What The Hungry Were Fed Up With

It was a time of sadness; of grieving. Jesus had just lost a cousin. His followers had just lost a friend. Israel had lost a prophet, and not just any prophet, but one who had come in the spirit and power of Elijah.

Herod had executed John the Baptist, the outspoken herald of Christ and critic to Herod's marriage to his brother Philip's wife, Herodias. He had done so at the request of his wife's daughter - possibly his niece - to whom he had made a rash promise after being aroused by her dancing for him and his cronies. Herodias had planted the suggestion with her daughter, and so John's head was served up on a platter to her, and she gave it to her mother.

It had not been that long before that John, from prison, sent some of his remaining followers to ask Jesus if He was the One who had been promised - maybe wondering if he had been wrong, or why Jesus hadn't miraculously released him from prison. He had received back the witnesses of Jesus' many supernatural acts of kindness to those in need. It was a hard answer. It didn't seem to mean that he was a captive who would be freed in the way one would hope.

When they heard of John's execution, Jesus and his friends retreated from their preaching tour by boat to a deserted place near Bethsaida, on the far shore of the Sea of Galilee; they had been so busy that they had not taken time to eat. They were tired and hungry. But the crowds to whom He spoke and ministered would not let them have their peace; their time of grieving. They followed. And, true to His nature, He healed many of their sick. Instead of returning home to prepare and celebrate the Passover, they came to Him again in the evening.

He saw them coming, and asked Philip the same question that the rest of his friends had been discussing among themselves: "Where are we going to buy food to feed all these people?" It was a test, you see; Jesus had already decided what He was going to do.

Philip answered as best he could: "Why, eight months' pay wouldn't buy enough food for each one to have just a taste!"

They must have discussed it among themselves before somebody said, "Lord, this is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

"Do you really want us to go into town and buy that much?" they asked, exasperated.

"What do you have available?" Jesus asked them. "Go look and ask."

Peter's brother Andrew thought he was up to the test. He brought someone to Jesus, just as he had brought his brother; just as he and Philip would bring two curious Greeks to Jesus; just as he doubtless would again - many, many times. This time, Andrew brought a little boy. "Here's a boy with five little barley loaves and a couple of small fish ... but how far will they go among so many people?"

"Bring them to me," Jesus said, "... and then have the people sit down in groups of about fifty."

They set to it, doing the census, estimating about five thousand men plus women and children sitting in the grass.

Jesus took the loaves and fish they brought Him, looked up into heaven, and thanked God for them, and broke them in pieces to hand to his friends for them to distribute.

He kept breaking, and handing. And in the breaking and handing and distributing, something extraordinary happened. Everyone ate. They ate their fill. They had leftovers ... twelve baskets full of them.

Then something ordinary happened. The people who had witnessed the impossible and eaten the result began to talk about it. Maybe some remembered God's promise to have them lie down like sheep and feed them in Ezekiel 34:13-15 (just as King David's Psalm had said); and that His Shepherd would be bowed down to by kings, in scriptures like Isaiah 49:7-9.

They were fed up with their king Herod. He was an adulterer and a murderer and a puppet of their captors, the Romans. So they recognized Jesus for who He is, and began to say among themselves, "This must be the Prophet who is to come into the world."

Jesus knew the ordinary role they had in mind for him, and would try to force Him to accept: to be another in a line of earthly kings, feeding them when they were hungry and healing them when they were sick and looking after all their earthly needs. He would have none of it. (Though it wouldn't keep Him from feeding another four thousand some time later; four thousand who had followed Him for three days.) In the pleasant stupor of the huge meal and the buzz of gossip and scripture and fulfillment and treason, he slipped away up the mountain.

What they wanted would have to wait until another Passover.

It wasn't the first time - and wouldn't be the last time - he would slip away from those who wanted to use force against His purpose.

Because His ways are above our ways, and His thoughts above our thoughts.

And sometimes, when we want what we want right now, that's really hard to swallow.

- from the accounts in Matthew 14:13-20, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-15

Jesus Was Single

I'm headed to Nashville this weekend to speak at a retreat for single adults. The main theme is Fear -- something I've been struggling with over at my own blog. But one of the sessions is going to be devoted to being afraid of singleness. First of all, I am aware that it may be strange for a married man to talk about this topic. I promise I will try to be as sensitive and gentle as I can be. I will do my best not to sound patronizing or superior.

As I thought about this topic, a bizarre thing occurred to me: Jesus was single. I think and write and talk about Jesus for a living. But I've never given much thought to him as a single man. Yet I tell people all the time that he's the model -- go to him to learn the art of living.

I had never thought that Jesus -- in a very special way -- understands what single people experience. Many people think of Jesus as an invulnerable superhero who just pretended to walk around in a human body. But the Bible is very clear: Jesus was a real person who can sympathize with our weaknesses because he was tempted just like we are.

We readily acknowledge that Jesus struggled with physical exhaustion, hunger and feelings of abandonment. Is it too much of a stretch to imagine that he struggled with his sexuality? With sexual boundaries or lust?

If he was really human, he surely knew the struggle of sexual temptation -- perhaps even sexual dissatisfaction. And yet he was flawless in thought and word and deed.

Jesus knows all about the single life. He watched married couples and knew he would never have what they had. He went to weddings as a single man in his 30s. I wonder if people asked his mother, "Why isn't he married? What's wrong with him? Does he think he's God's gift to women?"

He was! And yet he created a safe community for close friendships with both men and women -- married and single -- that was unprecedented in his day. Being single for him did not mean being alone. Neither did it mean that there was something wrong with him.

Can someone tell me why we still think of sexual intercourse as a basic human need? Apparently, Jesus didn't think so. And, then, can someone explain to me why we still tend to think of and treat single people as something "less-than" normal? All too often, people in the church have made single people afraid of being single.

We who would be Jesus in our world must build communities that value people regardless of marital status -- communities where there is no stigma attached to being single -- no idea that marriage is normal and singleness is abnormal. Perhaps then we will know and experience what Jesus would do next.

People vs Policy

As we talked about the adulterous woman in John 8 this weekend, we came to the conclusion that this was basically a love story. The love a father has for his daughter. I wonder how many of those men would have been willing to pick up a rock if it had been their daughter that was being drug out and exposed? We know she did have one father there......and he was going to do everything within his power to save her. It was just like you and I would have done for our precious daughter, and I'm guessing any of those men would have done also, if she had been their daughter. The legalist did have the law on their side that day. But they had forgotten one very important thing...........there is a HIGHER law! It's the HIGHEST law there is, and it trumps all others. It's the law of LOVE, and it was there with flesh on it that day. You see, Jesus always picks people over policy. He did it numerous times in his ministry. Remember the guy with the shriveled hand in Mark 3? It's just consistent with who HE is! Love over any other law, people over policy. It drove the legalist mad, to the point in the Mark 3 account that they were looking for ways to kill him. Why? Because he blew up their security net. They had everything figured out, and everything lined up for a "go straight to heaven" card. They were all about themselves. Grace with flesh on it rocked their world, and they were not going to give that security up! They knew about Hezekiah in II Chronicles 30, but out of sight out of mind. Those people in II Chronicles were NOT ceremonial clean according to the Law, but Hezekiah petitioned God on their behalf, and God allowed them to participate in the Passover feast. People over Policy......Love over Law. God ALWAYS chooses us! Jesus ALWAYS chooses us! Any law withstanding.

Should I make application? Are there people picking up rocks in 2005? You know there are....it's just not about adulterous women or men. I'll let you pick it up from there and you can make application in your corner of the world.

I'm just glad he picks me when somebody else wants to throw the book at me. THE book!
In response to that unconditional love, my heart is captured. Just like I am sure her's was.

How about you? :)

What The Rich Man Lacked

Mark says he was a man. Matthew says he was young. Luke adds that he was a ruler.

They all agree that he was rich.

Mark adds a few interesting details that the others omit, though, as they tell the story. Anxious to get into the story, Matthew and Luke omit the fact that he ran up to Jesus and fell on his knees before Him. As if something was urgent. As if only Jesus could answer him about how to get the one thing he wanted most. As if he were begging, perhaps even worshipping, the One whom he intends to ask:

"Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"Why do you call Me good? Why do you ask Me about good?" Jesus answered. "Only God is good. - You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother ..."

And of the Top Ten of the 613 precepts and commandments they would have both memorized for their bar mitzvahs, Jesus named only five of the six dealing with interpersonal relationships, and none of the first four about relating to God. Giving the young man the benefit of the doubt, perhaps, concerning those first ones - as if they go without saying - He omitted Number Ten and made it conspicuous by its absence: "Don't covet."

"All of these I have kept since I was a boy," the man responded.

Then Mark gives us a detail no one else chooses to: that Jesus - looking at him - loved him.

We don't know who the man was. No one gives his name. Each of the Synoptic writers is stingy with details. And of all the people Jesus encountered, only this man is described as someone Jesus loved on sight. Wouldn't you like to have that fact associated with your name, recorded in scripture and preserved for all time? That Jesus looked at you and loved you?

It makes me wonder if the young man was John Mark himself. As with his unique account of the young man who abandoned Jesus upon His arrest, leaving behind a (doubtless expensive) linen garment someone had grabbed, Mark does not name the "man" who ran up to Jesus and fell on his knees whom He loved at first sight. Some scholars have wondered if the naked coward was Mark. His mother was wealthy enough to have a house that would hold "many people" praying for the release of Peter and John. Was it his wealth that kept drawing John Mark back home when he later became a missionary? Was he too embarrassed to identify himself as the young man Jesus loved?

Who could have more distinctly seen the look of love meant for him than the one kneeling down and gazing desperately up into the eyes of Jesus?

Whether the rich young ruler was John Mark or not, Jesus certainly did love him. And if he had followed all 613 precepts and commandments, he would have been generous in his giving and his hospitality, as the second tablets of stone required. Jesus doesn't dispute his claim to have obeyed them all. But it was not enough. So Jesus told him:

"One thing you lack. Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. You'll be perfect. Then come follow me."

Now we discover why this poor fellow isn't named. It would have been cruel to do so. Because his face fell, and he got up, and he went away sadly ... because he was very wealthy, and had a lot of stuff.

It's not something that Jesus tells everyone to do. Not quite. Although He does teach "Sell what you have and give to the poor," He doesn't include the word "all" or "everything." It seems to be more like advice, to open one's self to the joy of sacrificial giving.

But to the rich young ruler, He says "all" or "everything." Why? Was it because if he tried to follow but kept all his stuff, he would always be looking back from the plow? Because he would not be able to understand Jesus' call to perfection through sacrifice of self? And that treasure in heaven is never susceptible to moths or rust or theft? That perfection and salvation and eternal life are never about what you do or have, but about the gift you receive?

Whatever the reason, he turned his back on the One who loved him. What a heartbreaking moment that must have been for Jesus - to see the young man turn and go! Possibly He couldn't bear to watch. He turned to His followers and said: "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven! Children, how hard it is!" Was He fighting back tears? It almost seems like he tried to lift His own spirit with a weak joke: "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God!"

Perhaps it wasn't a joke, though. His followers didn't think it was funny. They believed in the cheap grace gospel; that God blesses those who obey with wealth and power - why, that rich young man would have been a prime proof for them! They were amazed and blurted out to each other, "Well, who then can be saved?"

They had no concept what they were to be saved from. Jesus did. "With men this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God."

Peter stepped up to the challenge, to reassure himself and the others of their salvation: "But we've left everything to follow You!" (They had: even their families; Peter perhaps left his wife and her mother behind when they traveled.)

Now Jesus was reassuring, but with a note of warning as well: "You can depend on this: No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for Me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields - and with them persecutions) and in the age to come, unending life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first."

Then, following up on the gloomy mood which had taken Him again, He predicted His death and His resurrection and His plan ... His plan to give up everything He had, including His life, so that others could live forever with God.

I left out something. Did you catch what it was?

Jesus told the rich young ruler - the man who had everything - that there was one thing he lacked.

He never told him what it was.

What do you think the rich man lacked?

What was the one thing he wanted most?

And what was keeping him from it?

- from the accounts in Mark, Matthew and Luke

What The Unwanted Man Wanted

We don't know which feast it was when Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate, and saw a crowd of disabled people huddled around the pool near the Sheep Gate.

We can't be sure if the pool was named Bethesda, Bethzatha, Bethsaida or Beth Moore.

We don't know if an angel really came down and stirred the waters to heal the first one in the pool; if this was the genuine explanation or a later manuscript copyist's question; or if the pool just occasionally provided relief from suffering through a natural Jacuzzi jet to the poor folks gathered there.

We don't know who told Him that one particular invalid had been that way for thirty-eight years, or what percentage of his life those thirty-eight years represented.

We don't know why this one touched Jesus' heart and stirred his compassion above all the other blind and lame and paralyzed denizens of the five colonnades. Perhaps they had friends or relatives to help them nearby.

But we know the most important thing: We know what he wanted.

Jesus asked him: "Do you want to get well?"

The fellow must have looked up, whether Jesus stood or crouched down. He didn't answer directly, but the answer was implicit: "Sir, I don't have anyone to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down into it ahead of me."

Then Jesus by-passed the request. He could have helped the fellow in and then stirred the water Himself. He could have baptized him in the pool. He could have forgiven the man's sins. He could presumably have healed and forgiven everyone around. Instead, He gave a command: "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!"

Now there's an odd moment. The invalid fellow could have looked at Him bewildered; could have protested that it was impossible; could have laughed in His face. But he didn't. He perceived something - perhaps that he had been instantly cured; perhaps the look of deep, genuine, heart-wrenching love in Jesus' eyes - and he took Him at His word. He picked up his mat and walked.

He had a new life. Perhaps he had begged in his old one, playing on the sympathy of others for his plight. Maybe he had worn out that appeal, and had no friends to help him into the pool. Or he might have just outlived them all. Now things would be different. He might have to find a job. He might have been able to go back to his old one, before the incident that left him an invalid. One thing was sure: life would never be the same. He could walk. Someone told him to pick up his mat and walk, and he did.

It was the wrong day for them to do that. There was a law, God's law, that had been parsed by scribes and commentators every which way from Saturday that you couldn't do work on that day. You couldn't heal someone that day. You couldn't be healed and pick up your mat and walk on that day. In fact, there were only so many yards you were allowed to walk on that day, and only so much you could carry. Walking farther or carrying more was against the law. It was wrong. It was a day of rest, not work.

So some of the standers-by told the newly-walking fellow how wrong he was to be walking. Taking a cue from his ancestor Adam, he immediately put the blame on someone else: "But the guy who made me well told me to!"

"Who?" they pressed. "Who told you to pick up your mat and walk?"

Because it was much more wrong, of course, to teach and instruct someone to do something wrong.

The poor fellow must have looked around, but in vain; Jesus had already slipped away into the crowd.

Not for long. Later on, Jesus came looking for him and found him at the temple and told him to do right: "Look at you! You're well again." (He said "again," so we can be pretty sure that the fellow hadn't always been an invalid.) "Stop sinning, or something worse will happen to you." Jesus apparently didn't say what that was; perhaps because He didn't want to hang around. He must have known that what He had done for this one poor soul would be considered wrong because of the day on which it was done.

We don't know whether or why the poor soul discovered Jesus' name, or why he felt obligated to point Him out or tell the ones who had pressed him earlier.

All we know is that Jesus did a strange thing on a strange day for one particular person whom He didn't apparently stop to teach, and that He seemed to have risked His own safety to do so; even to the point of returning and finding him later.

That, and the fact that someone - a fellow that no one else wanted to help - wanted to be well, and believed the One who told him that he was.

- from the account in John 5:1-16

You Did What?

"You did what?"

"It's just as I said," the woman said firmly, "I walked right into Simon's house to..."

"Simon the Pharisee?" The women had so many questions that they would hardly let her tell the story.

"Simon Shmimon, who cares whose house it was? Jesus was in there. I had heard that he was coming to town and I was not going to miss a chance, maybe my last chance to see him."

"What are you talking about - last chance?"

"Haven't you heard anything he's said?" She sounded desperate and frustrated, "He's a king. He's The King. He's the one we hear is to come. He is here! He will be killed by the hands of men and raised again."

"I know he's a prophet. See how he works wonders. He is like Elijah. I see no fear in him. Yet, he is not the Messiah. And I'm not sure where you get all of these ideas about being raised. You listen too much to the Pharisees."

"How can you say such things? OK, anyway, I walked into Simon's house with my jar of perfume and..."

"You mean, THE jar of perfume?"

"Yes, THE JAR, can I finish? They all had just reclined at the table when I arrived. I entered in and felt overwhelmed with joy and guilt, fear and hope - I melted onto the floor."

"What did Simon say?"

The woman smiled, "You should have seen the look on his face. Ha, what would people say if they saw me, ME of all people, walking into or out of his house? 'Oh Simon, yous got some splainin' to do.'"

All of the women laughed.

"But I didn't care what anyone thought of me now or in my past. All I cared about was finding a way to show Jesus I really believed him. I wept at his feet. Girlfriends, I wept on his feet."

"He let your tears touch him?'

"I know, I didn't mean to do that, so I wanted to wipe them off. So, I wiped them off - with my hair."

"You did what?"

"I am not kidding. I can't believe it even now. I heard Simon mumbling something about 'what kind of woman this was,' and then, I guess it out of some kind of rebellion, you know, I wanted to show him a thing or two, I started kissing Jesus' feet."

"You did what?"

"I couldn't help myself. I kissed them gently and soft, and I kept crying. Then, after a couple minutes of kissing his feet, I took about my perfume and emptied every last bit of it on his feet."

"You did what?"

"Ladies, it's gone. Jesus got every last bit of my perfume. I rubbed it all over his feet and up his leg some. The entire house smelled like my perfume. Hey, I just now thought of this: How is Simon going to explain that one? Ha!"

What happened next?"

"Well, Jesus started telling a story like he does. I didn't pay attention. It wasn't for me. I just kept rubbing his feet. After a couple minutes, he leaned toward me and looked me right in the eye and said, 'Your sins are forgiven.' I looked back at him and just cried. I hugged him and kissed him and left Simon's house. This is the first place I stopped because I just had to tell someone that I had been with Jesus.