New Thoughts (04/12/13-04/18/13)
I won’t get very far into things today. There are a few, very brief points that can be cleared up pretty immediately, however, primarily those questions that I left for myself. The first has been awaiting answer for a very long time. I see that it was something that came to mind very early in the years I have been after this study. Was Matthew one of the two on the Emmaus road? I know why I had thought this possible. Matthew is, after all, the one forever pointing out the prophetic fulfillments. How is it, we might ask, that he understood these things apparently even more than Peter or John, if we go by their Gospel accounts? But, it seems to me that the conclusion of this section takes that possibility off the table. “They found the eleven gathered together”, Luke tells us (v33). Well, now, if one of the eleven were on the road with Cleopas, it seems improbable that he was also there with the other ten.
I would note that the efforts by Lightfoot to harmonize these two accounts falls apart on the same point. He posits that Peter was the one with Cleopas. But, this again requires Peter to be in two places, on the road and with the other ten. Add to this the improbability of Peter having been there and not having taken charge of the conversation. More, is it really probable that Luke, having named this otherwise unknown disciple would fail to note Peter as the other if indeed he were there? But, the final blow to that idea is also the answer to the other question I had posed: Who was speaking there in verse 34?
It is surprisingly ambiguous in pretty much every translation. Yet, I am assured by footnotes in the HCSB that the underlying Greek allows for no such ambiguity. It is those with the eleven who make the announcement. Things have been happening while those two were walking to Emmaus and back. They are not the only ones to have seen Jesus. Indeed, in Peter, we have perhaps the first really credible witness announced. What is surprising here is that nothing is ever said of that encounter beyond the hint of it here, and Paul’s later reference to it: He appeared first to Cephas and later to the twelve (1Co 15:5). We must forgive Paul a bit of imprecision there, for certainly the Twelve were but Eleven by that point. What we may surmise as to that encounter, given the nearly complete absence of coverage, is that it was extremely personal in nature, more so even than that encounter Jesus had with Mary.
If Mary had need of some special attention to assuage her grief and allow faith to arise, how much more Peter? Peter, who had been the de facto head honcho amongst the Twelve; Peter, who had so boldly announced his determination to stand by Jesus even in the face of death, only to prove so craven at the first challenge, there in the high priest’s courtyard; Peter, who for all his bravery had done nothing, could do nothing, to save his Lord. He was ever the brash one, was he not? He had known highs and lows of spiritual experience apparently beyond that of the others. He was given to be first to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God, and then immediately rebuked for failing to grant the Son of God His due. “Get behind Me, Satan!” Ouch! He was of Jesus’ inner circle, and yet had heard that rebuke and warning at their last meal together. “Three times, Peter, before this day is even done, you will betray Me.” And it was so. “Satan wants to sift you like wheat, Peter.” And it was so. But, there was also that last bit: “When you are back in grace…” And, this too, was so!
We are familiar, of course, with that other episode, which will come up somewhere in the next several weeks. Peter swims to shore to once more be with Jesus. And, there is that bittersweet conversation. Do you love Me? You know I’m fond of You. No, really, Peter: Do you love Me? As I said, Jesus, You mean a great deal to me. Peter. C’mon. Do you really have any affection for Me at all? Lord, You know. And, we understand that part of that conversation was a careful healing of the three betrayals with three avowals. But, it strikes me that this was only the more public announcement of Peter’s forgiveness. One suspects that unrecorded encounter that happened while Cleopas and his companion were on the road is where the real forgiveness took place.
But, this is primarily about those two on the road, so let us return to their situation. As they explain events to Jesus, there are two words which particularly catch my attention: Hope and redeem. “We were hoping it was He who was going to redeem Israel,” they say (Lk 24:21). Now, we are taught, in Christian circles, that the hope we read of in the Scriptures, and which we hold as believers, is a different sort of hope than is commonly spoken of in the world. We know worldly hope. It is often little more than wishful thinking. We hope the roast isn’t over-cooked. We hope we won’t catch that bug that’s been going around. We hope our candidate will win the election. We hope all manner of things, but as often as not, it’s a hope with no particularly rational basis. We don’t necessarily believe. We just hope. We’d like it to be that way, however unlikely.
Over against this lies the Christian concept of hope, which is, as the author of Hebrews has it, a matter sufficiently secure as to anchor the soul (Heb 6:18-19). It is a hope we can lay hold of, a hope set before us, and a hope so certain as to be accounted rock-solid. It is a hope founded on this fact: “He who promised is faithful” (Heb 10:23). To be clear, true Christian hope is set upon the promises of God Who cannot lie. It is so much more than wishful thinking. It is the absolute certainty of the unchanging Creator. It is thus, and only thus, that we have such confidence that the unseen fulfillment of our hopes will indeed come to pass.
Now, let me say this. It is entirely possible for Christians to develop worldly hopes about godly matters. We are inclined to see as promises things that God never promised. It may be an honest misunderstanding of His Word. It may be that we allow our personal preferences to dictate how we understand the Word. But, we fabricate promises and put our faith and hope in those instead of in Him, and then we find faith disturbed when our fabricated promises fail to bear fruit.
It must also be said that we Christians are equally capable of rejecting or neglecting promises in which we truly ought to have hope. There are those matters, of course, in which there can be no real doubt in the Christian. Our hope of salvation, which is first and foremost in import, is not in question. To be a Christian requires it. To have no such hope is to have no faith in the Christ Who Is, ergo, to be no Christian. But, there are many other promises which come as part of the package. Is physical health to be found in that package? What about those spiritual gifts that the early church seemed to have in abundance? What about signs and wonders that are promised as following those who minister the Gospel? Were those not promises? Are they promises for all time, or were they only for that first group? And, in answering those questions, what is our basis? Is it Scripture alone? Is it traditional opinion? Is it our own preference for how things should be run? These are harder questions than they may appear. It is as possible for us to err so much on the side of caution as to lose out on what God has for us as it is to err on the side of foolishness, accepting every claim of supernatural excitement as necessarily godly.
But, the issue remains that of hope. We have a hope made certain. Is it the same sort of hope that these two spoke of? The term itself, according to various lexical definitions, can have the sense of something expected with desire. That is still something a tad stronger than wishful thinking, I think. Unless we remain children, our expectations require more evidence than simple desire. Hope, as this term elpis describes it, contains confidence. It is confident expectation. We have not reached the conclusion as yet, but we know how it turns out. We have confidence in that conclusion, and it is pleasing to us. So, perhaps we ought to fold all of that together in one: Hope is the confident expectation of a desired outcome.
Would it be wrong to read this into what Cleopas is saying here? “We were hoping that it was He…” We had confidence in Him. We expected Him to complete the victory that He seemed to be announcing as we road into the city last week. We had every confidence that this Roman occupation was coming to an end, and that Israel would rise once more. We believed Him. We knew God to be with Him. And, Oh! How we looked forward to the conclusion. But, note: That hope is spoken of in the past tense, at least in translation. Actually, it turns out to be an Active Imperfect Indicative. But, the Imperfect Indicative does indeed point backward in time. It is a continuous past state, as opposed to a one-time action, but it is still in the past. There is, then, at least the possibility of a suggestion that this hope was under threat of being extinguished, if it were not already dead. That they are still discussing and debating the matter with each other would seem to preclude a complete loss of faith and hope, but it’s sure a tenuous thing now.
It would be easy enough to imagine the state of the disciples at this point. Their leader, the one who was supposed to usher in the golden age of Israel and re-establish David’s kingdom, has been betrayed by one of their own number, arrested by their own religious leaders, and put to death by the very oppressors they expected Him to overthrow. This One who had done such miracles, who had shown Himself capable of controlling the weather, who had demonstrated His ability to raise the dead, was now dead Himself. And, they couldn’t even find the body now, to give it proper honor. What sort of hero was this? What hope remained of Him accomplishing what they thought He would accomplish? Hope? There is no hope! Indeed, all they have left to hope for is maybe a bit less ridicule when they return home after having wasted these last few years. And even that little bit of hope would have difficulty finding legs to stand on.
Let me turn now to that other word that described their hope. They were hoping He was the one to redeem Israel. This actually alters my sense of what they thought Messiah was about somewhat. We always construe their view of Messiah as being that of a conquering Warrior King come to thrash the Romans. No doubt, there is some of that to their thinking, or at least to the perspective held by a portion of the populace. But, this idea of redemption doesn’t quite fit with the idea of military conquest. One doesn’t redeem by joining battle. One redeems by paying a ransom. That’s what the term means. We hoped He had come to pay our ransom. The concept here has obvious religious overtones. It wasn’t a ransom to the Romans that they were concerned about, for the Romans were not seeking some price at which they would set Israel free. No, the ransom being paid was being paid to God. It was an atonement.
That expectation, I dare say, was perfectly in line with Truth. He did come to pay that ransom. He did come to be the Atonement. They were so close and yet so far from understanding. He was the One. They just failed to grasp the truth of what that meant. This is where Jesus is pointing when He responds. You are so slow to believe what the prophets spoke! Don’t you see? It was necessary in that particular, philosophical sense, that the Christ suffer first and then enter His glory. What sort of atonement could preclude that suffering? How great were the sins of all mankind? How eternal the penalty of death that was multiplied against them? What payment do you suppose was enough to satisfy the demands of Justice, when the penalty of sin is death? Of course He died. That was His job! That was the Redemption.
Luke’s account has been building this point since he first described the birth of John the Baptist. Zacharias, when finally he can speak again, proclaims, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people” (Lk 1:68)! He has found a way to pay for our crimes without wiping us out! That’s a theme Paul will make much of later. And Peter! Peter, looks back upon this same matter in later years, as he encourages the church in his charge. “You were redeemed – not with perishable materials like silver and gold. No! You were redeemed by the precious blood of the unblemished, spotless Lamb of God, Jesus the Christ” (1Pe 1:18-19). But, note: You were redeemed. You were ransomed. That necessarily implies that you were imprisoned and condemned prior to that action. It also necessarily sets you in one of two places now: either at liberty, or become property of that one who redeemed you.
There is so much wrapped up in that concept that we tend to neglect or lose sight of. Redeemed! In spite of what we understand, what we’ve been taught, it seems our nature is such as to still think like the Pharisees that Jesus encountered, “We have never been enslaved.” We are still inclined to suppose we had nothing from which to be ransomed. This is in part, at least, to the fact that we have often been taught that it was the devil from whom we required ransom. It is from his prison camp that we have been sprung. And there is, certainly, that aspect that Paul speaks of; how we were enslaved to sin before we were purchased out of that slavery to become the slave of Christ. But, the payment didn’t go to the slave master. The payment went to the Owner. It was from God’s punishment, the court of True Justice, that we required ransom. It was not a matter of extortion or kidnapping. It was a matter of legal jurisprudence. We were in debtor’s prison because of our crimes. The court had long since found us guilty and the penalty was far and away beyond our capacity to pay. And, in the meantime, there was that prison punishment of sin. Oh, we were enslaved alright. Addicted to our sins and incapable of choosing what is right. But, a Redeemer came.
He came and paid for our crimes. He came and satisfied the demands of Justice. I don’t think we yet have a proper sense of the enormity of our crimes. There are hints of it if we consider David’s repentant words. “Against You, and You only have I sinned.” While that was hardly accurate, for he had certainly sinned against both Bathsheba and Uzziah, it certainly established priorities correctly. Every sin against man is simultaneously and, beg pardon, more importantly a sin against God. It cannot be otherwise. He is not separated from His Creation although He is altogether separate. Our ever sin (and they are beyond our own capacity to number) is against God, against God Who Was and Is and Is to Come, against God Eternal. As He is eternal, so too are our sins in the ramifications. As our sins, then, are eternal, so too must be our penalty. The penalty for sin is death. But, it is death far more profound than that which the unbelievers so dread. It is more than a final surcease of consciousness. It is not just the Big Sleep. Sadly, those who are dead in their sins neither sleep nor slumber, but remain in a state of very conscious awareness that God Is, they were wrong, and there can be no reconciliation. They know He Is, but He is not with them. There is an eternal divide set between. It is like a heartbreak that can never mend, a sorrow so deep as to be agony which time will never heal, for they have moved beyond time as He is beyond time.
This same penalty is our just due. But, Jesus. But, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, He accomplished our redemption! The Blood of Christ, shed for us, is as eternal as our sins. It is the only thing that could ever pay our debt. Silver and gold? They are held in high esteem amongst nervous investors. But, in God’s sight they are less than dust. They are perishable. It is beyond our capacity, I think, to consider them so, but they are. It is God’s Word alone that persists to all eternity, God alone, and those to whom He elects to impart Life. For, that Life is in the Word and is the Word, and the Word abides in us if we are truly His. This is the miracle of redemption!
Let me say that again: This is the miracle of redemption! If never came any other miracle in the entire record of Scripture, this would suffice. If we never had any other benefit from our status as chosen of God, this would suffice. If there are yet gifts of healing, gifts of great knowledge, gifts of tongues or prophecy or any matter of spiritual power, they pale to nothing before this one great miracle. He Lives! And because He lives, because He has given me life, I live. In Him we live, and move and have being. That was true when we were numbered with the fallen. It is only more true as we enter into the real life of the redeemed. In Him we live. In Him we move. It is our desire, mine certainly, that those ins may be fors. For Him I live. For Him I move. We are called to a life quite like that of the tribes in Exodus. Where the pillar stops we stop. When the pillar moves, we follow. If we move it is because He commands it. If He does not command it, we don’t move. If He says speak, we relay His words to those He indicates. Whether they are receptive or not is immaterial. Ours is to obey the One Who redeemed us at so great a price.
I paint the ideal, I describe where I would that I were. At the same time, I can’t but hear the words of the old Larry Norman song running through my thoughts. “I am a servant, I am waiting for Your call. I’ve been unfaithful, and so I’m out here in the hall.” For Him I live and move. It is the Truth. May it also be the reality. This weighs the more heavily on my thoughts as I contemplate the possibility that I might be called to serve as an elder in our church. That I am worthy of the title I cannot imagine. That I am ready for the office I rather doubt. That I am to do as my Lord requires I cannot deny. Should He call, I shall do my utmost to answer. I’ve been unfaithful, and yet, He has not. He has redeemed me, bought me at great price, and if He sees fit to set me in this place, He is, of course, right and wise in doing so, whatever I might think of the decision. Lord, please use me as You will, and may my service be to You as You would have it be. I am Your servant.
Changing focus now, it strikes me that this day was overwhelmingly eventful for the disciples. They had been trying their best to appreciate the Sabbath of God, yet it was difficult to do so. Their Teacher, their Hero, the one they had thought to be the very Son of God lay dead and more or less buried. All the hopes of not just the last three years, but really of a lifetime seemed to have been thrown over. These were, after all, a people raised on expectations of Messiah. They were also a people under the heel of foreign rulers – again. While Israel enjoyed many concessions that other Roman provinces did not, there was still that constant military presence, still the heavy taxation. There was still the creeping presence of politics into religion. Even the temple itself, for all its beauty, was a matter of politics in religion.
They had thought He was the One. They believed it! Who else could He be? What more, as some had already observed, would be required by way of signs if it were some other who was the Messiah? The times of evil were at an end, God Himself was approaching and would defend Israel as He had in the desert. Great things lay ahead, and they were in on the ground floor, friends of the Prince. Great hopes they had, but those hopes were just as dead as they supposed their Teacher to be.
But, into that great depth of sorrow had come the first notes of mystery this very morning. Those two on the road mention it. The women, who had gone before the sun was fully up to see to a more fitting treatment of His corpse, came back saying His corpse was not there. This had been verified by Peter and John. But, the women also spoke of angels. Surely, they had just been seeing things out there in the dim morning. Surely, it was their fevered imaginations playing tricks on them. Peter and John reported no such encounters.
Then, these two, having decided to make their way back north, had left Jerusalem, hoping to reach Emmaus by nightfall. They are still at a loss to understand what’s happening, and one senses that, while hope reignited as they heard Jesus expound the Scriptures, they still didn’t see the implications, still didn’t know the joy that comes with hope. And meanwhile, Mary had come back with her report of seeing Jesus. Still, as we are told, the disciples weren’t buying it. But, now we learn that by the time these two got back to Jerusalem, which must have been late into the evening, Peter has joined the chorus of witnesses.
The excitement Cleopas and his companion felt is evident as realization dawns on them. What was wrong with us? Were not our hearts near to bursting as He explained to us how much in the Scriptures pointed to this day, to the days that led up to it? How could we not have recognized Him? But, now that we do! We must get back and tell the others. He lives! All hope is not lost, but indeed, all hope has just begun.
And, when they get back, the amazement of those who remained in Jerusalem: It’s real! He really has risen! Mary really did see Him. Nobody stole His body or moved it. Peter, yes Peter! He’s seen Jesus today!
Having been required to write up a bit about myself for this elder business, I was put in mind of that first church service after I came to really believe. As always, there were songs to be sung at the start of service. But, something was different this time. We came to the old hymn, “He Lives!” “He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and He talks with me along the narrow way.” I’m doubtless getting the words wrong, but it’s along those lines. And as we sung, the realization that those two words were literal, absolute Truth! He lives! I more sobbed the Truth than sang it. He lives! It’s all True! This stuff that I had thought just another mythology, just a crutch for weak hearted, weak minded folk, no! It was more concrete than science and engineering. Nothing could ever be the same again.
There is something in a moment like that which leaves itself etched in memory. Here I am, some twenty odd years later, and while I may not recall much about my baptism, that moment is unforgotten. Did not my heart burn within me? Oh, yes, indeed it did! Did not my mind in ceaseless wonder consider all that had transpired these last few days? Most assuredly. And it’s that same marvelous, overwhelming recognition that everything just changed for the better that has these first disciples in its grip. He lives! It’s real! It’s happening! All is not lost. All is won!
And yet, there is that discordant note. Not everybody was convinced. Not even, at this point, all of the eleven who remained were convinced. Mark informs us that even with the report of Cleopas and his friend added to the pile of evidence, they weren’t buying it. There were more than just Thomas who needed greater proof before they were turning back from despair to hope. And isn’t that thoroughly understandable? We have our truisms to that effect. ‘Once bitten, twice shy’ comes to mind. And what do we mean by that? Having been burned by love and left in the dark sorrow of love betrayed or love lost, it is harder to love again. Likewise, we know that trust once betrayed is at least doubly difficult to reestablish. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Yes. We are skeptics all, when once we’ve seen ourselves betrayed.
And make no mistake: They were feeling betrayed. They had invested much in this business of being disciples. To be a disciple by its very nature demanded complete investment of self. This wasn’t just some really cool revival meeting they had attended. This was a Teacher in whom they had seen the model upon which they would fashion themselves. “You have the words of Life, Lord. Where else would we turn?” “We have left everything to follow You.” Now, that latter may have been a bit of hyperbole from Peter, but it expresses well enough the degree of commitment they felt. And they felt it was going to be worth it. Here, as I said, was the Prince Who was about to ascend the throne of Israel, and they were His boon companions. All was promise. All was glory. All was infinite reward for a bit of current hardship. And He had left them. Now, there were these claims He was back again. Sorry. Not biting. Not for rumors, certainly.
You can feel the extent of that doubt in the reports we have, even as He appears to the eleven less Thomas. “They worshiped Him when they saw Him, but some remained doubtful” (Mt 28:17). Even with that eye-witness encounter in the first person, they weren’t ready to commit again. If the ladies may have been hallucinating out at the tomb, they were no less susceptible in their own extremes of sorrow. Sorry, Jesus, if that’s Who you are. You’re going to have to do better than magic tricks to get us.
A bit further on in Luke’s account, he notes that even with Jesus walking through the door, even though they were so overjoyed at the possibility that this was real that they could barely function. They still couldn’t quite believe it (Lk 24:41). And over against this we are given the most homely of comments from Jesus. “Do you have anything to eat?” My! Well, it’s been three days after all. He’s probably a bit hungry at that point. Having not yet ascended, I don’t think it inappropriate to suppose He retains an appetite.
And then there is John’s little note later on, that this was the third time Jesus was manifested to the disciples post-Resurrection (Jn 21:14). Why? Because this was simply too unbelievable. Even with their prior experience with Lazarus, this was too much. Lazarus had just been sick when he died, and Jesus had been alive to call him back to life. Jesus had been beaten, tortured, stabbed; in short, exceedingly and abundantly dead. And being dead, how could He call Himself back to life? Yet He had. If that doesn’t put you at a loss for explanations then you must surely have an excessively developed ego!
So yes, there is a mixed reception of the news when the two get back. From some, the joyful report. From others, disbelief and skepticism. This is hardly cause to suppose either Evangelist got the picture wrong. It’s simply a question of which piece of the picture each chose to pull into focus.
Nearer the center of the passage from Luke is found what might well be called the center of the whole of Scripture. Luke hints at it, after his fashion, back in verse 14. “They were conversing with each other about all these things which had taken place” (NASB). I might have completely missed this, were it not for Wuest’s translation: “all these things which had converged upon one another.” The term that varies so much in translation here is sumbebeekotoon [4819]: a combining of sun [4862]: denoting close union, and baino: to walk, to transpire. Thus, things happening close together in time, or concurrently. It may well be that in colloquial use, the term means nothing more than things happened. But, the etymology suggests at least the possibility that they are noting the way everything has converged upon these last few days. Surely, there has been something about this last week that must have impressed upon them the sense that everything was coming to a head.
With that in mind, it’s particularly apt that Jesus, upon hearing their expressions of bewilderment, proceeds to explain to them ‘the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures’. There is indeed a convergence to be observed, but it’s not just the convergence of events during the last few days, it’s the convergence of all history and of all future. These moments, these last few days, as Jesus proceeds to explain to them, have been the point since before Creation got underway. This is what was spoken to Adam and Eve at the start, when they were expelled from Eden. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and hers. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Ge 3:15). Sure, we understand this. It is a point that is preached often enough. But, they hadn’t that advantage. They hadn’t been privileged with a few thousand years of teaching on the subject. This was news!
That’s hardly the only point Jesus made. Notice Luke’s description. He was going through all the Scriptures. Torah, Prophets, Writings: Take your choice. They are all of them building towards this very moment! And everything that came after, the Gospels, the Epistles, the Revelation: It all likewise builds upon this moment. Here is the focal point of History: The Son of God came down, took upon Himself the life of a man, lived a life of perfect godliness, and laid down that life as the only means of truly atoning for all those whose lives were not lived in perfect godliness. He came, He died, He conquered, if we might borrow Caesar’s boast. And then, wonder of wonders, He rose from death. He Who claimed, “I AM the Life” proved His claim. And, in proving His claim, He also gave evidence that our Father in heaven – our Father! Our Father! Not some remote being, detached and disinterested – had accepted this, the work of His hands, as the atonement for our sins.
If you would sense the criticality of this convergence of events, this culminating point of all those non-coincidences of God’s Providence, go back and look at the sheer volume of parallel verses that are attached to Lk 24:27! Geneses 3:15 is but one drop in the flood. Matthew, of course, makes a point of noting many of these prophetic passages which found fulfillment in our Lord and Christ. But, there are many, many more; more, even, than that lengthy collection provides. As I said, All of Scripture is focused on this point when the Son of Man was seen dead in the grave, seen raised to life from that grave, and seen taken up into heaven to His place on the throne of Creation.
Were our hearts not burning within when He explained the Scriptures to us? Thus these two asked themselves as realization dawned. Thus, I suspect, we each experience that moment when faith is not some rote duty forced upon us by our parents, not some mythical, pseudo-mystical nonsense adhered to by the weak, but very Truth of all Truths! I know I am repeating myself, but how can I not? “The Lord has really risen!” “He really does Live!” It’s all of a piece. God is real! There is a huge distance between that blithe acceptance of the premise as a child, or in child-like fashion, and that dawning realization that the reality is so much grander than we had supposed. It is the eventual, wonderful, marvelous answer to that question Jesus asked Martha, that question which has stuck with me so since we wandered through her story: “Do you believe this?” It’s fine to have a mental persuasion as to the theory. But, when the reality of the thing, with all its implications, finally registers, there is that burning, seemingly unquenchable excitement. It’s real! God is! And, God is, here! In me! In spite of me! Knowing me, yet He abides in me! “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me! It is to high! I cannot attain to it” (Ps 139:6). Oh! But, such knowledge can attain me, can enfold me, enwrap me and hold me here in this place of wonder.
Listen! Do you wish to sense the scope of what is transpiring around the disciples at this point? “As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too small to be counted amongst Judah’s clans: From you One will go forth to rule for Me in Israel. His arrival has been planned from all eternity” (Mic 5:2). That’s how long this whole thing had been in the works! From all eternity! From the very outset, before the dawn of the first day, before even there was a chaos from which that first day would emerge, already every last detail of the plan was laid out with absolute precision. Even so, that day which remains future, the day of His return, though He would not and will not announce its moment ahead of time, is equally certain. It will arrive and unfold precisely as He has ordained it, for the very simple reason that He has ordained it.
These things were not entirely unknown. We have seen that as the story unfolded. When Herod had first sent for the scribes upon hearing from those foreign magi, they knew. They knew this very prophecy. As much as they denied this, these chiefs of religion, the fact is that they knew exactly who Jesus was. Somehow, though, it seems they never knew who God is.
There was another convergence that caught my attention as I scanned the parallel verses in preparation for this writing. These are verses in disparate places and by distinct authors, so the idea that there was an intentional correlation of material is something one couldn’t reasonably put forward. But, these three passages combine to paint a very interesting picture. First, from the people at large: “He [Jesus] speaks in public, and they [the leaders] say nothing to Him. Perhaps they know He truly is the Christ” (Jn 7:26). But, as Luke tells us, they would deny any such knowledge vehemently. “None of us rulers or Pharisees have believed Him, have” (Lk 7:48). Well, that was certainly the official stance, the public face of the leadership. But then there is this: “Actually, many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they would not admit it” (Jn 12:42). That is intriguing in that it suggests the Sadducees, who would seem least likely of all to come to faith, actually proved more inclined to do so than the Pharisees. Yet, the only believers mentioned from these upper echelons would seem to have been Pharisees: Nicodemus, Joseph, and so on.
The thing I notice, though, is that these three verses combine to indicate that indeed, they knew. There are other evidences that arise, many of which I’ve taken note of as they were presented in the narrative. There cannot really be any doubt about it. They knew and they rejected. And the reverse might be said with equal conviction. God knew, and He rejected. Which would prove worse for which is clear. Even so, the Apostles themselves chose to be generous in their accounting. “Those in Jerusalem, even their rulers, did not recognize Him nor did they understand the prophets they read every Sabbath” (Ac 13:27), “Thus, they fulfilled the very prophecies they failed to understand by condemning Him.” Oh indeed! Except, for the first part. They did recognize Him. As well as any who walked in Israel in those days, they recognized Him. And they rejected Him. They refused Him, even as His own parables had insisted they would. They wanted to win the religious war. They wanted to be gods, like their father, the devil – like us.
That urge has never left mankind. That urge, if we are honest, has almost never left even those who are saved. It remains, lurking in the shadowed corners of our hearts. It remains in us to raise ourselves up as the idols we’ve always wanted. All those ancient mythologies may have been a mix of celebrating those who had managed to lift themselves up amongst the gods (for that meant there was hope that we, too, might do so), and an admission of our failure to do so (for too much remained clearly beyond our control). It was all, after its fashion, a particularly grandiose bout of cognitive dissonance. We are gods. We’re just not very good at it. That seems to be the sum of mythology. Even the gods we conjured up: They are as failed and fallen as ourselves. It makes us feel better about our own situation to see them thus.
And that same mindset continues into the modern, the post-modern world of today. We still love our mythologies. We just don’t call them that any longer. We have the mythology of science. Its practitioners can do no wrong – at least not intentionally. Its answers are always right – except when, of course, they aren’t. But, there’s always the next revision! Science is free of any sort of agenda – except that it depends on grants and benevolences to persist. Or history! Maybe history has our salvation! Or the arts. How about information? Technology? The Space Program! Why, just look at all we’ve done. The tower of Babel is nothing for minds like ours. It’s all about us, and we just really have no need for God anymore. Watch out! That thinking has marched its way right into many a church, and dwells there in all its pride and tarnished glory, wrapped in robes of pious office, and making pronouncements as from on high.
It can’t happen here? It can’t happen in our house? Oh, but of course it can. We are Pharisees all, at heart, unless our God and King accomplishes His good will in us. Pride lurks in the shadows, still pushing us to climb up on His seat and boot Him out. It is only by His grace that we notice the deception and prevent the worst of calamities. It is only by His power that our efforts at prevention succeed. But, even with all of that, there remains the need to keep watch and pray. Pray without ceasing, that He would keep us clean, keep our feet upon the Way, and His glory first and foremost in all we do as His children.
Meeting the People - Cleopas (04/18/13)
