Busting a Secret Identity ...

Pretend for a moment that you are a spy.  To be successful the most important thing you need to maintain is the secrecy of who you really are.  When you go undercover, especially in a hostile environment of any kind, you need to blend in and not stick out for being who you really are.  Tread into a hostile environment and have your true identity blown, and you risk violent death, from a very angry crowd of folks, none too happy you were ever allowed in their midst.  Now am I describing some new movie coming soon – that’s possible so many are about spies these days.  But no, not trying to promote a new movie or TV show.  Instead in a relatively large twist of fate, I am describing Jesus Christ.  Now right off the bat, you are all going to tell me that Jesus was no spy, that He did not come here for that.  But think about it for a moment, our God is Love.  Jesus is Love made flesh to dwell among us.  We are nothing short of a very hostile environment.  We tend to reflect hate and understand violence more than we love.  2 shootings in one weekend should prove that.  And no, not everyone is as cuckoo-lulu as those 2 extremists.  But entire crowds of people find it easy to subscribe to the hate they personified.  Racism, whether white, black, Latino, Asian, pick your grievance of one group against another cannot long survive without a good current of hate to keep it going.

Our world then, constitutes nothing short of a very hostile environment, against a pure Love that does not ever wish the knowledge of violence existed.  When confronted with this kind of powerful love, those who would submit to it, were washed over, inside and out, by it.  But those who rejected it, did not stay neutral or apathetic to it, they got angry.  And the anger and jealousy grew, until they plotted to kill it.  And this violence was directed against a man.  The under-cover identity of our Lord.  To His enemies Jesus was nothing more than man.  Even the suggestion that Jesus was something more, made His enemies even more furious.  To push the idea that Jesus was God into the face of hostile agents, was the straw that would decidedly break the camel’s back.  So the mission of Love was to spread itself and preach that love doctrine to as wide an audience as was possible.  To do this, the secret of who Jesus really was, needed to be kept a secret.  Jesus had to remain undercover as long as possible.  Remaining a spy of love was the best way to see that love could be spoken as long as possible.  The benefits of this was for us.  Jesus was destined to die for us, He would die, no matter what.  But “we” needed the time with Jesus to learn what love really looks like for as long as we could.  So keeping the press off the God part of who Jesus was would be job one.

Seems really weird to think about Jesus Christ as a spy for heaven’s love for us.  But when you think about how hostile we truly are, it makes a lot more sense than you think.  And prolonging that secret identity for as long as possible was top of mind.  Luke tells us just how hard it really was.  Because Satan figured all of this out well ahead of time.  Satan is the enemy of Love.  Satan is the proponent of hate.  If those racist thoughts enter your mind, and cause you to feel less about others, you walk the same path as the father of all hate.  To trace racism back to Satan does not give us a comfort factor, but it is true.  The folks who took that racism far enough to pull triggers are as close to Satan as you can get.  They create hostile environments where none should be.  To send Jesus into that, into our world, into an age where Roman violence hardly took second place to what we choose to do today, was to create the need for Him to keep His secret as long as He could.  So once Satan knew this, he determined to reveal that secret to everyone, to bust that secret identity as loud and as often as he could.

Luke begins revealing the impacts of enemy in the fourth chapter of his gospel letter to his Greek friend.  Picking up in verse 31 he says … “And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. [verse 32] And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.”  Jesus had just left Nazareth where He was in the synagogues teaching and preaching on Sabbath days as well.  This was His custom.  He invented Sabbath, so it is interesting to see how He chooses to spend His time on it.  But this was not just a custom for home, but a custom wherever He happened to be.  And people were astonished at His doctrine.  Does that sound like He towed the company line of His day?  Not to me.  Sounds more like when Love teaches the Word, the Word is taught very differently than when we mangle it.  Looking through the eyes of Love, the Bible becomes a Love letter.  It was always supposed to be more Love letter, than instruction manual.  If you get the Love, you will understand the instructions.  But if you miss the Love, there is not enough instructions in the world to cover that loss.  This was the mistake of our Pharisee forefathers, and the continued mistake we make from the pulpits of today as well as in our hearts.

The Word can be taught with power, when the power that teaches it is steeped in Love.  But Satan was not happy at all this success, and he formed a plan to ruin it quickly.  Luke continues in verse 33 saying … “And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, [verse 34] Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.”  These texts should scare the living poopoo out of you.  Think about it.  This man was able to gain access to the synagogue on a Sabbath day.  To do that, he could not have been frothing at the mouth, or carrying around busted chains like some of the other demoniacs.  He had to look normal.  He had to behave normal.  He had to look just like one of our neighbors, calling no special attention to himself.  But despite all appearances of normality, this guy carried a full-blown demon inside of him.  What should terrify you and I, is the nagging question, do you think he knew it was there?  Or was he surprised at this unfortunate unveiling right in the middle of church?  Was this the first time, he lost control of himself, and found himself silent while a demon spoke through him?  If this was a surprise to him, how do you know, you are not carrying around one of your own?

Then examine what the demon says – “Let us alone”.  “Us” is a equally terrifying choice of word there.  Just how many were in there?  And from the demon’s point of view, they are not bothering Jesus so why should Jesus bother them.  Then the question we understand so little.  “Art thou come to destroy us?”  Now this is going to sound counterintuitive for a moment but stick with me.  The disease of hate ends in only one way – in death.  The longer you are consumed by hate, the more death starts to look like the only reasonable way of escape from it.  Ask yourself why so many shooters choose to die in the mayhem they create.  It is because they have discovered the truth of death being the only way to end their pain.  So they do not fear it.  They long for it.  Demons are supernatural.  They existed before us, and have been consumed by hate for longer than us.  And they too look for the relief of death to end the pain of hate.  So in a sense acknowledging that Jesus will one day end their pain, by destroying them, is a final act of mercy on God’s part, and a welcome relief to those beings consumed by hate who refuse to give hate up.

Lastly, the demon out’s the Spy.  “I know who thou art; the Holy one of God.”  Knowing Jesus exists is not the same as embracing Jesus as your savior.  This passage proves that.  Keep in mind they were just asking about being destroyed early.  Knowledge is not submission.  Knowledge is not salvation.  It is only knowledge.  And Jesus is more than Love as we know it.  He is the Holy One of God.  This was proclaimed in the middle of church on a bright Sabbath morning.  An entire audience of believers gripped by the fear of having let in a demoniac undercover, are now hearing the demon identify Jesus as the Holy One of God.  Luke continues in verse 35 saying .. “And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.”  Jesus in a word commands the demon to keep silent and he is powerless to refuse.  It is what happens when Creator commands His creation.  We may not like that idea, but it is true.  In addition, the demon is able to do this poor host no more harm, merely to case him down in the center of the place and depart.

The audience is overwhelmed.  Luke continues in verse 36 saying … “And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. [verse 37] And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.”  The word of this event travels far and wide.  His enemies shrug it off.  But His followers recognize a power in Him that cannot be denied.  With this church is over.  Luke continues in verse 38 saying … “And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. [verse 39] And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.”  Jesus loved Peter’s mother-in-law.  He heals her not for her service (which she gladly volunteers), but because He loves her.  None of us were “meant” to suffer.  It is our suffering He has come to relieve.  Luke drives that point home in the closing texts of this snippet picking up in verse 40 saying … “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. [verse 41] And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.”

Notice that all the healing described so far was taking place on Sabbath.  Jesus did not restrict His love to us on His holy day.  His love was amplified on that day, not stuck in some self-proscribed isolation.  As the sun begins to set the entire region with sick loved ones begins to show up at Peters house.  And every single one of them is healed by Jesus, every single one.  Why do we pray with such doubt and such trepidation for the healing of our loved ones today.  Jesus is the same God of love now.  And He longs to heal us now.  Why do we ask so little, and believe even less?  His mission was not to be restricted to the areas that already knew and loved Him.  It was to reach the world.  Luke continues in verse 42 saying … “And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. [verse 43] And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent. [verse 44] And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.”  He did not stay home.  He ventured out.  He worked for us, even when Satan had busted His identity on multiple occasions.  Nothing would stop His love.  Not then, but also not now.

Which Jesus do you serve?  Do you find yourself His hostile environment, or are you ready to let that Love wash over you, inside and out?  It is time …

 

The Shattering of Pride ...

You are the hero of your own story … until you are its villain.  None of us imagine ourselves as a villain.  We can always point to many others who are worse than we are.  For instance, Hitler and Cruella DeVille were worse than we are (though if we have to go that far for our frame of reference, we may be in a bit of trouble).  Yet inevitably a choice is made that is less than ideal.  And before you know it, that choice leads to another, and a path is formed.  As decisions become easier, and as villainy becomes more tolerable, we find ourselves the frame of reference for others to cite as being worse than them. 

The villain disputes the charge of being the villain; how could they do otherwise, how could we.  But heroic actions become rare in our world for a reason, few remain on the path of a hero.  It takes self-sacrifice to be a hero.  So we would rather lower the bar for being a hero and just say everyone is a hero – effectively making no one a hero, and the term meaningless.  But we are far more reluctant to call out villains for being villains; and completely unwilling to call everyone a villain.  But it is easy to be something that requires no self-sacrifice.  In our age only political rivals dare to call each other villain.  And they are right.  But they have far too limited a looking glass.

We want to think of ourselves in a positive light.  Even spiritual or religious people, perhaps particularly those types of people, “want” to see themselves as somehow better than they were.  But in truth, it is far easier to rely on comparison, than on thorough self-analysis, to really see if we are truly better.  “I sin less” is an OK mantra; but nowhere near as nice as “I am done with sin”.  With exposure to religious things and thinking, over time a temptation is formed to believe … “my time with the Lord has made me a better person”.  Nearly all of us would say that.  And all of us would be wrong.  It is not our “time” with the Lord that ends the desire to sin in us, it is the power of transformation that Jesus alone accomplishes.

Jesus can transform in us, what we could never truly change.  And only Jesus can do it.  It does not happen because we spend some magic amount of time “being” a Christian.  It happens because we submit our will, our desires, even our thinking, to Jesus to do with whatever He wants.  We change because of that submission, and His love for us.  Not because we were called ourselves Christian for fifty years, or read the Bible 10 times, or prayed 20 hours a week for 10 years.  Numbers are not the thing.  Passion is the thing.  Passion for others, that only Jesus can truly give you.  Otherwise you see others just like you did yesterday; as obstacles to your happiness, things you can use to find happiness, or objects you could care less about.  Not exactly Christian.  And that is the point.

When we reach a point in our own story where we could care less about other people; “we” are the villain.  Maybe we treat family “decently”, and maybe friends “tolerably”, but strangers are nothing but cannon fodder in our minds in general.  We are quick to blame homeless, and poor folks, for being homeless and poor.  Get a job like everybody else.  Stop begging me for my hard earned money.  So I am not Hitler yet, but I am certainly not Mother Teresa either.  What I am generally is apathetic, not wanting to “waste time” on the needs of others I could care less about.  Stay out of my way, and everything is golden.  Except my heart. 

“That heart” is about as far from God’s as any untransformed heart could ever be.  I know.  Because when you get a taste of transformation, everybody else’s story can move you to tears.  It is overwhelming how much you want to get involved and help, to get up off your butt and do something.  Find a way to take action to make it better.  Not just for 5 minutes, or when it is convenient, but tirelessly.  It doesn’t matter if you have money or not, you find it, you give it, and you don’t think about it again.  If that sounds too good to be true; it is.  But it is also what the passion of Christ does, in a transformed heart that has learned to reflect it more thoroughly. 

You know what dies first in that scenario?  Pride.  Only the humble can gladly serve the least of these.  For the humble relish the idea of service, and the experience of it, even more.  Humility allows me to think of myself as lower than the low, yet still treasured by the God of the Highest.  My God gives me the precious opportunity to serve another.  My God gives me the precious opportunity to join with Him in His mission to redeem, simply to love someone else, no matter “who” they are. 

But my God cannot bring someone like that to me, while my heart just sits there waiting to demonstrate how little I care.  The name Christian, with all the pride of being a Christian for 40+ years, the Christian education, the membership in my church, the leadership roles of the past, the extensive study of His word … and the heart of a stone, never tasting a passion for anyone other than me.  My untransformed heart does His name and my faith a disservice.  I repel what I would attract, if I only loved it.  And I scream and I vent, that I cannot fake love when I have none, or lie about it when it’s not there.  Exactly.  Only Jesus can put love where no love exists.  For Jesus is Love.  And my pride is the death of love.  So pride must be shattered.

For Peter this would be a painful experience.  Peter had spent time with Jesus.  Peter knew Him, and what He could do.  But Peter still wanted what he believed scripture foretold, a seat of power, in an empire that ended Roman rule.  That was not to be.  And for Peter the whole world would watch his failure happen, and heap ridicule upon an already broken brow.  Everyone would judge Peter.  Everyone would condemn Peter.  He would have no religious pride left after this.  After this incident, it would be Peter who was the lowest of the low in any Christian faith.  For Peter would deny Jesus three times, just as foretold.  And we would read his story, and never look at it in our mirrors, or in our hearts.  A proud heart is content to never examine itself.

Imagine the embarrassment Peter must still withhold as he relays this incident to John Mark his friend, and ghost writer of his gospel.  Yes, Jesus forgave Peter, but Jesus did not kill the memory of this in the mind of Peter, nor the witness of it in others.  Everyone knew about this failure.  His sin was public, public in the worst way, a part of the gospel that would be retold over and over again.  For the Bible does not cover up the misdeeds of those who love God.  Rather it tells the truth of them, that we might all learn from them, though so few ever take the time to do so.  The gospel story includes the failures and frailty that come from the pride of men.

Peter begins his recollection to John Mark in his gospel in chapter fourteen picking up in verse 66 saying … “And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest: [verse 67] And when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him, and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.”  The first test.  But how quick we are to overlook one the players.  This was a maid in the home of the high priest.  But she recognized Peter as a disciple, and Jesus as his Master.  To do that she could not have just “heard” the story from others in casual conversation.  She had to be there herself.  She recognized Peter because she knew who they were, and likely what they said.

The maid has challenged Peter.  She does not call for Peter’s arrest, she merely challenges his identity as a follower of Christ, as a Christian.  Peter could have turned it around on her, simply using logic to point out that for her to know this, she must have been there as well.  Perhaps turning the attention of association with Jesus back on the maid, he might have escaped answering the question.  But he was not thinking that fast that night.  He was scared.  So Mark continues in verse 68 saying … “But he denied, saying, I know not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew.”

Peter’s response was “I don’t know what you’re talking about”.  Those who still today are content to deny Jesus in times of peril, must have not experienced what a transformation from Jesus does to your life.  After that, denying Jesus, is like denying oxygen.  And he left the place where he was standing and moved away further out onto the porch.  Leaving the comfort of the warmth of the fire was a calculated move.  Going outside where the night air was colder, was bound to keep away pesky strangers, and allow him to be alone in peace.  How like my heart.  I am all too comfortable in the coldness, away from the needs and conversations of pesky strangers.  I prefer it.  My apathy must prefer it.  Peter did too.  But then that awful sound, that rooster crows, and it cuts to the heart of Peter.  His vow is shattered before God, and soon will be his pride as well.  How the sound of that crowing echoes in my ears 2000 years later.

John Mark continues in verse 69 saying … “And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.”  What is it with this maid already?  Is she stalking me?  Is she bent on my destruction?  Or, is she carrying the message of the gospel, selected by God Himself, as He has done so many times, with so many other women.  Mary was selected at the birth of Jesus, spoken to by angels, before any man’s ears would hear the good news.  A woman of Samaria was called and converted an entire region.  Mary the sister of Martha, was selected to witness the power of resurrection, and the strength of His love during His ministry.  Mary Magdalene was selected after the resurrection by Jesus Himself, to be the first carrier of the gospel, before any other disciples were chosen, even before He had ascended back to His Father.  Now perhaps this maid, is also selected by God to carry the word of the gospel, the challenge of God to Peter, in asking do you know me?  (and yet so many say women should not formally carry the gospel, arguing with the God they serve, it would seem).

Mark continues in verse 70 saying … “And he denied it again. And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them: for thou art a Galilaean, and thy speech agreeth thereto.”  Peter gives another hasty denial.  There is not even the slightest hesitation, or consideration of the gravity of what he is doing, of the breaking of his vow unto death.  I guess, since he already denied it once, two sins are not much worse than one sin.  But then, the subtle infectious transforming power of Jesus is identified by those around him, who know how “fishermen” from Galilee speak.  They hear his tone, his lack of vulgarity, his lack of swearing and cursing, as the simple fishermen speak.  Instead they hear only clear words, spoken without malice, spoken in the same kinds of tones His Master uses.  While the maid may have a bad memory or bad vision, she is not responsible for how Peter speaks, only Jesus could do that.

Mark continues in verse 71 saying … “But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak.”  To thwart his rapidly increasing risk of identification and association with Jesus, Peter must now revert to his old behavior.  Before was his subtle, seemingly unknowing transformation, Peter must now revert to gutter language spoken in hateful tones.  He adds all of this to his denial.  Peter throws away a victory over sin, he was unaware had even happened to him, until others pointed it out to him.  How like us.  The victories over sin in our lives have occurred subtly, they happen mysteriously, as since Jesus does them, we cannot figure out how or when He did it.  We only know it is different now.  Not comparatively different with other people, or even with our former selves, but just plain different.  Just plain better.  But Peter throws that away.  And He denies Jesus for the third time.

Mark continues in verse 72 saying … “And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.”  Here is where it all comes crashing down.  Here is where the memory of a vow he made to follow Jesus unto death rings hollow in his own ears.  No one made him sin this sin.  No one put a gun to his head, or tempted him to do it.  He did it on his own.  Time with Jesus was no defense.  He even threw away a victory he did not notice Jesus had given him.  He commits this sin without excuse, without a way to try to make it better.  Just a naked, bold, in your face, kind of sin, that he alone did.

Then he remembers the words of Jesus.  He remembers the prophecy.  He remembers his protestations about how Jesus must be wrong.  But Jesus is never wrong.  Peter weeps.  In front of men still probing him for how much he may know, in front of the maid who kept asking him who he was, on his way out of the Temple, in full view of everyone, he runs and he weeps in full display.  Others who witness this chalk it up to another weird happening in a night full of weird events.  But Peter knows why he cries, and he no longer cares about who sees him weep in public.  The tears flow like Niagara.  His heart is rent in two, or perhaps three pieces, he no longer knows.  The epic center towards which his life has been building reaches its zenith only to find the worst failure he could possibly ever experience.  Public sin.  Sin told over and over for 2000 years, never forgotten by believers who will know his story.  He is not the hero right now; he is decidedly the villain.

Forgiveness is coming.  Restoration is coming.  Recreation is coming.  A heart that burns with a passion for others is coming.  But not on this day.  What must happen on this day, is the shattering of pride.  It must happen.  For no pride can remain, it must be obliterated.  If any seed of pride remains, he will be unfit to serve.  Any seed of pride will take root once again, grow once again, and smother the passion for others.  It must be shattered, as painful as that shattering will be for Peter.  How will it happen in your life?  Maybe it has already begun.  Maybe the painful events happening in your life or your career right now, are meant only to shatter your pride, and help you find a passion you have never known before.  It is never too late.  It is never without hope.  For our Savior is obsessed with your redemption, and giving you a life you cannot even imagine today, a love you cannot contain …

Bleeding and Dying No More [part three] ...

In this series, perhaps the World Series of establishing the identity of Jesus Christ, the first three events had happened in fairly quick succession.  In the space of only a few days, Jesus had commanded nature, and bent time and space.  In this first act, He established Himself as our world’s Creator, and the Author of physics (not its slave).  Next, the infinite power of His Love, commanded an entire host of nearly 2,000 demons to leave a tortured possessed man with a single command.  In this second act, He established that no amount of enemies could stand before His Love, they were compelled to heed the voice of the Son of God who they acknowledged despite what the Pharisees were saying about Him.  In the third act, a woman whose desperation led her to lift her self-imposed limitations and imagine a cure was possible if only she could secretly touch the hem of His garment, and her crazy scheme worked.  But in the third act, Christ wanted this woman to know that she and her terminal disease were important to Him.  He called her His Daughter, blessed her, and sent her home safe in the knowledge that she would never be unimportant to Him.  Now we resume an examination of his fourth and final act to establish and affirm His identity.

Peter recalls to John Mark in his Gospel in chapter five how the fourth act would proceed.  Jesus was still en-route to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter.  Jairus remained a part of the ruling class of Israel, part of the Sanhedrin that was already deep into conspiring to see Jesus killed.  Jairus maintained his association with the very group of men bent on killing Christ.  Justice would demand a life for a life.  Justice would demand that someone bent on killing Christ, should himself suffer the fate he intended for Jesus.  Even if Jairus was not personally a part of the group intent on killing Christ, he had done nothing to distance himself from them until this day, when he submitted in humility before Christ in order to see his own daughter healed from yet another terminal illness.  Justice is and remains the battle cry … of Satan.  It is Satan who cries for justice in the hallowed courts of heaven.  It is Satan that demands that we pay for our sins, for a penalty must surely be paid.  Those who demand justice, echo the demands of Satan.  Our God is not interested in ensuring equality, fairness, and justice; for His Love offers so MUCH more than mere equality and fairness.  His Love is willing to forgive what otherwise Justice could not forgive.  His Love is willing to serve that which does not deserve service.  His Love is willing to reclaim, re-create, and restore that which by self-decision had abased itself beyond comprehension.  There is no Justice in our redemption … there is only Love.

But the decision to humble himself before Christ must have been a hard one for Jairus.  When his daughter fell ill, Jairus must have done what all of us do, what the woman who was just healed did.  He called in the doctors, and physicians.  Money was no object to Jairus, he would gladly spend it all to see his daughter healed.  But alas the best of human wisdom is still often not enough.  And his daughter’s condition got worse instead of better.  Unlike the Roman commander, who “knew” Jesus could heal with a simple command, and did not need to be there to see it done … Jairus had made a different request.  Jairus had asked for Jesus to come to heal his daughter.  The faith of Jairus in Christ was there, but not as great as that of the Roman, who did not have to personally witness what Christ did, the Roman was content to hear the words from His mouth, and to know it would be done.  Jairus needed to see.  But the time Jairus had spent in seeking a cure outside of Jesus Christ, had proven to be time wasted.  Is it any different for us?

How often, in our desire to be redeemed, do we seek a cure for our sins, outside of the transforming power of Jesus Christ?  We look to find spiritual growth in the things we do.  We read the Bible.  We study our weekly lessons for church classes.  We attend services.  We sing our songs of praise, and pray our prayers for blessings (for us).  We give what we can afford to give, be it time or money, to those who are “less fortunate” than ourselves.  In short, we are like the rich young ruler of scriptures, who when he encounters Christ, states that from his youth he has “kept all the commandments” of our God.  But what we spend little time contemplating in our spiritual lives, and spiritual “accomplishments” is “why” we do what we do.  The list cited above is not a bad list.  In point of fact, the transformed heart does all of these things, but it does them for a different reason, and it experiences a different outcome.  Those who pursue doing these activities “in order to see themselves rid of sin” do not see their goals achieved.  It is not our actions that rid us of the desire to sin … it is our surrender to Jesus Christ alone.  It is only the power of Christ who can remove within us, what we cannot remove, no matter how many spiritual things we attempt to do.  It is not our power that can remove our sinful desires, it is the power of Christ alone.  When we seek another remedy for sin, outside of surrendering to Christ, we see only continued failure.

When however, like Jairus, in desperation, we finally decide to humble ourselves and admit we cannot do what must be done … taking our sin, and our sinful desires to the feet of Jesus Christ … we finally experience what His power alone can do for us; whether our disease is in a terminal state, or whether we have already died in it.  Jesus can revive not only those who are spiritually wounded and suffering from a terminal disease, He can revive a heart that has experienced spiritual death and up to now has wanted nothing to do with spiritual things.  The transformed heart, learns to love like Christ loves.  The transformed and resurrected heart learns to love others like Christ loves others.  In so doing, the transformed heart looks for truth in the pages of Truth, and studies through the lens of Jesus Christ leading.  The transformed heart gladly goes to church because it longs for the joy of association and the opportunity to serve others, not to be served.  The transformed heart sings songs of praise, not just in sanctuaries dedicated to that purpose, but in the car, on the street, at the office desk, and in the home; because it CANNOT keep silent.  Gratitude overflows and leads to continual praise.  The transformed heart prays only for others, because it knows its own needs have been far exceeded in being met.  The transformed heart gives everything it has to others, and holds nothing back for itself, because it cannot afford to pass up an opportunity to give.  And in humility it never claims to have kept the commandments, but rather re-directs any notion of goodness, back to the source of Christ, for nothing within it is good without Him.  Why we do what we do matters.

But alas, the time Jairus (and us) spent in looking for a solution outside of Christ was time wasted.  And in this case, it was too much time wasted.  Peter recalls to John Mark beginning in verse 35 saying … “While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?”  Game over.  You waited too long, wasted too much time, and failed.  It was too late.  She died.  There is no further point.  Once you were dead, you were dead.  Half the Sanhedrin did not believe in any form of resurrection even at the end of all things.  Jairus and his household may have been of that inclination.  But whether he was or not, the time to heal a terminal disease was done.  Might as well, let God move on to other priorities, help those who still have time to be helped, help those who have not wasted ALL of their time just yet.  Death was a bell that could not be un-rung.  In all of the scriptures Jairus was deeply familiar with, there had never been a story of the dead coming back to life.  They ALL slept, awaiting the final day of God’s Kingdom being established on earth.  There may have been ghost stories from witches who derived their power from Satan, but demons impersonating dead men, were still a far cry from an actual dead person getting a second chance.  So far, death was an absolute ruler over the fate of mankind.  It did not matter whether you were good or bad, faithful or not, everyone died.  So the game needed to be called for an expired time clock.  Death had claimed the players, and there was nothing left … or was there?

John Mark records the reaction of Christ in verse 36 saying … “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.”  This was asking the impossible.  Jesus, was asking Jairus, to do something to believe something, that there was no precedent for.  He was asking Jairus to believe in spite of the facts, in spite of scripture, in spite of his beliefs, in spite of his education, upbringing, and tenants of his job.  This was not a combination of scripture and God.  This was a request to believe only in Jesus Christ.  The interpretations of the Sanhedrin where it came to the Messiah were largely mistaken.  They had confused the second coming and final establishment of God’s kingdom with the first coming where the lamb would be slain.  They had scripture all jumbled up.  And in none of scripture was there hope of an early resurrection, and nothing about the Messiah doing one of those.  So the request of Christ required faith in only one thing … in the person of Jesus Christ standing before him right then, and right there.  Is it any different for us?  To have faith that Christ can do for you, what you have been unable to do, takes faith in only thing … in Jesus Christ.  It is not your understanding of scripture that can see you rid of your desire to sin, it is Jesus Christ alone.  Your doctrines will not do it, but your Savior will, if you let Him.

Then Jesus did something that is at first a little hard for us to understand, Mark records it in verse 37 saying … “And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.”  Jesus dismissed the crowd.  Even within His own disciples, only three were selected to see what was about to occur.  The obvious question was “why”.  The gospel of John we studied earlier offers us perhaps a little insight here.  John’s gospel highlights several occasions where the crowd was bent on forcing Christ to become their earthly king.  He had to use miraculous powers to escape those crowds or they would have succeeded.  The people at this time, and in our own, often look only at Christ through the lens of what is in it for them.  They seek Christ, like we seek Santa Claus and Bill Gates, to see what they might do for us.  We want, we want, we want.  Our prayers are like laundry lists of what we need God to do for us. 

Knowing He could heal, nearly the entire nation sought a health upgrade, and they got it.  Dealing with a matter of life and death, or more precisely, that death was no longer a barrier, might encourage a revolution against Rome where people would gladly kill themselves on Roman spears and swords, expecting to be raised up by their newly crowned Messiah.  If death itself could not stop their army, they would indeed be the greatest force on earth, and all the world including Rome would have to submit.  Even His own disciples harbored some of these feelings.  So the group of witnesses had to be smaller, in order to see this blessing occur.  Our inclination to selfishness necessitated a restriction of the vision of the power of God, as it does today.  How many believers today, if endowed with the ability to heal the sick without exception, would be able to withstand the temptation to take the credit for themselves, to accept the celebrity our society would heap upon them, to become a leader in the eyes of the nation, and in some ways be worshipped as a demi-god?  How many believers today, could refuse the praise of those impacted, and remain humble, dependent, and ever seeking ONLY the will of the Father as Jesus did.  Our inclination to selfishness, necessitates the restriction of the outpouring of the true power of the Holy Spirit.

Peter then recalls his own personal witness to what transpired next as John Mark continues writing in verse 38 saying … “And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. [verse 39] And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.”  There are several things to note here.  First the perspective of God is not like our own.  We see death as a barrier from which there is no return, Jesus and God see it only as a nap, or night’s sleep, like we take every day.  Time passes while we are unconscious, but when we wake up, we pick up where we left off, and resume doing what needs to be done.  From the perspective of Christ this remains true of death.  Adam is still sleeping.  Adam has no concept of the nearly 5000+ years that have passed since he fell asleep in death.  He is napping.  When Christ returns he will be woken up, and resume a life he is familiar with, but without the stain of sin any more.  When we sleep, we are unconscious.  We are not still living in some sort of ghost like state, we are simply asleep, unaware of time, or any other concerns.  The declaration of Christ is not just trying to get the crowd here to feel better about the girl’s condition, it is about getting all of us to understand better what death itself is actually like.

The second thing to note here, is that if death is actually not the end of our existence, if there is actually life possible after our earthly sleep of death … then what kind of life would that be?  Satan encourages us to sin like there is no tomorrow, because we only have “one life” and time is short.  But what if he is only half right?  What if time is truly short here, and our opportunity to make a difference, to lead someone else to the real eternal life is wasted?  A life after this one, intended to be permanent, and lived in loving others can actually begin here through the power of Christ.  But to waste that, is to waste the chance to help another see what you have seen, and learn from Christ, what you have learned.  If we spend all of this life focusing on only our own temporal needs, when in our next life, none of those things truly matter, do we not waste our lives entirely?  Whether you live 10 years, or 20, or 80, it is a drop in the bucket next to eternal life.  Would it not be better to live whatever time you have left fully, and intensely, with the primary mission of bringing others with you into the next life of eternity with Christ?  To connect them with the same Jesus who is saving and transforming you, is the ONLY goal that counts with whatever time you have left here.  To love others, like Jesus loves others, is truly living.  Everything else, is such as waste.

The perspective of those grieving people was a lot like our own, we do not see past the limits we have set for ourselves, past our ideas of the facts as John Mark records in verse 40 saying … “And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.”  The people in their grief, “laughed Him to scorn”.  They took their limited vision, and assumed that Jesus was making an alternate medical assessment of the condition of the child.  They could not see something broader, perhaps nor do we.  Jesus was talking about life and death, and what is truly important.  And what we see is limited by our own ideas of the facts, history, and certainty in our knowledge.  But we are wrong, misguided, and will not see what Jesus is truly saying.  So Jesus does what must be done, undeterred and non-responsive to their criticism and ridicule, He simply escorts all of them all out of the house. 

Even though Jesus is in the right, even though Jesus alone understands life and death better than anyone there, He does NOT force others to accept His own thinking.  He does not compel them to change what they believe or what they say.  He does not laugh back at them, and call them out for the fools they truly are.  He does not humiliate them for being wrong, and not understanding what He is saying.  But how often do Christians treat each other this way?  How often in our certainty about scripture and its interpretation do we use it as a weapon to punish those with less knowledge than ourselves?  How often do we “defend” ourselves against ridicule and scorn, by inflicting ridicule and scorn on those who “deserve it”?  Jesus does not react this way, ever.  He never “gets even”.  He never looks for justice against those who keep wrongly inflicting their own pain and ridicule on Him.  Instead He continues in acts of Love, undeterred by those who do not understand it yet.

Peter continues the story in verse 41 saying … “And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. [verse 42] And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.”  Perhaps Jesus took this girl by the hand before He offered that command, because without directing it specifically at her, the entire fallen mankind might have arisen at that moment in time.  A single command had only recently expelled nearly 2,000 demons at once, so we know what He says carries great weight in a world beyond our vision and self-imposed limitations.  The girl of course, did what Adam did when Jesus had breathed life into him, she arose.  Jesus was not calling this girl back from the paradise of heaven her disembodied soul would have surely preferred to stay in.  Instead He was doing what He had already explained, He was waking her from the sleep of death, and from her nap.  She had no concept of the passing of time, of the weeping and wailing that had been going on for her departure.  She was asleep.  And now through the power of Christ, life had entered her again, and she was awake.  For the first time the 5 souls in attendance had their self-imposed blinders lifted.  They were astonished.

John Mark concludes this series in verse 43 saying … “And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat.”  What was being done, was to be witnessed by 5 people in person, and recorded not for them (they saw it), but for us.  The identity of Jesus Christ should have been firmly affixed in the eyes of three of His disciples, but all the more so for you and I.  What had just transpired was concrete proof that for those who believe in Jesus Christ, not even death was any kind of barrier to what He can do for us.  Our Creator has the power to re-create what we have by choice killed.  Our Creator can call life back into us, no matter how badly we have driven out every spiritual impulse in our lives.  But it is our Creator alone who can do this for us, not the power we mistakenly believe we have.  The dead girl was not a partner with Christ in her own resurrection, she was only a beneficiary of it.  Jairus did not “do” anything to see his own daughter raised, he was only a witness to it.  The disciples and closest followers of Christ, were not participant or partners in this ministry, they were only as witnesses.  A grieving mother, a hopeful father, a curious set of dedicated believers; all had different perspectives on what occurred and differing points of view.  But what was solely consistent was that Jesus Christ did ALL the work of raising the dead back to life.

It is exactly so in our Christian experience.  Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who plants the seed of faith in us, we do not even do that much.  Jesus is the one who does ALL the work of bringing us back from spiritual death to spiritual life in Him.  We do nothing but let Him.  The dead girl could not refuse the command of Christ, nature could not refuse, disease could not refuse, the demons could not refuse the command of Christ; and our desires to sin will be unable to stand before the commands of Christ if we are but willing to let Him utter them on our behalf.  None of the opposition to Christ were working with Him to see change, all were working against Him.  But change occurred because He commanded it.  Your sinful nature is not going to just go away on its own.  Your love of sin, is not just going to be erased by the power of your will, or ability to deny yourself that which you love.  But a single command of Christ, can knock that desire out of your life for good.  A transformed heart, can lead you to focus on new priorities, until acts for others become “normal” and acts for self are never needed again.

The identity of Jesus Christ should be most affirmed in your mind and in mine.  The revelation of this gospel is a revelation of Jesus Christ to you and I.  It is an unveiling of the truth to us.  The stories are not mere history, they are predictive for our lives.  They are applicable in our here and now.  Disease is not our master, nor are the rules of nature and physics, we serve the Lord who is over all of them.  Not even death is a barrier to our God of Love who sees infinitely beyond the night’s sleep of death we may take, or the brief nap we enjoy between our last day, and His first day at His second coming.  What matters, is how we love.  What matters is who we love, in that it is others, and not ourselves.  We waste time when we love ourselves, and we enjoy life when we spend it loving others.  The identity of our God is a deep association with a love for others.  He won His world series.  We should enjoy that victory, and let Him win one in our lives, for us, that we too can benefit from …

 

Identity Revealed ...

A “Monday morning quarterback” has the advantage of knowing the end of the game, and how it arrived at that conclusion.  They see the fumbles that got in their way.  They see the completions that marked their advance.  And they regret the decisions they made when facing the unknown, that in retrospect turned out to be the wrong ones.  But with the perspective of knowing these things, what a different series of events might have been possible.  Plays and decisions that “at the time” would have looked crazy, might have just been the very things that would have altered the outcome of the game.  Coaches, fans, and the TV audience looking on, without the perspective of knowing these events, would decidedly NOT have understood the call while the game was in motion.  But later, all the coaches, fans, and audience members would have cheered the outcome, and come to believe the “Monday morning quarterback” had to have been a prophetic genius to have made those calls.  How alike that is, with how our God works with us in this life.  He already knows the ending, when it will come, and what is important to accomplish before that day.  Some of the calls He makes, look crazy to us.  But in the end, when life is eternal for us once again, we will cheer His calls, and praise His foreknowledge, in the mission of redeeming us unto Himself.

When Peter began his recollection of the gospel to John Mark, He already knew the end of the story.  And He knew where the debate continued to rage.  The “mystery” of the identity of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Son of the Living God, was now known to Peter, and no longer in any question.  But the stubborn Jewish religious leadership could not come to admit this idea.  And what was the original established religion by Christ, given to Moses in the desert, had now officially adopted the position of being the enemy of Christ.  The long awaited hope of the Messiah, had been perverted into a “land grab” that would drive out the Romans, and assert world-wide domination for the Jews.  The idea that the Messiah would have bigger ambitions, in the saving of every soul on earth, even those of Roman blood, was simply unthinkable.  So “evidence” of the identity of Jesus Christ had to be covered up.  To dispute the words of men would be easy enough, simply call them liars, and attempt to enter a “he said / she said” debate.  But personal witnesses to “evidence” of the true identity of Jesus Christ, would be MUCH harder to refute.  Peter knew this.  And Peter had no interest in prolonging a debate he knew had already been settled.  So in the brevity of his recollection with John Mark, he provides evidence after evidence after evidence of the Truth of Jesus Christ, and “who” He really was.

Mark continues the recollections of Peter as he writes in verse 9 … “And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.”  Peter was not there in person at that event, his brother Andrew was.  Peter does not recount the speech by John the Baptist expressing his own unworthiness to baptize the Lord, or frankly the lack of “need” as Jesus was sinless throughout His entire life.  John the Baptist craved the baptism of the Holy Spirit that he knew only Jesus could actually offer him.  But to serve as our example, Jesus goes forward with the traditional baptism by John in the dirty river of the Jordan, in front of the crowds who have gathered.  The crowds were paying special attention to this baptism, as up to now, they had never seen John greet a parishioner in this way.  Announcing Him to be the Lamb of God, and publicly stating there was no need to be baptized.  So the eyes of the crowd were intent on this particular case.

Mark continues in verse 10 … “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: [verse 11] And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Imagine the “shock” in the crowd.  For the first and only time ever, a baptism is followed by the heavens parting and the Spirit of God descending on the head of Jesus in the form of a dove.  Not just an ordinary bird, but one covered in brilliant light.  This would not be mistaken for a homing pigeon, or pet of Jesus, this was clearly a supernatural event.  And if the dove of brilliant light and unmistakable presence was not enough, it is followed by a voice from heaven stating plainly for all to hear … “Thou are my beloved Son” … the voice of God the Father affirming the very identity of Jesus Christ.  Only the long awaited Messiah “could” ever be the only Son of God.  Only “this man” Jesus standing wet still in the river itself, was ever affirmed by God as His much loved and only Son.  And further, our God affirms his pleasure in the 30 years of the life of Christ to this point.  Peter has here offered the greatest “proof” there would ever be as to the identity of Jesus Christ.  What greater witness could there ever be, than God the Father, and the Holy Spirit themselves?  Here is the testimony of 2 witnesses.

Mark continues in verse 12 … “And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. [verse 13] And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.”  Peter does not dive into the details of this event either.  Perhaps it is because he is only recalling it to further establish the identity of Jesus Christ.  “Immediately” upon rising from the waters Jesus is “driven” by the Spirit into the wilderness.  No time to eat, rest up, prepare and get ready.  The time for temptation will never be a convenient one, where careful planning will help us avoid it.  No, the devil looks for our weakest moments, not our strongest ones.  He is a hunter who preys on the weak.  Forty days without sustenance, or companionship, will so weaken Jesus Christ that He will be at the point of death for these temptations.  At the end of these events, it will take angels to minister unto Jesus, or he would have died of exposure, starvation, and dehydration.  This event was not intended to be something we are to emulate.  It was to put the Son of God in His human form into the weakest state humanity could sustain (right before death), and allow only then for the devil to present temptations of ease, and alternate ways to save us.  Having resisted, Jesus collapses, and angels keep what little life remains in Him to sustain Him.  When Jesus returns to Galilee He is so emaciated, almost no one recognizes Him.  Angels as well, now attest as to the identity of Jesus Christ.

John Mark continues writing in verse 14 … “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, [verse 15] And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”  Peter summarizes the remainder of the real mission of the Messiah and believes it begins immediately following these events.  Even ahead of having disciples, Peter believes the Messiah has begun His work for our redemption.  And thus far, Peter has offered the word of God the Father as to the identity of Jesus Christ.  Peter has also offered the interest of the devil himself, in tempting the Messiah to fail in His mission by pursuing an alternative means.  So from Peter’s perspective, both God and the devil, have affirmed who Jesus Christ is.

Mark continues in verse 16 … “Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. [verse 17] And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. [verse 18] And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.”  John Mark records Peter’s participation in these events under his original name “Simon”.  He also extends the invitation of Christ to become fishers of men to Andrew Peter’s brother, who had been a disciple of John the Baptist.  John Mark offers that “straightway” they forsook their nets, not elaborating on the miracle Christ offered Peter in catching fish after he had failed on his own.  He does not recount the initial disbelief that following the directions of Jesus would yield a different result;  though these events are recalled in other gospels.  But the intent of these verses is to establish the witnesses of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew as they enter the story.

Mark continues in verse 19 … “And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. [verse 20] And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.”  James and John were sometimes known as the “sons of thunder”.  Perhaps Zebedee had earned this reputation from his voice, or from his “colorful” language when expressing displeasure.  Peter takes note of the lineage here. 

But he also recounts that following Jesus Christ was not something to be done after careful consideration, planning, and attending to other matters to make ready.  The four of his first disciples, left everything they owned, knew, or were familiar with to “follow” Jesus Christ.  They had no idea where they were going.  They had no idea what they would be doing, other than perhaps to gather others to their cause.  They had no money, brought no food.  They were promised no reward.  What they would do, where, and how, were all going to be up to Jesus Christ.  “They” were simply going to be there “with” Jesus as events would unfold.  Jesus would be doing all the “real” work.  They would be watching what He did.  They would be observing and attending to Jesus in any way He asked.  There was no advanced agenda, or preplanned curricula, or predefined list of activities, goals, and accomplishments.

How unlike us!  We want to know every particular before we make a decision, and even then, we vacillate endlessly.  We promise God, or claim to follow Christ, but only as it suits our own convenience and preferences.  We are not prepared or inclined to leave everything we know, everything we are familiar with.  We cling to our families, our jobs and careers, and particularly our things.  Our “version” of following Jesus Christ distills down to “admitting” we are Christian … only when asked.  We will occasionally part with our tithes and offerings, but only as we are “able” to give, rarely when we are “unable”.  Perhaps there is a good reason why modern Christians are not known as “disciples”, but rather just as “believers”.

Peter has set the stage in his recollections to John Mark.  He has been brief in the events that lead up to the ministry of Jesus Christ.  But he has also been very conscience of revealing the identity of Jesus Christ in every passage and text.  There is no real mystery as to who Jesus was and is.  The doubts that may linger in the minds of those who refuse to believe are there by choice.  Keep in mind, that Jesus has thus far not proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God.  Others have proclaimed Jesus so.  The message of Jesus was that the time is at hand, the prophecies are being fulfilled in living 3D color, and that the gospel of the kingdom of God has arrived.  Repentance; like the message of John who preceded Him, is still the first step towards our salvation and the message that Jesus Christ brings to His hearers.  Jesus has gathered disciples who He will teach to become fishers of men.  The stage is set, the ministry will begin immediately, and “who” He is, can hardly be contained …