R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 24

What the Lord Needs

When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ”

So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

They said, “The Lord has need of it.”

They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting:

“BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:29-38)

What does Jesus need? One might believe that Jesus doesn’t need anything. But one day, a week before Passover, Jesus needed a colt and he had his disciples procure it.

Why would someone allow strangers to take a colt simply by saying that the Lord needed it? The word translated “Lord” is a word that in the first century was used by Jewish people to refer to God. So when the disciples asked to borrow the colt for “the Lord,” its owner would believe it was needed for a religious purpose.

Nevertheless, the story about the colt is presented as a miracle: Jesus knew beforehand what would happen. And ordinarily, people do not give property to strangers who ask for it. But Jesus is God and since God “owns the cattle on a thousand hills,” the animal was his regardless. The story once again reminds us that Jesus is more than just a man. And if Jesus wants something, he will get it. Jesus had the power to heal the sick, and he had the power to borrow something if he needed it, when he needed it.

God needs you. Don’t imagine that he won’t do with you what he needs to do with you. And since he loves you, it will be a good thing, for him, for you and for everyone else.

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Unsavory

Jesus told a story to some people who thought they were better than others and who looked down on everyone else:

Two men went into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood over by himself and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not greedy, dishonest, and unfaithful in marriage like other people. And I am really glad that I am not like that tax collector over there. I go without eating for two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all I earn.”

The tax collector stood off at a distance and did not think he was good enough even to look up toward heaven. He was so sorry for what he had done that he pounded his chest and prayed, “God, have pity on me! I am such a sinner.”

Then Jesus said, “When the two men went home, it was the tax collector and not the Pharisee who was pleasing to God. If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.” (Luke 18:9-14)

Judging people is easy. Loving them, not so much. Jesus explained that people tend to get their priorities all out of whack, and what they think is good turns out, too often, to actually be bad. The Pharisee believed himself to be good on the basis of his selective comparison with the people around him. His prayer to God consisted of a list of reasons why he was better than other people. Besides his tithing, he fasted twice a week, probably on the second and fifth days of the week. The second day, because tradition held that Moses had ascended Mt. Sinai on that day to receive the stone tablets. On the fifth day of the week, he had descended on the news of the golden calf.

The tax collector, on the other hand, simply recognized reality. He knew he was a sinner and realized that he couldn’t do anything to fix it. All he could count on was the mercy of God. The Pharisee needed God’s mercy just as much as the tax collector. The tax collector recognized his need. The Pharisee saw the need of the tax collector, too. But he didn’t see that he needed anything from God, except maybe a pat on the back for being so swell.

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Preening

When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 14:7-15)

Many people have insecurities. They forget that they have been created in the image of God and so they try to compensate for their feelings of inadequacy by preening and doing what they can to make themselves look better than anyone else.

Jesus did not directly attack the very human desire for honor. Rather, Jesus simply pointed out that if you really want to make yourself look better, the best strategy is humility. Humility leads to honor more surely than self-aggrandizement. Putting others first is the best way of putting yourself first.

Likewise, one’s motivation for inviting guests to dinner is not getting paid back by them. You should be doing good, not because of what you’ll get out of it, but because of what you can do for someone else.

Real love is not self-centered. Therefore, focusing on your own needs, putting yourself as the priority, is not showing yourself love at all. Loving yourself means that you love others first. If you really want what’s best for you, then you have to do what’s best for someone else without thinking about yourself at all. Only in looking to help others, can you help yourself, and receive the greatest rewards of all.

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Die With the Most Toys

A man in a crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of what our father left us when he died.”

Jesus answered, “Who gave me the right to settle arguments between you and your brother?”

Then he said to the crowd, “Don’t be greedy! Owning a lot of things won’t make your life safe.”

So Jesus told them this story:

A rich man’s farm produced a big crop, and he said to himself, “What can I do? I don’t have a place large enough to store everything.”

Later, he said, “Now I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I can store all my grain and other goods. Then I’ll say to myself, ‘You have stored up enough good things to last for years to come. Live it up! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.’ ”

But God said to him, “You fool! Tonight you will die. Then who will get what you have stored up?”

“This is what happens to people who store up everything for themselves, but are poor in the sight of God.” (Luke 12:13-21)

People think that what they can see and touch is what will keep them safe and well. They think that they are in control of their lives.

Our treasures on Earth are just as transitory as our physical existence. We’re reminded of that truth every time something breaks or we get sick. Sooner or later, everything around us crumbles. There is more to life than the stuff we manage to accumulate.

Becoming rich toward God comes with a shift in perspective and a reordering of priorities. For the rich man of Jesus’ parable, building more storage facilities to protect his burgeoning crops really was a good idea. In itself, there was nothing wrong with his plans. Grain left out in the rain would rot. But in his focus on barns, he’d lost sight of God. Moses had warned the ancient Israelites that when they finally came into the Promised Land and started reaping their crops and enjoying their prosperity, that they must not forget who had given it all to them. The rich man lost sight of what Moses had warned the Israelites to remember.

Jesus’ words were designed to remind his audience of what they should already have known from the Old Testament. Everything they had came from God. Since that was true, they should focus on God, not on what he had given them.

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Keeping it Simple

Jesus now called the Twelve and gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases. He commissioned them to preach the news of God’s kingdom and heal the sick. He said, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there until you leave. If you’re not welcomed, leave town. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and move on.”

Commissioned, they left. They traveled from town to town telling the latest news of God, the Message, and curing people everywhere they went.

Herod, the ruler, heard of these goings on and didn’t know what to think. There were people saying John had come back from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, still others that some prophet of long ago had shown up. Herod said, “But I killed John—took off his head. So who is this that I keep hearing about?” Curious, he looked for a chance to see him in action. (Luke 9:1-9)

We learn more by doing than by listening. Jesus understood this about human beings. So Jesus sent some of his disciples off on a mission trip so they could put his words into action.

When Jesus made his disciples go about the countryside, he gave them the authority—that is the ability—to do exactly what he had done. They could cure disease and they could cast out demons. Along with that, they proclaimed the good news that God’s kingdom had come.

Along with that activity, Jesus told them that while they were away, they needn’t worry about their expenses or where they were going to stay. God would provide for them; they were to go out with only the clothes on their backs, nothing more.

Faith comes from experience, not just from words on a page or from the mouth of a gifted speaker. We learn to rely on someone only with the passage of time and experience. So the disciples, with this experience of healing and teaching like Jesus, learned to depend on God in ways they never had before.

Life is how we learn to trust God: we hear what he says to do and then we do it. We begin to live as if his words are true. As it works out for us, as we do what he tells us, so our faith grows. Trust is earned.

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Questions

Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, because they assumed he was among the other travelers. But when he didn’t show up that evening, they started looking for him among their relatives and friends.

When they couldn’t find him, they went back to Jerusalem to search for him there. Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.”

“But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what he meant.

Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart.

Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. (Luke 2:41-52)

Being a parent to Jesus could not have been easy. Although he never misbehaved, he did behave in ways that were surprising and unexpected.

Religiously, boys became men during their bar-mitzvah, the coming of age ceremony during which a thirteen year old gave a set of rote questions and answers. When Jesus stayed behind at the temple, he was only twelve. So Jesus surprised the teachers in the temple with his questions and answers that went beyond those rote requirements.

His parents spent a frantic three days trying to locate him once they realized he wasn’t with them anymore. They blamed him for their fear. Jesus’ response was to ask them why they’d been looking for him at all, since they knew he had to be in his “father’s house.”

Jesus was reminding them that he was not just an ordinary child: he was the Messiah, sent to Earth for a specific purpose. So how could he ever be at risk? Mary and Joseph had no reason to ever worry, unlike normal parents.

Mary “stored these things in her heart.” That is, she thought about what Jesus had told her and tried to make sense of it all.

As Paul would later write, if God is for us, who can be against us?

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Waste Not

While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head.

But some were indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you bother her? She has done a good deed to Me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me. She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.” (Mark 14:3-9)

Who matters most? In the first century, people were not supposed to enter the house of a leper. Everyone stayed as far away from them as they possibly could. In fact, the Law of Moses ordered that lepers had to be excluded from society.

One day, Jesus had a meal with a man named Simon, who was a leper. Then a woman, unnamed, arrived and poured some very expensive perfume on Jesus’ head.

The criticism of her act was directed more against of Jesus than against the woman. Were the critics suggesting that the perfume was wasted because it was used on Jesus? What is perfume for, after all? Was Jesus unworthy? Certainly there were other things she could have done with the perfume, but so what?

Pouring oil or perfume on the heads of new kings—anointing them—was a common ritual. “Messiah” was a Hebrew word that meant “anointed one.” The equivalent Greek word was “Christ.” Jesus explained that this unnamed woman had anointed him for his burial. His soon-coming death was the reason he had been born. Her gift would be spoken of forever, because she was the one who had anointed him for his messianic role of saving the world from sin.

Kings were anointed in palaces by honored men, but Jesus was anointed by a woman in a leper’s house. Women were second class citizens. Lepers were excluded from society. But Jesus thought they were perfect for his anointing.

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Who’s the Boss?

They came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him. And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?”

But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.”

And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.”

And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Mark 11:27-33)

Who’s the boss? The religious leaders believed they were. But Jesus acted with obvious confidence. He never asked the religious leaders for their permission. He never sought their favor. That was part of their annoyance with him. He didn’t acknowledge who was boss. In fact, he acted as if he was the boss. So the chief priests, the scribes, the elders questioned Jesus’ right to do what he was doing.

When they asked him who had given him his authority, they weren’t really looking for an answer. They already knew that they had not granted Jesus permission to do what he was doing. With their question, they were simply telling Jesus to shut up and go away.

But the religious establishment had forgotten that they were not in charge of the temple. The temple belonged to God. They served in the temple because God had placed them there. They served God, and they served the people of Israel. They were merely servants, not the bosses they imagined themselves to be. But they couldn’t understand that, any more than they could understand who Jesus actually was: the God they claimed to be working for, whom they claimed to worship and love and care about. In that sense, Jesus was boss, not them.

So who’s the boss? Not even the right question. It had never been about being in charge. Even Jesus wasn’t about being in charge. He was all about being a servant.

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Exoplanet GJ 1132b

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.

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Leadership

James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, will you do us a favor?”

Jesus asked them what they wanted, and they answered, “When you come into your glory, please let one of us sit at your right side and the other at your left.”

Jesus told them, “You don’t really know what you’re asking! Are you able to drink from the cup that I must soon drink from or be baptized as I must be baptized?”

“Yes, we are!” James and John answered.

Then Jesus replied, “You certainly will drink from the cup from which I must drink. And you will be baptized just as I must! But it isn’t for me to say who will sit at my right side and at my left. That is for God to decide.”

When the ten other disciples heard this, they were angry with James and John. But Jesus called the disciples together and said:

You know that those foreigners who call themselves kings like to order their people around. And their great leaders have full power over the people they rule. But don’t act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. And if you want to be first, you must be everyone’s slave. The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people. (Mark 10:35-45)

The path to true leadership is not where most expect to find it. Jesus challenged his disciple’s notions about the order of things.

The people of Jesus’ day expected the Messiah to overthrow the Roman government and re-establish the Davidic monarchy, making Israel the center of a new empire. Thus, the disciples jockeyed for position in the future government and two of them, the brothers James and John, attempted to get the plum posts.

Jesus gave them a job interview, but then pointed out that he wasn’t the one to make the final decision on positions in the coming kingdom. When the other disciples found out what the brothers had done, they were furious. Jesus then used the situation to explain how much they had all misunderstood about the nature of what Jesus was doing on Earth.

His explanation that humility was the path to greatness, and that even Jesus had come to serve, rather than be boss, startled his disciples. The implications of Jesus’ words challenged their notions of how husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves, and governors and governed, related to one another.

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