Blood by Choice ...

You can’t pick your family … or can you?  Blood relations are supposed to be the strongest on earth.  But this is a myth quickly undone by simple logic.  Your parents chose each other.  No one compelled them (ideally), and no one dictates they stay together, or crumble apart.  It was and remains (ideally) a choice of two people to become one and remain that way.  Your parents are not related to each other by blood relation, unless that blood relation is quite distant.  Yet the bond a husband can have with his wife, and she with him, is a bond capable of being stronger than titanium dipped in Jesus more permanent than any other on earth; or as flimsy as the tissue paper of self-will that demonstration will show.  But the core of a family is at its core, a choice to love.  And where perhaps our hearts are still fickle in the choice of our partner for life, they seem less so in our choice of son, daughter, or parent.

Adoption is yet another choice to make blood, what inheritance failed to create.  Adoption does not diminish the love it states, it perhaps makes it greater.  It is a greater commitment.  Taking in a child, who is not blood, and make that child part of a family, is a statement about how deep the choice to love can truly be.  Even in the face of divorced couples, children remain children, adopted or not.  The love shown to them, the care taken of them, does not diminish because it began with a choice, it deepens because of it.  And over time, when the child’s curiosity about biological parents emerges, love for adopted parents remains a choice in nearly every life.  At the root of the bond between a parent and a child, is a choice to love, whether by inheritance or by fortune.  The choice begins the journey, the choice remains throughout the journey.

These choices do not only reveal themselves in marriage and in adoption of any form.  They can emerge in the relationships we form with our closest friends over time.  Because the choice to love is by definition a choice; other close relationships can form where brothers of no relation think of themselves as brothers in any case.  It may be a different kind of love, but it is a love nonetheless.  Situations where friends of the family become part of the family are common, blurring the definitions of family altogether; and frankly emulating more what heaven will ultimately be like.  Agape love is no less a love than any other kind of it.  And the love Jesus, The Father, and The Holy Spirit have for you is the pinnacle of what love can be defined as.  Not a romantic love, but a love so deep, the God of the Universe would die to save only you if that is what it took.  In every situation, love remains a choice.

This is a lesson the sons of Abraham were reluctant to learn in the time of Jesus, and perhaps we are today as well.  Jews in the time of Christ believed that bloodline led to salvation.  Christians in our day believe that tradition, church, and religion do the same.  Jews in the time of Christ were proud to call Abraham their father.  Christians in our day are proud to look back at the patriarchs of our faith and claim association with them over common beliefs.  But the average, or particular, or singular Jew in the Sanhedrin at the time of Jesus did not have the exact faith of Abraham.  It is why Abraham is remembered, and the average Jew is not.  It is the same with you and I.  Neither of us were pinning the list of church reforms on the door, knowing it was likely insuring our own death sentences today.  We like to look back at reformers like Luther, but we do not face Luther’s danger in the face of death in our world.  Strange though, the propensity to look backwards for assurance that salvation is ours, when all along, Jesus is right in front of us and how seldom we seem to look there.

But Jesus has different ideas about family, than perhaps the tradition Jew did in His day, or the typical Christian does in ours.  Matthew wrote of this in his gospel in chapter twelve picking up in verse 46 saying … “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. [verse 47] Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.”  This is a simple situation.  Jesus is preaching, likely from inside Peter’s house in Capernaum.  Likely the crowds are thick there, inside and outside the house.  It makes it difficult for anyone to get inside the house.  You will recall the men who took the roof apart to get their friend close to Jesus for healing.  This is likely a standing room only crowd, and every single listener is intent to hear the word of God from the mouth of God Himself.

But despite this, the family of Jesus wanted to see Him.  Perhaps they had important news, perhaps they only wanted to socialize.  It did not matter.  They were unable to get anywhere near close enough to Jesus to accomplish what they had in mind.  The reason; too many other people were so desperate to hear what salvation was, and how it comes.  In spite of this, His family persisted.  They get a messenger to get the news to Jesus so He can remedy the situation.  Jesus responds in verse 48 saying … “But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? [verse 49] And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! [verse 50] For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

Much to unpack here.  Jesus begins by questioning the messenger with a very strange question.  “Who” is His mother, and His siblings?  The answer should have been obvious.  But even in this question is an implication that “blood” does not grant one special privilege.  Beyond this, is a subtle message to our Catholic friends who so venerate Mary.  Jesus places His mother Mary in the same category as He does everyone else, nothing more special about her.  And Jesus is clear that He has siblings.  As Jesus had to be first born (according to Jewish tradition), having further brothers and sisters, makes Mary a normal wife, not a virgin for the length of her life.  But even the mothers who read this text cringe with the idea that their child might look at them with the same eyes He looks at the entire rest of the world.

Next, the ideas of Family are radically expanded in the view of Jesus.  Everyone who shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven … becomes the family of Jesus Christ.  Jesus does not just say, every Jew by birth.  Nor does He say, every Christian who claims to follow Jesus.  He states everyone who like Himself defers His own will, to do the will of the Father which is in heaven, becomes His idea of family.  Being Jewish by birth, or being Christian by faith, does not make you in harmony with the Father God.  It gives you a good start, but is nowhere near enough to finish the job.  For that you need a deference of your will, and an embrace of His will.  That only happens as you surrender the core of who you are to Jesus, so that He can bring you into harmony with God.  Doing what you think is right, is not enough.  Jews did that.  Christians still do.  And it is not enough.  The blood relatives of Jesus were doing what they thought was right, at the moment, and were going to be disappointed.  What Mary and the siblings of Jesus were thinking was the right thing to do, was not, at least not right then.  More important things were going on.  The salvation of others was going on.  On that scale, everyone can wait.

While Jesus has only One Father, He is quite liberal with titling anyone else who submits to the will of His Father in heaven as being “brother, sister, or mother”.  Here again His mother is not a title He makes sacrosanct above all others.  She is only another member of His family.  Here is where the ideas of family get radically expanded in the eye of Jesus.  In heaven, outside of the spousal relationship Jesus created at Eden, everyone else we encounter will be our family – by choice.  We will choose to love them as we love our siblings or parents or children, because we will choose to love them that much.  I can entrust my children with you in heaven, because I know you will love them as much as I do.  You can entrust your children with me, for the same reason.  I will not covet your wife, as you will not covet mine, not just because the Law forbids it, but because we love each other that much.

You will note Jesus does not include husband or wife in His list of family members.  His “bride” is the church, as He loves it that much.  The church is special to Him and unique, and singular, even though it is made up of many of us who believe.  At the core of all of this remains a choice to love.  At the core of love itself is a definition that includes choice, or it can be no real love at all.  We were not created as robots for this very reason.  God is love.  God chooses to love.  We were created in the image of God.  We are capable of love, or not.  We must choose to love God, or not.  Our love for God cannot be forced and He will never force us to love anything or anyone.  We make a choice to do that.  This is how God wants it.  He reveals His love to us, long before He ever asks for ours in return.  There is every reason for us to love God, and only one not to.  Selfishness is the enemy of loving God.  It turns out you can only love yourself or God, not both. 

Many Christians believe that loving one’s self is healthy, and must be done before they are capable of loving others.  This is a lie, evidenced by the very life of Christ Himself.  Jesus did nothing to love Himself, and everything to demonstrate love for us.  Jesus never took vacation.  Jesus never ate all the food first, He gave everyone else the food first, served everyone else, and only then would consider eating.  Talk about not being strong enough.  But Jesus got His strength from doing the will of His Father, which like Him, was to love everyone else before anything resembling self-love.  Not a single evidence in scripture of self-love, or using His power to help Himself, not once.  And somehow, we think it is different for us?  It’s not.  The choice we make to love, is a choice we make to love someone else.  When instead we choose to love ourselves, divorces ensue, families dissolve, everything that ever really mattered is sacrificed on an altar of pleasing self that has no end to it. 

Family bonds are as strong as the depth of our surrender of will to Jesus Christ.  Choices to love that stem from this kind of surrender to Jesus are like titanium dipped in diamonds.  The choice to love self instead, can form bonds only as strong as tissue paper waiting the next form of self-gratification.  As for me, I prefer the permanence Jesus can offer, and the fulfillment only Jesus can bring; than the mess of things I know I make, and history is quick to reveal …

Perfected Marriage ...

Who will win the next SuperBowl is an annual topic of conversation in early January.  The answer of course is … “advertisers”.  It is said as many people tune in to see the game, as to watch the commercials presented during it.  It is one of the last “live” events on television where folks prefer NOT to use the DVR to avoid the ads, instead they want to enjoy it “live” with friends and family.  But to have a SuperBowl there has to be a fundamental understanding of the game, and how the game works.  Each team will attempt to win the game within the rules, using strategies they have practiced with each other within the rules.  Without this shared fundamental understanding of how the game of football is supposed to work, the SuperBowl looks a lot more like the PuppyBowl.  Imagine if the players entered the field, and when the ball was snapped, everybody just took off running in every direction both offense and defense into the stands, leaving the ball dropped where it was, and emptying the field completely.  This kind of nonsense would destroy the game of football pretty quick, in fact it would destroy any team sport.  And after 6,000 years of practicing marriage, that is precisely where we find ourselves, lacking a complete understanding of the fundamentals of the game.  We have left the ball on the field, and are running in every direction.  But this is something we could correct, if we could just listen to what marriage was all about … this time from its Author.

As it turns out, problems in marriage is not a new phenomenon to our day in age.  They date back quite a while (husbands might joke to the advent of women).  But Peter and the folks who lived in his day, had just as many questions, and appeared to lack knowledge just as much as us, about the fundamentals of the game.  So of course, the Pharisees decided this was a topic they could question Christ about, and “prove” He was not really the Messiah.  You see if Jesus got just one answer wrong, He would lose the game, and the people would stop listening to Him.  So periodically throughout His ministry, the Pharisees and Scribes would attempt to pick one of those “no win” questions to ask Christ.  No matter which choice He would pick, the answer could be proven wrong by them.  They continually setup choices for Jesus, either A or B, and whichever one He would pick, He would lose.  The problem for them of course, was that Jesus continued to answer in a way that expanded their knowledge of the law, and was neither A or B, but something entirely better.  And it was the Pharisees who would lose.

Peter begins relaying just such an incident to John Mark who transcribes it in his Gospel of Mark picking up in the tenth chapter in verse one saying … “And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.”  Jesus had moved very close to the territory of the Temple headquarters.  He had brought His visiting team on to home field of the Pharisees.  And as usual, the people came to see Him in droves.  It was no small irony that Jesus picked the place on the far side of the Jordan, where not too long ago, John the Baptist’s voice could be heard there bellowing to repent.  John the Baptist was considered no friend of the Pharisees either, calling them out publicly for their hypocrisy.  So this affront of Jesus “stealing” the attention of the people could not go unanswered.

Mark continues in verse 2 saying … “And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.”  The games had begun.  The Pharisees had asked Jesus a Yes or No question, they were not looking for a sermon, or to give Him a chance to expound upon an answer.  This is the reason why Peter specifically told John Mark this was a way for the Pharisees to be “tempting Him”.  If Jesus said yes, then the Pharisees could decry Jesus as being the “destroyer” of the family unit, and could persuade the people to listen no longer.  If Jesus said no, then the Pharisees could decry Jesus as not being practical, or in alignment with their traditions and laws.  Either way, they were set to pounce.  But Jesus would not so easily be drawn into this trap, instead He had in mind to teach them, and all in attendance something much deeper about marriage itself.  First, Jesus must examine them to determine where the state of marriage was in this time.

John Mark continues transcribing in verse 3 saying … “And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?”  Moses was the defacto “hero” of the Pharisees.  They used and misused everything Moses had ever said or done or written, to their own benefit.  So in asking them a question rooted in their hero, Jesus gets them to commit to where their own hearts were in this day, and the answer they would prefer it were up to them.  The Pharisees answer in verse 4 saying … “And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.”  Moses had indeed established this ability for the dissolution of marriage.  But in the days of Moses, or in the days of the Pharisees, or in ours, this was never supposed to be first option executed the first time 2 people discovered they did not agree on something.  However, that is what it had degenerated to in the time of the Pharisees and in ours.  There was no stigma in obtaining a divorce in the time of the Pharisees or in ours, it was rather a simple legal matter than anyone to seek and obtain with minimal personal inconvenience.  It was and is as easy as buying or selling property.  No one gave it a second thought.  If you wanted one you got one, period.  But this state of marriage reveals a fundamental lack of knowledge of what marriage really is. 

Jesus responds in verse 5 saying … “And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.”  Divorce, as it turns out, is NOT a pre-creation or before-the-fall concept.  It was NOT considered pre-sin, only post-sin.  Divorce is a recognition of the effect of sin on and within a marriage, it was a necessity because of the damage sin can cause, from abuse, to infidelity, to a lack of commitment, to disagreements we have not the patience to resolve with self-sacrifice.  This is why Moses recognized the “need” for an escape clause in marriage.  Women were not meant to be killed in the name of preserving their marriages.  And there are a host of legitimate reasons why divorce may be needed in our age, or in any age, but ALL of them fundamentally begin with either one party or the other, engaged in a sin of some sort.  Unrepentant sin is the hardest of all to endure in a marriage.  And each party has to decide how much they can endure, before separation through divorce simply makes more sense.  But if the hard-truth of Divorce is that it is a post-sin reality, that means Marriage is a pre-sin reality with no thought of divorce.

Thus Jesus begins His lesson about the fundamentals of marriage we have all forgotten in verse 6 saying … “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.”  This is our Creator talking.  This is our God talking.  It was His choice to make not only our species, but nearly every species into the categories of male and female.  He did NOT have to do this, He chose to do this, by design.  He chose to do this with an eye to eternity.  This was NOT a result of our sin, unlike Divorce which recognizes the reality of the impact of sin upon us, our original structural design was “created” both male and female.  We were none of us meant to be alone.  We were all of us meant to have a companion that is not exactly like us, but like a jigsaw puzzle, compliments us, supports us, becomes the better half of who we are.  This entire phenomenon was established in our creation and in our design.  It was done this way prior to sin, not as a result of it.

Jesus continues in verse 7 saying … “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;”  Family units of old tended to stay together for nearly every reason.  Oh sure, in our age, children may go away to school, and strike out on their own in new jobs, but even so, they remain our babies.  But for ONE reason alone, do the children eventually really leave the nest since creation; for the sake of Marriage, which forms the fundamental basis of creating a NEW family unit.  I am my father’s son, and my mother’s son, UNTIL I am starting a family unit of my own, the point at which I am committing to be my wife’s husband.  At this point, my wife and the commitment we will share supersedes all other commitments even other familial ones.  At this point there is no such thing as momma’s boy or daddy’s girl, only husband and wife.  This is our Creator talking again.  It is our Creator, who is stating, that for the sake of marriage, we would leave behind our families, and “cleave” to our spouse.  Even the word cleave, implies a cutting away of the older heartstrings, to establish the newer ones.  This is our Creator establishing the priority of who we love in our lives.  Our spouse becomes THE most important person we will ever love, even more than we will love our own children.  The reason then must be something we have missed.

Jesus continues in verse 8 saying … “And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.”  There is something more here than the mechanics of sexual expression.  There is something far deeper and something that speaks to the fundamentals of the game.  In the ultimate act of intimacy between husband and wife is formed the physical manifestation of becoming “one”.  In this, we lose our identity of self, willingly joining it, to the identity of us as one unit.  I am no longer me, a half of who I used to be.  I am now only complete when I am we, established, rooted, and grounded as a whole, only when you consider my wife who comprises my better half.  When you look at her, you should see me there as well, bound to her, part of her.  Each of us inseparable to the other because we no longer think in terms of one being, but of two joined to be one.  To hurt her, is to destroy me.  To injure me, is to wound her.  We react as one, we unite as one, we have the same goals.  Our individual strengths are lent to the unit of one who we become.  Our individual weaknesses are covered by the one who has chosen to join with us.  One flesh, is not something that happens a few times a week, late at night, when both of you can find the time.  It is something that changes who you are, to the core of you.  It is a commitment to change who you are, by accepting your other half and integrating it into your very soul.

In the physical act or the singular union, where two consent to become one, is ONLY where the act of pro-creation can occur.  We are created in the image of our God, with imaginations of our own, with creativity of our own, with artistry.  We can make great contributions to our world and our society unleashing the gifts we have been given alone throughout our lives.  But our very existence can only occur, when two have consented to become one.  The act of bringing another new life into the universe was meant for us to share with our God.  We pro-create and borrow the elements needed from two humans to form a new one.  The formation of that new life will take time, and care, and sometimes may not reach its true human potential (either before birth or after it).  But it cannot begin, it cannot be instantiated without the materials required from the union of two becoming one.  In the process of a union this close, is born the joyful act of pro-creating a new life.  It was intended to be a three-way partnership with our God.  It was meant to draw our eyes back to Him, and to teach us the love of a parent, so much like the love He has for each of us.

Marriage is about as much a contract about property rights, as the library of Congress is about a single book.  This is the part of the fundamentals we have lost, an understanding about just how deep our choice will go into who we are.  The kind of intimacy our Creator is talking about is where two individuals become one family unit, just like He is with His Father.  They are One, yet separate and distinct entities. They choose to be One, of like mind, and of like goals, yet different.  They form our One God, yet we know them to be three entities.  In our marriage we are two entities, separate and distinct, but in our choice to wed, we are giving up half of ourselves to make room for our new half.  We are no longer referring to ourselves in a singular reference, because we are no longer singular, but plural.  In this context, there is no such thing as my money, or her money, there is only our money; which should be used for the benefit of the one I love most.  In this context, there is no such thing as a decision over which I should exert authority because of my preference.  I have no preference, but that which is ours.  In this context, there is no disunion between mom and dad where junior is concerned, her word is my word, and my word is her word.

The level of intimacy described here is a joining of minds far deeper than one we have ever considered before.  It is a sacrifice of self, far deeper than we have ever pondered before.  It is a union much closer than we have ever pondered before.  If what our Creator describes was the union Adam and Eve experienced before sin, and though scarred even after sin; do we imagine for a moment that Adam would have considered wanting a Divorce from Eve because life was hard?  He gave up perfection for Eve.  He broke trust with God over Eve, because she was so much a part of who he was.  When she died, he would look for no other replacement “spouse” because in his thinking death was not a get out of jail free card, it was a momentary delay before they could be reunited again.  The marriage of Adam and Eve was meant to be eternal.  The institution of marriage was meant to be eternal.  Divorce will one day pass away, as will all sin, but marriage was pre-sin, and will stand.  Consider what our Creator has to say about it …

Jesus continues in verse 9 saying … “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”  Marriage or the joining of two into one was something God established, what our Creator did for us, as evidenced by our very design, in male and female entities.  Let not man put asunder, or in other words, let not man think he is able to so casually mess it up.  There is no time constraint on this.  If marriage were an obsolete concept Jesus could have told us that.  If marriage too, were only valid in this world, and needed due to sin, Jesus could have told us that too.  He did not.  He did not lump in marriage with the need for divorce.  Instead, He puts the eternal stamp of God on it.  Marriage or the joining of two people into a single unit, was meant to be something that lasts beyond sin, beyond this world.  In that case, the death of my better half, is not a valid reason to seek another replacement unit.  The weakness of mankind may necessitate this, but the intent of marriage did not.  Death is a momentary interruption from my proximity to the half of me that was torn away, it is NOT the dissolution of my marriage.

What man has put asunder is staggering.  Because we treat marriage so casually as only a sex partner, and equity partner, we divorce and remarry like breathing.  But in so doing, we have never really married.  We have agreed to share some portions of our lives, but never agreed to let go the half of who we are, to become blended with someone else.  To adopt their likes and preferences, to share who we are to the point of blending souls, thinking as one, loving as one, living as one.  Instead our society (and the enemy who fosters it), teaches us to maintain our identity, never sacrificing it for ANYONE, not husband or wife.  Our society would have us leave our families and go on journeys to find out who we are.  Our society would have us destroy intimacy in the name of self-reliance.  But to sacrifice to another person so wholly that nothing is withheld, to love so deeply that another is always first in our eyes, to think of another person as the part of ourselves that makes us better, makes us complete – this is the ideas of marriage our Creator had in mind.  And He had them in mind on an eternal basis, not just a temporary one.  It is our weakness that introduced the need for replacements.  It is because we do not truly become one flesh in the core of who we are, that we maintain the idea of 2 people with 2 distinct persona’s sharing only for a while what is convenient to share.

But this lesson was not quite over.  John Mark continues in verse 10 saying … “And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. [verse 11] And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. [verse 12] And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.”  The laws in the days of the Pharisees were treating something so intimate as something very casual (sound familiar).  What Jesus explains to his disciples later on this topic, is that one cannot make this kind of commitment and just later casually change your mind about it.  One who has known this level of intimacy cannot walk away from it and just find another partner.  Whether woman or man, the mechanics of sex with someone else, forms the basis for adultery.  The intimacy that marriage intends is not a casual, multiple choice kind of scenario.  It is a one time, no room for anybody else scenario.  It is a reformation of who we are to become blended with another, that is not something easily redone.

When we reach heaven our Creator will have put right, the scenarios our sin and our weakness have put asunder.  Our Creator will have to heal the hearts of those that are split, and broken, and betrayed.  The establishment of marriage, though wounded by man, has not been destroyed entirely by us, or our sin.  It simply needs a restoration that our Creator is capable of both here, and in the world to come.  Those who believe they love more than one love, can find joy in loving only the one our Creator would have us love.  Our design is not being altered upon going to heaven.  We were created as man and woman and will remain so.  The institution of marriage is not being obliterated by our sins, but it will need repair.  But if we were to see our marriages become perfected here we must follow the same path we follow to see our characters become perfect.  We must learn to submit ourselves to Jesus, and allow Him to change the core of who we are, to want different things, to love in a different way.  The married ones of us, will find a deeper love and a deeper intimacy with our spouses in this process.  We may even learn to have perfected marriages in this world ahead of the one to come.  We may find our goals too become eternal, and not just for the brief time we occupy this world.  We may even find the unity of the One God in the one person we become, sharing that level of unity and love for others, so that when other see either of us, they see both of us perfectly blending into one flesh.  And His love shining through that perfect blend.

 

Two Weddings ...

John the Baptist would proclaim Him; disciples began to follow Him; and now to make time for family.  In the beginning of the gospel of John, chapter two, verse one, it says … “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.”  Interesting that at the creation event of mankind, one of the first institutions God created was that of marriage and the Sabbath.  Here at the opening of the ministry of Christ, one of the first things he attends is a marriage.  There is no way to know for sure if He knew the bride or groom, but He was invited to the feast, both He and His disciples, so it seems possible.  This was after all the area where His family appeared to be living.  For verse one continues … “and the mother of Jesus was there:”.  Family is an institution the “Son” of God understands well; for we are created in the image of God.  All throughout scripture, Jesus is referred to as God’s “Son”.    This familial relationship is something we understand.  It is something illustrated in the story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice He and Sarah’s only son Isaac, a foretaste of the sacrifice God the Father must make of His only Son to redeem mankind.

Notice too, at the creation of mankind Christ was present, for as John has already said it was He who “created all things”.  Therefore it was Christ who made both Adam and then Eve.  He was there at the first wedding.  He created the family unit throughout all of creation both male and female.  It was the union of male and female that resulted in the perfection of intimacy of His designs.  Neither Adam, nor Eve, were complete on their own.  In fact, some of the first marital advice ever offered in scripture was by our God to our first parents in that they should “stay together”.  As a family unit only would they be able to resist the much older devil who desired their destruction.  It was that Eve found herself alone, where all of the troubles began.  Had Adam been at her side, the temptation might well have been resisted by the power of their combined love.  But the separation and isolation made her more vulnerable, and they fell.  Here in the earliest days of His ministry, Christ again attends a wedding.  This act offers more than a miracle of water turning to wine, it offers another affirmation, that marriage and more importantly the intimacy that results from marriage by the surrender of two individuals into one family unit, is still something valued by God.  A marriage is still something God is interested in.  And like in the perfection of the Garden of Eden, it is only through the surrender of marriage that we find our ability to pour out our love on someone else and share an intimacy that God alone ordained.  An intimacy He was supposed to be the center of.

A marriage, no matter what the traditions that surround it, is a joyful occasion.  At this time in earth’s history, it was a common event to have wine at a wedding.  The word “wine” however, carries more than one meaning.  Christ referred to his own blood as being represented by wine.  And due to our own carnal natures, it is sometimes common to assume the wine referred to here was alcoholic wine.  However despite the fact that this story never actually says Christ drank the wine He created (that would be assumed but not specified), nor even that His disciples drank this wine (again assumed but not specified).  It is clear that others drank it.  So does that make Christ a divine wedding bartender?  Logic would dictate that if the governor of the feast, was also participating in the feast, his taste buds would have already been dulled by alcoholic wine served early at the wedding.  He might not have had the sense, or remaining sharp taste buds to determine if the new wine was actually so much superior to the old.  It is also logical that if Christ wanted only what is best for mankind, for us to hear and understand His truth clearly, He would likely not have offered a drink designed to dull our ears and our perceptions.  Much more likely, logic alone would dictate this wine would have been of the grape juice variety.

Author Samuele Bacchiocchi, conducted an extensive study on the original biblical manuscripts that were translated into our modern bibles of today.  In his book entitled “Wine in the Bible” he provides a detailed account of how the original language used words for wine that clearly delineated it was referring to the non-alcoholic grape juice variety beverage, as opposed to the clearly alcoholic version of wine.  These terms were mistranslated intentionally over the years to promote the idea that alcoholic versions of wine might have been produced or consumed by Christ, when in fact this did not occur.  So the idea that whether Christ and His disciples were consuming alcohol at a wedding, or simply serving it, does not make logical sense, nor does it actually concur with the original language used to translate our scriptures.

But not having alcohol is hardly the point where it comes to making a marriage a joyous occasion.  Genesis tells no stories of wine consumption being the thing that gives a marriage a reason to celebrate, or the cause for joy.  It is the love and union of two hearts that brings the joy to a wedding.  Having an outstanding grape juice there to drink, along with celebratory foods that comprise a feast, only adds to the joy of two families now blended in marriage.  And in this marriage in particular, having the blessing of the God of the universe, who despite His mother rushing Him a bit, still took time to resolve a very human dilemma, was the real win at this feast.  Notice the difference between serving self as opposed to  serving others.  Christ does not take the initiative to make wine because He is thirsty.  He only does this, to build the faith of His disciples, and to bless those in attendance at the feast.  Jesus was not a walking wine maker for those who were constantly thirsty.  Much later you will recall the story of the woman drawing water at the well, a Samaritan woman who Christ asks for a drink.  There would be no need of this, if He simply went around creating grape juice whenever He was thirsty.  Instead He remained thirsty.  In this instance, the needs of others, resulted in Him meeting those needs (again never even mentioning if He also participated in enjoying what He had created).

Marriage is an intimate thing.  In verse 12 of chapter 2 John continues … “After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.”  Marriage brings the blessing of children.  Love expressed generally does not stay dormant, or have no effect, it produces a result.  Joseph married Mary, despite her virgin conception, and kept her virginity intact until after the birth of Christ.  He did this to honor the direction given Him, as well as to see the scripture fulfilled.  But after the birth of Christ, the institution of marriage does not call for continued celibacy.  Joseph and Mary loved each other, their love knew the normal union, and in that expression, brothers and a sister of Christ were brought into this world.  Notice how scripture distinguishes between his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples.  If his brethren and his disciples were the same thing, there would only be need to state it once.  Instead John draws the distinction.  Christ had siblings.  They shared a mother, and for Christ an adopted father here on earth, and it appears his siblings knew who He was, and some followed Him as disciples (such as Jude and James mentioned earlier). 

Verse thirteen reveals the reason for their travels as Passover was near, and Jesus went up to the Temple at Jerusalem.  This would be the second symbolic wedding He went to attend, the one between God and man, the one more sacred to us all, in that each of us is not only bound to our marital partner, we are also bound to our God in the intimacy of our divine relationship.  It is God who knows each of us more than we know ourselves.  It is God who, like with Nathaniel, hears the deepest longings of our hearts, and who desires to be with us so much He would lay down His own life to achieve that end.  It is God who so loved us first, while we were yet His enemy, that He would do everything to redeem and free us from the slavery of sin and self and pain.  This is the God, the Bridegroom, who goes to the place of His worship, who goes expecting to receive us, and expecting to reciprocate our desire to see Him.  But alas this kind of intimacy is not what He finds.  This kind of pure worship cannot even take place in His house, as by then every tradition has been corrupted.

The Temple at the arrival of Christ is filled with commerce.  Religious profiteering has replaced real worship.  The place where one should go, during the most important time of the year to do so, is now so full of livestock, and salesmen, selling religious supplies and making money, that real worship is literally impossible.  How poignant, that the nation given so much instruction, with so rich a religious system steeped in symbolism to point forward to the Messiah, is now wholly unprepared to receive the object of their longing.  No one there sees Him enter as Messiah.  How could they, the sound of livestock, and profiteering salesmen fill the place.  So Christ fashions “a scourge of small cords”.  Notice this is not a 12 foot bull whip, nor does it carry the shards of glass in the tips of the whip that would soon be used to tear the flesh from His own body.  It is just enough to move the livestock.  And He began driving the livestock out of the Temple.  When divinity flashed through the eyes of humanity, those who were selling religious tokens immediately saw themselves in the eyes of Christ.  Like at no other time in their lives, were their evil deeds and intentions brought forward to them.  Evil cannot stand in the presence of God, it craves darkness, not light.  Light reveals evil for what it is.  And in the presence of light, evil must flee.  And so they did, running for reasons they could not fully explain.  Leaving behind the very money they worked so hard to swindle from innocent religious victims.  They ran before they themselves realized it. 

The force of the scourge was not the reason why those doing evil flee from the brilliance of the light.  It is not the fear of punishment or pain that causes the evil ones to run or to change.  In a straight up fight, they outnumber Christ, and could easily defeat Him.  Unscrupulous men, tend to know how to fight, how to struggle for what they want, and they do not surrender easily.  But this encounter was different.  When faced with pure love, evil is revealed, and it cannot remain in place.  They run.  It may even be possible they do not see the whip, it is the purity in the eyes of Christ, that makes them tremble all the way into their bones.  This is not a man who moves their cattle, this is the Owner of the Temple they have corrupted.  For those who wish no intimacy with God, for those who want what they want and have no desire to ever see themselves rid of sin and pain and evil, there is but one choice when confronted with purity … run. 

Then Christ proceeds to show the world what He thinks about the value of money, particularly where it comes to money as it inhibits true worship, he overturns the tables and casts the money on the floor of the Temple.  He does not count the coins.  He does not gather the funds for the poor.  He does not return it to those who have been swindled.  The condition of the money is put in the priority of its value according to Christ – on the ground where it is literally meaningless. 

The words “I desire obedience more than sacrifices” have never gone out of style with Christ.  The blood of rams was not the goal of the sacrificial system of worship, the reformation of the heart was the goal.  Buying a dove, or a ram, or another animal to offer was supposed to rend the heart of the sinner, and instill in them a desire to never have to repeat this process again.  It was supposed to send the broken hearted sinner into the loving arms of Christ who alone could change in them what they wanted, and how they lived.  But instead, it became a game of spending money to have sins wiped off the board, for this year, knowing full well, we will need to do it again next year, because we have every intention of repeating how we live every single day between now and then.  No intimacy with God.  No broken hearts over the innocent blood that would be shed.  No desire to be any different; only to fulfill the law, and be made pure through the acts of symbolism.

And today, what has changed?  We go through the traditions of our worship services.  We sing repetitive worship songs with mind-numbing tunes, and simplistic lyrics that repeat ad-nauseum until all meaning has been lost.  We give offerings and consider our debts to God paid in full.  We listen to sermons and consider ourselves filled.  We buy bumper stickers, and necklaces with religious icons, large print bibles to carry to church, and hope these symbols alone will do our witness of the gospel for us.  We ask forgiveness of our sins, but not for reform from them.  Our hearts are steeped in pretense, not in desire to actually change.  If our system of worship had not changed from the ancient days of Israel, we would be no different than those who went to the Temple on the day in which Christ cleansed it.  Our love does not define our reputation, rather our judgment of evil does.  We are obsessed with the condemnation of others, and wholly complacent with the redemption of our own souls.  Like those who felt no broken heart at the killing of the innocent sheep, we feel no broken heart every time we repeat our sins, having lost all perspective at the cost of our actions in the very blood of the Lord we claim to love.  As in the days of old the words …”I desire obedience rather than sacrifices” still applies with poignant fervor to us.  Obedience that could only come from the surrender of the will to Christ; this is what He desires way more than our money, or our meager attempts at worship and praise.  To drop the pretense, and experience the intimacy with God, this is the desire of our Lord.  This is what He came to experience in that Temple, and what He cleaned it out to make room for.  I wonder if confronted with the purity of love in the eyes of Christ, if we too would have run away before we even realized why we fled.

The priests however, were going to lose quite a bit of money on this deal.  So having gathered their senses they return to challenge Christ as to His authority to do these things.  After all He had said in verse 16 … “Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise”.  He referred to the Temple as being “my” Father’s house, again denoting the relationship of Son to Father.  The priests were still reeling from the flash of divinity in the eyes of Christ, they knew who He was, but they did not want to accept what He was saying.  What is more, there were people still here, people who did actually come to worship.  If they allowed this young upstart to reveal His truth unchallenged they might lose all sway over the religious rubes, and see profits come crashing down.  How alike in some of our churches today, where maintaining the hierarchy and organization of the church becomes more important than the dissemination of the truth, or the ministry of love and redemption to the world.  So the priests, despite recent events, ask for another sign from Christ.  He responds in verse 19 … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Here again, Christ is attempting to turn the conversation from the errors the Jews clung to, to the real reason of His mission.  Jesus had come to redeem mankind, and He would be the Lamb of God who must be slain.  Where could a more relevant message be delivered than at the very spot where lambs were killed every year?  Instead of condemning the priests for the complete lack of understanding of the meaning of His mission, He guides them to think about something in a way they have never considered, while providing His disciples with His words in their memories when times would be dark after His crucifixion.  He would arise in three days.  Most of the priests did not comprehend the spiritual truth He was saying.  Like us, we view scripture through the lens of our own ideas and greed, and therefore interpret it according to what makes us happy.  So the priests failing to recognize the symbolism He was drawing attention to, interpreted His remarks as literal and being about the physical building He was standing in.  Thus they thought they had Him, but given that recent flash of divinity, they were not entirely sure, even if He was talking about the building, it might still be true.

Verses 23 to 25 of John chapter two, conclude with a worst case scenario for the priests of His day.  Following this exchange Christ does “miracles” and “many believed”.  Christ then restores the intimacy that weddings are supposed to bring.  He restores the intimate relationship with God and mankind, by meeting the individual needs of those who came to worship.  Notice that the slaying of lambs, and traditional Temple services do not appear in these words.  It was Passover after all.  If the traditions and symbols were more important than the God who stood behind them, we might well have found Christ conforming to the daily traditions and customs of the Temple worship establishment.  Instead He is there meeting the needs of individual people who came to worship, both physical and spiritual needs.  Many believed by the work He performed.  Christ made no attempt at becoming high priest of Israel.  He did not try to take over the religious power structure and lead it.  He made no attempt at being international president of the church to which He belonged.  Instead He tried in every waking moment to return the religion back to its fundamentals of surrender to God, and the intimacy that results when two are blended as one, both God and man.  When we allow Christ inside of us, when we surrender our will to His, we become something different than what we are today.  We become a new person, a creation re-created by God, reborn, as someone else was about to learn …

 

ProCreation ...

The most difficult question for an evolutionist to answer is simply “why”.  The process of cell division can be clearly articulated, but the reason for it is completely absent.  We understand what takes place when cells divide and multiply.  We can even understand how life can evolve.  But why do cells divide in the first place?  “Why” does life find a way?  To answer “it just does”, seems a bit superficial to me.  But where there is a God who creates, who innovates, and who loves – growth and change – would be a logical conclusion witnessed in infinite expansion.  God, it would appear, is constantly looking for new ways to express His love for everything He creates.  It is why bringing something new into existence makes sense.  He designs creation to be the next physical expression of His love.  Our senses, our ability to think on our own, to choose, to love by choice, to experience existence – all hallmarks of a God keenly interested in sharing His own experience with what He has made in us.  We share His image by intent, by design, through the execution of deliberate planning on His part.  The evil we embraced was not His wish or His intent for us; but our ability to choose evil had to exist, in order that our ability to reject it and accept love could also exist.  We choose to love God, not because He forces us, but because He loves us.  We grow, we learn, we love – not because we invented these concepts – but because we were created to experience them.  Growth, change, and innovation are characteristics of our God reflected in our existence.  God succinctly answers the question “why” in perhaps the only way that could make sense.

Our growth then, our ability to think and learn and expand our experience as a result, is placed within us by His creative design.  We are meant to increase our knowledge, our love, and our joy.  Life grows and with it love grows.  As we introduce children into our lives for example, when our first child is born and is only minutes old, there is already a connection, a bond, a feeling.  It is the infancy of a love for our child that is destined to ever expand.  Our love for our first child does not diminish over time (normally), it grows, it expands, it deepens.  As our children develop individual personalities, likes, dislikes, habits – they become distinct, and we love them all the more for their distinctions.  As they grow still and age for many years, the nature of our relationship alters from provider to consultant and friend.  Still our love deepens as does our appreciation for the person or adult our child has become.  At each stage of life love exists, but because life grows and expands, it gives with it the opportunity for love to grow and expand as well.  This is by design.  The author of love looks to constantly expand His love to us, and in so doing He creates the processes of growth, so that we might share in what it means to see love grow.  Every healthy cell that divides and expands carries with it an incremental opportunity to see love grow as well.  This is perhaps “why” life is ever expanding.

It is only the antithesis of God that introduces decay and demise.  Where love is constantly expanding, self is constantly contracting.  Where a focus outward on the needs of others brings joy to the object of love, a focus inward on the needs of self, diminishes the joy we and those around us can experience.  This is why love is life, and self is death.  But perfection was not designed to have evil corrupt it, and one day, evil will make a full exit from our existence, purged by choice, by grace, and by fire.  After that, evil will be no more, all that will remain is love.  Therefore the process of expansion, the concept of innovation, the ability to reason, these things will ever be present, a part of who and what we are.  It would seem then, that love is the reason why we exist and why our experience and our existence are destined to forever be better every day.  There is no plateau of joy or experience we will reach and maintain; rather we are destined to forever be in a pattern of expansion and growth.  In this sense, our creation in the image of God is reflected in our creative impulses.

While we do not share our God’s ability to call things into existence by sheer will or thought, we were created with the ability to find new combinations of thoughts or elements and in the combination produce something “new”.  The concept of music for example would likely have been created by God.  However the infinite variations of musical sound are left to us to perform, compose, alter, innovate, and expand for all of eternity.  The shear variance in instrumentation can produce wide varieties of music, let alone the unique vocal tones each of us possess.  While God likely invented the idea of music, He seems perfectly happy to bless us with abilities to share in it.  There are those who write, who play, who perform, or simply who appreciate it; a wide range of experience where it comes to the concept of music.  The topic of pro-creation then is not merely about the offspring of a couple paired in sexual intimacy, it is about the pro-creation of ideas, of concepts, or constructions.  When we build a building, when we form new thoughts, when we imagine – we are in effect expressing a reflection of the creative nature of our God.  In this we are procreating.

To be called the sons and daughters of God is not only an honor we will never deserve; it may also reflect a desire on God’s part to see us join with Him in the process of creation, of innovation, of expansion.  Every minuet shred of life in our world was created to grow, to expand, and to procreate.  The methods of procreation, rates of growth and change vary widely; but every tiny particle of life shares in the process in its own way.  The process is the constant.  The expression is the variable.  Life did not have to have this characteristic.  God could have brought in to existence only a fixed number of animated creations, and not given them the ability to expand or grow.  He could have created only a fixed number of trees, or fish, or lions – exactly enough to populate our perfect world, or His perfect heaven.  Had He done so, He would have not needed the command to go and be fruitful and multiply.  Perfection after all, did not require expansion.  Expansion, or procreation, was a choice God made in His designs of all life.  Because the love of God grows, life grows with it.  Because love is not content to be stagnant, life is not designed to be stagnant.  The concepts that we have a hard time understanding are how the love of God is infinite, yet expanding.  Perhaps it is only our perceptions that are expanding as we grow.

The question a Christian should perhaps give a bit more thought to, is “how much is enough?”.  Could you ever envision yourself as having had “enough” of the company of God?  Could you ever envision being loved “enough”?  Being close to author of all Love, is not something any sentient life can imagine tiring of, particularly when our own growth reveals deeper and deeper revelations of what love is, and what it means to us, and to those we treasure.  I do not believe there is a “just right” number of close friends.  Whether you have one, two, three, or any number beyond that, you tend to treasure each one because they are unique, and bring a unique perspective to the friendship you share.  In eternity, through the eons of time, we will come to know every single person who was saved in this world.  We will think of them as our family, as our friends.  We will love them all intensely.  And will we have finally hit just the right number of objects upon which to share our love?  God didn’t.

The reason we were created with the ability to pro-create is precisely because there is no limit, no perfect number of recipients of the love of God.  Our species, and every other could have been created with only a limited ability to expand – procreate until we reach a certain population, or saturation of the earth, and then by miraculous design, lose the ability to procreate further.  Perhaps only achieving procreation to cover losses from whatever the perfect number was.  But this is not how God created us.  The ability to infinitely expand eventually puts the limits of this world to the test.  Our destiny however was not be constrained by the limits of only this world.  There is no cap on the edict of being fruitful and multiplying, as there is no cap on the number of other potential worlds which we might inhabit and enjoy.  Our galaxy alone could keep us “multiplying” for quite a while.  The point is not about population explosion, it is about the lack of population controls – love does not seek to control or limit itself and its expression to others.  As we find love for the newborn baby who enters our lives, so God finds infinite love for it as well.  It is not merely the parents, grandparents, and siblings who may be elated at the birth of someone new – it is ALL of heaven.  God too, finds His own joy, in the introduction of a new life into the universe.  This is what He intended.  This is what He designed.  This is another way in which He finds His joy – to express His infinite love to yet another life.  It is also why each life is precious, and in His view, absolutely of infinite value.

Given our current condition, it is hard for us to appreciate why any particular life is so important to God.  After all some folks are not exactly go-getters, there are many who appear so steeped in selfishness that they are offensive, obnoxious, and some even psychotic (and that may be just the one in the mirror).  Our embrace of evil does not make our existence one to envy or admire, it is more pathetic and sad.  But our God sees beyond our current disease to the existence we were destined for from creation.  He sees us after His work of re-creation is completed.  He sees our potential to forsake the evil of self, and embrace what it means to surrender and then truly love.  And there has not been a single addition to our population whose life God would not treasure and desire to redeem.  Upon entering heaven, it will not matter how many of us there are, because no matter how great a number that will be, each particular person will be of infinite value to God.  If God could have persuaded even one more person to accept His gift of redemption from self, He would be elated to accept that additional life.  There is room in heaven for more than will choose to be there.  There is room in the heart of God to love every single person who has ever lived, or who will ever live.  Every despot in history, from the wicked pharaoh, to the current folks like Joseph Kony, are not beyond the ability of God to love, or His desire to redeem.  There is no waste of a life or a waste of existence where God is concerned.  If every single person from Adam to the end of time had accepted the gift of God of freedom from self and evil, heaven would be overjoyed, and considered complete.  It mourns greatly however that many have rejected this gift, and elected to hold on to their chains of bondage to evil.

It seems only logical that if the population of our re-created perfect world expands, it would be in character with the designs of God.  If God creates our world anew as He did the first time He set it up, the trees and plants will still germinate and expand, the birds, fishes, and animals will still carry the ability to have families, and perhaps we too will still carry the designs of a family unit.  It may be that marriage and family still constitute the designs God intended before evil was embraced.  Our notions of love will certainly expand, but perhaps the designs of God of a special relationship may survive what damage evil and self have done to it in this world of sin.  Perhaps the restoration of family will be the last redemption God extends the species of man.  To me, it does not really matter.  I trust the wishes of God in this regard, and believe whatever He has in mind with respect to family and human procreation, I will be elated with His choice.  However, what I have learned of God, is that He truly never seems to have a limit to His love.  He loves each of us so thoroughly and completely.  He does not get tired.  He does not change His mind about who He loves, or how He loves.  No matter how many others He loves, He does not get tired of loving someone new, a new child in His Kingdom.  It seems only reasonable to me, that heaven will not be the starting point for putting a cap on any new additions to the family.  In fact, it seems only more reasonable and consistent with what He designed so far, that heaven may be the starting point for an explosion of love, and perhaps with it, an explosion of new life, new families, and even greater love.