Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

July 20, 2021

6/30/2021

The Beginning of the End

        Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days."...He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." John 11:39-41, RSV.

    Here we find one of the most dramatic moments in the life of Jesus and His greatest miracle. The two other individuals whom the Gospels report that He had raised to life were only recently deceased. But here was one who had been dead for four days, and that was problematic in the warm climate of Palestine in which decomposition sets in rapidly.

    There is something else important about this story. When Jesus had raised Jairus' daughter in Mark 5, He ordered almost everyone out of the room. And after the event He told them not to tell anyone. But now He operates before a larger crowd, putting His reputation on the line as He shouts to Lazarus to come out.

    And he did! It must have been a heart-stopping moment as they witnessed the bandaged figure staggering out from the tomb.

    As He performed this miracle, Jesus undoubtedly had thoughts of His own approaching death and resurrection. The raising of Lazarus foreshadowed His own experience. But with differences. Lazarus was raised back to earthly existence, but Jesus to a heavenly ministry. While Lazarus would die again, Jesus would live forevermore.

    The very publicness of the resurrection of Lazarus would lead to the final events of Jesus' earthly life. His disciples had warned Him not to go back to Judea because the Jewish leaders were looking for an excuse to kill Him (John 11:8). And now He had provided them with one. "From that day on they took counsel how to put him to death" (verse 53, RSV). Interestingly, they also put Lazarus on their hit list because many of the Jews were "believing in Jesus" as a result of the man's resurrection (John 12:10, 11, RSV).

    This greatest of miracles had taken place in Bethany, just a few miles from Jerusalem. Soon Jesus would make His final entrance into the great city as the crowds surged into it for the Passover feast. And following that entry would come the climatic events of His life.

    The Lazarus miracle indicates the life-giving power of Jesus. It is that power that forms the basis of the good news that He came from heaven to share with us.

June 30, 2021

6/30/2021

The Disciples' Favorite Question

        At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them, and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 18:1-4, RSV.

    With this passage we have come to the disciples' favorite question. They seem to be obsessed with it. Mark 9:33, 34 tells us they had been "arguing" on the road about who was the greatest.

    Perhaps the stimulus for the problem was Jesus' blessing of Peter after his reply that Jesus was the divine Christ. It is almost impossible to believe that he hadn't gloated over that commendation. Then there was the selection of three of the disciples to go with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.

    But at a deeper level the question of greatness resides at the center of the sinful human heart. The desire for egocentric importance fuels both the world's greatest accomplishments and its greatest sins. The desire to stand out, to be superior, to have people look at and admire "me" is part of the great rebellion of human beings against God. It was also the root of Lucifer's sin in heaven. He had said in his heart, "I will raise my throne above the stars of God....I will make myself like the Most high" (Isa. 14:13, 14, NIV). The desire to be the greatest, even to be the god of our own life, forms the very foundation of sin. And, as we noted earlier in discussing Matthew 16:24, the only solution to that problem is the cross--that is, the death of our selves and the born-again experience in Christ.

    In Matthew 18:2-4 Jesus tells His disciples that the greatest in the kingdom will be like little children. Children were of little account in antiquity, and we find Jesus here turning the wisdom of the world on its head by proclaiming that true greatness does not lie in accomplishments and worldly sophistication but in the humility and transparency of children.

    The disciples, as we might expect, didn't like that lesson and immediately forgot it. To be honest, I don't enjoy it either.

    And with that realization it is back to the foot of the cross in humble repentance.

June 29, 2021

6/29/2021

Lessons From a Fish Story

        What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take and give unto them for me and thee. Matt. 17:25-27.

    Another example of the unpreparedness of the disciples is the Temple tax episode. That event takes the form of an attempt by the Jewish leaders to trap Jesus by creating a situation in which either answer to their question is problematic.

    The question "Does not your teacher pay the tax?" catches Peter off guard. A negative answer will provide a pretext for charging Jesus with rejecting the Temple service. Peter, wanting to avoid that horn of the dilemma, quickly answered that Jesus will pay the tax.

    But that hasty reply merely lands Peter (and Jesus) on the other horn. After all, priests and others devoted solely to God's service could claim exemption. As a result, Peter in effect denies Jesus' role as a prophet and teacher in Israel. Thus the same apostle who a short time before had set forth Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah now stumbles over himself and sanctions the very conception of Jesus put forth by the Jewish leaders.

    Jesus does the best thing to disarm the situation, telling Peter that He is exempt, but to pay anyway by catching a fish that would have the right amount of money in its mouth.

    At first glance that miracle seems out of harmony with what we read in the biblical Gospels and more in line with the exotic miracles of the apocryphal gospels. But a moment's reflection shows that the miracle of the fish with the coin fits the very need of Jesus at the time. For one thing, it definitely proves to Peter the true status of Jesus. Second, it is almost impossible to believe that the disciple could keep his mouth shut about how they obtained the money. Third, even though Jesus outwardly complied, technically it was not His money that paid the tax. Thus the miracle made both horns of the dilemma disappear.

    An overlooked point in this event is that Jesus acted as He did so as not to give offense. The lesson we need to catch is that He avoided useless confrontation whenever possible. What a better place the church of today would be in if all disciples followed Him in avoiding needless conflict.

June 28, 2020

6/28/2021

Not Every Day Is a Spiritual High

        And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and kneeling before him said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." Matt. 17:14-16, RSV.

    What a contrast! On the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus and the "three" had witnessed a bit of heaven. Now, coming off the mountain, they glimpse a fragment of hell in the life below. To say the least, they descend to find a difficult situation.

    In fact, it was exactly the kind of circumstances that Peter had hoped to avoid when he had said on the mountain, "It is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles" (Mark 9:5, NASB). If Peter could have had it his way he would have stayed up there forever.

    But Jesus had not forgotten His mission. The purpose of the Transfiguration was to strengthen Him for it. And He arrived just in time to face a serious problem. The nine disciples had publicly failed in healing a boy, and the scribes were having a great time of it, casting doubt not only on the ability of the disciples but, by extension, on Jesus.

    The humiliation of the disciples was extreme. It was at that point that Jesus showed up and cured the boy. Why had they failed? the disciples asked Him later. That was a good question, since He had already given "them authority over the unclean spirits" (Mark 6:7, RSV). And upon returning from their first mission experience without Jesus they had reported that they had "cast out many demons" (verse 13, RSV). What was the difference now? A first suggestion is that Jesus' announcement a week earlier that He would be rejected and die had shattered their faith. They couldn't give what they didn't have. Beyond that, they may have had a bad attitude, grousing about the special privilege of Peter, John, and James in going with Jesus while they remained behind.

    What we know for sure is that their prayer life was weak (Mark 9:29). Of course, their discouragement and lack of prayer were not unrelated. Most people stop praying when they become discouraged. Yet that is the very time we need to pray more than ever.

    It would be nice if we could always remain on a spiritual high on the mount with Jesus. But the hard fact of life is that mountain highs of necessity are followed by "coming down" to the real world. And in that we need prayer to navigate successfully, even if we don't feel like praying.

    The end point: Pray anyway.

June 27, 2021

6/27/2021

Encouragement in Times of Need

        After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah....And a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Matt. 17:1-5, NIV.

    The Transfiguration is connected with what has gone before. That is, Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ (Matt. 16:16) and Jesus' devastating prediction of His death and resurrection and His statement about His disciples' crosses (verses 21-28).

    Matthew tells us that Jesus went up on the mountain six days after the events at Caesarea Philippi, but he doesn't tell us why. But Luke does. Luke 9:28 claims that He took three disciples "up on the mountain to pray" (RSV).

    He certainly had plenty to pray about. By now He had fully committed Himself to go to Jerusalem and the cross that awaited Him there, a thought that horrified Him. He also had a burden to pray for His noncomprehending disciples, those whom He would soon leave behind to head up His church on earth.

    And what weak individuals they were at this stage. Luke tells us that what they did on the Mount of Transfiguration they would later do in Gethsemane--they slept while Jesus prayed (verse 32). And these were His closest disciples--those whom He had for the first time selected from among the 12 for special instruction. If they were operating spiritually at such a low level, what must have been the condition of the other nine? No wonder Jesus felt the need to pray.

    There upon the Mount the Transfiguration took place, a representation of the future kingdom of glory in miniature. Its purpose was to encourage both Jesus and the disciples, who were in a "tailspin of bewilderment" as a result of Jesus' redefining Messiahship and discipleship. But first and foremost, it strengthened Jesus Himself.

    Especially important was the voice from heaven--the same voice that Jesus heard at His baptism when He was just starting out on his mission. Now He hears it again at the very point His ministry turns its direction toward Jerusalem. God was putting His stamp of approval on Jesus' decision and His course of action. It was as if the Father were saying, "Go ahead, You have made the right choice. I will be with You."

    We can be thankful that we have a God willing to encourage us when we need it most.

June 26, 2021

6/26/2021

The Meaning of Discipleship: Number 3

        For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matt. 16:25, 26, NKJV.

    We have spent a disproportionate amount of time on Matthew 16:13-26. For 10 days we have meditated upon these verses. And for good reason. They provide the pivot point in the gospel story. Up to that point we focused on who Jesus is. After it the emphasis shifts to what Messiahship involves.

    And central to that meaning are the two crosses--Christ's and ours. The teaching of the two crosses holds the core of the meaning of Christianity, in terms of both Messiahship and discipleship.

    To understand Jesus' teaching related to my cross more fully, I need to remember that sin, in its most basic sense, is putting my self and my will, rather than God and His will, at the center of my life. Sin is rebellion against Him in the sense that I choose to become the ruler of my own life--saying "No" to God and "Yes" to self.

    It is the self-centered life principle so natural to human beings that must die. Thus Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks to the heart of what it means to be a Christian when he writes that "when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

    Jesus pointed to the essential human problem when He claimed that "no one can serve two masters" (Matt. 6:24, RSV). The bottom line is: Whom will I put on the throne of my life? My self or God? I cannot serve both at the same time. When I come face-to-face with the claim of Christ, I must either crucify Him or let Him crucify me. There is no middle ground.

    It is in that context that losing one's life or gaining it and gaining the whole world or losing it takes on meaning. What, I need to ask myself, is my price? In what area and at what point would I be willing to sell out my soul in exchange for earthly rewards? Is it popularity, money, prestige, "love," "fun," or something else? In the end it doesn't make any difference, because I am still stuck with a choice that will not go away. The decision is always between something or Jesus.

June 25, 2021

6/25/2021

The Meaning of Discipleship: Number 2

        If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps, he must give up all right to himself, take up his cross and follow me. Mark 8:34, Phillips.

    The second difficult word in Jesus' description of discipleship is "cross." The bad news to Peter and the rest of the disciples (including us) is that Jesus' cross is not the only one. He goes on to say that each of His followers will have his or her own cross.

    To fully understand the statement that each person must take up the cross, we need to put ourselves in the place of those first disciples. The idea of a cross or of being crucified doesn't do much for our twenty-first-century imaginations. To us, "crucifixion" is a word that has lost most of its meaning. But that was not true for the disciples. They knew that bearing a cross was a one-way trip leading to nowhere but death.

    It is with that realization that the word "deny" and the word "cross" intersect. The cross, like the concept of denial of self, has been trivialized by the Christian community. For some people, bearing the cross is wearing it as an ornament around their neck. For others it means putting up with some discomfort or inconvenience in life, such as a nagging husband or a sloppy wife, or even a physical impediment.

    Jesus does not have in mind those caricatures of cross-bearing. He is speaking of the cross as an instrument of death--not physical for most of His hearers, but of the crucifixion of the self, the denial of the center of our life and our primary allegiance to our self. Ellen White points out that "the warfare against self is the greatest battle ever fought" (Steps to Christ, p. 43). And James Denney emphasizes that "though sin may have a natural birth it does not die a natural death; in every case it has to be morally sentenced and put to death." That sentencing is an act of the will under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. Jesus and Paul repeatedly refer to it as a crucifixion.

    Paul is especially clear on that topic in Romans 6, in which he describes becoming a Christian as a crucifixion of the "old self" (verse 6, RSV) and a resurrection to a new way of life with a new center--Jesus and His will. It is that death that is implicit in His command to deny one's self and bear one's cross. Paul points out that baptism by immersion is the perfect symbol of spiritual death and resurrection to a new life centered on God (verses 1-11).

June 24, 2021

6/24/2021

The Meaning of Discipleship: Number 1

        Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." Matt. 16:24, NKJV.

    When Jesus "began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things...and be killed" (Mark 8:31, RSV), He was truly only commencing His instruction, because a new understanding of Messiahship dictates a new perspective of discipleship. And if the new interpretation of Messiahship was distasteful to Peter and the others, the new concept of discipleship would be equally abhorrent. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

    That verse contains two of the most difficult words that a person will ever have to face--"deny" and "cross." When we think of self-denial we imagine abstinence from certain luxuries for a certain period of time, while at the same time, perhaps, congratulating ourselves on how well we are doing in being self-controlled and/or generous.

    But that is far from what Jesus meant by "deny." It is a sharp and demanding word. One scholar suggests that in verse 24 it means "to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's interests."

    Another writer points out that "the denial of self is something deeper" than mere self-denial. "It is making ourselves not an end, but a means, in the kingdom of God. It is subordinating the clamoring ego, with its shrill claim for priority, its preoccupation with 'I,' 'me,' and 'mine,' its concern for self-assertion, its insistence on comfort and prestige; denying self, not for the sake of denial as a sort of moral athletics, but for Christ's sake, for the sake of putting the self into his cause."

    Thus there is a massive difference between self-denial and denying one's self. The first is a minor surface operation, while the second is a matter of the heart--or, more specifically, a change of heart.

    Here is a place where each of us followers of Jesus needs to become more transparent, more honest. Jeremiah tells us that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt" (Jer. 17:9, RSV). The last thing that my heart wants to do is to realize that denial of the self stands at the center of being a genuine Christian.

June 23, 2021

6/23/2021

Avoid Being Peter

        He then began explaining things to them: "It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried, and after three days rise up alive." He said this simply and clearly so they couldn't miss it. But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. "Peter, get out of my way! Satan, got lost! You have no idea how God works." Mark 8:31, Message.

    The proud Peter got it right between the eyes. He was sincere enough, but had hit the most sensitive nerve ending in Jesus' being. The forcefulness of His rebuke to Peter implies the importance of the cross to His ministry and the need to educate the future leaders of His church on its centrality.

    Not only had the temptation come, but it had emerged from the mouth of a friend. It is a sad fact of life that Satan can use Jesus' followers--even His ministers--to do his own work.

    As Christians we have not only the potential of betraying Jesus, but also one another. We too can guide fellow Christians in the wrong direction and discourage them from doing God's will by advising them to avoid all dangers to themselves and inconveniences to ourselves. Lest we unwillingly play the role of Satan, we need to be more aware than was Peter.

    Peter's experience can teach us yet other lessons. One is that we as Christians are a mixed bag. In one moment I can have a divine insight, then in the next I can be a tool of the devil. At our best we are fallible creatures partly controlled by knowledge and partly by ignorance. All of us have one foot in the kingdom. We have been saved in the sense that we have accepted Jesus, but the plain fact is that He has a lot more to do in us.

    Another lesson is that we need to be careful not to cast off people because of their stupidity and errors. Jesus, in the days and weeks to come, would demonstrate almost infinite patience in working with His erring disciples. One writer has pointed out that "only a massive stupidity could keep them from understanding," but they managed to do exactly that until after the Resurrection. Jesus, however, did not abandon them as a lost cause. Our Savior had begun to teach them about the meaning of being the Christ. Just as He didn't give up on them, so He hasn't given up on me. And I shouldn't give up on you.

June 22, 2021

6/22/2021

The Struggling Christ

        And Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men." Matt. 16:22, 23, RSV.

    What a fall! All the way from being inspired by God in verse 17 to being Satan in verse 23.

    Peter may have correctly identified Jesus as the divine Messiah, but he had not the slightest idea what that involved. Thus the strenuous education program Jesus begins in verse 21 and extends up through His death on Calvary.

    But why the forcefulness of the rebuke? Because Peter had usurped the role that Satan had earlier taken in the wilderness of temptation. Both of them had suggested that Jesus could fulfill His mission without His death on the cross. And to both Jesus exclaimed, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Mark 8:33, RSV).

    We miss the point if we imagine that Jesus thought Peter was Satan. Rather, He saw Satan speaking through His chief disciple. Peter was playing the part of the tempter. And the temptation was the central one in Jesus' life. In fact, He undoubtedly found the thought of His forthcoming death to be even more distasteful than did Peter.

    Jesus had seen crucifixion in His travels, and like any normal human being, He had no desire to exit the world by the excruciating death of the cross. He would have found it much easier to become the political Messiah that the Jews and the disciples expected.

    But even more important, He had no wish to bear the judgment of the world by becoming sin for all humanity in the sacrifice of Calvary (John 12:31-33; 2 Cor. 5:21). The thought of separation from God while bearing the sins of the world on the cross was abhorrent to Him in the extreme.

    The lure to do His own will by avoiding the cross was the great temptation of Jesus' life. He had conquered it after feeding the 5,000 when they tried to make Him king, and He would face it again in Gethsemane, where He would repeatedly pray, "If this cannot pass unless I drink it, thy will be done" (Matt. 26:42, RSV).

    Here is a fruitful thought. We too often picture Jesus as above the daily problems that we are content with. Not so! He struggled also as He passed through life one step at a time. And He had to constantly resort to His knees. So do I.