THE VEGETABLE LAMB OF TARTARY
"Away with you, Satan," he said; "you think as men think, not as God thinks." Mark 8:33, N.E.B.
The legend of the vegetable lamb of Tartary, half plant and half animal, originates from the Middle Ages. When European travelers to the Far East were first introduced to cotton, a plant they knew nothing of at that time, they took it for wool--a substance they did know. Since wool came from sheep, they deduced that cotton came from lambs that grew from a tree to which the lambs were attached by their navels. It was said that the lambs grazed as the plant bent to the ground. The lambs and plant died after all the grass around had been eaten.
We laugh at such preposterous ideas. Yet such legends often survive for centuries as accepted fact. It was no different in Jesus' day. The coming Messiah had been so cloaked with Jewish tradition and legend that when Jesus "began to teach [His disciples] that the Son of Man had to undergo great sufferings, and to be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and doctors of the law; to be put to death, and to rise again three days afterwards....Peter took him by the arm and began to rebuke him," even though Jesus "spoke about it plainly" (Mark 8:31, 32, N.E.B.)!
We marvel at Peter's attitude. He had it all wrong! So wrong, in fact, that Jesus was prompted to utter one of His most startling rebukes; " 'Away with you, Satan,' he said, 'you think as men think, not as God thinks' " (verse 33. N.E.B.). May I suggest that our ideas of why Jesus had to die might be as far off the mark as was Peter's resistance to its even happening?
Jesus addressed Satan directly not to scold or humiliate Peter in front of his friends, but to dramatically draw attention to the originator of such thinking. Our first parents accepted the fatal deception that they had life apart from the Creator. When Peter cried out, "No Lord, this shall never happen to you" (Matt. 16:22, N.E.B.), he was actually reaffirming the serpent's lie, "Of course you will not die" (Gen. 3:4, N.E.B.).
The death of Christ as the Son of man was to demonstrate once and for all what separation from God brings. To imply that God requires death as a penalty for not believing Him is little better than presuming wool to grow on trees--no matter how many people think so.
"Away with you, Satan," he said; "you think as men think, not as God thinks." Mark 8:33, N.E.B.
The legend of the vegetable lamb of Tartary, half plant and half animal, originates from the Middle Ages. When European travelers to the Far East were first introduced to cotton, a plant they knew nothing of at that time, they took it for wool--a substance they did know. Since wool came from sheep, they deduced that cotton came from lambs that grew from a tree to which the lambs were attached by their navels. It was said that the lambs grazed as the plant bent to the ground. The lambs and plant died after all the grass around had been eaten.
We laugh at such preposterous ideas. Yet such legends often survive for centuries as accepted fact. It was no different in Jesus' day. The coming Messiah had been so cloaked with Jewish tradition and legend that when Jesus "began to teach [His disciples] that the Son of Man had to undergo great sufferings, and to be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and doctors of the law; to be put to death, and to rise again three days afterwards....Peter took him by the arm and began to rebuke him," even though Jesus "spoke about it plainly" (Mark 8:31, 32, N.E.B.)!
We marvel at Peter's attitude. He had it all wrong! So wrong, in fact, that Jesus was prompted to utter one of His most startling rebukes; " 'Away with you, Satan,' he said, 'you think as men think, not as God thinks' " (verse 33. N.E.B.). May I suggest that our ideas of why Jesus had to die might be as far off the mark as was Peter's resistance to its even happening?
Jesus addressed Satan directly not to scold or humiliate Peter in front of his friends, but to dramatically draw attention to the originator of such thinking. Our first parents accepted the fatal deception that they had life apart from the Creator. When Peter cried out, "No Lord, this shall never happen to you" (Matt. 16:22, N.E.B.), he was actually reaffirming the serpent's lie, "Of course you will not die" (Gen. 3:4, N.E.B.).
The death of Christ as the Son of man was to demonstrate once and for all what separation from God brings. To imply that God requires death as a penalty for not believing Him is little better than presuming wool to grow on trees--no matter how many people think so.
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