Looking Through Jesus' Eyes

Here they come.  The crowds.  In a rage, stirred up by the high priest, Judas at the head.  They are ready to fight, to grab Jesus and to attack who they must.  Jesus knew it was coming, and he accepted it.  It is the most stressful night of his life.  He anticipated the suffering, the pain, the shame, but it means something different when it is thrust upon you.  Panic rises up in the throat, but you have to swallow it.

Judas kisses Jesus.  Peter swings a sword.  These erring disciples back off with a word.

But then Jesus sees.

For everyone in the Roman world, slaves are simply ignored.  They are there when they are commanded, when business must be done, but the rest of the time, they just live in the background, unimportant until they are needed.

But Jesus sees him.

He is a slave who is coached to harm Jesus and his disciples.  He is a slave ready to harm and to attack.  He is a soldier, a pawn, but still an enemy of Jesus.  In an action movie, he would be dispatched without notice.  A single shot to the chest and never seen again.

But Jesus notices him.

Jesus notices that he is in pain.  He sees that the man has lost an ear.  He sees his enemy, but he doesn't see him as an enemy.  He sees the slave, but he doesn't see him as a slave.  Rather, he sees a human being in suffering.

Despite his own stress, his own anxieties, the fact that he is in the middle of being arrested, he heals the suffering.  He sees the mercy he can do in the middle of a chaotic scene.

That is the love of God's people. 

In The Garden

After Jesus’ last dinner with the twelve, Jesus led them to a Garden just outside Jerusalem.  He had a few more things he wanted to say to them, apart from Judas who betrayed him  “I am leaving you, and you can’t go with me now, but later you will go with me.”  One of disciples responded, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  Don’t be sad that I am going.  I am going to the Father to prepare a place for you. 

“It is good for you that I am going, actually.  If I didn’t leave, then you couldn’t receive the Holy Spirit.  No mater how long I am gone, the Holy Spirit will be with you to remind you of all that I taught and to give you all the truth you need.  The Holy Spirit will convict the world of their sin and their need to come to the Father.  But through him I will be with you always.

“The most important thing for you to do is to love each other.  Everyone will know you are my disciple if you love each other.  The greatest love is this: that you love each other.  You must follow my commands—that is how you will show your love for me.  And the command I most want you to follow is to love one another.  If you obey my commands then you will know that the Father loves you.”

Then Jesus stopped and prayed, “Father, glorify your Son that he may glorify you.  I have glorified You on earth.  I have given these your word and have done all that you asked me.  Now glorify me so that I may have the glory that I had before, with You.  Watch over these whom you have given me, may none of them fall away.  Make them holy.  Also I ask for those who will believe later.  Make them one in You, Father.  May they be one as you and I are one.”

Then Jesus became sad, and said, “You eight stay here and rest.  Peter, James and John, follow me.”  Jesus walked with them to the other side of the garden and said, “My soul is grieved, even to the point of death.  Stay here.  Watch and pray.  I will be over there, praying.”  Jesus, alone,  then cried out to the Father and said, “Abba! All things are possible for you!  Please remove this cup from me!”  After some time, then Jesus cried again, “Father, please take away this cup.  But not my will, but yours be done.”

Jesus walked back to check on the three disciples, and he found them asleep.  “Why are you sleeping?  You will never be prepared for the trial you are to undergo like this!  The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.  Stay awake and pray!”  Jesus went back to pray, and after a time, he came back and found the disciples sleeping again.  He left them and prayed more.  Then he returned and said, “Wake up!  It is time!  The betrayer is here, and the Son of Man will be handed over to sinners.”

Some soldiers came into the garden with Judas Iscariot.  Judas came up to Jesus and kissed him, saying, “Hello, Master.”  Jesus said, “So you will hand me over with a kiss?  How ironic.”  The kiss was the soldier’s signal, and they came and grabbed Jesus.  The disciples just woke them up, and were still groggy when they saw Jesus captured. 

Simon, remembering his words, grabbed his sword and started thrashing everyone around him.  He hit no one except the slave of the high priest, whose ear he cut off.  Jesus yelled, “That is enough!  Whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword.  And if I am not taken in this way, how will the Scriptures be fulfilled?”  Then Jesus picked the ear off of the ground and placed it back, healing the slave.

Then Jesus turned to the crowd arresting him and said, “I have been in the Temple every day, teaching.  But you are capturing me now, in secret with threat of violence.  Why are you treating me like a rebel against the proper authorities?  But all of this was done to fulfill the Scriptures.”  Confused as to what they should do, all of the disciples ran away.  And the soldiers and the crowd took Jesus to the High Priest’s house.

Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Mark 14:38 

This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.  John 15:12-14

Disgusting

At times, we are filled with disgust.  The man dumpster diving his dinner with a coat caked with filth.  The woman who is so misshapen that she cannot look at herself in the mirror.  The person who is so sexually degraded, that we can't say anything to him.  Think for a moment of the most disgusting person you know, and how you don't want to have anything to do with them.

Now think of Jesus.  He looked at the leper, full of disease, limbs falling off and he embraced that man and said, "Be clean."  Jesus wasn't talking just about healing, he was saying that the man was no longer disgusting-- he was embraceable.

Consider Jesus embracing the person you find most disgusting, because he does.  Jesus doesn't see that person as someone to avoid, but as the image of God.

Now we are in Jesus' place.  If Jesus allowed his betrayer to kiss him, if Jesus prayed for those who killed him, if Jesus ate with the worst of sinners, then so should we who follow Jesus.

Embrace the unembracable. 

Jesus' Peace

Jesus was a man of peace. He did not come to a world absent of war. Rather, he came to create a community that slowly created a world where war is unnecessary, where everyone's needs are met and the greedy are punished.

Jesus offered his true followers-- those obedient to his love and mercy-- peace (John 14:27). He commanded his people to always seek peace (Mark 9:50; Romans 12:18). He said his true followers would step into the world and make peace out of conflict (Matthew 5:9). He said that not a single human being should be excluded from the love and gentleness of his people (Luke 6:27-36)

So why did Jesus say, "I did not come to give peace but a sword." (Matthew 10:34)? Because he knew the established order is opposed to peace. The established order must always have people they exclude, must always have fear, must always have conflict or else their whole system will collapse. (Matthew 23:23-27)  Jesus' way of peace is in a spiritual war against this philosophy. And Jesus will not cringe from battling in that war.

But Jesus has transferred the battlefield to the spirit realm (Mark 3:22-27). So Jesus will never attack human beings, but the ideas and spirits that cause human beings to do evil. Jesus and his community stands in the way of violence, especially against the oppressed and outcast, allowing themselves to take the sword that was meant for the rejected ones.

The Last Supper

Jesus had prophesied his death and resurrection many times to his disciples.  The Father now told Jesus, it is time—this very night.  There would be no more prophecies, no more speculation.  It was time for action.  But the disciples were still not ready.  They didn’t understand what was coming or what it meant.  Jesus realized that it was too late to explain to them clearly what would happen that night.  All he could do for them this night is to teach them things they would understand later.

            Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, had had enough. He didn’t like Jesus speaking against the priesthood and the temple—they were the center of all good Jews believed in!  So he went to the priests to ask them what to do.  The priests responded, “We want to bring him to the Sanhedrin, but we wish to do so privately.  Lead us to where he stays at night, turn him over to us, and we will discipline him appropriately.”  They didn’t tell him that they planned to kill him.  Judas agreed to hand him over, if they would pay him silver. 

The Passover celebration was coming, and Jesus told his disciples to get ready for it.  He had his disciples obtain a guest room for them to eat in and they prepared for the meal.  But Jesus had his own plans for the meal.

            After Jesus entered into the prepared room, he took a cloth and tied it around him, and filled a bowl full of water so that he looked like a slave serving his master.  Then Jesus bent over one of the disciples already sitting back on a chair and began washing the disciple’s feet—the dirtiest part of him, after walking through the dirt and mud all day.  The disciple was repulsed by Jesus’ action—the Rabbi shouldn’t be doing slave’s work!— but the disciple didn’t say anything, because he couldn’t contradict his master.  Then Jesus went around, washing all the other disciple’s feet.

            When Jesus came up to Simon Peter, Peter boldly stated, “I will never let you wash my feet!”  Jesus gently replied, “But if you don’t let me wash your feet, you will have no part of me.”  Peter then changed his mind—“Then I want you to wash all of me!”  Jesus smiled and said, “You don’t need all that, Peter.  I’ve already washed you through my teaching.  For now, you only need your feet washed.”  Then Jesus washed Peter’s and the rest of the disciples’ feet.

            Jesus took off the cloth and sat in front of his disciples, the teacher once again.  He taught them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?  I am your teacher, yes, even your Lord.  But I have acted like a slave, serving you and making you welcome in this place.  Now if you are going to be my disciples, you must do what I do.  I want you to serve each other and welcoming to each other, just as I have been welcoming to you.”

            It was then time for the meal.  Jesus took the bread and prayed over it, giving thanks to the Lord.  Instead of just handing it around, he paused, waiting for all the disciples’ attention.  Then he slowly and deliberately broke the bread.  “This is my body which is broken for you.  Take it and eat.”  Jesus passed the bread around, and each of the disciples ate of it. 

            Then Jesus poured wine into a cup, and all the disciples were looking at him.  He said, “This is my blood.  It is the new covenant, the establishment of God’s kingdom.  Drink this.  And every time you drink this cup, drink it as a memorial for me.  For I will not drink wine again until I drink it with you after my Father’s kingdom has been established on earth.”

            Again Jesus looked at all the disciples sitting before him.  “I am going to be handed over to the authorities.  And one of you sitting here will do it.”  All of the disciples were fearing for themselves and they asked Jesus, “Am I the one?”  One of the disciples sitting next to him asked, “Who is it?”  And Jesus said, “It is the one who dips his bread with me into the dish.” 

            Simon Peter, however, was boasting.  “I know that it isn’t me.  I would never betray our Lord.  I would stay by him, no matter what.”  Jesus said quietly, “Peter, you don’t know what you’re talking about.  This night, before the rooster crows three times, you will have denied that you even knew me three times.”  Peter was stunned and proclaimed, “Never!  I would die for you.”  Jesus said, “Simon, Satan desires to have his way with you, to tear you apart.  But I have prayed for you that ultimately, your faith wouldn’t fail you.  So after he is done with you, come back to your brothers, here, and strengthen them.”

At that point, Judas Iscariot, dipped his bread into the common dish with Jesus.  Jesus looked at Judas and said, “Do it.  Get it over with.”  Judas understood that Jesus knew what he had planned, and he ran away.  The disciples thought Judas was going to pay for the room and meal, and still didn’t understand what was happening.

           

"You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.”  John 13:13-16 

The Necessity of Eschatology

Eschatology is often an ignored subject, and for good reason.  I mean, who could wrap their mouths around this word?  Ess-kat-ah-low-gee.  Cousin to eschatological, which professors of theology and Bible scholarship like to throw around.  Why do they do this?  It seems as if to prove how smart they are.  But the honest truth is, “eschatological” describes a complicated idea in a single word.  The idea of a future as imagined by God. A utopia established by God and the difficulties in establishing that future.                           

Christians have often focused upon the future, because Jesus himself focused upon the future.  But they have misshapen the future of the New Testament into incoherent forms.  It has become a timeline, a string of incomprehensible events.  It is a collection of mythology, of miraculous disasters and religious wet-dreams.  It is a silly pastime full of false conspiracies and invented characters, a misreading of the newspaper.

To truly understand eschatology we have to go to the movies.  Let’s take one movie in particular.  Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors.  If you haven’t seen this movie and really want to, you might want to skip the next few paragraphs:

            Meet Dr. Judah Rosenthal.  He is a celebrated surgeon, who has saved the lives of many, and offered help to the poor and needy.  He also has been involved in a long term affair with his mistress, the one dark spot on his shiny, clean life.  In order to prevent her from using their affair as blackmail, he kills her.  Cold-blooded murder.

            Guilt overcomes him.  He tells no one, but all he can do is remember his father’s admonition that God will make sure that justice will prevail, the wicked will be punished.  Dr. Rosenthal knows that he is now the wicked.  He knows that he must be discovered and punished.

            However, he never is caught.  He never is punished.  From this, he recalls his aunt arguing with his father that the wicked are not always punished.  Justice does not always prevail.  In fact, it could be argued that justice almost never prevails.  Therefore, Dr. Rosenthal concludes with his aunt: there is no God.  Since there is no punishment for the wicked, there is no God.

            At first, this seems like a crazy conclusion to a die-hard religious fanatic.  Just because one does not see justice, can it be that God doesn’t exist?  But this is the problem of almost all religions.  Buddha determined that God was in the same situation we were in, trying to find the way to justice.  Judaism sometimes concluded that the people of God were too impure for God to intervene with true justice in the world—that there could be no justice without the just.  Some Christianities determined that justice is on hold until God’s mercy is satisfied.  Spiritism concludes that the spirit world is too complex for justice to be truly meted out.  But all of them fundamentally conclude the same: God is about justice.  And if God doesn’t grant justice, then He is too weak or too evil to truly be called God.

           Justice—whether seen as an equal voice for the vulnerable, or punishment for the wicked—is not seen in this world.  It is far from our experience.  There is no true law that communicates justice.  There is no government that can adequately create justice.  There is no people that will truly live out justice. 

            This is why eschatology exists.  It is the fulfillment of God’s promises of justice.  Not yet, but coming up.  Eschatology openly recognizes that injustice exists.  The innocent suffer, the wicked prosper, evil prevails and good is crushed. 

            The reason Jesus is so focused on eschatology is not just because God must fulfill His promises.  Rather, it is because justice must prevail for the anawim.

            Why will there be a resurrection?  Because those who have suffered terribly in this life for no good reason deserve a second chance at life.  If there are people who have sacrificed themselves for others, then they should get an opportunity to live a good life that they can be satisfied with.

            Why will there be a judgment?  Because the simple law of mercy is so muddled and confused, that there needs to be a clear delineation of what is good and what is evil—what everyone already knew all along.  And that those who followed that inner standard of good should be rewarded and those who denied that inner standard should be punished fairly.

            Why will there be a kingdom?  Because God created the world to be ruled by a just humanity.  It takes almost all of the history of the human race to make that happen, but it must happen.  And it must be given an opportunity to thrive.

            Why will the poor be granted leadership of the world?  Because only they truly understand the plight of the needy and will grant them the necessary justice that they’ve always deserved.

            All eschatology is about justice.  It is not just a random collection of myths.  If God exists, if justice is real, then eschatology must occur.

Jesus' Final Lecture: The Last Days

The temple in Jerusalem in the early 30s AD was a magnificent structure.  Herod the Great planned it to be one of the great man-made wonders of the world and after 40 years hard work by thousands of laborers, it was just that.  There were many buildings, but the center building—the Temple itself—was an amazing structure with stones as large as the ones that built the pyramids.  Not only was it a beautiful building, but it also displayed the power and wealth of Judea.  It was once the jewel in Herod’s crown, and now it is the glory of the High Priest who, with the Jewish council called the Sanhedrin, led the second largest people spread throughout Rome—only the Romans had more authority.  And it was this very High Priest—ruler of the Jews throughout the world—who was plotting to have Jesus executed.

At the end of the fourth day in Jerusalem, Jesus was walking with his disciples through the various buildings of the Temple.  The disciples, blue-collar workers from Galilee, were stunned by the presence of the Temple and mentioned the magnificence and marvelous, huge stones.  Jesus replied, “You are noticing the stones, are you?  Not one of these stones will be left on each other.”

            That night, they stayed within Jerusalem, resting on the Mount of Olives.  Peter and his brother Andrew and James and his brother John were disturbed at the earlier saying, and they approached Jesus that evening, after the formal teaching time was finished.  They asked, “Lord, we are surprised at the destruction of God’s Holy Temple.  When will this take place?  Is it close to the coming kingdom?  When will you rule?”

            Jesus sat down and told them, “Be very careful—there are so many liars.  Many will claim to know much about the Messiah and claim that the end is coming here or there.  You will hear about this war or that war and think that perhaps it is the final war.  There will be many earthquakes and famines and various uprisings—but none of these are the end.  Instead of these misleading signals, just look for the signs I will tell you.

            “I am going to send you to the whole world to preach the gospel.  And many people in many nations will bring charges against you and try to kill you.  Many people will hate you.  Brother will rise up against brother and father against son.  You will stand before governors and kings.  But just be patient and stay with the gospel.  If you remain with the gospel until the end, then you will be saved.

            “You will know the end, because of the armies that will surround Jerusalem.  And when the powerful persecutor of God’s people is in the one place he should not be—even as Daniel said he would—then it is time to run to the hills.  Once this happens, leave everything you have, don’t go back!  Remember Lot’s wife!  She turned around and was destroyed by judgment.  Don’t be like Noah’s neighbors who were marrying and eating and drinking without any expectation of judgement and then were destroyed in a moment.  This is how it will be in Jerusalem when it is destroyed. 

            “In those days there will be a time of terrible tribulation for all of God’s people.  They will be chased by armies and tested severely.  Unless God would have shortened those days, perhaps not even the chosen ones would remain with God.  But for their sake, God has shortened the days of this tribulation.

            “Then, after that period of tribulation, the Gentiles will rule over Jerusalem.  No one knows for how long, not even I—only the Father knows how long.  They will trample the great city with armies.

           “After that time, the powers in the heavens will be set aside.  The authority of the sun will diminish and the power of the moon will be set aside.  The rule of heaven itself will be upset.  And then look for the Son of Man, coming in the clouds.  This will not be hidden—he will be like lighting flashing from one end of the sky to the other.  All the powerful angels will come down to earth with him, and he will send them out to gather his people from all over the world, and all over heaven.

            “Then the angels will gather all other people in the world—all of the Gentiles of all the earth.  They will stand before the coming King, ruling in Jerusalem.  And the King will have them divided into two parts, one to his right and one to his left.

            To those on his right, he will say, ‘Be happy!  You will enter into my kingdom and live there eternally!  For I was hungry in your presence, and you gave me food and water.  I was without clothing and you gave me clothing.  I was sick and in prison and you came to visit me and help me.  Come and enter my joy!’  They shall reply, ‘Lord, when did we do these things?’  The King will reply, ‘When you did it to these, my disciples—even the lowest of them, you did it to me.’

            “To those who refused to help the least of these disciples, they will be punished eternally with fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  But the righteous will gain the true life, eternally.”

“The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' “Matthew 25:40