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People are No Good

3.3

Read Romans 3:1-20

A few years back, there was a popular country music song called “People are Good.” It was a number one hit for Luke Bryan. I know it was a number one hit because I looked it up and also any country song that I become aware of when it was released is bound to have been in the top ten. I don’t pay much attention to country music. The chorus begins with the line “most people are good”. Overall, the song is fine.

Mr. Bryan said that what appealed to him about the song when he first heard it was that it communicated some good vibes for people rather than the humdrum of negativity that we are exposed to most of the time. The song was made for pick-up truck drivers in places like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida where complementing mothers, acknowledging high school football, and recognizing the dignity of hard-working folks will always play well. In other words, it hits all the feels. About the only thing that you can say against the song is that there is no mention of dogs. Well, that and it is crummy theology!

The Apostle Paul has a counter argument:

There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:11-18)

With this litany of scripture verses, Paul completes the indictment of all of humanity that he began at Romans 1:18. Recall “for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Along the way he pointed out our preference for the Gods of our own making, the appeal of self-righteousness, and reminded his Jewish brethren that even though they had received the law they failed to follow it. All people are guilty before the Lord God and deserving of punishment. We are all in trouble when the wrath of God revealed (Rom 1:18) becomes the wrath unleashed at the final judgment.

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

Mr Bryan’s lyric (wonderfully sung in an understated way) reflects the attitude of most people. I heard similar sentiments all the time in my days as a youth director and pastor. It is comforting to think that people are at their core are basically good but that is not what the Bible teaches, nor does it jive with reality.

Look back at the litany above and ponder the following:

How many times in the last week did you say something negative about a friend, a coworker, a family member, a celebrity, or an elected official? Did you gossip about others?

Did you lie? Even a small one. Something seemingly irrelevant like telling the officer that pulled you over for speeding that you didn’t know what the speed limit was or how fast you were going?

Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness…

Did you get angry at the people who voted differently from you in the last election? Did you watch the news and think this or that politician is “stupid” or “a threat to the country”? Did you wish someone were dead?

I know many people who wish the assassin who shot at Trump hadn’t missed. Others have applauded the death of the United Health Care CEO and lionized his murderer this year. People have set fire to Tesla dealerships because of Elon Musk’s government service. Just two weeks ago, I saw a Tesla with a bumper sticker that said the driver is anti-tariff presumably in an attempt to protect them from the vitriol and anger that is being directed their way.

… their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

I haven’t even mentioned the wars that are raging, drunk drivers, the people who are profiting from sex traffic, molesters, pedophiles, murders, abusers, drug dealers, and terrorists.

Where I live even people who “are good” fail to yield to folks entering the highway, speed through school zones, and cut in line at the Starbucks. They are some of the wealthiest people in the world in terms of money and time and give very little of it back to aid the poor and the needy. They are more likely to rescue a dog from a shelter than give a homeless person a meal.

Here is a non-hypothetical example. A few weeks ago, I swung by the local grocery store to pick up a couple of items. As I am walking up to the store, I heard a grown man screaming obscenities at someone. Come to find out he was berating a woman in a car for her driving. He was escalating to the point that several male patrons, me included, began moving closer in case there was need to intervene. Thankfully he allowed her to drive on.

People are not good. Even Jesus said so. See Mark 10:17-27.

When God made people, we read that he breathed into Adam and Adam became a living soul. At first glance you think so Adam began to breathe and live, but “living soul” comes from a Hebrew word, nefesh and it means bundle of desires. That is what we all are — a bundle of desires — our mishandling of those desires is what causes sin.

If we are honest, most of the time, we do what we want when we want. If it is something that we should not do, we justify it to ourselves and others. We have been like this from the start. Eve saw that the fruit was pleasing, looked tasty, and she wanted to be like God. She and Adam ate. When God confronts them, Adam blames God saying, “the woman you gave me gave it to me”. Eve says, “it was the serpent”. No one is taking responsibility. Eve at least points the finger at the serpent’s cunning. Adam blames God.

How is this any different today when someone is in a car wreck and looks for a way to blame the other driver? What about when a rapist blames the victim for dressing provocatively? In degree of villainy, sure, but in principle not so much. Any parent of two or more children knows how easily people take to blaming someone else or finding a way to avoid being punished. Elementary school teachers learn early on to ask, “why did you hit Johnny” rather than “did you hit Johnny?” if they want an honest response. Speaking of teachers, they also learn way too early that a disciplined child will report to their parents that they were punished because the teacher doesn’t like them rather than explain what they did wrong in the first place.

Some of you will say that all may be true, but I follow the rules most of the time and I am not guilty of any of those truly horrible things that you mentioned earlier. I would tend to agree, and neither am I, but an honest assessment of human nature would say people in general are capable of most of them. Someone is doing them. My wife loves to watch Law and Order SVU. That show only has stories to tell because there are lots of those crimes being committed every week.

Paul knew about self-justification. Several times in his writings and in the book of Acts, Paul shares that at one time he was blameless before the law. That is to say that he was blameless in the way that he interpreted the law. When we first encounter him in the Bible, he is holding the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen for the “crime” of believing Jesus was the promised messiah and doing acts of kindness to the poor in Christ’s name. As my Christian Ethics professor was fond of saying “never forget that the first great missionary of the Church was once a murderer”.

Perhaps this why the Old Testament records all these stories of broken, messed up families, and the repeated idolatry of Israel; to remind us that all of humanity is always just a breath or two away from living into their depravity. In just a few short verses from the passage above Paul will reiterate is point that we are all guilty. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And we have.

How depressing you might say to go through life with an attitude that everyone is a slave to depravity. that would be true if that was all the truth there was to hear. Thankfully, there is more to the story. People may be depraved but people are redeemable. That is a topic for next time.

1

No Escape

Read Romans 2: 9-29

As it happens, I believe that the Bible is the word of God. I trust that the LORD of heaven and earth, the one who created the cosmos and all that we perceive throughout reality, is capable of the relatively minor miracle of ensuring that the 66 books that we have are the 66 books that we need. There are several other reasons that I believe the Bible is trustworthy and the word of God, but that is for another post on another day.

Saying that I believe that the Bible is the word of God does not mean that I like everything that the Bible says. Like most Christians there are portions of scripture that I like more than others. There are stories that I find distasteful; I am looking at you Lot’s daughters. There are long sections that can seem tedious. I mean really, we could all build our own at-home tabernacle if any of us had any idea about the length of a cubit. The more I mature as a Christian the more I come to understand that it is all in there for a reason and it is all beneficial.

I bring this up at this point in our journey through Romans because I do not want us to forget Paul’s driving force for his missionary work. There is a day of judgment coming. Obviously, it was not coming as quickly as Paul feared, but as he pointed out in Romans 2:4 that the fact that the final judgment tarries is a reflection of the kindness and patience of God. Our response to the delay should be repentance.

There will be tribulation and distress for every soul who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

The idea of the final judgment is prevalent in the Bible.

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12)

God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12)

It is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment. (Hebrews 9)

For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels and will then repay every man according to his deeds. (Matthew 16)

It is that last one that stings the most, that is, if you know that it is Jesus speaking. Jesus talks about the final judgment quite a bit. He has several parables (sheep and goats, wheat and tares, the rich fool, etc) that are centered around the final judgment.

As central as it is to the teachings of Jesus, I am not so sure that it is a frequent topic from American pulpits. There are times when I think that I failed when I was a preacher for not commenting on the judgment to come more often. There are many who do not want the old “fire and brimstone” messages, but shouldn’t we occasionally have the heat turned up on us?

In Paul’s day there were many Jews who took comfort in the fact that they were children of Abraham. They thought that having the law gave them a special status. They were confident that they had little to fear of the coming judgment because they were the children of God. For them sin was something that needed to be atoned for with the proper sacrifice according to the covenant. Not unlike a Catholic today who might think sin is not that big a deal. I can go to the priest, confess, do the rosary prayer or whatever else he tells me and move on with my life. Protestants sometimes think “oh well the grace of Jesus covers that one too”. The Apostle Paul took a much more dire view of sin.

Paul understood what too many of us ignore. We Christians spend a lot of time talking down the importance of this sin or that sin. Like the Jew who was overly confident in the status of the people of God to be concerned with the condition of their own heart, we rely on grace to cover a multitude of our sins. As such, we are at risk of being overconfident of grace towards those sins that we simply will not stop committing. Like a junior high boy relying on body spray instead of a shower we expect grace to hide the stench. We are cavalier because we have not truly fathomed the cost of sin. I am not speaking in our own lives, although that cost is high. I am talking about the cost to God.

Christ died because of sin.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Sin was such a big deal that Christ had to die.

What is your own life worth? For what are you willing to die?

Christ died because of sin.

Christ died because of your sin.

Many are fond of saying that “Christ died for my sins”, but that also means that “Christ died because of my sins.” I mentioned in the previous post that mercy only has meaning when there is a law that demands punishment. There is no mercy where there is no judgment. In a similar way grace has no meaning where there is no sin. Soon we will be spending several posts on grace and justification and other good theology words as we go through Romans 3-8, but right now we need to sit in the knowledge that there is a judgment coming for a sin-filled world and that our sins are part of the collective problem that cost the savior his life. As Taylor Swift sings “it’s me, I’m the problem, it’s me”

Recall that Paul says that he is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom 1:16); but he wants to be sure that we understand that there is no other way to salvation. There is no partiality with God (Rom 2:11). Those who choose the path of self-justifying will suffer the same fate whether are familiar with the law of God or not. The path of self-justifying today looks like the person who wants to avoid faith and simply try and be a good enough person. They are not certain that there is a God or a judgment, but if there is, they intend to rely on the “T-Chart” method. Hopefully there is one more tick mark on the good side of the chart than the evil side of the chart. Poor things probably don’t even realize Jesus is serious when he says the “secret” stuff is going to be judged (Rom 2:16).

At first it seems that Paul gives this group hope when he says that the “doers of the Law will be justified” (v13), but Paul just spent several verses highlighting the sins that demonstrate the unrighteousness of humanity. Not only that but in the proceeding verse he says that all who sin outside of the Law will perish; and everyone who sins under the law are to be judged by the law meaning that they too will be deserving of capital punishment. Paul knows Psalm 24 too well to believe anyone can do the law perfectly enough to get into heaven.

No, there are no ways to justification with God through works. If there were then Jesus Christ would not have had to die.

The rest of Romans 2 relates to the Jew who is overly confident that his status as a Jew will result in his salvation. This first century Jew is in the synagogue (hearing the word but probably not being a doer of the word) and he is quick to correct and judge his neighbor. He knows the law, but he cannot be bothered to live a transformed life. Like a Christmas and Easter Christian, today; just need a little inoculation twice a year to keep up the effect of my baptism, but hey football, bass fishing, and travel ball are going to be more important most Sundays (or the rest of the week) than living a life guided by the Holy Spirit.

What Paul writes for the first century Jew (I fear may be true for the merely baptized) that circumcision is of value only if you are keeper of the law, as soon as you transgress the law your circumcision really amounts to very little. In a similar vein, you can be baptized, take communion, attend worship and be there every time the door is open, but if there is no transformation of the heart then it all comes down to nothing. Or as they use to say in East Texas “just being a church goer doesn’t make you a Christian any more than sitting in the garage once a week would make you a car.”

In summary, at the end of Romans 1, Paul explained how the wrath of God was being readied to be poured out on those who practice various idolatry and live fully into their decadence, depravity, and selfishness. At the beginning of chapter 2, he turned his gaze onto those who nodded approvingly at his list of vices and congratulated Paul for his apt condemnations. They forgot their own self-righteousness is a sin. Now, deeper into chapter 2, Paul has revealed that those who trust in their own innate goodness as one of God’s creations will also face the judgment. So too, anyone who seek to be deemed good enough on their own merit when the judgment comes will be found lacking. Those who are confident that they are among the elect (to borrow a phrase from the Presbyterians) and active in the church will not miss the guilty verdict either. Finally, he gets all the “good church people” who know what’s right and even remind others when they miss the target of righteousness. Those people who can quote scripture chapter and verse as they say but still also break the law on the regular will not escape the “tribulation and distress” of verse 9. This is because God is looking for those whose circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit. Jesus himself said the days were coming when people would worship God in Spirit and Truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship him (John 4).

All of this is building Paul’s case and soon enough he will reveal the gospel solution found in Christ Jesus. For now, it is Holy Week 2025, and we should all take our sin just a little more seriously.

Our sin is why Christ had to die.

0

La Morte Javert: the Peril of the Self Righteous

Read Romans 2:1-8

Recently I attended Les Miserables for the first time. It was amazing. I had not seen any of the film adaptations over the years nor had I read Victor Hugo’s masterpiece upon which the musical is based. Even beyond the immense talents of the performers, the mind reels at the skill necessary to make such a powerful, yet concise, performance out of 1000 pages of literature.

Spoilers ahead! Although, since the novel is over 160 years old it is really on you if you do not know the story at all.

Going into the performance, I was really only aware of the scene where the protagonist Jean Valjean experiences grace from a bishop who takes him into his home. Valjean repays the kindness by stealing some silverware. The bishop, when Valjean is presented to him by the authorities with the evidence of his crime, rather than ensuring his recidivism informs the police that he had given Valjean the silverware; and that he had left some of his gifts behind! This moment of mercy changes Valjean’s life forever even though he can never escape his past identity as a thief to some. His character arc is the most obvious example of what Hugo called the novel’s march from “evil to good… nothingness to God… The starting point: matter; destination: the soul…”.

As I experienced the performance, I came to realize that there are 3 viewpoints at tension in the musical. Valjean, who has experienced grace and mercy and having been transformed is trying to live a life marked by both going forward. Javert the indomitable lawman doggedly chasing after Valjean to bring him to justice. The crafty Thenardier who provides comic relief all the while exhibiting a belief in doing whatever it takes to survive and take what you can get whenever and wherever. Thenardier’s worldview is the only one that is atheistic. The musical asks the listener to choose between a path of enlightened grace, slavish adherence to law and order, or a strictly self-serving existence. Each of the three characters have identities that are shaped by the viewpoint they espouse.

What does any of this have to do with the second chapter of Romans? This will take a minute or two of your time but bear with me.

Above is a print from one of the many editions of Les Miserables. Depicted is the death of Javert. The intrepid lawman has chosen to end his own life in the rapids of the Seine. What drives him to this despair? Jean Valjean had the opportunity to kill him and chose instead to demonstrate the same grace that he had himself once experienced when his own life hung in the hands of the bishop so long before. Javert whose identity and self-worth are so wrapped up in his understandings of good vs evil and the keeping of the law cannot fathom a world build on such mercy.

As he stares into the churning waters below, he sings:

Who is this man?
What sort of devil is he?
To have me caught in a trap
And choose to let me go free?

Vengeance was his and he gave me back my life!
Damned if I’ll live in the debt of a thief
Damned if I’ll yield at the end of the chase
I am the Law and the Law is not mocked
I’ll spit his pity right back in his face

And must I now begin to doubt,
Who never doubted all those years?
My heart is stone and still it trembles.
The world I have known is lost in shadow.

Unable to conceive of a world that has space for mercy, Javert would rather die and escape a world of mercy if it does not comport to his understanding of justice. If the law is to be circumvented by grace, then the law is mocked. He prefers the darkness of death to his shattered worldview.

Paul, the apostle, not a character from Les Miserables, culminated his discussion of the impact of idolatry on the soul with a litany of evils (1:18-25) that demonstrate the coming wrath of God is justified. As, chapter 2 begins he turns his indictment on the least suspecting evil of idolatry: the self-righteous.

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

Paul knows that his audience (mostly Hellenized Jews in Rome) would have heard his railings against idolatry as judgment on the gentiles and in their hearts would be providing a hearty amen! It was not uncommon in the sermons and writing of first century Jews (and earlier) to point out the many ways in which the gentiles fell short of God’s law. Paul knows that the “amens” in their hearts and thoughts of “yeah, you tell them Paul” belies a heart that is not aligned with God but rather one that takes the place of God and renders judgment on others. I suspect that the first time that the letter to the Romans was read to the gathered faithful there was silence in this moment.

…do you suppose… when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Paul is never one to mince words. Look back at the litany of Romans 1:18-25. Everyone is on that list somewhere at some point in their lives. To bring it immediately back to Javert, Paul literally says that God’s wrath is coming because people are “insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.“

Javert would rather die than try to live in a world that makes room for mercy.

Paul asks all of us who pass judgment to reconsider our own need for a gracious response from God. Our failure to be self-reflective of our own weaknesses before a Holy God belies a subtle belief that others are more deserving of God’s wrath to come. Honest assessment of our own need for grace should makes us more loving and merciful. The failure to do so means we are at risk of following a God of our own making, one that judges those whom we judge and one that would never hold us accountable. Paul writes: Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 

Jesus told a parable about a King who forgave an exceptional debt to one of his servants. That servant subsequently refused to forgive the much smaller debt of someone else. When the King heard of this, he had the unforgiving servant imprisoned and tortured until he paid back what was owed. Jesus concluded the parable saying, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart” (Mt 18:21-35).

Paul says that we have a choice. We can choose hardened hearts (Javert does so to the point of death), or we can recognize God’s mercy towards us as an opportunity to repent and choose grace and mercy as the guideposts of our faith. Paul assures us that there is a reckoning to come and those of us who choose to practice self-righteousness will be found wanting. In the end we will have mocked, not the law, but God himself.

So long as Christ has not returned then there is still time for us to repent (to change the way we think) and live lives marked by mercy and forgiveness. Those who persevere will experience eternal life, what Jesus called “the joy of the Master”. Best to not comment on the alternative.

What Javert (and far too many Christians) fail to understand is that mercy does not mock the law. Mercy does not negate the law. Mercy only exists because of the power of the law to condemn. Law has no means of forgiving; it can only assign guilt and punish. Mercy and its cousin grace only exist where there is first a law.

I can only appreciate the freedom mercy allows if I understand the penalty that is due. Mercy only has meaning where law is taken seriously. Jean Valjean understands the mercy of the bishop because he has already experienced the penalty for theft. In contrast, the rascal Thernardier has no respect for the law because he has always thwarted it. The self-righteous Javert having never broken the law feels justified in his interpretation of the law and its application.

Transformation in the Christian sense begins with the understanding of the need for grace. (I urge you because of the mercies of God to not be conformed to this world but rather to be transformed by the renewing of your mind…) A true understanding of the righteousness of God leads to an admission of guilt before the throne. The subsequent feelings of conviction and self-recrimination produced in us is a recognition of the righteousness and holiness of God and the wonder of his mercy and grace. We are forgiven and pronounced righteous instead of judged as guilty. Both Javert’s world of crime and punishment and Thernardier’s cavalier approach to life lead to death. Only Jean Valjean’s world provides the space for redemption.

Throughout the next several chapters of Romans, Paul is going to make us aware of the guilt of everyone before the law and of the exceptional character of God’s grace manifest in our reconciliation through Christ Jesus. That is for future posts. For now, heed the words of Jesus and “be merciful like your father in heaven is merciful”. Embrace a world where grace and mercy can abound. Start with those closest to you and work your way outward until your merciful heart can embrace even those whom you struggle to love.

Peace to you in your journey. Vaya con Dios!

Feel free to use this Bible Study for your own groups or discussion.  It is freely given. If you do I merely ask that you acknowledge where you got it and if you find it useful that you encourage others to seek it out. It is freely given and written with fear, foreboding, and prayer by a fellow hypocrite who is simply trying to figure out the road ahead.

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Enough Idol Chatter

Take a close look at the image above. It comes from an article I saw regarding the development of new towns in England. The diagram reflects the way in which new developments would be laid out. Not limited to the United Kingdom, I saw a similar design for a community being built here in Texas. Do you notice what is missing from the area that we Americans would call the town square? There is no house of worship whatsoever in the drawing.

When I was a boy, we learned about how the Spanish had designed settlements as they colonized the southwest. In the center of town around the livestock pens and the taverns and the government building there would be a church. You can still see examples in Sante Fe, New Mexico and Jackson Square in New Orleans, today. It was literally more likely that there would be a church or abbey or mission at the center of town than there would be a schoolhouse.

The prevalence of the local parish has been replaced with the GP Surgery (the local doctor’s office in England) in the plotting of new towns. The exact same health clinic was present in the model town I saw here in Texas. Why am I bringing this innocuous detail to your attention? Because idolatry is pernicious and omnipresent.

What can be idolatrous about a doctor’s office? In modern western culture, the health care system is the center of worship! Recall the ways that we can determine an idol: where we spend our time, where we commit our money, and the outcomes of the idol. I will add a fourth determining factor: the size of the buildings dedicated to the idol. We already discussed politics and sports both of which have major structures dedicated to them. Now consider that some of the largest buildings in any US city or town are hospitals. There are pharmacies, emergency clinics, and doctor’s offices on every other corner.

Every year, the pharmaceutical industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising for various medications encouraging the viewer to ask their physician about “drug X”. In 2020, the United States collectively made 1 billion visits to the doctor! That was nearly double the number of visits that we made as a nation in 1988. The population only grew by 30% during that same 30-year period meaning we go to the doctor a lot more. Let me be clear that in and of itself is not a bad thing. I merely mean to point out that given the amount spent ($4.8 TRILLION in 2023) along with the time committed there is the potential for an idol to be at work.

Everyone wishes to be healthy and being mindful of your health is a good thing, but just like the manner in which politics and sports can misalign the focus, so can our obsession with health. When I was a pastor, it was much more likely that when asked for prayer requests folks offered up concerns about upcoming surgeries and current maladies than to pray for the salvation of their neighbor or the hastening of Christ’s return. Admittedly I was a presbyterian minister, but I suspect that many clergy from other denominations would report a similar trend.

Many, if not most, of the hospitals and hospital systems in America were originally funded by churches. We have Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist health systems all over our nation; although, the roots that those systems have sprung from are largely forgotten, the only remnants being the name on the sign and a small benign chapel tucked away somewhere deep within the complex. As a culture we have gone so far from the church being involved in the health systems as to looking to the government to provide for our health needs. The pendulum has swung from churches and denominations loving their neighbor by funding hospitals and research institutions to the government being seen as a source for universal health care. One might be excused for thinking there was a malevolent force at work in the world to drive allegiance and fealty away from God and towards the government.

Allow me to suggest two other outcomes that indicate that an obsession with health has become an idol in the West. First, as the government takes on more of the expense of health care, the rationing of care becomes increasingly likely. Ultimately this leads to decisions about withholding treatments from the elderly and other members of society (those with special needs, for example) perceived to be a waste of expenditures. People become line items in a budget rather than patients in need of help. Second, there has been a breakthrough medication in recent years that allows diabetics to regulate their blood sugars effectively. The drug also happens to spark weight loss in non-diabetic users. The result is predictable. So many prescriptions have been written for people looking to lose weight that there has been a shortage of this life-saving medication for diabetics.

The first of these outcomes represents the dehumanizing of life. The elderly become expendable to save a dollar or two. Not exactly the stuff of honoring our fathers and mothers that. The second outcome reflects a potential selfishness that runs up against love of neighbor. To be sure there are some people who are not diabetic for whom a weight loss drug can be a significant blessing; however, last year the FDA reported 80 million prescriptions for these medications in a nation where less than 40 million people are diabetic.

Again, none of this is to say that health care and pharmaceuticals are inherently evil. Nor am I making political statements about how tax dollars are spent on health care. What I am suggesting is that for many people the modern health care system (like politics and sports) has become an idol complete with its own temples, priests, and sacraments.

I could continue to expose potential idols over and over again and never get on to the rest of the letter of Romans. I have hit on 3 of the biggies in modern America and I already feel like a curmudgeon hollering for the kids to get off of the lawn. I leave it to you to determine your own potential idols. They can be politics, sports, pleasure, food, healthcare, shopping, victimhood, just to name a few. The list is endless. John Calvin is right; people are idol factories.

Why is that?

Because we were made to worship. More specifically, we were created to respond to God; to glorify God as God and give thanks (Rom 1:21). If we choose to ignore the truth about God, that urge to worship will find an outlet and in the absence of God that outlet will be an idol, either physical or metaphysical, of our own creation. When we do this, we suppress the truth, and God gives us over to the freedom from God that we indicate that we want. It is a dark path that leads to increasing wickedness. Put another way, what we spend our time, talent, and treasure on begins to shape us and our way of thinking. The idol becomes increasingly important and determinative in our lives. Paul describes it as exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worshiping the created thing instead of the creator (1:25). What starts as sin becomes wickedness; idol worship begats immorality and injustice.

In his day, Paul looked around Roman culture and zeroed in on what he considered to be the most egregious example: homosexual activity. The truth about God that is revealed in creation is that there are two sexes (male and female) and that they procreate to “be fruitful and multiply” (in Genesis terms) and perpetuate the species (in evolutionary biology terms), but homosexual behavior does neither of these things.

Over the centuries many people have looked at this portion of the letter to the Romans and concluded that homosexuality is worse than any other possible wickedness. This is a misuse of the text in my estimation. Allow me to present two arguments against this interpretation. One, the fact that Paul zeroes in on homosexual behavior at the beginning of his list has more to do with the culture of Rome that he is addressing than any notion that this sin is greater than all the others. Rather than being the chief sin, homosexuality provided the most egregious example of Paul’s basic argument that when a people routinely deny the truth about God and begin worshipping idols of their own making, they live increasingly as a law unto themselves. Homosexual behavior illustrated how far from the intentionality of God’s creation humanity could fall.

If Paul were writing a letter to the American Church, it would look decidedly different than Romans 1. His principal example of humanity worshiping the creation rather than the creator might well be the embrace of transgenderism. If the truth revealed in creation is that there are two genders (male and female) then the notion that we should be altering the biological reality of an individual to suit their self-perception would be the ultimate example of the creation ignoring the creator. I find it interesting that the arguments about transgenderism beg responses from the 3 idols I have highlighted. The health industry designing the procedures and medications for transitioning a person’s gender begging for research dollars as they play creator all the while bristling at any attempt at restraint. People of conflicting politics demanding that the government either affirm multiple interpretations of gender or declare that there are only two options. Sports confronting the fairness of transitioned athletes competing in the alternatively gendered sports.

Perhaps another sign of idol is the expectation that the idol can declare truth.

The second proof I will offer that Paul is not mentioning homosexuality as the chief sin of humanity is scriptural. Take a moment to read the works of the flesh he relates to the believers in Galatia (Gal 5:19-21). Consider the two places in Corinthians where he lists out wicked behavior (1 Cor 5:9-11 and 6:9-10). Read his admonition to Timothy about the behavior of people in the last days (2 Tim 3:2-5). A careful reading of scripture indicates that there is plenty of sin to go around for everyone. Not convinced? Try on the words of Jesus: “out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a person unclean. (Mk 7:21-23)”.

None of this is to say that homosexuality is not a sin; it is. Elevating it above any other sin is a form of judgmentalism and denies the truth that all sins are equal in the eyes of God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God whether the sin is an obvious violation of God’s law or more subtle like self-righteousness and judgment of the neighbor.

It is important to remember that the end of Romans (1:21-32) is a description of what happens to all those who “do not honor God or give thanks.” These individuals profess “to be wise, they become fools.” In the Bible, the fool is the one who rejects God. Earlier I said that idolatry begats wickedness and injustice. Paul put it this way:

 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips,  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;  and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

The truth is, though, all of us are somewhere in the list; no matter how difficult it is to stomach we are all in the list. We prefer to point the finger anywhere but ourselves. We try to ignore the subtle sway of our own idols on our souls. We deny the power of the idols in our culture and ignore the means by which the sphere of the flesh shapes our thinking and our actions.

The chapter culminates in that list because it is that list (and any other listing of wickedness found anywhere in the scriptures) that condemns us. Romans 1 ends this way because here Paul shares why “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness… (Romans 1:18)”.

As I am finishing this post it is Ash Wednesday. My pastor shared this thought tonight: “when we treat God trivially, we will treat sin trivially”. Not sure which ancient commentator said this first, but whomever it was must have been a careful student of Paul. Those ten words are an excellent summary of Romans 1:18-32.

The first reading for Ash Wednesday was Joel calling for a solemn assembly of the people to rend their hearts and not their garments because “the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near…” and so it is. There will be time enough for the gospel in Romans, it will be delivered in spades! But make no mistake even for those who trust in the gospel, what Paul called the power of salvation (1:16), the day of the Lord comes.

For now, it is best to linger for a time in the depths of your own depravity. Consider the litany of wickedness that Paul provided us. If you know the gospel, really know it in the depths of your being, such lingering will produce a deeper repentance and a deeper thanksgiving for grace. If you do not know the gospel, the lingering can prepare your heart for the truth of Jesus Christ.

Blessings to you in your journey. Vaya con Dios!

As always, the above is freely given, and all are welcome to use it. If you do it would be nice if you mentioned where you got it. Finally, if you know someone who might benefit from reading these posts please share the URL or email with them.

2

Idol Chatter

Read Romans 1:18-25

Trigger Warning: The next several posts may contain ideas that will offend some readers.

In the last post, we looked at the wrath of God and the call, since the beginning of creation, for us to honor God and give him thanks. Living this life of gratitude towards God is one part of how we can live out the calling to become “living and holy sacrifices acceptable to God” (Romans 12); and this life of grateful praise is also part of becoming transformed by the Spirit Sphere in our lives and not being conformed by the Flesh Sphere. (a description of the two spheres may be found in this post)

“Professing to be wise, they become fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.” The Roman world when Paul is writing this letter was a land overflowing with idols. Cities had temples to various Gods. Homes had idols for household gods. The Imperial government itself was beginning to take on cult-like status elevating Augustus Caesar to a posthumous divinity. Good Roman citizens were expected to pay homage to these gods to maintain the peace and stability of society.

The Old Testament is replete with idolatry. We read of the “pillars in high places” that were idols of gods foreign to Israel. The Israelites fashion a golden calf when they get tired of waiting on Moses’ return. Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal. All this in a land that was instructed (commanded even!) that “I am YHWH your God… you shall have no other god before Me. you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness… you shall not worship them or serve them…” (Deut 5)

Many people think that idolatry is a thing of the past. They are wrong. John Calvin called people “idol making factories”. He was spot on because, then and now, we are really good at constructing things to place our faith and trust in. Paul is very clear that we are to have our faith in and our obedience directed towards Christ. So, any of these other things that we place our hope and trust in are idols.

I live in the United States. The Fall in my country is the time of year when our modern idols are on full display. Not only is it football season, but it is also election season, and thanks to Black Friday it is shopping season. I started this post with a trigger warning because when you begin calling out the idols some people will become offended.

How do you determine an idol? There are a few simple ways. One it is where we invest our time, energy, and talents. Two is where we spend our money. Three is the outcome that the idol produces. Allow me to clarify. Psalm 1 instructs us that the blessed person loves the word of God and meditates on it day and night. It follows that those things that we spend more time on than God’s word are potential idols. In Luke 16, we are told that the pharisees were great lovers of money and that we cannot serve both God and mammon because people cannot serve two masters. We will always ultimately love and serve one master more than the other. So, where we spend our money can reveal a potential idol. Finally, the word of God is truth, and its outcome is love (agape) and the promotion of unity; therefore, idols promote the opposite of these: animosity and division.

Understand that idolatry is like gambling in that it what may be a problem for one person is not a problem for another. That being said, there are Idolatrous forces at work in the world that constitute the sphere of the flesh that seeks to separate people from their calling to know God and praise him. Over the next several posts we will break down the principal idols at work in my culture (Western Civilization /USA). I can only speak of my context; your results may vary. We begin with one of the most powerful and pervasive modern idols: politics. I invite you to read the rest of Romans 1.

Romans 1:18-32

The impact of an idol, according to Paul, is that the idol worshipper devolves into foolishness (v24). Fool is a technical term in the scriptures for it is the fool who has said in their heart that there is no God. The appeal of the idol is twofold. Idols are simultaneously a god that we have constructed in our own image and a god that we can control. But bowing down to the idol eventually leads to becoming a fool. Once someone enters into this foolishness, God decides to give them over to their own desires and unwise thoughts (v28-31).

Paul’s list of vices and sins in the last verses of Romans 1 provides us with a convenient guide to determining idolatry. If idol worship produces that fruit in the fool; then it follows that we can identify potential idols by how many of these vices the idol promotes.

Allow me a quick clarification. Politics in the sense I am referring is not the same as government. Government is the necessary ordering of people to allow for their peace, safety, and prosperity. Government is evident in the Bible and later in Romans we will learn that Christians are called to be good citizens in the communities that they inhabit. By contrast politics is the effort to wield the power of government and to influence the policy directives thereof.

I suggest to you that politics is the principal idol of America today. Americans increasingly look to government to solve all manner of problems large and small. Americans seek laws to legitimize behaviors and belief systems. Americans also are fond of labelling certain groups victims who deserve more of the attention and resources of government. Finally, any casual observer of the American political spectrum will recognize that much of it revolves around who will be allowed to wield the extensive power of the government; because, on every level (local, state, and federal) the right to wield such authority provides both the allure of making over society in one’s own image and to benefit financially as a result. Some of you will think that is all very true, but does that make it an idol?

Let’s look first at some of the criteria I listed above in determining idols. A quick google search reveals the following: Money? Experts estimate as a nation we will spend around $2 billion dollars on relief for Hurricane Helene. By contrast the total amount spend on the 2024 election will be $16 Billion. Time? CBS dedicated around 23 hours to coverage of Hurricane Helene; no doubt they surpassed that amount in election coverage on the day before, during, and after the recent election without considering all the hours spent on the campaign trail over the past 18 months. In terms of time there are now at least 5 television channels devoted to around the clock news reporting the vast majority of which is centered on politics. This tally doesn’t include the channels totally devoted to business news which also invariably covers a great deal of politics. There are also a multitude of national and local radio stations whose format is strictly devoted to politics. Americans spend a tremendous amount of time following and arguing politics on the airwaves. Finally, given the vitriolic responses recorded on Instagram, Tik Tok, and X (formerly known as Twitter) there is little doubt that the outcome of our political life is division rather than unity. If a space alien were to eavesdrop on us during an election year, they could not be faulted for thinking that we were dealing with life-or-death decisions constantly.

I could cite a myriad of examples of headlines that demonstrate the above but that would risk this post becoming pedantic. I want to be clear that none of this is to say that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics. All I am suggesting is that all Christians should compare their commitment to politics to their commitment to scripture, prayer, and Christ. Again, I can only speak of the context in the USA. There are too many of us Americans who identify quickly as democrats or republicans rather than as Christians. We need to be involved but we would do well to remember these words of Jesus, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God” (Luke 20).

Finally, let’s look at the list of vices that God’s word says idolatry renders and ask ourselves if an over emphasis on politics doesn’t produce wickedness, strife, deceit, and lack of mercy (Romans 1:29-31). If we are honest politics far too often results in people not only doing the same; “but also giving hearty approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:32).

The good news is that Christ’s sacrifice covers a multitude of sins. We are always able to break the hold of an idol through repentance and seeking God while he may be found. All who have placed their faith and trust in Christ are under the influence of the Spirit. We are to practice the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) and utilize the full armor of God in our political life as we do in our personal lives remembering Paul’s admonition that our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Politics has a way of infiltrating every aspect of our lives and causing us to filter everything through the worldview of the political ideology (or party platforms) with which we are aligned. I began pondering these things while I was in seminary. I had been very invested in the politics of America most of my life. While in seminary the 2004 presidential election happened. The responses that I saw and some of what I felt myself caused me to question the issues of allegiance to Christ and political allegiance. I began to think that if Jesus cared at all about politics that his own views would never reflect one party platform over another. It was much more likely that his thoughts on the matter would be a blend of positions from across the spectrum. Out of this, for a time, I led talks about how Christians should engage in political discourse.

Around 2008, some minister friends of mine and I gathered for a continuing education event. We spent the evening with a good meal and some drinks. My friend Paul, who often saw things the opposite of me, and I began to argue strongly about the virtues of universal health care. We both had had a little too much to drink and the argument turned ugly. Some mean things were said to one another. Our evening ended with anger and animosity. Our friendship took a body blow that evening.

The next day, I approached my friend with a penitent spirit and a desire for reconciliation. To Paul’s credit he was willing to accept my apologies and be merciful towards me. Eventually, we added a maxim to the rules I was developing for Christian political dialogue: “never get liquored up and talk politics!” We still speak weekly, and we still discuss the important matters of the day. We have been friends now for 20 years, but we almost ended that friendship 16 years too soon. That would have been a tragedy. I credit Christ with seeing us through that time and growing our friendship ever sense.

Regardless of where you live (there are some international readers of Hypocritical Christian!) I encourage you to take a moment to assess how often politics consumes your thoughts. Are you spending more time in conversations about the latest outcomes than you do asking your neighbor about their lives? Do you find yourself anxious and worried about the outcome of elections and judiciary decisions? Do you find it hard to love the neighbor who disagrees with you politically? Have you allowed your political leanings to give you the permission to lose friendships and family members?

Politics tries to draw your thoughts and energies to it. The more time you give to it the less time you give to both love of God and love of neighbor. If you found yourself on the wrong side of the questions above, I encourage you to spend some time in prayer and scripture. Jesus is waiting especially if you are weary or heavy laden. He will give you rest. He will forgive.

Peace to you and blessings on your journey. Vaya con Dios!

As always, the above is freely given, and all are welcome to use it. If you do it would be nice if you mentioned where you got it. Finally, if you know someone who might benefit from reading these posts please share the URL or email with them.

1

Wrath of God vs Thankfulness

Read Romans 1:18-25

I am so glad that you chose to open this post because there are two very important things that we are going to learn together about living a transformed life empowered by the Holy Spirit. First, a common misconception about God will be dispelled. Second, we will learn step one in relating to God.

If this is your first time to the Hypocritical Christian, then “Welcome!” We are currently on a journey through Paul’s letter to the Romans. If you wish to start at the beginning, you can do so by going to this post. Our goal is to unpack what Paul meant when he wrote that we are rather to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

If you are a regular reader of the Hypocritical Christian, then “Thank you!” Please consider subscribing to the email list if you haven’t already. Back to Romans 1:18-25

When you hear the phrase “wrath of God,” what comes to mind? The aftermath of Hurricane Helene whose rains brought devastation to the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina recently? Do you picture the End of Days with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse riding roughshod on the world? Many of you will think of something like this classic comic from 40 years ago:

The strip is funny because it speaks to a misconception about God that is prevalent even among believers. The stereotype of God is that he is waiting to lash out against us, if not capriciously, after a multitude of offenses pile up. This is not the God that is presented in scripture. Now some of you will argue with that and say the God we see in the Old Testament is wrathful and hateful. The same people will suggest that Jesus is a different God who is full of mercy, love, and acceptance. Those who say these things haven’t read the scriptures closely, if at all. They also have a very shallow understanding of grace and mercy often equating acceptance and acquiescence with forgiveness.

We have seen that Jesus himself instructs us to be merciful like the Father is merciful. The Old Testament does teach that God has standards and expectations of those who choose to be in relationship with him, but he is not perpetually vacillating between the choice of smiting and pardoning. This is a caricature at best that leads us nowhere closer to understanding the nature of God. I could go through countless Old Testament examples but suffice to share three scriptures that directly contradict the misconception.

“Seek the LORD while he may be found.” (Isaiah 55:6)

“Because of God’s great mercy we are not consumed.” (Lamentations 3:22)

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

Jesus spoke on the nature of natural disaster and accidents when he chastised the crowd, “Do you think that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse offenders than all the other people who live in Jerusalem?” (Luke 13:4). These things happen and the takeaway according to Jesus is that it should be a wake-up call for all that life is short, so best to get right with God without further delay.

Some of you will say, well Michael, that’s all well and good about the cartoon and natural disasters but the Four Horsemen IS biblical. That it is, but there is a difference between God’s judgment and God’s wrath. The scriptures are clear that there will come a Day of the Lord when the divine patience will have become fulfilled, and the final judgment is to occur. This is when sin and death will be no more and all will have to face the judgment of God, the second death. To this we should again take Jesus words to heart, for after having compared the End of Days coming like a thief in the night, he urges us: “you too, be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect” (Luke 12:40).

The wrath of God is something altogether different according to Paul. If a person chooses to ignore the truth about God (or, chooses to reject the role of creation to the creator) then God will grant them their wishes. He will withdraw leaving them to their own devices and foolish thinking. “Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for the lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen” (Rom 1:25).

What are we to do then? How do we assure that we do not become abandoned by God and left to our own clouded thinking? Like so much of scripture, the answer is both simple and difficult. Nestled amidst these verses is the simplest and first step in a relationship with the LORD. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks“

When my children were young, I often said to them “dogs got to bark, birds got to fly, and fish got to swim. You need to learn what you got to do.” Now chances are good that it went in one ear and out the other. And at different times in a person’s life, one may think of it as a call to consider the right path forward or to learn their natural vocation. These are important things, but the saying is really about the natural purpose of a person. A dog cannot help but bark. Almost all birds are meant to fly. Every fish swims. People are also part of the created order. We have something intrinsic to our being that we are meant to do. That something is to acknowledge God as Creator and to give thanks. It is useful here to be reminded of Psalm 100:

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with joyful singing.
Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise.
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.

THIS is our first purpose, our prime directive. We are to know God as God and give thanks. The cats that wrote the Westminster Catechism put it this way in the very first question / answer combo saying that the chief end of humanity is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever”. Wise counsel that.

The photo above was taken by my son on a recent trip into the American West. As Paul writes that “since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that (we) are without excuse” (Rom 1:20).

The truth of God is all around you. Understanding who Jesus is, what salvation and redemption means, and all that the New Testament shares is best understood from this starting point. We have to acknowledge that there is a God, that we are a part of his creation, and that He is worthy of our praise and thanks. Jesus once spoke of a wide way and a narrow way. One is easy but leads to destruction. The other is narrow but leads to life. The easy one is conformity to a world whose base assertion is that there is no God or if there is it doesn’t matter. That path leads to idolatry. The narrow one starts with acknowledgment that we are not God, that we are his creation, and that our proper stance is thankfulness and praise. This path leads to transformation and life.

Next month is November. In the United States it is a month that includes the national holiday of Thanksgiving. In recent years, that holiday has been overshadowed both by Halloween and Christmas (and of course shopping!), a sign of idolatry at work. Why not take the opportunity to turn November into a month where you are intentionally thankful to God every day? Psychologists say that it takes 30 days to cultivate a habit. How providential it is that November as 30 days! I encourage you to start each morning in November with thankfulness expressed to God. You can start with being thankful for another day in this life. Soon you will find yourself thankful for so much more! Make this November your season of gratitude and see what our Lord teaches you.

Peace to you on your own journey; Vaya con Dios!

In the next several posts we will take a look at the principal idols of our day that seek to conform us, but that is for next time. Thank you for reading. If this post blessed you, please share it with someone else. As always it is freely given. You are welcome to use it although it would be nice if you credited where it came from.

4

The Martha Moment

Read John Chapter 11.

The eleventh chapter of John outlines the raising of Lazarus from the dead, an act that is the final straw for the Jewish authorities who are threatened by the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. After this miracle we are told that the powers that be make the decision that the Jesus movement must be stopped.

John sets the stage quickly for us. He tells us that a certain man named Lazarus, loved by Jesus, has taken deathly ill. Lazarus has two sisters well-known to NT readers, Mary and Martha. When word reaches Jesus he intentionally delays his journey back to Bethany by two days. There is a discussion amongst Jesus and the disciples about the wisdom of going back to Judea especially to a town so near to Jerusalem given the heightened tensions between Jesus and the authorities. Jesus and the twelve return and Jesus confronts death with victory to reveal the glory of God.

Why does Jesus delay?

Chances are good that your Bible has a subtitle to this chapter like “the death of Lazarus” or “the raising of Lazarus”. Because of this it is easy to miss out on something profound. I want to suggest to you that this is really a story about Martha.

We are told that Jesus loves Lazarus and his family. John actually tells us this in two different ways and the difference is significant. When the message is sent to Jesus about how sick Lazarus is the wording is “Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.” (11:3). The word for loved used her is philo, the Greek word that describes the bonds of fidelity and friendship that yokes people together one to another. It is a word for love that captures that connection but can also be used for the love that is appreciative. In the United States, the city of Philadelphia, gets its name from this Greek word: hence, “the City of Brotherly Love”. In verse 5 though a different word is used, “Now, Jesus loved Martha, and her sister and Lazarus.” Agape is the word used here. Agape is the word for the sacrificial love that renders itself selflessly for the other. This is the love that exists regardless of the worth of the other; love that continues regardless of the response of the other. It is the love that God shows in John 3:16 and the love that Jesus commands for us to show one another in John 14:34.

Two things have been revealed in verse 5. The depth of the love Jesus had for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus; and that Martha is mentioned first. This is our clue that the story is about her.

Jesus delays his return for two days and then sets out for Bethany and arrives too late. Lazarus has been dead for four days. When he arrives, he remains on the edges of town. The community and the family are gathered together in mourning. Today we would say that they are sitting Shiva, a designated week of mourning, to show respect to the deceased and their loved ones. Martha receives word that Jesus has arrived and goes out to greet him. They have a terse exchange. “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died” (verse 21). I cannot help but think that she has an anguished, perhaps even accusatory tone. Her brother, whom she loves is dead, and the one that she knows could have done something to prevent it has not acted.

You know this feeling.

All of us have lost a loved one to death. All of us have known a tragedy where we had hoped and prayed that God would change the outcome. All of us know this pain.

Some will say, but wait, Martha also indicates that even in this pain she knows that Jesus can do something. She is not angry she is simply stating the obvious and asking him to act now. While I can see that in the rest of the verse as well, the fact that Mary says the same thing a few verses later tells me that the recrimination is there. Also, it is human nature. Grief is deep pain. I think the story speaks more truthfully when we hear it with all the angst we know she must have felt. “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not be dead”.

It is useful to compare verses 20 and 32. Martha we are told went out to Jesus and spoke to him. Mary when she goes out “quickly” to meet Jesus she falls at his feet and says the very same words “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died”. See the distinction? Martha confronts Jesus. Mary takes a prostrate position, a worshipful stance. Mary’s response reads more like the lament of the faithful, seeking to understand God’s inaction.

Before we go on a reminder of what else we know about Martha and Mary. In Luke’s gospel we have a short story about a time that Jesus stayed in the sisters’ home. Mary remains at the feet of Jesus neglecting the usual hosting duties of a Jewish woman. Martha is left to handle all the details. Remember Jesus has an entourage of disciples there were likely a great many people about the house that day. When Martha asks the Lord to tell Mary to help Jesus replies “Martha, Martha you are worried and bothered by so many things, but only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part which shall not be taken from her” (Luke 10:41-42).

Back to John chapter 11. We might say that Martha and Mary are still “on brand”.

Why did Jesus delay? Because this story is about his love for Martha. This is Martha’s moment. This is when she will be moved from an understanding of who Jesus (knowledge) is into a relationship with Jesus (knowing). To put it a different way, Jesus has delayed so that he can reveal the truth about himself in such a way that Martha will no longer just have a faith that is all in her head but a faith that is mind, heart, and soul.

Allow me to show you what I mean. There is a pattern in John’s gospel wherein conversations with Jesus result in statements and questions geared toward bringing the person into a deeper faith and understanding about who Jesus truly is (Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman for example). When confronted by Martha, Jesus responds saying “Your brother will rise again”. Martha says “Yes, Lord, I know that he will arise again in the resurrection on the last day”. Good theologian, Martha, she knows the facts about the resurrection on the day of Judgment when some are raised to eternal life (second life) in the kingdom come and some are raised to judgment and damnation (second death).

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Even in English we can see the distinction that is present. Martha says that she knows that her brother will rise for the judgment at the end of the age. Jesus wants to take her into a deeper understanding. Knowledge alone is not good enough. He is asking about belief, about faith. Not to get too granular in detail but know that there are two different verbs at work in this exchange. There is a different Greek word Martha has used for knowledge than the Greek word that Jesus has answered back as belief.

Jesus question is a next-level question. He wants to move Martha past an understanding of who he is based on knowing the “right” answers into a relationship with him that produces a living faith. He wants her head knowledge to be strengthened by heart knowledge that renders a faith that produces trust. Jesus wants to help Martha reach the sort of faith that is found in the greatest commandment: “you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

Martha’s answer reveals that she isn’t quite there yet. “I have believed that you are the Christ, the son of God, the one coming into the world.” Don’t get me wrong, this is a strong statement. Everything that she says of Jesus is true; and she uses the same Greek word in response to Jesus that gets translated as belief. All this is good, but her answer does not answer the question Jesus asked.

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). The question that was asked was not does she believe that he is the Christ, the son of God. Jesus knows that she knows this. The question being asked is does she believe in him; does she trust him?

Martha has the right knowledge, but it hasn’t moved from things that she knows like other stuff that she knows into something that changes the way that she lives. There are literally millions of Christians just like her. Perhaps you are one of them.

Have you ever heard a sixth-grade band concert? It is a painful experience. Why? Besides the fact that some of the kids are just there because they didn’t want to use athletics as an elective the concert is painful because the notes are just being performed as the individual notes. Each player of each instrument is remembering the difference between a quarter note and a dotted quarter note and where that note is on the staff to produce a sound. In other words, they are beginners. They have knowledge but they do not have the heart component yet. They are not feeling the music.

Some of those young players will go on to be pretty good at their instruments and some will play in a stage band. Here you will begin to hear real music. The players have moved passed the basic understanding of notes into feeling the rhythm and movement of the song. They have made a step passed simple knowledge and it has impacted their musical talent and results of their playing.

Now, contrast that with a professional jazz trio or quartet. Here you see something altogether different and wonderful. These players work off of one another and are able to seamlessly perform solos and improvisations of the theme and melody of the music. They have something beyond simple knowledge of music theory they have a trust in the theory and in each other. They become limitless as musicians when they achieve this level.

Do you see how this can be compared to the believer that learns to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength? Those believers know how to trust in the Lord in every season and in every instance. Likewise, they also are able to learn how to love their neighbor in all instances because they have integrated their head and heart knowledge to Christ.

Lest you think that knowledge–belief–trust is a continuum, I want you to picture it more like this:

This is not the best rendering (figuratively and literally) but the point is to not think that you start with knowledge and go into belief to get to trust. A person can start with either belief or knowledge, but what the Lord desires is for them to develop trust. Martha’s sister, Mary, seems to be on the belief side of the equation. This is seen in that although she comes out to greet Jesus with a worshipful stance she still says, “Had you been here my brother would not have died”.

Some readers may not be convinced about these assertions, but they do continue playing out in this story about Martha. They arrive at the tomb and Jesus tells them to unseal it. Martha questions the wisdom of this because of the stench that is sure to be unleashed. Head knowledge, again. Her brother has been dead for four days. Note the response that Jesus says to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you will see the glory of God?”

(I was today’s years old when I learned that in John 11:4 when Jesus says that the sickness of Lazarus is not unto death, but that God will be glorified that this is the message that he sent back to the sisters and not something that he said to the disciples when he received the message.)

Jesus had told Mary and Martha that their brother’s illness would not be unto death. This is why the conversation about him being the resurrection and the life happens. This is why the recrimination in the statement ‘had you been here my brother would not have died”. This is why the delay. Jesus has not only created the conditions for the great sign-act of raising Lazarus from the grave, but he has also created a moment to draw Martha deeper into faith.

At the tomb, there is a representative of all of us. There is Martha, full of knowledge, worried about a great many things but lacking the deeper move into the trust that that knowledge should lead. There is Mary who believes in Jesus but also still needs to go deeper into trust. There are folks in the crowd that want to wait and see what will happen. There are some in the crowd who believe in Jesus but who still doubt what he can do. Finally, there are those who do not believe at all and are even antagonistic to the whole thing.

If you find yourself in the latter groups, the time is now for you to start a relationship with Jesus. Do not delay.

Scripture warns that we are to seek out the Lord while he may be found. While the good news is that Jesus comes to us, through the Holy Spirit, calling us both into faith and into faith deeper still, the admonition to seek while he may be found reveals that there is a time when it will be too late.

John has recorded for us Martha’s moment. For all of us there will come a time, maybe even several moments, when the Lord is going to call us into a deeper trust of who He is. How we respond will make all the difference. For even Jesus himself warned there will be those who will insist that they called him Lord and he will reply that he never knew them.

Have you had your own Martha moment? Ask the Lord for eyes to see and ears to hear so that you do not miss the next one.

Feel free to use this Bible Study for your own groups or discussion.  It is freely given. If you do I merely ask that you acknowledge where you got it and if you find it useful that you encourage others to seek it out. It is freely given and written with fear, foreboding, and prayer by a fellow hypocrite who is simply trying to figure out the road ahead.

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The Text That Was Added (Mark’s Longer Ending)

With this post my reflections of the Gospel According to Mark come to a close. When I started this project I mistakenly, perhaps foolishly, thought that it would be approximately 16 posts (give or take) on Mark’s Gospel. That was 7 years ago. I did not realize then that the Lord would lead me on a long journey to more fully grasp who he was and what he was revealing in the words of Mark. Such is the nature of faith and the Christian life. Anyone who is in a real relationship with the God of all creation is also in an ongoing conversation with the Creator.

That is the phrase that my Old Testament professor, Andy Dearman, used to describe the Bible on the first day of my Into to the Old Testament class. He said that we were being invited into the longest ongoing conversation in the history of the world. The conversation between God and his creation.

Read Mark 16:9-20.

I have two very old family Bibles. One belonged to my maternal great-grandmother and the other to a paternal relative. I do not know which one, only that it predates my father’s father. In both instances they simply have Mark 16:9-20 as the completion of the Gospel of Mark. My own Bibles, regardless of translation, indicate that scholars disagree that these verses were penned by Mark. Chances are good that your Bible (particularly if it is a Study Bible) has similar notes and annotations.

Why is this significant? Modern scholarship has settled on the theory that these verses were added to the gospel and are not penned by Mark. The implication is that they are not to be considered original. For many this opens the question of whether they should be held as authoritative. This leads some to conclude if we cannot trust these verses how can we trust any of the rest of the Gospel of Mark; and, if we cannot trust any of the Gospel of Mark, how do we trust any of the scriptures as the authoritative word of God?

Full disclosure: I am not a trained textual critic. What you receive in this post are the reflections of a trained theological thinker and fellow sojourner in the faith. I will seek to explain a little bit of how textual criticism of the Bible works (from an elementary understanding), the conclusions that have been drawn, and a suggest an approach to the last 12 verses of the Gospel of Mark for the believer.

Textual Criticism is the study of the transmission and authenticity of the scriptures. In other words, it is a mostly scientific study of how we got the Bible that we have and whether or not what we are reading is reliably close to the original text.

What we have as the Bible (New and Old Testaments) are copies of copies of copies, because until the advent of the printing press the only way to get a copy of any written document was for someone to make a handwritten copy of the original. Therefore, one of the fundamental principles of textual criticism is that the older a copy is the more likely it reflects the original version. As it happens, two of the oldest total copies of the entire Bible known as Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus (from the 4th century AD), both of which include the entire New Testament written in Greek, do not contain Mark 9-20. This has led many scholars to conclude that these verses were not original to Mark. This is why your modern Study Bible puts brackets around or has footnotes concerning these verses.

This seems reasonable. This is not the whole story.

Allow me to dig a little deeper. The New Testament is the single most well-attested ancient document in existence. What do I mean by that? There are more fragments, sections, complete copies of individual New Testament Books, and entire copies of the New Testament in existence today than any other work from ancient times. And it is not even close. The next most well documented ancient work that is not the New Testament are the writings of Homer. There are just shy of 650 copies of Homer reflecting 95% of the current text dated to within 500 years of the original. We have around 5600 ancient copies of the New Testament reflecting 99.5% of the current text dated to within 200 years of the life of Jesus!

Wow! When you add fragments (portions of a text) and incomplete copies of books or the whole NT the number skyrockets even further. All this is to say the reliability of the New Testament text that you have on your shelf, your nightstand, and on your iPhone is astronomically high. So read with certainty fellow Christians and Seekers!

I will not bore you with a lot of details, a google search and curiosity will give you more than enough information about the 12 verses at the end of Mark’s Gospel. I will point three things that you will learn if you undertake the aforementioned Google search.

One, there are over 1600 copies of Greek manuscripts of Mark that contain verses 9-20 as the conclusion of chapter 16. Two, many 2nd century Christian writers quoted portions of Mark 9-20 indicating that they were familiar with it as a part of the Gospel of Mark and considered it scripture. Three, there are other portions of the New Testament that Codex Sinaiticus omits that no one questions are a part of scripture indicating that the copyist who produced Sinaiticus had an agenda at work perhaps for the intended patron of the copy.

The other argument that is made against 9-20 being original is that it is different in language and grammar from the rest of Mark. This argument falters because other textual critics have pointed out that a person can choose different 12 verse sections of the rest of Mark and conclude that there is a difference in grammar and word choice from the rest of the gospel.

It is true that the Gospel of Mark can end at verse 16:8 without any problems. This has troubled some because the tomb is empty, but the women leave afraid and speaking to no one. Therefore, they conclude that later copyists also concerned about this ending compared to Matthew, Luke and John chose to add another ancient reflection on the resurrection of Jesus to make Mark align more with the other three.

Needless to say, this is all speculation and the stuff of doctoral dissertations!

I suggest the following two conclusions.

Let’s assume for a moment that a later copyist sought to enhance Mark’s gospel with a resurrection appearance (9-20) by borrowing from some other ancient source. If that is the case (and some scholars think that 9-20 is a reading for 1st century churches to use after Easter during worship) then what we have in our New Testament are 6 witnesses to the resurrection instead of 5 (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul) which would make the story of the empty tomb more authentic not less.

The second conclusion is one that is admittedly faith-based and may not satisfy any critic of the New Testament. I believe that the New Testament remembers the person and significance of Jesus of Nazareth. I believe it shares with us that he was God with us, and that his death and resurrection was the action of God to redeem the entire creation. I believe that the tomb was in fact empty and that in reflecting on this reality the first Christians came to understand that in some way he was YHWH among us. I believe that he has ascended into heaven and has the name above all names. I believe that there is no other name under heaven by which people can be saved. I believe that he intercedes on behalf of believers, and he will come again to usher in the final age of history wherein he shall reign forevermore. Since I believe all of this, it is no small thing to also believe that God can ensure that the 27 books of the New Testament as I have received them are precisely what he wanted me to receive in their entirety.

Finally, is there anything in verses 9-20 that should give me pause?

vss 9-14: Jesus revealed himself alive to Mary Magdalene, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the 11 members of the inner circle of Jesus? Check.

vss 15-16: Jesus instructed them to go and preach the gospel and baptize? Check.

vss 17-18: amazing things accompanied them as they followed the command to spread the gospel? Check.

verse 19-20: He sat down at the right hand of the Father and signs and wonders confirmed the preaching of the first Apostles? Check

If verses 9-20 are original to Mark, there is nothing therein that is not in accordance with the rest of scripture that is accepted as authentic and authoritative. If they are not original to Mark, there is nothing therein that is not in accordance with the rest of scripture that is accepted as authentic and authoritative.

We are left with the same outcome.

The tomb is empty. Jesus has risen.

What decision will you make in living your life in response to this truth?

Please consider sharing this site with just one friend.  Remember that if you wish to use this post or any of the others as a bible study, or meditation at the start of a meeting, or for any other purpose all I ask is that you let people know from where you got it in the first place.

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The Most Significant Person Ever

In the previous post, I suggested that the most significant day in history was the day of the resurrection since it is the only historical day that has significant impact for both the world and the individual. No other day in history until the end of the world is going to be as globally significant.

While at the end of the last post I zoned in on the reality that if Christ rose from the dead, every person has a decision to make. If Jesus rose from the dead, then everything else he said is true. That’s significant.

If Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, then he is the most significant person to ever live.

Before we plunge into that pool more deeply, a bit of housekeeping. When I began this blog many years ago, and I fully admit I have been an inconsistent blogger, the outline I was following was simply to go through the gospel of Mark. Not an exhaustive study of Mark but somewhat of an overview. I have reached the end of Mark and so there will be one more Mark centric post after today with a little look at the end of chapter 16 which may or may not have originally been written by Mark. After that I will begin a new and somewhat ambitious journey that the Lord has put on my heart born from a series of Bible Studies I led over the past several years for friends of mine. Normally, I say this at the end but, this blog is freely written and freely given. Share it or even use it for yourself, but please let others know where you got it. If any of the posts herein bless you then share those with friends that they might also benefit. My goal is simply to utilize a gifting and help people understand Jesus better and the Bible along the way.

If Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead, then he is the most significant person to ever live.

What we read in the New Testament is a series of books that in various ways try to explain the significance of the Resurrected Jesus. The gospels seek to explain this using his words and recollections of his actions leading up to and in some cases after the empty tomb. Acts seeks to explain that significance through stories of how the good news of the resurrection event spread form Jerusalem around the Roman Empire. Pauls’ letters to the various churches and the other epistles all try to answer practical implications for believers all the while sharing the significance of who Jesus is. Finally, the Revelation of John, shares the future return of Jesus but even still seeks to explain what happened because of the Jesus event. So there is a theme running through the entirety of the New Testament.

Here is a small sampling of things said about Jesus in the New Testament:

  • “In Christ Jesus God was reconciling the world to himself” 2 Corinthians 5:19
  • “while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:6
  • “He is the radiance of His Glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things through the power of His Word.” Hebrews 1:3
  • “He himself will come to have first place in everything for it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him.” Colossians 1:18-19
  • “When I saw him I fell at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the Living One: and I was dead and behold I am alive forevermore…'” Revelation 1:17-18.
  • “awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:8

The most significant person to ever live.

I would be remiss if I did not explain two words used so often with Jesus. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah which means “anointed one” and indicates someone on who God has placed a special status or blessing. It is a title and that is why we see it used on either side of the name Jesus by the various writers of the New Testament. Conversely Lord, is from the Greek word kurios, and while it can be used as a title in the sense of master or as a knight might refer to their Queen as “my Lord” in the Greek translation of the Old Testament the word is used almost exclusively for the place of YHWH, the name of God. Scholars argue, but the New Testament makes a lot more sense when we assume that these Jewish writers writing to Greek listeners about the significance of Jesus knew exactly how they would hear it as a statement of divinity.

Back to those verses. In order they lay out these truths of the significance of Jesus. The purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection was to reconcile God and sinners (Ephesians 2). This happened at the right time in the history of the universe and nothing about us as individuals or a community warranted it (Galatians 4). God anointed Jesus, the Man, with the Spirit and the fullness of who He is (two natures human and divine) and in him we can know the very nature of God (John 1). He has all power and authority (Phillipians2). On the last day those who believe in Him and trust him will be found blameless and like Jesus himself will live forevermore (1 John 2:25).

There you go the theme of the New Testament in 5 verses. You might note that the summary contains references that are different from the verses. I did that so you would know I wasn’t cherry-picking or simply proof-texting. Now let’s go just a little deeper into the concept of a New Testament.

The earliest use of the term New Testament to describe these writings is from the Second century (think years that are in the 100s) and is a translation from Latin. We tend to hear two things from that phrase. One we think testimony because testament is not a word that we use often in English anymore outside of the phrase last will and testament. It is true that testimony is from the same Latin root that we get the word testament. It is also true that there is a “witnessing” element throughout much of the New Testament. There is however another meaning that is locked away in the word.

Back to the example of a will. A will is at its core a covenant agreement. The deceased has shared that these are their wishes after death for the matters of their estate. The covenant is with those who have been named in the will as executor and beneficiaries to carry out those wishes. It is not a contract. Dear old Grandma doesn’t call you in and say here sign with me a contractual promise that when I die you get my rocking chair. No, she has her lawyer write a clause saying Sally I leave you my rocking chair. The expectation is that everyone, including cousin Julie who always wanted the rocking chair, will abide by the wishes of the dearly departed. What does this have to do with the significance of Jesus? The older meaning of the word Testament as it is used in Latin during the second century is covenant.

Covenant is a rich Biblical word. God makes a covenant, most famously with Abraham, but also with Adam, Noah, Moses, and David. They are promises made by God that He pledges to keep regardless of what the other party does. Starting with Adam and going forward these are the pledges of YHWH. To Adam he promises that one day there will be a descendant of humanity that will overcome the curse of sin. Noah is promised that never again will YHWH seek to destroy every living thing and start over. Abraham is promised that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars of the sky. Moses is promised that when it comes to the people who have been brought out of Egypt YHWH will be their God and they will be his people. David is promised that one of his heirs will reign forever.

In Jeremiah, the prophet shares the word of the Lord: “Behold the days are surely coming… when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with them when I brought them out of Egypt…this is the covenant that I will make… I will put my law in their hearts; I will be their God and they will be my people.”

The New Covenant is promised.

What we call the New Testament is the good news that the New Covenant has begun!

You can read a little more about the time that Jesus made the arrival of the new covenant explicit here.

The second thing we here is concerning the word new. We have been conditioned by marketing to assume that new means better than the old. With the exception of New Coke, there is an assumption that the new formula, the new car model, the new iPhone, etc. is always a replacement of the old. This was also the assumption of many second century Christians. The New Testament replaced the Old Testament. Except that is not true. The promises of God exist eternally so those previous covenants are all still in effect.

In this case the title New Testament is a collective proof that the covenant promised by the prophets has arrived in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The most significant person to ever live.

A theologian of the last century summarized it thus: “he has assumed human nature… united it to his Divine person so that our humanity belongs to him…. from the standpoint of reconciliation and justification effected in him, it means that, bearing our punishment, achieving the obedience we did not achieve and keeping the faith we did not keep, he acted once and for all in our place.”

Put a different way. Jesus is the one promised to Adam. Jesus is the first born of a new Creation whereby God will make all things new without simply destroying every living thing. Through Jesus the children of Abraham spans millions around the world. Jesus is the one who can keep the covenant law promised to Moses. Jesus is the heir of David who shall reign forever.

The most significant person to ever live.

And one of the great miracles of God is that you can know this Jesus, not like you know George Washington or William Shakespeare or Elenore Roosevelt, but like you know your best friend. Even better, you can know Jesus as you know yourself. It starts with the smallest amount of faith and seeking him while he can be found.

The most significant person to ever live is Jesus.

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