Facing The Long Dark

Throughout history, human beings have sought to make sense of their world. From the various creation myths of ancient civilizations to Plato, to the writers of the New Testament, to Neitzsche, to Rick Warren, people have put forth a set of glasses through which we can view the world. This desire is inborn in us, and is one of the distinctive characteristics that separate us from the animals. We want our lives to have meaning, and to fit into some ultimate pattern. What is terrifying for most people is the thought that we are alone, that there is no pattern, that we must face the dark of night on our own.

Mark 5:35-6:1
“While Jesus was still speaking, some men came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. "Your daughter is dead," they said. "Why bother the teacher any more?" 36 Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."  37 He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. 38 When they came to the home of the synagogue ruler, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. 39 He went in and said to them, "Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep."  40 But they laughed at him. After he put them all out, he took the child's father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41 He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum!" (which means, "Little girl, I say to you, get up!"). 42 Immediately the girl stood up and walked around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. 43 He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.” 

One of our greatest fears is death. We don’t think about it much when we are young, but even then it is there, lurking in the shadows of our consciousness. It is usually as teenagers that we begin to personally experience what it is like to have someone you know die. At that time it begins to dawn on us that we might die too, and we become afraid. What happens after we die? Do we simply return to the organic elements our bodies are made of, feeding trees and worms and fish? Or is there something more?

Imagine the terror and despair that must have overcome this synagogue ruler. As a parent, I cannot conceive of my life if any of my children died. His desperation is palpable.  And this is when our own mortality rears its black head and leers at us through pointed teeth. When we realize we are living in the valley of the shadow of death.

But Jesus is in control. He is running the show, although most everybody else doesn’t realize it, cowering down in that inky black valley, the Shepherd is coming. The dawn of an endless sun is breaking. And it is at this point we can begin to hope for something more than a brief existence, plagued with frustrations and disappointments, and look forward to someone taking our dead hand someday, and saying, “Arise, my child.”

The Difference Between Being Cured and Being Made Whole

We all have people we dislike and therefore avoid. The two main groups of people in this category are people who have hurt us and people who repel us with their problems.

Mark 5:21-34
“When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. 22 Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at his feet 23 and pleaded earnestly with him, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live." 24 So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. 25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. 26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." 29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. 30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"  31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'" 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”  

Jesus dealt with both an enemy and an untouchable in this passage. It was synagogue rulers like Jairus who were among those who wanted to see Jesus done away with. The woman with the flow of blood, be it menstrual or not, would have automatically been excluded from all social interaction by the Jewish Law. She would not have been allowed into the synagogue or into most social scenes, because by Law she was considered unclean. She had been perpetually unclean for twelve years.

And yet Jesus is confronted with both types of people here. In compassion I have yet to comprehend, he proceeds to travel to the home of His enemy to heal this enemy’s daughter. This “repulsive” woman bores through the crowd thronging Him on every side and grabs at the hem of his robe, no doubt hanging about 6 inches off the ground and therefore quite dirty. She dives into the dirt behind Him and hopes for the best.

And Jesus feels power drawn out of Him. This is the only time I can think of when this happens. Usually, Jesus wields power by word or touch. But this time, it says that power was drawn from Him, like a bucket of water from a well. The original language of the book of Mark states that she is cured from her disease. But when Jesus inquires about who had drawn power from Him, two things happen. First, the disciples, once again a day late and a dollar short, look at Him like He is crazy, since He is in the middle of a crowd. Second, the woman comes, fearfully and trembling, and once again hits the dirt, this time in front of Him. Then Jesus says, Daughter, your faith has healed you, go and be whole again. There are three different words used in this passage for her restoration: cured, healed, and whole. The first refers to the simple ending of a medical problem, but the last two refer to deeper implications, namely that this Daughter would now be welcomed back to life in all its fulness.
What about us? Do we treat Jesus like a genie, granting wishes, or do we want a real relationship with Him?
Are we simply after the cure, or do we want to be made whole?

Loneliness before the harvest

I didn’t have a whole lot of friends when I was a kid, I really don’t know why. It wasn’t that I was mean to people or selfish or anything like that. In fact, I was so desperate for friends I was probably too clingy and ended up repelling anyone within 100 feet of me. But for the most part, I remember my childhood through lonely eyes. I had a deep longing for somewhere and someone to belong to. Eventually, when I became an adult, I started to figure out how to make friends, but that feeling of being an outsider has never left me. I am accustomed to it now.

Mark 4:21-34
“He said to them, "Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." 24 "Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you-and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."  26 He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."  30 Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."  33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” 

The Kingdom of God has many paradoxes. It lifts up and exalts people who are rejected by this world. It accepts and loves those unworthy of love. It is based on love and power. It promotes peace through spiritual war. And it is secret, yet is known throughout the world. During His ministry, Jesus was constantly urging people not to reveal who He was, yet everything He did promoted His notoriety. He became so famous He became a target for murder.

How is the Kingdom of God like a mustard seed? That tiny seed contains all the genetic material to grow 1000 times its own size. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed in that it grows exponentially. Wherever there is another lamp lit, another flame kindled, the Kingdom grows. It grows until it is harvest time, and when the harvest comes, there will be no more loneliness, no more children without friends, and the Kingdom will fill our vision and our hearts and our minds with its golden yellow gleaming.

Pizza Parlor Faith

My return to Jesus was a long and winding road, with many stops and starts and tangents. Soon after I graduated from high school, I was working in one of the three pizza places I have worked in to pay the bills. This was in Rogue River, OR, a very small town in southern Oregon. There had been a small revival among the high school students and recently graduated. Two very popular and very wild party guys had recently accepted Christ and were now zealously trying to live the Christian life. These two guys until recently had been the main suppliers of alcohol at the parties held regularly up in the rural canyons outside of town. Now they were supplying heavy doses of the Gospel to anyone who stood still long enough for them to grab. Soon, they had a small group of kids they had persuaded to become Christians.

Mark 4:13-20
“Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.” 

I do not know what happened to those two guys. When I left town as soon as possible after I graduated, they were still going – I think one or both were planning to go to Bible college, but I am not sure. But one of the kids they converted is the actual point for today. This kid, Kevin, was the epitome of verse 17 above. Kevin was so excited about his two-week old faith, and I remembered enough from childhood, that we would talk about God and the Bible and stuff all through our shifts at the pizza place. But after a while, I noticed the sparkle was gone from Kevin’s eyes and pretty soon he was old Kevin again. Even though I was not right with God at that point, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed at Kevin’s failure to thrive.

I do not think we live in a fatalistic world, like the Muslims. I perceive life as primarily a long series of choices, choices we have the ability to make. In fact, I think this is the only true freedom we have – everything else is borrowed. So why do kids like Kevin wither away, even when they seem to have genuine faith?

Theologians throughout the centuries have strived to answer this question. On the one hand, you have some that say Salvation is determined solely by God. It was explained to me that the world is like a burning building, and God is a fireman who only has time to rescue a certain number of people. He chooses which ones to rescue and the rest are left to perish. At the other extreme of this pendulum, you have people who say that salvation is completely up to us, that you better make sure you’re right with the Lord each and every minute or you might lose your salvation. I highly doubt either of these two perspectives are accurate. I know that God desires everyone to be saved, and He is not limited by human metaphors like a burning house. God can and will save whom He wants to save, even if we think otherwise. However, part of our salvation is in our hands, in that we must willingly submit to His authority in our lives. So Kevin, wherever you are, you are not doomed, you can come back to the peace and joy of God.......Kevin?    Kevin?

Do Angels and Demons really perch on your shoulders? (And other such questions)

There is a lot of talk today about the supernatural. Only twenty years ago, anything spiritual was considered the realm of nutcases and religious fanatics. But nowadays, there has been a strong revival of interest in the “unseen world.” Part of this is a shift in our culture from the modern era to the postmodern era. The modern era can be best summarized by the popular advertisement phrase, “4 out of five dentists recommend....” In other words, science was hailed as the basis of reality. The postmodern era can be best summarized by the statement, “Whatever.”  The universe is no longer viewed as a closed system, there are a wide arrays of possibilities that science alone cannot explain.

There has also been a tremendous revival of interest in angels and demons. I am at times puzzled by the seemingly endless fascination Christians have with these beings. Very often, I will spend a whole Bible study hour answering questions about them.

Mark 3:7-12
“Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. 8 When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. 9 Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. 10 For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. 11 Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." 12 But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.” 

The only reaction the demons ever have when they encounter Jesus is terror. They are terrified to be in the presence of the one who can and will destroy them. They beg and plead for Jesus not to torment them, cast them into the Abyss, and other horrible punishments. While we as human beings remain fascinated by the supernatural world, it is good advice to consider the following when evaluating how much time the spiritual world should occupy our minds.

1. As Christians, we are already claimed by the Holy Spirit. Therefore we have nothing to fear from demonic forces. They are terrified at what we might do if we actually lived with God completely in control of our lives.

2. We should pay the same amount of attention to the spiritual world as the New Testament does. Of the 22 books of the New Testament, only about two full pages front and back talk about demons, angels, Satan, etc. So we should devote about the same amount of attention to it, and keep the main things the main thing.

Don't stop believin'

Something I have learned as I grow older is that faith is not simply something you have. You don’t possess faith, you chase after it. And your following of Jesus is all about the journey, a journey that never ends until your earthly life does. I don’t know about anyone else, but I have never been happy to sit back on my laurels when it comes to things like spiritual growth. I want more. I am not satisfied with what I have so far in my faith, I want what’s next around the bend.

Mark 3:1-6
“Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."  4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” 

Most people don’t know that the Pharisees started out as a reform movement, a radical one in fact. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in 333 BC, he got Israel in the bargain. He and those who came after him began to turn everything Greek. It would be similiar to the Americanization of the world today (there are 64 McDonald’s restaurants in Moscow, Russia!). The Jews responded in various ways to this mounting pressure to conform to the Greek way of life. Most sold out, and some even went so far as to reverse their circumcisions, so they wouldn’t be embarrassed in the gymnasiums! The Pharisees were radically opposed to this and implemented reforms to restore Jewish pride and passion for the Law. But by the time Jesus came around, the Pharisees, like all reform movements, had changed priorities from a radical devotion to the Word of God and the preservation of the Jewish faith to maintaining control and power over the people. They were so intent on staying in charge that they missed the very one they were supposed to be looking for. They were supposed to be the protectors and the proclaimers of God’s Word, instead they used it like a baseball bat.

New and Improved!

One of the ways our culture defines progress is identifying it with something new. Conversely, the old cannot be progress. But as we consider that cultural value, there are many obvious flaws. Over the past 100 years, “the American Century,” as some have called it, there have been many, many new things. Technology is the most obvious of these, along with medicine, industrial and commercial practices, globalization of economics, etc. But in the past one hundred years, more people have been killed as a result of warfare than the past 20 centuries combined. The suicide rate among young and old has steadily climbed. The divorce rate went from extremely rare to 50% of marriages. The level of knowledge, though unquestionably broadened, has also thinned, with the average high school graduate of today knowing less about geography, math, history, literature, and English grammar than the average 8th grader in 1905. Drug use continues to climb, with junior highers now routinely involved. The percentage of Americans who identify themselves as devout Christians declines steadily every decade. So in light of this you might wonder why our culture continues to identify newness as progress, rather than the other way around. It is only in the last several hundred years that this perspective has taken hold. Up until the Rennaissance of the 1500's, the past was looked to for the answers to society’s questions. People pored over the Bible, Plato, Tacitus, and Augustine to gain the knowledge and insights of the ancients. Ask your average person on the street today and they are unlikely to be able to tell you what Plato taught, or if they’ve even heard of his work.


Mark 2:18-28
“Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, "How is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?" 19 Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. 20 But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. 21 "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."  23 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?" 25 He answered, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."  27 Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

But now here’s  Jesus, talking about doing new stuff. He’s talking about bursting the old wineskins of the past order of things with the new message of grace from God. He’s talking about remembering the purpose for old conventions and behaviors, that they are meant to be a help, not a hindrance. He’s talking about enjoying the moment the bridegroom is there, not worrying about when He is gone. God’s Kingdom is coming, He’s saying, and that Kingdom has to do with faith and freedom, with joy and friendship. When Jesus came preaching the coming of the Kingdom of God, He portrayed it as a new thing. God’s plan was unfolding and opening up to the world like a early spring flower.