my observations of scripture (imperfect as I know they are) God cleans house with his own people first and then judges a nation.

So, what does all this have to do with Galatians 4:9?

Because, to borrow a common phrase, the struggle is real.  The struggle is throughout all of the Old and New Testaments.  "Like a dog returns to its vomit" is one of my favorites.  We are encouraged to not be formed after the patterns of this World but be transformed by the renewing of our minds in Jesus.  Although we are saved, although we are made into a new creation, although we are no longer slaves to sin...we are just like the Israelites in the desert...we want to go back to Egypt, we want to fashion God into something more like we saw in Egypt, we want, we crave, we desire the "weak and worthless elementary principles of this world".

On my medicine cabinet mirror I have taped two slips of paper because of this.  The first one reads "Do what is the most healthy thing at any given moment" which is SO much harder a concept than I believed when I put it up there.  The second says, "Agree daily with what the LORD says, thinks, and feels about you in Jesus."

Why?  Because the opposite of both of those things are deep deep patterns of the World; weak and worthless elementary principles.

(We are) I am so conditioned by this world into doing what feels good and makes me happy rather than doing what is best for me.  Why is it so hard to do the things that are healthy for us?  If I have the choice of playing Fallout 4 over reading some R. C. Sproul or C. S. Lewis or listen to a sermon online...chances are I've got that controller in my hand without a thought.  Why do my devotions take nearly a week to get back to?  Because I want what I want....and I've got a broken wanter.  The calibration is set to the World's standards, not the Lord's.  I want to escape to my bedroom with my cell phone so I can play games rather than go do adulting.  If it was only some days I can understand.  We need a rest, we need an escape, but my desire is every minute of the day...that's not what is healthy or best for me at all.  If you give me a choice between Peanut Butter Cups and a salad, why is it that I will take the Peanut Butter Cups every dang time?  Because I apply the weak and worthless elementary principles of the World rather than seeking or even considering the ways and paths of the Lord.

Equally messed up is how I let the World determine what I think about feel about myself.

I'm not one of those people who looks at Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to figure out what my life should look like and get stressed out if it doesn't match or exceed.  I don't use others as a benchmark for how I should feel about myself.  No.  My real enemy is myself.  I have no standard.  One would think that this means I'm all good, I am relaxed about who I am and what I have done.  The surprising thing with not having a standard is that it is a kind of hell.  Having a standard can be just as hellish because there will always be someone else to measure up to, the goal posts keep moving.  Having no standard means you have no goal posts at all, no lines of demarcation on the field, and you have no idea how you should feel about who you are or anything you have ever done.

I once was at a retreat where they had an open mic moment and I stood up to speak for maybe 30 seconds about my struggles with my faith.  People came up to me all that weekend and said how what I said really touched them and made them think and sparked table conversations.  I should have been thrilled, I should have given the glory to God, I should have been happy.  Instead I felt awkward.  I had a friend of mine talk me through how to respond because the feeling got so bad.  (I ended up with "I'm glad you got blessed"...which I still use oddly enough).  Why?  Why no feeling other than awkwardness?  Because I believe I'm just an average guy, bargain basement human, so what I think and feel must be the same as what other people do.  Granted, I keep getting proven wrong.  I feel like an average tool the Lord sometimes uses.  I feel like I'm just another pot on the potter's wheel.  I don't deserve any recognition.  I have honestly felt like I'm a tool that God will use, sure, but it's when other tools aren't available.  He's got his favorites and I'm not one of them.  God's word is replete with exactly the opposite to tell me.  If I were to rest in that, rest in those promises, renew my mind with that reality...HIS reality...how much would that alter my existence?

There are so many instances where the world tells us things are one way and God directly contradicts that.  God, being the creator of all things including physics, reality, and mysteries deeply beyond even quantum theory, knows best.  I am all to comfortable applying the "weak and worthless elementary principles of the world" to my life.  Jesus has to change that in me and daily I'm telling him, "YOU choose for me because you know best, you are all powerful, you have a path for me from before I was even born."  I keep admitting, "You are the potter, I am the clay...the clay doesn't get a say in it" and trust that he will make me into something beautiful, special, and according to His purposes.

Fortunately the LORD is never content to leave us as we are.

Pax,

W

Court of the Gentiles

This morning I was doing my daily devotional reading which I supplement with a devotional magazine called "Tabletalk".  Today's reading was from Mark 11, the part where Jesus "cleanses the temple".  The article provided some historical context that wholly blew my mind.

"In the first century the Jerusalem temple did have a court of the Gentiles that measured some thirty-five acres where non-Jews could come and pray to Yaweh, the God of Israel.  However, the Gentiles were not really welcome there.  The popular Jewish mind-set hoped that the Messiah would cleanse the temple of all Gentiles.  Moreover, when the Gentiles came to the court of the Gentiles in first-century Jerusalem, there was no welcome awaiting them.  Instead, the court was filled with merchants who sold animals for worshipers to bring as sacrifices and money changers who exchanged Roman coins for Shekels that had no image of the emperor on them and thus were fit for payment of the temple tax.  That is the scene described in today's passage.  Josephus...reports that 255,600 lambs were sacrificed during the Passover, which gives us a good idea of the scale of the merchant's operation in the temple."

All of my life I've wondered about this passage of scripture.  I mean, there had to be somewhere for people to purchase sacrifices or change money.  So what was Jesus so pissed about?  Ok, sure they could take it outside the temple.  But, how practical is that?  With this historical context all of the sudden Jesus' actions make sense.  They are excluding people, preventing a whole group of people from worship and prayer.  You can see the mindset.

"Well...we have 35 acres of unused space, oh sure it's for the gentiles but we really don't want them there.  I mean we won't prevent them, but that doesn't mean we have to make it hospitable for them.  And we might get a little bit of a kick back from the business."

With prejudice clouding the eternal perspective people do all sorts of horribly misguided and terrible things.

Jesus was apparently full of righteous zeal not because business was being done, or profits being made.  A people God welcomed were reviled and prevented from worshiping Him so that business could be done and profits made.

I've been guilty of thinking of this verse every time I see a church with a coffeshop and bookstore in it where people can buy the pastor's latest book and a pumpkin spiced latte.  (oooh....it's almost PSL season, isn't it?)  It is a horrible misapplication of the scripture.  It isn't keeping people out...A coffeeshop actually is quite welcoming to those who don't do mornings and need that bagel and double shot in a cup of coffee (Aka a RedEye or Zombie).  Granted they'll throw me for a loop every time, but I won't be speaking out against them anymore.

Interesting that we call this passage "The Cleansing of the Temple" when the Jews would have thought a good cleansing would be whipping and throwing the Gentiles out; quite the opposite of what Jesus did.

Pax

W

The God of...

This morning I was studying Romans 15 when it struck me that our God is more than a little different than most.  I know, I know.  Anyone with a Sunday School level understanding of the Bible can see that our God is certainly "unorthodox" as far as deities go.  I mean talking donkeys, whales, or "Big Fish", barfing up prophets, the King of the universe born to a virgin, in a stable with no one but shepherds to witness the event.  It isn't just in the big things, though.

In Romans 15 Paul talks about how the strong need to accept the weak and the weak need to accept the strong.  He mentions in three different places "the God of".  In verse 5 "May the God of endurance and encouragement..."  Verse 13 he says "May the God of hope fill you..." In verse 33 "May the God of peace..."

It struck me as odd that Paul uses that phrasing because it calls to my mind the Greek and Roman dieties.  Zeus, the god of lightning.  Poseidon, the god of the sea.  Demeter, goddess of the harvest.  Aphrodite, the goddess of love.  These were mythical deities bound to one facet and one alone.  They had their domain and didn't stray far from it, whereas our God is multifaceted.  His is the air, the wind, the rain, the lightning, the sea, the cattle on the thousand hills...but He goes beyond the impersonal forces of nature.  He is the God of love, encouragement, peace, endurance, hope, etc.

The ancient Greeks and Romans could only ask for the blessing of their deities in their domain, in the things under their direct control and they might listen or they might not.  However, no one went to the temple of Zeus and said, "Make me like you."  That would be hubris and invite an inevitable divine smackdown, if you know your Greek literature.

Our God, however, is both very able and very willing to do just that.  He will not be fashioned into our image as a thing of wood or stone, but He will fashion us into His image.  One cannot be an active follower of the LORD and not take on His qualities.  More than anything He desires to shape us, to breathe into us His very attributes, to have us exercise His wisdom, His love, His peace.  He is not a God far removed from our daily lives as the mythical deities of old were perceived.

The Buddha tells his followers that, given a few lifetimes and a lot of right living, maybe in your own power you can achieve what he has achieved.  You can be like him...maybe...maybe not...don't screw it up.  It's all on you.

Mohammed tells his followers that if they do the right prayers, eat the right things, do the right things, manage to make it to Mecca, and dance around a stone then maybe, just maybe you might make it to heaven.  But maybe not.  Don't screw it up.

Jesus, on the other hand, says to come to Him and He, not you, will make you like Him.

In Christianity, it is not on us to make ourselves acceptable in the sight of the LORD.  That's on the LORD himself and what Jesus did on the cross.  It is so freeing, so mind boggling, so revolutionary in all of the religious systems of the world that God would say, "No, you can't do this yourself.  Let ME do it.  You just come to Me and I'll make you acceptable. I WILL make sure you get into heaven."

It reminds me just why He is also called, the God of our Salvation.

Pax,

P

Inclusion, Acceptance, Affirmation

I woke up the other day and turned on Facebook (Yes...I am back.  But I'm healthier about it.  Much healthier).  I was greeted with a graphic from a church I had attended once for a concert that lead to me "liking" their page.  The old me would have gotten outraged by it and then shared it with all of my Facebook acquaintances in the spirit of "Would you look at this BS!!!".  The new Post FaceBreak me instead sat and considered the content.  Exercising my "reflection" rather that "reflex" mental muscle has been one of the benefits of the FaceBreak.  It keeps my blood pressure down and keeps me from making emotional statements I would certainly later regret.  

The text of the post is as follows:

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: Moabites are bad.  They were not to be allowed to dwell among God's people.  Deuteronomy 23

BUT THEN: comes the story or Ruth the Moabitess, which then challenges the prejudice against Moabites.

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: People from Uz are evil. Jeremiah 25

BUT THEN: comes the story of Job, a man from Uz who was "the most blameless man on earth".

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR: No foreigners or eunuchs allowed.  Deuteronomy 23

BUT THEN:  comes the story of the African eunuch welcomed into the church. Acts 8.

THE BIBLE IS CLEAR:  God's people HATED Samaritans.

BUT THEN:  Jesus tells a story that shows not all Samaritans are bad.

THE STORY MAY BEGIN with prejudice, discrimination, and animosity, but the Spirit of God moves people toward openness, welcome, inclusion, and affirmation.

Now...if the source of this was about how we need to not judge everyone by the same brush because there ARE some good bikers out there, there ARE people with piercings, tattoos, and funky colored hair, that there ARE hipsters who are actually good people then I would be completely on board.  However, this came from a denomination where they are debating whether or not to be inclusive of Homosexuals and Transgenders.  Their balance of opinion is slanting toward full inclusion.  

Quick thinking people who have studied there scriptures and/or have some experience in philosophy or rhetoric can see, in the current context, the inherent issue with the above statement from the graphic.  

Firstly, there is a bit of manipulative information going on here.  Time to get all Berean on it.  

In Jeremiah 25 it does not actually say that people from Uz are evil.  The Lord has Jeremiah take "the wine cup of fury" from His hand.  This indicates (with surrounding context) that the Lord is going to send "the sword" among these people an destroy them.  Uz is on the list....Edom...Moab...Ashkelon...  Oh!  Look who is at the top of the list.  Verse 18 "Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, it's kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse..."  So, by their logic, Uz is evil and should be rejected by the people as well as...the majority...of...everyone...in...Israel...?  But why let ill fitting facts get in the way of a good emotional appeal?

(It's amazing what happens when we actually look up the verses.  Seriously, these days I have been taking the addition of Bible references in a piece of writint as a dare.)

Also I find it very interesting that they chose Jesus' story about Samaritans as opposed to His actual interaction with the Samaritan woman.  If I were being suspicious about their motives I would say that it could be due to the fact that the Samaritan woman says, "We might be wrong about our whole reason for being separate.  Are we wrong?  How should we change?" That kind of makes the whole inclusion at all costs argument fall apart.

Yes, the rest are all examples of people from prohibited people groups, and those people groups (with the exception of of the general "foreigners and eunuchs") had a really bad reputation.  Some of them were a terrible blood thirsty people.  They worshiped idols, did not at all follow the commands of God and in many cases did the exact opposite of the Law.  

Because God accepted these individuals then that means all of their people group are OK with God?  Far from it.  

It is not as though Ruth the Moabitess comes along and continues her Baal worship but isn't a horrible person so the Jews accept her, and Boaz kind of finds it hot and marries her.  

It is not as though Job went around handing his children to be burned by Molech, but God was cool with that.  

Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi who was a Jew.  With her husband gone and given the option to go back to her people or go with Naomi she chose to go among a people she didn't know.  Ruth declares, "Your people will be my people and your God my God."  She was accepted because she had a heart change, a life change, and a God change.  She aligned herself with Yahweh, worshiped Him, and followed His commandments seeking to live by His law.  Ruth changed everything about her life to follow after God.

Job...well, we've established that Uz was on the Naughty List with just as much intensity as as Jerusalem, the Holy City.  Even then, he was blessed because he was A man of righteousness.  Uz was not made righteous and therefore completely acceptable before God because of one man.  Job wasn't a righteous man because he was righteous in his own eyes.  No.  He followed God's law and was righteous in God's eyes, by God's standards.

Interestingly, if we are doing a roll call of righteous people loved by God in cursed places and peoples then why not bring up Sodom and Gomorrah.  And no, I am not even bringing up their special brand of unrighteousness as part of this argument.  Lot was considered righteous and God destroyed everyone else in Sodom and Gomorrah.  He didn't include them or affirm them because of Lot.

Yes, the Gospel is a gospel of inclusion, acceptance, and affirmation...but by God through Jesus.  A lot of times we wish that it meant that God is A-OK with our sins and we can just believe in Jesus and "I'm okay, You're okay".  

All that this graphic really proves is exactly the opposite of it's intent.  God didn't just become OK with Baal worship because Ruth the Moabitess showed up.  God became "OK" with Ruth because she rejected her past and came to Him honestly, openly, and fervently change her life.  She abandoned her sin and followed God.  It is not about the inclusion, acceptance, or affirmation of a whole group, but rather the individual who rejects their sin and accepts God.  They change.  

If you want an example of God accepting a whole group let's go to Jonah.  The people of Nineveh were a nasty people and so Jonah was sent by God to proclaim that His judgement was buffering (loading...please wait).  Every single one of them repented and changed their ways and so God did not destroy them.  Now, if a sinner comes, repents of their sin, and walks in the way of Jesus and we stand there with our arms crossed and reject them...then we are guilty of Jonah's sin.  But that change, that repentance is the pre-requisite.

To suggest that we as people of God can be inclusive, accepting, and affirming of people who refuse to see sin as sin is ridiculous.  Many people in this day and age tend to say not, "Come as you are, and let Jesus change you into what He wants you to be" but rather, "Come as you are and feel comfortable enough to stay as you are."  

We Protestants get all tied up by our deeply held belief in Justification by Faith which, don't get me wrong, is a good and just belief.  However, in this day and age many of the adherents have slipped down the theological slip-and-slide to saying that we can come to Jesus and because we've come to Him we can remain in whatever sin we desire because He justifies us.  

I was reading R. C. Sproul's little book "Can I Know God's Will" just this morning and he states, "We seek refuge in our precious doctrine of justification by faith alone, forgetting that the very doctrine is to be a catalyst for the pursuit of righteousness and obedience to the preceptive will of God".  

When we come to Jesus we are to still pursue righteousness and obedience.  Justification by Faith is all about reassuring us that when we fall we haven't failed. The idea is that we are running the race, pursuing the precepts of God's law in the first place, not wallowing in the mud.  If we stumble over the hurdle it doesn't mean we lose the race.  However we need to be running the race at all just the way each of the above "examples of people God's OK with despite their people group being horrible".

THE STORY MAY BEGIN with God's rejection but it can end with God's redemption.

Pax,

W

Full Belly, Lazy Heart

I have been in a funk lately, all full of discontent and disquiet.  Nothing has been making me happy and most of my mental moments have been self-centered whining and complaining.  I am sure I'm not the only one who encounters this, my relentless mental criticism of everyday things for a season.  I was quite suddenly aware that God didn't seem to be very close or making anything better in my life.

Last night was a particularly difficult struggle.  I slept for fifteen minutes and woke up fully aware and ready to go as if I'd slept eight hours.  For the next three hours I was tossing and turning, praying and complaining to God, wondering why He wasn't apparently available to ease my struggles.  No matter how much I kept telling myself the truth of the situations I was pissy about, no matter how many scriptures I brought to mind, no matter how much I begged and pleaded for Him to make everything better again, nothing worked.  I was in chaos, weakly fending off the volley of lies from the enemy.  Briefly I had the thought when things were at their worst that I should catch up on all the devotions i had been neglecting all week because of our family vacation.  Grumpily, and in Eeyore's unmistakable voice, I brushed the thought aside saying, "Well...if prayer isn't going to work I don't see why reading the Bible will change anything..."

This morning I woke up in very much the same mood.  Everything felt wrong.  I was without joy.  It didn't take much for mine Kinder to grate on what was apparently my last nerve like they had every day for the last week.  There was a huge list of things to do just to keep the apartment in a status that didn't invite vermin or disease.  Why was I bothering anyway?  Nobody appreciates it.  If I happened to disappear the kids would only notice because a snack or meal was late, and my wife would likely only notice because she didn't come home to "Guess what your (insert child) did today?  We've got to do something about him/her".  When was the last time I was happy?  When was the last time I felt appreciated?  And LORD why aren't you doing something about it?!?!

I sucked it up, manned up, bit the bullet, fed and washed the kids, loaded them up into the car, dropped the boy off at pre-school and begrudgingly agreed to take my daughter to our favorite cafe to do home school.  I didn't want to.  I couldn't think of a single reason why I should "reward" her with that.  Apparently that's what my parenting had boiled down to lately...transaction based.

She got her Italian Cream soda, I got my Hazelnut latte, and we broke out the books.  To my chagrin I noticed that we were not two days behind, but three days instead.  She started her Language sections and I opened my Bible.

I am convinced that there is this moment of anticipation that occurs, perhaps experienced by the Lord or perhaps the angels, when you've had a bad time and you finally reach for that Bible.  You open the cover, flip through the pages, maybe begrudgingly, maybe out of duty.

Today it was John 6, a familiar passage that I was almost petulantly skimming over.  I mean, it's the Feeding of the Five Thousand.  I have read it a bajillion times, seen the cartoon, had a t-shirt.  I stopped and forced myself to remember that it is the word of God so maybe I should give it the respect of actually reading each sentence.  I was mildly amused that there is a bit of a hidden miracle after the feeding and after Jesus walking on water.  Verse 21 says "Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going."  Yeah.  Not enough to feed 5k people and walk on water, He teleports the boat.

I read through how the 5k follow him to Capernaum already wanting to make Him a king the day before.  They find Him and oddly ask Him when He came there.  His response rang like a gong in my soul, in my situation.

"Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled."

I hurt.  I crumpled.  I repented.

So many times I want to believe I'm better and smarter than many of the people in the Bible.  I chuckle at Peter, shake my head at the Pharisees and yet each of them is a reflection of my own heart.  It is no less true of me and the 5k.

I want Him to be king because of the good stuff I'm going to get.  I am going to my stomach filled, my days full of lollipops and sunshine, and if I don't it is His fault.  I will go my own way, rate my sins on a scale so that I don't feel too guilty about the ones I enjoy, read his New Testament commands an decide whether I feel like it or not, do my devotions based on whether it's interesting or convenient and then act surprised when my mind is full of chaos and I can't seem to hear or feel the presence of the Lord.

In Nordic culture, in the time of Beowulf, the man who became king was the man who gave treasure away.  He was only beloved by his people so long as he kept giving them things.  If the gravy train ever stopped the people would find a new king.  I have to wonder if that is not an apt metaphor for how we in America tend to think of God.  It is clearly a trap I fall into.

Do I love the King or do I love the peace He gives me?  Do I love the King or do I love the joy?  Do I love the King or the fact that He answers my prayers?  Do I love the King because of what He has blessed me with or because of who He is?

Personally I would have to say that my reaction to adversity (Where's God?  Why hasn't He fixed this?) proclaims my oh so palsied heart.  With very many in my faith, I'm sure, I want to do whatever I have to in order to get the effect rather than falling in love with the cause.

As always, "I believe!  Lord, help my unbelief."

Pax,

W

Thomas, known as The Doubter...

Over the Easter holiday one of my greatest spiritual pet peeves came to the forefront.  Amidst all of the "He has risen"s and reflexive "He is risen indeed!"s, while Christians spoke of the joys of the resurrected life, and how wondrous the actual event must be, there was, as always, the maligning of a particular disciple of Jesus.

Thomas.  Thomas the doubter.  Doubting Thomas.

I mean, look at him over there, sulking in a corner, testy whenever anyone brings up the rumored resurrection.  Silly Thomas.  Puny in Faith Thomas.  What kind of disciple is he going to grow up to be if he can't even believe in the resurrection after the crucifixion.  If he'd just get that big brain out of the way he could experience so much joy.  Why was he one of the Twelve again if he wasn't going to believe in miraculous things?  I may not be a spiritual giant, but I'm sure no Doubting Thomas, amiright?

If you've spent some time with me over the course of this blog then you know that I have more than a little respect for Thomas the Apostle.  Though I am of a protestant bent, I claim him as my "patron saint".  Traditionally he is the patron saint of architects and an eastern country that we'll name in a bit.  He died on December 21st, in the year 72.

In my original version of this post I went down a list of the three times Thomas speaks up in the Gospel of John.  It was actually quite an academic approach...which is probably why I scrapped it.  I'm not much for the academic form and process.  I'm a story teller.  So lets skip the bits that set up my point that Thomas was the one guy in the room who was going to say what everyone was thinking.  You can find them.  Let's skip the bits that establish my point that of all the apostles he was probably the most intellectually honest.  You can do your own homework.  You're smart enough.  Let's skip that and get to the bit of the story that actually earned Thomas the title and made it an insult or at least a disparaging term among both Christians and non-Christians alike.

The week had been a big one so far.  From the triumphal entry, to the Last Supper, to the garden arrest, to the crucifixion, it was a lot to take in and process.  Imagine walking into Jerusalem, the Holy City where God met with the High Priest in the Holy Temple, with the crowds cheering for your teacher.  You couldn't help but get excited about what might be coming next.  The largest city in all of Israel, the capital, and you suddenly realize that your teacher and your fellow disciples apparently have the will of the people on your side.  Everyone is shouting for joy to God...well, everyone but the pharisees and saducees but you're not sure the last time you actually saw any of them do anything but scowl and murmur together trying to cook up some sort of trick question for your teacher.  The atmosphere would have been electric.  Anything could happen, even the overthrow of the pagan Roman occupiers.

Jesus routs the money changers and merchants from out of the temple.  Now the Roman's aren't the only ones who are going to get it in the new kingdom, so to is the corrupted Jewish system.  A full cleansing of Israel seems eminent.

The upper room is filled with candle light, Your teacher disrobes, grabs a towel and a basin, and begins to watch each of his student's feet.  It is a crazy juxtaposition, a upside down sense of duty and honor, so much so that it is not surprising that Peter initially refuses to allow it.  The master is above the servant, the teacher worthy of more honor above the student.  To Jesus it is the foundation of His Kingdom, He says, just how things are and work.  Later Jesus describes the inevitability of His death.  He has been on about his death for ages, but many of his students disregard it as crazy talk.  How can a King establish a Kingdom by dying?  It must be somewhere later down the road, or perhaps it's a symbolic death.  Kingdoms are upturned, and thrones usurped by a King's death, not established.

Then Judas is called out as a betrayer.  The teacher doesn't even act angry about the fact of his betrayal.  He even bids the man to go and do it rather than stop him.  But the meal continues.

In the garden is where the dream begins to die.  Heavily armed guards arrest the teacher, they take Him to where He is beaten and fraudulently accused of things He never did.  Fist shaped bruises blossom on His cheek, a white pair to teeth lay on the floor, their roots crimson against the dirt.  From there the teacher is taken from official to official, beaten by one, mocked by another, and that's when you begin to feel a creeping sense of dread.  First it was shock, now it has turned sour in your stomach.  The air is thick with it.  Days ago your ears shuddered at the sound of praises, more thunderously the people cry their curses.  The people are shouting for the innocent teacher's life to be sacrificed on the cross in the place of a murderous man.  It was a shock to hear that Peter denied the teacher, but now denial seems to be an option as your survival instinct kicks in, as the crowd turn uglier than you've ever seen it.  He is condemned to death.  In the minds of the people it is for insurrection and/or blasphemy.  It never fares much better for known associates of the condemned when it comes to insurrection, and you would be marked for life for blasphemy.

At the foot of the cross you hear the people mock Him.  They question why, if He is so holy and the Son of God, He doesn't just pull Himself off the cross.  You can't help but wonder that as well as you mourn what you are seeing.  You put all your proverbial chips on this number.  You saw miracles, healings, exorcisms, and now this?  Why wouldn't He be able to.  He dies, gives up His last breath.  The sky goes dark, a great earthquake hits and you thank God for the confusion as fear gives way to panic and you slip away.

They mourned for days, all together in one place.  Thomas wasn't immune to it.  The dream was over, whatever dream each disciple had in their hearts.  They were afraid, confused, and each of them questioning God I have no doubt.  They were being hunted by the Romans already, the rumor being that they wanted to make sure the Disciples didn't try and rob the grave.  The land was in a full blown panic over the teacher's death and the following signs.  The temple veil was torn as if by an invisible hand.  People walked out of their graves full of life again.  What did it all mean?  The temple veil was particularly troubling.  Rumors of all kinds flew.  Every hour someone brought them news.  In the morning was when the women returned to them telling them the tomb was empty, and there was an angel.  John and Peter took off like a shot to the tomb while the rest remained fretting and wondering what it could mean.  Was it the Romans?  The Temple Guard under the orders of the High Priest to cast shame and suspicion upon them?  John and Peter return with the same story.  The stone was rolled away, the cloths folded neatly.  One by one they begin to assume.  But not Thomas.

He wants it to be true, but no.  He wishes it could be true.  Jesus had raised the dead before, but...

"Thomas, come on, He said it Himself.  In three days He would rebuild,"

"I know what He said.  I was there.  He said the Temple."

"Then you know it's possible.  The body is a temple."

"There are a hundred things that are possible.  We don't know what happened.  The women didn't see, Peter and John didn't see what happened.  We don't know."

"Why won't you entertain it at least?"

"I do!  In my heart I want it to be true, but I can't say that it is true when I don't know it to be true."

"Come on, Thomas.  Just believe.  You're just sore because we saw Him and you didn't."

"No!" he chokes on his tears.  "I won't.  I won't believe until I touch the holes in his hands and put my hand in his side."

What picture do you have when you read the scene as Jesus appears in the room and invites Thomas to touch, and put his hand in the Lord's side?  Does Thomas just walk up dispassionately, objectively, and examines the wounds?  Does he ashamedly just ascent intellectually with a nod toward Jesus?

In my mind he is filled with holy fear as every possibility and impossibility coalesces into one reality for him.  His hear leaps into his throat as Jesus stands open armed welcoming his examination.  Jesus nods for him to go ahead and shaking Thomas makes the the rounds from hand, to hand, to His side.

A remarkable thing happens to Thomas.  Peter declared that Jesus was the Son of God.  Thomas, however, dropped to his knees and said, "My Lord and my God".  That's huge.  A Jewish man declared that Jesus was Lord and God...one and the same...the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob there before him.  It is easy to assume that he was "late to the party" with this realization, but there is no indication that anyone else had made that connection.

Further remarkable things happen to Thomas.  This "lesser disciple", as some treat him, went farther with the Gospel than any other.  This doubter took the largest leap of faith, leaving behind culture, language, civilization, and every point of familiarity to follow the spirit's leading to India where he established at least 15 churches and what would become "the Oriental Orthodox Church".  I can only imagine the shock it must have been for the English missionaries to come and find people who already knew the Gospel as a result of already being "Saint Thomas Christians".

In my mind Thomas was a man who was extremely honest about himself and what he believed.  I think his "doubt" was very much that of a grieving man who wanted to believe, but whose heart was broken.  He wasn't going to admit what he had not seen and experienced.  Perhaps it is a bit of pride in me, but I believe he and I would get along very well, kindred spirits cut from the same cloth, constantly assessing, reassessing, and questioning what we think we know in order to be sure we are grounded in the Truth.  There is no shame in that, not character flaw to be mocked.  Perhaps others are more blessed because they believe immediately.  Peter may have been the "Rock", but given how far Thomas went and what he achieved I'd say he was certainly "sure footed".

Pax,

P