Rules in Freefall ...

Every Christian church has rules.  Some rules are unwritten, but generally understood by most everybody.  For example, it is uncool to start yelling when the pastor is mid-sermon trying to make a point.  It may be OK to yell “amen”, after he makes the point; but if you were to start cheering for your favorite football team (due to the earbuds in your ears, listening to the game live) while in the middle of the sermon – that would be uncool and likely against the unwritten rules.  It may not get you thrown out.  It may instead engender more than few giggles from the men in the congregation as they muse over what a good idea earbuds are in general for game situations like this.  But the women, and most of all the pastor, are not going to be amused.  You are in church presumably to pay attention – to church.  It is bad enough to be distracted, but to cause the entire congregation to become distracted is a big no-no.  But this is usually an unwritten rule.  Few churches actually could have predicted ear-buds, and live game broadcasts during church with a device small enough to be both seen and heard by a given church goer.  So few churches actually thought they needed a formal written rule against such behavior. 

But if you were to actively start recruiting members of the church you attend to go start attending a different church – that would be less unwritten, and more formal.  Particularly if the destination church you are trying to get people to go attend does not share this church’s core beliefs.  Most of us place a good amount of faith that our beliefs in our church are the “right” ones.  Folks from other churches, even if Christian, that do not share our ideas about scripture, are just simply mistaken, and in a growing process that will one day lead them to us.  We never even stop to consider if it would be us that is led to them.  That is unthinkable.  So if someone from one of “those” Christian churches begins to perform a miracle, we have to question it.  First thought, the miracle must be fake.  After all, how could someone from over there do something that it truly takes supernatural power to do?  And if the miracle is certifiably a real miracle then second thought, the power must be coming from the evil one.  You can imagine this is exactly how the Pharisees thought about Jesus.  They never imagined His power could be coming from a good place, because He was not one of them.  And so generations later, when we are confronted with someone from another church doing miracles, our first two responses look exactly like the Pharisees of old.

Another unwritten rule is that if one of those “other” churches, is exposed to one of our key core beliefs, and after this exposure still refuses to believe like we do – they are doomed.  After all, if ultimately salvation is not the thing that separates us from them, we might as well be them.  Everyone is comfortable with a certain pecking order even under the Christian umbrella.  Pastors and evangelists of our church are the top tier (i.e. most likely to be saved because they share the Lords word).  Elders, Deacons, and Deaconesses are next.  Teachers next, and so on, and so on till you get to regular members.  Then come the people from churches whose beliefs are the closest to our own.  And so on, and so on.  Until you get to Jewish, and then down the road, Islamic faiths.  Past that barrier though, you start straying into the modern pagan world – gods of tradition and fancy stories that do not have a part in our Trinity in any way.  Eventually you wind up with agnostics and then atheists, the lowest folks on the Christian totem pole (so to speak).

Believers understand this phenomenon.  They have been long coached in it.  They have come to accept it as fact.  Perhaps unwritten, but still fact anyway.  Luke was confronted with it as well.  He writes to his friend Theophilus to offer a competing ideology spoken of by Jesus Christ Himself.  One it would seem, that we modern Christians, and modern Christian churches have decided to fully ignore.  But it is there in the written word for us to discover if we would be open to letting Jesus lead us there.  It begins in the ninth chapter picking up in verse 46 saying … “Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. [verse 47] And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, [verse 48] And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.”

We begin with the pecking order we are all so comfortable with.  The disciples or apostles strike up a discussion about who among them will be the greatest in the Kingdom Jesus is sure to establish.  First of all, they are imagining the wrong Kingdom.  Just like us.  We imagine the Kingdom of Heaven to be something like kingdoms of this world.  With some sort of power structure, where I have power over you, because I am assigned to rule over you in heaven, kind of like it might be here on earth.  But it’s not.  Even under the Christian banner, there are not supposed to be rulers over me.  There is supposed to be Jesus, who rules over me – with no middlemen in between.  Heaven won’t be any different.  If that organizational structure looks way too flat to be successful, try it out, and watch what kind of success you find.  The freedom Jesus offers is one where His government starts and ends with God on top, you right underneath.  We don’t need a leadership pecking order.  Leadership pecking orders are designed to “make us more effective” as an organization.  They don’t.  They make us more organized, but not more effective.  A relationship with Jesus one on one, is the only thing that can make you truly effective.

Then Jesus turns the ideas that the person with the most accomplishments, and greatest resume, should naturally be the believer who rises to the top of the food chain (which does not actually exist).  Instead, Jesus brings a toddler over and puts him on His lap.  This, Jesus announces, is what the greatest person in the Kingdom of Heaven looks like.  A young child.  Someone with zero resume, zero accomplishments, nothing to speak of where it comes to skills and abilities.  What is the only thing a really young child is capable of doing – loving and trusting.  Being completely dependent on Dad for everything to live.  That is all a kid can do.  And since they have absolute trust, they have little worry and fear.  They use that freedom of mind to do what – you got it – to play.  Very young children indulge their imaginations and make toys out of boxes, and creatures out of paint, and then play with them to their own great joy.  Sharing with others only doubles the joy.  This is the profile of greatness in the actual Kingdom of Heaven, not the wrong one we have been imagining.  Hard work gets you nowhere.  You are not even expected to do it.  Playtime with Dad, loving others, living a worry-free life due to your trust in Dad – that is greatness.  Rules are now in freefall.

It gets worse.  Luke continues in verse 49 saying … “And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. [verse 50] And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.”  Here goes the whole “other guy” thing right out the window.  Some guy performing miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, who was not one of the official disciples or part of the second official church of Jesus.  He was a freelancer.  He was someone without exposure to any formal beliefs or perhaps even association with Jesus.  He found faith on his own, or through the Father’s influence.  And he was acting on it in the name of Jesus, casting out demons no less.  A miracle performed by someone from the “thems” of this world.  His disciples tried to shut it down, but Jesus says don’t.  Let him be.  Just because there was no formal association with the new church and the new faith, did not negate or denigrate what this believer did on his own.  Yikes.  I am sure our church would shake in its boots to consider this idea was actually OK’d by Jesus Himself.  Turns out miracles performed anywhere under the Christian umbrella are still miracles.

Then comes the war with tradition.  Luke continues in verse 51 saying … “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, [verse 52] And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. [verse 53] And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.”  Jerusalem was long held to be the center of faith for the Jewish people.  That is, for the tribes of Judah, Levi (the priests), and Benjamin at least.  The other nine tribes split off from the kingdom of Solomon’s heirs and became known over time as the Samaritans.  They setup their own temple, and preferred to go there to worship for feasts, etc.  Over time the dispute became marked upon which temple, was “the” Temple where Jewish believers were supposed to worship.  The Samaritans obviously had their own traditions and ideas at this point.  Jesus was going to the “other” place.  So Jesus was bucking the ideas of the Samaritans about where He should go.  Samaritans were not fond of that.  So they refused to host Jesus while on His journey.  Even Samaritans who may well have believed in Jesus as the Messiah were still not happy about this choice and refused to host Him.

Luke continues in verse 54 saying … “And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? [verse 55] But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. [verse 56] For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.”  This snippet of scripture should terrify modern Christians.  The refusal to host Jesus met with a steep rebuke from James and John – two of the disciples who had seen Jesus transfigured into God on the mountain that night with Peter and themselves.  James and John knew what power Jesus had.  And so they immediately thought to meet this insult by “those” Samaritans with fire from heaven to consume them all for the slight they offered their Lord.  Because the Samaritans refused to believe what the Jews were supposed to believe, James and John thought they should die for it.  Strike down the sinners.  Kill the wicked.  How many times do we modern Christians threaten sinners with exactly the same threats and tell ourselves we do the work of Jesus in the process?  We don’t.  Our churches go so far as to condemn other Christian churches because they do not believe like we do.  We make this a matter of salvation.  But Jesus tells James and John, they are filled with the spirit of the devil in this.  Jesus came to save, redeem, and restore.  It is the devil alone who demands justice for what we deserve.  Whose team do you truly play for?  Rules are blown to dust.

Luke continues with an examination of our priorities in verse 57 saying … “And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. [verse 58] And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”  You know those huge churches that seat 20,000 people, or those immaculate cathedrals that house all that art.  Worthless.  Jesus has no place to even lay His head.  Life with Jesus is life on the move.  The point of redemption is not to sit still, and hope sinners find their way into your doors.  The point of redemption is to venture out, and find sinners right where they are, and minister to their needs, even when they have no interest in hearing about religion at all.  If we cannot love our neighbor, why should our neighbor ever listen to anything else we have to say?  Church is not about finding walls to make a habit out of attending or hiding behind.  Church is about motion, forward motion, to express love to those in need of love.  And who is not in need of love?  Hard to imagine rules were even contemplated let alone enforced.

But Luke is not finished with his examination as he continues in verse 59 saying … “And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. [verse 60] Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”  First, all our sentimental attachment to the idea of 12 disciples, or 12 apostles, is for lack of a better word “huey”.  Here is Jesus inviting what would have been a thirteenth disciples or apostle to the close-up crew.  No sentiment to the 12 number.  If the 13^th man would have accepted, he would have been part of it.  This also discounts the more than a few women who traveled with Jesus and may well have been counted in His intimate circle number if not for outdated prejudice.  It is our willingness to accept that constrains Jesus, not some quota on His part.  But to the 13^th man, Jesus says to him about his dead father, let the dead bury their dead.  We could interpret that to mean, let those who are dead in their current lives take the time to bury another of their kind.  Instead preach the gospel, preach the Kingdom of God to those who are dead, and bring them out of death to life through Jesus Christ.  That mission is more important than our sentimentality, be it for a departed relative, or for some numeric limitation we think we can impose on God. 

Luke continues in verse 61 saying … “And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. [verse 62] And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”  De-ja-vu Lot’s wife.  Once you see the work Jesus needs you to participate in, you don’t have time to look back and be distracted by the things of the past.  Even family may not understand your new mission or purpose, they don’t need to.  You can love them best, not in wishing them goodbyes, but in being steadfast in the purpose Jesus leads you to perform.  Trying to get your house in order first, before you come to Jesus, is an impossible task.  There will always be something else that needs your attention.  That demand on your attention is the very war between good and evil.  It is Satan holding you back, and Jesus looking to carry you forward.  But you cannot move forward while your heart demands the things of your past.  Not even familial bonds should outweigh your relationship with Jesus Christ.  Your dependence upon Jesus to adjust your priorities, is the only way that adjustment ever takes place.  To look away, to look back, is to become a pillar of salt unable to move at all.  Focus forward in Jesus is the only way to avoid that trap.

So I ask, where in any of this do you read “us” and “them” under the Christian banner?  This is not the establishment of a pecking order; it is the absolute abolishment of anything of that ilk.  Luke writes to us of what real greatness is in the Kingdom of God and it is found in the persona of young dependent child.  We are to accept those who work under the banner of Jesus, even if they don’t have one exactly like our own.  We are to not to condemn others for their incorrect beliefs, or ever call for their destruction, we are to work for the salvation of all.  And we are to keep our focus directly upon Jesus, not being distracted by the past, or anything else that would attempt to distract us.  No middlemen.  No rules, at least none of the ones we think about.  Not even church should be thought of as a building, but as a movement.  The rules we thought of, whether written or unwritten, are in freefall.  And perhaps that is how it was always supposed to be.

 

Walls of Fortification, or Incarceration ...

Erect standards to keep out the unworthy; and who will be left inside?  Apply standards upon the wicked, but only by the righteous, and who will ever be disciplined?  There are churches under the Christian banner who claim to be absolute in their understanding of scripture.  These bodies believe no other is capable of adding context, wisdom, or value to any discussion of Jesus Christ.  They believe the narrow road to salvation begins with conversion to their particular brand of Christianity, and adherence to their particular set of beliefs, at the exclusion of all others.  They preach it with certainty.  So much so, they are afraid to add wisdom, or context, to their own beliefs.  Whatever time those beliefs were forged in cement, it must now remain exactly like that for all time and eternity to come.  Whatever debate preceded that time, was simply an age of looking for truth.  All ages since have found that truth and will rely upon it without alteration.  Expansion is akin to heresy in these churches.  Certainty is their cornerstone.  Not Jesus mind you, but certainty.  So I ask, have they built walls of fortification to keep evil out?  Or have they merely contained evil forever within walls of their own incarceration?

The simple truth is that not everyone of us gets it right.  This incorrect point in any one person’s particular journey with Jesus Christ happens often.  We believe something at one point in our journey, only to find we were mistaken further on down the road.  It happens because we let Jesus lead, instead of deciding we already know everything, and He has nothing to teach us.  Sometimes a kernel of truth, a small seed, is planted.  And with time, and care, the seed blooms until our understanding of that nugget of truth becomes an entire tree of knowledge regarding it.  The whole point of letting Jesus teach us, is not to remain stagnant but to grow.  Growth then requires the virtual death of certainty.  We can only grow as much as we are dependent upon Jesus to teach us growth.  It is our certainty about any given topic, that stunts our growth in that area.  We become too sure, that “we” “know” what scripture says now.  No more study needed.  No more thought.  No more listening, to anyone, including Jesus.  And so we close our eyes, ears, common sense, and worse – faith; off to growth that would otherwise happen, if we just let Jesus lead.  But to do that, we need to learn to accept, that we are not always right about everything.  More often we have only glimmers of truth about anything, and there is a WHOLE LOT of room to grow our understanding under the supervision of Jesus Christ.

But those who worship stagnation of truth, are fond of the idea of erecting walls between us and “them”.  Them being defined as anyone who does not exactly believe the same we do on any given topic.  The walls, from the point of view of those who prefer stagnation, are to “protect” us from the evil influences of “them”.  Under this logic, we are to isolate ourselves away from evil, lest we be drawn into the evil and lost in the result.  This is based on trust, but it is trust of ourselves, and our walls, to keep us from evil.  It does nothing to confront the evil already within us.  And cuts us off from perhaps the very growth we need to save us from the evil we fear.  Our motives and desires remain the same.  Our trust in Jesus to save us from ourselves never really materializes.  And the doom we fear, we in fact insure, by our own actions to save ourselves from it.  Walls thought to be those of castle to protect us, turn out instead to be prison walls to mire us in stagnation, instead of free us to grow.

This is nothing new.  And it happens to the best of us.  Luke wrote to his friend Theophilus in his gospel letter about falling in to this kind of mental spiritual trap.  He begins in chapter nine, picking up in verse 37 saying … “And it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him. [verse 38] And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child.”  This rather revealing incident begins with a desperate father looking for help for his only son.  His son you see was plagued by a demon, perhaps more than one.  And like any loving father, the father sought help for his son.  You can bet, the father likely first sought the help of the Temple staff.  Rabbi’s far and near were consulted to see if any could help his boy.  They should have been able to.  It was in their written procedures on what to do about stuff like this.  But those writings were not studied day in, and day out.  They were more obscure.  And once failure set in, as it does with us, we get more timid on whether to try it again or not.  You see if you continue to fail at something like this you begin to look bad.  After a while the people begin to doubt if a priest is really any kind of good priest if he cannot pull this off.  So it might be better to just not try, than to try and keep failing.

So dad comes to Jesus for help.  But there is a bit of a twist.  Luke continues in verse 39 saying … “And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him. [verse 40] And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not.”  And there it is again.  Failure.  This time by the very disciples of Christ who had been given power by Jesus Himself to deal with matters like this.  In this incident, the first church of Jesus, the Israelite faith had failed to help dad and son.  But now worse, the second church of Jesus, the new apostolic faith, had also failed to help this dad and son out.  Why?  Is the devil and his minions, now somehow stronger than our God is?  Particularly stronger than God the Father, who the Israelites believed in, even if they did not believe in Jesus yet.  No.  And as for Jesus, not a single devil or minion was ever able to stand up to Him.  Not once.  Not ever.  So why did the second church of Jesus fail as miserably as the first to help this poor dad and son out?

Both churches were certain they were right about their beliefs.  But both faith’s had mistaken ideas at that time.  Further mistakes later, sorted out even later than that.  Here was a prime example.  Neither set of beliefs had enough faith in who they worshipped to make this happen.  But was that because they were wrong about doctrine?  Like say, the idea that the Messiah was supposed to be a David-like-king who would end Roman oppression forever.  First and second church were wrong about this idea at the time of this event.  Only the second church would begin to change what they believed as events unfolded.  The first church would cling to their certainty, and kill Jesus for it.  No.  This was not a question of doctrinal accuracy.  It was a simple question of faith.  This was not a question of the righteousness of the disciples or the Rabbi’s who may have attempted to help this father and son out in the past.  It was a simple question of faith in the God they served who is the only One who is truly righteous.

Luke continues with the answer of Jesus picking up in verse 41 saying … “And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. [verse 42] And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.”  Yikes.  Well first of all Jesus did rebuke the evil spirit who left the boy but tried to mess him up good before he left.  But Jesus heals the boy of all that damage and any other, before returning the boy to his father once again, whole, restored, reclaimed.  So this was never really any contest between the power of the devil and the power of God.  God always wins.  Which takes us back to the rebuke offered by Jesus to those listening.  Jesus calls us a faithless, and perverse, generation.  And He is right.

How much perversity do we cling to behind the walls of our homes, in secret, when unattended?  The problem with erecting walls to defend us from evil influence, is that they may only guard us from the evil outside.  What about the evil that is already here, in our hearts, our desires, and ultimately in our actions?  A lack-of-opportunity defense against evil, still leaves us looking for opportunity.  It does not rid us from evil at all.  It leaves it dormant always lurking, looking for a way to get out in our expressions.  Our walls do nothing but leave us imprisoned with the evil within us, with no way out again.  If we are to end our perversity, we must look to Jesus, and trust in Him to save us, not in any actions we take to do so.  The problem with our delay in looking to Jesus is that our perversity begins to look “normal” in our eyes.  Alternate lifestyles are considered different not bad or good.  We take the bad and good judgment calls out of what we do, until people who suffer from evils as bad as pedophilia believe they too are only “alternate” not bad.  It is the effect of perversity to disguise itself as “normal” when “normal” is the worst adjective we could assign to it.  This is not about judging others.  This is about looking closer in the mirror to see just how infected we have become with it. 

Our perversity remains, because our faith is equally weak and misguided.  We follow the path of self-based salvation.  We look to ourselves, our willpower, and our self-denial against evil as the defense against evil instead of looking to Jesus and trusting in Him to save us.  When we cannot even look to Jesus to save us, how can we possibly believe we are ready to face a live demon and send him packing.  We don’t trust Jesus enough to pull that off.  And the Rabbi’s of his day, nor the disciples of his day, had any better result against this evil spirit as a result.  Ultimately, they both believed the same central tenet, it was about “them” instead of about “God”.  And we in the modern Christian church may believe we are long past this.  We don’t face demons very often if ever.  At least we don’t think we do.  But how attuned are our eyes at discerning what we actually face, in others or in ourselves.  We might think we listen to Jesus better so are better equipped.  But really?

Luke continues in verse 43 saying … “And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered every one at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples, [verse 44] Let these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. [verse 45] But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.”  Here was the seed of truth being planted by Jesus.  Later, let me say that again, Later, it would be understood.  Not then.  Not now.  Some elements of truth we are simply not ready to hear.  Timing it turns out does matter.  This may be why your journey with Jesus matures over time.  The thing or truth you thought you knew matures perhaps into something much bigger, or much different than you first thought, because of timing and care and submission.  Here was Jesus directly telling His disciples something, that for practical purposes they completely chose to ignore.  Are we any different?

Your church doctrines are not the commandments of God.  They are interpretations of scriptures designed to bring you closer to God.  But they are not absolute statements of fact and truth, only interpretations of facts and truth.  I do not ask you to denounce what your church teaches; only to use what you have learned as the “starting point” to your journey of faith.  Leave room to grow.  Leave room to accept that what you believe today, may not be the full picture of what Jesus has in mind to teach you to believe.  The more you trust Jesus, the more you will learn.  The more you tell Jesus what “you know”, the less He is able to teach you about anything. 

I have a challenge for you to deepen your skills in this.  Try reading any given story, the same story, in scripture five times.  Once each day for five days.  If you keep an open mind, and ask Jesus to lead you each day before you read the story, I guarantee you will pick up on something new each time you read it.  If you really want to blow your mind, ask someone else to read it with you, and ask what they get from it.  For each person you ask, a new point, or context, or idea will emerge.  It is the same story you have always read.  But the perspective changes, when you are willing to be led, or willing to talk about it with others.  This does nothing to destroy your beliefs.  It will teach you, that no matter how much you think you know right now.  There is more to learn.  That is the whole point.  There will be an eternity to learn, why not start now.  Don’t lock yourself behind walls of incarceration that pretend to be castles; tear down the walls and find freedom to learn, to love, and to live like Jesus can free you to live.

 

Some Standing Here ...

What happens when your expectations are far disconnected from your reality?  For most of us, including me, my mind answers this question running towards the negative.  Life in this world has taught me, through repetition mostly, that when expectations and reality do not match up – disappointment is the next likely destination.  When I was quite young, I was fascinated by the Corvette car.  The 1975/1976 model in cherry red was a body molding type and color I just could never seem to get out of my head.  I asked my mom to buy me one.  And she did.  It was of course about 4 inches long with only a few features; opening doors, a removable hard top, and turning wheels.  I don’t quite know how I would have expected a fully working model of this car.  It cost a fortune even then.  And I had no ability to drive it at all.  So I swore, when I grew up, I would buy a real one and cherish it forever.  Nope.  A married man with several kids has little use for a Corvette (even if you have the money).  And a guy who is well over 6 feet tall can scarcely fit in one anyway without laying down and feeling miserable.  So much for my corvette dream.

But I had other expectations that developed over time.  I always imagined what it must be like to swim in the pristine ocean waters off Waikiki beach in Hawaii.  At least on this score, I never expected I would ever experience it.  In fact, my wife and I (back then my girlfriend and subsequent fiancée, then wife) used to joke about how we would “never” get there.  Neither of us had the money.  Our parents were not in a position to send us.  So that pipe dream was going to remain a pipe dream until, well until, Jesus came back and remade the whole thing in heaven.  But surprise, surprise, for our wedding gift, my father gifted us a 2-week vacation in Hawaii at two different islands, ending on, you guessed it, Waikiki beach.  We were beyond excited, and grateful.  We made it there, and all my imaginations were suddenly thrown sideways with the reality of how those Hawaiian Islands came to be.  You see volcanos made the islands.  When lava rock flows downhill, it eventually dries out, and forms what look like tiny little black volcano shapes in the ground.  Each tiny volcano is jagged, and sharp enough to cut your feet without some kind of water shoes we did not know we needed.  The sand in the water moves around, and when it does, it reveals the sharp jagged lava rock underbelly, and that makes walking on it, even in water, miserable for the naked feet.  After this trip, good old Daytona / New Smyrna beach, looked miles better to me than Hawaii ever would again.

My expectations were disconnected with the facts, with reality.  Mostly to a disappointing result.  But that has more to do with what I imagine or expect than with what reality truly is.  Knowing the facts about how things might be, would better prepare you for what to expect.  And it would allow you to better align your expectations with what truth is.  When that happens, much less disappointment, much more enjoyment is possible.  This is particularly true for me about one verse in scripture.  Luke recalls it in his gospel letter in chapter nine in verse 27 saying … “But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.”  Imagine the level of disconnect here.  Most of us read this and instantly associate the “Kingdom of God” with heaven itself.  We assume that this saying from Jesus Himself meant that at least a few of the disciples would remain alive until the second coming occurred.  That would have meant Jesus would returned in around 50-60-70 AD at most.  He didn’t.  So the truth of what Jesus meant by this is wildly different than our inherent expectations naturally fall victim to.

But knowing Jesus is the defacto Truth made incarnate.  We know Jesus was not lying to us, or them.  So then the truth is different than what we suppose it to be.  There are a few possibilities.  Perhaps the kingdom of God is not what we suppose that to be, meaning, not synonymous with heaven itself.  Or perhaps the kingdom of God is not just heaven, but more than that.  Fortunately, we don’t have to search the gospels or scripture to find the answer.  The very next few texts should serve as an answer for our disconnect.  It begins right after in verse 28 saying … “And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. [verse 29] And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.”  The personage of Jesus was altered on that mountaintop, from the humble servant we know Him to be, to the majesty of the God He truly is.  His clothing disappeared in a robe of white light, glistening as if sprinkled with starlight from many suns.  His face glowed.  This was not a full revelation of who He was, as the full revelation of that love would have consumed this sinful world on the spot.  But even the partial revelation of Jesus as He truly is was more than any human living here had ever imagined or expected.

Could that have been it?  Could just seeing Jesus as He truly is define seeing the Kingdom of God?  If so, then verses 28 and 29 answer the promise of verse 27 already.  But the story does not end there.  Luke continues this revelation in verse 30 saying … “And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: [verse 31] Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.”  Jesus needed encouragement.  Jesus was on a march towards death that was to be very miserable to say the least.  Even Jesus needed the encouragement He found there.  He was to get it from two examples of mankind now truly living in heaven.  Moses would represent all of mankind who died and was resurrected by the power of life that Jesus was.  Elijah would represent all of mankind that was translated to heaven without ever having tasted death.  Both of them were in heaven, and able to come to earth and talk with Jesus because of the sacrifice Jesus was about to endure.  Without Jesus paying our penalty neither of them could be where they were.  Without Jesus, none of us could be saved.  And so both Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus about what He was about to endure for us.  Why it was so important.  Why we needed Him so much.

This offers us another possibility.  Was the sight of Moses and Elijah and what they represented about mankind, and what they spoke of to encourage Jesus, also a definition of what the Kingdom of God was?  Imagine it.  If so, this would mean the Kingdom of God is not just a place, but an expression of love and encouragement for those who need it.  Even when it is our God who needs it.  Peter, James, and John were there to witness these events.  But again memories are fogged by human frailty.  Luke continues in verse 32 saying … “But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. [verse 33] And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said.”  Peter believes they should erect three churches, or three tabernacles, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.  This was Peter saying something, when he was not sure even what he was saying.  In truth what Peter suggested was that Moses and Elijah were in some way equal to Jesus and just as deserving as Jesus.

The first church of Israel would have supported Peter’s idea.  The first church had strayed away from how salvation was to come, and had instead venerated the saints of the past, such as Moses, and Elijah.  Those men were but servants of God, not gods in any way.  But they were worshipped by the first church and reverenced by the first church to unhealthy levels.  It is hardly different in our day.  We reverence the great pastors of our day, and days gone by.  We reverence the “founding fathers” of our various denominations, instead of seeing these men and women for what they were – servants of God.  None of them perfect.  None of them right about everything.  Imperfect tools, that were willing to be used by a perfect God.  That is the state of mankind, imperfect, but God still sees the potential in each of us.  And if we let Him, He could use each of us in a manner just as important as Moses, or Elijah, or Luther, or Ellen White.  Perhaps the scope of our audience we serve may be smaller.  But it is no less important to God.  Each soul of infinite value to Him.  And could this not be a further definition or expansion of our definition of what the Kingdom of God means?  Could it be that the Kingdom of God is made up of servants of God, who work in concert to point others to Jesus.  We stop looking at the people who serve.  And only look at the Jesus they point us to.

But God the Father was not content to let Peter or the others believe Jesus was merely equal.  He was not.  He was more.  So Luke continues in verse 34 saying … “While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. [verse 35] And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. [verse 36] And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.”  God the Father recognized Jesus as His only Son.  Jesus was more.  Jesus was special.  God did not descend to these disciples in a cloud upon this mountain to simply outline the accomplishments of Moses and Elijah and tell the disciples to go back and read the word of God to figure out what the Law said and how to obey it.  He could have.  He didn’t.  Jesus was all of that rolled up into one living being, the Son of the Living God.  Jesus was the word of God.  Jesus was love.  Jesus was the Law.  He is our creator.  There are no inconsistencies in the life of Jesus Christ, because Jesus is our salvation.  The only means of it, we will ever have.  Without the sacrifice of Jesus there is no salvation for Moses, Elijah or you and I.

This effectively kills the ideas of many pathways to God.  There is only one.  His name is Jesus Christ.  For He is both God and our Savior.  But again could this expand our definition for what the Kingdom of God is, to hear the literal voice of God Himself proclaiming Jesus His Son, as “who” we should listen to?  All of this was witnessed by Peter, James, and John right after the words of Jesus that some would not taste of death until they saw the Kingdom of God.  So imagine what the Kingdom of God may well be.  More than just a place like heaven.  It may be seeing Jesus for who He truly is.  It may be seeing love and encouragement in action by mankind towards God, even when God needs it.  It may be seeing the effects of salvation on both kinds of men, those raised, and those who were and are to be translated.  It may be hearing the literal voice of God.  It may be directing all our attention to Jesus Christ alone for our salvation for He indeed is the ONLY path to God.  All of these ideas and perhaps considerably more might comprise aspects of the Kingdom of God that are far more than a place we call heaven.  It might also explain for us what Jesus means when He continues to say the Kingdom of God is come, its here, its was in front of them.  That does not imply a future state, it implies a state in the here and now.

So, was this a huge disappointment to the disciples who witnessed it?  I very much doubt it.  It was rather a huge encouragement to their faith, and to ours.  Just because we are not in heaven, does not mean we cannot learn to experience the Kingdom of God in this world, right now, in the here and now.  Living in the now as God would have us live is life altering.  Loving like we will in heaven and for all eternity is both liberating and exhilarating.  We who are alive now, need not regret misaligned expectations, we need to align our truth with His Truth and see what is possible today.  Salvation is not just about future state.  It is about the freedom that can be experienced in this time and place.  It is about becoming more than who you are today, unbound by your past, and disconnected to the wickedness that plagues your motives and desires.  Jesus can free you from all of that.  Jesus can replace all of what was, with what He intends you to be, to the benefit of your life now, that nothing else can touch or diminish.  That is the power of the Kingdom of God.  That is what becoming like a toddler can see you enter into today.  This is the whole good news message of the Gospel.  It can effect change in you, that you could not achieve.  Relax.  Find the humility to come to our Father God, through Jesus, and watch what submission can bring to your life.  You will bear His fruit in doing so.  You won’t be able to help it.  His love is infectious.

 

Hindsight is 20:20 - More like 20:4000 ...

It was explained to me some time ago by an optician that my eyesight was legally blind (without correction).  I had 20:4000 vision back then.  For me it was like looking through a microscope to try to see things far away.  I could see things you probably couldn’t very close up.  But stuff at a distance, like the big letter “E” on the eye chart was a pure blur to me.  This means what you can see at 4000 feet away, I have to be 20 feet away to see as well.  So I have worn contacts or glasses pretty much as far back as I can remember.  Each year my vision would get just a little bit worse.  But fortunately, technology would get a little bit better, and there seems to have always been a pair of lens that would correct my vision back to normal.  But where it comes to hindsight (that is, looking back at the past and learning from it), most of us think we see that very clearly and could have avoided past mistakes.  But we didn’t.  And what’s worse, we seem to repeat those very same mistakes over and over.  If I were the metaphorical optician, I would have to surmise we may all have collective 20:4000 vision where it comes to hindsight too.

Applying this cautionary advice to how you live in the real world seems easy enough.  We just begin to think maybe we don’t know everything, and that perhaps history lessons are not quite enough to keep us from repeating them.  Ok, so I am not as smart as I thought I was.  But applying this idea within the church has an entirely more upsetting result for most.  We all have the Bible, the entire Bible, from which we can read about what happened a long time ago.  We know how the stories end (or at least we think we do).  So when we read about what Jesus says about Himself, and how He had come to die to save us from our sins and ourselves.  We get it, right?  The disciples may not have understood.  But that is because they had different expectations for what God was supposed to do.  Different entirely from what God actually did.  A disconnect of epic proportions.  And so we determine that “we” get it; while “they” never did until after the fact.  Well the second part of that may be true.  But the first part of that deserves a little more scrutiny.

To assume “we” get it, just because we are looking back at events that already occurred, misses the fundamental premise our disciple forefathers fell victim to.  We think we “know” what God is supposed to do just as much as they did.  We may have different ideas about it than they might have.  But we are just as sure today as they were back in the past.  So whose hindsight do we take as right?  If you think this is silly, how would you feel about it, if it challenged one of the key beliefs you hold about God.  Take as an example the popular idea of a rapture of the saints near the time of Jesus returning.  Many hold that interpretations of scripture and prophecy describe a bit of this, one taken, the other left, kind of thing.  But the Bible never spells out the use of the word “rapture”, that is just a modern nomenclature for this idea.  Nor does the Bible spell out in detail the idea of this event.  So while half the Christian world is walking around believing this kind of event will “definitely” precede the second coming of Jesus; what if it doesn’t? 

What if, instead of a coming rapture, all you got was a second coming of Jesus.  Sounds better right?  But that is not what God is supposed to do (for those who believe in this idea).  Would you be mad at God because He decides not to hold one?  You might.  Think about it.  The rapture offers those who were not quite right with Jesus, a second chance to become right with Jesus, before everything is decided once and for all.  I guess technically it is a third chance for mankind, once at Eden, once at Calvary, and now once at the rapture.  But if the rapture never occurs, then there is no third chance at all.  If you were not right with Jesus, and He just shows up in the clouds to take home those that are right with Him – that leaves you going to the bad place.  No additional chances.  We cling to ideas like the rapture because they provide yet another chance to get right with God before it is too late.  But what if now is too late?  What if God does NOT do, what we fully expect God to do?  The disciples were in this boat the first time.  Are we in it now with them?

It is a real phenomenon to examine.  The gospel letter of Luke to his friend Theophilus outlines it back in chapter nine, picking up in verse 18 saying … “And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am? [verse 19] They answering said, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again.”  This question was about how the people of the day identified Jesus (who we know was the Son of God).  We have the benefit of hindsight.  They didn’t.  The list includes John the Baptist, Elijah, or another great prophet back from the dead.  It is the same list of possibilities that caught the ear of king Herod (the son) and caused him to want to see Jesus for himself to figure out if any of it was true.  Especially the idea that it could be John the Baptist who Herod beheaded now back from the dead.  But Jesus was Jesus, not John as we know, and as I imagine the disciples already knew as well.  After all some of them belonged to John, before they were sent to belong to Jesus.  So that idea was out, at least in the minds of the disciples.

Luke continues in verse 20 saying … “He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. [verse 21] And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; [verse 22] Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.”  And there you go; God does something none of us expect God to do.  But He does it despite our expectations.  First Jesus expressly asks His own disciples to NOT tell people that He was indeed the Son of the living God.  Think about that for a minute folks.  The whole idea of the gospel centers around that very idea.  To NOT say it, seems to run against everything we know or would expect God to do.  If getting the word out is the primary goal, then talking about who Jesus is, would seem to be job number one.  It wasn’t.  Spreading the word may not actually be job one.  There may be a question of timing as well.  “When” someone is able or ready to hear what God knows may be as important as what God knows and longs to share with us.  But that idea runs counter to nearly every Christian church’s ideas about spreading the word today.  We don’t care about when, and ready, we only care about sharing and spewing our ideas about what scripture says.  But Jesus cared about when.  Here is a perfect example of God saying or doing something we think our hindsight gives us better wisdom about.  It doesn’t.

Then to continue, Jesus tells His disciples that instead of being the king David type Messiah everyone is waiting for to throw off Roman oppression – He is going to die instead.  And by the way, He is going to be rejected by the entire church leadership before He is put to death by them.  Nobody believed Messiah was going to die.  God was not supposed to do that.  Everybody knew it.  In fact, if you died, you were considered to be a false Messiah.  Church leadership was longing for the king David type Messiah just like the people were.  They would not have rejected that type of Messiah.  Because that type of Messiah was what they believed God should do.  But God did not do what they expected, so they rejected Him for it.  Then they set about figuring out how to kill God for not doing what they expected Him to do.  De-ja-vu?  Should there be no rapture, those caught on the wrong side of being right with Jesus, will set about trying to make war with heaven before fire is finally rained down to consume all of evil, then death itself.  These folks will be angry with God that God did not do what they expected Him to do.  They believed they had a third chance, when the chance we are given today, may be the only one we ever get.  And frankly the rapture may have nothing even to do with that little fact of life.  Run away buses, cancer, and falling of cliffs can cut short what you thought was an endless stream of chances each day, long before the second coming ever occurs.  What we choose matters, when we choose it matters.  And we should not rely upon any belief that offers us a false hope of getting another chance in the “future”.  For anyone alive now, the future is now.

Yet still, God did what no one expected God to do, with or without the benefit of hindsight.  Then it went really sideways.  Luke continues in verse 23 as Jesus continues saying … “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”  OK all you fabulous hindsighter’s, please explain to me what “taking up your cross daily” means, and how you accomplish it each day?  The idea of taking up your cross is disconnected from self-denial.  Self-denial precedes that idea.  So if you have already denied yourself, what does taking up your cross have to do with anything.  Doubt it is a reference to costume jewelry most Christians are fond of wearing.  Doubt it is advocation to carry literal crosses as they would make mobility nearly impossible, if not direct our minds fully into the morbid, not the “good news” of the Gospel.  This must have sounded like Jesus started speaking in a foreign language at this point for the poor disciples.  This message was so far off track for what they had been taught their entire lives by the one true religion – now in direct contrast with the Truth incarnate.

Jesus continues in verse 24 saying … “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. [verse 25] For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?”  This sounds on the surface as advocation for Christians to defy death, or the danger of death, without fear – but only for the sake of Jesus Christ.  Indeed it is.  Jesus follows up by asking what is your life worth, if all you measure your existence by is the life you lead on earth, are you not losing the eternal life which is of infinitely more value?  Why would you delay coming to Jesus?  Why would you believe that whatever you are doing now, is for any reason better, or more fun?  Its not.  Everything this world has to offer, including your present life, is not worth as much as the life God has in store for you without end.  So live without fear.  Don’t let fear hold you back against things that Jesus would have you do.  Love without fear.  Love without limit.  Love without pre-conditions.  Just like God does.  Living that way is dangerous.  The world does not like it when you choose to love others, and never love yourself.  The world hates that kind of thing.  But Jesus asks, what does the world know about it?

Jesus concludes this lesson in verse 26 saying … “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.”  Hindsight begins to crumble.  Take a second look at this idea.  When we are ashamed of Jesus and to be associated with Jesus; we make our Savior ashamed.  Just like Peter would do.  Just like Judas would do.  Just like you and I have done at one point or another in our lives.  Does that mean we are no longer saved?  Does Peter’s failure define him?  He is remembered for it, among other things.  But he was directly forgiven by Jesus for it as well.  Do you think that ended the shame of Peter when he remembered his own failure?  I doubt it.  Will your memory of your failures make you ashamed, especially in front of our God.  You bet it will.  It makes me ashamed of what I have done, despite my supposed 20:20 hindsight.  It makes me even more miserable when I consider I have failed far more than once at the same failure.  Requiring forgiveness, requiring His blood for me again and again.  But does that end my ability to be saved?  If salvation was based on what I deserve, I would be lucky to see heaven even at a distance.  Salvation is based on His grace which has nothing to do with what I deserve.  This text however, is a cautionary advice for us.

The more we disconnect from Jesus, or show we have other priorities than the love of Jesus for others, the more we will have shame for ourselves when His love is finally fully revealed in saving us.  The more we will regret not doing more, not saying more, not loving more – when love was all that was needed.  We, the church, are so sure we “know” what God will do.  We “know” how God will save us.  We “know” how to spread the word.  We “know” how it all ends.  And we are pretty sure we still have time to worry about all this stuff later.  It is based on our certainty of what God will do.  But the disciples and the entire first church was wrong about all of that.  So are we.  It is our certainty about what God will do, and how we should talk about it, that impedes real faith.  The only thing I have come to know about my own hindsight, is that it is just as stunted as my actual vision.  It turns out, I will need to have my blinded eyes opened by Jesus to understand His words, just as much as to read the big letter “E” on the eye charts.  I wonder, has that been your experience as well? …

 

An "OMG" Grouper Bao ...

We are lucky enough to have a restaurant in Orlando called King Bao in our downtown area.  I am further lucky to have discovered it through a local food delivery service called Bite Squad.  The food is inexpensive and the taste is awesome.  My favorite, as you might have guessed from the title of this BLOG is the “OMG – meaning Oh My Grouper” Bao.  It is an unusual bread (referred to as a bao, but is kind of a soft thicker tortilla) with white fish lightly fried in Tempura batter, with homemade tartar sauce, shredded scallions, and some kind of coleslaw underneath this magic concoction.  To understand just how good this is, you have to know I do NOT eat fish, generally ever.  But for this, I have learned to make a blissful exception.  To be truthful, I could have never imagined any kind of fish dish tasting just this good.  But then, maybe that is just a sign of my aging memory and imagination.  As I continued to read the gospel letter of Luke this week, I encountered another story that occurred which may have been just as heavenly a dining experience to have been a part of.  It turns out Jesus may have made the first ever OMG bao’s, and His would have rightly been called “Oh My God” bao’s, because He was God and they were divinely made.

The story picks up in Luke’s gospel chapter nine in verse 10 saying … “And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. [verse 11] And the people, when they knew it, followed him: and he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing.”  To set the backstory, Jesus in the earlier verses had just sent His disciples across Israel carrying the gospel message of salvation and life through the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.  This was the time now when the disciples were returning and Jesus intended to take his crew into a private place outside of the city of Bethsaida to talk over how their respective trips and experiences had gone.  But this plan was interrupted by the people, who figured out where Jesus was going.  And they went there in droves to meet Jesus and be with the man, the Messiah, they had heard about from the lips of the disciples.  The news of Jesus was everywhere.  So sick and well, many gathered to be with Him.  And Jesus being Jesus, He would not turn any away.  He healed all those who needed healing, and began to speak to everyone about the Kingdom of God.

Luke continues in verse 12 saying … “And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.”  When Jesus speaks, the concepts of time just seem to melt away.  Not like our churches where checking the watch is an every-30-second activity.  The sermon in this desert place was the highlight.  You did not need worship music that drolled on for hours, or children’s stories set aside from the main message.  No offering calls.  No missionary reports.  All of that was deferred in order to hear the words of Jesus.  In those words were the children’s story, the stories we could understand.  In those words were the road map to our salvation, to our happiness, to an end to pain and death.  People lost all track of time until the day was nearly gone.  Only now do the disciples remember it is way past breakfast, lunch, and fast approaching dinner.  No one has eaten.  And this crowd is huge.  The people will need time to walk to find food in nearby suppliers, if those suppliers could even be found, especially for a crowd this size.

Jesus has other ideas.  Luke continues in verse 13 saying … “But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people. [verse 14] For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. [verse 15] And they did so, and made them all sit down.”  A few things of note; first, these same disciples were just returned from their own respective mission trips across Israel where they were fully dependent upon God for what they themselves ate every day.  The charity of people served that purpose.  And they all were given power by Jesus to heal and perform miracles.  So perhaps they should have suggested something like this ahead of Jesus having to do it.  But alas, even those closest to Jesus do not always see what should have been obvious to them.  When we look through the eyes of human limitations this is often the case.

Second, 5,000 men sitting down in companies of fifties, was not ALL the people sitting in those groups.  It was also meant to include wives, daughters, mothers, and the children at large.  So entire families would have been sitting together, even if only the head male of the family was included in the informal census of who was there.  You can pick your own number then for the total number of people who needed to be addressed, but if I were guessing, I would say something like 20,000 if you included everyone.  Keep in mind, in these days women were not usually included in any kind of numbering scheme.  And children may been considered too young to make the normal part of numbering.  Suffice it to say, this number was huge, as just the original 5k men would reveal.  And for practical purposes far too large a crowd to buy food for everyone.  Many would have gone hungry if they had tried to solve this problem themselves.  And Jesus did not need to rely upon money to solve His problems (both then or now), faith would be His currency.  Faith that His Father cared about our hunger even more than we do.

Third, other gospel’s tell us of the original 5 loaves of bread (likely unleavened, that pretty much resembles a thicker tortilla) and 2 small fishes (not a bass or swordfish or salmon for example) came from a small child’s lunch (whose mother was perhaps the only one who liked to make sure her boy was prepared for any eventualities).  He was glad to share it.  And so the love of a well prepared mother, and very willing young boy was the source material for would come in any case.  Luke continues in verse 16 saying … “Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. [verse 17] And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.”  And here is where the miracle begins to take place.

In my original imagination, I think of Jesus reaching into the basket of the boy’s lunch and pulling out some fish and bread and placing it in an empty basket for one of the disciples.  Jesus keeps doing this until the basket is filled, and then that disciple heads out to one of the groups of people to begin food distribution.  The idea though is that Jesus is the one who keeps digging his hands into that boy’s lunch box and filling up empty baskets for the disciples until everyone finally gets fed.  But given the number of people and the lack of quantity a human can place in a basket each time they dig in – this approach could have taken all night to get it to the people who were already hungry.  I now imagine it differently.  I imagine a group of empty baskets placed around each of the companies of 50 men.  After the blessing of Jesus, I imagine fish and bread appearing in each empty basket until it is nearly overflowing.  The baskets are passed through the respective companies until everyone has not only eaten, but eaten till they are completely filled.

And my new mind, does not just imagine a simple fish and bread, as prepared by a boy’s mother for lunch.  I imagine OMG bao’s as prepared by the mind and abilities of Jesus Christ Himself.  Gordon Ramsay has nothing on Jesus for how food could and should taste when done exquisitely.  And why not?  Do we imagine Jesus was a dull cook, only providing base nutrients to this crowd, uninterested in how it tasted at all?  Why?  Jesus created us with the ability to taste in the first place.  If you think that ability is trivial just get a head cold and lose your ability to taste any food for a few days, and tell me how pleasant that was.  On the contrary, I will bet that the Author of taste buds has excellent ideas on how to tantalize them that are well beyond anything we could imagine.  And picture this, that same Author of our senses is the same One building heaven for us right now.  We may not eat meat in heaven, at least meat that comes from the butchery of animals.  But perhaps my steaks will grow on a steak tree, and taste just as good as anything good old black angus could have provided in this world.  This very story negates the process we think about where it comes to fishing and preparing to get to a final product.  Maybe Jesus will provide an OMG bao bush right in my backyard that only needs to harvested and eaten without a single creature being harmed in the process.  Maybe a pizza tree.  And who knows just how good a grape itself will taste in heaven, whether in fruit form, or in juice form.  Why would we limit God to our own ideas about what kind of food He can make, and how it will taste, and how it will be provided?  That is just our own stunted imaginations not a limit to power and love of our God.

12 baskets of fragments remaining is not a testimony to dull food nobody likes.  It is a testimony to a hungry crowd over-filled until they could eat no more.  And the excess from that feast will go to the poor in the surrounding towns and villages distributed by those who now leave to go home after the beauty of this day with Jesus.  The idea that this day ends with Jesus providing a master class on how to prepare white fish and bao’s was not all that would be remembered.  The words of His sermon would echo in the minds and hearts of the people long after this.  In later days the disciples would harvest thousands of believers in a day because of the seeds sown at this very gathering, that echoed and spread throughout the land.  Delicious food.  But better words.  This was church reconceived.  Heal everyone first.  There would be no disease or deformation that could not be healed and remade by the power of our loving Creator God.  Speak to the hearts.  Feed them all.  And love would echo in tangible demonstrations far after the day was gone.  Jesus made church about meeting the needs of people all the time, and anytime or place He was.  What I would do to have been a part of this day.  I hope to taste His cuisine in those days to come in the city He builds now for us all.  I can’t wait to taste a bao that my Jesus makes for me, and I wonder if it might come on a bush, or from a basket once again.