Today’s Scripture Reading (September
18, 2014): Luke 13
John Bradford was one of the Protestant Reformers in England.
He is described as a lover of the Church of England – the Anglicans. In 1548,
Bradford who had been studying to be a lawyer, left his law degree and began to
follow a path that would take him into the ministry. He was ordained in 1550.
But in 1553, something significant happened in England. King Edward VI died
without an heir. And so it fell on Mary Tudor to become Queen of England. Mary
Tudor was a devout Catholic. And she became known as Bloody Mary because of the
number of people that she put to death. During the first month of the new
Queen’s reign, John Bradford was arrested on the charge of “trying to stir up a
mob.” After the arrest, Bradford was confined in the Tower of London, and from
his room he could see the men being taken out who Bloody Mary had ordered to be
executed. Some of the men that were being taken to their deaths were the friends
and colleagues of Bradford, and their crimes were identical to his. They were
going to die for no other reason than that they opposed the Catholic
Church. It was in this moment that
Bradford coined a phrase which we still use almost 500 years later. As he
watched the men march toward execution, he would say “There, but for the grace
of God, goes John Bradford.” A phrase that we have still in our language as “There,
but for the grace of God, go I.”
Sometimes I think that we forget the pain that Bradford experienced
when he spoke those words and coined the phrase. Too often we use the phrase
like the Pharisee who looked over at the tax collector and said, “God, I thank
you that I am not like other people – robbers, evil doers adulterers – or even
this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). “God, I am thankful that I am not living out
life like these people, you have made superior. There, but for the grace of
God, go I.” But that is not the meaning that Bradford was expressing as he
spoke the word. The men who were dying were exactly like him, and yet he lived
yet another day – by the grace of God. Grace is a salve, not one that is
applied to the places where you are healthy, but rather to the places where you
are in pain. And in the Tower of London, John Bradford was in pain, and every
day was the reality that this one could be his last. And it was to that pain
that God’s grace needed to be applied.
Jesus looks at the people around him, and they seem to be
smug in their assurance that they are not like other people. So Jesus mentions
two instances where death had occurred within the City of Jerusalem. The second
of these instances was the day that the tower of Siloam collapsed killing
eighteen people. We really don’t know the event, a couple of theories have
grown up around this Passage. The first is that we do know that the Romans had
been wanting to bring water into Jerusalem by a series of aqueducts similar to
the ones that they had used in other cities. If the pool of Siloam was part of
that system, then the collapse of the tower would have been considered to be a deserved
judgment on anyone who dared help the Romans further their plans in the Holy
City. Or, another theory is that it might be that the tower fell on some sick
people who were trying to get into the pool to find healing. In this case, the
sick were already under a curse from God and the collapse of the tower would
have simply been God’s confirmation. But Jesus warns those listening that they
are all under a curse unless they are willing to repent. This incident did not
exonerate those that lived, but should serve as warning to all who live without
God.
In 1555, John Bradford made his walk from the Tower of London
to the place where the wood was piled up ready to produce the fire by which he
would be burned for his crime of going against the Catholic Church. But he did
not die outside of God’s grace. As the flames went higher, so did the grace of
God for this man who wanted nothing more than to please the God he served.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 14
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