Tag: christ’s teaching

The Evil Within (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders, and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash, and there are also many other traditions that they observe: the washing of cups and pots and bronze kettles and beds.)So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
    teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

“You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition…”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile…”

For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (New Revised Standard Version)

There are many people who believe that evil resides out there, but not in here.

“Out there” is usually in places where people don’t live like me, think like me, and act like me. Rarely does anyone, when asked where evil is, points to their own heart.

The religious establishment of Christ’s day saw evil as something which existed “out there” where the sinners are; but not “in here” where I am.

Jesus had something to say on that subject. The exchange between the religious leaders and Christ began with a query toward Jesus about Jewish traditions and interpretations of the Mosaic law.

The leaders observed that Christ’s disciples were not holding to traditional purity practices. They were not washing their hands in a certain way prior to eating. This was less of a criticism on the followers of Jesus, and much more an indictment on Jesus as their rabbi.

It was believed that there are customs which properly trained disciples ought to know and follow. And Christ’s followers were not, it was assumed, trained well.

The religious establishment understood the words and ways of Jesus as an affront to the teaching of the elders, and of proper scriptural and legal interpretation.

Jesus, however, made a distinction between traditions of the elders and God’s commands. The former are human precepts, whereas the latter are to be obeyed. In no way did Christ demean Mosaic law, or any commandments of God.

Instead, Jesus rejected how particular interpretations – along with practices which arose from those interpretations – end up obscuring the spirit and intent of the law. In other words, purity does not come from hand washing, because neither purity nor impurity originates from the hands.

Christ reached back into the prophecy of Isaiah to show that there is a contrast between what the mouth utters and what is within the heart. The incongruence between the words spoken and the heart’s true state puts the issue of where impurity and evil really come from: The heart, not the mouth.

Jesus and the Pharisees, by French painter James Tissot (1836-1902)

Evil intentions originate within. Evil actions are animated by the heart. Evil attitudes are born in the heart. The human heart is the place which needs attention because, for ancient people, this is where a person’s rational will is located. It is where moral pollution dwells, deep within.

Let’s keep in mind that, in the verbal kerfuffle between Christ and the religious leaders, there is no evidence that Jesus disregarded Jewish dietary laws. He instead took the religious establishment to task on elevating outward human traditions, while simultaneously ignoring the inward human heart.

Food and hand-washing are not the chief concern, when it comes to purity and impurity. At issue is the source of defilement, that is, where the pollution is sourced. Jesus insisted that it’s more about who you are, and what is in your heart, than it is about the food you eat or avoid.

In truth, the problem of defilement is important. And keeping the Mosaic law is significant. Yet, Jesus was looking at these issues from a different angle. He affirmed the law’s purpose in restraining evil and avoiding impurity, along with the religious leaders. However, Christ disagreed with them on how the law is practically observed and obeyed.

Jesus did not come up with something new or strange in talking about evil emanating from the heart. Judaism is a religion of the heart, just as much as Christianity or any other religion.

The heart is devious above all else;
    it is perverse—
    who can understand it?
I the Lord test the mind
    and search the heart,
to give to all according to their ways,
    according to the fruit of their doings. (Jeremiah 17:9-10, NRSV)

So, what’s up with the conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders? Over time, many located evil outside, out there, with evildoers and law-breakers, with those disobedient to the law. Christ came along and reaffirmed where the problem originates, scripturally.

One isn’t defiled by improper handling of ritual; one is defiled because being unaware of, or not acknowledging, the dark shadows which reside within every human heart.

Therefore, the discussion of evil and impurity is useless, if we only talk about influences from outside. Deal, instead, with the influences from within.

The heart is not all bad; there’s a lot of good there. But there are spaces within the heart which are camouflaged in darkness. Those places need attention, before we launch into evil which exists elsewhere.

Everyone must come to the point of understanding that they are capable of both great good and great evil. A Pharisee is not all good. And a lawbreaker is not all bad. Until we can see the commonality between ourselves and those we separate ourselves from, we will continually miss the heart of true religion.

Whether a Jew, Christian, Muslim, or any other religious tradition, we must deal with our own collective house, and our own personal heart. Hate speech toward another group has no warrant from Jesus. Injustice has no place in Christianity or anywhere else.

Furthermore, not a one of us can rationalize any unjust words and/or inactions. If that happens, a terrible blindness has occurred in which someone or some group of people refuse to see their own culpability in evil, and project it outward onto another person or group.

If we keep the light of the gospel in our own hearts, then it is much less likely that we will demean or attack others, either verbally, physically, or both.

Using a self-constructed and janky flashlight to shine on another’s heart does nothing but keep the attention off of our own heart. That sort of dubious searching of splinters helps no one, especially ourselves, who already have nasty logs in our own eyes.

Evil is deeper than mere selfishness, bigger than a personal error in judgment, and greater than some individual bad decisions. That’s because there is also a collective heart in every organization, institution, corporation, and faith community. Injustice and unrighteousness resides in those hearts, as well. This makes all of us – personally and communally – both victims of evil, as well as perpetrators of wickedness.

This is why grace and mercy are the real answers to the evil in this world’s systems, and in the human heart. Jesus is trying to pave the way toward a solution of the problem of evil.

Let’s give him an honest look and hearing.

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

The Lord of Life (John 6:56-69)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Bread of Life, by Kennedy Paizs

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which the ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things while he was teaching in a synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.”

For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (New Revised Standard Version)

This is a hard teaching – which is why a fair number of Christ’s disciples unfollowed him, literally, and not just socially and virtually.

Perhaps they believed they were following a great moral teacher, only to find Jesus prattling-on about being bread from heaven and divinely related to God.

The late great C.S. Lewis commented on Jesus, saying this:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

It seems Jesus cares little about whether we think of him as a moral teacher or some monstrosity. But he does care about moving people to a spirit-filled confession, a settled claim of faith, and a bold proclamation of his person and work.

Indeed, Jesus Christ, Son of Humanity, Son of God, leads us to hear his own confession, claim, and proclamation: “I Am.”

The crowd of people listening to Jesus were having a hard time wrapping their heads around his message. There were simply no existing categories of thought to which they could put Jesus neatly into. Everyone was rather puzzled with Christ’s words.

Jesus was in the Capernaum synagogue, a village on the Sea of Galilee, 30 miles from where he grew up in Nazareth. Any talk of eating and drinking and religion within any faith community is likely to be a charged discussion. Typically the politics of faith is not for the faint of heart.

We are to abide in Christ, to be in vital union with him. To have Jesus close, to have his words and ways within us, is akin to eating a satisfying meal that goes throughout our entire body and effects our being. Connecting and remaining with Jesus is true living and abundant life.

But the synagogue crowd wasn’t having any of this crazy talk of eating flesh and drinking blood. The lines between meat and metaphor were severely blurred for them. They did not accept the wedding of the spiritual and the material, of word and flesh, of God and Jesus together as Father and Son.

Jesus was causing the men to fold their arms in disgust, and the ladies to squirm in their pews with agitation. They looked upon this Jesus in front of them as causing a religious scandal of the first degree.

Rather than back off the scandalous words, Jesus stuck with them. Furthermore, he intensified what he was saying. At the heart of it was a claim to be the ladder between heaven and earth, the one who is manna from above, given for the life of the people.

His flesh is bread, and his blood is drink. He is life itself. He is even spirit, the one who breathes new life into people. At this point, Jesus was being as scandalous as it gets for his audience in the synagogue.

All of Christ’s talk is meant to bring people to consider him, to contemplate God, and to come to a point of response. Because nobody encountered Jesus without deciding if he is a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord who is life itself.

Many of Christ’s own disciples bailed on him. The scandal was too much. They didn’t sign up for this. To stay with Jesus means to really stay, to abide, to believe and know who he is.

Throughout the New Testament Gospels, Jesus honors people with questions and choices – and does not simply bypass human dignity and worth. He asked his closest twelve disciples if they also wanted to retreat from the scandalous message and messenger they’d been following.

Peter, of course, still had to learn this lesson of respect; he answered for the entire group. Jesus is where, and in whom, he found life, along with the rest of them. They didn’t know how all of the scandalous talk was going to shake-out specifically, although I think each of them had a pretty good idea.

But it didn’t matter. The twelve disciples were stuck on Jesus. Or, to be more accurate, the eleven disciples. Perhaps it was at this point that Judas Iscariot no longer had to wonder what was going to happen, and what exactly Jesus was up to.

Abiding in a movement that did not include a Roman takeover and a glorious wealthy kingdom was something Judas was unwilling to invest in. Maybe it was here that he began considering his exit plan.

Recognizing Jesus as Son of Humanity, Son of God, and the Word made flesh for us, requires both belief and knowledge – because you must have the one to have the other. C.S. Lewis discovered this. So did I. And may you, as well, my friend. For Jesus is the Lord of life.

Gracious God, although we once were strangers, you receive us as friends and draw us home to you. Set your living bread before us so that, feasting around your table, we may be strengthened to continue the work to which your Son commissioned us. Amen.

Don’t Let Rejection Get the Best of You (Mark 6:1-13)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 

Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff: no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 

He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them. (New Revised Standard Version)

Homecooked Rejection

Jesus was well into his ministry, with the disciples in tow, and had made quite a splash around Judea. Eventually, he made it back to the region of Galilee and to his hometown. Having grown up in a small town myself, I can testify how any sort of celebrity status from one of their own is a really big deal. Anticipation was high amongst the townsfolk.

Knowing Jesus as they did, the people were downright slack-jawed at his wisdom and the way he taught – which is also a typical response of the hometown boy made popular. The town knew Jesus differently – as simply another nice, but normal, Jewish kid from a nice but scandalous family.

The homecoming turned sour as the crowd believed they knew more than Jesus. After all, they knew him as a little kid. And they knew where he came from. He’s the carpenter, the son of Mary. They remembered what was up with Jesus. Mary and Joseph weren’t yet together and she ended up pregnant. This guy is no Son of God, but son of who knows?

They took offense at Jesus. He was the one with the curious conception and birth. And now he was trying to teach them, the ones who “really knew” his origins – or so they thought.

Jesus was just too uppity for the hometown folks. He considered himself more than the people he grew up with would concede. By providing the self-reference of “prophet,” Jesus was placing himself in the company of many revered men of God who went against the grain of their own contemporary cultures. And the folks in Galilee most certainly did not think they needed a prophet, especially one with illegitimate origins.

For the townsfolk, Jesus was claiming more honor and status for himself than was warranted in the old hometown. It meant that others got knocked down to size. So the people in the town were not having it. They took offense.

Ironically, the people who ought to know better, don’t. Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith, their unbelief. So little could be done in such a place as this. After all, you cannot heal someone if they believe they don’t need healing.

Heaven-sent Mission

Rejection didn’t stop Christ’s mission on this earth. Jesus prepared his disciples for their initial ministry, sending them in pairs. Up to this point, he taught them about God’s kingdom, handled a good deal of one-on-one instruction, and demonstrated for them what healing is like and why he did it. And they also needed to understand that rejection from others is part of the ministry.

Jesus instructed the disciples to take only a few essentials; the hospitality of others would be a significant aspect of their ministry – especially since much of their work would take place from household to household. Synagogues were not always receptive places to a new kind of ministry. So, the grassroots efforts of the disciple pairs were important.

Rejection and judgment tend to go hand-in-hand. Those who spurned the disciples were judging the veracity of their work. And also, that same rejection was a sign for the disciples to not spin their wheels trying to persuade the already convinced. Instead, the disciples were to do their own action of shaking the dust off their feet, letting the stubborn people know they were not carrying the bad judgments with them.

All in all, Christ’s disciples had an effective ministry and a positive experience. They were able to bring their message and healing to many.

We can observe through this story that rejection from others and a failure to make inroads with some is not necessarily a reflection on us. Some people are going to misunderstand us and make judgments about us, regardless of how well we go about our work.

After all, if Jesus experienced it, how much more will we? Don’t let rejection get the best of you.

To never face rejection and judgment may be a sign that little to no action is actually taking place – or maybe that the avoidance of conflict is assigned a value much too high than Jesus would give it.

If you are working toward loving both God and neighbor, showing justice and mercy in all you do, then any sort of rejection isn’t worth getting upset about.

Gracious God, I release my grip on needing to be understood by everyone, and instead choose to hold onto you and your grace. Therefore:

  • I lay down my need to understand why things happen the way they do.
  • I lay down my fears about others judging me.
  • I lay down my desire to prove my worth.
  • I lay down my resistance to suffering.

I take up my cross daily, and seek to walk according to your ways, and to live into your words; through Jesus Christ my Lord, in the enablement of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus Stills the Storm (Mark 4:35-41)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Calming the Storm #1, by Tigran Ghulyan

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 

A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 

And waking up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent! Be still!” Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (New Revised Standard Version)

Jesus taught the people all day beside the sea. So many of them crowded around that he ended up getting into a boat and speaking from the water to the folks on land. It was an eventful day of telling memorable parables.

Then, evening came. Jesus told his disciples they were crossing over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. In doing this, they were also crossing boundaries from Jewish to Gentile territory.

Christ’s disciples had not yet gotten used to Jesus crossing over to places they’ve never been to before. For them, it might as well be an ancient version of Star Trek, going boldly where no Jew had gone before. Following Jesus was like a science fiction trip into the unknown in which they had already seen things beyond their imagination.

Although Jesus respected people’s personal boundaries, he continually crossed both social and spiritual boundaries galore. Christ ate with the wrong kind of people; broke Sabbath laws and healed people at the wrong time; and was leading his motley band of disciples to the wrong sort of place.

Jesus kept going to where the religious establishment had firm boundaries not to cross. Hanging out with Christ meant taking risks at unpredictable times in unknown places.

The disciples were not quite ready for crossing a weather boundary, and they were understandably scared. Although they evidenced a certain lack of faith, conversely, it took some faith to even listen to Jesus and do what he told them to do and get in a boat to cross the sea.

There’s really nothing safe about being a follower of Jesus Christ, at least from a human existential perspective. Jesus put his disciples in all sorts of different situations that were downright dangerous. So, I’m not sure why any Christian would be surprised whenever they face trouble and danger in their lives; it’s part of following Jesus.

Christ Asleep During the Tempest, by Eugene Delacroix, 1853

A big windstorm popped up as the ship crossed the sea at night. A lot of people I know get scared and anxious when a thunderstorm hits; and they’re in a safe place within their own house. So, to be in a wooden ship with old school sails and oars at night, and a storm strikes, we can see that panic quickly set into the disciples. They, of course, cried out in their fear and distress.

But where is Jesus? Lo and behold, it turns out he was asleep, down in the hold of the ship, without a worry in the world. That struck the disciples the wrong way (much like talking to the wrong people and going to the wrong places and doing the wrong things). They interpreted this event of a peaceful sleeping Christ as calloused and insensitive to their collective plight.

How many times have we thought the same thing, and uttered along with the disciples, “Don’t you care that we are perishing!?” O you of little hermeneutic.

The truth is, those who wish to save their life will lose it – it will perish, be destroyed. But those who lose their life and let it perish for Christ’s sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

Yes, the dangers of death and destruction are very real; but taking up our cross and following Jesus turns out to be the safest option we have. It’s the deliberate choice of walking by faith, not sight.

Jesus, awakened by his disciples, proceeded to rebuke the wind and told the sea to settle down. That’s the same sort of language Jesus used when doing an exorcism.

Just as crowds marveled that the demonic realm obeyed Jesus when he healed persons of bad spirits, so Christ’s disciples were amazed at the authority which calmed a wild storm. Yet, no matter the situation or the reality, Jesus can and does bring orderly calm from disruptive chaos.

The eerie resemblance to exorcism in calming the storm let’s us know that Christ has power and authority over all evil in this world. Therefore, the teaching and ministry of Jesus is authoritative. Christ rules with a great power of benevolence and mercy over everything.

This understanding of Christ’s power and authority is the believer’s basis for faith and not fear. The lack of courage points to the lack of faith. To be both a coward and a Christian is incompatible and nonsensical.

We all become afraid, at times, because of various things. And some of that fear is warranted; it’s part of being human. Cowardice, however, is a different thing. Both the courageous and cowardly are fearful – the difference is that the former acts despite the fear, and the latter does not act because of the fear.

What matters is what the person of faith does in the face of a fearful situation, and not because they are afraid. There is no sin in the actual emotion of fear; it’s what we do with being afraid that makes the difference.

Following Jesus is no guarantee of a fear-free or a storm-free life. We may, especially in times of high stress, find ourselves blurting out to Jesus to wake up and help us because we feel he isn’t paying attention or doesn’t care.

The reality is that the power and authority of Jesus is needed most in fearful places. So, the Christian (and especially Christ’s Church) better get used to having courageous encounters and conversations with others.

Wherever there is pain, suffering, and neediness, that’s where the words and touch of Jesus are found. So then, if we are looking for Jesus, we ought to know where to find him.

Christianity is a religion which will send us where we’ve never been before – both externally and internally – into the violent storms. Entering the fray takes faith. And feeling afraid is expected. But this is where real needs are met, as well as the place of genuine spiritual development.

No matter what or who we face, we have the confidence that Jesus is with us. And even if he is sleeping during a storm, we are in a good place of peace.

Almighty and everlasting God, preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.