[Fifty-ninth in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
Encore Post:
Just after Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus into the desert alone for forty days to fast and pray prior to beginning to minister. The number forty was important to the Jewish people. Their ancestors wandered in the desert for forty years. Moses and Elijah fasted for forty days in the desert. God kept Noah and his family safe in the ark for forty days. For them, the number forty stood for a period of testing.
For us, the temptation of Jesus is wonderful. He could have blown Satan away. But He chose to face temptation in a way that we can face temptation. He quoted God’s will from Scripture. In God’s Word is the power to overcome the Devil — and the world and our flesh, too. The Scripture calls on us to pray to a Lord who was tempted in every way the way we are, except that He did not sin. Because He faced temptation as a human, we know He understands us and is ready to help.
[Fifty-Fourth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Passover is the highest holy day in Judaism. The Old Testament required all of God’s people to celebrate Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles in Jerusalem (Exodus 23:14-17), but many could not afford to be there more than once a year. Since entire communities would make the trip, they tended to travel in caravans, making the trip a joyful, almost continuous picnic.
A boy’s twelfth year is a year of joyful study. When Jesus grew up, twelve-year-old boys studied God’s word so that they could become a Bar Mitzvah — a son of God’s covenant. When they were ready, they would read a passage from the Bible in Hebrew during a Sabbath service in the synagogue on a Saturday. To do that, he had to learn to recite almost the whole Bible by heart. Once he completed the reading, everyone considered him a spiritual adult.
Since most Jewish people were in Jerusalem for Passover, it was the custom of the faith’s leading rabbis to gather in Solomon’s Porch — the courtyard Herod the Great had built around the temple proper — to teach. Jesus stayed behind in the temple to listen to them. The disciples of these teachers asked them questions. The teacher would ask the disciple a question. Once the student replied, the teacher would comment on the answer. Often these discussions were written down and studied as a part of the oral law — the Talmud.
The rabbis were very impressed with Jesus’ answers. They didn’t know how a young man from faraway Galilee could learn so much about the Torah. In the meantime, Mary, Joseph, and their families began the trip home to Nazareth. They assumed Jesus was with his cousins. When they couldn’t find him, they went looking for him. They found him at the temple.
When Jesus replied to Mary’s scolding, he revealed much about himself. First, he knew God was his Father. Second, that teaching was the family business that he would take up. Finally, in perfect obedience, he followed her instructions perfectly. In this one incident, we learn something important about Jesus’ nature. He is God and man at the same time.
[Fifty-Third in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
Encore Post:
King Herod the Great is a figure that the Jews had mixed feelings about. He was not Jewish, although his family converted to Judaism and he was raised in that faith. The Romans appointed him King of the Jews. He adopted a Graeco-Roman lifestyle. In many ways, he represented everything they hated.
Yet Herod built many things that greatly improved the lives of the Jews, including their only Mediterranean port—Caesarea Maritima. His most important project was the rebuilding of the temple into its most glorious form. He was also ruthless. He killed anyone he even imagined threatened his throne, including his sons and his favorite wife. A joke going around Rome at the time was that it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son. It takes little imagination to believe that he killed all the young males in Bethlehem.
It is no wonder, then, that the arrival of the wise men from Persia upset Jerusalem, asking for the newborn King of the Jews. The talk of the Messiah was a real problem for him. This could give rebels a focus against him and Rome. His offer to worship the young child rings hollow to anyone who knew him.
Matthew tells us that the wise men were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Ancient wisdom valued dreams, and so they paid attention to them. For Joseph, a man named after the Bible’s most famous interpreter of dreams, an angel’s appearance in a dream for a second time moved him to act. He quickly took his family to Egypt.
A Jewish family moving to Egypt was not unusual. For centuries, Egypt’s Greek rulers patronized the Jewish people. Legend tells us that the second such king commissioned the Septuagint—the Greek translation of the Bible used by Jesus and his disciples. A larger Jewish population lived in Alexandria than in Jerusalem at that time. As it turned out, they didn’t have to stay long. Herod died just a few months after he killed the innocent boys of Bethlehem. Matthew tells us that the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus’ life would repeat the history of the people of Israel in one person.
[Fifty-Second in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
Encore Post:
St. Luke wrote his Gospel and the Book of Acts in polished, carefully constructed Greek. The introductions to both books are written in well-balanced, formal language, reminiscent of the best of ancient classical history. But when he begins the story of Jesus, he writes in the Greek of the Septuagint — the translation of the Old Testament read in the synagogues where Jesus and his disciples grew up. It would be like reading a novel that starts in New York, written with a Brooklyn accent, and, when the scene changes to Dallas, it speaks with a Texas twang and vocabulary.
As Luke weaves the story, he recalls several canticles — New Testament psalms, really — sung by various persons in it. The result is much like a modern musical. The Church picked up on this. We sing them in worship and have done so for over 1,600 years.
Called by the first few words of these songs in Latin, they are:
Mary’s song, the Magnificat. We sing it during Vespers.
Zechariah’s song, the Benedictus, is sung in morning services.
The Christmas Angel’s song, the Gloria, is sung in the Divine Service when the Lord’s Supper is served.
Simeon’s Song, the Nunc Dimittis, is also sung during Divine Service.
These songs of joy, celebrating the births of the Messiah and the prophet who announced him, are now our songs, too, not just at Christmas, but the whole year.
[Forty-ninth in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
Encore Post:
About one hundred years before Jesus was born, the Jewish people rebelled against the Greek king of Syria and won their freedom. To this day, the Jewish people celebrate that event during the season of Hanukkah. At that time, people from the area around Jerusalem and Bethlehem settled in Galilee and built little towns like Nazareth. Likely, the grandparents or great-grandparents of Mary and Joseph settled there at that time. When the Roman rulers of Palestine required all its people to register in their hometowns, Joseph and Mary had to travel the 80 to 90 miles to Bethlehem on foot. The census was a source of pride for Augustus Caesar. The emperor had it inscribed on his tombstone. It likely took decades to complete — especially on the edges of the empire and in its client kingdoms.
When Mary and Joseph arrived in the small town of David, there was no room for them to stay in any of the homes. The word that the King James Version translates as “inn” means something more general than a place to rent a room. It means more like “guest room.” So, likely one of their relatives let them stay in the stable — actually a fairly warm and somewhat private place to give birth in those days. The people of Bethlehem had built their homes into the caves on the hillside, a very efficient way to maintain steady temperatures year-round and protect people and their domestic animals from the elements.
Our traditional crèches show the scene more like it would have been if Jesus had been born in medieval Germany rather than Roman First Century Judea. Because most people in the Middle Ages could not read, artwork told all the stories of the birth of Jesus together in one scene. They often include a baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, a manger with hay, cattle, sheep, donkeys and camels, shepherds, wise men and their gifts. Yet it is unlikely that the original scene was that crowded. Most families in that time and place likely would have, at most, a donkey and sheep — no cattle.
Shepherds were common folk, looked down on as working-class people are today. Those on the night shift would not be a group to which an announcement from the throne of God would be made. Yet the angel, God’s ambassador, announced the birth of his son and chose them.
Martin Luther summed it up in a Christmas Sermon:
If Christ had come with trumpets sounding; If he had a cradle of gold, his birth would have been a stately thing. But it wouldn’t comfort me. So, he had to lay in a poor girl’s lap and be scarcely noticed by the world. In that lap I can come to see Him; in this way He now reveals Himself to the distressed. Yes, he would’ve had greater fame if he’d have come in great power, splendor, wisdom and high class. Yet, He will come someday, in another way, when He comes to oppose the great nobles. But now He comes to the poor, who need a Savior.
— Martin Luther Sermon on Christmas Day 1530 Translated by Robert E. Smith
[Forty-Seventh in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
Encore Post:
In the small town of Nazareth, not far from the Sea of Galilee, the Angel Gabriel appeared a second time. He visited a young girl, likely about twelve to fourteen years old. Mary of Nazareth was preparing for her marriage. Her parents and Joseph’s parents had likely arranged their wedding years before.
Like all the Jewish families in the area, her ancestors had settled there when God’s people won their independence from the Greek rulers of Syria about one hundred and fifty years before. They were from David’s town of Bethlehem, near Jerusalem, and were descended from King David. She was related to Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah, to whom Gabriel had appeared just six months earlier.
Just as startled as Zechariah was, Mary responded very differently. The elderly priest had doubted God’s word sent by his messenger. If anything, the message she received was even harder to believe. She was a virgin, and she knew what everyone knew — it takes a man and a woman to conceive a baby. However, she did not doubt the word of God’s angel. She didn’t even ask why. She asked how. When told the Holy Spirit would cast his shadow over her, as he did in the beginning, over the face of the deep, she consented. “I am God’s slave,” she said. “Let it be.” And it was. The eternal Son, God of God, Light of Light, became a baby in her womb.
She would treasure this visit in her heart. She would need that strength. Hard days lay ahead. Her Joseph would doubt. Wouldn’t you if your beloved said, “Good news! We will have a baby. No, obviously, he’s not yours. He’s God’s son. An angel told me!” He would plan to divorce her until an angel appeared to him. A Jewish man named Joseph knew better than to doubt dreams!
Yet it meant the first-century equivalent of a shotgun wedding, whispered gossip in the shadows, a quick visit to cousin Elizabeth until everything calmed down, and long, uncomfortable walks while very pregnant. Yet, God’s word was enough for her. She was blessed to bear and raise God’s Son. He would suffer and die while she watched. Yet she knew what his name meant: he would save his people from their sins. She would indeed be blessed — and honored by God’s people as the Mother of God himself.
[Forty-Sixth in a series of posts on Bible Stories]
Encore Post:
Four hundred years had passed since the prophet Malachi spoke to God’s people. God had been silent all those years, but had not been idle. Now, an elderly priest named Zechariah was chosen to burn incense in the Holy Place of the temple, right outside the Holy of Holies. The angel Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God himself, appeared to Zechariah to announce the miraculous birth of a son. He was to be named John (God’s gift) and would fulfill Malachi’s last prophecy to send a herald to prepare the way of the Messiah. The last time this angel appeared, he brought dreams to Daniel.
You’d think Zechariah, who should have known better, would accept the news that he would have a son with joy. Yet that, like Abraham, he would have a child in his old age, when he was barren, was too much. Gabriel punished him by taking his voice until the day his son was to be circumcised.
When John was born, his relatives asked Zechariah what name to give his son. Zechariah wrote on a Roman wax tablet, “His name is John.” Then the silence of God was broken. Zechariah prophesied about the coming salvation and the role his son would play in it. We sing this prophecy in the liturgy of morning prayer. It is called the Benedictus. This old priest was, therefore, the second-to-last prophet of the Old Testament. His son, who we know as John the Baptist, would be the last and greatest.
John the Baptist had almost all the credentials to be the Messiah. His father was a priest, descended from Aaron. His mother was related to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and so descended from King David. Gabriel the Archangel announced his birth in the temple, while his father was offering prayers on behalf of the people to God. Both of his parents were very old, like Abraham and Sarah, and barren, like Hannah, the mother of Samuel. God named him in the same way he named Isaac and changed Jacob’s name to Israel. The angel announced he would come in the spirit and power of Elijah, one of the greatest prophets. Yet from the very start, he and his parents understood John was not the Messiah, but the one who would reveal him to the world and prepare the way for him.
The Feast of Pentecost was one of the celebrations established by God at Mount Sinai. Also called the Feast of Weeks, it was a kind of Thanksgiving in which people brought a sacrifice for the harvest of grain. It was fifty days after Passover, and also known by the Greek word for fifty days — Pentecost. Since many Jews and Godfearers traveled to Jerusalem from great distances to be there for Passover, many stayed for this feast as well.
On Pentecost, the wind caught the attention of the crowd. Wind and tongues of fire witnessed to the presence of the Holy Spirit. God kept his promise on that day when he gave himself — the third person of the Trinity — to the whole Church. No longer would the Holy Spirit come to just prophets, but to all believers, young and old, Jew and Gentile, of all nations and languages. They all spoke in the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem, singing the praises of God. The church celebrates this day as a kind of birthday. It was that day the gospel began to spread to the ends of the earth.
Both the Hebrew and Greek words for Spirit mean “Wind.” The Holy Spirit hovered over the chaos before God created the Heavens and the Earth. When Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit settled in the Holy of Holies as a cloud. When the Prophet Elijah fled to Mount Sinai, God sent a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a fire to get his attention. At the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove.
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament (Joel 2:28-32), by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:11), and by Jesus (Acts 1:5). By baptizing His people with the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave them the power to witness to God’s love. He provided them with a counselor to lead and guide them. Just like the prophets of the Old Testament, every one of God’s children now can proclaim His praises to everyone.
[Twenty-Third in a series of posts on church words]
Encore Post:
One of the most common stories of redemption in the Old Testament comes to us in the book of Ruth. That whole book is about her redemption. Remember, Boaz was her kinsman’s redeemer. There are redeemers in the Old Testament, but the story of Ruth and Boaz has always caught my attention. By that act of redemption, Ruth is grafted into the genealogy of Jesus, the redeemer of the world! But what do we mean by “redemption”?
Redemption is one word that dutifully describes the work of Christ’s atoning sacrifice for us. Redemption involves gaining possession of something in exchange for payment. Dr. Luther is a master at discussing the term “redemption” when speaking about the meaning of the second article. There, Luther says in line with Scripture, “[Jesus Christ] has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins from death and the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His innocent sufferings and death….”
It is not like, however, that Jesus is paying Satan, as if Satan has power over Jesus. No, it’s not like that at all. While humanity was in the grasp of sin and death, it was not Satan who needed the payment of Christ’s blood. Rather, it was Holy and Righteous God.
God, who is indeed Holy and Righteous, could not be in the presence of sin. Therefore, He certainly could not be in the presence of sinful man, and allow them to live. However, by the work of the Son, Jesus Christ, He came to redeem sinful man. He came to gain possession of humanity from the grips of everlasting death for himself.
Jesus pays what we owe to God, who has been gracious and merciful to us, having sent his own Son into the world to be our redeemer. Jesus is the bridegroom is who pays the dowry to have His bride. And He pays that price with His own body and blood at the cross. Christ’s bride is the Church. And He dresses her in his own clothing and presents her to Himself. Redeemed and a possession of Christ forever.
Encore Post: On Palm Sunday, Jesus deliberately went to his death in Jerusalem. He could have called upon the countless armies of heaven to save Him, but He did not. Knowing full well what was ahead, He went willingly. Down the road used to bring the lambs for the Passover into Jerusalem, the Lamb of God went to the slaughter. Just as King David rode into the city on a donkey 1000 years earlier, Jesus chose a donkey as his mount. When the crowds acclaimed him Messiah, he received their greeting.
On Thursday evening, Jesus gathered with his disciples to celebrate the Passover. They remembered the night when the Angel of Death passed over the doors of the people of Israel, marked by the blood of the lamb. That night, when he gave us the Lord’s Supper, Jesus became our Passover, giving us his body to eat in the bread and his blood to drink in the wine.
Later, he would be led to trial before the Sanhedrin, which met in the Temple of Solomon. Here, the Lamb of God was condemned to die. On the cross, when He said, “It is finished,” God completed the sacrifice for our sins.
What the women found when they arrived at the tomb the next Sunday morning changed everything. The stone was rolled away; the guards had run away, and an angel greeted them. “He is not here! He is risen!” Once it sank in, the disciples went from sadness to joy. For Christians, the day of worship shifted from the Sabbath to the Lord’s Day. The very people who ran away and hid for fear of arrest would face arrest, torture, and eventually death themselves to proclaim the good news of salvation because of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Today we still proclaim the same good news. Now we were redeemed, forgiven, and restored to fellowship with God.
