Roman “Justice” on Display

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Don Merritt

Mark 15:1-20

Parallel Texts: Matthew 27:11-30; Luke 23:2-25; John 18:28-19:16

As usual, Mark is pithy, and a more complete version is available in the other accounts. The main thing that Mark conveys about this whole situation of Jesus before Pilate might just be the quality of the decision made by Pilate. In the other accounts, particularly in John’s, we can easily see that Pilate struggled with this issue, that he really didn’t want to have Jesus executed. While Mark certainly doesn’t dispute this, his brief account, his ‘just the facts’ version renders a clear picture of the bottom line: Pilate in the end, was concerned with his political best interests, and that meant sending a man he knew to be innocent to a terrible death.

There is an old word that describes the actions of Jesus’ accusers and judges, both Jewish and Gentile, that applies perfectly to this story, even though nobody uses it any more, that word is perfidy. Perfidy means treachery, untrustworthy and duplicitous, and that is exactly what has gone on here. The Pharisees, teachers of the law, high priest… and the Roman governor, all of them are guilty of perfidy. The question is why, and the soldiers give us the answer in their mocking of Jesus.

Read carefully verses 16-20.

At first glance, you might see a bored group of men in a very undesirable foreign post having a bit of rather sick and twisted sport with a condemned man. This man in their custody has obviously done something pretty bad; how often do the Jews and the Romans agree on anything? So here he is condemned to die… why not mess with him, he’s not a Roman, so they can do pretty much whatever they want as long as he doesn’t die just yet.

So they mock him; “king of the Jews,” eh? Let’s have some fun…

They make him a crown of thorns and jam it on his head; that’s pretty funny. They find a purple robe, so they dress him up like a king with his new crown and beat him some more. Jesus must have made a hilarious sight for them, beaten, flogged, blood all over, blood running down his face dressed like some king!

King of the Jews!  Hilarious! They had no use for the Jews, they hated even being there, they wanted a posting somewhere civilized… they kneel before their “king” and have another laugh…

An officer tells them to quit fooling around and march the prisoner off to his execution… they hated this part.

That’s what you might see if you don’t read these verses with a more discerning eye, but look again.

This is done to Jesus every day, sometimes we even join in cursing His name, participating in jokes with others. The comments made by those who are ignorant of who and what Jesus is, the insults against His followers, the jabs at His word, the little cartoons and pictures with clever slogans on them that you see most days right here on WordPress that denigrate and demean Jesus. The people who do these things today are just as ignorant as those Roman soldiers were, and they are doing exactly the same thing, for all of them are acting in open and gross rebellion against Almighty God whether they comprehend it or not, just as the accusers and judges of Jesus were.

Solomon wrote that there is nothing new under the sun. He was right then, and nothing has changed now.

There has been perfidy on a grand scale; politics has won out over righteousness. There has been beating and torture, there has been open mocking of God, and Jesus is led to His death.  I’m sure the Sanhedrin was feeling relieved; in a short time this threat will be silenced once and for all and they can enjoy the holiday…

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Looking for an Excuse

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Don Merritt

There’s an old saying about excuses. OK, well maybe it isn’t all that old, but it’s a pretty good one, at least I think it is a good one. True it isn’t famous or anything… fine, you got me, but it is what I say about excuses:

When you’re looking for an excuse, one is as good as another.

That night, the Jewish authorities were looking for an excuse to kill Jesus, and they really weren’t all too choosy about their excuse as long as everyone could keep the story straight; after all this guy was pretty popular.

Mark 14:53-65

Parallel Texts:  Matthew 26:57-68; Luke 22:54, 63-65; John 23:24

Jesus on trial before the full cast of Jewish authorities: Can you imagine anything more ridiculous? The Son of God actually on trial before a group of corrupt hypocrites cowering behind their fancy robes, their meaningless earthly positions, desperate to maintain the magnificent fiction of their own self-righteousness, and all this for what reason? So they can truthfully preserve a lie; so they can lawfully continue their corruption; so they can graciously continue in their oppression.

E.G. Marshall once said that “truth is stranger than fiction… especially if you change it to make a good story”. No changes are necessary for this story; it is just strange.

The biggest problem these clowns have is that their fake witnesses keep contradicting one another. Evidently, the witnesses for the prosecution weren’t very well prepared to give testimony; at least they seemed to be forgetting their lines. Maybe they had a few drinks beforehand and kept going off script, who knows? In any event, they were screwing up the phony trial. Jesus wasn’t helping them; He kept declining comment. There’s an old saying in politics: “When your opponent is self-destructing, get out of his way.”  Jesus was staying out-of-the-way in this fiasco, until…

The high priest finally asks Jesus directly the critical question:  “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”

“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

That did it, that’s what the high priest wanted to hear: blasphemy!

Jesus has assumed onto himself the rights or attributes of God in His reply, and under the Law, He must die for His crime… unless it had been a truthful answer. Because this was a high tribunal of the religious leaders, all of whom were genuinely interested in finding the Truth  in holiness and all righteousness and propriety, did the high priest examine any facts that might substantiate Jesus’ claim?

Certainly not; he was only seeking an excuse to kill! Jesus was condemned immediately, spat upon and taken away and beaten.

Meanwhile, Peter, just outside in the courtyard, denied Jesus three times. (Mark 14:66-72)

The next morning, the Jewish religious leaders, those great paragons of God’s Law and the supremacy of everything Jewish, take Jesus to the unclean Gentile dogs and beseech them to murder an innocent man, sent by God to deliver them as the irony continues in our next post…

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

In the Garden

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Don Merritt

041914 020-LR

Today, more than most days, is about a garden.  It was a garden where the great event took place, the event that both confirmed and changed everything, for you see, that garden tomb is empty!  In a sense, our rebirth took place in a garden.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but for me there’s no better place to meet our Lord in prayer than in a quiet garden.  To me, it seems almost like going back to the place where humanity was created…

There’s an interesting and refreshing combination of nature that consists of God’s creation, and Man as shown by the tending of the garden that strikes me as significant.  It’s like teamwork; when you take God’s part and Man’s part and combine them together you end up with something wonderful.

Raw nature is awesome to behold.  Great cities built by men over many generations can be humbling and inspiring as well, but a well-tended garden is a combination of the two.  Armed with knowledge that this is not only what God intended in the first place but what  He calls us to in the present day, can there be anything more inspiring than a garden?

Yes, a garden… Where it all began, and where it all began again. A garden, where it begins anew every day!

Posted in Christian Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Final Hours Together

Posted on March 26, 2016 by Don Merritt

Mark briefly describes the time Jesus spent with the disciples after their last meal together, quite a contrast with the several chapters John gave to the  “Farewell Discourse.” Mark breaks this into three short scenes:

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
Mark 14:27-31

Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:31-35; Luke 22:31-38; John 13:21-38

Peter’s determination to remain loyal to Jesus is admirable, but sadly, it was not to be… at least not yet. Jesus knew that, but He also knew that Peter would fail, and along with the rest of them he would cut and run when things got too tough. He cited the prophecy from Zech. 13:7, and if your mind works as mine does, this citation begs an oddball question: Did Peter fail because of the prophecy, or was the prophecy made in the first place because God knew Peter  (and the others) would fail?  I struggled with this for a long time before I stumbled across the obvious and simple answer to the riddle. Peter and the others fell short because they were relying on their own strength and will not to fall short, therefore they fell short because their reliance was ill placed. Later, as Apostles, none of them fell short when the going was tough, really tough, for their reliance was upon God and they were sustained by His strength and not merely by their own.

Praying in the Garden
Mark 14:32-42

Parallel Texts:  Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-46; John 18:1

The scene in the Garden of Gethsemane is a poignant one, where Jesus prays fervently, filled with angst that the cup should pass from Him if possible, yet the Father’s will and not His own should be done. Clearly, His human side wanted to find a way out of what He was about to endure, and yet His love for the Father and for humanity was stronger; His devotion to God’s eternal purpose won out. Yet while this gut-wrenching scene is playing out, the disciples fall asleep!

I seriously doubt they fell asleep on purpose, but here too, they relied on their own strength and not upon God as they would later. The outcome of this ill-placed confidence is always the same, and we should really remember that.

Jesus is Arrested
Mark 14:43-52

Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:47-56; Luke 22:47-53; John 18:2-11

On come the goons from the temple guards, with Judas in the vanguard. Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.

Of course we know this as one of history’s great ironies; Jesus commented on it in the other accounts. I get the same chill seeing people today who loudly profess their love and devotion for Jesus, and then watch them do everything in their power to run people away from His church. … but then that’s just me.  Did Judas really think he was doing Jesus a favor, forcing His hand so that He would raise an army and take the city by force as some have suggested over the years?

I have no idea what Judas was really thinking; maybe he just needed the money, or maybe he was under demonic influence, or maybe he was the only one who understood fully what Jesus was there to do and wanted to help out… I can’t imagine! What I do know is that the stage was now set for the pivotal drama of all recorded history.

Of course, the disciples fled, and it would appear that there were more present than just the disciples, for in the final verse we see a young man, little more than a boy, who is swept up in the confusion, and who escapes the guards by slipping out of his garment and running off into the darkness naked: Meet our author everyone, for I am convinced that this was none other than Mark himself.

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Last Supper

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Don Merritt

Mark 14:12-26

Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:17-25; Luke 22:7-18, 21-23; John 13:22-26

Mark, as was his custom, approaches this subject with an economy of words, with verses 12-16 being about Jesus’ instructions for preparations, followed by a brief description of their meal. As we might suspect, everything went just as Jesus said that they would. When the time came for the meal, Jesus tells the group that one of them will betray Him.

Naturally, they were shocked. “Surely you don’t mean me Lord” seems to be the universal reaction to this, and  Jesus narrows it down a bit in verses 19 and 20, and then in 21 He tells them that He will indeed allow Himself to be taken, as the Scriptures have foretold. All of this talk of betrayal, and Jesus’ knowledge of who would do it and when, is there for a reason other than just to make a good story, for it documents that Jesus went willingly; a very important point. No one forced Jesus do anything that night, for He was there for the purpose of doing the Father’s will, to accomplish the Father’s purpose. That this would involve arrest, humiliation, torture, pain and death would not stop Him from going through with this purpose.

I wouldn’t suggest that Jesus was looking forward to the experience, for He was human and faced the same physical weaknesses that the rest of us have. In fact, the added reality that He was also divine, with all of its power and authority most likely made His task more difficult, for it was necessary for Him to restrain His divine power and endure His human pain.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.

“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Mark 14:22-26

It wouldn’t appear that the disciples quite comprehended yet what Jesus had just done, let alone what He was talking about, but obviously the pieces would soon fall into place for them. For each of us, we are fully aware of what has just happened in the story, for we commemorate it each Lord’s Day in our worship. Maybe it is better here that I simply suggest that each of us pause in our busy day to reflect upon the significance of what Jesus was about to do for humanity in the hours that followed this dramatic scene, and to rededicate ourselves to His service.

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Incident in Bethany

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Don Merritt

Mark 14:1-11

Parallel Texts: Matthew 26:1-5, 14-16; Luke 22:1-6; John 12:2-8

This scene takes place on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning by the Jewish reckoning, in Jerusalem and Bethany. In Jerusalem, the Jewish authorities scheme and plot their knavish plans; they must kill Jesus at the earliest possible moment, but not during the festival. While they plot, Jesus reclines in Bethany, a short distance away, where a woman enters the house and anoints Him with a jar of very expensive perfume; the jar she used would have cost a year’s wages for a working person; a year’s wages!

The people in the room are shocked at the extravagance of this and they rebuke the woman harshly, after all that could have been sold and used to help the poor. If you think about it, it’s difficult to disagree with those people, but Jesus told them to knock it off…

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Mark 14:6-9

If you stop and think about what Jesus tells them here, you can’t help but be struck by a few things. First off, Jesus implies that what this woman has done for Him is even more important than helping the poor, at least that it was of a higher immediate priority since He wasn’t to be with them much longer. Then notice His little jab: “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.” (verse 7) Every time I read this, I wonder if any of those rebuking the woman would be willing to donate a whole year’s wages to the poor if they were talking about using their own money, and not that of this woman… Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but it almost strikes me the same way as when people advocate raising someone else’s taxes for a poverty program.

Next, Jesus takes another step toward the cliff when He tells them that woman had done this to prepare His body beforehand for burial which He knew was now less than three days away. In verse 9 is a little prophecy: Where ever the gospel is preached, people will speak of the woman’s actions… and considering that I’m posting about it now 2,000 years later from halfway around the globe, I guess He was right. The passage concludes with Judas slipping out to make his deal with the devil to betray Jesus to the authorities; the die is cast.

Remember the way chapter 12 ended? After a long day of attacks that Jesus rebuffed, and then after Jesus went on the offensive at the Temple Courts, Mark took us to the scene of the widow’s offering, and Jesus told us about a whole new system where people would set aside the things and ways of this world to give God everything they have in His service. Then, the tumult of the Olivet Discourse in chapter 13, and now, well after sunset that night, this woman offers a sacrifice for Jesus, by pouring a whole year’s wages over His head in the form of expensive perfume. Another act of devotion, another act of self-sacrifice, another sacrifice of self, another glimpse of the Kingdom that was now standing at the door, ready to burst upon the earth.

Earlier that day, the reaction of the worldly leaders was to agree to kill Jesus. Now, one of His own disciples reacts by slipping away to make the final arrangements for His betrayal to those same leaders. Will this cycle ever end?

I don’t know, but all these years later it still continues.

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Naked Before God

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Don Merritt

We have come to the point in our study of nakedness as a metaphor in Scripture where there is really nothing left to do except to dive into the metaphor itself. By this time, you should be clear that in Scripture, if not in some “church” circles, that nakedness is not necessarily a bad thing; it is neutral. To be certain, bad or improper behaviors can take place when nakedness is present, but nakedness has nothing to do with causing bad or improper behavior and we only need to take notice of the fact that the overwhelming majority of “badness” is done by people who are not naked.

We should also realize by now that Mankind was intended to relate to God in a state in which they are “naked and unashamed” as opposed to covering themselves and that such coverings came only after people had rebelled against God and attempted to hide from Him. With these things understood, we can proceed.

What does it mean to be “naked”? It means that we take off all of our covering and bare ourselves, the good, the bad and the ugly, hiding nothing at all. If a person is seen naked, they have no little secrets, no costume or pretense; there it is…

Is it any wonder that most people aren’t usually entirely comfortable when others see them naked? When we speak of our relationships with God, we are always naked before Him, whether we realize it or not, for God sees all and we have no secrets from Him. For most of us, that should be a much more uncomfortable thought than to be seen by another person while we are unclothed. Yet it is true whether we want to think about it or not; we can hide certain little secrets from other people, we can pretend to be holy and righteous with other people, but God knows not only the reality, but our innermost thoughts and motivations, all of the time. Thus we are always naked before Him.

Now comes the full impact of the metaphor:

When we become aware of this reality and when we agree to bare all before Him, to let down our guards, to admit all, to stop attempting to impress Him or deceive Him, when we give everything we have and everything we are to Him… that is when amazing things start to happen.

The funny thing about this is that I have met hundreds, if not thousands of Christians who would jump in right about now and say that why yes, they do this all the time, and then they would go on and on about how Jesus is the very center of their lives, and that their prayer time (several times each day) and their frequent fasting and selflessness should be a model for everyone to follow… and who would be lying through their teeth in the process of impressing family and friends with their piety; they might even be fooling themselves. Yet like the Pharisees of old, their fruit betrays them every time.

Sadly, most Christians never get to this point, while the rest don’t come to this point as often as we might.

Naked before God is much more than a state of dress, in fact it can take place fully clothed, for what it really comes down to is a state of complete and humble submission to Him, to His majesty and to His will in all things, and this is one thing to simply say, and quite another to do on a consistent basis, yet the awesome news is that we don’t need to do it on our own.

I’m thinking that this is probably quite enough for now; I’d imagine that most of us need to reflect for a while, so I’ll end this post here. Next time, let’s pick up at this point, for there is so much more! In the meantime, I’ll be looking forward to your comments…

Posted in Christian Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

The Temple, The City… The World

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Don Merritt

Mark 13

Parallel Texts: Matthew 24-25; Luke 21:5-37

From the beginning of the book, Mark has taken us on the Kingdom Tour. He began with John’s announcement that the Kingdom is at hand, and then proceeded with Jesus preaching the Kingdom throughout the countryside. As we have gone through this process, we’ve seen how Jesus demonstrated, by both word and deed, what the coming Kingdom of Heaven would be all about, and how once the Kingdom came, nothing would ever be the same again. We’ve also seen that the powers and authorities within the Jewish establishment opposed the Kingdom at every opportunity, along with demonic forces, creating a formidable alliance. Now, Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem for the final climax of His ministry. He has just completed an entire day of battle in the Temple Court and has pronounced God’s judgment on the current corrupt system in the “seven woes” pronounced upon the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Matthew 23 and at the end of Mark 12.

Chapter 13 opens right after Jesus’ judgments were pronounced, as He and the disciples were once again leaving the Temple area. They walked across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives overlooking the Temple Mount, and the disciples ask Him a question along the way: ‘As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”’ (Verse 1) As you can clearly see, the subject is the Temple and magnificent buildings.

Jesus gave a curious reply: ‘“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”’ In giving His response, Jesus specifically told them the Temple itself will be destroyed. The Temple being destroyed would have been a shocking thing to any Jew of that time, for the Temple is the center of Jewish life, culture and even of the Nation itself, for it is the dwelling place of God Himself on earth; the disciples were concerned.  Privately some of the disciples ask: ‘“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”’ (verse 4) Did you catch that? They want to know when the Temple will be destroyed and what the signs will be when the time is near for this to happen. In Matthew’s account, they also ask what the signs of Jesus’ coming will be, but that isn’t asked here.

With all of this context set, the answer in verses 5-31 is the answer regarding the Temple, and not as some suggest, about the end of the world or the second coming. Verses 32 f.f. deal with the second coming, but we can only tell that by studying Matthew’s account.

Since this is only a general overview based upon context, we might ask ourselves if this fits in with Mark’s  wider Kingdom context, and the answer to that is a strong and clear “Yes!” All along we’ve been seeing that everything was about to change entirely, but this change would not only be a theological or abstract change. The old Jewish kingdom was an earthly one, with earthly observances and physical manifestations, rules and observances. The new kingdom was to be a heavenly one that fulfills the illustrations and “types” of the old, bringing about an entirely new system, the New Covenant. You will recall that at the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross, the temple veil was torn in two. Remember also that this veil was the separation between Man and God, the separation that sealed off the Holy of holies, God’s dwelling place within the Temple into which no one could enter, except the High Priest once a year, and then only after following the prescribed protocols. That was torn open for by the blood of Christ there was no longer a separation between Man and God… you could say that the Spirit of God moved to a new address at that time, and that His new address would be within the hearts of His followers, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, an act that made the old physical Temple obsolete.

When the Spirit came on Pentecost, this gospel was first preached to the Jews, and later to the whole world, and after a reasonable time, the Temple itself was destroyed removing all vestiges of the old system.

Yes, I would have to conclude that this story is entirely consistent with Mark’s larger historical context, and central to Christian theology and understanding of our relationship with God in this age.

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Very Good News!

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Don Merritt

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Mark 12:41-44

Parallel Text: Luke 21:1-4

Chapter 12 has been a chapter of battle with Jesus prevailing over three waves of attack. The battle takes the form of a verbal combat between two different value systems, but the more important reality about all of this is our discernment of the fact that the real fight wasn’t a verbal one, but a spiritual one between two opposing powers.

In the last section, Mark 12:35-40, Jesus took the offensive against His real foe, and pronounced God’s coming final judgment on the Enemy, and as I mentioned last time, Matthew really brings this divine judgment into focus in Matthew 23. Here in these few verses, we see the very same spiritual forces at work vying for the hearts of men and women, even though no one speaks. Jesus did not speak to any crowd, but spoke only privately as a Master speaks to His disciples.

Consider the parallels between the wealthy folks here, tossing large amounts of coinage into the pots, clanking loudly so that everyone can see their display of worldly position and success as they part with tiny fractions of their incomes in a demonstration of “piety”, with the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and teachers of the law and their flowing fancy garments, arrogance and false demonstrations of “piety”. Contrast all of this with the poor widow who gives everything she has to God.

To an onlooker, the situation of the “pious” well to do seems to show great favor from God, but it is only outward and worldly, thus it may not be of God at all, for He is not impressed by the outward grandeur of this world.

No! The poor widow is the one who has received God’s favor! She isn’t playing the world’s game, and so she may be poor in worldly terms, but she is rich in faith, a faith that will see her through hard times and ensure her place in eternity while all of those who so value their worldly positions suffer the consequences for their foolish and selfish behavior.

This chapter was not written, in my view, to show us that Jesus was smarter than the other guys, nor was it written to show us that He was a better debater. It was written to instill in us the truth that Jesus came to establish a whole new kind of kingdom, one that is not of this world, one that is in opposition to this world. It was written so that we might understand that if we intend to follow Jesus, our attitudes must change, our priorities must change, and that in our daily lives this world needs to decrease and His Kingdom increase. In order for this to take place, we must let go of the notion that Jesus will someday return to establish a kingdom in and of this world, for His Kingdom in not, has never been and never will be of this world.

Yes, and this is very good news!

Posted in Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Photo of the Week: March 23, 2016

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Don Merritt

20141121_090422

Posted in Photo of the Week | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments