New Thoughts (01/31/12-02/02/12)
Much though I have been appreciative of God’s timing and orchestration of my studies and my teaching duties these last few weeks, I have to say I would that this particular passage had come up on the schedule a few weeks ago. What a marvelous illustration this provides regarding the need for careful exegesis! Right there, in the example given by the disciples, we have a case study in misconstruing the figurative for the literal, and the resultant veering off course by those disciples. We have also a bit of phraseology at the end which is subject to our own misinterpretation in that it conveys what amounts to a colloquialism.
In this latter case, the colloquialism is still with us today, a commonplace, but the phrasing of it in our language is rather more abrupt, more exclamatory in nature. Were it written as we are used to seeing it, there would be no question in our minds as to what was meant. But, the majority of more literal translations leave the phrasing as written: “It is enough.” What does that mean? Well, they have just told Him about having two swords between them, so the quick answer would seem to be that two will suffice and they need not worry about buying any more today.
Several things really ought to bother us about such a conclusion, though. Primary amongst those things would be the nature of what this Teacher has been teaching, which does not show any prior tendency toward violent resistance, so why would He suddenly want these men playing army now? Follow that thought immediately with another problem: Even if all eleven of these guys had arms, what was that going to do against the power of Rome? Honestly, either Jesus in the fullness of His power could stand alone against them and win, or He could leave it to the eleven to fend off those armies. Either way, the eleven weren’t going to make any noticeable difference in the outcome. Let’s move to problem number three. This is still the Passover. There may have been things one could still expect to go out and buy in Jerusalem. The possibility of perhaps purchasing the necessaries for the feast, or of paying out alms to the poor still remained. But, purchasing swords was not on that list of exceptions. At a minimum, those listening ought to have recognized that the instruction was nothing that could be complied with right that moment.
So, then, if Jesus had just finished telling them that any one of them without a sword should sell what he needed to in order to purchase one, why is He changing course here and accepting that two swords amongst the eleven was going to be sufficient? Indeed, Wuest actually translates His response in those terms, “It is sufficient.” But, something’s really wrong with that picture, as I have been trying to demonstrate – many things, really. Interestingly, Wuest is uncharacteristically inconsistent in translating this phrase. In that other passage, which I’ll come to shortly, he leaves it as ‘it is enough.’ This tells me that Wuest actually supposes this to be the implication in this passage, that Jesus is simply indicating that two swords will be enough for now.
However, this is a case where being literal in translating the Greek obfuscates the sense of the message. It is best expressed, perhaps, as the CJB translates it: “Enough!” Anybody that has ever had their child arguing with them, refusing to accept their judgment as already stated, will recognize that exclamation. Anyone who has ever been in any sort of argument, or even a meeting, where the discussion has devolved into what is quite clearly a complete misunderstanding, a total loss of actual communication, will have at least had the urge to shout that same thing, if not actually having done so. The HCSB makes it even clearer, in case we don’t recognize our own colloquialism. “Enough of that!” A less polite man might have said, “Don’t be stupid.”
Isn’t this, though, a case of reading opinion into the clear and literal meaning of the text? It might feel that way, but the reality is that this is more a matter of recognizing the culture in which the original conversation took place. It is also a case where we have other passages of Scripture by which to measure the intention here if we lack the historical background to understand the intent. Here, we are pointed to that other passage I mentioned, where Wuest has left the translation as, “it is enough.” In this case, we are in the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus coming back to the three he left to watch and pray only to find them asleep once more. It is then we hear Him say, “Are you still sleeping? Still resting? Enough! It’s time. Look, the Son of Man is even now being betrayed into the hands of sinners” (Mk 14:41). Same phrase, “it is enough.” Do we really suppose that Jesus is simply saying that they should be well rested now? Ought to be alert enough to deal with what’s going down? Of course not! We know what they were supposed to be doing, we know this is not their first failure to do so. We know that Jesus knows what’s coming in the next few moments. It’s absolutely ridiculous that these three, chosen by Jesus to be His backups, commanded to keep prayer vigil over Him while He prays, witnesses to the intensity of His prayer and fully warned of the nature of that end which is swiftly approaching, should never the less utterly fail. It is enough! Knock it off! Get yourselves up on your feet so maybe you can stay awake to at least witness what’s about to happen.
The phrase, Thayer informs us, is actually a Hebraism, and one that is of rather long standing. We find it as far back as Moses, when he records his efforts to plead Israel’s case with God. He reports back to the nation, having come back. “God was angry with me because of you. He would not listen to me, said, ‘Enough! Speak to Me no more about this’” (Dt 3:26). That’s why this passage is presented as a parallel verse here. It gives us context for understanding that, “it is enough,” is not a commentary on the sufficiency of weapons, but on the absurdity of even mentioning them. In effect, what Jesus is saying is that these disciples of His have utterly failed to exercise proper exegesis on what He has just been saying. In light of their total misunderstanding of His point, He is terminating the discussion. It is rather as though He has decided that they are beyond teaching, at least at this particular moment, so there’s no sense trying to further explain. Or, perhaps, He is just sensing that time is running out, schedule doesn’t permit of further exposition to clarify His meaning. The Holy Spirit will just have to recall it to mind for them later.
This reaction, though, points out that there is that case study in poor exegesis presented for our consideration. It seems that discussions of Biblical interpretation always arrive at this issue of taking heed to whether a particular passage is intended literally or figuratively. Many an argument arises on the point as applied to this or that passage. Here, it seems we have a striking example of the disciples failing to recognize the figurative nature of the instructions Jesus is imparting. True, He has mentioned swords and the desirability of each of them acquiring one. However, that mention must be held in context. Take your wallet. Bring your suitcase. Provide for your self defense. These translate His instruction into more current terms. We, and they, ought to take note of the prelude, though. Before now, I sent you out without any provision for your own needs: no wallet, no suitcase, not even a change of clothes to your name.
Indeed, the accounts of Jesus first issuing those instructions make note of the fact that they were to take no staff with them either. A staff, we ought to note, was not just a means to stabilize one’s footing on a steep bit of the road. It was also a weapon, primarily defensive in nature, but in capable hands it would be perfectly able to disarm an opponent or even kill. That recollection might have aided the disciples on this occasion to recognize the nature of the new instructions. It is a contrast between the Providential care that they walked in previously, and the new provision that required they care for themselves.
Let me state that a bit differently. There had been this period in which the work of God that preceded these men along their route had so moved the hearts of men that the disciples were welcomed with open arms, the Good News of the kingdom received with great joy. There was no need to bring provisions because those they went to would gladly see to their housing and their upkeep for the duration of their visit, and even be pleased to give them a bit of something to see them through the journey when they left. They needed no weapon to defend themselves because there would be a thick hedge of God’s own protection encompassing them as they made their way. Nothing would come out against them, and therefore no weapons would be needed.
Now, the picture has changed. The welcome of God’s Son has worn off. People, having heard the Good News, will pass their own judgments on that message. Seeing the primary Messenger hung on the cross, a most vile criminal according to Rome’s edicts, will see just another failed revolutionary, just another hope for Israel crushed and broken under Rome’s heels. If He is destroyed so easily, and not so much as one man fighting for Him as He went down, what possible use is His message? We thought Him sent of God, but that’s obviously not the case, so speak to us no more about Him! You messengers, still clinging to this shattered dream: Don’t waste our time. You fooled us once with your talk, but no more!
That is but one aspect of the changing picture. Those who had welcomed this glimmer of hope could no longer see the hope in it. Face it. If the disciples themselves had trouble maintaining faith in the light of tomorrow’s activities, what chance was there for the rest, really? More to the point, with the death of God’s Son, though it meant rescue for many, there was that judgment upon Jerusalem which Jesus had pronounced. You had your chance, but you killed it rather than welcome it. You have made your choice, and God will honor it, much to your sorrow. In short, the opportunity for that particular generation to repent and return had passed. The window was closed and no new applications were being accepted. This status would not be revoked when and if they came to their senses (were it possible for them to do so). There could be no changing of their votes. To hear, then, the message of hope when you are firmly established amongst the hopeless is more than an annoyance. It’s more than a marketing pitch gone off the mark. It’s a reminder of that very hopelessness that is every bit as certain as the believer’s hope. How pleasing is the instruction manual for seeking parole when the jailor’s already informed you that there is absolutely no possibility of parole for you? Why, you’d tear the jailor’s throat out for setting such a crass reminder, such an impossible hope before you if you could.
It is this sort of scenario into which the disciples will now find themselves thrust. The welcome they had known before will be a rarity, if not a thing of the past. The perfect security they had known before will not persist. “In this life you will have tribulations. I am leaving you in the world, darkened as it is.” The call, then, is to stop simply expecting the miraculous provision of God at every turn, and start being prepared for the worst. See to yourself. Be stewards of your affairs even as you trust in God. The mission continues, and your role in it will only become greater now. The basic facts have not changed. Apart from God, you can still do nothing. But, you are being handed responsibility, and you must demonstrate responsibility. Show it by your preparation. Show it by your attending to such potential needs as lay ahead.
If there is one thing the instructions are in no way intended to suggest, it is that their new responsibilities include that of acting as a military band. Where has there ever been any training for that in all these last three years? There has been none! All the training they have had, all the example they have had modeled in Jesus, is that of serving, of teaching, of helping, of Life. There has been nothing in His message that could be construed as supporting death and violence. Quite the opposite! Even that business in the temple courts was not really a violent uprising. It was, after all, but one man. No, it was passion for God’s pure purposes, but nothing beyond that. When confronted, Jesus had been civil in His defense and civil in His attacks. He had used no greater weapon than His words against those who sought His harm.
How, then, do we find the disciples completely misunderstanding the point here? Well, one possibility is that they are simply demonstrating their own presuppositions. Remember that this is a people steeped in Messianic hopes, and in particular in those hopes long deferred. This proud nation has, it seems, been subjected to first one power then another, yet they have never lost the memory of their own dynastic glory. Neither have they ever lost sight of those promises delivered to David by God Himself: Always there would be a king on David’s throne. And yes, that promise certainly indicated that this continuous line of kings would be of David’s own descendants. And yes, this was God speaking. It could not be wrong. And yet, where was this promise? Who could pretend that Herod was some son of David’s? Who could even suggest that the Roman governor down there in Jerusalem had even the vaguest of connections with David? I tell you, they were frustrated, angry with that anger that is particular to those who have lived with hope deferred for a bit too long. But, the Messianic dream didn’t die. It just got ornery. Expectations of some great, even shocking military victory ousting the latest bunch of oppressors became the norm. How could it not? I mean, if God had to be true, and He had promised this King, then He was going to have to cast all these interlopers out first, wasn’t He? And how would He do that except He come with military might and power?
Well, of course, they could add to this and they did. They added from their memories of the glorious tales of that first incredible victory over Egypt. Mind you, they had long since ceased thinking of that as a case of slaves slipping the bonds of slavery. No. You can hear that in the Pharisaic self defense: “We’ve never been slaves! We’re Abraham’s kin!” Sure guys. That whole scene had been repainted in their sense of events. It wasn’t slaves escaping. They were political prisoners, and God had come and utterly destroyed that vast army that opposed them. Yes, and for the whole of that forty plus year campaign that followed, what had there been but military victories? Of course, they could hardly deny the incredible interventions of God on their behalf, and why would they want to? No. He had been a pillar of fire defending them against any assault whilst they encamped. He had been the force splitting the sea for them as they marched, and He had been the force closing that sea up once again upon the heads of Pharaoh’s army in that first great victory. Perhaps this Messiah will bring not only a restoration of military might, but also of those great and mighty feats of old.
Consider what we’ve seen Him do already! Did He not calm the waves that one night when we thought we were done for out there in the boats? Did He not feed the masses on next to nothing, and that repeatedly? The scale may be smaller, but this is just exactly what we hear God did out there in the desert when we first left Egypt! Don’t you see? He’s here, and He’s bound to have an army at His back! It must be time for Israel to reign once more, for that dynasty we once knew to return to a more permanent power. And maybe, just maybe, we’re going to see Him doing things to dwarf those miracles Moses records. So, if He’s calling us to get our swords, maybe now’s the time? This is it, gentlemen! And we’re in the first echelon! We’re the honor guard, the cream of the new revolution! Well, if it’s to battle, then let’s see what we have. Two swords, General. We’ll need more once the Passover is done.
So, their active filters parse the message Jesus has delivered to them, and rather than hearing what He is actually saying, they hear what is more in line with their own hopes and dreams. The thing that has changed is not the peaceable and service-centered character of this ministry Jesus has instituted. Never that! The change is in the reception to be expected. The change is in the details of how that ministry must now be carried out. “I send you out as sheep amongst wolves.” Truly. The Church was never granted permit to spread the Gospel by sword point, not here in this critical moment, not later. Not ever! Sheep may defend themselves, or set themselves under such shepherds as will see to their proper defense. But, they do not go out provoking confrontations with the wolves. They do not do preemptive strikes.
The call, then, is not to militarism, but to preparedness. Understand the change. Recognize what you are now walking into, what you are being sent into. Consider the implications of this Scripture that is being fulfilled in Me come morning, “He was numbered with transgressors.” They shall declare me a criminal, an enemy of the state, and they shall put me to such death as they deem that sort deserve. Well, then: If this is their view of Me, what do you suppose they will think of you who have been so very publicly with Me, who have been My spokesmen, My collaborators? Do you suppose they will think you any less criminal? Do you suppose that those who will be shouting for My blood tomorrow will think more highly of you, for some reason? I tell you outright: You are in danger because of Me, and you always shall be. It’s not these men and women who are your danger, though, but My enemy. It is that dark angel who seeks My destruction (as if!) He has set himself against Me, and you can count on him to do everything in his power to destroy you when he is convinced that I am out of the way. Oh, he knows the futility of it, just as this nation has felt the futility of its Messianic hopes all these long years. But, like Israel, it’s just made him mad, more determined to do whatever damage he can before he goes down for the final count.
Watch yourselves, therefore! Understand that you’re not being left here to enjoy the loving adulation of the crowds. Indeed, if that’s your experience, recognize that you’re way off. If everybody’s in love with your message, then you are no longer speaking My message. Love must power that message and fill its every phrase, but love’s not love that let’s the sinner continue blithely along in his sins. Understand that you’re going to have to offend a lot of people if you’re going to speak My Truth. Understand that you’re going to offend Me if you don’t. Be fully prepared, therefore, as best you can for what will surely come. See to your needs. See to your food and your shelter, for you will no longer be able to count on the kindness of strangers. I had no place to call My own all this time. Now, you shall find yourselves likewise ambassadors with no home to retire to. I have suffered the slings and arrows of all manner of lesser men. You shall likewise be assaulted and abused. You won’t just be insulted and embarrassed. You will deal with physical threats, physical hurts. You will be imprisoned and tortured on My account. You are permitted to defend yourself against such use as best you can. Don’t mistake me there. But you are not given to deny Me in order to avoid such troubles. Not unless you wish Me to deny you before My Father and yours.
Understand this, as well. What is happening to Me has a purpose. I love the way the CJB has phrased that particular part of verse 37. The NASB, as with many, settles for words along the lines of, “for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment.” How much more powerful to hear, “what is happening to Me has a purpose.” It’s not blind fate. It’s not chance. It is no coincidence. And, it is absolutely not a failure of My planning, a failure of God’s planning. Not at all. Truly, everything proceeds precisely according to plan! Everything moves forward as it must. God has said it. It cannot be otherwise.
It should be noticed, too, that this clause is given as the reason for the change of instructions. Because this must happen, because the plan must conclude as designed, you need to start being prepared to take care of yourselves. I am going. I will be with you but I am going. I will send that other Advocate to aid you, but I am going. It’s not always going to feel so immediate as it has before. You’re going to deal with times when you feel like God’s not hearing you, not answering. Don’t you believe it! No, you are only being trained up and strengthened. You are being forced to mature, else you’d happily stay babes forever and you know it! But, these things are going to happen. They can’t not happen. Just be ready.
[02/02/12] Indeed if there was a day to be mindful of the nature of this earthly walk of ours, yesterday was it. So many trials to get through, so much that was not merely annoying, but anxiety provoking. Here was my daughter with her issues, my wife with hers, and both seemingly arriving at crisis point even as I sought to deal with my own trials in the realm of employment. It just seemed to be a never ending cavalcade of everything at once. But, there it is: In this life you will have tribulations. Yes, indeed. A few less at a time would be fine, but the truth of that can hardly be denied, can it?
I shall, however, give God His due praise that these trials of yesterday were not of that sort where one feels the need to scan those about him for knives. No, there were no threats upon life or livelihood as concerned my person. I suppose one could construe various health issues in the family as threats upon life and livelihood, but it is not that personal sort of treachery against which a sword or staff would serve any purpose. They are just, as we might say, facts of life, or even ‘acts of God’. But, no. I shall not attribute that sort of chronic, debasing illness to a good God. Yes, He can and shall cause even this disease to serve His good purpose in my beloved’s life, but the disease itself? It is a corruption, and a plague upon the glory of His image in this woman. It’s source lies elsewhere than in the perfection of holiness.
This high stress day, then, served well to turn me towards the point I wished to cover today. It lived the point. You see, what is written is, by Scripture’s own declaration, for our benefit (Ro 15:4). It is not recorded that we might think upon the greatness of those who went before. It is not recorded in order that we might idolize the Apostles or the prophets or even the kings. Indeed, Scripture goes out of its way to make clear that all these heroes were but men, with all the faults common to man. They are far from perfect, every one of them, just as we are. What they went through, how they responded, what they were taught: all of these things were recorded for us. They were recorded in accord with God’s own purpose, as a means of instruction [and thank You, Lord, for that word, which finally pointed me to the verse I had in mind!]
The instruction we have here, beyond the caution it gives us for our own careful examination of the message before us, is that we are called to be a people prepared. That which required the change of instruction for the apostles has persisted even to this day. The reception of the Gospel and of Gospel’s King is no more likely today than it was in the aftermath of His crucifixion. The hostility stirred up against this marvelous Lord of ours continues to be stirred up. We are inclined to suppose it is worse in our time, and perhaps that is so. I suspect, however, that it is rather like the climate that everybody seeks to panic over. The variations in how the Gospel is received are well within the norms set by preceding centuries, but our memories run much shorter than that. So, the darkness seems so much darker than we recall it from our youth. Civilization appears to be running down around us. Of course, that youth we recall was a youth in which we were part of the darkness, and it just looked normal to us then. It may well be that civilization is in such decline as it cannot pull out of. Indeed, I could state that as an absolute certainty. Of course it is! It has ever been thus. Apart from the intervention of God and God’s Christ, civilization can do nothing else but plummet to abysmal depths.
That’s part and parcel of understanding the impact of Adam’s failure as our official representative. It’s part and parcel of the entrance of sin into the world, that corruption with which we are born and which we continue to bear except as Christ works His miracle in us. For those of us who have taken to the parachute of faith, who have been pulled from the death spiral around us, we have this bit of instruction from Jesus in today’s passage: Be prepared! Don’t take for granted that those plummeting around you on every side will just smile benignly at you as you float upward. No! Jealousy, if nothing else, will cause them to lash out. There’s good cause for that old adage that misery loves company. Indeed, failure hates nothing quite so much as success. We’re watching that happening today. This whole business of the 99% is nothing but failure resenting success, and that resentment, rather than urging the failure to greater effort, to push harder for success, causes the failure to seek out how he might destroy that one who was successful.
As with so much of human nature, the trend is ever towards the lowest of standards rather than the highest. A debased humanity should hardly expect otherwise. But, I diverge from my point. The point is to walk in innocence as concerns sin, but not in ignorance as concerns sin’s effect. In a fallen world, the man on the rise is in constant danger. It is not a danger to his soul that is in view here, for that lies secure in Christ. The danger is physical. The danger, at a more personal level, is complacency.
The message Jesus gives is complex in its simplicity. The point is plain: be aware and be prepared. There is a deeper point, though: Be aware that instructions are not static and eternal things. Scripture still insists that there is a time and a season to everything, and that includes the instructions given the believer. There was a time, a season, for going out on mission without the least concern for one’s provision or preparation. Just do it! But, that time passed. Now, the instruction for the missionary is take what you have to see to your own upkeep and protection. It’s a dangerous world, and the particular provision made for that brief period in which the apostles went out while still under tutelage is no longer in force.
I have met those who fail to take the point. They will go forth to this conference or that, taking it ‘on faith’ that they shall be given the means of returning home by others at the conference. In short, they presume upon the preparedness of the wise, and demand the compassion of their fellow believer. Of course, as has been said, that compassion which is forced is no longer compassion. Mercy is not mercy where there is no alternative. Beyond being a rather poor display of Christian principles in its own right, this sort of walking by faith alone fails to listen to the message our Teacher has given. If he will not work, neither shall he eat. See to your provision. The worker is worthy of his wage, it is true, but those who went out working for the Gospel and the Kingdom, as we see them in these pages, sought to do so without imposing any financial burden or demand on those they would reach. Of course, they weren’t big on going to conferences just to hear big names bloviate, either. If they held council, it was to resolve a critical issue, not to listen to some group of particularly charismatic stars of the pulpit. The business of the Kingdom was business to them, not entertainment. But, again, I seem to veer from my subject.
I note that as Jesus updates the instructions, He also makes certain that the disciples recognize that they have good cause to accept the updates. When I told you to go out unprepared, you found it caused you no hardship, didn’t you? Yes, they had to agree that they had lacked for nothing in spite of the admittedly surprising nature of those instructions. Yes, Jesus, Your instructions to us were trustworthy, though we wondered at them at the time. Well, then, here’s the new instructions, men, and they are every bit as trustworthy! When you went out unprepared, you found all prepared before you, as I knew you would. Now, I tell you to be prepared, for nothing will be prepared before you, and this I know with equal certainty.
I’ve already explored the reaction of the disciples, as to how it demonstrates their failure to properly parse the message. But, that failure in itself is of greater significance for our own education than merely to prompt us towards good study habits. The message is this: Obedience to the instruction of our Lord, the command of our Lord, is key. However, that obedience is of no value without proper understanding! I think of Paul’s comment regarding his fellow countrymen: “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Ro 10:2). They are ready to run off at a moment’s notice, to pursue what they think God is telling them to do. The problem is, they don’t really know what He is telling them to do. They are dashing off without having really understood what He said to do or how. That’s what happens here with the disciples. They’ve heard the command, but they haven’t really understood its real intent. So they happily wave their two swords at Jesus and say, look! Some of us are ahead of You on this, Lord! But, we’ll need more come morning, if we’re each to have one. And in the parlance of our day, Jesus does a face-palm at the utter foolishness contained in that response.
This needs to take us to our own case. It’s all well and good to look at these men in retrospect and with the benefit of our own knowledge of the bigger picture. We can laugh at them, pity them, even be surprised at their failure to get the point, but this is only an attempt to avoid the implications for our own part. It’s a failure to take heed, to recognize ourselves in their behavior. We, too, are forever jumping off without proper understanding of what God wants done. We, too, are so ready for action that we just assume the previous command is still in force, and completely miss the change. Or, we pass the command through our own personal filters and wind up hearing something completely different from what was said.
There’s that whole “Love and Respect” message that Jan and I have been listening to, with its presentation of men having their blue filters and women their pink ones. It’s a clever way of presenting the issue of miscommunication, and it’s equally apt when applied to us listening to what God is saying. He, thank God, has no such filters. He hears our meaning even when we are actively seeking to disguise it! We, on the other hand, are inclined to hear Him through a complex set of preconceived notions, personal predilections, pet sins and so on that leave us hearing pretty much only what we want to hear. The disciples wanted a Victorious Warrior in their Messiah, so when He mentions swords, this is where their mind immediately jumps.
What is it I want Christ to be? There are entire ministries that are anchored on presenting the Jesus you want rather than the Jesus who Is. There are any number of social or political movements out there that seek to cast Jesus as a clear advocate of whatever it is they may be promoting. It doesn’t matter, quite frankly, whether it’s socialism or theft, whether it’s enforced compassion or free sex. They even seek to suggest that Jesus is a green! Clearly, were He alive today He’d choose an electric vehicle! It’s for the environment, and Jesus would certainly be an environmental activist just like us.
We look at these abuses and shake our heads. We perhaps complain of the abuse. But, the fact is we do it ourselves. I do it. I have my own sense of what Jesus should be, and it requires constant attention to keep that from corrupting my acceptance of Jesus as He is. I have my own pet sins that I just don’t want to hear about. So, if that’s what He’s speaking, well, my ears may fail me for a moment. I have my own aversion to that message of daily trial. I know it. I get it. I just don’t like it. So when the trials come, my first thought is very rarely to return to that message and be reminded that He is with me. Easy enough to roll that out for others, but for me? No, I was supposed to get the garden path. I’m special.
It is very easy to take this message of preparedness and see how somebody else would have benefited by laying hold of it. Like so many sermons, we always know somebody else that needs to hear it. The failure tends to come in recognizing that we need to hear it. We need correction. We need to understand when the direction has changed. We need to be very wary (and simultaneously so) of becoming so staid in our habit and tradition that God’s fresh command can no longer reach our ears, and also of becoming so excited to be about something new and fresh that we leap into action without actually having understood the command. There is absolutely a need for us to be instant in our obedience. “Thy will be done as it is in heaven,” requires it. But, His will is done in heaven with clear understanding of the instruction, if not, necessarily, the reasoning behind the instruction. This, too, is required of us by that prayer. We must heed with care as well as with alacrity.
The final aspect of the message Jesus gives should be a cause for great comfort to us. As concerns the events He is about to suffer, there is this message: “That which refers to Me has its fulfillment.” This is how the NASB renders the end of verse 37. The NCV offers up, “It was written about me, and it is happening now.” That may be true, but I’m not convinced that was what Jesus sought to convey. That word that NASB translates as fulfillment is telos. This term does indeed speak of a final action, the close of an effort, the final issue resulting from that effort, and Jesus is certainly, in that sense, the fulfillment of God’s plan from the opening day of Creation.
But, there is another aspect of that word telos. It indicates, as Thayer puts it, ‘the end to which everything relates’. In its derivation, telos points backward to a term indicating the effort put into achieving or reaching some very specific goal. It might be the finish line of a race. It might be, as our own national season suggests, attaining to the office of President. It might be some task on one’s to do list. Where, then, this root word speaks of the effort of reaching that goal, telos speaks of the goal itself. Now, whatever that goal may have been, the effort expended had a purpose, that purpose being to reach the goal.
As Jesus speaks of matters here, we could therefore take His meaning as , “that which refers to Me has purpose.” Yes, there is the sense of prophecy fulfilled in Him. Of course, there is! But, there is a deeper significance that we ought to take from this, particularly in light of the specific prophecy He is noting here. It’s not pointless coincidence. It’s not a lapse in God’s planning that allowed His hero to die. No, that very death is part of the plan. It’s a necessary step toward realizing the goal, His death has Purpose just as His life has had Purpose. In fact, His death is that final action, the close, the issue of all of God’s efforts up to this point. It is also the absolute insurance and assurance of all that remains to unfold. It is truly the focal point of all history, both that history which has been written and that which has yet to pass upon the stage of man.
What does this matter? What bearing does it have on my life? Well, the fundamental point I ought to take from this is that here, again, what is true for the Teacher is true for the disciple. The vagaries of life are not random events that we just swept us up in the net. The pains we suffer are not pointless. Look, that’s a hard pill to swallow sometimes. I watch what Jan deals with day to day, and it’s beyond me to find a point to it. Surely whatever boon it might have been to her spiritual development has either occurred by now or never will. Why continue the sorrows? Surely, a merciful God who loves His children can’t let this go on any longer! Why, I can’t even conceive of how He has allowed it to go on this long. But, all we, like sheep, are being led to the slaughter. And we are called to bear it like sheep. We must, I suppose, be forcibly separated from our deep attachment to this world. Much though we may find to hate in it, we love it all the same, having known no other existence. So, when we are called to forsake it, the idea may amuse us philosophically, but the reality of practicing this crucified life soon wears thin. We aren’t that inclined to let go. We like this life. It’s fun at times. We’ve got our stuff and our relationships, damaged though they be, and it’s enough. Really, who looks for death?
At times, I think the bigger question is why we don’t all seek it out. To be done with this time of constant trial seems infinitely to be preferred, yet something in us keeps us hanging on. Even knowing our beloved Savior awaits just the other side of that last door, yet we are disinclined to open it, aren’t we? And, that this is as it should be, there can be little doubt. Yet, even as we linger and seek quite vigorously to ensure we linger as long as we may, still we mustn’t allow that effort at lingering to become our defining feature. Still, we mustn’t become part of this world. We are no longer a part. The differences may not be as distinct as they should be, but they are real. We are not granted to pull out. No! He left us here, and He did so as He died: With Purpose and for Purpose. We have not been left to just suffer the remaining indignities haphazardly as best we may. We have been left to do a job, a job for which we were specifically and uniquely created. Those things He has set before our path that we might do, it was for these things that He created us. He didn’t set them out there just so we could feel special. He set them out there as integral parts of His great plan and purpose, and He set us out here likewise as parts of His great plan and purpose. Let us, then, be about our purpose, that we, too, might attain the goal set for us, and that we too might live in a truly prophetic fashion, such that our very lives relate to this Jesus Who is the Purpose!
