The word "gospel" can hide the good news

"Gospel" is a churchy word. Occasionally I've heard a pastor or a Bible teacher ask people to explain the gospel, or how they would explain the gospel; the result is usually a theory about forgiveness and faith. Or when a theologian tries to explain the gospel, what follows is often a complicated explanation of a theory of how atonement works. Sometimes people will go to the word's roots and translate it: "gospel" means "good news." And from there, the conversation often heads back to an explanation of a theory of atonement. 

The good news is not a theory of atonement; the good news is the atonement itself, reconciliation with God. The good news is not a theory about forgiveness, it is the forgiveness itself. In some places the Bible describes "the good news of the kingdom of God": that where God is king, diseases are healed, the disabled are made whole, the dead are raised, and sins are forgiven. Tears are wiped away. All things are made new. A brother will forgive his brother even 70x7 times, just as God does with us. That is the good news. 

I'm a firm believer in understanding things correctly. I do not speak out against our desire to make theories to help us understand, but against our tendency to mistake our theories for the thing itself, and to set up the human understanding of our theories as if that were saving faith, turning agreement with our theories into a checkpoint at which people can fail, keeping them from understanding God's forgiveness. 

What is the good news? 

• The good news is of God (2 Corinthians 11:7, 1 Thessalonians 2:8-9)
• The good news is the kingdom of God. (Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 24:14, Mark 1:14, Mark 1:15)
• The good news is God's grace (Acts 20:24)
• The good news is peace (Romans 10:15, Ephesians 6:15)
• The good news is the blessing to all humankind, even as promised from ancient times (Galatians 3:8)
• The good news is our salvation (see prior post on who or what we're saved from) (Ephesians 1:13)
• The good news is Jesus Christ. (Mark 1:1, Romans 1:9, Romans 1:16, Romans 15:19, Romans 15:29, Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 9:12, 1 Corinthians 9:18, 2 Corinthians 2:12, 2 Corinthians 4:4, 2 Corinthians 9:13, 2 Corinthians 10:14, Galatians 1:7, Philippians 1:27, 1 Thessalonians 3:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:8)

There is a reason that the four beginning books of the New Testament are called gospels. When the  earliest church asked the disciples to explain: what is the good news? Those were their answers: the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Paul likewise resolved to know nothing but Christ (I Corinthians 2:2). If we tell the good news and the hearers believe what they hear, that is faith. 

The good news in its Jewish roots: "Here is your God!"

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John took different approaches to telling the account of Jesus' life. Matthew and Luke start before Jesus' birth; Mark starts when Jesus is an adult; John starts with metaphysics and philosophy. And yet all four place one vital point toward the beginning: 

A voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the LORD, make his paths straight." Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23 (Isaiah 40:3). 

That famous passage of Isaiah was singled out as a vital part of understanding Jesus by all four of the gospel writers. That passage of Isaiah is not mainly about the messenger that we call John the Baptist preparing the way for the Lord. In Isaiah -- as in the gospels -- we see the forerunner mainly for the forerunner's message: 

You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain;
You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout: 
Lift it up, have no fear, say to the towns of Judah: "Here is your God!" (Isaiah 40:9)

That "good news" is the basis of  Bible's four gospels. When Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote, much of the Jewish community spoke Greek. Here is that passage (Isaiah 40:9) in the classical Greek Bible used in the Jewish community: 

In Isaiah's translation there, we already see the Greek word that comes to us as "evangelize". Isaiah's message is picked up by John the Baptist, then by the four evangelists, and down through the ages to us. God is here. It is our generation's turn to lift up our voices and have no fear. As St Paul mentions, "How can they believe who have not heard?"

Essential Bible Verses for Evangelism

I've added a few comments, though most of these verses are presented without comment. 

1. Grace be with you/The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you (and variations on the same). (Romans 16:24, 1 Corinthians 16:23, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Philippians 4:23, Colossians 4:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:28, 2 Thessalonians 3:18, 2 Timothy 4:22, Titus 3:15, Hebrews 13:25, 2 John 1:3, Revelation 22:21)
   Many of the letters of the New Testament end with nearly the same blessing. Religion, done right, is a channel of blessing because Jesus revealed his Father as the God who blesses. Our mission as evangelists is to bring good news, so that the person who hears is blessed. Evangelism, done right, is a channel of grace and blessing to the one who hears.
2. It was right that we should make merry, and be glad: for your brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found. (Luke 15:32)
   The lost are our own brothers and sisters in Christ. It helps to be conscious of both their loss and ours, and that rightly any two people should have a brotherly relationship.
3. You are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of the human heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3)
4. The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving (James 3:17)
5. Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God (I Corinthians 1:22)
   The Word of God has a human face, and compassion, and values love -- and values us.
6. Let your light so shine before all that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
   In our worship, we glorify God. If we go to the world and live the way He teaches -- which is the worship He has asked of us -- we add to the number of people who glorify God.
7. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15a)
8. Do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15b)
9. Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. (1 Peter 3:16)
10. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Evangelism, done right, is grace for the hearer

In the Lutheran church, we try to keep our eyes focused on God's grace. We often talk about the "means of grace" -- the ways in which God makes it clear to us that he loves us and forgives us and establishes a bond with us through Christ. A "means of grace" contains within itself an act of love, the message of God's forgiveness, and builds that bond (which is grace) that God establishes with us through Christ. When we look at baptism, we see the washing and cleansing, and hear the promise that we repent and are baptized for the forgiveness of our sins, that we become children of God. We consider that baptism is a "means of grace" because in baptism we see God acting in love to forgive us and make us his own. In communion (the Lord's Supper), we see the food and drink given to nourish us, we hear the promise of the covenant of our forgiveness through Christ, we are accepted at the Lord's own table. So we consider that to be another act of God which both announces and establishes God's grace towards us through Christ.

We consider our ministers to be "ministers of word and sacrament" -- that, besides these great acts of God in the sacraments, God's love is also known to us in words. Evangelism, done right, is about God's love. Through it, the listeners hear of God's love, God's mercy, about how God receives them through cleansing in baptism and makes them his own children. The listeners hear that repentance is met with forgiveness, that the Supper we have now -- a covenant for our forgiveness -- is a foretaste of the feast to come. It is the king's son's wedding, and we have been sent to invite people.

Should street evangelists, instead of handing out tracts, hand out wedding invitations?

The "ambassador" model of evangelism

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:20)

We usually think about evangelism in terms of "witnessing", and with good reason: Christ appointed his apostles as his witnesses, and we carry on their work. Witnesses are people who can personally guarantee the truth of what they report: they discuss what they see or hear, what they know. When we hear of witnessing, we often think in terms of testimony and court arguments. This has often been the case for Christians, as our beliefs are at times persecuted by law.

Paul gives us a second way to look at the same job of being Christ's messengers: we are ambassadors. An ambassador is a foreigner. We are called to picture ourselves as foreigners even in our own culture. That's true enough, as we have different views on everything from sexual integrity to self-control to how to treat our enemies. Ambassadors -- and foreigners in general -- stand out for their differences. They don't fit in. They eat differently, speak differently, dress differently, have different custom and different habits. And yet they are not embarrassed by any of that: they are true to the country in which they are citizens.

The ambassador's job is to represent the ruler who sent them. They speak on his behalf, representing his interests and not their own. Usually ambassadors are sent to make peace or keep peace. It can lead to different conversations than the "witnessing" model of evangelism. Both are the good news of Christ.

Paul focuses us on the message with which we have been sent:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21)

Jesus, Name above all names: Series index

Here is the index for the series on Jesus, name above all names

• Jesus knows what the kingdom of heaven is like
• Jesus knows what the Last Day will be like -- and what justice looks like
• Jesus' teachings are vivid and personal
• Jesus keeps us honest about our religious pretensions, and about what God desires
• Jesus' morality has a focus: love
• Jesus comes across as more fully human
• Jesus' life is the world's most serious evidence of the supernatural
• Jesus has the highest and most beautiful morality yet articulated by anyone
• Reading Jesus' words is a religious experience
• Jesus rose from the dead

And here is the companion post about how "Jesus, name above all names" is the theme of the evangelists and the epistles, and how our call to evangelize means witnessing to that truth:

• Name above all names: The gospels, the epistles, and what it means to evangelize

The gospel: how central is Jesus' death and resurrection?

The gospel of Matthew has 28 chapters; the last 8 of them are spent on the week stretching from Palm Sunday to the Resurrection. The other gospels have a similar emphasis: not only the largest section, but the pride of place as culmination and climax is given to Jesus' death and resurrection.

I remember, years ago watching Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, the scene -- was it a flashback? -- where a woman caught in sin was forgiven by Jesus. The look in her eyes when Jesus was led off to execution seemed to ask a question: if Christ is executed, is forgiveness still the last word for me? Or am I next?

Death takes all of Jesus' miracles and gives them over to the powers of darkness, where we hear a mocking, "So what?" to them all. If Jesus stays in the tomb, eventually the miraculous bread is gone, the storms are back, sickness is back, forgiveness is gone, death is back, and that is the last word. If Christ is not raised, that forgiveness he announced to us is not the last word. If Christ is not raised, the powers of darkness win and the kingdom of God is not among us.

I have heard some Christians say that some groups over-emphasize the cross of Christ: that it is not so central to Christianity, that Jesus should not be portrayed on it, that Christian thought and devotion and artwork overemphasizes what happened there. But Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and Paul all put the focus on Jesus' death and resurrection. We can shy away from it because it is difficult to wrap our minds around. We don't necessarily appear at our most sophisticated when we struggle to grasp and articulate everything that has happened there. Paul said it very succinctly, that given the choice of talking about miraculous signs, or wisdom, or Christ crucified, he knew what he would choose: "While I was with you, I resolved to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified."

The gospel: How did Christ want us to think of him?

So now, 2000 years after Christ, how do we think of him during his absence? Great moral teacher? No doubt. Once and future king? Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus. Example beyond all others? Yes, that too, I suppose. The last thing I want to do is suggest a limit to how we think of Christ. But Christ himself set a direction for how we are to think of him until he comes. Knowing he was going to be absent for a long time, he knew how he wanted his people to think of him in his absence.

In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying "Take and eat. This is my body, given for you. Do this to remember me."

In the same way after supper he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to all of them saying, "Take and drink, all of you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, to remember me."

I believe that, in doing this, Christ meant to frame for us how we think of him through this long stretch of time. He specified how we are to remember him -- how we should think of him in his absence. In telling us how to remember him, he framed how we should understand him, why he came, what he was doing.

He has no wish to be reduced to an abstract -- a teacher, an example, a king. He remains flesh and blood. He does not wish us to think of him first and foremost in terms of what we do, whether learning or obeying or following. He wishes us to remember him as a gift, given for us, poured out for us. We are to raise the cup and celebrate forgiveness in Christ. We are to remember him in all his humanity first and foremost as a gift, as forgiveness, as life-giving, as our very food and drink. Anything we do for "religion", it must begin with remembering him in all his earthy reality, because that is how he asked us to remember him.

Our hunger for God cannot be satisfied by the abstracts that we construct, or the theologies that we build, or our observances and devotion and study, any more than our physical hunger could be satisfied by reading nutrition labels and studying recipes. Our hunger for God can only be satisfied by God. It is not the kind of hunger than can be satisfied by thinking about God, or by taking God for our example, or by learning from God and obeying God; of course we do these things, but by themselves they are frustratingly empty. The only way to satisfy our hunger for God is by having God. That is what Christ has us remember: Christ given for us, God with us.

How many kinds of good news count as 'gospel'?

Here I want to take a close look at how many kinds of good news are presented in the gospel in the New Testament. When we talk about the good news, we often focus on Jesus' death and resurrection -- and for good reason. This pair of events, more than any other events, shatter our hopelessness and constitute good news. Still, there are other events that fill out the picture in the gospels.

• When Jesus calms the storm, it is good news. And we know the kingdom of God will not be a place where natural disasters threaten us.
• When Jesus heals the sick, it is good news. The kingdom of God is not a place where illness robs us of our strength or our lives.
• When Jesus heals the crippled and paralyzed it is good news, again a promise of what the kingdom of God is like.
• When Jesus feeds the hungry and gives drink to the thirsty it is good news; the kingdom of God is a place of plenty.
• When Jesus forgives sins it is good news; the kingdom of God is a place of forgiveness and relief, where God has created clean hearts.
• Even the visit to the Samaritan woman at the well is good news. The kingdom of God is not a place where shameful secrets in the past separate us from friendships with our neighbors.
• When Jesus turns water into wine, it is good news. He blesses the wedding feast as a foretaste of the feast to come.

The New Testament records many different events from the life of Jesus, many more than just these. How many kinds of good news count as "gospel"? All of them.

In the next post I will consider how we know that Jesus' death and resurrection are central to his mission and to how we should think of Christ. But for the moment, I'd like to ponder the wideness of the reach of God's goodness, and how many things are encompassed in the gospel.

The God Who Blesses

And he began to teach them, saying: “Blessed …”

The beatitudes – the series of blessings Jesus spoke at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount – are at times taken as moral instruction. While we certainly can take moral instruction from them, they are first and foremost blessings. Jesus begins his teaching ministry with a revelation of God: the proclamation of the God who blesses.

Genesis records that the first time God spoke to man, he spoke a blessing. As the God who blesses, he is the God of Abraham whom he blessed; the God of Isaac whom he blessed; the God of Jacob who would not let him go until he blessed him. He is the God of Sinai, who commanded that his mediator, a priest, should pronounce a blessing is his name: “ ‘The LORD bless you and keep you…’ They shall put my Name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Jesus’ blessings, like all of God’s blessings, are a promise. They are a promise that God takes notice of us, that God remembers us. They are a promise of God’s faithfulness to his creation. The blessings of the beatitudes are focused on proclaiming God’s goodness to those who do not now see it: the poor, the mourning, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted. The beatitudes proclaim God’s promise that their faithfulness and hardship are known to God and will not be forgotten. Jesus’ proclamation of the God who blesses is the ground of our hope.

Fallen by unbelief; Justified by faith

The atonement debates seem to be heating up again. Much of the ground has been thoroughly covered, but perhaps a few comments might be productive.

First, what is the nature of the fall? It is first of all a loss of faith in God, and the rest follows. The serpent is portrayed as preaching doubt in God: distrust of God's honesty, distrust of God's motives, distrust of God's word. The fall happens when we say in our doubt, "That's right; I can't trust God. He doesn't have our best interests at heart. He's trying to keep us down. He's trying to keep exaltation for himself." It is precisely a loss of faith -- a loss of trust in God -- that is the key moment of humanity's fall from grace. Grace, again, is a good relationship with God. When our actions advertise a distrust of God, when we say with our actions "God is not trustworthy", implicitly accusing God either of duplicity and treachery or of a lack of wisdom -- this inherently and by its very nature destroys the relationship of grace.

If the fall is a loss of faith -- loss of trust in God -- then is righteousness anything other than faith? Is righteousness anything other than confessing, "God is trustworthy"? Is a return to our right minds any more complicated than that realization that God is trustworthy, that he is for us and that his word can be trusted? God's faithfulness is the bedrock on which our faith stands. And our trust is not a blind leap or an irrational one, but a reliance on the reality of God's trustworthiness.

Abraham and the ancients were reckoned righteous by faith, because they considered that God who made the promise was faithful.

What about our faith? As guilty people, we dare not trust the judge. Does God have our best interests at heart? That question becomes, in our bad consciences, whether the judge has at heart the best interests of the guilty. We dare not risk it, so we hurry to accuse the judge of unfairness, to create a cosmic mistrial, to get ourselves acquitted not by innocence but by counter-accusations. That is unbelief. Notice how atheism -- supposedly a belief that there is no God -- actually in practice is much more preoccupied with accusing the judge of unfairness. The driving force of atheism is the variety of unbelief spoken of in the fall -- unbelief in God's fairness -- rather than unbelief in God's existence. The innocent may go before a judge boldly, but not the guilty.

Here is one place where Christ speaks plainly and clearly to us. It is in Christ that God has proved his faithfulness to us. In Christ, God has shown the world that he has our best interests at heart, even as guilty as we are. It is in seeing Christ and hearing the message of Christ that we trust God again.

And as we trust God again, we find that this is righteousness. This is faith; it comes through hearing the message of Christ. As we trust God again, we find that we are in a right relationship with him again, and that this is grace; it comes through Christ. The day of accusing God to justify ourselves is over.

Christ as Good News: For the World

Thor over at the Thinklings is stirred up by Jerry Falwell's recent statement,

We are not into particular love or limited atonement.

In fact, Falwell goes on to drop the "h-bomb" (heresy), which has already received comment elsewhere. Now normally I would have no idea what Jerry Falwell's most recent announcement might contain, but I got news of it through Thor's reaction:

Is he really suggesting that Jesus Christ was a substitutionary sacrifice for the all the sins of all those who will ultimately reject Jesus as Lord and Savior?

Well, Thor, it may be bait but I'll bite. Christ died for all: he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, not only ours but for those of the whole world. God is not willing that any should be lost, but wants all to come to repentance.

I suspect that we can place where the disconnect happens here: where the original quote (Falwell) discusses atonement and the reply (Thor) discusses substitutionary sacrifice.

In the Sinai Covenant, the Day of Atonement included a sacrifice that could be understood as a substitutionary sacrifice. This sacrifice was made for the whole people, but it was understood that the unrepentant received no benefit from a substitutionary sacrifice, even one offered on their behalf. That's because substitutionary sacrifice is not the whole of atonement. The objection that is usually raised against Christ being the atoning sacrifice not only for us, but also for the whole world, is an objection that sees forgiveness as forensic (in this case, a decree of acquittal or pardon), and assumes that therefore the whole of atonement is forensic, assumes that everything happens because the Judge decreed it.

If you assume a "reunion with God" view of atonement, then Christ being the atoning sacrifice not only for us, but also for the whole world doesn't pose a problem at all. We can confidently announce Christ's redemption not just to some subset of the world but to anyone we meet: Christ is for the whole world, and they belong to the world, therefore Christ is for them in particular.

I am going to take one of the classic prooftexts of substitutionary sacrifice and quote it in context. Notice how the apostle Paul assumes a framework of reconciliation with God -- and non-compulsory grace -- for his announcement of substitutionary sacrifice: "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain." (2 Cor 5:18-6:1)

Take care & God bless

Proclaiming Christ's Resurrection: Reclaiming the Good News

Have you ever heard someone say that July 4 is the day on which Americans believe that John Hancock and other revolutionaries signed the Declaration of Independence from Britain? How about saying that Julius Caesar was a man that historians believe may have once ruled Rome? I haven't either.

But that is the game that many play with Jesus' resurrection from the dead; that it is merely the day on which Christians believe that Jesus rose bodily from the dead, three days after a public execution. Over 20 sources within a century of the event mention Jesus' resurrection; a number of them have it as the main reason for bothering to write the documents that mention it. The opponents are conspicuous by their silence. If it were any other event, it would be considered beyond rational dispute. But it's not any other event. It is an event whose reality plainly disproves atheism and materialism and secularism. The resurrection is also an event which renders silly the traditional hand-wringing about choosing a religion; the resurrection is a clarifying moment in the history of the world. This is offensive to many. And because it is offensive to so many, the proclamation of Jesus' resurrection is often muted -- when it is not drowned out by shouts of protest.

This proclamation -- that Christ is risen from the dead -- cannot be muted, or apologized for, or proclaimed in a whisper lest it might offend, because it is good news. When it is proclaimed rightly it is good news even for those who might be offended. Because even those who might be offended know the score. The weight of death and hopelessness is heavy on the world. Life is too often marked by anger, fear, and hatred. Love is poisoned by greed and pride. And finally hope is dimmed by exhaustion and apathy.

Christ's resurrection changes that. It allows us to trust his promise to raise us up at the last day, to believe his promise to make our own graves empty, because his is empty already. It gives birth to a living hope that our lives are not so fleeting and meaningless as we had feared; that we are not, after all, unloved and unnoticed in the world, but beyond wildest dreams we have the love of God, creator of heaven and earth. Christ's resurrection also highlights the promise made at his death, the promise he made as he raised the cup the night he was betrayed: a covenant for the forgiveness of sins. Christ's death and resurrection open the way for the washing of our souls, the forgiveness of our own wrongs, a release from guilt and shame. It opens the door for us to forgive others, to love again, to keep no record of wrongs. In his death our hungry spirits are fed, our thirsty souls can drink their fill. Christ's love for us can create love in our hearts where there was none before, can create humility where there was none before, can create a desire to return to God. It brings reconciliation between us and God; it restores meaning to our lives. Christ creates hope where there was none before.

The angry sounds of protest we hear over the message of Christ -- those are the sounds of those who have not yet heard: hatred can be put away now. God's blessing is back in the land.

Christ is risen indeed! It's cause for joy.

I Know That My Redeemer Lives: From Apologetics to Evangelism on the Talpiot Tomb

Tonight, for the first time since the old news about Talpiot started to be trotted out again, I expect to be around a number of anti-Christians, folks who are likely to buy into the "Jesus at Talpiot" story simply because it fits their anti-Christian worldview. They probably won't be familiar with the reasons why even non-Christians shouldn't believe that Jesus' remains are in the Talpiot tomb, reasons that have already been reviewed around the blogosphere.

A Tomb Full of Red Herrings
It's easy to spend all the time on "reasons why even an atheists shouldn't buy this". It's a necessary part of the conversation, showing that rather than the Christians believing anything that suits their worldview, it's very much the other way around for those falling for this Talpiot nonsense. Mary Magdalene's name wasn't Mariamenon; she was buried elsewhere; Jesus of Nazareth wasn't married; Jesus of Nazareth didn't have a son. It's necessary to review all that so they can see why any rational can know this isn't Jesus of Nazareth: it contradicts loads of known facts. While it's a necessary part of the conversation, it cannot be the whole conversation. That's because it stops short of discussing the most important of all known facts: that God raised Jesus from the dead, six weeks after which he ascended to heaven.

I Know That My Redeemer Lives
When I picture myself in a conversation with anti-Christians tonight, I will be glad to let them make the opening move about Talpiot. But if they go there, I'd like to ask: Can we talk about Mary Magdalene? Do you know what she's most famous for? She's most famous for being the first person to see Jesus of Nazareth alive again after God raised him from the dead. It was Sunday morning, the third day after his execution. She had gone to the tomb where she had seen him be buried three days before. She went to help finish preparing the body; the preparations for burial had been interrupted by the Sabbath. The tomb was open, and nobody was there. In a panic, she ran and got some of Jesus' disciples. Peter and John came back with her to the tomb and found it empty just as she said. While Mary was waiting there, crying, she saw someone was there and assumed it was the gardener. She asked where he'd moved the body. "Mary!" he called to her, and she looked up and saw that it was Jesus. She ran to him, she held onto him, crying at his feet. He got her up and sent her to tell the disciples that she had seen him, very much alive. That is what Mary Magdalene is most famous for. She never married him and he never married; she never bore his child and he never had a child; she is famous for being one of the earliest people to have seen him alive again after God raised him from the dead.

That day he showed himself alive again to Peter and to two more as they walked on the road to a nearby town. That night while the disciples were eating behind locked doors for fear that they, too, might be executed, Jesus came and met with them. They were terrified. He stayed with them, talked with them, ate with them, very much alive. He met them again the next week, and over a period of six weeks after God raised him from the dead he would meet with them, eating with them, showing his wounds from his death, teaching them what the Scriptures taught about the Messiah. While they had thought as Messiah he would immediately bring restoration, Jesus explained from Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets that instead the Messiah had to suffer and die first, and the restoration of all things would not be until his return. David had prophesied that Messiah would die, and that the Holy One would not see decay. Isaiah had prophesied that the Messiah would be led like a sheep to the slaughter and would be laid in a rich man's tomb, but then would prolong his days. Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah's suffering and death would be a covenant, that it would sprinkle and sanctify the nations so that the Word of the LORD would go forth from Jerusalem into the whole world, the light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel. After he had visited with them and talked with them and taught them for six more weeks after God raised him from the dead, he ascended to heaven just as Elijah had before him. But this time, instead of only Elisha seeing as with Elijah, many of Jesus' disciples saw him ascend to heaven. Now we await the promised restoration of all things, when the Messiah comes with power on the clouds of heaven, rather than humble and riding on a donkey; the prophets had foretold both comings of Messiah.

It's not merely that Talpiot is the wrong tomb and if only you find the right tomb it will have a body. It's that we can show you the right tomb, but he is not there. He is risen.

Apologetics and Evangelism: The Case of Talpiot
Apologetics accepts the anti-Christianity of a rational person and argues why Jesus isn't in this particular tomb. It's a decent opening move. But evangelism goes one better: it challenges whether a rational person can remain anti-Christian. Evangelism notices that, while Mary Magdalene being buried outside of Jerusalem is well-supported in the old histories, and Jesus having no children is well-supported in the old histories, that his resurrection from the dead is better supported in the old histories. Convincing an atheist that Jesus' body isn't at Talpiot should be easy enough; but the atheist will keep looking for another tomb until we show him the right tomb, which is forever empty.

The Beatitudes: Water in the Desert of LIfe

This started as a reply to Japhy's comment on the previous post, but started growing ...

We must see God in times of joy, and seek God in times of sorrow. (comment by Japhy)

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It feels that way, doesn't it? I think back to the various times in life when I was completely overwhelmed. Not merely "overworked." Not simply, "It's a little rough right now but I'll get through it if I just hang in there." But when I was truly completely overwhelmed, over my head. Sometimes with bad stuff happening to me, or bleak prospects for what the rest of my life might look like, or problems with family members' health/sanity, or sometimes just disgusted with the realization that I have a lot of evil inside me.

The beatitudes were always like water in a desert to me then. I was thinking tonight (during a long drive) that Jesus' teachings are so unlike those of the other religions, and the beatitudes really were foremost in my mind among those teachings. Take, for example, the problem of despair. It's a real part of life. And compassion is medicine for it, and hope is the antidote. But at times like that, compassion and hope can be heart-breaking in a good way. At those "worst of times" parts of life, it seems like the whole world depends on me and I'm just not up to it. With the beatitudes, with the realization that I'm not alone, that God does love me, that it doesn't depend on me toughing it out, that things ride less on my endurance and more on God's blessing -- that can bring me to tears of relief. It's such a weight off my shoulders. It's like all the lights had been out and someone lit a torch and now the darkness isn't overwhelming.

That's how I see the beatitudes.

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On the off chance that someone will read this who doesn't know what Jesus said in the beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfield.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

When bad things happen to good people, as they say, too often the good people begin to doubt God's love. Sometimes even our "comforting friends" begin to doubt God's love for us, begin to suspect God's opposition (or just as bad, God's indifference) behind a dark streak of misfortune running through our lives. In our minds, we have an assumption that my sociology professor used to call the "just world hypothesis": we suppose the world is fair, that actions and results tie together, that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. It works often enough for us to use it as a working premise. When things are going well this is a comfort to us because it strengthens our assumptions that we're good people and that the world makes sense. But when things are going badly this distresses us because we search for the cause of it in our lives. Seeing no plausible reason brings out the cry of "Why?"

When we suffer, it is too easy to doubt God's love. We wonder if we have been abandoned. We wonder if God cares about our troubles. We wonder if God has set himself against us. In our short-sightedness, we are tempted to think that those who suffer are cursed.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4) Jesus sets this against all of our empty and fearful thoughts. Suffering and sadness are not a curse. In fact, God promises to bless those who mourn. We will be comforted. He does not promise that we will be wiser, though possibly we may. He does not promise that we will not have trouble or sorrows; in fact he reminds us that in this world we will have troubles. But he urges us to take heart; he has overcome the world. (John 16:33)

"Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered." (James 5:10-11) We look at those who have suffered in the faith. We know that those who had little to endure are not considered as blessed, because the power of God was not shown as much in their lives. Those we see as the greatest examples of the past are not those who had the easiest lives, but those who had the hardest.

Some of God's most beloved servants suffered terribly. The darker the sorrow that we endure, the more those around us will be startled by the light. Christ lives in us powerfully when we suffer, especially when we suffer in fellowship with him. His grace is plainest in our weakness. If the light inside us is nothing but a smoldering wick, he will not snuff it out.

God's Word: "Fear Not"

I have noticed, sometimes, worry and fear about the world around us. Sometimes war seems nearer and sometimes farther. Right now, of course, it seems nearer. Sometimes those who give themselves over to evil rage -- proving that they are enemies of God -- seem more murderous and their murderous rage seems to grow. The only message I have about the times is the one we have been given for all times: Watch and be ready. But there is another message that God brings at all kinds of times: Fear not.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. (Psalm 46:1-2)

Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. (Isaiah 41:10)

But now says the LORD who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name; you are mine." (Isaiah 43:1)

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)

The LORD is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:6)

You drew near in the day that I called on you: you said, "Fear not." (Lamentations 3:57)

Didn't God tell Abraham, "Fear not, for I am your shield and your very great reward"? (Genesis 15:1) Didn't God tell Hagar, "Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is"? (Genesis 21:17) Didn't God tell Isaac, "Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake"? (Genesis 26:24) Didn't God tell Jacob, "Fear not to go down into Egypt, for there I will make of you a great nation"? (Genesis 46:3)

How often did God say to Moses, and to his people through Moses, not to fear their enemies, but to fear only Him, to wait and see the salvation that God would work for them? Didn't the angel tell Daniel, even while he was in captivity and a slave in a foreign land, not to fear? Didn't Daniel take heart that his service and devotion to God was known in heaven? (Daniel 10:12-19) When the exiles rebuilt what was destroyed after their return, didn't God remind them of his love and his faithfulness, and tell them not to fear? (Haggai 2:5)

When Christ came, didn't the angels announce to Mary, to Joseph, and to the shepherds not to fear? When Christ came, didn't he tell us not to fear those who destroy the body, but cannot destroy the soul? Didn't he tell us to fear only God? Christ did not promise that we should have no trouble. Instead, he promised that in this world we would have trouble, but that he had overcome the world.

It is possible that we may face more serious persecution in our times for the name of Christ. When the disciples had trouble and persecutions, didn't they celebrate that they were accounted worthy of such a thing? And can you name one hero of the faith who was accounted an especially worthy servant without trials or sufferings? Didn't the greatest lay down their lives for God, not fearing man but only the LORD?

I would like to think the current storms that threaten us would pass, even if that seems unlikely some days. But in a time like this, we will show whether we trust God and hope in him by what we allow to frighten us. Is anyone else in the place of God, that we should fear them?

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. (Psalm 46:1-2)

The Cause of Creation and the Reason for Hope

Every once in awhile I meet a Christian who seems to have given in to despair, or who spends a lot of time entertaining worries. I've seen that around the blogosphere a little bit lately. It's happened to me at odd times in life too. I think it happens when we lose our focus on why we are here in the first place, where we have come from and where we are going. And that's easy enough to do these days. If you ask some Christians why God created all things, the main answer you'll get is that it wasn't because he lacked anything and it wasn't that he needed to create. Is that really all we have to say on the subject, that it wasn't neediness? After all that we have studied, do we understand God no better than that, that we can manage to look at all of creation and have nothing positive to say about God?

God's love is the starting point of all things. To be sure, without God's power, nothing would have happened -- but those with power often do not use it, and having power is not the same as having a reason to act. Power has no direction by itself; if we conceive of God almost solely in terms of power, we tend to miss that. But love moves to action, and God's love towards what he had conceived in his mind is the impetus for creation and the foundation of its goodness. This relationship of God to the world, then, is naturally one of grace (that is, goodwill and favor), and this was established and evidenced by the same act of love by which God brought all things into being. The implications of this are not just for the time of the foundation of the world, but for all who live on the world founded on God's love and grace. This new, created goodness was worthy of recognition and love, calling to mind the goodness of its creator in various ways, being a result of God's own overflowing goodness. Everything that was made was blessed by the act of creation with goodness and favor from God, and sealed with his recognition that it was good.

The act of creation -- and the fact of God's love, which was the first cause of this creation -- is also the cause of our redemption. It is the reason why the world is not now abandoned, forsaken by God, as it might deserve. It is the reason Christ came. It is the reason why the world will be made new. It is the reason why the home of God will be with us at the end of all things. God's love for mankind and fellowship with mankind was part of the design of all things at the foundation of the world. That God might someday become man was hinted at when he made mankind in his image; that door was open from the beginning. Fellowship with mankind was part of God's intent from the foundation of the world. That was why the crown of creation was a creature capable of fellowship with God, capable of knowing and loving God, a creature bearing the image of God. It was because God's love is the starting point of all things, and the spiritual consummation of God's love for mankind was one of the aims of creation, part of God's plan for the crown of creation.

In this world there are plenty of occasions for sadness; there is definitely a time to mourn. But any loss or wrong cannot eclipse this: God's love towards us is our reason for hope.

Essential Bible Verses for the Overwhelmed

1. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)
2. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
3. He restores my soul. (Psalm 23:3)
4. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6)
5. Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)
6. Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5)
7. Cast your anxieties on him, for he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)
8. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. (Philippians 4:5-6)
9. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. (Revelation 21:4)
10. To him who overcomes, I will give of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.(Revelation 2:17)
11. I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25)
12. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Update: More here, collection of notes for hard times

God's Investment in the World

When I read the parable of the talents (see Matthew 25 beginning at verse 14), when I ask myself, "What has God given me?", I think I usually miss the point. My focus is too easily on myself and my abilities, and I don't think this was Jesus' point at all.

Jesus spoke the parable of the talents in Jerusalem during the days immediately before his arrest. In Matthew's account, this parable follows immediately after two other parables which are basically "parables of the long absence" -- parables whose main point is that Jesus will be gone from this world longer than anyone expects. After the first two parables address the havoc that his long absence causes amongst his followers, this last parable finally speaks of servants who were productive during their Lord's absence, during which he went away to be crowned king. The master gives his servants each a certain number of "talents" while he is away.

And here, I think, is where I often start to go wrong and imagine that the "talents" are really something about me. Back in the day, a "talent" was an amount of money. The story uses the earthly image of making investments for a profit. But what is the investment the servants should make? What is the "talent"? What is it that Jesus has given us, particularly what was it that he gave us right before he went on his "long journey to be made king"?

It's probably not entirely wrong when we think of "talent" in what has come to be the standard way: natural abilities such as athletic ability, musical ability, learning ability, leadership ability, and all the other natural gifts which every person has, each in his own kind and measure. Of course God gave these abilities to us. But is a gift like that really the most valuable gift I've been given? And how do the faithful servants really invest God's "talents" on his behalf?

What Jesus said next shows me what he expects his faithful servants to do: acts of mercy, kindness, and love. What Jesus teaches next is the last teaching of the set, the one that caps them all: the teaching of the sheep and the goats on the last day. Jesus tells us what his faithful servants do. The faithful servants show mercy. They show it without worrying who is "deserving" and who is not. The faithful servants seek out the hungry, thirsty, naked, lonely, sick, and imprisoned of the world to show them God's love in action. These are the investments he expects us to make in this world.

God's rich gift to us -- the "talent", the valuable thing we are managing for him -- is his love. The treasure that we put to work in the world is God's compassion. His great investment in this world is forgiveness.