Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. – Luke 9:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 11, 2017): Luke 9

In the wake of tragedies like the one in Las Vegas ten short days ago (October 1, 2017), it is not uncommon to hear investigators telling reporters that there are certain facts that they just can’t disclose in interviews. The problem is that public knowledge always has the dangerous potential to change what the investigation and what is happening. And in the case of terror incidents like the Las Vegas massacre, changing or informing the narrative also has the potential of inspiring copy-cat incidents. And so investigators remain quiet about what we know.

The New International Version of Luke places an unfortunate, and artificial, division between verse twenty and twenty-one of Luke 9. Verse twenty-one seems to provide a kind of language bridge between two ideas presented in the Chapter. The first idea is that Jesus is the Messiah. The second idea is that Jesus would, at some point in the near future, suffer and die at the hands of the religious elite. The artificial break seems to tie Jesus warning not to tell anyone to the prediction of Jesus death, but the comment makes more sense when it is related to the idea that Jesus was the Messiah.

The problem was that “Messiah” had become a very political term. It is apparent that Jesus was aware of two competing concepts. He was the Messiah, but he was not the Messiah that the people were expecting. If news got out from the disciples that the Messiah was here (and there were likely many people who claimed to be Messiah during Jesus lifetime), then the narrative would inevitably change. Jesus would be treated differently. People would be attracted to the Jesus movement who were at odds with the direction that Jesus knew he had to go. And Jesus mission would have become even harder.

And so the warning is issued. Don’t tell anyone that you know who I am. For now, that will be for us to know. Oh, the time will come when everyone will be aware that Jesus is the Christ, and arguments over the concept of a Messianic Jesus will erupt. But for now, that discussion needs to be reserved for the future. For now, we have work to do that will only be interrupted by the knowledge that Jesus is the Messiah. Because, in the minds of the people, dying for the sins of man is a very un-Messianic job, and yet the very one that the Messiah came to accomplish.        

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: John 6

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. – Matthew 14:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 10, 2017): Matthew 14

“The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.” (Tom Wolfe, American Author, and Journalist). I understand Wolfe’s words from a very experiential point of view. Every one of us spends time alone, and because it is a common experience, it is one that we need to come to terms with – to learn how to handle those moments when we are “all by ourselves.”

And that might be one of the fundamental differences between us as people. For some of us, which would include me and, maybe, solitary men like Tom Wolfe, we have come to the point of understanding with our loneliness. Even writing the words in that manner makes those alone times sound incredibly painful, but the reality is quite the reverse. For some of us, loneliness is incredibly energizing. We find strength in those moments when we are alone – and we need them to live healthily.

But that is not the only approach to loneliness. For some of my colleagues, time alone is painful. It is something to be avoided. Rather than finding a quiet corner in which to write, some of my friends need to find a busy coffee shop in which they can record their thoughts. Alone, space itself seems to crowd in on them, squeezing their thoughts to such an extent that they can no longer write them down on the page. Writing becomes a communal exercise, done amidst the noise and haste of the world in which we live. The noise, then, is not a distraction, as it can be for me, it is part of the energy that is needed to get the words out and onto the printed page.

However, beyond the difference to our natures, time spent alone is also incredibly necessary. How much time we need alone probably varies from person to person, but what does not vary is our need to spend some time alone – even in loneliness. It is only in those moments of solitude that we get to pause and evaluate the events of our lives, and it is in these moments that we begin to understand things like meaning and the powerful emotions that constantly invade our lives.

Even Jesus felt the need to get away alone. John was dead, killed by a reluctant king. Up until this point, the public attention of the movement had rested on John’s shoulders. But all of that was about to change. Jesus needed time to grieve the loss of his partner and to orient himself in the direction of the coming transformation of the ministry. The crowds that followed him were not going to allow him much time for this evaluation, but it was essential that Jesus have at least some time alone.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 9

“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” – Mark 6:38

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 9, 2017): Mark 6

Sigmund Freud in “Civilization and its Discontents” wrote that “Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” Maybe more precisely, what we want is freedom that is divorced from responsibility, which, of course, is impossible. Maybe one of the most prominent areas where this is true is in our personal finances. We want the freedom to spend our money as we would want to without accepting any responsibility for the lack that might result as a direct consequence of our spending. True freedom always comes with responsibility. When we have become truly responsible for our own actions, it is at that moment that we are truly free.

But the problems of our world are often much bigger than it is possible for any amount of freedom or responsibility to care. And, sometimes, the problems are just too big for us to comprehend. Hurricanes hit, and the resulting disaster is too much for us. Famine, war, and other societal ills are significant issues for which we do not have all of the solutions. However, our lack of answers should never stop our response. God never asks us whether we have all of the resources that we need to fulfill our responsibilities, but rather whether we are using what we do have to solve the world’s problems.

As Jesus teaches, the disciples become concerned that the people are becoming hungry and need to eat. For the disciples, this is a problem. And so they go to Jesus to ask him to send the people away so that they can feed themselves. It is the logical solution to the problem. But Jesus has a different idea. The disciples will feed them. Of course, the problem is much too big for the disciples to take care of themselves. But that isn’t what Jesus has in mind. His question is basically this – “What is it that you have in your hands? What do you have in your possession? Give me that. And I promise that that will be enough.”

This is our responsibility – to use what we have to attack the problems of our culture. And what we have in our hands is multiplied many times over by the one in whom we place our faith. Because in the presence of God, five loaves and two fish are always enough to feed the multitude.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 14

Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. – Matthew 10:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 8, 2017): Matthew 10

Karl Marx’s gravestone contains these words: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” It is the drive that exists within all of us who look out at our world and see wrong; we want to right that which is wrong. Marx saw several things that he viewed as incompatible with a civilized society. Poverty was wrong. The class divisions within society were wrong. At the heart of Karl Marx’s ideology was the concept that we were all created equal, that we all have an equal right to live and breathe and enjoy the finer things in life. And religion was wrong because, according to the way that Marx viewed Christianity primarily, it promised a heaven that we could wait for while refusing to change the reality in which we live. I have a few friends that still hold to these very Marxian views and very Marxian solutions to the problem.

Ultimately, Marxist ideology fails because it does not get rid of the dividing lines. It does not get rid of poverty, but it changes the ones who are rich. It fails to eradicate class, but rather switches the people who experience power in society, leaving us to continue our struggle with life. Changing power from Christian to Muslim or from White to Black does not take care of the underlying illness of our society, but rather simply changes where it is that we feel the pain.

Jesus came with a different idea. Not only did he attempt to remove the power from those who held it, in his society the religious and political elites that existed in the Middle East, but he also taught his followers that they were not to rule, rather, they were to become the servants of their brothers and sisters. It was not a lesson that Jesus’s followers learned very well. As soon as Christianity came to power under the reign of Constantine in the fourth century, it seems that we immediately forgot that we were supposed to be servants and we became rulers. The problem? We had not, and still have not, even come close to understanding the ideology of the one who we claim to follow – and we still want to fix things that we don’t understand.

Of all of Jesus disciples, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot may have been the biggest threat to the unity of the apostles and the mission of Jesus. There was nothing intrinsically evil about either one of them. But they both appear to have well-established ideologies separate from their decision to follow Jesus. For Simon, his ideology was that of the Zealots of the first century. The Zealots were committed to the violent overthrow of Roman Kings and the Herodian dynasty and their supporters and restore rule over Israel to the Jews. A little more than four decades after Jesus chose Simon to follow him, a Zealot rebellion would result in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the horrible destruction, and the massacre at Masada, and the disappearance of Israel from the world for the almost the next 1900 years.

It is entirely possible that Judas Iscariot was also a member of Zealots. His ideology seemed to match. He was frustrated that Jesus was not willing to take up arms against their rulers and restore Israel to the Jews. But he also appeared to be frustrated with poverty and class divisions. Judas Iscariot and Karl Marx held some of the same belief structures. For Judas, Jesus just wasn’t moving fast enough, and that alone made him a candidate for the betrayal of the cause of the one who he served.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 6

Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”- Mathew 9:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 7, 2017): Matthew 9

Martin Luther King Jr. noted that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The words, now more than fifty years old, still hold incredible meaning for the world in which I live. Too often, we try to get rid of hate by responding with bitterness. It is the heart of my problem with social media. Angry words are never going to effect the change that we really need. It may get us a response, people may retweet us or press the like button – or more likely laugh at us - but nothing will change. Because hate is incapable of driving out hate. And because fear is so closely related to hate, fear becomes impotent as well. Only love, responding in love to every circumstance, has the ability to change us where we need to experience that change. And at the root of this world changing love is forgiveness. It is this idea of putting behind us all of the hurt we have suffered, never to be brought up again, and moving with love into the future. This we need.

As the men brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus, they came with a very specific purpose. Their friend needed to be healed, and by healed they meant that they wanted him to be made well enough to walk again. So they carried their friend to Jesus, the miracle worker of Galilee. And Jesus looked at the man now lying in front of him and responded to the faith of the man and his friends who had brought him with “Your sins are forgiven.” I am pretty sure that the first thought to cross the minds of the friends was “we didn’t struggle to bring our friend to you so that you could just forgive him of his sins.” Of course, that was never Jesus’s intent. He was not just going forgive the man, but of all that would happen, forgiveness was the man’s most important need. Without forgiveness, nothing else would matter.

We still need forgiveness to be the light that drives out the darkness, and to lead to the love that will drive out the hate. But we need to understand that forgiveness is the beginning point. Nothing that is worthwhile doing in the future can be done if we are not willing to forgive. Period. Forgiveness is our need and our starting point. And it has to start with us. Our future is dependent on our willingness and ability to forgive.

And it is up to us. So start now!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 10

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. – Mark 5:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 6, 2017): Mark 5

I would never have guessed a few years ago that “taking a knee” would become such an act of political significance. I have to admit that I am more impressed and energized by a football player taking a knee in the end zone after a touchdown then I am by the “look at me” dance that many seem to be working hard to try to perfect. There is a recognition in the act of taking a knee that says, “Yes, I am talented, or maybe lucky, but I recognize that my talent comes from somewhere beyond me. I am, for whatever reason, gifted to live this life, and I will never lose sight of the gift.” For me, “taking a knee” seems to be a very appropriate reaction.

So as the National Football League continues its struggle with regard to its players and coaches “taking a knee” during the playing of the National Anthem, for me, there may be no more appropriate action to take. After all, for centuries, people who have wanted to chase after the ideal things that we believe that this life should hold, which includes racial equality and an end to racial violence, have been chasing after those things by “taking a knee” and recognizing that there is a power that is beyond them that needs to be involved in the process. For centuries, people have come against the immovable objects that tend to scar this life by simply “taking a knee.” There is a deep humility inherent in the action. It indicates that we want to be part of the solution, but that we recognize that we are not the solution – just a part of it. And whether you believe in a God or not, our democracies have been built around that very idea.

The madman in the cemetery has a problem. It is a problem that is beyond him. This life was not the dream that he believed it should be. Living naked among the tombstones was not the life that he had hoped for when he was a child. But he could find no way out. The people had tried to at least bind him, but that had not worked. Instead, he continued to injure himself and cause himself pain.

And then Jesus walked into the graveyard.  The man’s recognized something in Jesus that was different from the others who had walked into his cemetery. There is no doubt that the man’s first reaction was that all this different man wanted to do was increase his pain. But, maybe, there was a way out.

So the man approaches Jesus and “takes a knee.” It was the most appropriate action given the circumstances. He had no idea what the outcome might be, but “taking a knee” felt right.

The weekend approaches. I am guessing if you tune into an NFL game this weekend, you will see Football players of all races taking a knee. Do not interpret the action as a sign of disrespect for the countries that they may represent. I hope that you will look into their faces and see the beauty of someone who recognizes that this world needs help and that that help can only come from beyond us. As the national anthem plays, maybe it is the time that we all “take a knee.”   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 9

No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. – Luke 8:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 5, 2017) Luke 8

Kim Jong Nam, the older half-brother of North Korea’s reigning Kim Jung Un, was assassinated by a very public chemical attack on February 13, 2017. His death was apparently an early Valentine’s present from his younger brother. But part of the mystery about the assassination is why bother? Kim Jong Nam was the heir apparent for the North Korean regime until a fallout with his father in the early 21^st Century, but in recent years had shown no inclination to try to reclaim his throne. The fallout appears to have been caused by either Kim Jong Nam’s failed attempt to take his family to Tokyo Disneyland which caused his father much embarrassment or, according to Kim Jong Nam, because Nam wanted to take North Korea in a radically different direction. Kim Jong Nam remained a critic of his younger brother’s regime and action throughout his life in exile. And maybe that was enough to want him dead.

Another contributing factor might have been that the two brothers had no relationship with each other, in fact, it is believed that they had never met. They were kept separate to ensure the future of the Kim regime. Kim Jong Il, the father to the half-brothers, wanted to make sure that no single attack could take out both of his heirs. So maybe Nam’s opposition to the North Korean regime of his younger brother and the lack of a relationship between the two men facilitated the assassination. But why did it take place so publicly and in such a clumsy manner? There must be a reason.

Some argue that there was a reason – or that actually there was a message being sent with the assassination. In this case, Kim Jung Un felt needed to horrify the world, and instill fear into the minds of those who doubt his power. This was the message behind the assassination of Jong Nam. Kim Jung Un does not just want a voice on the world stage, he wants a voice among the superpowers, and instilling fear is one way he believes that he can get that voice. The public murder of his brother was just another stepping stone along a path to the North Korean leader finally obtaining the influence that he believes he deserves.

We all send messages every day. And a message must be public. I have been a critic of social media, even though I am deeply involved in the medium. My argument has been that I do not believe that we know how to use the medium. The truth is that maybe we understand all too well. While I would prefer that we use social media to provide encouragement and support for each other and to keep in contact with friends from times past, even I occasionally let a negative message slip through. I have often counseled people that if they really feel that they have to write that nasty message, to do it in Word and save it in a folder of nasty messages that we can go back and read once in a while. Just don’t post the message– or send the e-mail. In the end, that public declaration only makes circumstances worse.

But a message saved in the folder that no one else will ever read is not really a message. A message is public. Or in Jesus words, no one lights a lamp and then places it under a bowl, or somehow covers up the light. That would be stupid. It would be better just to keep the lamp unlit. Our problem is that too often, like Kim Jung Un, we are seeking to send the wrong message. We want to hurt and cause pain because our heart is in the wrong place. We believe that it will help us get what we need, but instead, the message just speaks volumes about our insecurities. We have forgotten to value each other in a very public. Instead, we decide to tear each other down.

The Jesus message, the one that Jesus wants us to go public with, is filled with love, encouragement, and support. That message of love is the one that should never be hidden because that is the one that we all need to hear. The rest is white noise that needs to be ignored made up of messages that should never have been sent.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 5