Jesus--The Scary One

The job of the Roman soldier was to invoke so much fear into the life of the citizens that there was no room for disobedience.  When a Roman soldier appeared, people ran for their lives.  It was trained into them to be brutal and heartless.  Their very presence invoked fear.  People ran from them and the Romans expected it.

But things don't always work out the way they're supposed to.

A detachment of soldiers was sent out to get Jesus.  Blood was in the air but orders were to bring him back alive.  They confidently marched to the grove of olives, hardened and tough.  Judas was going to lead them to him and they would hunt him down.  This one would be easy.

But as they drew near, instead of Jesus running in fear, he "went out" to them.  He stood up and instead of running from them, he went to them.  Instead of the Romans demanding answers, Jesus asked them the question.  "Who is that you want?"

"Jesus of Nazareth," they responded.

"I am he."  

With that the Roman soldiers drew back in fright and fell to the ground all over each other.  A bumbling mess. 

"If you are looking for me, then let these men go.”

His concern?   To protect his disciples.  He didn't run from the battle, he ran into it, protecting his men (who all ran away). 

Jesus is the true warrior.   The one turning the tables on the enemy.

Where men try to invoke fear, He is their fear (Is 8:13).

His hands

I like hands.  They say a lot about a person.  Are they smooth or calloused?  Perfectly painted or chipped from work?  Are they wrinkled and tanned or smooth and white?

So I looked at hands in Scripture.  In particular the hands of Jesus.  Perhaps in his earlier days the hands of Jesus were rough and calloused from hard labor.  We tend to think of Jesus as a carpenter but from what I understand, the word can also be translated "stone-worker" (just google it if you have any doubt).    When you go to Israel, you notice that there are stones everywhere and for every building.  Carpentry work was for the rich people.  We know for sure Jesus wasn't from a rich family.   They couldn't even afford the obligatory lamb sacrifice for when Jesus was born.  Instead they had to go with the two young pigeons or a pair of doves, a concession for poor people (Lev 12:8).  So for me  I'm quite sure it wasn't trees Jesus was working with in his job.  Rather he was blue collar factory worker that did the grinding work of stones.  So his hands.  Calloused and rough.  And strong.  Very strong.

At 30 his hands changed.  Because at 30 the first thing we read about his hands is that they were washed.  Washed in the waters of baptism.  From there he would begin his life of ministry and I'm sure his hands began to heal from their callouses.  Not totally but they would be growing smooth again.

But now his hands took on a different role.  Instead of receiving the smashing and scraping and bruising from hard work, his hands would now be the conduit of healing for the smashed and scraped and bruised bodies and hearts and lives of others.  Because now Jesus began to touch people.  Holy touch.  Life-giving touch.

Lepers.  You kept your distance.  You made sure you drove those people-turned monsters  away and made them shout "unclean" so you could keep your distance.  You drove them away when they came near.  Jesus went to them.  He touched them.  And the people recoiled in horror.  Luke 5:13

Dead people.  They are cold.  They are stiff.  They stink.  And they are unclean.  A widow whose only hope was her son had just lost him, perhaps in a tragic accident.  It was her death sentence as well as his.  The funeral was in place when Jesus met them.  Keep your distance and let the people grieve, they said.  Jesus aproached the funeral procession.  Then the coffin.  Then he reached out his hands and touched it.  And the people recoiled.  But the young man was brought to life.  Luke 7:4

God's Presence.  For all people who seek it they forget that it is scary.  Very scary.  Peter, James and John saw their rabbi transfigured before them.  Then Moses and Elijah appeared.  Then the Lord spoke to them telling them the Father loved his son and they were to listen to him.  A bright cloud enveloped them. They fell facedown to the ground, terrified.  But Jesus.  He came and touched them.  He knelt down, touched his friends and told the to not be afraid.  He touched them.  Mt 16:7

Jesus touched eyes and they were healed (Mt 20:34).  He actually put his fingers in someone's ears to heal them (Mk 7:33).  He even spit and touched a man's tongue ((Mk 7:33).   Something about touch made broken people whole, lonely people loved, and rejected people and even more ostracized.  Somehow people didn't it when hurting people were helped.

Out of Jesus' hands come life, healing, deliverance, acceptance and love.   Bold hands that were not afraid of anything.

Then I look at my hands.  Hands that have not always been holy.  It's interesting that the holiness of the heart is connected to the hands (Ps 24:4).

But then there's one other thing I remember about Jesus hands.  I am there. 

"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands" (Is 49:6).  

 Engraved..  On the palms.  The most painful part.  Permanent. Bloody.  And forever his.

Why the Imagery? The Prophets

Imagine you're trying to communicate with a group of people.  They're not dumb by any respect, in fact they're highly intelligent but opportunity has left them illiterate.  But the message you want to send need to be memorable as it is an important message.  The best way to do this is to use symbols.

Symbols and pictures communicate a lot and there's often an emotive value attached.   Tell a soldier what it is like when a flag raised on a mountaintop after intense fighting.  It is a symbol of hope and victory.  Show an athlete 5 interconnected circles of different colors and ask what it means to them--The Olympics!   

It is this same reason that the prophets used symbols.  They communicate more without words than they do with words.  Think of what a bald eagle communicates to an American?

Or perhaps this image?

Or this picture:

Those outside of American may or may not understand these symbols.  In fact some might think of them not as symbols but just a pretty bird,  a mean looking bull or just another kissing couple.  But for Americans their significance is much beyond this.  In the same way the prophets often used imagery that was meaningful to those who heard.    Horses were symbols of God's heavenly action.  Horns were a sign of power.  Oil was a sign of anointing and blessing.

So when we approach the prophets and at first we see bazaar images, we must take into account the imagery means.   We've got to cross the cultural gap and discover what these symbols meant 100 years ago.  Try my own prophetic word:

I saw a man with a swirled dash on his shoe.  In his arm he carried a box with flying windows of various colors.  In the other hand was an apple but it had a bite taken out of it.  He had to go fast as he might change his mind.  After awhile he saw a large wooden rectangle on a tall post.  On it was painted a triangle with growing lines.  Next to it was large yellow arches.  Suddenly a yellow light pierced the sky and in it was a black bird.  It was just the help he needed!  The light pointed to a building and man went there.  Inside was a box with a triangle of green arrows.  He sighed for a minute.  He saw a blue box with a "t" inside and another darker blue box with an "f" inside.  They both had a circle around them with a diagonal slash.   So he put them in the large box and went home.

A nice little test to see if you can figure out my "prophetic" word.  Symbols.  They matter.

(Answer to "prophetic word" coming soon.)

Justice and discouragement--Is 53:4

This verse has always just blown my mind.  I have written on it before but now I encounter it again. 

"In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged."

The context is the "Servant of the Lord."  Which we know to be Jesus.

To bring forth justice one must be in the place of injustice.  Injustice is a difficult place.  It means people are getting terribly wronged and authority is doing nothing.  People may even be dying while others look away.  It happens every single day on this earth.  Evil gets away with it, the suffering suffer more.  This is the place Jesus went to. 

"In faithfulness he will bring forth justice."

But what rocks my world is the second part.

"He will not be discouraged."

What?!  Often injustice is the breeding ground of discouragement.  And frustration.  And anger.  And cynacism.  HOW is Jesus not discouraged?  That is insane.

But Jesus sees through his Father's eyes.  The cross would be the point of justice for all mankind.  Some to eternal life.  Some to death and destruction. 

It still blows my mind.  And maybe if I look to the Father as Jesus did, discouragement would be banished for me as well.

The touch on the lips--Jer 1:9; Is 6:7

When the young boy was called by God to topple nations and confront the country's highest leaders, his response was, "Oh no Lord!  I don't know how to speak; I'm only a child." 

But the Lord told him to stop saying, "I don't know how to speak."  Then he reached out and touched his lips, filling his mouth with word of the Lord.  Jeremiah was thus empowered.

When another prophet saw the Lord, he recoiled in fear.  "Woe to me!  I am ruined!  I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."

He experienced his guilt.  A seraphim flew to the altar, grabbed a coal with tongs and touched it to the lip of Isaiah, atoning his guilt.  Isaiah was now able to receive.

One had fear to speak and the Lord filled him.
One had fear from sin and the Lord cleansed him.

Both by touching their lips.

Why lips?

Perhaps because "out of the mouth the heart speaks." 

Perhaps because what comes out of our mouth "has the power of life and death."

I'm not sure for sure.  But I can say, "Lord, touch MY lips for your purposes as well.  My what comes from my lips be the things on your heart."

He Remembers--Luke 1-2

"Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you; I have made you and I will carry you."  (Is 46:4)

Forgotten.  That's what more than one elderly person has felt and oftentimes when you visit a nursing home, it's a reality.  A sad reality.  But God doesn't forget.  An elderly person has often had YEARS of prayers stored up.  And God remembers.

God remembered the prayer of Zecheriah and Elizabeth.

God remembered his promise to Simeon.

God rememeber the faithfulness of Anna.

God has not forgotten even when a person's head is full of gray hair and their mind perhaps full of fuzz.  So we might want to hang around these folks because in their last days, God may just do things beyond what we could beleive unless we drew near.   Seriously.  How many people probably wrote off that 'Old Woman Anna' in the temple courts when she told everyone about the Messiah?  Would you have believed? 

The Abolition of Discouragement--Is 42

To think that Jesus did not get discouraged is something quite difficult to comprehend.  If there was anyone who had a right and the right circumstances to be discouraged, it was Jesus.  He was the target of their spit, the recipient of hurtful words, and a homeless wanderer with no place to call his own. When he preached hard truths the crowds left him in throngs, only a few remained. His family found him plain embarrassing.   If that were not enough, in the hour of his greatest need his closest friends would betray his heart—sleeping in one of his most painful hours, denying him three times when he was in most need of friendship and betraying him for money when he was about to give his entire life.  

His journey on earth can be summed up in the words of John—“though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (Jn 1:10).   Can there be more hurt than this?  Yet Jesus did not give way to discouragement.  We know this as the prophet Isaiah says that the Messiah would not “falter or be discouraged” (Is 42:1-4; KJV or NIV).

How can this be?  How can someone suffer so much heartache, so much pain physically, emotionally and spiritually and so much rejection yet not become discouraged?  Jesus could only keep from discouragement because he never lost sight of the eternal perspective.  “For the joy set before him he endured the cross” says the writer of Hebrews (Heb 12:2).  He knew that the best was yet to come—that there was more to this life than the present circumstances.  And for those who are the people of God this same hope and joy set before Jesus is the same joy and hope set before us as well.  For this reason we too can find encouragement in the most dire of circumstances.  This life isn't all there is.  Suffering, heartache and death do not have the last word--Jesus does.  And the joy he was able to see ahead was so extraordinary that the cross was worth enduring.   This kind of hope fills the soul with a buoyancy that nothing in this life can sink.  And that is very good news.