We have this very
odd mix as adults between the things we want to do and the things that we have
to do legally. I can remember a couple who during a rather drunken weekend,
proposed to each other… Within five days they were married and the problems
then began. They quickly grew apart and divorced. As an observer it seemed they
wanted to legitimise their relationship as soon as was acceptable because it
was the right thing to do. Traditional values of love, marriage and commitment
are long standing social rites of passage into adult lifestyles where we leave
the hang-ups of childhood and adolescence, and embrace the new.
We all make
choices to move on in our lives, but not always voluntary ones. Sometimes we
can be left with few alternatives or have been manipulated into a position
where we feel there are no opportunities open to us. I teach children who at 15
years of age have no clue as to their future pathways in life. They are a year
away from leaving school and looking at further education, apprenticeships or
work based training, and they have no clue what they would like to do for a
career.
Sometimes I
wonder whether it is too early for these young people to make these kind of
decisions; how will they earn a living from the occupations available to them;
at what point in life do they need to have an income that allows some sense of
independence? This is particularly so when some of the children are happy to
take time out of the regular school day to play the new Grand Theft Auto game.
I know when I was 16; I was kicked out the front door to go around the guest
houses of Morecambe to see if I could get a job cleaning. It was the way that
the world was and still is today.
Does this mean it
has to be the same for the next generation? The UK is still in recession with
2.5million out of work and youth unemployment rising to 960,000 (aged 16-24).
Then you look at the rest of the world at developing nations where children
forage on rubbish tips for valuable metals and plastics that can be sold by
weight for a small income; children who do not get an education; children who
look after siblings; children who act as carers for adults with sickness or
disabilities and I start to think, yes; take your place in society.
The weight of
expectation on children can be immense today and it can also appear hopeless
for some. Those not parented within a socio-economic setting that supports
education and learning, tend to find it the hardest because they do not get the
support necessary to maintain and enthuse them to be resilient when things are
hard. Some students do not seem to have developed the listening and learning
skills to enable them to adapt to new settings and new experiences. In this IT
age where everything is available at the touch of a button, memorizing
knowledge and recalling it to answer a question posed in an exam is considered
to be too hard.
Recently within
my lessons at school, we have been learning about materials and their sources
for a period of 12 hours, prior to the students sitting an open-notes
examination. The students had access to the answers within their note taking in
order to help them complete the examination. Being an exam, I was not going to
give the students any answers as it was open-notes and they were able to search
for the relevant information to answer the questions. The student’s response
was to question my method and accuse me incredulously of being unsupportive.
It’s moments like these that I question my ability as an educator or at the
very least, question my validity in the classroom.
You hope that these
children are able to access the careers that they would love to pursue and
don’t end up in occupations that they didn’t choose but cannot escape. Many of
us have regrets with the decisions we have made and can often feel that we have
no choice or that there were no alternatives. My Schizophrenic friend has been
living a semi-homeless life believing that he has no choices in life and that
he has no alternatives. The system is apparently against him and he has no home
or career because of a number of factors where he always points to other people
or situations, but never at his own actions.
We can all be observers of other people’s lives and be able to identify where thing’s may have gone awry but we know that true friendships come from those that recognise our predicament and draw alongside us. These people become a sounding board for our frustrations and perhaps just from being able to have dialogue with some other adult we are secure with, the ‘getting-it-all-out’ adds a fresh perspective. Having insight or discernment is a precious gift that we could all do with having. Thinking through a problem and offering a suggestion, rather than just complaining about the situation is always a more positive attribute. I often meet people who only tell me of their problems; “so and so said this to me”, or “this thing happened and I was really mad”… and I stand listening thinking, ‘Have you got any positives from today?’
I have just had my performance management review today where I have arrived at an epoch in that I have finally realised the implications of the demotion in my role as a teacher. The consequence of the actions of my managers is that to me, I feel that I have had 20 years of my career erased in one swoop of a pen. I am looking at job vacancies and wondering what is going on here? My employer will blame the government, reminding me that they had previously warned me about my future prospects but I can see other things going on which may suggest I am no longer ‘in-favour’.
I know that God is patiently waiting to see what I will do next… will I trust him? I can be a little scared at times about where my journey is headed but know that he does have my best interest at heart, so I will learn to trust him with my future. God reminds us throughout scriptures that we should not worry about tomorrow, just live for the day. So I hope that I live each day well. That I enjoy the morning and the days bustle, and learn to appreciate the light of dusk as the darkness of the evening envelopes us again to restart the daily cycle.
I could be in danger of trying to force the situation. I went for a Job interview this week and thought that I had taught a good lesson during the observation. I answered the questioned posed to me in the interview as honestly as I could. I did have a nagging feeling that the job wasn’t for me so I wasn’t too disappointed when I got the call of an offer of feedback, rather than an offer of a contract. God is in control and will put the different elements that will lead me along the correct pathway, into motion when he feels I am ready. I need to lighten-up a bit and enjoy each moment in time as he has provided for the here and now.
In the Vineyard movement, the theology used to describe this cycle of waiting on God is the ‘Now-and-not-yet.’ It is an answer to the question of ‘Why does God allow some things to happen to others and not me, or why is there continued suffering in the world?’ The simple truth is that we are living in a ‘between-time’. The death of Jesus has ushered in this new era through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through his resurrection to new life and the events of Pentecost. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
As we live out our lives, we invite Jesus to show us the way, by first giving-up the way we used to live, and by accepting his direction for our lives. When we walk in faith, he guides our pathways and teaches us how to deal with calamity when it comes… for indeed calamity seems to always be around the corner. We are never truly settled until we are in the presence of God; but as we go about our daily lives, we encounter all kinds of evil which God never intended. He gives us the grace to endure, even when our hearts are broken and our health is robbed… even to dealing with the loss of one we dearly love, whose untimely death has broken our spirit.
This is where we find God. He is in the middle of the whole trauma; even if we want to deny the truth of this, or relegate this as a religious crutch that doesn’t truly exist. God draws us close to him as his children… I hope I will never lose this closeness or his hand on my shoulder. So I will be patient and wait on the Lord the author and perfector of my life. We wait in the ‘now’ for the hope of the ‘future’. We can be certain of the future because Christ’s death on the cross defeated the enemy of this world, although for a time he prowls around like a roaring lion, hoping to catch out anyone who he can distract from finding Gods love and grace in Christ Jesus.
As God's children, we get the privilege to see glimpses of God’s grace as we serve him. Jesus tells us to love our neighbours and our enemies as we would love ourselves, seeking to purge from our souls, any anger, bitterness, or resentment we might feel towards those that miss-treat us or disrespect our motives for caring. It is hard when the investments we make in people and in institutions harvest little fruit from our toil, or our integrity is questioned. This is when it is even more important to remain consistent with our love and to become resilient in our service so that we are not governed by our emotions, but rather the truth of what we know of God. This is our greatest treasure – that when we were still far off, God met us in our despair and offered us his comfort.
In Jesus Christ, all of our needs are met because we can trust in his complete command of this world and the next. His life and his miracles prove that he is in control of all that he created in this world through his union with the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is where Jesus gets his authority, and in whom we can depend on in our darkest hour. This is what the Pharisee’s, Chief Priests and teachers of the law were threatened by. How can this son of a carpenter command such knowledge of the scriptures?
Jesus challenged all religious and human authority through the exposition of the scriptures, and as such became a central figure that the temple authorities attempted to quash through their inflated egocentric nature inherited by their assumed authority as the Nation of Israel who were in possession of the law of Yahweh. Jesus’ actions and teaching polarised opinion that elicited a response from those who heard it to either express repentance or show faith in their belief that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, or to reject his claims out of hand as a heretic.
The power or right to give orders, enforce obedience from within the people, or simply to make decisions on the part of God, challenged the position of the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and the chief priests, who believed they were the only authority capable of expounding the traditions of what they believed to be the Law of Moses. What set Jesus apart was his ability to perform signs and wonders as foretold by the prophets, healing the sick and raising people from the dead, but more significant, was Jesus’ claim to forgive sin. If Yahweh was sovereign, how can this man whose father they knew, exercise authority on behalf of God who alone had the power to forgive sin.
Jesus’s actions set up a sequence of events that show that he alone has the authority to replace the entire religious system that had become corrupted by the interpretation of the Pharisees, the Chief Priests and teachers of the law. Jesus announces that the Messianic age had arrived and that God’s kingdom had indeed been ushered in.
Jesus threatens their very reason for existence through what we read in
the Gospels and the wider interpretation of what we read within the rest of
scripture and its implications for both Jew and gentile alike. A strong oral
tradition controlled by the Rabbi’s, Pharisees, teachers of the law and the
chief priests, established a hierarchy that was determined by wealth and
status. God was seen to honour those who kept the law and as such those that adhered
to the teaching of the temple prospered. There is no doubt that inequalities
existed within their civilisation to which Jesus was born and raised.
Perhaps one of the common questions asked of Jesus is the missing years of his youth. Surely if Jesus was the son of God, he would have established himself within the rabbinical traditions as a good teacher who drew many disciples to himself as his status within the temple increased. Yet we find Jesus, the son of a carpenter from Nazareth, keeping out of the way until his time was right. It is not until the first miracle at the wedding feast in Cana in Galilee, described in John 2:1-11, that we are given a glimpse of Jesus’ purpose and ministry. We learn that changing the water into wine is a symbol of Jesus’ purity and his shed blood, a symbol of his sacrifice.
When we look at Mark 11:28, the Pharisee’s, Chief Priests and teachers of the law asked Jesus: “By what authority are you doing all of these things? Who gave you the right to do them?” To place the comments in context, we have to first look back to what has gone before in order to garner such a question. In Mark 11:15-18, we find Jesus creating havoc in the temple by knocking over the money changers tables and by preventing everyone from trading. The temple currency was the only one accepted for the purchase of sacrificial animals, presumably at greatly inflated exchange rates, where the temple profited from the system rather than promote the true purpose of the temple; the worship of Yahweh. Jesus quotes directly from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 when he said to them: “The scriptures declare, ‘My temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
Jesus asserts his authority in his command of the scriptures and his skill in interpreting the text through countering the chief priests and the temple authorities with its correct interpretation, rather than through a veil or ‘Midrash’ that was influenced by an historical narrative associated within a specific teaching. The temple authorities are effectively asking: ‘Who are you to disrupt our way of life and challenge our laws, when we know who your father and mother are, and you do not have any training in the scriptures?’ Jesus cleverly challenges their position by getting his accusers to account for the life of John the Baptist.
Unable to discern for themselves how to answer Jesus’ questions (Mark 11:31-33), they admit defeat because they have a limited understanding of the implications of their reasoning because they are focused on the here and now, rather than the interpretation of the scriptures concerning the coming Messiah. Knowing this, Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard owner who provides all of the resources for tenants of the land to make a wealthy living in exchange for a tax (Mark 12:1-12). John the Baptist was one such servant as described in the story, who the Lord sent to make way for the Messiah. John the Baptist was conveniently be-headed after calling the Pharisees who came for baptism, ‘a brood of vipers!’ (Luke 3:1-9) Before John, there was a 600 year gap to the last prophets who warned the people to return to the Lord’s teaching, or face the exile of Israel to foreign lands and the loss of hope in the kingdom to come… and yet despite this gap, the religious leaders were undecided about who John really was.
As in the parable of the vineyard, the chief priests and teachers of the law quashed any who came preaching a different Midrash to that established within temple life. To protect that life, those in authority were willing to break the law in order to preserve what they believed was the true interpretation of the scriptures. It was indeed convenient to believe they were doing God’s will in condemning a heretic to death. This irony was very clear to Jesus; through their lack of conviction concerning John’s status as a prophet, whey were being blown about like the wind (John 3:8-21, James 1:6)
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
James 1:6 ‘But when you ask, you must believe and
not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and
tossed by the wind.’
Many of the questions asked of Jesus by the Pharisees, Chief Priests and teachers of the law, concerned authority. They questioned him from a position of chastisement; as though they knew best because they had been immersed in the religious traditions of the elders and Jesus had not. However, each confrontation exposed their apparent ignorance of scripture and Jesus’ assurance of the truth. Many of the questions involved the interpretation of the Law of Moses in order to justify their own Midrash. In Mark 10:2-12 the Pharisee’s ask about marriage and divorce, which Jesus answers by referring back to Moses. However, Jesus also reasserts God’s original intention for marriage in that no one should separate what God has joined together (v9).
Jesus set’s out God’s rule and reign beyond the understanding of the Pharisees interpretation of the Law of Moses. The account of the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-31 reveals a far deeper commitment than just the observance of the law. Following obedience to the law with action enables us to carry out the conviction of our hearts, with acts of service. There are so many levels to the rich young man’s condition that it appears obvious. With hind sight and time, we can see that the man’s idol was his love of his wealth and the status he maintained with it; he had used the appearance of being blessed in keeping the law, as an excuse to ignore the need to look after the poor.
We can all make claims about our own righteousness like the rich young man and believe our own rhetoric for a time. Usually our self-confidence is our undoing and the shallowness of our position is often exposed to all but ourselves. Jesus makes eight clear statements about his authority in John’s gospel. These all challenge the understanding that the Pharisee’s, chief priests and teachers of the law had of the Law of Moses because Jesus states that what he can accomplish is even greater than Moses and the Patriarchs. In John 6:35, Jesus’ actions reveal that it wasn’t just Moses who could bring Manna from heaven, but Jesus himself can offer the bread of life as evident in the feeding of 5000 people. I am the light of the world (John 8:12); I am the door (John 10:9); I am the good Shepherd (John 10:11); I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25); I am the way the truth and the life (John 14:6); I am the true vine (John 15:1) and finally, ‘Before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8:58).
Each direct challenge to Jesus’ authority is contained within the ‘miracles’ that he performs to demonstrate his command over all things. The woman with an issue of blood making her unclean is healed, alongside the lepers whose condition prevented them from gaining access to life within the temple community. Jesus proves he has command over all physical deformities such as the paralysed man and the many blind and deaf that he healed. Jesus had authority over death with the story of Lazarus and he had command over the devil in those who were possessed by an evil spirit that he cast out.
Stating that Jesus was present before Abraham, challenged the understanding of the Pharisees in determining who he actually was, in the same way that they couldn’t discern who John the Baptist was. In so doing, they relegate themselves as an also ran as indicated in the story of the fig tree in Mark 11:12-14. The fig tree being a symbol of the Nation of Israel and the lack of fruit that they displayed in their mission to be an example to all nations for the worship of Yahweh.
By stating that Jesus was now that light, he was confirming his assertion that he was indeed the new Temple. With a new temple order, Jesus continues to push the boundaries of the law by reasserting how God would have us live out the law. One example can be found in Matthew 5:38-48.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Love for Enemies “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
The challenge therefore is to live holy and blameless lives beyond the letter of the law, in keeping with the message proclaimed by Jesus Christ. That the new temple that is alive in each person who has been born again through the filling of the Holy Spirit, will become the new bride of Christ. We wait in anticipation that he will come again in glory to draw to himself, all those who confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And so for a time, we live for today, hoping and praying that the future kingdom to come will break through into the ‘now’. That is our mission – to reach out with the grace of God into our communities, in order to change lives. We pray for revival that ‘your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven’.
No comments:
Post a Comment