[Sixty-Sixth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: After the Babylonian Exile, the Jewish people were determined to keep God’s Law. They put a very high value on the study of the Torah — the first five books of the Bible, written by Moses. They gathered around teachers, whom they called Rabbi — my master — who would give their interpretation of the law and the opinions of previous Rabbis. They considered these teachings to be the oral law, which by tradition was given by Moses, never written down, but passed down from teacher to teacher.
They taught that if you wanted to keep God’s law, hold yourself to practices stricter than the actual words of Scripture. These are called the “hedge around the Torah” and are gathered into the Talmud. So, for example, if you don’t want to take the name of the Lord your God in vain, then never pronounce it. Instead, say “My Lord” or “The Name.” If you don’t want to work on the Sabbath by sewing, stop after four stitches. And many similar things.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus does the same thing. Only he goes well beyond what a rabbi would teach. Not only must you not murder someone, Jesus taught, you must not even call someone stupid. Not only should you give to the poor and pray, you must not do it for the recognition you’ll get. He quotes the law, “You will not murder,” “You will not commit adultery,” and then says something no other rabbi would say. “You have heard it said … but I say to you.” Some of his hearers must have thought: “Who does he think he is? God?” (Well, yes, but that is another post!) Most of those who heard him were amazed. He teaches with authority, not like the Pharisees, they said to each other.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is the first of five groups of teachings. He does this to show Jesus is a new Moses. But Jesus is much greater than Moses. He is the Word of God himself. If we see the teachings of Jesus as a new law, we miss the point. We cannot keep the law on our own, for we are not perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus kept the law perfectly for our sake, took our disobedience on himself, and died to pay the price for us. He now gives us his righteousness in exchange. More than that, he now gives us the strength to keep God’s law and to live in it by the freedom the Gospel gives us.
Campus Ministry Night Hosea 5:15-6:6, Psalm 119:65-72 September 11, 2024
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sometimes in life, we have to learn the lesson the hard way. If we reject what our teachers teach us, then we may only barely scrape by in school and we won’t really want to go to college. If we ignore the laws of the land, then we will pay fines for bad behavior or serve time in jail for the wrongs that we have committed. If we hate our parents and do not listen to their wisdom, then we will fall into many pitfalls and find out that we need our parents to help get us out of our predicaments.
It is the same way with the Lord. And like the other authorities in our life, sometimes the Lord lets us fail and go our own way. Try it out; see if it works for you. It never does work, of course, not in the end. The Lord waits for Prodigal Sons to return home and to be faithful.
That’s really the lesson of Hosea. The northern kingdom had forsaken the Lord. Rather than worshipping the Lord where He can be found, they were worshipping all sorts of gods on all sorts of altars. They were faithless to the Lord their God. They were breaking the first, second, and third commandments.
And if that’s not bad enough, the northern kingdom had forsaken one another as well. Husband and wife were not faithful to one another. A symptom of the faithlessness to God was the faithlessness to one another. The nation had prostituted herself with other gods and the results were grief and destruction and death. They were breaking the sixth commandment.
But then the Lord says in our reading this evening, I will return again to my place,until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,and in their distress earnestly seek me. In other words, the Lord the Shepherd would no longer go out seeking the sheep to bring them in. Rather the Shepherd would return to the tabernacle, to the temple, and the people would have to come back to Him. God returned to His house; and He waits for His people to return to Him there.
Will God’s people return, repent, and acknowledge their guilt? That sounds like what we do in church every time we gather. We confess our sins, and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Can you imagine with me for a moment, though, how amazing it would be if the whole nation returned, repented and acknowledged their guilt? That would be more than life-changing. That would be world-changing.
Will God’s people earnestly seek the Lord? Here is the mention of prayer. Christians pray. It’s a fact of life. But prayer indicates to God that the proper relationship between God and His people has been restored. If you have been unfaithful to God, prayer is a great thing to start. If you have been unfaithful to one another, praying to the Lord is the best place to start to restore trust and love for one another.
God wants His people to say to Him, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. This is the prayer that God wants. But as we know, the northern kingdom never does return to the Lord and repent and acknowledge their guilt. Instead, the northern kingdom is destroyed and never heard from again.
Let them be a lesson for us. For God sent to them the prophet Hosea who married a prostitute to indicate to the people the problem with the relationship they had with God. God sent them the prophet Hosea who preached to them to turn from their wicked ways. And they did not listen to the preacher; they did not listen to God.
But the words of Hosea remind us today what we should do: Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;his going out is sure as the dawn;he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” For if you know the Lord, then you will not know the ways of the world or the ways of other gods. And if you know the Lord, then you will know how to live before Him. And if you know the Lord, then you will be faithful to Him and fervently love the spouse, children, and family that He has given you.
Rather than breaking the first, second, third, and sixth commandments, we will return, repent, and acknowledge our guilt before God and before one another, and the relationship will be restored.
Now, I certainly agree that that might be learning the hard way. But sometimes in life, the hard way to learn something is the best way for it to stick with us. It would be best to remain faithful, but when sin enters in, then repentance and faith are the only solution for our sins and struggles.
Now that you have been hewn by the prophet Hosea and slain by the words of my mouth, repent and live. Jesus loves you, forgives you, and restores you. Remember well these final words: For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Let me remind you: the Lord waits for all of His Prodigal Sons to return home, repent, believe, and live forever with Him.
[Sixty-Fifth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Jairus loved his daughter very much. As the leader of the local synagogue, he was a respected man. When he bowed down before Jesus, he sacrificed much of his dignity. What made his daughter’s illness especially painful was that she was twelve years old. At the time of Jesus, a child became an adult in the eyes of the community in their twelfth year. Plans for her marriage were likely under way. She would have been seen as a survivor, since many children died before their twelfth year.
The woman who interrupted Jesus’ trip to see Jairus’ daughter had also been ill for the same twelve years. Her illness was also very disruptive, since it meant that she could not go to the temple nor worship in the synagogue. Nothing any of the doctors could do for her helped her. Jesus was her last hope. And his healing made all the difference in the world for her.
When Jesus was delayed as he went to Jairus’ house, his daughter died. Jesus told Jairus to trust Him and not be afraid. No one knew what Jesus would do, just that He cared about the sick. When Jesus raised her from the dead, everyone was amazed.
The healing miracles of Jesus show us several things. They demonstrate he is God himself and that God has compassion for the sick and suffering. In fact, Jesus shared our sufferings and took them to the cross. There he died for the sins of the world and bore the sufferings that came because of it. His resurrection is the promise of the ultimate healing of all our sickness, sorrow, grief, and death. At his second coming, he will bring an end to it once and for all when he dries every tear from our eyes.
Jesus wants us to have compassion for the sick, too. He tells us to love them, to pray for them and to take care of them. He continues to show mercy to people who suffer through our care. In these ways, we show people that God loves them, too.
[Sixty-Four in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: For people in ancient times, the sea was a symbol of chaos and evil. They had a good reason to think this way. Not only was the sea a place that could become violent at a moment’s notice, but they had no way of knowing about coming storms as we do today.
The disciples were veterans of the sea, not bothered much by the wind and waves, even when it was rough. That evening, the sea was in much trouble. They could not use their sails, which would be blown to pieces. So they labored to row against it. They soon became afraid they would sink.
Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat, sleeping on the sails and the sack with rocks to keep the boat balanced on the sea. When they woke Jesus, he yelled at the wind and waves the way we would yell at a barking dog. The disciples shouldn’t have been afraid, since Jesus was with them. They realized then that Jesus is God and were more afraid of Him than the sea.
[Sixty-Third in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The long-standing hatred between the Jewish people and Palestinians has its roots over three thousand years ago, when the Assyrian Empire conquered the Kingdom of Israel and when the Babylonians conquered Judah. These empires left people behind in the land, who married people from these kingdoms and established their own traditions. The Jews who returned from exile in Babylon thought of them as traitors and sellouts. The Samaritans resented the Jews and their temple. By the time of Jesus, Jews would avoid traveling through Samaria. Jesus and His disciples did not.
The woman at the well had good reason to be surprised by Jesus. For him to take water from her would make him ritually unclean — unable to make sacrifices in the temple or enter the synagogue. More than that, she was considered a very immoral woman, the kind even Samaritans warned their sons to avoid. In speaking with her, Jesus showed her unexpected love and mercy.
Jesus engages her in a spiritual discussion by speaking of living water. At first, she may not have understood what he meant. She thought it would be great to go without drawing water from a well! Jesus followed up by telling her things that he could not possibly know — she had been married five times and now lived with a man to whom she was not married! Now she knew Jesus had to be a prophet and needed to know how to make things right with God.
Jesus told her things had changed; He is the Messiah! She went back to town and brought her friends to hear him teach. For two days, Jesus stayed with them. So it was that the first Gentiles came to faith in Jesus.
[Sixty-Second in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The Pharisees loved God so much that they tried hard to keep all of his commands. They even added more rules to be sure that they did this. They believed that if all of God’s people did everything God wanted them to do, then the Messiah would come, defeat the Romans in battle, and rule the world from Jerusalem forever.
But they had so many rules, it was hard to learn them, remember them, and keep them. Most people could not follow them all, so they really did not try hard. This upset the Pharisees so much that they called these people “sinners.” They thought they were as bad as tax collectors, who worked for the Romans and made themselves rich at their neighbors’ expense.
So, when Jesus saw Matthew at his tax collecting booth and called him to be a disciple, they were outraged. It got worse when he went to Matthew’s house to eat dinner. In the Middle East to this day, inviting someone to dinner is a sign of deep friendship. Sinners and tax collectors were considered unclean, and to eat with them would make you unclean. To the Pharisees, this meant Jesus didn’t take the law seriously at all. What they missed was that Jesus came precisely to save the lost, so he needed to go where they are.
Later, Jesus would remind his disciples and the Pharisees that everyone is sinful and cannot be good enough to please God. He came to die for us all, to pay for our sins, and to bring the forgiveness of sins to us. He came to look for us, find us all, and to save us. So, people like Matthew are just the kind of people he wants as his disciples.
[Fifty-Eighth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: Weddings are very joyful occasions. Everyone dresses their best. There is music, dancing, and feasting. The bride and groom are excited because their life together will soon begin. Weddings in our culture, however, are very different from those during the earthly life of Jesus.
Jewish weddings in first-century Galilee were seven days long, most of it eating, drinking, dancing, reciting wedding poetry — and eating. On the first day, the bride and her wedding party would walk from her house to her groom’s house. They would say their vows in his house or under a tent that stood for the house. Then the party would begin.
Cana was a small town in Galilee, a few miles north of Nazareth. Mary, Jesus, and his disciples were invited to attend a wedding there. It is likely that Mary was a relative or a close friend of the groom’s parents. The family was likely well-off. They could afford a large wedding feast, with lots of guests and servants to cater for the event. They had six large stone jars to contain water to be used by the guests to remain ritually clean.
For one reason or another, the feast ran out of wine. Since the only drinks used in Galilee at the time were water and wine from the vineyards near Nazareth, this was a major problem. Hospitality was very important at weddings. The groom would have to be sure there was plenty to eat and drink. Running out of wine was a disaster in the making.
Jesus’ mother, Mary, asks him to take care of the problem. Jesus’ reply sounds cold in modern English, but it was not cold or disrespectful on that day. It roughly means, “How is that our problem, Ma’am?” Yet Mary trusts Jesus will do what is necessary to solve the problem and tells the servants to do what he tells them to do.
By turning over 120 gallons of water into the finest wine, Jesus saved the couple a lot of embarrassment. More than that, He showed His mother and His disciples that He was God and cared for people in their everyday lives. The church believes that the fact that Jesus attended this wedding blessed all marriages by making wine for the celebration. It is mentioned in every traditional wedding.
[Fifty-sixth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore post: Four hundred years had passed since the last prophet had spoken. Now, a new prophet had come. When he grew up, he dressed like the Prophet Elijah, ate the same foods Elijah ate, and preached in the same places Elijah preached.
John the Baptist had 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. An angel in God’s temple announced his birth, 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. Many people wondered if he was the Messiah. But he wasn’t. As the last prophet before him predicted, he came to prepare God’s people for the Messiah.
God named him “John (God’s gift)” 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.
When he baptized Jesus, John finally knew it was his cousin, Jesus. He pointed to Jesus and said, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” The Messiah had come not as a conqueror, but as the final sacrifice for the sins of the world. Now His baptism gives us the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation.
[Fifty-fifth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The Gospels give us only brief glimpses into the first thirty years of the life of Jesus. We have, of course, the Christmas story. They mention the circumcision of Jesus on the 8th day (we celebrate it on New Year’s Day). After forty days, Mary, his mother, and Joseph, his adoptive father, take him to the temple to redeem him and to purify Mary. There, they meet Simeon and Anna. Then sometime in the first two years, scholars from the east came to their house in Bethlehem, worshiped him, and gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Warned by an angel, they moved to Egypt while Herod the Great vainly tried to kill him and instead slaughtered innocent boys. In a matter of months, they moved back to Nazareth and settled there. Then, that’s it for twelve years. We hear about Jesus among the teachers in the temple, and then silence again for sixteen years!
False teachers, psychics, and prophets of other religions could not resist. They tell stories of a self-centered child animating clay pigeons, raising a child from the dead to testify that he did not shove the child off a roof, and similar things. Some have him moving to India to learn under gurus. Islam has it that he spoke while in the cradle. None of these things happened, but are simply stories made up to fill a vacuum they believe exists.
So, what were Jesus’ first thirty years really like? We don’t know precisely, other than that it was perfectly normal. He grew up as the son of a faithful Jewish craftsman. He learned his father’s trade, living what was a kind of middle-class life. Likely, they worked to build the nearby capital of Herod Antipas, called Sepphoris. He would have studied the Torah, learned Hebrew, observed all the customs of the law, and studied under rabbis. He likely spoke Koine Greek and gained knowledge of Greek and Roman culture. He grew up so normally that no one who knew him could imagine him as God. Luke sums it up: “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
[Fifty-First in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The Wise Men were scholars in Babylon, in Iraq today. One thing they studied was astrology. They saw a star that told them that a king would be born in Israel. So they went to see Him. They did not arrive on Christmas Eve at all, but a few months to a year afterward. They found Mary and Jesus at home in a house.
There are lots of theories as to what the Star of Bethlehem actually was. Some scholars think it was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which appeared to approach each other in the sky three times around the time Jesus was born. Others point to the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, which occurred about the same time. Also suggested have been comets, novas, and other signs in the sky. Any of these would inspire ancients who believed in astrology to go visit the newborn king. It may not have been any of these. Christian scholars have pointed out that God was quite capable of creating a star to use solely for the birth of His Son.
Assuming a newborn King of the Jews would be in King Herod’s palace, it made sense to visit him. What they didn’t know is that, in the last few months of his life, Herod was very paranoid. He was known to kill viciously anyone, including his wife and his sons, whom he thought were planning his overthrow. So, then, when the angel warned the wise men not to go back to Herod, it was a very good thing.
Even though tradition says there were three Wise Men (think: We Three Kings of Orient are), no one knows how many came. Matthew doesn’t number them. Perhaps it is because they presented Jesus with three royal gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
They were the first Gentiles to realize who Jesus was and to worship Him. The church celebrates the coming of the Wise Men on the twelfth and last night of the season of Christmas.
