Understanding Judaism as Both A National Identity as Well as A Religious Identity

June 10, 2021                        John 5: 47

  ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

6After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.  ⁵When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’

            He is infuriating.  That is how I perceive Jesus from the point of view of the Leadership that is in challenge with him.  The Leaders claim Moses as their foundation for their faith.  It is in distinction to all challengers, including this upstart Jesus of Nazareth who, apparently, would be welcomed as a fancy teacher, but NOT as someone claiming the authority of God.

            Fair enough, these Leaders are the ones responsible for the maintenance of the faith of the Jews through an extraordinarily difficult time.  I do not think we really understand that as Christians.  We have the context of our religion, our faith, our Christianity.  But it is not a national identity.  Despite everything we might claim about the United States being a Christian nation, Christianity is NOT a nationality.  It is a faith system.  That is where it is fundamentally different from Judaism.

            Israel is a Jewish nation.  To be Jewish is to offered citizenship.  That is not the case in the United States.  The idea of the Christian nation held sway at one time.  Before the Enlightenment, the nations of Europe were Christian nations.  For a long part of their history, they were all Roman Catholic nations in the west and Eastern Orthodox in…the East.  That broke down with the Reformation.

            Some nations remained Roman Catholic, like Spain and Portugal.  Great Britain eventually broke with the Roman Catholic Church and formed the Church of England.  Scotland went Presbyterian.  Germany, at that time a collection of smaller states, not the united nation we know today, varied between Lutheran and Catholic and a few Reformed.  France was Roman Catholic but tolerant of Protestants until a certain point where the ‘door of orthodoxy’ slammed shut.

            It is interesting how this is reflected in the American colonies.  Freedom to practice religion in their own way was one motivating factor is setting the colonies up.  The Puritans settled into Massachusetts.  Pennsylvania was predominantly Quaker in its inception.  If I understand my history, Maryland was Roman Catholic while Virginia was very much Church of England. 

            The difference in Israel is that the Jewish national identity transcends religious sectarianism.  There are secular Jews and the ultra-Orthodox, we might know them from the news by their traditional black hats and living side by side under one flag.

            With this national identity invested in the Leadership, Jesus is not simply challenging faith-based authority, but their very political authority.  And the political authority for the Jewish Leadership is very much at the whim of the Romans.  So the challenge coming from Jesus is of a different sort than we might understand in our own political context today. 

            More later.

            Peace, Pastor Peter

Moses and Predicting Jesus

June 9, 2021              John 5: 46

  ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

6After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.  ⁵When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ ⁶He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. ⁷Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’

            So there is an interesting challenge.  Moses wrote about Jesus.  We have fairly clear prophetic passages in Isaiah that refer to the birth of Jesus as well as other Gospel references back to the Old Testament.  How clearly does Moses refer to Jesus?  That becomes a huge undertaking.  In Genesis 3, it speaks of him crushing the serpent’s head.  In Exodus, it speaks of the blood of the lamb leading to the angel of death passing over those where the blood is displayed.  Throughout the books are the commandments for animal sacrifice fulfilled in Jesus.  So there is a lot written there.  The book of Hebrews picks up on some of those connections very powerfully.

            If the Leadership truly believed Moses, they would believe in Jesus, that is the accusation.  They claim to believe in Moses, but, according to Jesus, it is Moses who accuses them, because they do not truly-or they would believe in Jesus. 

            In the grand scheme of God’s Plan, the Coming of Jesus was established before the creation of the world.  So this moment of revelation, this moment of Jesus being there, this was the time and the place for Jesus’ coming.  This challenge to the Leadership is a double edged sword.  On the one hand, it picks up on the prophetic predictions of the coming of Jesus found in the Old Testament.  On the other, it begins to fuel the resentment of the Leadership that will lead to Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

More later

Peace, Pastor Peter

Tracking on What is the Glory of God and Not of God

June 4, 2021              John 5: 44-45

39 ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹I do not accept glory from human beings. ⁴²But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

6After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

            I had to read verse 44 a few times to decipher what Jesus was saying.  Flip the first part, before the ‘and’, to something like “when you accept glory from one another, how can you believe?” (in God); “when you not seek the glory that comes from God alone?”  The issue at play here is not just that they do not seek after God, but that they have replaced God, one with another.  The reward is ‘glory’.  How do we define that? 

            If we go to the Confessions, specifically the Westminster Shorter Catechism, glorifying God is defined as the chief end of humanity, that and enjoying God forever.  “How” is given answer in question 2, and I quote “The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.”

            So…why go to the Confessions?  Why not do a word study in Scripture ourselves to see what it means about God and Glory?  Have you heard the expression about reinventing the wheel?  The Confessions and Catechisms and Statements of Faith that are gathered together in the Book of Confessions of the PCUSA are the primary guide to understanding the big sweeps of the Bible.  Each was written in a time and a place and for a purpose important to the Church in that moment. 

            The Westminster Standards, the Shorter and Longer Catechisms and the Confession, were all written to become law in England in the time after the Reformation.  They were written in Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey, where the English Parliament sits and where Royal rituals take place in London.  It is a lesson in English history to read how these became and then un-became British law, but their purpose was clear, to establish what they believed and how to teach it in their churches.  So to use the Shorter Catechism is to use THE premiere confessional foundations of the Presbyterian tradition.

            So the rule for glorifying God comes from the Bible.  And Jesus narrows the scope for us.  He tells them that it is not Jesus himself accusing them before the Father, but rather the accusations come from Moses-upon whom they set their hopes. 

            Moses is the traditional author of the Torah, the Law, the first five books of the Bible.  It is from these books that the entire Jewish law code of the time of Jesus was drawn.  This legal code covered the moments, covered the precedents, covered the issues that the Torah did not.  At best, it filled in the gaps, at worst, it created a minutia of legal bindings that tied the people in knots. 

            Let us return to the issue of Sabbath, which we looked at again a couple posts back.  Jesus was all for the power of the Lord, on the day of the Lord, to heal the man who was in need.  The Leadership was all about how Jesus transgressed the rules of the Sabbath in telling the man to dare to pick up his bedroll, to do work on the day of Rest.  They were very proud of their laws, that is where they found their glory, in one another, creating this religious system built, in their minds, on the law of Moses.

            This goes to why Jesus has come in the first place, to bring the faith back to God the Father.  In this debate with the Leadership, he is showing how it has gone astray.  More focus on Moses next time.

            Peace, Pastor Peter

It Seems the Jewish Leadership Is Prepared to Accept A Lot from Jesus, But Not All, Not the Truth.

June 3, 2021              John 5: 43

39 ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹I do not accept glory from human beings. ⁴²But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

6After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

            So Jesus just told the leadership they do not have the love of God in them.  But that is not a dropped in verbal smiting.  He goes on to explain why.  Jesus has come in the name of the Father and is not accepted.  However, if another comes in his own name, that’s cool.  So, if Jesus were there preaching in the name of Jesus, a prophet of the Lord, let’s say.  If Jesus came as the new Elijah, let’s say.  Both of these would have been acceptable to the leadership?  Heck-fire, they may even have accepted him as Messiah.  (These three names go back to the first chapter.  The Leadership challenged John the baptizer with these possibilities as they tried to establish his credentials).

            It is arguable that Jesus fulfilled all three of these expectations.  There are implications in the Old Testament that all three of these, Elijah, the Prophet, and the Messiah, were coming. 

            What appears to be the disconnect, however, is God the Father.  That kind of authority on Jesus’ part, that seems to be too much for the Leadership to take.  So, if we stretch out the implications of what Jesus is saying, if Jesus came in his own name.  If Jesus claimed to be a big wheel of religious intent and intensity, given what he has said and accomplished, that would have roused the interest even of the Leadership. 

            Remember the incident where Jesus drove out the moneychangers from the temple.  That was not condemned for the actions of a violent man.  Rather, the question was by whose authority did he come.  The implication is that if the authority was right, the actions were proper.  If Jesus pronounced that he came in the name of Jesus, that probably would have justified it, in light of the rest of his words and actions.

            But the ideal that Jesus brings, his authority and connection to the Father, those are too much for the Leadership to accept.  The people seem ready to accept Jesus at whatever authority Jesus is claiming.  They see the results, they know something from God is happening here.  The Leadership see it as well, how can they not?  But Jesus has gone beyond reasonable expectations. 

            In the long view, an overview of the entire story of Jesus, this is usually put down to jealousy, political and religious jealousy of Jesus’ hold on the people as God’s own versus the presumed religious and political leadership of the priests and so forth.  And there is certainly truth in that. 

            But if we follow where the disputations with the Leadership really got tense, it was not at the cleansing of the Temple, it was healing the cranky man on the Sabbath.  Remember, Jesus told him to take up his bedroll and go home.  That is work of a kind forbidden by tradition on the Sabbath.  The man passed the buck to Jesus.  When a guy heals you of decades of invalidity and he tells you to pick up your bed and go, you do.

            But in so doing, it was not that Jesus was breaking the Sabbath.  There were ways to fix that kind of unlawful behavior.  It was that Jesus would not even acknowledge he was in the wrong.  He kept doubling down.  The one who has authority to dictate the terms of the Sabbath, to dictate the terms of the law of Moses that, up to know, has been the foundation of Sabbath legalities, that’s the authority Jesus is claiming.  And that is undermining the authority that the Leadership claims for itself.  That is why things between them are tense.

            More later.

Peace, Pastor Peter

When The Words of Jesus Lead to Sinful Response

June 2, 2021                John 5: 42

39 ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹I do not accept glory from human beings. ⁴²But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

6After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.  ²A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. ³Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. ⁴Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.

            It seems a presumptuous thing for Jesus to say to the Leadership, that they do not have the love of God in them.  Not exactly the way to win friends and influence people.  It is not that this comes out of nowhere.  Jesus has been laying out for them his own relationship to the Father, one that they are not willing to accept.  And yet Jesus does attract them in droves.  Whether they are fascinated or challenged or a combination of both seems to be what drives them.  The challenge will take over as they come to a point where they will conspire against his life.

            It may seem like a minor thing, but Jesus does not deny their belief in God, only their active life within God-through Christ.  Because Jesus is not seeking to establish a new religion.  He is seeking to fulfill the promises made in the Jewish faith to this point.  The importance of understanding that is what connects and divides the Christian faith from the Jewish faith to this day.

            There are Jewish congregations that accept Jesus as presented in the gospel.  But to my understanding, they do not generally call themselves “Christian”.  The history of Christianity toward Judaism is powerfully violent and bloody.  The title that I have heard used it “Messianic Jews”, Jews who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah. 

            The connection that my brain has made is that the Leadership to whom Jesus is speaking does not understand the new paradigm of religion that Jesus is bringing in, a new paradigm that continues to stand outside Judaism to this day.  I grew up not understanding why our faiths had not come together in Christ.  History made that abundantly clear. 

            And yet to read on in the New Testament, especially in Paul’s letter to the Romans, where, by his time, there is an acknowledged break between the followers of Jesus and the Jewish faith that found its leadership in Jerusalem, there is a tension present.  This tension runs against a prevailing ‘all or nothing’ of modern theology.  All-believe in Jesus, or nothing-condemned to hell.  There are Christian leaders who will pronounce that those of the Jewish faith, as with everyone else who does not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, are condemned to hell.

            Why spend time ruminating on things like this?  What if I said that this verse gave us permission, in Jesus name, to oppress and ostracize those of the Jewish faith?  But wait, that takes this verse hugely out of context.  Exactly.  But that is the power of faith, or rather, ‘faith’.

            Matters of faith touch deep in the human soul, eternal life and death and so on, judgement and the love and acceptance of God, justification from our sins and for our very existence.  Forgiveness as a matter of mercy becomes a prerequisite in the absolute right and the absolute wrong. 

            I am of a point of view that if I get it wrong, and do not condemn someone to hell who deserves to be, that the Lord can be merciful about things.  But what I have so much more trouble stomaching is a Christian point of view that feels it can take the judgement power of God, even unto death itself, and carry out such judgement on the world in the sure and certain knowledge of their own salvation and forgiveness in Jesus if they get it wrong. 

            It also reminds me of the power of Jesus’ words, for sin and for salvation.  More later.

Peace, Pastor Peter

If Jesus Was Frustrated Then When People Refused To Accept Him, How About After Generations Of Christian Violence?

May 26, 2021              John 5: 40-41

39 ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹I do not accept glory from human beings. ⁴²But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

            There is frustration in Jesus’ words in verse 40.  The Jewish Leadership is looking for something, it is looking for eternal life.  That is the Messianic Expectation that gives them hope against the Romans.  The idea that there will be an heir of David to sit on that great king’s throne forever.  Christianity has the idea of eternal life fairly thoroughly worked out.  It did not ever really occur to me to consider that the Jews had that same expectation, that same desire, in that time and place. 

            Where does that lack of awareness come from?  I think it is from what I know of Judaism today, distancing itself from Christianity.  And as we read Jesus here, as we progress through the New Testament, it may strike us as weird that the Judaism would distance itself from Christianity, as we developed from Judaism, through Jesus.  But to read the history between our religions since the time of Jesus, it is NO wonder to me at all that Judaism wants to keep a safe distance from Christianity.  We do NOT have a good record of dealing with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

            I have never really progressed past the military and political expectations of the Messiah at the time of Jesus, and then in focus on the ways that Jesus did NOT fit those expectations.  There is an interpretive note that “we” Christians got Jesus ‘right’ while the Jewish Leadership got him ‘wrong’.  That breeds arrogance, ‘us’ versus ‘them’. 

            Jesus seems to build on that theme when he goes on to say he does not accept glory from human beings.  I think that is a two-edged statement.  On the one edge, the purpose of humanity, according to the Westminster Standards, is to glorify God and enjoy God forever.  That is a “God the Father” thing, and Jesus, standing as an intermediary, is, I believe, on the one hand, saying that he will not accept the glory of human beings for himself over and against the Father.

            But I also believe there is another piece to this.  Refusing the ‘glory’ of human beings is meant to prevent any hint of self-aggrandizement in the eyes of the people.  It is to try and prevent exactly what has happened, an ‘us’ and ‘them’ turning into ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in matters of faith.  As I have said, our history with Judaism is not good as a religion.

            That leads to another thing.  It was very tough for me, an American Presbyterian in the 21^st century, to look back on the blood and horror of Christian history without pointing at it and saying “That isn’t me.”  This is not limited to the times when Jews have been assaulted, exiled, and killed by Christians, many times on the excuse “They killed Jesus” (which is why I am careful to look at the Jewish leadership in considering Jesus’ debates).

            It is not just about how my faith has treated others, but the religious wars within my faith.  “You believe wrong therefore I will kill you.”  I do not know just how far we can remove ourselves from the love and purpose of Jesus when we fall into that kind of thinking.  And it is ‘we’.  Christians are Christians.  I have never killed anybody in the name of Jesus, so I have two choices when it comes to Christian history.  The first is to deny it, that “my” Christianity is somehow better than “their” Christianity.  Or I accept it.  This was done in Jesus’ name.  It is wrong and we are seeking to do better.

            Because that is the very nature of faith.  We have Jesus’ forgiveness and are called upon to strive to do better, knowing that Jesus will pick us up again even when we fall.  There are compelling reasons why Jesus’ words back in John “Yet you refuse to come to me to have life” still resonate today.  It is the history of violence and sin that marks our own history.  Today, we have it packed away, glossed over.  Cannot tell you the last time I used the Crusades or the religious wars after the Reformation as a sermon illustration.  There will be freedom when we do comes to terms with it.  More later.

            Peace, Pastor Peter   

Distinguishing Belief in God from Abiding in God's Word

May 25, 2021              John 5: 37-39

³¹“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³²There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. ³³You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. ³⁴Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. ³⁵He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. ³⁶But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. ³⁷And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, ³⁸and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.

39 ‘You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. ⁴¹I do not accept glory from human beings. ⁴²But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. ⁴³I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? ⁴⁵Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. ⁴⁶If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?’

            So there is a circular logic going on here.  The Father has testified to Jesus, the Father sent Jesus.  However, the Leadership that Jesus is talking to, they are denied this testimony.  They have never heard his voice nor seen his form nor have His word abiding in them, because they do not believe in Jesus, whom the Father sent.  How then do you achieve these things?  You believe in Jesus, to whom the Father has testified and whom the Father has sent.  To believe in Jesus is to experience who sent Jesus.  To experience who sent Jesus is to know the truth of Jesus and his testimony.  Without belief, they cannot experience who sent Jesus.  So they do not receive His Testimony. 

            A couple of interesting bits here in what Jesus is saying.  The first thing he tells them is that they, the Leadership, have never heard the voice of the Father.  This is true in the background of this age.  There has not been an ‘official’ prophet since Malachi, a couple hundred years before.  The second bit that Jesus says, “You have never…seen his form.”  That goes much further back.  When Moses was on the Mountain of God, he only saw God from the back, God’s glory being too powerful.  When Elijah went up on the Mountain of God, there was wind and fire and then God showed up in the still small voice.  The point seems to be that divine intervention is not coming directly from ‘the Big Guy’, but through Jesus.

            And then Jesus says they, the Leadership, do not have ‘his’ word abiding in themselves because they do not believe in Jesus, sent by ‘him’ (the Father).  It is something of a fine line that Jesus is drawing here.  The Leadership believe in God, that is Judaism, that is their religion.  Jesus is not comparing them to ‘Gentiles and unbelievers’, but he still needs a way to poke at their lack of faith in what has come among them. 

            He wants them to understand the transition, the fulfillment of the faith that is represented by the coming of Jesus.  It is the Messianic expectation that has been fulfilled.  It is God’s Plan that is being carried out.  It did not fall upon them cold, but came in the testimony of John the baptizer, who, by Jesus’ explanation, appears to have been accepted by the Leadership as someone of God. 

            The Leadership of the Jewish people, the educated ones, those ‘in the know’, those who are filled up with the knowledge and study of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, they are the ones who have not been drawn across the gap of faith that would have the word of the Father abiding in their hearts, if they believed in the one that the Father sent. 

            He says this straight up in the next verse.  They search through the pages of the Old Testament because they believe eternal life is to be found in the pages themselves, instead of in Jesus, the Messiah, the one to whom the pages refer.

            So Jesus is not simply arguing them in a circle.  They are believers, but they have not made the leap of faith to Jesus.  Jesus will continue his persuasion in the verses to come.  More later.

            Peace, Pastor Peter.