The A-Z Avatar from Beyond our Universe

Sergey Brin, son of Jewish Russian immigrants to the US, and Larry Page, whose mother is Jewish, co-founded Google together in 1998. In 2015, Google reorganized, placing itself under its newly created parent company ‘Alphabet’. Alphabet has grown from a company valued at $23 Billion when it went public in 2004 to a value of $1.7 Trillion in early 2022. Alphabet has become so valuable because its search capabilities transformed our ability to access information from anywhere on the planet.

Larry Page
^{_{Stansfield PL, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Origins of the Alphabet

That two secular Jewish data scientist pioneers should launch such world-changing information technology and call it ‘Alphabet’ is ironic when one considers where the alphabet came from. Wikipedia tells us:

The history of the alphabet goes back to the consonantal writing system used for Semitic languages in the Levant in the 2nd millennium BCE. Most or nearly all alphabetic scripts used throughout the world today ultimately go back to this Semitic proto-alphabet.^[1] Its first origins can be traced back to a Proto-Sinaitic script developed in Ancient Egypt to represent the language of Semitic-speaking workers and slaves in Egypt.
(wiki)

A Semitic people living as slaves in Ancient Egypt first developed the alphabet. That would be the Jews, freed by Moses’ leadership from Egyptian slavery. Delving deeper into the ‘Proto-Sinaitic’ script we learn that

… it is only with the Bronze Age collapse and the rise of new Semitic kingdoms in the Levant that Proto-Canaanite is clearly attested (Byblos inscriptions 10th–8th century BC, Khirbet Qeiyafa inscription c. 10th century BC)
(wiki)

The Alphabet: A Jewish Contribution to Mankind

In other words, the earliest ‘clearly attested’ alphabet-based writing came with the rise of Semitic (i.e., Jewish) Kingdoms in Canaan (i.e. Israel). The Khirbet Qeyifra inscription is the oldest alphabet-based writing yet discovered. It was discovered in an ancient Israelite city that dates to the time and kingdom of David. So let’s summarize what we know. The earliest alphabet was developed from Semitic slaves in Egypt (Moses leading Israelites out of Egyptian slavery). The earliest discovered script comes from an Israelite city in the time of King David.

Khirbet Qeyifra Ostracon (writing on clay) from the time of King David of Ancient Israel. The earliest clearly attested alphabet writing

If not the outright developers, the ancient Israelites were most certainly central to the development of the first alphabet. Their ‘paleo-Hebrew’ alphabet then spawned the Aramaic, Brahmic, Greek, Latin, Arabic and other modern alphabets used today around the world. The letter names even today show the relationship. The first letter of our alphabet ‘a’, matches the first letter of the ancient Greek alphabet Alpha – α. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet aleph – א, and the first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet – ‘а’ also correspond.

The Jewish Contribution to the Alphabets of today and yesterday

So, the evidence indicates that the ancient Jews contributed to the advance of civilization by developing and then spreading the alphabet as a writing system. And today, through the leadership of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Jews have once again contributed to mankind through their IT company Alphabet. As they note

We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search!
Google blog

We have been exploring Jesus in relation to his people of origin – the Jews. But here we should pause to reflect on the vast contribution that Jews have made to mankind. That civilization is founded upon the rule of law, with no one above the law, with society invested in the education of its citizens has come about, in part, because of the influence of Jews. Now we learn that the simple, but profoundly powerful, alphabet is a gift from the Jewish people to the world.

The Transcendant Alphabet

But there remains still a third alphabet, also Jewish in origin, that has been offered to the world. In our context of ‘alphabet’ note the following.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8

God describes Himself as the ‘Alpha’ (first letter of Greek alphabet) and the ‘Omega’ (the last letter). This is like saying, ‘I am the A to Z of everything, transcending knowledge, time and power’. Later in the same book we find Jesus saying:

_{^{Meuble_héraldique_livre.svg: Bluebear2 derivative work: Alekjds, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Revelation 22:13

Jesus adopts the same term. He uses the alphabet as the platform to declare himself to be the same as the ‘Lord God’ who had earlier used that expression.

How to understand, let alone believe, this?

Our Physical Reality seen from perspective of Virtual Reality

The rapid ascent of IT platforms offered by such companies as Alphabet and Meta provides a new insight to this question. Information Technology has moved mankind to the cusp of creating virtual reality Meta-Verses, with parallels to our own physical reality. Philosophers now raise questions about the mind and reality from these developments. As the BBC explains:

_{^{Julia M Cameron, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

A simulation operated by super-powerful entities (IT companies) is, in many ways, equivalent to a Universe created by a divine being. And it begs similar questions – not least if you turn out to be one of the super-powerful entities in question. What kinds of risks and responsibilities accompany the god-like powers associated with operating simulated worlds?

… consider an inexperienced user of a virtual environment who doesn’t, for instance, know that the avatar they’re chatting to is being controlled by a corporate AI rather than a human. This is a scenario in which an informational asymmetry – the fact that the user is profoundly deceived about the nature of the interaction – may be connected to all kinds of manipulation or exploitation. Contrast this with an experienced user of a virtual environment who is hanging out with some avatars controlled by (human) friends as well as an AI-controlled avatar that’s telling them stories beside a virtual campfire. This is a very different prospect. What’s playing out here is a potentially life-enhancing encounter in an artificial realm – its pleasures derived from a knowing combination of verisimilitude and fictionality.
(The man rethinking the definition of reality – BBC Future)

The corporate AI, the ‘creator’ of their meta-verse can enter its virtual reality as an algorithm-powered avatar. When it does so, there is a sense that the AI-avatar should declare itself to simple human avatars. Not doing so would be unfair, according to ethicists and philosophers who ponder what encounters we can anticipate in the coming virtual reality meta-verses.

Jesus through the Virtual Reality Lens

Consider now the following discourse of Jesus from that lens.

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

¹⁹The Jews who heard these words were again divided. ²⁰Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

²¹But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Further Conflict Over Jesus’ Claims

²²Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, ²⁶but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one.”

³¹Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, ³²but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

³³“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? ³⁵If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— ³⁶what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? ³⁷Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. ³⁸But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” ³⁹Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
John 10: 1-39

Ethicists urge virtual reality creators to openly declare any of their avatars which come from them, the AI creators. In this light Jesus’ declarations as sent from the Father makes perfect sense. He took responsibility for full ‘informational symmetry’ with his hearers.

Jesus as the ‘Word’ of God

This is what the Gospel means when it introduces Jesus as the ‘Word of God’.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist
_{^{Daoud Corm, PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons}}

⁹The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1:1-18

Computer code is the foundational information source upon which the Big Tech companies build their virtual realities. In the same way, the Gospel presents Jesus as the information source which developed our physical reality. Thus, it represents him as the ‘Word’ of God. Knowing the immense talent, skill and work needed to code the emerging IT virtual realities informs us of the A-to-Z complete know-how required to produce our physical reality.

The Transcendant Reality

But the Gospel does not stop simply by stating the source of our physical reality. It describes another reality, more fundamental than this one. As Jesus said:

Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

²²This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”

²³But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. ²⁴I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”

²⁵“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. ²⁶“I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

²⁷They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. ²⁸So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up^[a] the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. ²⁹The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” ³⁰Even as he spoke, many believed in him.
John 8:21-30

Jesus talks about another reality, another world, which we cannot access. To understand why it is inaccessible to us we need to see some problems that Meta (formerly Facebook) is having in the development of its Meta-Verse.

February 20, 2022

Insight about your Psyche

Psychology comes from two Greek words. The ‘–ology’ comes from λόγος (logos = word, study of), and ‘Psych’ comes from ψυχή (psuché = soul, life). Hence, psychology is the study of our souls or our minds, emotions, behavior, and intellect. Psychology as an academic study took hold in the nineteenth century.

Sigmund Freud - Wikipedia — **Sigismund Schlomo Freud**

One of the most well-known pioneers of psychology was Sigmund Freud (Sigismund Schlomo Freud 1856 – 1939), the founder of the branch of psychology known as psychoanalysis. Though educated as a medical doctor, Freud became intrigued in using hypnosis as the means to explore and treat disorders. After resigning from his medical position, he devoted the rest of his life to pursuing both an understanding and a framework to treat personality disorders.

Freud’s Jewish heritage and his strong association with secular Jewish identity strongly influenced the development of his theories and his work, as biographers have pointed out. In fact, all his early co-workers and colleagues in psychoanalysis were Jewish. Even his first patient, Anna O, the treatment of whom launched Freud and psychoanalysis into prominence across the world, maintained a strong Jewish identity. So it is not an exaggeration to state that the insight and brilliance of Jews have opened up for all of mankind theories by which we can understand ourselves and our souls better.

Freud and Jesus as influential Jews

But Freud and his colleagues were by no means the only ones to contribute to our understanding of our psyche. Nineteen hundred years before Freud, Jesus of Nazareth’s teachings about your and my ψυχή deserves consideration.

We have been exploring the life and teachings of Jesus from his Jewishness, proposing that Jesus embodies the intended end goal of the Jewish nation. As such, his insights, advances, and experiences parallel to some extent that of the Jewish nation as a whole (our conclusion comes here). Accordingly, we now turn to what Jesus taught about our psyche or soul.

Freud remains a polarizing figure because of his radical theories of the human soul. For example, he originated and popularized the Oedipus complex which he claimed was a stage in life when a boy hated his father and wanted sex with his mother. Freud postulated the existence of the libido, the sexualized energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments. According to Freud, the libido should not be repressed but rather allow its appetites to be satisfied.

Jesus and our Psyche

Jesus likewise remains today a polarizing figure in large part because of his teachings about the human soul. Here are two discourses of his regarding the ψυχή that to this day generate much discussion

²⁴Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever wants to save their life (ψυχή, soul, psyche) will lose it, but whoever loses their life (ψυχή , soul, psyche) for me will find it. ²⁶What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul (ψυχή, psyche)? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul (ψυχή, psyche)?
Matthew 16:24-26

Jesus’ Paradox of the Soul (ψυχή)

Jesus uses a paradox to teach about the soul (ψυχή). This paradox stems from a self-evident truth; we cannot permanently retain or hold onto our souls. No matter what we do in life, at death our souls are lost. This is true no matter our level of education, our wealth, where we live, or the power and prestige that we amass over the course of our life. We cannot keep our ψυχή. Inevitably it is lost.

Based on this some surmise that we should live with this in mind and fully maximize the experience of the ψυχή during its transient existence by protecting and preserving the ψυχή as much as possible. This is a view that Freud espoused.

But to do that warns Jesus, will result in permanently losing one’s soul. Jesus then confronts us by creating a paradox of the ψυχή by insisting that we give our ψυχή (soul) away to him, and only then will we be able to keep or preserve it. In a real sense, he asks us to trust him to such an extent that we give up that which we cannot keep (our ψυχή) to gain it back permanently. Note he does not suggest we give our ψυχή to a church, a religion or an important religious person, but to him.

Jesus’ second ψυχή paradox

Most of us hesitate to believe Jesus such that we would entrust him with our souls. Rather we go through life protecting and enlarging our ψυχή. In so doing however, instead of creating peace, rest and tranquility in our lives we find the opposite. We become weary and burdened. Jesus used this reality to teach a second paradox of the ψυχή.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (ψυχή, psyche) ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30

Through history people have yoked oxen, donkeys and horses to do the heaviest tasks that have wearied the human race since the beginning of agriculture – ploughing soil. ‘Yoke’ is thus a metaphor for difficult labor that utterly tires one out. Yet Jesus, in thrusting his paradox upon us, insists that the yoke he would place upon us will rest our souls. Our lives will experience peace as we put on his yoke.

Practice what you preach

While the western world has to a large extent sought to apply Freud’s doctrine, especially seeking self-fulfillment, meaning and liberation in sexual pursuits, it is paradoxical that Freud never applied his ideas to his own family. He wrote and taught a radical social innovation especially between the sexes. But he ran his home utterly as a socially conservative. His wife subserviently made his dinners on his rigid schedule, and even spread his toothpaste onto his toothbrush. He never discussed his sexual theories with his wife. He sent his sons to their family doctor to learn about sex. Freud tightly controlled his sisters and daughters, not allowing them to go out to work. He kept them at home sewing, painting and playing the piano. (reference 1 below)

Jesus, on the other hand, applied his teachings of the soul first to his own life. With his disciples arguing from rivalries and jealousies between them, Jesus intervened:

²⁵Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ²⁶Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— ²⁸just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life (ψυχή) as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:25-28

Jesus shouldered his yoke by living his life to serve, rather than being served. He did so to the extent that he gave his soul as a ransom or payment for many.

The Truly light Yoke?

Whether Jesus’ yoke truly is light and a source of rest, one may argue with. But the Freudian path of advancing one’s life seems indeed to result in wearisome burdens. Consider now how far we have come after about a century of applying his ideas. What dominates headlines and social media feeds? #Metoo, asexuality, Epstein, unending allegations sexual violence, endemic pornography addictions. When we think that we have advanced, just look at where we are.

Freud & Jesus: Credentials backing their Insights

Freud’s credentials and the credibility of his ideas rested on the perception that they were scientific. But how scientific were they? It is instructive that his ideas were not advanced based on the scientific method of observation and experimentation. Freud simply recounted stories as case studies. He told stories as other fiction writers of his era, but brought into his writings a conviction of truth, and we believed him. As Freud himself stated,

It still strikes myself as strange that the case histories I write should read like short stories and that, as one might say, the lack the serious stamp of science
As quoted in Paul Johnston, A History of the Jews. 1986, p.416

Jesus credentialed his teaching about (ψυχή) by not only applying it, but also by demonstrating authority over his (ψυχή)

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life (ψυχή) —only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
John 10:17-18

He based his credentials about his insight into (ψυχή) not on a paper he wrote, or a reputation he earned, but on his resurrection.

Next we delve into what he means by ‘my Father’. We do so by reflecting on the the coming AI-based virtual realities that offer clues to the source of our physical reality. We begin by reflecting on the fundamental building blocks upon which our civilization has been built – the alphabet, the actual letters as well as Googles’ parent company Alphabet.

A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson. 1987. p413.

December 15, 2021

The Kingdom of God: Many are Invited but…

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born into a family of Jewish scholars. His paternal grandfather served as rabbi until his death. His mother came from a long line of rabbis originally stemming from a Talmudic college in Italy. However, Marx’s father, influenced by Voltaire, ensured that Karl received his education in a school dominated by liberal humanism.

Karl Marx, as a young man became an avid student of philosophy. However, later he became critical of philosophy because, as he put it,

philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it.
Karl Marx. Thesis 11, Theses on Feuerbach 1845

So Marx set out to change the world and did so through his writings, the most well-known being “The Communist Manifesto” and “Das Kapital”, the latter volumes published by his colleague Freidrich Engels.

These writings served as the ideology for Communist revolutions which swept through the world in the 20^th century setting up a new kind of government.

Karl Marx – secular rabbi pushing for a Kingdom of Man via Revolution

_{^{Boris Kustodiev, PD-Russia-1996, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Though anti-religious, and adopting a ‘scientific’ stance, Marx displayed the greatest of religious faith – simply just not for theistic religion. Marx explained human history by theorizing that social classes conflict with each other across all societies. In his view, the working class of his day (the proletariat) would overthrow the bourgeoisie (the rich class with money who controlled the means of production). He campaigned for a violent revolution and overthrow of the bourgeoisie by the workers. Lenin and Trotsky first implemented his ideas, leading the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 in Russia which launched the Soviet Union. Others followed making Marx one of the foremost world-changers of the 20^th Century.

You might think that since Marx claimed a scientific basis for his theories he would have thoroughly studied and intermingled with the workers of his day. But Marx did not use a scientific methodology, but rather used a rabbinical one. He never set foot in a factory. Instead he locked himself away in libraries to read about workers, as rabbis lock themselves away for Talmud study. In his reading he simply went through and accepted material that would ‘prove’ what he already believed. In this manner he displayed a zealous religious faith in his ideas.

Marx viewed history as an inevitable push to progress by revolution. Ever active social laws governed this progress. His writings read like an atheist’s Torah; like a religious work with control exercised, not by a god, but by the intelligentsia which mastered his writings.

Mankind’s Quest for a Just society

Jews have been at the forefront of mankind’s search for good and just political governance. Karl Marx is a prominent example of this, being one of the most influential people on the 20^th century.

Jesus of Nazareth also taught on bringing about a just and good society. But Jesus taught that a society of shalom (peace and abundance) would come with the ‘Kingdom of God’. Like Marx, he saw himself as leader in establishing this new society. But he did not pioneer its coming by locking himself away reading and writing as Marx did. Rather he lived with those he sought to influence and taught them directly about the Kingdom of God. We continue exploring Jesus of Nazareth portrayed in the Gospels.

Jesus and the Kingdom of God

Jesus had authority such that diseases and even nature obeyed his command. He also taught in the Sermon on the Mount how Kingdom citizens should love one another. Love rather than revolution was the basis for the society that Jesus foresaw. Think of the misery, death, injustice and horror we experience today because we do not follow this teaching.

Different than Marx, Jesus used the picture of a festive party to explain the Kingdom’s advance, not a class struggle. The means to this party was not revolution of one social class imposing itself on another class. Instead, invitations widely distributed with freedom for acceptance or rejection would establish His Kingdom.

Parable of the Great Party

Jesus pictured a great party to illustrate how wide and far the invitation to the Kingdom reaches. But the responses do not go as we expect. The Gospel recounts:

Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, “What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the Kingdom of God!”

_{^{Grabado basado en un dibujo de Juan Comba, PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons}}

¹⁶Jesus replied with this story: “A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. ¹⁷When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ ¹⁸But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ ¹⁹Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ ²⁰Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’

²¹“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ ²²After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ ²³So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. ²⁴For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’”
Luke 14:15-24

The Great Reversal: The Invited Refuse

Our accepted understandings are turned upside down – many times – in this story. First, we might assume that God will not invite many into His Kingdom (which is the Banquet in the House) because he does not find many worthy people.

That is wrong.

The invitation to the Banquet goes to many, many people. The Master (God in this story) wants the Banquet to be full.

But an unexpected twist occurs. Very few of the guests actually want to come. Instead they made excuses so they do not have to attend! And think how unreasonable the excuses are. Who would buy oxen without first having tried them out before he bought them? Who would buy a field without first already looking it over? No, these excuses revealed the true intentions of the hearts of the guests – they were not interested in the Kingdom of God but had other interests instead.

The Rejected Accept

Just when we think that perhaps the Master will be frustrated with so few attending the banquet there is another twist. Now the ‘unlikely’ people, those who we all dismiss in our minds as being unworthy of being invited to a great celebration, those who are in “streets and alleys” and far-away “roads and country lanes”, who are “poor, crippled, blind and lame” – those we often stay away from – they get invitations to the banquet. The invitations to this banquet go much further, and cover more people than you and I would have thought possible. The Master of the Banquet wants people there and will even invite those we ourselves would not invite into our house.

And these people come! They have no other competing interests to distract their love so they come to the banquet. The Kingdom of God is full and the Master’s will is accomplished!

Jesus told this parable to get us to ask a question: “Would I accept an invitation to the Kingdom of God if I got one?” Or would a competing interest or love cause you to make an excuse and decline the invitation? You and I are invited to this Kingdom Banquet, but the reality is that most of us will decline the invitation for one reason or another. We would never say ‘no’ directly so we offer excuses to hide our rejection. Deep down inside we have other ‘loves’ that are at the roots of our rejection. In this parable the root of the rejection was love of other things. Those who were first invited loved the things of this world (represented by the ‘field’, ‘oxen’ and ‘marriage’) more than the Kingdom of God.

Parable of the Unjustified Priest

Some of us love things in this world more than the Kingdom of God and so we will refuse this invitation. Others love or trust our own righteous merit. Jesus also taught about this in another story using a religious leader as an example:

^{_{Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: ¹⁰“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! ¹²I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

¹³“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ ¹⁴I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Luke 18: 9-14

We bar our own entry

Here a Pharisee (a religious teacher like a Priest) seemed to be perfect in his religious effort and merit. His fasting and alms-giving were even more than required. But he placed his confidence in his own righteousness. This was not what Abraham had shown so long before when he received righteousness simply by humble trust in the promise of God. In fact, the tax collector (an immoral profession at that time) humbly asked for mercy. Trusting that he had been given mercy he went home ‘justified’ – right with God – while the Pharisee (Priest), who we assume is ‘right with God’ still has his sins still counted against him.

So Jesus asks you and me if we really desire the Kingdom of God, or if it is just an interest among lots of other interests. He also asks us what we are trusting in – our merit or God’s mercy.

Bolshevik Revolution (1921)
_{^{Internet Archive Book Images, PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons}}

The ideal Communist State

Marxist doctrine taught that a class revolution would bring about the best of human society. Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God would advance by simply accepting its invitation. The annals of history across the world document the unspeakable horrors and killings that Marxism unleashed on the world. Compare that with the society that the immediate followers of Jesus established just after his departure.

And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. ⁴⁵They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. ⁴⁶They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity— ⁴⁷all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
Acts 2:44-47

These people lived out the slogan that Marx espoused

From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs
Karl Marx, 1875, Critique of the Gotha Program

These people forged a society that Marx dreamt about but Marx’s followers could not achieve in spite of untold attempts.

Why?

Marx failed to see the kind of revolution required to bring about an egalitarian society. We likewise are in danger of failing to see the revolution required. This revolution was not at the level of one class of people against another as Marx taught, but rather in the psyche of every single person contemplating their invitation into God’s Kingdom. We see this clearly when we compare what Jesus taught about the psyche when compared to that other great Jewish thinking of the human psyche – Sigmund Freud.

November 29, 2021

Creator in the Flesh: Shown by Word of Power

The 20^th century scientist, Albert Einstein, and the 21^st century tech entrepreneur, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook/Meta, provide insight into the two most fundamental laws of our universe, helping us better understand what the Bible records in Creation as well as insight into the person of Jesus. We explore this by first summarizing Einstein’s and Zuckerberg’s achievements.

Einstein: Mass-Energy of 20^th Century

We know Albert Einstein (1879-1955), a Jewish German, for developing the Theory of Relativity. Educated in Pre-World War 1 Germany and Switzerland, Einstein excelled in math and physics. Working in a Swiss patent office, he first published his Theory of Relativity in 1905 which predicted strange physical occurrences. Eddington verified Einstein’s theory in 1919 when he observed light bending around a star during an eclipse. This confirmation made Einstein world famous and granted him the 1921 Nobel prize.

The equation resulting from Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (E= mc²) reveal that Mass and Energy are interchangeable. Mass can be lost for an enormous gain of energy. But though Mass-Energy can be interchanged, science has found no natural process which creates Mass-Energy. The First Law of Thermodynamics, (or the Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy), the most verified and observed law of physical science, states that mass-energy cannot be created. Energy can be transformed into different kinds of energy (kinetic, thermal, electrical etc) or into mass, but new mass-energy cannot be created. Energy can be propagated as waves, which is how the energy of the sun reaches the earth.

Zuckerberg: Information in 21^st Century

Einstein shed light for us on the First Law. Zuckerberg’s success with Facebook shows the pervasiveness of its companion law – The Second Law of Thermodynamics. Born in 1984 and also of Jewish origin, Mark Zuckerberg’s success, as one of the most prominent of the 21^st century billionaire Information Technology entrepreneurs illustrates the fundamental reality of a non-mass-energy element: information. Because information is not mass-energy and cannot be detected physically many do not think of information as real. Others assume that information arises simply after a long chain of lucky events. This remains the cornerstone of the Darwinian view of the universe promoted so strongly in modern culture.

It is beyond our scope here to probe the assumptions in this worldview but simply consider for a minute all the multi-billionaries like Mark Zuckerberg that have popped up in recent decades. They became billionaires because they recognized the reality of information and built clever information systems we all now use. Intelligence causes information, not luck. The success of Zuckerberg and others like him have created a whole new industry – information technology. The fact that few have accomplished what they have done should show that information does not arise simply by luck.

In fact, the Second Law of Thermodynamics reveals that the natural world simply left to natural energy reactions loses information. But then where does all the fantastically complex information that we see in the natural world harnessing mass-energy (DNA, proteins, photosynthesis, ATP synthase etc.) come from?

Mass-Energy & Information at Beginning

The Bible’s account of Creation gives an elegant answer. The Bible records creation occurring by God speaking. Speaking essentially involves information and energy transmitted by waves. Information carried by waves can be beautiful music, a set of instructions, or any message that someone wishes to send.

The Bible records that God ‘spoke’ and thus transmitted information and energy propagated as waves. This caused an ordering of mass and energy into the complex universe we see today. This occurred because the ‘Spirit of God’ hovered or vibrated over the mass. Vibration is both a form of energy and also constitutes the essence of sound. Read the record from this point-of-view.

Creation Account: The Creator Speaks

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

⁶And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

⁹And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹¹Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹²The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

^{_{Izaak van Oosten, PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons}}

²⁰And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

²⁴And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:1-25

The Bible then recounts that God created mankind in the ‘image of God’ so that we could reflect the Creator. But our reflection remains limited in that we cannot command nature simply by speaking to it.

Jesus Likewise ‘Speaks’

But Jesus did do this, demonstrating an authority to speak beyond that of teaching and healing. He did this so we could understand him from the creation account where God spoke information and energy to setup the universe. We see how the Gospels record these events

²²One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. ²³As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

²⁴The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. ²⁵“Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
Luke 8:22-25

The word of Jesus commanded even the wind and the waves! No wonder the disciples were filled with fear.

… Creating Mass-Energy

On another occasion he showed similar power with thousands of people. This time he did not command wind and wave – but food.

Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ²and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

⁵When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

⁷Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

⁸Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ⁹“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

¹⁰Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). ¹¹Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

¹²When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

¹⁴After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” ¹⁵Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.
John 6: 1-15

What did it mean?

In creating mass out of nothing Jesus exhibits the same command over mass-energy as God did at Creation. When the people saw that Jesus could multiply food simply by speaking they knew he was unique. But what did it mean? Jesus explained later on by clarifying the power of his words

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.
John 6:63

And

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.
John 6:57

Jesus claimed to embody in the flesh the tri-fold Creator (Father, Word, Spirit) that had spoken the cosmos into existence. He was Creator alive in human form. He demonstrated this by speaking his power over wind, wave and matter.

Considering with our Minds…

People today often understand the Bible Creation account as simply an ancient mythology from simple people. But this account aligns perfectly with our latest understanding of how information and energy propagates as waves. The elegant account remains uncomplicated when it repeats ‘God said …’ so simple non-scientific people understood it. But it also has real meaning to us in light of mass-energy and information understanding of 21^st century.

Jews have led mankind’s progress to understand and apply the basic elements that make up reality (mass-energy & information), exemplified by Einstein & Zuckerberg.

Some fear this Jewish leadership and so spread an anti-semitic fear of Jews. But since these advances have blessed and enriched all people a better explanation for Jewish leadership comes from the promise of blessing to Abraham.

The Gospels present Jesus as the arche-type of the Jewish people (conclusion of this comes here). As such he also directed his focus on mass-energy and information. In doing so he proved his claim to be the same Agent who originally ‘spoke’ our world into existence. Later we will see how he uncannily mirrors Creation week events by what he does during his Passion week.

… and Hearts

Jesus’ disciples had a hard time understanding this. The Gospel records that right after feeding the 5000:

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. ⁴⁶After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

Jesus walks on water
_{^{Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

⁴⁷Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. ⁴⁸He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, ⁴⁹but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, ⁵⁰because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ⁵¹Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, ⁵²for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

⁵³When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.
Mark 6:45-56

Our Hard hearts

It says that the disciples did ‘not understand’. The reason for not understanding was not that they were not intelligent; it was not because they did not see what happened; not because they were bad disciples; nor was it because they did not believe in God. It says that their ‘hearts were hardened’. Our own hard hearts also keeps us from understanding spiritual truth.

This is the fundamental reason that people in his day divided themselves about Jesus. More than understanding intellectually is the need to remove obstinacy from our hearts.

This is why the preparing work of John was vital. He called people to repent by confessing their sin instead of hiding it. If Jesus’ disciples had hard hearts that needed repenting and confessing of sin, how much more you and me?

So what to do?

Confession to Soften Heart & Gain Understanding

I have found praying this confession in the Psalms to be helpful. Perhaps meditating or reciting this will work in your heart too.

Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
²Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
⁴Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge…

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹²Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51: 1-4, 10-12

We need this repentance to understand what it means that, as the Living Word, Jesus reveals God in the flesh.

He also came to inaugurate the ‘Kingdom of God’, by definition a political exercise. This is another domain where Jews have led the way, exemplified by Karl Marx. We use him as our lens to look at the ‘Kingdom of God’ compared to Kingdoms of men – next.

November 12, 2021

Jesus Heals: by Powerful Word

Bernard Kouchner
_{^{Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung from Berlin, Deutschland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Influential French doctor-politician Bernard Kouchner founded the medical relief agency Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) as a result of his time in Biafra region of Nigeria during the bloody Biafra war working to heal and save the wounded. MSF has become a global medical relief agency noted for its neutrality. MSF will try to treat and save any side in a conflict zone or natural disaster regardless of race or religion.

MSF logo
_{^{Jislinn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

After the founding of MSF, Kouchner went on to become the health minister of France, three separate times, for both left and right-wing French governments. The UN appointed Kouchner as their UN envoy to Kosovo to establish functioning government structures to heal Kosovo after the brutal 1998-99 Kosovo War in the former Yugoslavia. The Jerusalem Post ranked Kouchner as the 15th most influential Jew worldwide because of his contributions to the healing of people and nations.

Sickness and Healing from ancient Jewish traditions

Healing from sickness has long been an important theme for the Jewish people. Consider these words penned by Jeremiah in the Bible over 2500 year ago.

¹²“This is what the Lord says:

“‘Your wound is incurable,
    your injury beyond healing.
¹³There is no one to plead your cause,
    no remedy for your sore,
    no healing for you.
¹⁴All your allies have forgotten you;
    they care nothing for you.
I have struck you as an enemy would
    and punished you as would the cruel,
because your guilt is so great
    and your sins so many…
¹⁷But I will restore you to health
    and heal your wounds,’
declares the Lord,
‘because you are called an outcast,
    Zion for whom no one cares.’
Jeremiah 30:12-14, 17

Historical Timeline with Isaiah, Jeremiah & Jesus

Jeremiah, in God’s name, wrote that the Israelite nation needed a national healing. But since Israel refused to undergo this healing in Jeremiah’s day her destiny pointed to national pain and misery. However, Jeremiah lit a vision for a future national healing. He reiterated this again a few chapters later

Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.
Jeremiah 33: 6

Jesus the Healer

Five hundred years after Jeremiah penned those words, Jesus appeared. Of his many exceptional characteristics, prominent among them was his ability and willingness to heal people. Like Bernard Kouchner and MSF, Jesus dispensed this healing voluntarily to people regardless of race, gender, politics or conflict. In contrast to Kouchner and other healers of today, Jesus’ primary means of healing was by speaking. We look at some prime examples recorded in the Gospels, and then reach back into the Old Testament to look their significance.

Previously we saw that Jesus taught with great authority, using authority that only the Christ could have. Right after finishing teaching this Sermon on the Mount the Gospel records that:

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. ²A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Matthew 8:1-4

Jesus Heals by Authoritative Word

Jesus now shows his authority by healing a man with leprosy. He simply said ‘Be clean’ and the man was both cleansed and healed. Jesus’ words had authority to heal as well as teach.

Then Jesus had an encounter with an ‘enemy’. Romans were the hated occupiers of Jewish land at that time. Jews viewed the Romans then similarly to how some Palestinians feel towards the Israelis today. The most hated (by the Jews) were the Roman soldiers who often abused their power. Worse still were the Roman officers – the ‘centurions’ who commanded these soldiers. Jesus now encounters such an ‘enemy’. Here is how they met:

Jesus Heals a Centurion

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶“Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

⁷Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

⁸The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

¹⁰When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹²But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
Matthew 8: 5-13

Healing when Faith recognized Authority

The word of Jesus had such authority that he simply said the command and it happened from a distance. But what amazed Jesus was that only this pagan ‘enemy’ had the faith to recognize the power of his Word – that Christ had authority to Say and it would Be. The man that we might assume has no faith (coming from the ‘wrong’ people and the ‘wrong’ religion), but from Jesus’ viewpoint, would one day join in a heavenly feast, while those from the ‘correct’ religion and the ‘correct’ people would not. Jesus warns that neither religion nor heritage grants heaven.

Jesus also healed Jewish leaders. In fact, one of his most powerful miracles occurred when he raised the dead daughter of a synagogue leader. The Gospel records it like this:

Jesus raises a synagogue leader’s dead daughter

Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. ⁴¹Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house ⁴²because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

… Interrupted by healing a bleeding woman

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. ⁴³And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. ⁴⁴She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

⁴⁵“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

⁴⁶But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

⁴⁷Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. ⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

…Back to the dead daughter

⁴⁹While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”

⁵⁰Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

⁵¹When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. ⁵²Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

⁵³They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. ⁵⁴But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” ⁵⁵Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. ⁵⁶Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
Luke 8: 40-56

Once again, simply by a Word of Command, Jesus raised a young girl from death. It is not religion or lack of religion, being Jewish or not, that kept Jesus from miraculously healing people. Wherever he found faith, or trust, regardless of their sex, race or religion he exercised his authority to heal.

Jesus heals Many, including Friends

The Gospel records that Jesus went to the house of Peter, who would later become his chief disciple. When he got there he saw a need and served. As recorded:

When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. ¹⁵He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

¹⁶When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”
Matthew 8:14-17

Jesus had authority over evil spirits which he cast out from people simply ‘with a word’. Today we more often use the term ‘mental health’, rather than ‘evil spirits’ but goal remains the same – mental and emotional well-being. The Gospel then reminds us that the Prophets had predicted that his lifting of our sicknesses would be a sign of the Christ’s arrival.

Isaiah Foresees Healings

The Biblical prophet Isaiah Isaiah had prophesied 750 years before Jesus, but speaking in first person (me, I) on behalf of the coming Christ (=’anointed’) prophesied that:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners
²to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³    and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3

Isaiah had predicted that the coming Christ (=anointed) would bring ‘good news’ (=gospel) to the poor and would comfort, free and release people. Many today do not believe the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ healings. However, they were not simply pious myths from the imaginations of Matthew and Luke. They stand in line with the much earlier prophetic writings which predicted these healings as an unmistakable sign to identify the Christ. Jesus’ ability to heal responded to the diagnosis given by Jeremiah, fulfilled the prediction of Isaiah, and offers hope for healing to us if we respond in faith to his display of authority.

Word of God

That he healed so often simply by speaking ‘a Word’ demonstrates the Gospel claim that he was not only the Christ but also

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1

Jesus had such authority that he was also called ‘Word of God’. Next we see how Nature itself submitted to his Word.

November 9, 2021

Like Moses: Teaching with Authority on the Mountain

Guru (गुरु) comes from ‘Gu’ (darkness) and ‘Ru’ (light) in its original Sanskrit. A Guru teaches to dispel the darkness of ignorance by light of true knowledge. Speaking from the shores of Galilee, Jesus exemplified this by teaching with such impact that it would be felt even 1900 years later and far away in India through his influence on Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi & Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

In England, 1900 years after Jesus’ birth, a young law student from India now known as Mahatma Gandhi (or Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) was given a Bible. When he read Jesus’ teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount he recounts

“the Sermon on the Mount which went straight to my heart.”
M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography OR The Story of My Experiments with Truth. 1927 p.63

Jesus’ teaching about ‘turning the other cheek’ gave insight to Gandhi on the ancient Hindu concept of non-injury and non-killing. Gandhi later refined this teaching into political force in Satyagraha, his use of non-violent non-cooperation with the British rulers. Several decades of satyagraha resulted in the independence of India from Great Britain, in a largely peaceful manner. Jesus’ teaching triggered all this.

So what was it that Jesus taught?

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

After Jesus’ testing by the devil he started to teach. His longest message recorded in the Gospels is called the Sermon on the Mount. Read the complete sermon while highlights are given here. Then we look back to Moses for deeper insight.

Jesus taught the following:

²¹“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

²³“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

²⁵“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. ²⁶Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Adultery

²⁷“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Divorce

³¹“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³²But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Oaths

³³“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ ³⁴But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Eye for Eye

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ⁴⁰And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. ⁴¹If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. ⁴²Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for Enemies

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew5:21-48

_{^{Carl Bloch, PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Sermon on the Mount reveals Authority

Jesus taught with the form “You have heard that it was said … but I tell you … ”. In this structure he quoted first from Moses, and then extended the scope of the command to inner motives, thoughts and words. Jesus taught by taking strict commands given through Moses and made them even much more difficult to do!

But what is remarkable is the manner in which he extended the commands of Moses’ Law. He did so based on his own authority. He simply said ‘But I tell you…’ and with that he increased the scope of the command. This authority that he simply assumed was what struck his listeners.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, ²⁹because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Matthew 7:28-29

Jesus taught as one with great authority. Earlier Bible prophets passed messages from God to people, but here it was different. Why could Jesus teach like this? Psalm 2, where the ‘Christ’ was first foreseen as a title, described God speaking to the Christ like this

I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
Psalm 2:8

God gave ‘the Christ’ authority over the nations, even to the ends of the earth. So as the Christ, Jesus claimed the authority to teach like he did.

Jesus in relation to Moses and David who respectively wrote of coming Prophet and Christ

The Prophet and the Sermon on the Mount

In fact, long before, Moses had predicted the coming of ‘the Prophet’, who would be unique in how he taught. Moses had written

The LORD Said …”I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. ¹⁹I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.”
Deuteronomy 18:18-19

In teaching as he did, Jesus exercised his authority as the Christ and fulfilled Moses’ prophecy of the coming Prophet who would teach with the authority of God’s ‘words in his mouth’. He was both The Christ and The Prophet.

Jesus & Moses

In fact, Jesus meant to both draw comparison and contrast to Moses by the whole manner in which he delivered the Sermon on the Mount. To give this Sermon …

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,
Matthew 5:1

_{^{Gustave Doré, PD-US-expired, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Why did Jesus go up the mountain? Notice what Moses had done to receive the Ten Commandments..

The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up (Ex 19:20)

Moses ‘went up’ the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments. When Jesus likewise ‘went up’ the mountain he took on the role of Moses. This makes sense because The Prophet who was to come would be

… a prophet like you (Moses)…
Deuteronomy 18:18

The Prophet had to be like Moses, and since Moses went up the mountain to give his teaching, so did Jesus.

God’s Plan demonstrated in its Harmony and Unity

This shows a unity in thought and intent that reaches over a thousand years. Only one mind can span such an long time interval – God’s. This exhibits evidence that this is His plan. Plans originating from people conflict with that of other people. Look at the myriad of political and economic plans that contradict one another. But this plan demonstrates a unity and harmony stretching through history – an indicator that the Divine has set it in motion.

Initiating A New Era for Us

Though Jesus and Moses pattern each other in ascending the mountain, those receiving their teachings did not. Jesus had his disciples come right up the mountain to be close to him when he sat down and taught. But when Moses received the Ten Commandments…

the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. ²²Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”
Exodus 19:21-22

The people receiving the Ten Commandments could not go near the mountain on pain of death, but Jesus’ followers could sit right with him on the mountain when he taught. This demonstrated the dawn of a new Era, characterized by proximity to God, rather than distance from Him. As the New Testament explains

For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. ¹⁹Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,
Ephesians 2: 18-19

Jesus showed in how his his listeners sat with him that the way was now opening for us to become ‘members of his household’.

But his message also explained what he expected of the ‘members of his household’.

You & me and the Sermon on the Mount

This Sermon might perplex you. How can anyone live these kinds of commands that address our hearts and our motives? What was Jesus Christ’s intent? We can see the answer from his concluding sentence.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew5:48

Notice that this is a command, not a suggestion. He required that we be perfect!

Why?

Because God is perfect and if we are to be members of his household then nothing less than perfect will do. We often think that perhaps simply more good than bad deeds – that will be sufficient. But if that were the case, and God let us join his household, we would destroy the perfection of His House and turn it into the mess that we have in this world. It is our lust, greed, anger that destroys our lives here today. If we join His Household still enslaved to that lust, greed and anger then that Household will quickly become like this world – full of problems made by us.

In fact, much of Jesus’ teaching focused on our inner hearts rather than outward ceremony. Consider how, elsewhere, he focuses on our inward hearts.

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. ²¹For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
Mark7:20-23

A Perfect Household for us

So perfect inner purity is the required standard for His household. God will only let the ‘perfect’ into his perfect household. But that raises a huge problem.

How will we get into this Household if we are not perfect?

The utter impossibility of us being perfect enough could cause us to despair.

But that is what he wants! When we despair of ever being good enough, when we stop trusting in our own merits then we become ‘poor in spirit’. And Jesus, in starting this whole Sermon, said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

The beginning of wisdom for us is not to dismiss these teachings as not applying to us. They do! The standard is to ‘Be perfect’. As we let that standard sink in, and realize that we are not capable of it, then we may be ready to accept the help he wants to give, rather than depending on our own merit.

This is the step his teaching pushes us to take. Next, we see Jesus demonstrate the authority that his teaching had assumed.

November 1, 2021

Jesus Tempted in the Desert

The Gospels tell us that immediately after his baptism, Jesus…

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, ¹³and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Mark 1:12-13

We may think it rather strange that Jesus went directly out into the wilderness for testing/tempting. And why for 40 days? But this is not random. Jesus is making an astounding claim in doing this. To see it we need to know Israelite history 1500 years before Jesus’ time.

Flashback to Israel’s desert testing

Right after Israel’s baptism in the crossing of the Sea, …

The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ²In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”
Exodus 16:1-3

Immediately after their baptism they entered the desert to face testing by hunger. And they ended up staying in the desert for 40 years!

The Lord’s anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone.
Numbers 32:13

Jesus re-takes Israel’s tests, passing on behalf of the nation

Jesus re-took this testing of Israel in the desert. His testing in the desert for 40 days mirrored Israel’s testing for 40 years. In doing this he was symbolically claiming to represent Israel. Notice how the tempter tested Jesus.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:1-4

The tempter first tested Jesus with hunger right after his baptism. How would he behave while hungry? This was exactly the same first test Israel went through.

The second temptation was to test God’s provision.

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
(Psalm 91: 11-12)

⁷Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Matthew 4:5-7

In their 40 years in the desert, the nation of Israel had put God to the test many times, including: when they tested God to provide water for them at Massah, with desiring meat instead of bread, refusing to entering the land due to fear. As Israel, Jesus now faced the same temptation, but this Israel passed the test.

Who is the devil referring to?

Notice how the devil quotes Psalm 91 to tempt Jesus. See the complete passage from which he had quoted only a part (which is underlined).

no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹²they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
Psalm 91:10-13

Note that this Psalm refers to a ‘you’, which the devil believed referred to the ‘Son of God’. But Psalm 91 does not say ‘Son of God’ so how did the devil deduce ‘Son of God’ from Psalm 91?

The Lion – Back to Jacob

Psalm 91 declared that this ‘you’ would ‘trample’ the ‘great lion’ and ‘the serpent’ (v.13). The ‘lion’ is a reference to the tribe of Judah of the Israelites. Jacob had prophesied at the dawn of the nation that:

“Judah, your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.
⁹You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
    you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?
¹⁰The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
Genesis 49:8-10

Jacob had stated that the tribe of Judah was like a lion from which a ‘he’ would come and that this ‘he’ would rule. Psalm 91 had continued this theme. By declaring that ‘you’ would trample the ‘lion’, Psalm 91 said he would be the ruler of Judah.

Timeline showing when ‘Lion’ & ‘Serpent’ oracles were spoken

The Serpent – Back to the Garden

Psalm 91, which the devil quoted, also stated that he would ‘trample the serpent’. This is a direct reference to the Promise in the Garden that the ‘offspring of the woman’ would crush the serpent. Let’s review it with a diagram showing the characters and their relationships in this Promise:

So the Lord God said to the serpent…

I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis3:15

Discussed in more detail here, God had made this Promise in the Garden, but had not filled in the details. Now we know that ‘The Woman’ is Mary^[i] because she was the only person who had an offspring without a man – she was a virgin. Therefore her offspring, the promised ‘he’, we now see to be Jesus. The ancient promise predicted that Jesus (the ‘he’) would crush the serpent. Psalm 91, which Satan had quoted in tempting Jesus, had reiterated the promise with

“you will trample the great lion and the serpent.“ (v13)

The devil quoted from Psalm 91 which in turn referred to these two earlier prophecies of a coming ‘he’ that would rule and would also crush the devil. Thus the tempter knew that the verses he quoted in the Psalms referred to the Son of God (= ruler). The devil tempted Jesus to fulfill these promises in the wrong way. These prophecies would be fulfilled, not by Jesus jumping off the temple to draw attention to himself, but by Jesus following the plan revealed by the preceding prophets.

The 3^rd Temptation – who to worship?

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
Matthew 4:1-11

While Moses had been up Sinai Mountain for 40 days receiving the Ten Commandments, Israel began worshiping the Golden Calf. As the Bible recounts

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
Exodus 32:1-2

So they proceeded to make and worship the Golden Calf. Israel failed even before the test had begun. In resisting this 3^rd temptation Jesus re-visited that test. And through him Israel now passed the test.

‘Christ’ means ‘anointed’ to rule so Jesus has a right to rule. Satan tempted Jesus with what was rightfully his, but Satan tempted him to take a wrong shortcut to his rule, and he was tempting Jesus to worship him to get it. Jesus resisted Satan’s temptation, by (once again) quoting from Moses.

Jesus – someone who understands us

This tempting of Jesus is crucial for us. The Bible states about Jesus:

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:18

And

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:15-16

We often assume we can get right with God on our own merit. Or we trust a religious official to be our Mediator before God. But Jesus is the High Priest who sympathizes and understands us. He helps us in our temptations precisely because he himself had been tempted – yet without sin. And so we can have confidence before God with Jesus as our High Priest because he underwent the most difficult temptations but he never gave in and sinned. He is someone who understands us and can help us with our own temptations and sins. He is the only one spiritually qualified to be our Priest. The question is: Will we let him?

Conclusion

We have seen how Jesus’ temptations were, like his birth, childhood flight, and baptism, his claim to be the fulfillment of Israel – how Israel should have developed. His 40 days in the wilderness also patterned Moses’ 40 days without eating while he received the Ten Commandments. Jesus patterns with Moses as well as Israel. We look at this more in depth when Jesus begins his teaching ministry. We conclude our investigation here.

[i] ’The Woman’ is likewise also a reference to Israel. Israel is pictured as a woman betrothed to God (Isaiah 62:5, Ezekiel 16:32, Jeremiah 3:20) and is also pictured thus in Revelation 12. So there are two equally valid identities to ‘the woman’ of Genesis 3:15

October 5, 2021

Jesus’ Baptism: What Does It Mean for You?

People instinctively sense that they are ‘unclean’. We know this because, while there are many differences amongst religions and traditions in the world, they all consistently invoke the need for washing with water when approaching the Divine.

Muslims practice wudu, or ritual washing, before prayer. Hinduism practices include bathing in sacred rivers, like the Ganges – to purify oneself before sacred festivals. Buddhist monks wash themselves in water before meditating. Shinto undergo Harae, or ritual washing, before worship. Jews practice Tevilah (full body immersion in a mikveh or bath), especially before their sacred festivals. In Christendom, baptism fulfills a similar role.

Muslims practicing Wudu
_{^{np&djjewell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

The various churches practice baptism a little differently, but Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist sets the example.

Baptism of Moses

Although this receives most attention, baptism in the Bible goes back long before the time of Jesus. The Apostle Paul writes:

“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
1 Corinthians 10:1-2

Crossing of the Sea under Moses was the national baptism of Israel

Paul refers to the Israelite Exodus out of Egypt, just after Passover, as the moment when the Red Sea parted and the Israelites walked through it. As recorded in Exodus 14, the Egyptians tried to follow, but perished when walls of water came crashing down on them in their pursuit of the Israelites through the parted sea. The Israelites, led by Moses, were all ‘baptized into Moses’ when they walked through the Red Sea. It became their national baptism.

Jesus’ baptism mirrors the baptism of Israel

Jesus’ Baptism Extends the Pattern

We are exploring the Gospel’s portrayal of Jesus as the fulfillment, or embodiment, of Israel. His miraculous birth paralleled that of Isaac, as well as his flight from Herod that paralleled of Jacob/Israel. Jesus’ baptism continues the pattern (which we conclude here). Why did Jesus undergo baptism? He did not need cleansing. John the Baptist said as much when Jesus approached him for baptism, as Matthew’s Gospel records:

¹³Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

¹⁶As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:13-16

Jesus did not need baptism for cleansing from impurity. He was already clean on the inside so nothing physical could make him unclean. But his baptism was another indicator of his pattern with Israel. As Israel went through a baptism, so he also went through a baptism.

Baptism of … cups

What does ‘baptism’ mean in the Gospels? We can answer this by noting how the Gospels use this word. As a comment on Jewish ritual washing, Mark notes that:

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.
Mark 7:3-4

Three times the word ‘wash’ appears. In the original Greek, the first wash (in v3) is nipsōntai, the standard word for wash. But the two other ‘wash’s in verse 4 are baptismous – baptism! So the Jews ‘baptized’ themselves and their cups when they washed them! Baptism simply meant to cleanse by immersion in water.

Baptism in water not the issue

Though many view baptism with water in Christendom as being able to cleanse us the New Testament explains the active source of our cleansing.

¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. ¹⁹After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— ²⁰to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, ²¹and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²²who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
1 Peter 3:18-22

Here it clarifies that the ‘removal of dirt from the body’, that is a ritual physical washing of some sort, is not the baptism that saves. Rather it is the ‘pledge of a clear conscience toward God’ – the inner repentance that John the Baptist taught – that saves. It saves us as verse 18 explains because it is Jesus himself who is righteous (spiritually clean) so that he brings us to God through his death and resurrection, explored more fully here.

Baptism into Jesus

In fact, we need baptism, not in water, but into Jesus himself, as the Bible explains

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Romans 6: 3-4

In trusting Jesus he washes us and thus we can ‘live a new life’.

That ‘new life’ involves an ability to have victory over temptation and sin. Jesus shows exactly how he does this in what he went through immediately after his baptism. He went into the desert for 40 days for testing by the devil, once again patterning as Israel which had undergone testings for 40 years in the desert immediately after their baptism from Moses.

June 6, 2021

Zealous in the Wilderness

Sculpture of Simon bar Kokhba on Israeli Knesset Menorah in Jerusalem

History remembers Simon bar Kokhba (Simon ben Kosevah) as the man who led and failed the last Jewish revolt against Imperial Rome from 132-135 CE. As the self-proclaimed prince of the Jewish people in Judea, he required that all Jews follow him into a war of independence against Rome. He led this revolt because the Romans were intending to build another pagan city (Aelia Capitolina) on the ruins of Jerusalem (ruined from the failed 66-73 CE uprising). This city would have a Temple dedicated to Jupiter, a pagan Roman god.

Though initially successful from his base in the Judean wilderness, their fortunes turned when the full might of the Imperial Roman legions counterattacked. Bar Kochba and countless other Jewish insurrectionists were brutally killed in Rome’s final victory. Before his defeat, many Jewish sages, including Rabbi Akiva, one of the leading contributors to the Mishnah, proclaimed Simon bar Kokhba as the Messiah.

Bar Kokhba directed his religious zeal from the desert wilderness against a foreign, external enemy – Imperial Rome. His vision saw messianic peace only coming about if the alien occupying military might was expelled and Zion liberated from foreign occupation.

Bar Kokhba Contrasted with John the Baptist

In his religious zeal and messianic fervour from the wilderness, Bar Kokhba resembled his countryman John the Baptist who preceded him by about 100 years. Yet, though similarly zealous, they differed in how they saw the fundamental problem and consequently the fundamental solution. Comparing these two revolutionaries will help us understand competing ideas of the human situation and the solution that the Gospel puts forth.

John the Baptist in Secular History

John the Baptist, like Bar Kokhba, was a powerful figure, often portrayed as rugged in films
_{^{Lucas van Leyden , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

Like Bar Kokhba, John the Baptist generated much controversy and attracted a lot of attention. Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, refers to him with these words:

Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod’s army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man… Herod, who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion… Accordingly, he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod’s suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, ch 5, 2

Josephus mentions John the Baptist in the context of the defeat of Herod Antipas against a rival. Herod Antipas had put John to death, and Josephus informs us that his later defeat was viewed by the Jews as Divine Judgment against him for his execution of John the Baptist.

John the Baptist in the Gospels

John the Baptist prominently figures as the forerunner of Jesus in the gospels. Luke, one of the gospels in the New Testament, firmly anchors John the Baptist in history by cross-referencing him with other well-known historical figures of that time.

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— ²during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. ³He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁴As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.
⁵Every valley shall be filled in,
    every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
    the rough ways smooth.
⁶And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
Luke 3:1-6

In support of Luke’s account, Matthew summarizes John the Baptist’s message like this:

“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ²and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Matthew 3:1-2

John’s Perspective

John saw the fundamental human problem being within us. Therefore, his preaching directed his listeners to repent.

Repent (metanoia in the Greek) means ‘change’ (= ‘meta’), your ‘mind’ (=’noia’). Think of a caterpillar’s dramatic ‘metamorphosis’ when its form (‘morphe’) changes into that of a butterfly.

John preached the need for a change of mind so dramatic that it transforms the way we live, not by toppling governments and fighting foreigners as Bar Kokhba thought, but in treating others – whoever they may be – in a compassionate and just manner. This repentance would ‘prepare’ us for the Lord’s way. In John’s mind, without this repentance, we would not see, grasp or understand the Kingdom of God, nor would we experience its ‘forgiveness’.

Confession in Our Repentance

An indicator of true inner repentance that John looked for was this:

People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
Matthew 3:5-6

This contrasts the actions in another Biblical account – that of Adam & Eve. After they ate the forbidden fruit, the Bible says that Adam and Eve:

‘…hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.’
Genesis 3:8

Ever since, this tendency to hide our sins, pretending that we have not done wrong comes very naturally to us. Confessing and repenting of our sins is considerably difficult for us to do, because it exposes our guilt and shame. We prefer to try anything else but this. Nevertheless, John’s conviction and message framed repentance and confession as essential to preparing people so that they might experience the coming Kingdom of God.

Warning to the Religious Leaders Who Would Not Repent

Some people had indeed done this, but not all could honestly admit their sins before themselves and God. The Gospel says that:

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 3:7-10

The Pharisees and the Sadducees, teachers of Jewish religious law, worked diligently towards keeping all observances (prayers, fasting, sacrifices, etc.) as commanded by the Law. Everyone thought that these leaders, with all their religious learning and effort, were the ones who were guaranteed to have had God’s approval. But John called them a ‘brood of vipers’ and warned them about the coming Judgment of fire!

Why would John make such a claim?

By not ‘producing fruit in keeping with repentance’ they showed that they had not truly repented. They had not confessed their sin but instead hid their sin behind their religious observances. Their religious heritage, good though it was, had made them proud rather than repentant.

Fruit of Repentance

With confession and repentance came an expectation for living differently. The people asked John the Baptist how they should demonstrate the fruit of their repentance and he answered this:

¹⁰“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

¹¹John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

¹²Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

¹³“Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

¹⁴Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
Luke3: 10-14

Was John the Christ?

Because of the strength of his message, many people wondered if John was the Christ. This is how the Gospel records this discussion:

¹⁵The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. ¹⁶John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.
Luke3:15-18

John the Baptist in Prophecy

John’s independent spirit led him to dress coarsely and eat wild food in the wilderness. However, this was not just an example of his spirit; it was also an important sign. The prophet Malachi had closed the Old Testament 400 years before with the following:

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.”
Malachi 3:1

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. ⁶He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Malachi 4:5-6 (400 BCE)

Elijah had been an early prophet who also lived and ate in the wilderness, dressed with a

“…garment of hair and had a leather belt around his waist.”
2 Kings 1:8

Timeline of John the Baptist along with those who foresaw his mission

So, when John the Baptist lived and dressed in the way that he did, it was to point out that he was the coming Preparer prophesied to come in the Spirit of Elijah. His garments, his lifestyle and tendency to eat in the wilderness showed that John the Baptist came in God’s foretold plan.

Conclusion

John the Baptist came to prepare people so that they would be ready for the Kingdom of God. But he did not prepare them by giving them more Laws, or leading them into rebellion as Bar Kochba did. Rather, he prepared them by calling for their repentance from sin and their confession of it. This is harder to do than to following stricter rules or participating in an insurrection since it exposes our shame and guilt.

The religious leaders of that day could not bring themselves to repent and confess their sins. Instead they used their religion to hide their sins. One hundred years later they used religion to channel the ill-fated rebellion of Bar Kochba. Because of their choices to avoid repenting they were unprepared to recognize the Christ and understand the Kingdom of God. John’s warning is just as relevant to us today. He maintains that we must repent from our sin and confess them.

This enables us to experience the Kingdom of God, which John helped inaugurate in his baptism of Jesus, the next historical event we explore.

April 21, 2021

Jesus as Israel: Pursued & Hiding from Herod the Great

Anne Frank is known for her diary, ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’, which she wrote while hiding from the Nazi regime during the Second World War. Her flight from pursuit had begun years before she hid behind a bookcase with her family in Amsterdam. She was originally born in 1929 to a Jewish family in Germany. Her father, Otto Frank, decided it was best to flee the country when the Nazis came to power in 1933. Consequently, Anne grew up as a foreigner in the Netherlands.

However, in 1940, the Nazis overran the Netherlands, making it also no longer safe. When the Nazis ordered Anne’s sister to report to their work camp in 1942, the family went into hiding. They remained hidden behind a bookcase until their discovery in 1944. During this period of hiding, Anne wrote in her diary. Tragically, all the members of the Frank family except for Anne’s father died in the Nazi camps. But her diary remained hidden and her father published it after the war.

Other Jewish Holocaust Diarists

Other Jews also penned diaries while pursued and hiding from the Nazis. Keep in mind that the following stories are emotionally disturbing.

Etty Hillesum (1914 – 1943) kept a diary describing her perilous life as a Dutch Jew under Nazi rule. She died in Auschwitz.

Miriam Chaszczewacki (1924–1942) was a 15-year-old Jewish Holocaust victim, who in 1939, began writing a personal diary about her life in the Radomsko ghetto; ending just before her death in 1942.

Rutka Laskier (1929–1943) was a Jewish Polish diarist chronicling the three months of her life during the Holocaust in Poland. The Nazis murdered her in Auschwitz at the age of fourteen.

Věra Kohnová (1929 – 1942), a young Czechoslovakian Jew, wrote a diary about her feelings and events during the Nazi occupation before her deportation and murder in the Nazi extermination camps.

Pursued – an Historic Jewish Reality

Having to flee pursuers who seek to harm was not just experienced during the holocaust, but has been a part of the Jewish experience throughout history. It began in the earliest days of the nation when Jacob fled from Esau who threatened to take his life. Over the following centuries, fleeing from pursuers was an ever imminent reality for Jacob’s descendants.

Jesus’ Childhood: Pursued & Hiding

In this regard, it is not surprising to find that in the Gospels, shortly after his birth, Jesus had to flee to another country just as Anne Frank’s family did.

Matthew records how the Magi from the East had visited Jesus and created consternation for Herod the Great.

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

The Return to Nazareth

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

²¹So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Matthew 2:12-23

Matthew records how King Herod, feeling threatened by Jesus and furious that the Magi had outwitted him, orchestrated the killing of all baby boys in Bethlehem. He hoped to kill Jesus in the bloodbath. But Jesus’ parents had fled in the middle of the night and lived in hiding in a foreign country, like Anne Frank, to escape a murderous threat.

… From Herod the Great

Herod the Great, the brilliant, but ruthless king of Judea, ruled under the Roman Emperor from 37 – 4 BCE. Herod’s father, Antiper, had seized the initiative when the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 63 BCE, earning Roman favour and becoming the vassal king over Judea. Herod inherited the throne from his father and shrewdly navigated many intrigues to strengthen his position. He sponsored magnificent building projects, many of which are now among the ruins of great tourist attractions in Israel today. Masada and Caesarea are examples of two popular Israeli tourist attractions that survived as historical landmarks of his building activities. But, his most grandiose project was the re-building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. He built it to rival all structures across the Roman Empire. Whenever the New Testament mentions a ‘Temple’, it refers to this temple built by Herod.

Herod’s ruthlessness was well documented by the historian Josephus, included the murder of several of his wives and children when he suspected their disloyalty, and he never hesitated to spill the blood of his subjects. So though Matthew, of all who recorded Herod’s atrocities, is the only one who mentions his murder of infants in Bethlehem, these actions are entirely consistent from what we know of him.

The Audacious Hypothesis: Jesus as Israel

Herod the Great was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau; the brother of Jacob/Israel. Thus, Matthew records an Edomite threat against Jesus’ life.

This opens the door for Matthew to reveal how he understood these events. He does so by setting forth the framework, or lens he uses to make sense of Jesus. We see this in his brief quote (underlined above) of the prophet Hosea (700 BCE). The complete quote from Hosea is:

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Hosea 11:1

Hosea wrote this sentence to recall the Exodus of the young nation Israel that came out of Egypt under Moses. He pictured Israel as God’s ‘child’ and ‘son’ since the Exodus occurred early in the nation’s history. But Matthew sees fit to apply this to Jesus, when he likewise came out of Egypt. In doing so, Matthew sets forth an audacious hypothesis that Jesus in some way embodies the entire nation of Israel. In Matthew’s view Jesus is the archetype, master blueprint, fulfillment, or completion of Israel. Jesus forms the pattern which molds the nation of Israel’s experiences.

An Exhibit Supporting the Hypothesis

Matthew exhibits Jesus’ coming out of Egypt in his youth as evidence of this since it correlates with Israel’s national exodus out of Egypt in the youth of its nationhood. And the ever-present Jewish experience through history of having to flee and hide, exemplified in Anne Frank’s story, equates to Jesus’ experience of flight and hiding.

The correlation goes deeper – back to the dawn of the nation. Jacob, also called Israel, became the first of Abraham’s seed forced to flee and hide (from his brother Esau). Jesus had to flee from Herod the Great, an Edomite or descendant of Esau. As Israel fled from Esau, so his Descendant had to flee Esau’s descendant. From the point-of-view offered up by Matthew both Israels fled from Esau.

We saw that Jesus’ miraculous birth paralleled Isaac’s miraculous birth. Here his fleeing Herod parallels Jacob’s fleeing from Esau, and his return from Egypt to the land of Israel parallels the Exodus under Moses to the Promised Land.

Assessing Matthew’s Claim

Is Matthew on to something? The entire project known as Israel began with God’s promise to Abraham that

all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you
Genesis 12:3

Since this offers you and me God’s blessing and since Jesus did come through Abraham, investigating further along this line of thought could be fruitful. We continue going through Jesus’ life with this in mind, looking next at the one who prepared the way before him – John the Baptist – through the lens of the Jewish revolutionary Simon Bar Kochba. We conclude our investigation here.

Origins of the Alphabet

The Alphabet: A Jewish Contribution to Mankind

The Jewish Contribution to the Alphabets of today and yesterday

The Transcendant Alphabet

Our Physical Reality seen from perspective of Virtual Reality

Jesus through the Virtual Reality Lens

Further Conflict Over Jesus’ Claims

Jesus as the ‘Word’ of God

The Transcendant Reality

Freud and Jesus as influential Jews

Jesus and our Psyche

Jesus’ Paradox of the Soul (ψυχή)

Jesus’ second ψυχή paradox

Practice what you preach

The Truly light Yoke?

Freud & Jesus: Credentials backing their Insights

Karl Marx – secular rabbi pushing for a Kingdom of Man via Revolution

Mankind’s Quest for a Just society

Jesus and the Kingdom of God

Parable of the Great Party

The Great Reversal: The Invited Refuse

The Rejected Accept

Parable of the Unjustified Priest

We bar our own entry

The ideal Communist State

Einstein: Mass-Energy of 20th Century

Zuckerberg: Information in 21st Century

Mass-Energy & Information at Beginning

Creation Account: The Creator Speaks

Jesus Likewise ‘Speaks’

… Creating Mass-Energy

What did it mean?

Considering with our Minds…

… and Hearts

Our Hard hearts

Confession to Soften Heart & Gain Understanding

Sickness and Healing from ancient Jewish traditions

Jesus the Healer

Jesus Heals by Authoritative Word

Jesus Heals a Centurion

Healing when Faith recognized Authority

Jesus raises a synagogue leader’s dead daughter

… Interrupted by healing a bleeding woman

…Back to the dead daughter

Jesus heals Many, including Friends

Isaiah Foresees Healings

Word of God

Gandhi & Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

Adultery

Divorce

Oaths

Eye for Eye

Love for Enemies

Sermon on the Mount reveals Authority

The Prophet and the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus & Moses

God’s Plan demonstrated in its Harmony and Unity

Initiating A New Era for Us

You & me and the Sermon on the Mount

A Perfect Household for us

Flashback to Israel’s desert testing

Jesus re-takes Israel’s tests, passing on behalf of the nation

The second temptation was to test God’s provision.

Who is the devil referring to?

The Lion – Back to Jacob

The Serpent – Back to the Garden

The 3rd Temptation – who to worship?

Jesus – someone who understands us

Conclusion

Baptism of Moses

Jesus’ Baptism Extends the Pattern

Baptism of … cups

Baptism in water not the issue

Baptism into Jesus

Bar Kokhba Contrasted with John the Baptist

John the Baptist in Secular History

John the Baptist in the Gospels

John’s Perspective

Confession in Our Repentance

Einstein: Mass-Energy of 20^th Century

Zuckerberg: Information in 21^st Century

The 3^rd Temptation – who to worship?