New Thoughts (7/18/06-7/22/06)
I have to admit that upon reading the text for this study, I am not clear that all three accounts are really looking at the same events. Matthew’s account in particular seems to be considering something later in Jesus’ ministry. There are really two connecting thoughts between Matthew’s account and Mark’s. First, there is the issue of getting away from the crowds, and second, the warning not to disclose His true nature as the Son of God. Likewise, there is a limited connection between Mark and Luke, mostly found in the description of where the crowds were from and in the association of this event with the calling of the twelve. That said, I find that I am in good company when I associate the three accounts. The cross references in both the NASB and the NKJV indicate a similar connection between these narratives. If, then, I can revisit the combining and paraphrasing of these three passages, I think I would do it somewhat differently, along these lines.
Having chosen His disciples, Jesus came back down the mountain to the plains, where great crowds were waiting for Him. Seeing those crowds, He went apart, moving to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. But the crowds just followed Him there, for they had heard much about Him. Jesus arranged that His disciples should keep a boat ready in case the crowds got to be too much, for He had already healed many and those still waiting to be healed of their afflictions were crowding in all the more. This is what had drawn them, this chance to be whole again, and everybody in that great crowd was trying to touch Him, for they could tell that power was flowing from Him. After all, they could see the healings happening around them, and when He confronted the unclean spirits, they fell before Him, declaring Him the Son of God. This, however, He would not tolerate, and He told them sternly that they were not to make Him known in such fashion. All of this served to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the Servant of God, whom He sent to bring justice and hope to the Gentiles.
In all this, the most difficult connection seems to be with the prophecy of Isaiah, as to how these actions on Jesus’ part fulfilled Isaiah’s words. Looking back a few lines in Matthew, it becomes clear that the setting in which he puts these events is a time of confrontation with the Pharisees. Jesus would once again heal a man rather than heed their traditions, and they found in this reason to kill Him. Rather than make a scene, though, Jesus simply left the area. This seems to be where Matthew is making connection with the prophecy, particularly with that verse about not quarreling, not noising things about in the streets.
However, consider the implications of that passage in the light of what the other writers say of that crowd that had gathered. Matthew doesn’t give us the particulars of the crowd, only that they followed Him. But, Mark and Luke both make the point that this crowd was not made up of Jews alone. It included people from Idumea, Edom of old, as well as folks from Tyre and Sidon in the lands of Phoenicia, what is now Lebanon. This was a mixed crowd, certainly not restricted to the chosen people. Jesus, however, was making no distinction. In this light, He was indeed bearing justice and hope to the Gentiles.
Mark, in particular, speaks of those with afflictions pressing in to touch Jesus. It is interesting, in considering that word ‘affliction,’ to note something Thayer’s Lexicon brings out. This word (as opposed to sickness and disease, is particularly used of those great plagues and calamities that God sends by way of disciplining and punishing sinners. Is it not to be supposed that where His hand has disciplined, there will indeed be a bruised and battered reed? Is it not to be supposed that where that punishment has not produced the effect of disciplining its recipient the wick of life will be near to extinguished? It is no light thing to be disciplined by God. I have actually been watching my wife go through that this last week, and before the lesson was through, she was indeed battered and weary. But, He will not break the reed. He will not snuff out the light of life and hope. He comes to make justice victorious.
Before He can bring us to victory, though, He must first get it through our thick heads that sometimes the trials we are going through are indeed a matter of godly discipline, not simply the opposition of the devil. True, God will never tempt us. As R. C. Sproul was teaching on the tape I was listening to yesterday, the trials God sends our way are never meant to cause our fall and ruin. They are meant for quite the opposite, to save us before that ruin is made certain. Neither is it to be thought that the trials come for us to explore our strength in overcoming them. Not at all! We overcome not by our own strength, but wholly by His.
See that played out in this passage! The afflicted come to Him for a touch. They press in to the only hope they have of coming through the trial. And what happens? They are healed – made whole again, free from sin and its effects. Justice has been made victorious, and the hopeless have found Hope. Yes, it seems that prophecy was fulfilled indeed! Isn’t it amazing, though, that the fulfillment is more clearly seen when these other accounts are combined with Matthew’s?
I have to say that I am finding more and more that what God is saying to me personally requires really listening to and combining the lessons I am learning from many sources. He is not just handing out the answers in plain fashion, but requiring some effort of thought and persistence in seeking Him out. So, I find that the response to my prayers of late are found to be coming in pieces that must be fit together. I hear a part of it in a passage that one of the ladies attending my home group felt compelled to share. Had that been the whole answer, I should have accepted it, but to say I should have accepted it gladly would be stretching the truth. But, this was not the whole answer, though I mistook it for such. There came also a word from our worship leader to the worship team. In fairness, I was not thrilled to sit there listening to that word, because I was ready to get on with practice and get home for dinner. But, there were things in that word that applied to my life and ministry at present. Then, there was the song I had heard from Him last Sunday. It, too, was rather painful, held in isolation from these other events.
It was not until I had understood that these things were connected that I began to grasp the answer He was really trying to give me. Well, this was such a reversal from what I first understood that I began to question whether I was hearing Him or my own rationalized pursuit of my own ends. I have continued to keep the matter in prayer, as I have learned to do: leaving it in His hands whether I proceed on the course I seem to hear Him indicating or not. I have, as I have learned to do, taken steps down that path along with the prayer and, my what anxiousness! It is nerve-wracking enough to move into unfamiliar territory on no further basis than what one thinks one has heard from on high. The anxiousness only increases when one must share the vision with another, not knowing what sort of response or even comprehension one will meet with. But, God has been faithful. He has arranged for me to hear exactly the confirmations I needed to hear in order to feel confident that I am doing as I ought. May the results bring glory to His name.
Now I would speak to a couple of things that have caught my attention as I was preparing this study. The first is a bit of prophecy that was presented as a parallel verse. It comes because of the mention of Idumea amongst the regions from which they came to hear Jesus. Idumea is, of course, the Edom of old. Yet, it is not the mention of Edom, nor its history that has me interested at present. It is what seems to me an unusual aspect of the prophecy. For, the prophet Ezekiel, uttering the message God has given him, says to prophesy not to the surrounding nations, but to the land itself. He commands his hearers to speak to the mountains and hills of Israel, to the valleys and ravines (Eze 36:5-6a). Doesn’t this strike you as odd? It did me. Yet, at the same time I find it to be a cause for some excitement.
Forgive me if I am drawn yet again to the matter of Caleb. He saw the land through the eyes of God’s promise and God’s faithfulness. He saw that the land was occupied by unfriendly forces, that there was opposition that must be overcome, but it did not matter in his way of thinking, because God had already given the land to Israel. Where God was determined to move forward, what opposition could possibly matter? Move forward to the time of Ezekiel. As he describes in this prophecy, the land of Israel, the land God had determined to give to His people, was in ruins, trampled upon by the surrounding nations, peopled by those who had rejected the God of Israel and, in many cases, by those who had been expelled from the very land Israel now claimed. Into this situation, God does not say to speak to those surrounding nations, but to the land they had destroyed in their efforts to get at Israel. The enemy had once again possessed the land, but God says to remind the land itself of its glorious purpose! He says to tell the land itself that this insult of occupation will not last, that they will once more be the fruitful abode of His people, that He Himself will bring His people back to that place. “You have endured the insults of the nations,” He declares, “so I will visit those very same insults on the nations that have done this to you” (Eze 36:6b-7).
Now, it might be tempting to try and apply this to events now unfolding in the Middle East, but I have in mind an application much closer to home. As it was when I first heard the question, “Where’s Caleb?” so it is with this message. It’s not about the land anymore. All the kingdoms of the earth are His anyway, and those who sit in the places of power are there at His sufferance. They shall remain in those places so long as it serves His purpose to have them there – and only so long as this is the case. More to the point for us, though, it’s about those kingdoms of thought and imagination. It’s about the landscape of the mind. It’s about the mountain peaks of education, philosophy and morality. It’s about the rich valleys of art and music. These things have been all but destroyed by the occupying forces that surround the Church of God.
Once, music was the expression of the beauty we saw in the Creator. The greatest of the classical composers expended their best efforts on expressing their love of God in the music they wrote. Consider Bach, who left notes of simple prayer on his scores. “To God be the Glory.” Consider the great painters, whose subject matter so often drew upon the stuff of Scripture. Over time, though, these forms have been stormed by the forces of dark opposition. Every form of music has wandered off in the direction of ugly, proclaiming it to be the new beauty. Discord has become the favorite sound in the ears of the composers of today.
Once, education was the responsibility of the local preacher, more than any other. It was understood that the greatest purpose to be served by education was to instill a thoroughgoing knowledge of God and of His moral standards. But, that ground was given over to a godless body of men, who saw in the halls of education a place where they could plant the seeds of unbelief and water them thoroughly. They saw a way in which they could successfully prevent the morals and traditions of the family from being passed on to their children, as they indoctrinated them into a vain and futile reliance upon the wisdom of man.
Into these, and every like situation, the words Ezekiel declared come to us. God is speaking to those hills and ravines, to the wastelands of modern intellectualism and art, and saying, “Yes, I am against those who have taken these lands as their own possession and driven My people out of them as a prey. Oh, My people, speak to the arts, speak to the halls of education, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Because you have endured the insults of unbelief I have sworn that surely the unbelievers who have done this to you will themselves endure their own insults.”’ But you, oh flower of mankind, will surely be fruitful once more for My people; for they will soon come. I will turn to you, shaper of thoughts, and I shall cultivate you, and shall multiply man on the fruits of you. Thus, you will know that I AM the LORD.”
Like Caleb before us, it falls to us to be the foot-soldiers in this reclamation. Like Caleb, we must go forward in the confidence of the Lord. It is nothing to be tried in our own power, but it is nothing to shrink back from. The voice of Christianity has been chased from the marketplace of ideas, but only because we have allowed ourselves to be chased out. It’s time to push back in. It’s happening in some places already, and you know what? The world doesn’t really like it much. The Roman Empire wasn’t real big on the idea either, for it is truly a competing kingdom that we preach, whether in terms of nations or in terms of knowledge and understanding. The scientists have come to enjoy their stance as the oracles to mankind, and they are no more anxious to relinquish that throne than were the priests and priestesses of Delphi. But, the word of the Lord remains sure. “Where you set your foot…”
There is another verse that came up in the parallels to this section which, combined with one that came up in Table Talk recently presents another matter worth pursuing. Recall that time when they brought a paralytic to Jesus for healing. It was said that on that occasion, there were a number of Pharisees and scribes in the crowd, because these men had come from all over Israel to see about this Man (Lk 5:17). That day, they would witness healing of the most miraculous sort as the paralytic not only walked, but had the sickness of his soul, which is sin, healed as well. Recall that from this same group, many had gone out to witness what John was doing by the Jordan (Jn 1:19). But, now, hear the testimony regarding these men. The Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves (Lk 7:30).
Wow! Just consider even that possibility, that one could find himself at the end of his days having not only failed to complete the task God created him for, but having completely rejected the purpose for which he was created! Yet, I fear many of us may find we have done just that. Oh, inasmuch as I am addressing believers, I am not talking about unbelief, not about the utter rejection of God and His Christ. It’s more along the lines of Jonah, who heard from God exactly what he was purposed to do, but refused to do it.
I have looked, in recent weeks, at that set of words that describe the naming of the Apostles. He called them and He chose them from among many (Lk 6:13). He appointed them to their purpose, fitting them to the task at hand, equipped in every regard (Mk 3:14). As I have observed in previous studies, every member of the body of Christ can make this same claim, if in a different degree. We are each one of us called to Him, chosen by Him for a purpose, and appointed to the serving of that purpose. In fact, as has been observed so often, we are created with that purpose in mind. God in His marvelous Providence, has not only created us, but He has created the very works we were born to do. What ingratitude, then, if we see our purpose set out before us and reject it!
It’s one thing to have failed to recognize one’s purpose. We may wander long years in this life not understanding what we were created for. We may misunderstand the opportunities for good works that have been laid at our feet day after day until one day God finally gets hold of our understanding; until by His power, our blindness is empowered to see.
There comes a time, I am quite convinced, when every son of God must recognize that he is no longer simply one of the called, one disciple amongst millions. Now, that son has been called to his purpose. Father God has made plainly evident to him how he is to serve the kingdom. I tell you, that moment of comprehension can be overwhelming! The pages of Scripture are littered with those whose first response to their calling was disbelief. Start with Moses. You want me to what? Me? I can’t even talk straight, and You expect me to confront the most powerful man in this entire region? What of Gideon, hiding in the wine press when God declares him a valiant warrior! Me? You want me to deliver the land? I am the youngest son of the lowest family of the least tribe in all Israel, and you want me to do this thing? C’mon, God! Yet, if these two men had not come to grips with their purpose, if they had rejected the call upon their lives, we might very well not be here to speak of them.
It is interesting, isn’t it, to recognize that there is that possibility in us, the possibility of rejecting God’s purpose for us. We could, at this point, get into a fine debate over free will and God’s sovereignty, but I don’t really think that serves a purpose at present. The thing I would have us see is the danger of finding ourselves in that same position. Moses could, I suppose, have refused to heed the call. He would never have known the power of God’s appointment. He would be nothing more than an escaped convict hiding in the desert lest the law of the land find him out. Gideon could have rejected the call to war and stayed home, doing what he could to keep his produce from the ravages of the enemy. He would have done no better than to starve himself, but he could have done this.
For that matter, think of Mary, a young girl by our standards, nowhere near ready for the decisions she would have to make. And here comes an angel into her room, telling her she is to bear God’s child. My goodness! She’s about to be married, and she’s supposed to accept this? Who’s going to believe her story? What man in all Israel is going to take a fifteen year old unwed mother to wife? What is this angel thinking? Mary was being presented with her purpose. Where would this world be had she rejected it? Ah! But, she said, “let it be done. I am Your servant.”
Now, the question comes to me. Have I recognized the purpose for which God created me? Have I yet seen that purpose, and have I shown myself willing to walk in it? What impossibility had He called me to? No, not every purpose and calling is to an impossibility. Indeed, I think for many of us the calling comes in steps, lest we be overwhelmed. For the Pharisees and the lawyers, the first step towards purpose was to acknowledge that they’d gotten way off track. The baptism of John was about repentance. How, then, would these pillars of righteousness respond when they were told that their righteousness was as filthy rags in God’s sight? That first response was indicative of the rest of their years. God’s purpose for them was, it seems, to lead the way as examples of repentance and as examples of those who pursued real righteousness in the only possible way it would ever be obtained. These were the leaders of God’s people in matters spiritual. Of course, He would be pleased to have them provide real and proper leadership. It was for this purpose that He created them. But, they would not have it. They would not accept humbling at His hands that they might be lifted up in His service. They rejected God’s purpose, and therefore, God rejected them.
Father, I know I have heard from You for this present step I have undertaken. Yet, I find myself inclined to ask You, through the offices of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Your Christ, to open my eyes to my purpose. To know that You do indeed have a purpose for me, a purpose in these studies being shared as they are, a purpose to the music You inspire in me, a purpose even in the particular vocation to which You have fitted me is a marvel. That You should take such care in my fashioning is a wonder to consider all my days. Yes, and that You would allow such as me to serve You in any fashion, let alone to call You my Father, what honor could I ever hope to have that would exceed this? Knowing this, Lord, and knowing how easily I can slip into refusing to do this thing or that, I ask forgiveness for those opportunities I have wasted; opportunities to see Your kingdom increased. Forgive, Lord, and change that reticence to speak out in Your name. Replace it with the boldness of knowing Your Spirit is within me. Replace it with the boldness of Stephen, who faced his accusers with no more than truth and love, even though death was his reward for that effort. Yes, my God, and reveal unto me my purpose, appoint me to my intended task, and let me recognize that You have indeed equipped me with every necessity for the successful completion of that task. Then, oh God, so will and work in me that I see to it that the task is done.
Looking briefly at the beginning of that prophecy which Matthew quotes; we are granted to look attentively to that chosen Servant of God, His Beloved. Now, that use of “My Beloved, in whom I am well-pleased” is, of course, familiar, as this is exactly how God speaks of His Son at His baptism (Mt 3:17, Mk 1:11, Lk 3:22). I don’t know that I had quite caught the connection to this prophecy before, though I do know that the opening verse (Isa 42:1) came up in that study. In light of Matthew’s reference to it in this passage, though, suddenly something is made very clear about the baptism of Jesus. God was announcing something about His Son which should not have been missed by those who know Scripture. He was establishing the fact that His Beloved Son was also His chosen Servant.
It should be noted, though, that He is not Servant as we might understand the household servant of old. He is certainly not a domestic, in the nature of oiketees. He is not doulos, a slave even if by choice. Neither is He diakonos, a minister executing another’s commands. Yes, He comes as a minister, and He does indeed heed the commands of another, but most specifically, He comes as pais, the King’s attendant and minister. He is indeed the Servant, but the Servant of the King alone. As humble an office as servant may be, it surely finds its highest worth in service to the King. And when that King is Lord of all Creation, what greater worth could any servant ever hope to experience?
In our own turn, we have been made servants to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Every Apostle of Jesus understood this and proudly declared it. They wore it as a badge of honor that they served in His courts and at His pleasure. Notice this, as well, about the Beloved Servant. He was chosen by God. We, too, were chosen, as was brought out with the Apostolic appointments. That said, though, we must understand that we are not chosen in quite the same sense as our Jesus. We, like the Apostles were selected out of many. We were made suitable to our purpose by the fact of His choice and His appointing of us to our purpose. He, on the other hand, was chosen because He was suited to His purpose.
There is a fundamental distinction between the Christ and the Christian. The Christ is chosen as the Christ because He is well-suited to the office. Behold the Lamb, Who is worthy to open the Book (Rev 5:9). For the rest of us, our worth and our fitness for our purpose come because He has selected us and then made us worthy. Prior to His choosing, we satisfy none of the qualifications for our assignment. It ever and always requires His appointing us, making us fit for our purpose as He made the Apostles fit for their purpose. Apart from this, we can do nothing. Only Jesus, the Christ of God, can be said to have been chosen because He was already perfectly fit to the task. Behold the Chosen Servant, the perfect minister of the King, Who is Himself King of kings and Lord of lords!
Well, then, it’s time I got to the personal, moral application of this passage. It is well and good to know that Jesus healed many, that He cast off the demons that persecuted His people, that He refused to accept their acknowledgement. It’s a fine thing to understand all of this, to be able to explain why He did so. But, none of that, not even understanding the prophecy that Matthew points us to and how it fits the circumstances, will make a change in me. None of these will bring me to a place of better understanding who I am in Christ or how I should live before Him.
Were I to seek out something from this section that can and should bring such change, it lies in considering those crowds who came to Jesus. They were trying to touch Him, pressing in on Him with all concern for propriety gone. Why did they behave this way? Because they were sick and they knew it. They were in desperate need for the healing this God-Man had, and they couldn’t bear to deal with another charlatan. Israel had plenty of faith-healers at the time, even as we do today. But, there was only One who could truly heal, and when His presence became known, there was no stopping those who understood their sickness from seeking Him out, wherever He might be, wherever He might go.
Well, if I believe these things I read in Scripture, I must understand that I, too, am desperately sick. That is the state of the sinner – sick unto death with no cure in sight. But, God in Jesus brought a sudden change to the condition of my life. Suddenly, there is a hope. If, however, I am to lay hold of that hope, I must recognize my need. The Pharisees, faced with this realization, asked, “we are not blind, are we” (Jn 9:40)? Because they could not bring themselves to admit their problem, Jesus said, their sin remained. Who will come looking for sight when they are convinced they have 20-20 vision? Who will come looking for the forgiveness of God when they are convinced that there is no sin in them?
So, well and good, I came to Him years ago – rather, He came to me, drew me in like a fish in a net. I have met the Healer, and I have been changed. Yet, if I find myself thinking that all has been made well by that, that I can go forward now without concern for the sickness of sin in my life, then I am a fool. If Paul could not claim to have arrived at that state, then I surely cannot. If John, the beloved disciple, the last Apostle, who was graced with the Revelation of the return of the Christ, could say with utmost conviction that any man, himself included, that would claim to be without sin is a liar, then how dare I think myself in that place? Well, if I don’t think contrary to the Apostolic teaching of Paul and John, where’s the desperation? Where’s the pressing in to just get a touch of this One who can yet cure the sickness of sin that still clings to this life?
Today, I will be going out into the city with my church and many other churches besides. We go out to minister to a desperate people; to the homeless, the addicts, the off-scouring of the region. We go out to minister Light and Life to people that, while they may not understand their need of Jesus, certainly understand their need. They have long since set aside the pride that might keep them from accepting whatever may be offered to help sustain them, even when the thing offered may be contributing to their death. Desperation; the desperation of being all but forgotten by the society in which they live. Such desperation will drive a man to beg for the opportunity to reach out and grab any little bit of hope that may offer. They said this of the people around Jesus: They begged for the chance even to touch the fringe of His cloak. We don’t need personal audience with Him, won’t trouble Him with our cries for help. Just let us touch Him.
That’s what was going on with the crowds around Him there on the plains. Desperation. Desperation that came from recognizing need. How else can it come? Well, do you know that’s exactly what God is looking for from His people? That’s what God is looking for from me, an acknowledgment of my desperate need for Him. We sing about it often enough. I’m desperate for You. I need You like the very air I breathe. Yet, do I really believe that? In Him we live, move, breathe, have being. Do I really believe that? Then, where is the desperation? Where is the no holding me back, shoving through the crowds, it’s my turn now desperate striving to press in; to just touch the fringe of His robe? I am not convinced that I’m not blind, too, am I?
Oh, God! Let such foolishness be far from me! Though You teach me so much, yet there is so much I need to understand. More than that, I need to live it, to get it in my soul, etched on my heart, written into the habits of my life! Holy Spirit, today as I go out, I go out without any specific assignment, without being busy with this and that, preparing the sound system, hiding behind works. Today, then, Lord, let me serve You. Today, let Your light shine through me as it has never shone before. Today, let the boldness of Stephen, of Peter, of Paul be upon me to proclaim Your hope to the hopeless, to demonstrate Your love to the unlovely, to move Your justice a bit closer to victory in the people that I meet.
Lord, if I am to do this, You surely must equip me for the task, for I have nothing in myself to give. I am, in my own way, as needy as they, though well off by most standards. I am so in need of You today, I need Your eyes to see what’s really happening. I need to be close in next to You, touching Your robe, no, hugging You as You hug me, held by You as You work in and through me. Let me, then, draw near to You in this, my need. Lord, we both know there are plenty of things in me that need to be cured, done away with, cast aside. Create in me this morning a clean heart, that I may serve You in the beauty of holiness. Let all my stupid pride be set aside once and for all. Most importantly, my God, let me do only as You direct and all that You direct.
