R.P. Nettelhorst's Blog, page 94

Ambassador

Jesus taught in all the neighboring villages. Then he called together his twelve apostles and sent them out two by two with power over evil spirits. He told them, “You may take along a walking stick. But don’t carry food or a traveling bag or any money. It’s all right to wear sandals, but don’t take along a change of clothes. When you are welcomed into a home, stay there until you leave that town. If any place won’t welcome you or listen to your message, leave and shake the dust from your feet as a warning to them.”

The apostles left and started telling everyone to turn to God. They forced out many demons and healed a lot of sick people by putting olive oil on them.

Jesus became so well-known that Herod the ruler heard about him. Some people thought he was John the Baptist, who had come back to life with the power to work miracles. Others thought he was Elijah or some other prophet who had lived long ago. But when Herod heard about Jesus, he said, “This must be John! I had his head cut off, and now he has come back to life.” (Mark 6:6–16)

We can have anything we want, when what we want is God’s will. Jesus spent most of his time preaching and teaching in the region around the Sea of Galilee, in northern Israel. He sent his apostles out to increase the impact of his teaching. An apostle—or ambassador—does not speak for himself. The ambassador of a nation, for instance, is a stand-in for the government who sent him. He has the same authority as the government. Thus, Jesus’ twelve apostles had the same power over disease and over the evil spirits that Jesus himself did. When they spoke, they were speaking “in Jesus name,” not by invoking the phrase as if it were an incantation, but simply as an ambassador does by nature of being an ambassador. When Jesus’ ambassadors shook the dust from their feet, it was not a judgment, but rather a warning of possible judgment to come, if no repentance was forthcoming.

Just as an ambassador is not about his will, so we are not about our will, but the will of Jesus who has called us by his name. When we act as his ambassadors, we have the same authority, the same power, as Jesus himself—because we are concerned with his will rather than our own and can say “not my will, but your will be done.”

Sword Free Zone

While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him, but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”

When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.

But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders, who had come for him, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs? Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on me. But this is your hour—when darkness reigns.” (Luke 22:47-53)

The Kingdom of Heaven is not like the Roman Empire. Or David’s kingdom. Or Solomon’s kingdom. When Jesus taught what the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, was like, he never compared it to the Roman Empire or any other earthly government.

But his disciples, the crowds that followed him, and the religious establishment only thought in terms of earthly politics. They expected the Messiah to restore the Davidic monarchy, to overthrow the Roman hegemony, and to make Israel the most powerful kingdom on Earth. When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, his followers assumed that the war of liberation had begun. Instead, Jesus ordered surrender. The one act of bloodshed, Jesus corrected. He healed the victim of his disciple’s sword.

Then he asked those who had come to arrest him if they really thought he was leading a rebellion. Of course they did. But he was telling them by the question and the words that followed, that they were mistaken.

Jesus was not about politics or government. The Talmud, an ancient Jewish commentary on the first five books of the Bible, states that saving a single soul saves a universe. Jesus was all about just that. He was about the Kingdom of Heaven, not the kingdom of man. And where was the Kingdom of Heaven being established? In the human heart. Change the heart, Jesus knew, and you changed the individual. And changed individuals can change the world more profoundly than any political restructuring or conquering army ever has.

Who’s Your Daddy?

Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Then Jesus said to them, “How is it that they say the Christ is the Son of David? David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:

“‘The Lord said to my Lord:

“Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies

a footstool for your feet.” ’

“David calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?”

While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” (Luke 20:39-47)

People don’t like inconvenient questions. That didn’t stop Jesus from asking them. Jesus loved to ask questions that made the people around him uncomfortable. Why? Because the hard questions forced them look in places that they’d rather not look, to think about what they’d rather not think about, and to see what they thought they believed in wholly new ways.

So Jesus presented an uncomfortable bit of the book of Psalms that the religious establishment mostly tried to ignore. Jesus pointed out that David, the great king of Israel, referred to the Messiah as his Lord. If the Messiah was David’s son, how could he call him that, Jesus wanted to know? In normal royal father-son relationships, the son might call his father lord, but never, ever the other way around. What could the Psalmist be thinking? What was going on? Jesus wanted the teachers of the law to puzzle over the problem, to face its implications.

Jesus was attempting to tweak the leaders’ understanding of authority and relationships. They were all about being high and mighty. They wanted to be coddled and looked up to. Suddenly Jesus was casting their justification for that in doubt. Being the boss is not what mattered. Such attitudes were not how relationships worked in Heaven and it shouldn’t be how they worked on Earth, either.

If you want to be transformed, then when you face a hard or inconvenient question in the Bible, don’t shy away from it. Embrace it.

Light of the World

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. (John 3:17-24)

It’s easier to believe that God loves sinners than to believe that God loves liars. But the popular belief, expressed by the Pharisees and the rest of the religious establishment, was that God hated sinners, regardless, and was bent on their destruction. They believed that when the Messiah came, among other things he would destroy the sinners and see to it that they were all appropriately judged.

Instead, Jesus explained to Nicodemus, the representative of the religious establishment that had come to meet with him, that God’s plan for the human race—for sinners—was radically different than what they all imagined. Yes, sinners would be destroyed, not by killing them, but rather by killing their sin. Belief in the Messiah would bring righteousness, while condemnation was merely the natural state of people before they believed. Jesus used the imagery of light and dark to differentiate between those two states of humanity. It was imagery that came from the Old Testament, as for instance with the creation story, when God said “let there be light”—and he saw that it was good. Jesus knew that such imagery would make sense to such a “teacher of Israel” as Nicodemus.

Jesus was the light of the world and he brought light to everyone who listened and believed his message. Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night, but Jesus vanquished the darkness from his heart.

Set Free

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” (John 4:16-26)

Jesus had a way of disturbing people. He regularly stepped beyond the bounds of social norms. A good Jewish man, married or not, did not commonly spend time alone with an unrelated woman. And the Jewish people were so loathe to be with Samaritans that they would walk extra miles just to avoid them altogether. For him to be alone at a well with a Samaritan woman was positively weird, and she realized that.

Then Jesus invaded her privacy. He commented on details about her life that a stranger, especially a stranger who was Jewish, shouldn’t have even known, let alone brought up. Realizing that he must be some kind of prophet, she asked him a question about one of the many things that divided the Samaritans and the Jewish people: where should they worship?

Jesus’ answer to her question focused on a more important issue: who could worship and what worship was. Despite what she and the Jewish establishment believed about Samaritans being excluded from God, they weren’t. God was accessible to anyone who truly believed.

Her recognition that the Messiah would someday make everything clear prompted Jesus to reveal himself to her. Jesus’ message of the kingdom was for all human beings, everywhere, even those that everyone else thought didn’t matter. Jesus loves the people you hate.

Leadership

A dispute also arose among [the disciples] as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. But [Jesus] said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.

“You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:24-30)

The needs of others outweigh the needs of yourself. Not because you’re unworthy, but because you’re the most important. You can care for others, not because you despise yourself but because you love them and think they’re great, too.

Jesus asked his disciples who was more important, the one sitting and eating, or the one serving the food: that is, was the most important person the servant or his master? The obvious answer was the master. But rather than acting important, rather than sitting at the table, Jesus instead chose the role of a servant. So who was the greatest, then? Jesus, the servant.

According to Jesus, serving one another was a matter of choice, rather than force. He thought his disciples should choose to serve each another just as Jesus chose to serve them. And just as no one was to think of himself as the master, so no one could make someone else serve.

Nevertheless, his disciples would be among those sitting and eating at Jesus’ table. They would have the same role as Jesus in the kingdom: they would even judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Jesus was still sitting at his table, he was the great one, he was still the master, regardless of what he was doing or whom he was serving. Serving another person does not lower you or change who you are. It does not change your actual status; it elevates the status of others. It means, simply, that you love others. Whom you choose to love elevates them.

NK-15

The Soviet Union lost the space race, but not because they didn’t try. They developed a monster of a rocket, the N-1. Unfortunately, it was so complicated they could never get it to quite work. The engine made for their moon rocket was called the NK-15. The N-1 launcher originally used thirty NK-15 engines for its first stage. After four consecutive launch failures and no successes, the project was cancelled. While other aspects of the vehicle were being modified or redesigned, the Russian company made modifications to the design of the NK-15. The new engines were called the NK-33 and NK-43. The intent was that the new engines would power a second generation moon rocket to be called the N-1F. But since the Moon race had been lost, and the Soviet space program cancelled the project and no N-1F ever reached the launch pad.

When the N-1 moon program was shut down, all the hardware built for the project was ordered destroyed. Instead, a bureaucrat took the engines–worth millions of dollars each–and hid them in a warehouse. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, word of the engines leaked to the United States. About 150 engines survived. Thirty years after they had been built, Russia finally sold thirty-six of them to the American company Aerojet General for $1.1 million each. Aerojet then modified and renamed the NK-33 and NK-43 to the AJ26-58 and the AJ26-59, respectively.

Later, the U.S. company Orbital Sciences Corporation decided to use two modified NK-33s in the first stage of their Antares light-to-medium-lift launcher. Orbital has a contract with NASA to launch the Antares, bearing the Cygnus cargo ship, to the International Space Station. The first Antares rocket was launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on April 21, 2013. It was the first time that NK-33s had been used since the early 1970s. A month later, they lofted the first cargo ship to the International Space Station on September 18, 2013. Aerojet has agreed to recondition sufficient NK-33s to serve Orbital’s eight flight NASA Commercial Resupply Services contract. Beyond that, it has a stockpile of only twenty-three of the modified NK-33s. The Russian company that built the NK-33s stopped building them decades ago, which brings into question the long term viability of Antares–unless they start manufacturing them again.

A descendant of the NK-33 is the RD-180 which is today being manufactured in Russia and is the engine used in the American Atlas V.

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

We Don’t Have All the Answers

Some of the people who lived in Jerusalem started to ask each other, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? But here he is, speaking in public, and they say nothing to him. Could our leaders possibly believe that he is the Messiah? But how could he be? For we know where this man comes from. When the Messiah comes, he will simply appear; no one will know where he comes from.”

While Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he called out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I come from. But I’m not here on my own. The one who sent me is true, and you don’t know him. But I know him because I come from him, and he sent me to you.” Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come.

Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in him. “After all,” they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?”

When the Pharisees heard that the crowds were whispering such things, they and the leading priests sent Temple guards to arrest Jesus. (John 7:25-32)

Shakespeare’s Hamlet told his friend, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” The Pharisees thought they knew precisely how the Messiah would act and just what he would do, despite the fact that they hadn’t even worked out how to reconcile all the prophesies about him.

One of the unsolved questions about the Messiah related to his origins. Some taught that the Messiah’s origins were “of old,” like those of Melchizedek, the king of Salem who had met Abraham and accepted his tithe: unknown and unknowable. Others believed, like those who had advised Herod at the birth of Jesus, that the Messiah’s point of origin was clear. He would come from Bethlehem. Jesus responded that he had come from God. That was how he could be both “of old” and be born in Bethlehem.

Meanwhile, the people continued to wonder if perhaps Jesus actually was the Messiah, despite the problems their leadership had with him. Even with the questions of his origins, there were still his miracles to contend with. Certainly Jesus was different from any other human being they’d ever known. Jesus remains the same today as he was then: different from anyone else you’ve ever known. It’s okay not to have all the answers. And never assume you’ve gotten him all figured out.

Servant God

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. (John 13:6-17)

No one likes to get in trouble. Peter always wanted to do the right thing. In fact, one could say that his heart was always in the right place. But he was impetuous and he was often confused.

Foot washing was a common custom in Jesus’ day. When people traveled, they usually walked. Dusty or muddy roads, combined with open-toed sandals meant that when you entered someone’s home, it was a good idea to rinse off the dirty feet rather than track all that filth through the house. Such a task was usually left to the servant. Certainly one would never expect a rabbi to be washing his disciple’s feet. That’s why Peter reacts so negatively to Jesus’ offer at first.

Jesus washed his disciple’s feet to make a spiritual and relational point. Jesus proclaimed himself the servant God, a God who stooped to take care of his people, who cared more for their needs than for his status. Therefore, the disciples’ concern should not be for their status or place in society. Rather, their concern should be only about the needs of others. Just as Jesus had freely submitted to them, so they were to freely submit to each other.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

 Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-8)

Expulsions

A common criticism leveled against Israel is that they stole the land from the Palestinians and expelled them during the creation of that nation in 1948. The criticism is not reasonable, despite the case that about 700,000 Palestinians left the British mandate of Palestine during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence. The bulk of those refugees ended up in the Gaza Strip (ruled by Egypt from 1949 until 1967) and the West Bank, (ruled by Jordan from 1949 until 1967). The rest ended up in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Although the Palestinians argue that they were forced from their homes by the Israelis, in fact the Arab nations which attacked the nascent state of Israel encouraged the Palestinian Arabs to flee their homes until after they had cleared out all the Jews.

It is rarely mentioned that between 1948 and 1970 more than 800,000 Jewish people either fled their homes or were expelled from Arab and Islamic countries. By the time of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, most of the centuries old Jewish communities throughout the Arab world, as well as in Pakistan and Afghanistan, had ceased to exist.

Another thing that seems to have been forgotten: the transfer of the Jewish and Palestinian Arab populations during this time was hardly unique.

When British India gained its independence, the Muslim inhabitants insisted on having their own nation, so India was partitioned between the Hindus and the Muslims. The non-contiguous territorial entities of Pakistan and East Pakistan were created for the Muslims (in 1971 East Pakistan became Bangladesh). As a result of the creation of Pakistan more than five million Hindus and Sikhs were forced to move from what is today Pakistan into what is today India—and the same number of Muslims were forced from India into Pakistan. It is estimated that about a million people died during this population transfer.

When World War II ended the borders of Europe were redrawn. Millions of German nationals were expelled from areas that before the war had been German provinces for centuries, but after the war became parts of Poland and the Soviet Union. East Prussia, for example, which had been German for centuries, was transferred to Poland. The German port city of Danzig became the Polish city of Gdansk. Seven million Germans were forced to leave their ancestral homes, without compensation.

By 1950 a total of at least twelve million Germans had fled or were expelled from east-central Europe. It was the largest transfer of population in modern European history. The confirmed death toll associated with this population transfer is about 500,000. The German government, however, estimates that the death toll from the expulsions is actually somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million civilians.

Of course, Germany had been guilty of starting the Second World War, had slaughtered millions, and had lost that war. Some might therefore say they got what they deserved.

During the Second World War many Arabs became allies of the Nazis, hoping that they might gain their independence from their then rulers, France and England. Soon, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya came under Nazi control. A pro-Nazi regime was formed in Iraq in 1941. Meanwhile Nazi propaganda targeted the Arab populations of the Middle East in order to incite them against British or French rule. An Arabic translation of Mein Kampf was published and Radio Berlin began an Arabic language broadcast. Nazi propaganda built upon an already existing anti-Semitism in the Arab world. To this day, Mein Kampf, remains a perennial bestseller in the Muslim world, along with the C zarist forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Between 1936 and 1939 there was an Arab revolt in Palestine against the British. The rebels proclaimed pan-Arab nationalism and fostered and promoted anti-Semitism, borrowing from the Nazi propaganda. They were led by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Sunni Muslim cleric in charge of Jerusalem’s Islamic holy places

All during World War II, the Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini worked for the Axis powers as a broadcaster targeting Arab public opinion. He also helped recruit for a Muslim Waffen-SS Unit in the Balkans.

During the United Nations deliberations for the establishment of a Jewish State in 1948, it was documented that al-Husseini met and communicated extensively with Heinrich Himmler, Franz von Papen, Joseph Goebels and even met with Adolf Hitler. Both al-Husseini and many other prominent Arab politicians were photographed in the company of the Nazis and their Italian and Japanese allies. It turned out that many of these same politicians were then requesting recognition at the UN in 1947 as representatives for the Palestinian Arab population, despite having made common cause during World War II with the German Nazis. Unsurprisingly, these leaders were opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state.

Although Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip from 1949 until 1967, and Jordan controlled the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the same period, there was no call by the Palestinians or anyone else to establish an independent Palestinian Arab state in those areas. The Arabs did, however, launch wars and terrorist incidents against Israel then—and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964—three years before Israel gained control of the West Bank and Gaza after a combined attack by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.

I therefore wonder why the current situation facing the Palestinian Arabs is treated so differently from that of others who have lost their residences thanks to war and politics? Why does no one talk about the millions of Germans, Pakistanis, and Indians who were forced from their homes? Why does no one condemn the Arab world for the 800,000 Jews who were expelled from their homes—places they had lived in for centuries? Why does no one bring up the fact that Nazi propaganda against the Jews continues to be promulgated in the Arab world to this day in their popular media, news, schools, and mosques?