“But they did not believe the women …”

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Reflections – Nerang Pool, Commonwealth Park Canberra

Gospel according to Luke 24: 1-12 (NIV)

¹ On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵ In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” ⁸ Then they remembered his words.
⁹ When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹² Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

The disciples of Jesus did not believe the words of the women “because their words seemed to them (that is, to the men) like nonsense” (verse 11). They did not believe despite having been told by Jesus many times that, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Luke 9: 22). Jesus foretold of his death and resurrection again in Luke 18: 32-33 (and to Peter, James and John in Matthew 17: 9).

So why were the Eleven and the others so reluctant to believe the words of the women? Was it because in that culture and in those days the words of women were regarded as unreliable? Was it because they were convinced that Jesus had died on the cross and they continued to regard death as a finality? Was it because they were locked into a world-view shaped by their own experience or culture and that world view did not allow for resurrection from death?

What world views today prevent the majority of people in Western countries from accepting as truth the gospels’ accounts of that first Easter day? Do we attribute this refusal to believe to scientific rationalism, to the inability to put trust in something or someone beyond our lived experience? Are we to attribute it to the focus on the individual and the elevation of the self? As God asked of Job: “Would you condemn me to justify yourself?” (Job 40: 8b).

Is the reason deeper and darker: to accept that Jesus died and rose again requires that there be a reason of cosmic proportions for his execution. That reason points to human sinfulness and human helplessness to redeem ourselves from our desperately depraved state. Despite the crises in the world around us, are we all in denial about our own roles in delivering cruelty, calamity and chaos, generation after generation?

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!

Repent or perish!

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Eastern bearded dragon

Gospel according to Luke 13: 1-9 (NIV)

¹ Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig-tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig-tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig round it and fertilise it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Jesus had just been teaching “the crowd”, “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12: 57). Were those who then reported to him the fate of the Galileans (verse 1) judging that these persecuted Galileans had been worse sinners than others from Galilee? Regardless of their motives, Jesus used their news as an opportunity to exhort and to teach.

He exhorted, “repent, or perish”. He taught that just because shocking atrocities are inflicted upon people in this life, others should not assume that their treatment either was deserved or was a fitting punishment. He emphasised this point by then using the example of eighteen who had died when a tower fell on them. Were these more guilty than others, Jesus asked rhetorically. “No!” he told them, however it should be a warning to those still living that death can come quickly and unexpectedly. Use the time available now to repent – or perish.

The friends who visited the devastated Job come to mind. Their world view was that, because so many dreadful things had happened to Job in such a short period of time, it must be that he was being punished by God. God’s punishment was evidence that Job had sinned mightily!

As if to contradict this mindset, Jesus then told a parable (verses 6-8). At first glance it may seem to bear no relevance to his message to repent or perish. But the parable reveals to us that not only is there a advocate for the fig-tree, one who speaks in its defence, but that the advocate is able to convince the owner to be gracious, to withhold his immediate judgement and sentence, and to allow the fig-tree one more season to change its ways and to bear fruit.

The Galileans who suffered at the behest of Pilate may have had insufficient time to consider whether they should repent and turn back to God. Those killed when the tower in Siloam fell would not have been expecting imminent death. There was no time for them to repent. The fig-tree is an example to us of God’s grace in affording us opportunity to repent before it is too late to do so. Let us not ignore this opportunity nor fail to make full use of it.

Not hidden from God

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“Children” made it safely to the lake (see 25 September 2021)

Job 3: 23 (NIV)

²³ Why is life given to a man
    whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?

From his place of loss and agony, Job felt hedged in, imprisoned; he had no place to go, nowhere to move to, no way to escape.

It is no coincidence that Job used the expression, “whom God has hedged in”. This word “hedge” has been used already by the adversary, Satan. In Job 1: 10, Satan said to God: “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?”

God allowed this “hedge” to be removed from around Job’s livestock and children but initially the “hedge” around Job remained. God said to Satan, “but on the man himself do not lay a finger” (1: 12).

When Satan again taunted God, God would not allow the “hedge” to be removed completely. God stipulated, “you must spare his life” (2: 6).

To Job, a “hedge” boxed him in. But from the heavenly council’s viewpoint, God’s “hedge” was there to protect Job – to the extent that God knew Job needed to be protected.

In 3: 23 Job exclaimed, “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden?” In what respect did Job regard his way as “hidden”? His way was “hidden” from himself. He could see no future. All he had worked for was gone. His body had decayed. What was left for him?

We know what Job was not able to know. We have been allowed to see what went on in the heavenly council. We know how highly God regarded Job. God knew that “there is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (1: 8; 2: 3). God knew Job’s character and he knew Job’s future. He knew that,  regardless of Job’s testing, he would retain his integrity.

Job thought his way was “hidden”. Nothing, however, was “hidden” from God. God knew Job’s way – in the past, in the present and into the future.

John the evangelist wrote:

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, he has made him known (1: 18).

Job had not seen God and neither have we. But we live in a different epoch from Job and his friends. To us has been given some insight into the mysteries of God. To Job, so much about God remained a mystery.

Job did not have the revelation which is available to us, through the witness of the apostles, that Jesus has made God known.

From Job 3: 23 we have two truths:

• the “hedge” that Job thought hedged him in was in fact God’s hedge of protection around him, and
• the way that Job thought was “hidden”, though hidden from him, was fully known to God.

Shall we apply these two truths to ourselves?

• What is the hedge that God is using to protect you?
• Can any part of your way possibly be hidden from the One who made you and who knows you better than you know yourself?

So much about God that remained unknown to Job has been revealed to us through the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. “The one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, he has made him known.”

Thanks be to God.

Shamelessly audacious prayer

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Pelicans at Narooma, New South Wales

Gospel according to Luke 11: 1-10 (NIV)

¹ One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
² He said to them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
³ Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴ Forgive us our sins,
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.” ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
⁹ “So I say to you: ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Some NIV translations in verse 8 use either “boldness” or “persistence” where “shameless audacity” appears, presumably used here to add emphasis to the extent of the “boldness” which Jesus commended to his disciples. What does “shameless audacity” mean to you? Can you imagine a request to God which you and other Christian people would regard as “shamelessly audacious”?

Would the request of the Gentile Centurion, a commander in the loathed Roman force of occupation referred to by Luke in 7:3, that Jesus “come and heal his servant” have been “shamelessly audacious”? In Acts 10 Luke described the request (admittedly not to God) from Cornelius, another Gentile Centurion but this time in Caesarea, that the leader of the Apostles, Simon Peter, should walk a two-day journey and enter this Roman’s house. Is this another “shamelessly audacious” request?

How bold are you in your prayers “to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit”? How much do you persevere with supplications and petitions and intercessions which, it might seem, God has been ignoring?

Few if any are able to see into the mind of God. We do not know the divine purpose associated with a prayer that seems to go unheard or unanswered. We find some pointers in Scripture; in relation to God’s overarching purposes, the book of Job can be a source of comfort. In Luke 11, Jesus has urged that we continue to ask, we continue to seek, we continue to knock at God’s door. We have to show a patience that is perhaps uncommon for the ordinary human mind. Human minds tend to regard time in terms of the span of a human life rather than from the eternal perspective of God.

Perseverance in prayer, rejecting the temptation to voice frustration or impatience or simply to give up, is what Jesus calls for. God answers sincere prayer in his good time which may be very different from any timetable we set.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18)

“My thoughts are not your thoughts”

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 Spring blossom (ornamental peach tree)

Job 38: 1-7 (NIV)

¹ Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
³ Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
⁶ On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone –
⁷ while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels shouted for joy?”

The Book of Job was included in the Hebrew Scriptures, along with other wisdom literature, among “the Writings”. Much of Job, with the exception of a prologue and an epilogue, appears as poetry. It may be appropriate therefore to accept as poetic descriptive passages like this one, the first in which the LORD speaks since chapter 2.

Elihu, the last of Job’s interlocutors to address him, richly described the coming of the storm (from 36: 27 and through chapter 37). Then (37: 22) Elihu anticipated the appearance of God to Job with, “Out of the north comes golden splendour; around God is awesome majesty.”

God’s apparent interrogation of Job uses rhetorical questions through chapters 38 and 39. Job had wanted an opportunity to question the Almighty and to learn what had caused God to inflict such suffering on Job. God’s response effectively revealed to Job the inability of human intellect to comprehend the mind of God or to appreciate God’s wisdom.

We are reminded of the book of the prophet Isaiah (55: 8-11)

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    it will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Much happens in our lives and much is reported to us from across the world that seems unfathomable. It can be so difficult to see goodness in the strife and human suffering which we can feel is about to overwhelm us. We look for cause and effect; we find justice absenting herself from the affairs of humankind.

Faith in the Living God requires that we accept God’s plan as being outworked regardless of the evidence around us to the contrary. We can relate to the despair of Jesus’ disciples on that grim Friday night and through that silent Saturday before his glorious Sunday resurrection – and we live in hope.