Acknowledgments<\/p>\n
The man who was, I think, the most creative and engaging preacher I ever heard died in a car crash when I was in sixth grade. I say \u201cI think\u201d because I never really cared about what he was saying at the time. After all, I was only twelve years old, and there were better things to do to pass the time until noon. But I sensed his impact because of the way my parents and all the other adults in my small country church reacted when he preached. They loved it\u2014and him. The congregation leaned forward. Even our 1965 Chevy Impala seemed eager for church every Sunday!
\nCarl Johnson, our pastor, a journalism grad student at Syracuse University, apparently mixed humor with ways to enter a biblical text that disposed of the traditional three-point sermon with the tearjerker story at the end. Again I say \u201capparently\u201d because I didn\u2019t get the jokes or insights; I just heard the appreciative laughs and appreciable amens around me.
\nAnd even though I vowed at age ten I would never be a preacher, I knew what a preacher needed to be from sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday inside that atmosphere of rapt attention. So when I did eventually become a pastor-teacher\u2014even though my \u201ccall\u201d was initially more coincidental than covenantal\u2014I had an unchosen but unwavering passion: to help people see the Bible with fresh eyes and expectancy.
\nNow that forty years of preaching and teaching have passed, I can see how the \u201cspirit\u201d of Carl Johnson\u2014I should really capitalize that word\u2014permeated and still permeates how I approach biblical examination and exposition. That Spirit led me to preach two back-to-back sermons one Sunday while running the entire time on a treadmill in order to illustrate the significance of Peter\u2019s use of the word spoudazo (meaning \u201cmake every effort\u201d) in 2 Peter 1:5. It led me to build and preach inside a black cloth-covered enclosure just so I could come to the finale and demonstrate with one thrust of a spear how praise and proclamation pierce spiritual darkness.
\nI never wanted to use gimmicks, but very often the Lord prompted me to see something unusual and use something visual. As a result, I have enjoyed kind comments from the people of four congregations over the years telling me how much they looked forward to what I was going to do and say on Sunday. I always deflected those comments with \u201cYou mean, what the Lord is going to say.\u201d And they would nod, \u201cOf course.\u201d
\nHowever, the fact remains that the human role of careful study and creativity combine to make what God wants to say through His Word clear and compelling. Creativity is inherently mnemonic.
\nAt the outset of this Fresh Eyes series, I want to acknowledge Carl Johnson and the gifted thinkers and teachers he represents who have inspired me toward preaching that reveals rather than regurgitates truth. And even more, I thank all the congregations of believers among whom I have lived and served who have shown me what it looks like to lean forward to hear a word from the Lord: for three years with the kids of the South Presbyterian Church high school group in Syracuse, New York; for thirteen years with the people of Fountain Square Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky; for five years with the students and staff of the Oakdale Christian Academy boarding school in Jackson, Kentucky; and for the past eleven years with the people of Greenville (IL) Free Methodist Church.
\nFor fifteen years I served as editor of Light & Life, the denominational magazine of the Free Methodist Church. This was also a significant time in my life when I learned to communicate more broadly through writing to people I would never see from the Sunday pulpit. That opportunity and training would never have occurred without the courage of four bishops who hired me\u2014a pastor with no journalism or seminary degree\u2014simply because I had what they regarded as an anointed, albeit \u201cunsafe\u201d (their word), creative approach to communication.
\nMy role as editor led to my speaking periodically at writer\u2019s conferences\u2014most often at the renowned Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. I owe a great debt of thanks to Dave Talbott, who hardly knew me when inviting me to preach on Palm Sunday in 1998 in the rustic auditorium beneath the praising redwoods to the crowd filled with professional writers. And he continued to do so for several years, even though I had not yet joined the ranks of published authors.
\nThat is where I was first heard and shaped by these professionals, many of whom became friends. One of them, Wendy Lawton, committed herself to me as my agent long before there was any sign I would ever repay her kindness with even a dime of compensation. I couldn\u2019t have been given a more gifted, wise, and dedicated agent than she and the Books & Such Literary Agency.
\nOne day she and Janet Grant, founder of the agency, approached me with a clear vision of how to position me as an author. They said, \u201cYou need to just do what you do\u2014open people\u2019s eyes to Scripture in fresh ways.\u201d Within a few months, I had a contract with David C Cook thanks to them and Alice Crider, senior acquisitions editor, who championed this multi-book project with an accompanying app.
\nSuddenly I had a contract, and the initial draft of three books had to be written from scratch in five months. This was a daunting task made more feasible, because over the years I have learned how to write with intense focus as my Greenville church staff graciously accommodated my need to get away several times a year to work on various writing projects.
\nHowever, when this massive project came along I needed something more than intense focus. I would need big blocks of time and a sense of the Lord\u2019s permission. A series of God-ordained events gave me that green light and changed my ministry responsibilities dramatically. Two of those events involved divine instruction that came miraculously and separately through Ben Dodson and Sarah Vanderkwaak. I am grateful they risked speaking when they could have remained silent. I am also grateful for dear friends Ivan and Kathie Filby, and my gifted superintendent Ben Tolly, for seeing a future ahead of me I would not have imagined.
\nAlice Crider was gracious enough to honor my request to select my own editor, Mick Silva. We had met at Mount Hermon and had only two casual conversations, but that was enough for me to have confidence in his spiritual sensitivity and professional skills. This initial confidence proved to be well-founded as our friendship grew and as Mick\u2019s expertise sharpened and supported the mission and message of the Fresh Eyes books chapter by chapter and line by line.
\nI was also pleased to have been brought into the David C Cook family at a time when the company was retooling its focus and functions in fresh ways to fulfill its longstanding mission to resource and disciple the church worldwide. That mission, so evident in the processes and people at David C Cook, convinced my wife and me to come under their banner in this project. I have enjoyed how much I have learned every step of the way through the enthusiastic encouragement of Alice Crider, Toben Heim, and the team of people assigned to guide me through this project to completion and distribution: Rachael Stevenson, Diane Gardner, Kayla Fenstermaker, Amy Konyndyk, Nick Lee, Susan Murdock, Megan Stengel, Annette Brickbealer, Nathan Landry, and Austin Davco.
\nFinally, it probably goes without saying, but it is impossible not to shout from the rooftops how much I owe to my family. My two girls, their amazing husbands, and combined five kids. They have not only given me their love and respect over the years, but also what it means to live life knowing your kids are proud of you\u2014and tell you! That lubricates the mechanics of life through the grind of large projects like Fresh Eyes.
\nThen there\u2019s Margie. She\u2019s my hero, my model, my friend, my encourager. There has been a sparkle in her eyes from the very beginning of being \u201cus\u201d that comes from her love for Jesus. That sparkle is my north star. It keeps me navigating through life, no matter what comes, toward greater love for the Lord. Without that sparkle in her eyes, my own would have long since grown dim with cares and worries and doubts preventing me from seeing anything\u2014life itself and its Author\u2014with fresh eyes. But when you have someone who loves you unconditionally in such a way that helps you know the love of God, your eyes will sparkle too with expectancy for seeing new and fresh things in the world and in the Word.<\/p>\n
Doug Newton
\nMarch 2018<\/p>\n
About the Fresh Eyes Series<\/p>\n
What if the commonplace understanding of a Bible story or a well-known Scripture passage is the very thing keeping us from seeing the text in a new, life-transforming way?
\nWe all find ourselves facing this problem when we study the Bible. We believe Scripture is living and powerful. But many of us, after a genuine encounter with God followed by faithful Bible study and many sermons, became so familiar with Scripture that it lost its impact. The Bible became a book of riddles to be solved. Once we \u201cfigured out what a passage meant,\u201d we checked it off and moved on. We\u2019ve seen these stories too many times, and everyone who\u2019s been a Christian for even a year or two knows how that voracious appetite for the Word quickly fades.
\nPastors and Bible teachers craft a message from a particular text, and the lesson they convey becomes the way we understand the passage from that point on. Within a few short years, it feels like we\u2019re hearing the same thing over and over again. We begin to approach the Bible with less zip and zeal. Familiarity may not always breed contempt, but it does tend to breed complacency.
\nYet consider Jesus\u2019 remedy: \u201cYou have heard that it was said, but I tell you . . .\u201d He invited His listeners to break away from well-worn thinking to see something new, different. We need to look with fresh eyes at what we think we know well. A passage\u2019s common interpretation may have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the line and been passed along like an urban legend. The application may need to shift in a different direction or include something not considered before. There\u2019s new hope for our lives to change when we can say, \u201cI never saw it that way before.\u201d
\nMy primary mission with this book series is not to share new insights I\u2019ve uncovered. My greater desire is to reveal specific techniques that will allow you to make new discoveries about familiar passages that can revive your love for the infinite Word and transform your work in teaching and testimony.
\nThe interactive section at the end of each chapter includes a \u201cVision Check,\u201d which describes Fresh Eyes study techniques. These reveal how I found something new and inspiring by reexamining the text and context of a passage, the life situations involved, the cultural perspectives reflected, and other details and how I began to see Scripture more imaginatively. You\u2019ll also find more resources on dougnewton.com and the Fresh Eyes app to help you gain additional insights.
\nI pray you find that the treasures in God\u2019s Word are truly inexhaustible when you come with fresh eyes.<\/p>\n
Introduction<\/p>\n
Many of my good friends over the years have been Bible scholars. That\u2019s how I know I am not one myself. I need help translating Greek, and I can\u2019t read Hebrew at all. I know little about what is called the \u201cintertestamental period\u201d and can\u2019t remember the difference between Hermann Gunkel and Herman Munster.
\nBut I\u2019ve been a pastor for forty years and have seen what the words of Scripture can do in the hearts and lives of people who can\u2019t even read at all, much less read in an archaic language. The power of God\u2019s Word astounds. I\u2019ve witnessed a young man come to faith, though he smoked marijuana nightly, because he was reading a copy of the Psalms he found left behind on a restaurant table. The words, though he could barely comprehend them, were so powerful that he ditched the joints and embraced the high he experienced with God. I\u2019ve seen a thirtysomething woman liberated from a prison of past satanic rituals and sacrifices after she was simply asked to read a divinely selected psalm aloud. And I\u2019ve watched countless people facing grief, fear, shame, or confusion find sudden soothing peace and strengthening hope from nothing more than a verse or two. Perhaps you could share a similar experience.
\nNone of these people needed to know anything about the questions biblical scholars grapple with. Probably none were aware that the most reliable early manuscripts do not include the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8, yet they could find ecstatic emancipation in Jesus\u2019 words, \u201cNeither do I condemn you\u201d (v. 11), as if He had spoken those words to them personally.
\nInteraction with God through His Word is a miraculous affair, especially when we approach it as if for the first time. So we should search the familiar miracle stories for new insights.
\nThe discoveries found in the ten miracles we\u2019ll explore are presented in an order that parallels what must be any disciple\u2019s journey toward spiritual maturity and fruitfulness:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 What kingdom values (as opposed to worldly attitudes and norms) does the miracle reveal?<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 With those truths in mind, how should our beliefs change?<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 How then should our actions change?<\/p>\n
These steps can (and do) happen concurrently when we study God\u2019s Word, as we trust Him more fully, follow Him more closely, and fulfill His purposes by His grace and power. But it all begins with a God-given \u201cSpirit of wisdom and revelation\u201d that \u201cthe eyes of your heart may be enlightened\u201d (Eph. 1:17\u201318). That\u2019s always the ongoing miracle.<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
Got Wine?<\/p>\n
Turning Water into Wine<\/p>\n
John 2:1\u201311<\/p>\n
If God is able to turn water into wine, why don\u2019t we see more cases of transformation in people and circumstances?<\/p>\n
I pastored for years in southern Kentucky, where the humid summers make you sweat like a cold glass of sweet iced tea. This was usually not a problem, provided you could go from your air-conditioned home to your air-conditioned car to your air-conditioned workplace to the air-conditioned store.
\nBut on too many occasions I had the misfortune of performing weddings in non-air-conditioned churches chosen for their quaint ambience. Funny how the allure of ambience wilts as the congregation waits for the bride\u2019s entry. Every bride wants a perfect wedding day. Did no one think the lack of air conditioning might be a distracting discomfort? Oh well . . .
\nSome things are the same in all places at all times. Weddings need to go well. That\u2019s why even two thousand years later we can relate to the first miracle the apostle John recorded in his gospel. It occurred during a wedding in Cana. The problem at this wedding was not drenching humidity but the disappointing lack of celebratory wine.
\nBefore we delve into the miracle and discover something you may never have thought about, it\u2019s important to realize that this miracle holds a special place in the New Testament Gospels. Only John\u2019s gospel tells it. Matthew, Mark, and Luke for some reason did not include it. On top of that, John handpicked just seven miracles out of scores he could have chosen. He did so because his mission differed from the other gospel writers\u2019. The few miracles he chose ranked at the top of all Jesus\u2019 miracles, because in John\u2019s mind they were not just supernatural wonders. They were \u201cmiraculous signs\u201d pointing to Jesus\u2019 divine identity and unique mission.
\nJohn chose this miraculous sign to be the first\u2014the leadoff hitter for his whole story of Jesus\u2019 glory. We can only guess why. But what could be a better start to the gospel of Jesus than to show Him to be the one who can do miracles of transformation? Isn\u2019t that what everyone needs?
\nJohn started by saying, \u201cOn the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus\u2019 mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus\u2019 mother said to him, \u2018They have no more wine\u2019\u201d (John 2:1\u20133).
\nNotice those last five words Jesus\u2019 mother spoke. Don\u2019t just read them. Imagine them. What did she sound like when she voiced them? Certainly she wasn\u2019t flat and emotionless like a computer speech synthesizer: \u201cThey . . . have . . . no . . . more . . . wine.\u201d
\nImagine her tone of voice. Her volume. Her intensity. A little cultural background might help inform your imagination.
\nIn those days, wedding celebrations were major events that often lasted several days. You think wedding planners today have a chore? Imagine having the job of \u201cmaster of the banquet.\u201d Some translations even call that person the \u201cgovernor of the feast\u201d (KJV). A wedding celebration was no small affair if it required a governor to be in charge!
\nWith so much riding on a wedding celebration attended by the whole town, you can imagine the potential outcry if things went poorly. In fact, according to historians, running out of wine at a wedding celebration was grounds for a lawsuit! And you thought we live in a litigious society?
\nThat\u2019s why worry and a shot of desperation probably resonated in Jesus\u2019 mother\u2019s voice. Perhaps she pulled Jesus aside and whispered it, but there would have been a lot of force behind those words, like a pressure valve releasing pent-up steam: \u201cThey have no more wine!\u201d
\nIf you, like me, grew up in a teetotaler home, running out of wine would cause great relief not grave consternation. So I wonder what would give me a similar level of concern, considering my upbringing. Here\u2019s the best I can do: What if they ran out of wedding cake, the kind I love piled high with frosting? I imagine myself attending a wedding in the humid Kentucky heat . . . and trapped in a church basement after the ceremony, waiting uncomfortably, dress shirt sticking to the back of the chair . . . longing for\u2014no, praying for\u2014the good fortune of getting a corner piece of cake adorned with a creamy confection rose. Then finally getting to the buffet table and finding they\u2019ve run out of cake! Yes, I would be considering a lawsuit! Or maybe something even worse involving that cake knife!
\nSomehow that imagined scenario puts me in a place where I can hear Mary\u2019s panic when she cries, \u201cThey have no more wine.\u201d Yet despite her desperation, Jesus seemed unmoved. Let\u2019s read on: \u201c\u2018Woman, why do you involve me?\u2019 Jesus replied. \u2018My hour has not yet come\u2019\u201d (John 2:4).
\nHow would you like to get a Mother\u2019s Day card addressed \u201cWoman\u201d? Maybe that was a respectful form of address in Jesus\u2019 day, but He still sounds reluctant to help. Is He really being unsympathetic? Probably not. He was making a theological point. When He referred to \u201cmy hour,\u201d He was not talking about clock time. The word used here refers to a \u201cspecial moment.\u201d He typically referred to His eventual death on the cross this way.
\nJesus was putting things in proper perspective. He knew His mother wanted Him to use His supernatural ability to fix the problem, which He knew would reveal something about His amazing identity. But was it time for that? Shouldn\u2019t He reserve that revelation for a greater display of glory than solving this wine shortage? I can almost hear Him say, \u201cI came into this world to save much more than one wedding.\u201d That\u2019s where He was probably coming from when He replied to His mother.
\nAmusingly, Jesus\u2019 mother didn\u2019t seem to wait for His reply before she was off rounding up the servants. After all, she was His mother. She knew her boy. She didn\u2019t need to wait for an answer before assuming He would help. John recorded, \u201cHis mother said to the servants, \u2018Do whatever he tells you.\u2019 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons\u201d (vv. 5\u20136).
\nRemember that fact given about the stone water jars. We\u2019ll come back to them.
\nJesus ordered the servants to fill the jars with water and then take a sample of the water to the master of the banquet. When they did that, the feast master, not knowing the whole story, enjoyed what he considered a fine glass of wine. But that puzzled him: \u201cThen he called the bridegroom aside and said, \u2018Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now\u2019\u201d (vv. 9\u201310).
\nNot only did Jesus convert water into wine, but it was not the boxed variety! This wine would impress the snootiest waiter at restaurants where common people can\u2019t even afford to pay for parking.
\nThink about that. Jesus took water, which consists of only two elements: two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen (H2O). Not only did He remix those two elements, but He also added the element carbon. We know that because the natural sugars in wine grapes include carbon. And He introduced many more compounds that never existed in the water. Wine includes tannins and organic acids: tartaric, malic, and citric. In short, He didn\u2019t just sneak some red food coloring into the water when no one was looking. He somehow accelerated the aging process and turned two minutes into years, as far as the wine was concerned.
\nWithout even waving His hand or whispering \u201cAbracadabra,\u201d Jesus performed a miracle of radical transformation. Only the God who created the universe from nothing could have infused the one-time water with carbon and acids and sparkling flavor. If He could do this to water-filled pots, imagine what He can do with worry-filled people. Imagine how He can create unexpectedly high-quality wisdom or faith or peace where none exists.
\nIsn\u2019t this the basis of our hope, our only hope\u2014that God performs miracles of transformation? So let\u2019s return to the teaser question at the head of this chapter: If God is able to turn water into wine, why don\u2019t we see more cases of transformation in people and circumstances?
\nThe answer emerges when we backtrack to the command Jesus gave the servants and note their response. Remember, Jesus told them to fill the waterpots. Picture those waterpots. Recall that each one held twenty to thirty gallons of water, so they were about the size of a standard galvanized trashcan, except made of stone.
\nHow would the servants have fulfilled Jesus\u2019 command? Would they have pulled out the garden hose, attached it to a house spigot, and lopped it over the top? Probably not.
\nWould they have carried the waterpots to the town well, filled them, and lugged them back to the festivities? Thirty gallons of water weighs about 250 pounds, and that\u2019s on top of the weight of the stone waterpots themselves. No way would even two people be able to carry such a heavy, sloshing, unwieldy container. Even a donkey cart would have proved pointless no matter how hard you tried to keep the pots steady and level over the rough paths.
\nSo how would they have filled the waterpots? By carrying small buckets back and forth from the well, probably located some distance away, over and over again until the pots were full.
\nI\u2019m a pretty hard worker, but the idea of hauling water back and forth in little two-gallon animal skin buckets would not have been a pleasant thought. Bear in mind I probably had already filled those waterpots earlier in the day.
\nWhat would I have done? What would you have done? We should not zip right past this question in order to get on with the miracle story. I got out my calculator and estimated it would have taken about eighty trips back and forth to obey Jesus\u2019 command. Or perhaps only forty trips if using a neck yoke for carrying two skins at a time. Either way, the task was time consuming and labor intensive.
\nIf I had been a servant in this story, I might have filled the first waterpot to within a couple inches of the top, thought That\u2019s good enough, and started filling waterpot number two. I would have filled that one to within perhaps three or four inches of the top, thought again That\u2019s good enough, and started in on waterpot number three. I would have filled pot three to within five or six inches. . . . You see where I\u2019m going? My enthusiasm to fulfill Jesus\u2019 command would have been draining out even as I was filling the waterpots, until maybe\u2014maybe\u2014the sixth and final waterpot would have been about half-full when I decided to draw one more bucket and a final conclusion: That\u2019s good enough.
\nHowever, here\u2019s the shocking observation about the text. John carefully pointed out that the servants \u201cfilled them to the brim\u201d (John 2:7). Most servants in this culture could choose how they went about their work, like employees in our day. That\u2019s why in several places the New Testament urges Christian servants to work diligently and with good attitudes as an act of worship and witness. I must confess the servants at the wedding were more thorough and diligent than I would have been. But what difference does it make whether they filled the waterpots to the maximum level?
\nHere\u2019s the difference. Imagine my sixth half-full waterpot containing only fifteen gallons of water compared with the actual servants\u2019 completely full waterpot. How much wine would I have gotten? Fifteen gallons. How many gallons of wine would they have gotten? Thirty. If I had brought five gallons of water, how much wine would I have gotten? Five gallons. Do you see the point?
\nYes, Jesus could have turned a thimble of water into thirty gallons of wine. But John reported a miracle not of multiplication but of transformation. Jesus intentionally \u201crevealed his glory\u201d (v. 11) by changing the quality not the quantity of the substance brought to Him. He could have snapped His fingers and created enough wine for a thousand weddings, but He chose to remedy the wine shortage by telling the servants to bring to Him what needed to be changed.
\nOnly Jesus could have performed the miracle of transformation. He took H2O and made an elegant combination of elements, tannin, bouquet, and color\u2014from water to fine wine\u2014without touching, adding, mixing, or blending any additional ingredients. But the amount of water that was transformed depended on how much water the servants brought. Had they brought less water, less would have been transformed.
\nThat\u2019s the lesson for us. It turns out that the old gospel song has been right all along:<\/p>\n
What a Friend we have in Jesus,
\nAll our sins and griefs to bear!
\nWhat a privilege to carry
\nEverything to God in prayer!
\nO what peace we often forfeit,
\nO what needless pain we bear,
\nAll because we do not carry
\nEverything to God in prayer.<\/p>\n
Why don\u2019t we see more transformation in people and circumstances? The amount of wine we enjoy depends on the amount of water\u2014things that need to be changed\u2014we bring to Jesus, particularly when brought in the waterpots of prayer. How many gallons are you bringing?
\nDocumentation and analyses of spiritual revivals throughout history reveal that prior to these events, people \u201cfilled [the waterpots] to the brim\u201d with prayer. What is true of widespread revivals is true of restored marriages, rescued addicts, redeemed prodigals, and rejuvenated hope: prayer should be thorough to the point of nearly overflowing. Whatever needs to be transformed, take it to Jesus in prayer. And do not stop until you experience an incredible transformation either in your world or in how you see it.
\nIt will be like getting the corner piece of a wedding cake over and over again.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. In Scripture, miracles often include some human involvement. Can you think of other biblical examples when human involvement contributed to the occurrence or impact of a miracle? What does that reveal about God\u2019s purposes? Why do you think He\u2019d want us contributing to His miracles?<\/p>\n
2. 2. What more do you need to bring to Jesus to be transformed in prayer?<\/p>\n
3. 3. Have you ever truly considered how much forfeited peace and needless pain we suffer from not bringing \u201ceverything to God in prayer\u201d? Why do you think you have had a hard time filling the waterpots with prayer?<\/p>\n
4. 4. Is there something else you saw in this story that changes the way you understand it?<\/p>\n
Lord, I thank You that You alone can utterly transform any resource, any situation, or any person into something brand new, exciting, and more fitting to Your purpose. Forgive my lack of trust and when I withhold things, try to fix my problems, and attempt change myself or my situations without looking to You first. Help me fill my life up with prayer to the brim. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nThe study technique this chapter employed involves more fully imagining yourself in the story. Ask, What would I have been experiencing in this situation?
\nRead Genesis 12, which tells of God\u2019s promise to Abram to make him the father of a great nation. Put yourself in Abram\u2019s situation as an elderly man with a barren wife. What might you have been thinking had you been in his place? Write down what insights come to mind and, using dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app, compare them with a few that came to my mind.<\/p>\n
2<\/p>\n
Time Will Tell<\/p>\n
Healing the Royal Official\u2019s Son<\/p>\n
John 4:46\u201354<\/p>\n
Sometimes you have to forget what you\u2019ve always heard in order to see what you\u2019ve never seen.<\/p>\n
I once heard a renowned astrophysicist boast on a morning news program that he and other colleagues can now describe what happened at the beginning of the universe to within the first few billionths of a second. He admitted those first couple of billionths were still a mystery. However, perhaps expecting pushback from committed theists in the audience, he quickly asked people not to get him wrong. He was not saying there is no God; he was just saying that with respect to the origin of the universe, there was nothing for a god to do.
\nIn other words, from his point of view, astrophysics did not automatically contradict the first few words of the Bible: \u201cIn the beginning God . . .\u201d (Gen. 1:1). For all science knows, a Supreme Being might have been present in the beginning, but He was merely an arms-folded bystander. I won\u2019t even begin to bombard this scientist\u2019s claim with the host of classic philosophical arguments for God\u2019s existence as Creator. I simply ask you to consider that immeasurably brief moment just before the beginning when there was nothing and then there was something.
\nIs it really possible for something\u2014energy or matter\u2014to come out of nothing without the causal action of a nonmaterial entity? In another context, in his poem \u201cThe Hollow Men,\u201d T. S. Eliot wrote about an inscrutable shadow between the possibility of something existing and it actually occurring.<\/p>\n
Between the idea
\nAnd the reality
\n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
\nBetween the conception
\nAnd the creation
\n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
\nBetween the desire
\nAnd the spasm
\nBetween the potency
\nAnd the existence
\n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
\nFalls the Shadow<\/p>\n
People who trust Scripture\u2019s testimony believe God\u2019s Word sheds light on that shadowed moment just as the universe began. Whatever you may believe about the timing of creation events, Holy Scripture declares one paramount fact: the only true God created everything by the power of His word.
\nKeep this in mind as we focus on the miracle of Jesus healing the royal official\u2019s dying son. But first, to see this text with fresh eyes, you must paradoxically and intentionally put yourself in the dark. Sometimes in order to see what you\u2019ve never seen before, you have to forget whatever you\u2019ve heard before.
\nThink of it this way. When you watch a movie with a surprise ending the second time, you can no longer be surprised. You probably won\u2019t watch with rapt attention as you did the first time. You might even go get a snack while the movie still plays, because you know you won\u2019t miss anything. In the same way, we tend to read familiar Scripture passages with less than rapt attention. So the secret to approaching this and many other familiar passages is to pretend you\u2019ve never read it before and you don\u2019t know how it turns out. That\u2019s hard to do, but as you will see in this case, everything hangs on not knowing what you already know.
\nThis miracle began with a royal official whose son was dying in Capernaum, a town about eighteen miles from where Jesus was staying in Cana. In a last-ditch attempt to save his son\u2019s life, the royal official sought out Jesus to ask Him to go back with him and heal his son. That\u2019s as far as we should go now or else we will start dragging in ideas we need to forget. You\u2019ll see what I mean later.<\/p>\n
Detective Work: The ETD and ETA
\nOur task is to reconstruct this miracle\u2019s timeline the way detectives try to solve a crime. So let\u2019s hunt for time references in the story. Here\u2019s what we find: \u201cWhen he [the royal official] inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, \u2018Yesterday, at one in the afternoon\u2019\u201d (John 4:52).
\nNotice there are two key reference points. The word yesterday tells us the story spans two days. Each day involves one key event. The first day\u2014let\u2019s call it Monday\u2014is the day the royal official found Jesus and asked Him to come heal his son. That happened at what Jews of that day would have called the \u201cseventh hour,\u201d which is equivalent to our 1:00 p.m. At that moment, Jesus said to the man, \u201cGo, . . . your son will live\u201d (v. 50). Then sometime on the second day (Tuesday) \u201cwhile he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living\u201d (v. 51).
\nSimple enough. However, the timeline reveals more we need to reconstruct, things not explicitly spelled out in the text. If we make a couple reasonable assumptions consistent with the facts of the story, you\u2019ll be surprised at what we discover.
\nWe need to ask the following two questions: When did the man leave home to go find Jesus? And when did the man head back home after meeting with Jesus? The first question is the most important to our fresh insight. When did the man leave home?
\nLet\u2019s assume he felt a sense of urgency and left home early in the morning on Monday, the same day he found Jesus. Why? Could be to protect himself from the dishonor of losing a male descendant. Yet this is the second of only seven miracles John reported, and he elevated love throughout his gospel. So maybe John was moved by this desperate love for a son, a man not wanting to leave his child\u2019s bedside any longer than necessary.
\nI remember the day my mother died. She was in hospice. All the signs pointed to death within just a few hours. So my wife and I simply waited by her bedside. She was not conscious and most likely never would regain consciousness. Nevertheless, there was no way either of us was going to leave her bedside. It\u2019s a very human desire to be present in those last moments. And what if she did rouse and we weren\u2019t there for her?
\nNow transport that fact into this story, along with the more compelling reality that the key persons are a young boy and a father who would do anything to save his son. For the father, the idea of leaving his son\u2019s side, of not being there in case he roused for a few minutes, would have been unthinkable. Unless . . . there was a slight possibility . . . a last hope?
\nPut yourself in the father\u2019s place. He heard that Jesus\u2014who many people assumed was some kind of prophet with healing powers\u2014was in Cana. What are you going to do? You\u2019re going to leave your suffering son, conscious or unconscious, and make the trip as quickly as you can to try to bring help. But you would do everything in your power to return as quickly as you could. That\u2019s what the father must have had in mind. So when did he leave for Cana to find Jesus? It\u2019s reasonable to assume he did not leave until Monday morning. The facts located in both the text and in the geography of the area support that theory.
\nCapernaum, where the boy lay dying, was eighteen miles from Cana, where Jesus was. Walking at a steady pace, the father could be in Cana in about six hours. Admittedly, we who live in an automobile culture might find the prospect of walking eighteen miles daunting. But the father\u2019s culture was pedestrian. People were used to walking. True, eighteen miles is still eighteen miles. But hey, who cared? His son was dying!
\nIf we assume he left Monday morning, a six-hour trip would put him in Cana\u2014you guessed it\u2014right around the \u201cseventh hour\u201d (adding a little time for him to locate Jesus once he got into town). Fits the text, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Detective Work: A Hidden Delay
\nNow let\u2019s add to the timeline, and you\u2019ll see something puzzling. The man and Jesus had a brief conversation that couldn\u2019t have taken more than two or three minutes. Here\u2019s what Scripture records: \u201cWhen this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. \u2018Unless you people see signs and wonders,\u2019 Jesus told him, \u2018you will never believe.\u2019 The royal official said, \u2018Sir, come down before my child dies.\u2019 \u2018Go,\u2019 Jesus replied, \u2018your son will live\u2019\u201d (John 4:47\u201350).
\nAfter that brief exchange it was probably about 1:05 p.m. What did the man do next? Remarkably, the text says, \u201cThe man took Jesus at his word and departed\u201d (v. 50).
\nAt this point the text rushes us right along, and we tend not to pause and put two and two together. The next verse says, \u201cWhile he was still on the way . . .\u201d (v. 51). If we read too quickly, we picture the man leaving Jesus and immediately heading home. But that\u2019s not what he did. How do we know? Because he didn\u2019t meet his servants on the road until the next day. This is incredible! He did not rush right home. He could have made it. It was only 1:05. Yes, he had already walked eighteen miles that day, and another eighteen would have been a challenge. But again, who cared? His son was dying!
\nIf I were in that situation I would glance at my watch, calculate when I could get home, realize I could be there before nightfall, take into consideration that it would be an easier and quicker trip being a downward slope from Cana to Capernaum, and would have hightailed it. Within a mile of home, I would have quickened my pace even more, probably breaking out into a sprint when I neared my street and saw my house in the distance. Then I would have burst through the front door, breathlessly shouting, \u201cIs he alive? Is he alive?\u201d
\nYet a loving father who went to desperate lengths to seek Jesus\u2019 help on the chance He would drop everything and come heal his boy didn\u2019t head home on Monday. He waited around Cana until Tuesday morning with no email or phone to check on his son. His hope rested in Jesus\u2019 word, and he took it to heart. That\u2019s remarkable faith! I\u2019d love to have that kind of confidence in Jesus\u2019 reassuring words. But hold your horses; you know too much. It\u2019s not the kind of faith we think it is. Let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\n
Detective Work: Delayed Belief
\nThere\u2019s one more crucial observation. Notice the father\u2019s reaction when he met the servants on his way home: \u201cWhile he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, \u2018Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.\u2019 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, \u2018Your son will live.\u2019 So he and his whole household believed\u201d (John 4:51\u201353).
\nJohn, our gospel writer, was very clear that the man did not actually \u201cbelieve\u201d in Jesus until after receiving word about his son\u2019s recovery. Wait a minute! If he didn\u2019t even believe until then, what was going on when he \u201ctook Jesus at his word and departed\u201d (v. 50)?
\nNow is the time to forget what we already know about what happened. We know (because we\u2019ve seen the movie) that Jesus healed the boy long-distance. The royal official did not know that. Jesus did not say, \u201cYou may go; I will heal your son long-distance.\u201d All Jesus said was, \u201cYour son will live\u201d (v. 50).
\nHow would the royal official have understood what Jesus meant? In the same way you understand a doctor who comes into the waiting room after performing critical surgery on your loved one. He walks in, you put down your magazine and lean in for his report, and he says, \u201cYou can all rest easy. The surgery went fine. Your dad is doing well. You can see him in a couple of hours.\u201d
\nIn that moment, you are not hearing him claim to have performed a miracle. You\u2019re hearing a report from someone who you believe has the necessary experience and knowledge to give you accurate and authoritative information. He knows what he\u2019s talking about. That\u2019s what puts you at ease. You take his word and depart for some supper in the hospital cafeteria.
\nThat explains the father\u2019s reaction to Jesus\u2019 words. Jesus, widely hailed as a prophet-healer, informed the royal official that his son would live. The father was hearing a prediction from someone who he believed had the authority to give accurate information about the future.
\n\u201cWow! I thought for sure my son was going to die. Everything pointed in that direction, but Jesus said he will live. That\u2019s great news! I can relax. I\u2019ll wait till morning to head home.\u201d
\nBut then on his way, somewhere along the dusty road from Cana to Capernaum, he saw through the shimmering heat the wavy images of figures coming toward him. He was genuinely surprised when he drew close enough to recognize his own servants coming his way. I imagine this conversation:
\n\u201cWhat are you guys doing here?\u201d
\n\u201cWe had to bring you the news about your son.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat news? Is he still alive? Did he die? What?\u201d
\n\u201cHe\u2019s alive and all better.\u201d
\n\u201cAll better? Jesus said he would live, but he\u2019s better already? I thought it would still take a while, considering how sick he was.\u201d
\n\u201cNo. He\u2019s totally better! Up and eating. Normal.\u201d
\n\u201cWow! When did that happen?\u201d
\n\u201cOh, about one o\u2019clock yesterday.\u201d
\n\u201cYesterday? About one?\u201d He drops his head and pauses to calculate, when it dawns on him. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it!\u201d He looks back toward Cana. \u201cJesus healed him when He said the words!\u201d
\nNow, returning to the text, things begin to make sense. We modern readers have seen the movie. We know Jesus healed the boy when He pronounced the words, \u201cYour son will live.\u201d But the royal official had no reason to think that. He\u2019d thought the words were prophetic, but he knew then that they were power. It was then, and only then, that this royal official with a Jewish upbringing believed. Why then? Because for any Jew with even nominal faith, one distinguishing characteristic set the true God apart from all other pretenders to the universal throne: our God causes things to happen by the power of His words.
\nI can almost hear the father putting two and two together. \u201cThe true God said \u2018Let there be light\u2019 and there was light. Yesterday at one o\u2019clock Jesus said, \u2018Your son will live,\u2019 and my son lived.\u201d At that moment\u2014and it could not have been until that moment\u2014the father realized Jesus\u2019 identity as the Son of God not just a prophet of God, and he believed.<\/p>\n
Performative Words
\nNow that we have created the timeline and discovered what it reveals, let\u2019s back up from the story and collect ourselves. I\u2019m almost breathless myself! This miracle unveils something we moderns hardly appreciate. The greatest demonstration of God\u2019s deity is His ability to create everything by the power of His word. That\u2019s who He is. That\u2019s what He does. His words are not just informative; they are performative. Divine words spoken long-distance from over eighteen miles away had caused the terminally sick boy to recover.
\nWe must adopt a higher view of the Word of God than we often do. We need to approach the Bible believing it is more than a repository of accurate and authoritative information. It is that, of course. But too often we stop there. We milk its instruction, principles, precepts, and eternally true information for all they\u2019re worth and try to live according to them. That\u2019s right and good. But God\u2019s Word is more than that. God\u2019s words perform His will.
\nIt has always been that way, and so it shall remain. God\u2019s words cause everything that counts. God\u2019s words created everything (Gen. 1) and sustain everything (Heb. 1:2\u20133). He is not a grand watchmaker, as the deists claim, who created the material universe that now functions by fixed laws independent of His faithful involvement. If He ever was to stop speaking His will for this universe to exist, at that very moment everything would stop existing.
\nGod\u2019s words always accomplish His purposes (Isa. 55:10\u201311). His words create faith (Rom. 10:17) and cause spiritual rebirth (1 Pet. 1:23). They discern and expose our inner thoughts (Heb. 4:12). They cleanse (Eph. 5:25\u201326) and sanctify (John 17:17). His words can be in us so we bear much fruit (John 15:7\u20138). And thankfully, His words defeat the Enemy of our souls (Eph. 6:17).
\nOne day my wife and I received a phone call about a thirtysomething lady who, although a devoted Christian, suffered frequent bouts of depression and spiritual attack as a result of her childhood exposure to her parents\u2019 and grandparents\u2019 satanic practices, including human sacrifice. She needed help breaking free from recurring, debilitating torment, so we arranged to meet with her. We followed no preconceived formula\u2014indeed we had never encountered anything like this before. My wife felt strongly impressed prior to our session to use a specific psalm at a key moment and asked the lady to read it aloud through her empty eyes. As she did, an oppressive, almost visible cloud of sadness lifted. Her torment immediately departed, but the proof of her freedom played out over the years of a stable life of peace and joy.
\nExperiences like that of the royal official and this tormented woman have a way of helping us know what happened in the first moments of time.
\nGod spoke. He still speaks, and good things happen.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. Can you give an example of another occasion when Jesus caused something miraculous to happen by simply speaking words?<\/p>\n
2. 2. Reflect on the difference between the royal official taking Jesus at His word and his eventual believing in Jesus. Though he didn\u2019t initially grasp Jesus\u2019 identity, ponder how trust in Jesus begins as seeing Him as One who gives accurate and authoritative information. Could you do a better job of taking Jesus at His word? How so?<\/p>\n
3. 3. Consider two ways to approach God\u2019s Word: as informative (gives accurate life information) or performative (causes God\u2019s will to happen). How do you tend to relate to Scripture most often? How might you relate more effectively to God\u2019s Word as performative?<\/p>\n
4. 4. What Scripture might you pray performatively?<\/p>\n
Lord, I know my words have no power in themselves, but Yours do. I want to take more seriously the potential I have for effective prayer and ministry. Help me trust and employ the performative nature of Your words as provided in Scripture. You promised if I remain in You and Your words in me, I can ask whatever I wish and it will be given (John 15:7). Show me more about how to live in that promise. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nCreating an accurate timeline is often difficult, as biblical narratives compress time, so we miss the actual time frame involved. It\u2019s important to walk through a story \u201cstretching out\u201d the events to their full length.
\nRead the story in Acts 12 of the apostle Peter\u2019s miraculous release from prison. You will find this vague verse: \u201cSo Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him\u201d (v. 5). There is no clue how long the church prayed before Peter was released. Imagine their prayer gatherings and how long they might have waited, given their disbelief when they were told Peter was at the front door. Write down your ideas and compare them with those shared on dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app.<\/p>\n
3<\/p>\n
Dayworkers<\/p>\n
Peter Healing the Lame Man<\/p>\n
Acts 3:1\u201311<\/p>\n
Would you stand on your head in a local convenience store if it meant someone might be saved?<\/p>\n
What gets you out of bed in the morning? This question is commonly asked in job interviews these days. Potential employers are not looking for smart-aleck replies like \u201cThe alarm clock\u201d or \u201cThe smell of coffee\u201d or \u201cMy noisy kids.\u201d They hope to hear what motivates you in your daily tasks. Nondiscretionary obligations make up 90 percent of life. We must work, eat, pay bills, go grocery shopping, take care of the kids, mow the grass, wash clothes, maintain the car, etcetera. And the etceteras keep etcetering. Interviewers know that. They want to know whether you, as Henry David Thoreau expressed in his classic book Walden, are trying to \u201clive deep and suck out all the marrow of life\u201d instead of letting life suck all the marrow out of you. What moves you?
\nUnfortunately, many people do not have a good answer. We would like to think Christian believers are uniquely blessed with motivation. After all, Jesus promised us an abundant life of purpose, joy, and camaraderie. The sad fact is, however, many Christians are sad. They may not be suffering from clinical depression (though some are), but they still live with nagging feelings of depression.
\nMany things can cause this common malaise, one being a lack of meaning. Human beings, created in God\u2019s image, are wired to work with God. The apostle Paul affirmed that fact when he wrote, \u201cFor we are God\u2019s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do\u201d (Eph. 2:10). Jesus identified a paradox of the kingdom when He promised that reinvigorating soul rest would result from working in tandem with Him. \u201cTake my yoke upon you and learn from me,\u201d He said, \u201cfor I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls\u201d (Matt. 11:29).
\nIt stands to reason, then, that we human beings suffer intrusive anxiety and emotional inertia when we lack a sense of divine purpose, one that gives meaning to all our activities, both discretionary and nondiscretionary. No prescription or brief high can bring the satisfying peace and joy divine partnership brings.
\nMany studies over the years have demonstrated the benefit of meaningful work as an effective antidote to depression. How much more effective that work can be when it occurs alongside the One who designed you to join in His work.
\nWhat gets you up in the morning? To see how Jesus wants to use you that day is a pretty good answer and a better stimulant than caffeine. But is that your answer? And is that really how it works? Can we\u2014should we\u2014expect to have a sense of daily employment with the Lord? Are we to live like dayworkers, waiting for the Lord to drive up and take us into the harvest field every morning?
\nLet\u2019s go to a wonderful, well-known miracle the Spirit of Jesus performed through Peter and John for some insight into these questions: the healing of the lame man (Acts 3:1\u201311). We\u2019ll look at it with fresh eyes, and the insight will come when we eventually notice two often-overlooked words.<\/p>\n
The Significance of \u201cEvery Day\u201d
\nA man, crippled all his life, legs tucked motionless under him, sat right at the entrance to the temple\u2014the gate called Beautiful. Someone carried him there every day. Acts records why, saying, \u201cNow a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts\u201d (3:2).
\nBecause he was crippled from birth and was now over forty years old (4:22), he probably had seniority among beggars and perhaps could lay claim to prime real estate for begging. Everyone entering the temple for prayer was motivated to do one last act of almsgiving to get on God\u2019s good side just before praying.
\nSo he was hopeful when Peter and John stopped\u2014he didn\u2019t know they were the Peter and John\u2014and asked him to look up from his beggar\u2019s habit of lowering his gaze and make eye contact. He thought, All right! Someone\u2019s going to make a show of their giving. (We know from Jesus\u2019 critique of the Pharisees that they were prone to prideful charity.)
\nSo the man looked up but heard a very disappointing opening line from Peter: \u201cSilver or gold I do not have . . .\u201d
\nHe probably thought, Oh great. You have no money\u2014plus, you have a very strange way of saying it. \u201cSilver or gold I do not have. Silver or gold I do not have.\u201d
\n\u201c. . . but what I do have I give you . . .\u201d
\nOh great . . . What? Are you going to give me a little \u201cGod loves you\u201d sticker?
\n\u201cIn the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk\u201d (3:6).
\nYou probably know what happened next. He did just that. This guy who had never stood upright in his life, whose point of view was always staring up into people\u2019s nostrils, suddenly looked another human being eye to eye. It took just a moment for the liquid in his inner ear to slosh around and for him to find his balance, but then he took his first step, something his parents had waited forty years to see. Probably because he watched with envy all those years as people walked past him, he had studied the motion and imagined doing it himself. So it took him only a minute to mimic that image and begin walking, then running, then jumping and praising God!
\nBut here\u2019s the question: Why did Peter stop and offer him healing on that particular day? Luke specifically said the man was placed there \u201cevery day\u201d to beg and everyone recognized him as the one who always sat outside the gate. That phrase \u201cevery day\u201d gets overlooked, but it is very significant. For Luke told us in the previous chapter that the disciples went to pray \u201cevery day\u201d at the temple (Acts 2:46). That means day after day they walked right past the man and did nothing. Why on this day did they stop?<\/p>\n
The Scanner
\nI think the explanation that best fits the text is the Spirit of Jesus gave them a direct instruction. How can I be so sure? Maybe on other days Peter and John were caught up in conversation, or other things occupied their minds, so they walked past without noticing. That happens to us all the time. We stride right past human needs all around us. Then, occasionally, we aren\u2019t so preoccupied and happen to notice. So maybe on this day Peter just happened to notice the guy and had a moment of sympathy. Why not that explanation? Because moments of sympathy don\u2019t produce such extreme confidence.
\nLook at Peter\u2019s actions after telling the lame man to get up and walk, and notice the order of the verbs: \u201cTaking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man\u2019s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk\u201d (3:7\u20138).
\nPeter commanded him to walk, then reached down to take him by the right hand and help him up before he saw any evidence of healing. Peter didn\u2019t command him to walk but then ask a diagnostic question: \u201cAre you feeling any tingling in your legs?\u201d He was so sure of the man\u2019s healing that he reached down and pulled him up. Only then, according to the text, did the man\u2019s legs and feet become instantly strong. Only some direct instruction from God\u2019s Spirit could have persuaded Peter to risk lifting up the crippled man before seeing any evidence of healing.
\nPerhaps we wouldn\u2019t interpret Peter\u2019s experience this way so quickly had we not read about a parallel experience Jesus had that provides a helpful precedent. In John 5, Jesus entered a hospital-like setting of infirm people gathered around a pool of water thought to occasionally provide therapeutic benefits. Apparently, people believed angels invisibly stirred the water from time to time and whoever entered the water first was healed.
\nRather than offering His healing powers to everyone there, Jesus approached only one person (which was out of character for Jesus) and initiated a conversation that led to the man\u2019s healing. The similarities between this miracle and Peter\u2019s miracle are striking: this man was also crippled for nearly forty years; Jesus, like Peter, offered healing without the man asking; and Jesus similarly commanded the man to get up and walk. Later when the Jews asked Jesus to defend His Sabbath-breaking act of healing the man, Jesus explained: \u201cVery truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does\u201d (v. 19).
\nIn short, Jesus claimed to be acting from an ability to perceive spiritually His heavenly Father\u2019s will and activity. Probably that acute sensitivity resulted from His daily regimen of prayerful communion with the Father. Peter and the other apostles were also following that regimen, according to Luke\u2019s description of their lifestyle post-Pentecost. Luke said, \u201cThey devoted themselves to the apostles\u2019 teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer\u201d (Acts 2:42).
\nThese disciples who, as far as Scripture records, never asked Jesus to teach them to heal or preach or cast out demons but made only one educational request\u2014\u201cTeach us to pray\u201d (Luke 11:1)\u2014demonstrated that Jesus\u2019 example of daily prayer had penetrated their hearts and rearranged their priorities. So it is no wonder and makes great sense, given the parallels between the two healings, that Peter was similarly perceptive of the Spirit\u2019s spontaneous instruction on that particular day.
\nI wonder whether an expectation that the Spirit might instruct at any moment was the norm for the early believers. Think about deacon Philip in Acts, who got his start in ministry helping organize the food distribution for Greek widows within the church (6:5). His spiritual gifts and ministry skills apparently expanded to the point that he became a dynamic evangelist when the gospel spread beyond his home church in Jerusalem. Acts 8 records him having an experience of spiritual instruction. It states, \u201cNow an angel of the Lord said to Philip, \u2018Go south to the road\u2014the desert road\u2014that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.\u2019 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means \u2018queen of the Ethiopians\u2019). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, \u2018Go to that chariot and stay near it\u2019\u201d (vv. 26\u201329).
\nThe timing was perfect, as only the Holy Spirit could have known, for the eunuch to encounter someone who could lead him to faith in Jesus. So the Spirit dispatched Philip on the spur of the moment, and as soon as the evangelistic encounter bore fruit, Philip was transported away by the Spirit just as spontaneously (v. 39).
\nRemarkable.
\nI\u2019m not sure who, but sometime in Christian history someone decided to make most of us believe that spontaneous ministry instructions simply don\u2019t happen today, at least not as a general rule. Whoever it was convinced us to relegate such experiences to the class of \u201crare exceptions.\u201d Based on what argument, I don\u2019t know. The fact that it rarely happens? Just because most people do not forgive offenders seventy times seven does not mean it is an invalid expectation and should not be a common experience for all Christians.
\nI am not saying a person receives spontaneous ministry instructions from the Lord every day. Yet people who stay in prayerful communion with the Lord and who believe He may occasionally give specific ministry instructions are likely to receive those instructions quite frequently, because they stay \u201ctuned in.\u201d It\u2019s like living with a police scanner turned on.
\nI can bear witness to this fact and have many stories to tell. Like the time I was spiritually \u201cinformed\u201d to travel to a distant city to lead a man I didn\u2019t know out of the sin of adultery. When I obeyed, with an understandable amount of trepidation, it turned out he had just prayed that morning for God to send him \u201ca Nathan\u201d (the prophet who confronted King David about his sin of adultery with Bathsheba in 2 Sam. 12:7) to help deliver him from that sin. Like David, the fellow I sought out was set free from his sin and found forgiveness. His marriage and family were saved from destruction, and he became a friend and coworker for many years.
\nStories like this abound throughout Christendom today. Like the time God\u2019s Spirit told a woman to leave a church meeting and turn out of the church parking lot in the opposite direction from her route home. Not knowing why or where she should go, she sensed that she should pull into a local convenience store. When she entered, the craziest thought struck her mind: Go up to the cashier and stand on your head. More than likely, most of us would have stopped right there and rushed home. But she did it! The cashier burst into tears and explained how despondent he had been about life and how he had just told God that evening, \u201cIf You\u2019re real, have someone come in here and stand on their head in front of me.\u201d
\nI\u2019m not suggesting you start practicing headstands. But why not move as close as you can to the Lord every day? The world is no less full today than in Bible times of people who desperately need to know God is real and His compassion is incredible. Why wouldn\u2019t God want to dispatch His people like you and me far and wide and often to prove His love and offer His grace? Most of the time we can probably offer that love and grace without special instructions. The Bible does a great job showing us how to do that in general terms. But there will be times, many more than we think, when God wants to give us the joy of offering His love in just the right way at just the right time with just the right words. What a privilege when you get to be part of that partnership.
\nThat will get anyone out of bed in the morning!<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. Considering a person\u2019s sense of meaning comes largely from engaging day-to-day in God\u2019s purposes, on a scale of one to ten (with ten being very meaningful), how meaningful does your life feel currently? Why did you assign that number?<\/p>\n
2. 2. The chapter\u2019s key point is based on the assumption that Peter and John passed by the lame man frequently, an assumption supported by the use of \u201cevery day\u201d in Acts 2:46 and 3:2. What other repeated phrase in those same verses supports that main assumption? And why?<\/p>\n
3. 3. God occasionally wants to employ us in His work by giving specific instructions. But most Christians hesitate to act because they doubt their ability to hear God accurately. What might we do to avoid the problems of hesitation or false impressions?<\/p>\n
4. 4. Can you think of a time you acted on a \u201csense\u201d of a divine instruction? Or maybe a time you chickened out? (We all do it.)<\/p>\n
Lord, I certainly don\u2019t want to be arrogant or presumptuous about my ability to hear from You. But I am convinced You want to employ me in Your work and occasionally give me specific instructions. I am open. Guide me. Guard me. Use me. I want my days to count for You. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nLittle kids possess an insatiable need to ask the question \u201cWhy?\u201d That question was the key to the insights in this chapter. You\u2019ll be surprised at what you might discover when you rekindle that childlike habit. Why did Jesus or the disciples or some other character do what they did? Why then? Why that way? (Though this requires imagination and speculation, start with clues the text\/context provides and the Bible as a whole supports.)
\nGo to another story of Jesus healing a lame man: John 5. Jot down the basic facts and then start asking why about everything that transpired. Don\u2019t forget to read the immediate context before and after the healing. See what new insights come to your mind. Then hop on dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app to compare your thoughts with mine.<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
Fish Sandwiches<\/p>\n
Feeding the Five Thousand<\/p>\n
Mark 6:30\u201344<\/p>\n
How did five loaves and two fish feed over ten thousand rather than just ten?<\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re talking about money, time, energy, or resources of any sort, people never think they have enough. This is not usually a function of greed, however. Maybe poor choices. Or overcommitment. But most people who wish they had more time and money truly are a day late and a dollar short. They need more, because they don\u2019t have enough to cover their current obligations.
\nI can hear the blamers: \u201cThey got themselves into that mess. Buying stuff on credit. Signing their kids up for ten different sports. They just need to slow down. Discipline their spending. Live within their means.\u201d
\nYeah . . . well, lots of problems are caused by unfortunate circumstances. But okay, we got it. People can get themselves into a mess too. Nevertheless, they still are time and money crunched, and all you\u2019ve done is criticize. Is that the way God looks at people in debt up to their eyeballs? \u201cYou\u2019ve made your bed; now lie in it.\u201d
\nNo. He has compassion on\u2014especially on\u2014the plight of people who made their own mess. Isn\u2019t that, in fact, the very heart of the cross of Jesus Christ? God saves those who chose their way into calamity.
\nIn the Old Testament, the Lord revealed exhibit A of His brand of compassion when He established the Jubilee system. Every seven years people who had racked up debts had those debts forgiven, and every fifty years any property people might have forfeited was restored to them. No questions asked. They were not brought before an examiner to explain how they got into such debt and to justify why they deserved another chance at landownership and financial stability. The Lord was so adamant about this spirit of compassion toward those who suffered lack that He considered it evil to withhold help, even if it meant the helper might pay a personal price.<\/p>\n
At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the LORD\u2019s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. . . .
\nIf anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: \u201cThe seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,\u201d so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. (Deut. 15:1\u20132, 7\u20139)<\/p>\n
Most Christians understand this idea of compassion. We aren\u2019t blamers. We want to do something to help. This spirit of compassion motivates every Christian ministry on earth: to help those who can\u2019t help themselves. But we encounter a chronic problem here. We, the people in compassion ministries, are among those trapped in lack. We face multitudes of needs with inadequate resources. We who minister to beggars become beggars. We are full of mercy but starved of means.
\nIs it inevitable that our compassion will always be a day late and a dollar short? Not according to the apostle Paul\u2019s promise in 2 Corinthians when he was raising funds for Jerusalem\u2019s poverty-stricken Christians. He wrote, \u201cAnd God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work\u201d (9:8).
\nPaul was so certain of this \u201cabundance principle\u201d that he repeated it even more explicitly just two verses later: \u201cNow he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion\u201d (vv. 10\u201311).
\nThat\u2019s a wonderfully encouraging promise for those who long to be compassionate and generous. If only it were true . . .
\nWell, of course it is true, but the collective experience of most Christian ministries doesn\u2019t appear to verify it. So the question is: Why? If God enriches us in every way, if He makes all grace abound to us who intend to do good works, so we always have all we need, why isn\u2019t that our reality? In all things at all times, having less than we need, we barely get by doing less than all the good work that needs to get done. That\u2019s more like our experience.
\nI think there\u2019s an explanation for our chronically under-resourced ministries\u2014in Jesus\u2019 miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, if we examine it with fresh eyes. Let\u2019s review the story as it is told in Mark 6:30\u201344. The key to seeing this miracle with fresh eyes is to put yourself in the disciples\u2019 position in every scene.<\/p>\n
Scene One: Ministry Reports
\nThe story opens with the disciples gathered around Jesus and reporting \u201call they had done and taught\u201d (v. 30). They had just returned from their first ministry trip without Him. A few days prior He had tossed them the keys to the church van, told them to go do the stuff they had seen Him doing, and then surprised them by not getting into the van.
\nTotally on their own, they ventured out, looked at their WWJD bracelets, and began plotting their approach, finally agreeing Jesus would travel around and see what happens that draws a crowd. So that\u2019s what they did, apparently, and sure enough, things happened. Wonderful things. They healed people. They cast out demons. And not just a few times either. Numerous times. They participated in so many miraculous encounters that reporting them all took hours. (What a stark contrast to testimony services in most of our churches today!) We know this because \u201cso many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat\u201d (v. 31). Remember that fact. It will be important later.
\nThe scene closes with Jesus recognizing that the disciples were like kids coming home from youth camp, running on a spiritual high. So He suggested they take a breath, slow down, and get away from the bustling limelight for a little while to be alone with Him. They shoved a boat off into waist-deep water, hopped in, caught a good breeze, and sailed for the opposite shore.<\/p>\n
Scene Two: A Hungry, Helpless Multitude
\nAfter about an hour or so, they neared the lake\u2019s northern shore and were surprised to see a crowd of people greeting them with cheers, flapping robes, and clouds of dust. Perhaps the people on the shore were so enthused by the disciples\u2019 testimonies they could not bear missing out on more stories. So they trekked around the lake\u2019s north shore, spreading the word and picking up more fans along the way until thousands of eager people mobbed the beach.
\nThis was probably the disciples\u2019 first experience of being the center of attention. It might have felt good initially, but they were certainly glad to pass the ministry baton to Jesus when He saw the spiritually hungry crowd and decided to feed their souls rather than continue on with the retreat plans.
\nAs time wore on, however, the famished disciples started to fidget. They gazed at a tired sun beginning to settle down for the evening, then waited for Jesus to pause and pulled Him aside. Doing their best to hide any sign of selfish motives, they couched their comments in apparent concern for the crowd: \u201cIt\u2019s already very late. Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat\u201d (Mark 6:35\u201336). What they probably meant was, \u201cJesus, can You wrap it up so we can eat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Scene Three: Confounding Commands
\nHere\u2019s where things went weird. Jesus gave hungry disciples an unrealistic command: \u201cYou give them something to eat\u201d (Mark 6:37).
\nWhat were the disciples to think? Of course they assumed the only way to fulfill that command was to purchase food. That\u2019s the mode their minds were in, because they had just suggested that the people be sent away to \u201cbuy\u201d food.
\nWe don\u2019t know how much time elapsed between Jesus\u2019 command that the disciples provide food for the multitude and their response. But according to Scripture, \u201cThey said to him, \u2018That would take more than half a year\u2019s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?\u2019\u201d (v. 37).
\nEven though the text jumps quickly from command to response, it couldn\u2019t have been immediate. Perhaps they clustered off to the side, deliberating like a church finance committee. How much would that cost? Matthew, the former tax collector, was probably good with figures. \u201cHow many people do you suppose are out there?\u201d he asked. That calculation alone probably took a few minutes, as they counted a group of one hundred people, noted its approximate size, imagined the multitude in sections, estimated the number of groups, and multiplied. Good thing Matthew kept his abacus!
\nSomehow these men, who rarely shopped for groceries, arrived at a price per person for a basic meal\u2014who knows whether they were even close to right\u2014and multiplied that figure times the estimated size of the multitude. Thirty thousand dollars, by modern equivalent!
\nSomething like that must have occurred before they returned to Jesus in mild protest. But I think something else probably happened before that. Their protest implies they recognized the command to be unreasonable. Remember, these men were inclined to obey Jesus. They probably wouldn\u2019t have refused without first attempting to comply. Did they brainstorm for a few moments about a fund-raising campaign? Did one of them suggest they distribute pledge cards throughout the crowd, maybe even ask Bartholomew, who had a beautiful baritone voice, to sing an emotional song before having Peter make a stirring appeal? Was this the first time in human history when someone proposed the idea of creating a poster with a big thermometer marked with the thirty-thousand-dollar goal at the top so they could track their progress?
\nWhatever they considered and for however long they tried, no plan seemed realistic. Jesus just doesn\u2019t understand finances, they concluded. He thinks you can just pull money out of the mouth of a fish! So they reluctantly but firmly brought their findings to Jesus. \u201cCan\u2019t be done. No way.\u201d
\nHowever, Jesus didn\u2019t even blink when they balked. He knew what they would think, so He was ready with the next command: \u201cHow many loaves do you have? . . . Go and see\u201d (Mark 6:38).
\nAgain the text jumps abruptly to their response: \u201cFive\u2014and two fish.\u201d Please notice, just as we did, before that something probably went on between Jesus\u2019 command and their response. However, instead of considering that right now, we\u2019ll come back to it in a minute.<\/p>\n
Scene Four: A Miracle in Their Hands
\nWhat happens next is well-known, of course, just poorly imagined. Yes, we picture Jesus directing the disciples to seat the people in groups of hundreds and fifties (vv. 39\u201340). Their previous feasibility study prepared them for that task. We picture Jesus holding a loaf of bread in His hands, looking up to heaven to give thanks, breaking it in sections\u2014easy to picture because we see something like that every time we observe Holy Communion\u2014and handing chunks to each of His disciples for distribution (v. 41).
\nHere\u2019s where our imaginations usually stop short. So let\u2019s press on. Imagine one of the disciples receiving his chunk of bread, then looking at the first group of fifty. Imagine his brows crinkling with the question, \u201cHow is this chunk going to feed even these fifty people, much less all the other groups in my section?\u201d
\nHe would have been tempted to break off for each person a piece the size of a Communion wafer, thinking he would have to stretch the bread as far as possible. \u201cAt least we can give each person a little taste,\u201d he could have said. But that approach wouldn\u2019t have made sense. Jesus talked about feeding hungry people. A wafer of bread would not begin to satiate their hunger. So when the disciple came to his first person, I imagine him boldly deciding to offer a piece of bread that had a chance of helping ease the rumbling of an empty stomach.
\nNow imagine this: he broke off a good-sized piece, probably thinking, Only about three people will eat before I run out, handed it to a grateful person, who received and relished it. But as he did that, he felt movement in his hands, looked down, and the broken-off piece had grown back on the loaf. What? Look at that! Ha! I can\u2019t believe it! So he proceeded to the next person and did the same thing. Broke off a piece\u2014a little larger one this time\u2014testing a nascent hypothesis forming in his mind. He handed it to the person and\u2014voila!\u2014that piece grew back. He not only felt it; he also saw it happen this time, because he was watching to see what it would look like. And all the disciples experienced this!
\nCan you imagine the exploding excitement the disciples felt? To hold a miracle happening in their hands! You know how the miracle ended. The whole crowd was well fed, and the leftovers filled a basket for each of the hungry disciples.
\nThis is a remarkable story, one that stretches our imagination and credulity. But that\u2019s how it must have happened. Jesus not only fed the whole multitude by turning meager resources into megaresources, but He also blessed the disciples with the privilege of participating in the discovery and delivery of plenty. How we wish our churches and ministries would have that kind of experience. But as we acknowledged at the beginning of this chapter, that generally isn\u2019t the way it happens. Why must our compassionate hearts be tormented with visions of longing multitudes and lagging resources? For a possible answer, let\u2019s backtrack to scene three and that moment when Jesus invited the disciples to see how many loaves they could offer.<\/p>\n
Scene Three Revisited
\nHere\u2019s what I find remarkable, given what I know about myself. If I had been in that situation and Jesus had told me to check how many loaves and fish I had to offer, it\u2019s highly likely I would have counted five loaves and two fish. But feeling my own hunger pangs, I would have made myself a quick fish sandwich, secretly wolfed it down behind a big rock, and come back to Jesus saying, \u201cI have four loaves and one fish,\u201d with the smell of sardines on my breath!
\nI\u2019m just being honest. And if I had been there and done that, I think only nine or ten people\u2014tops\u2014would have been fed that day. The great majority of the multitude would have gone hungry. Of course, we can\u2019t know for sure, because that\u2019s not what the disciples did. However, I think the working of God\u2019s generous grace and provision gets interrupted if and when His followers use their resources to care for themselves first and offer only the excess to God.
\nWhen the Lord tells us to go see what we have to offer, whether regarding time, talents, or treasure, He expects us to declare everything we have\u2014not everything we have left over after we have cared for ourselves. In contrast to my tendency, the actual disciples displayed a paradox of kingdom economics that memorable day. They gave away what they themselves needed, and Jesus turned their sacrifice into surplus.
\nIn the days after Pentecost, when God\u2019s Spirit moved across the face of the world and created by His living Word the first church ever, we glimpse what He wanted the church to be like before people started messing with it. Clearly, His generous Spirit desired to create\u2014and did in fact create\u2014people who were radically generous (Acts 2:44\u201345). They clung to nothing (4:32). They placed everything in the Lord\u2019s hands to meet people\u2019s needs (vv. 34\u201335).
\nCould it be that anything less than that kind of generosity grieves the Lord and stifles His miraculous provision? Could it be that our resources fall short of the divinely promised \u201chaving all that you need\u201d because our breath smells like sardines?
\nMiracles of surplus follow moments of radical sacrifice.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. Give away what we ourselves need? That\u2019s counterintuitive. Can you think of any other counterintuitive commands of Jesus?<\/p>\n
2. 2. The nightly news often features stories of common generosity. But have you ever seen examples of radical generosity where people jeopardized their own well-being for the sake of giving to others? Describe one.<\/p>\n
3. 3. The apostle Paul described a case of radical generosity in 2 Corinthians 8:1\u20133. Review how and why he commended the Macedonians.<\/p>\n
Lord, I freely admit that everything in me is geared toward making sure I have what I and my loved ones need before I even think of giving anything away, whether resources, time, or effort. And I can see how that can cut me off from experiencing evidence of Your gracious provision. Give me courage and faith to move toward a lifestyle of radical generosity. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nYears ago, it was popular for Christians to wear WWJD bracelets to remind them to behave properly by asking \u201cWhat Would Jesus Do?\u201d That\u2019s always a good practice, of course, but to have fresh eyes on biblical narratives, consider wearing a different reminder: \u201cWhat Would I Do (in that situation)?\u201d
\nAlthough cultures have changed over time, human beings haven\u2019t. How would you have felt under those circumstances? What would your reactions have been? It\u2019s generally safe to assume that the story\u2019s characters would have dealt with the same kinds of thoughts and feelings you would have in their place.
\nPractice putting yourself into Gideon\u2019s story (Judg. 7), when God told him to whittle down his army to 300 soldiers before launching battle against 135,000 Midianite soldiers. What doesn\u2019t the text say that you can reasonably assume occurred in Gideon\u2019s mind? Does that give you any new insights about the nature of obedience? Hop on dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app to compare your thoughts with mine.<\/p>\n
5<\/p>\n
Dead Pigs<\/p>\n
Exorcising the Demoniac<\/p>\n
Mark 5:1\u201320<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can I be sure of what I believe?\u201d is a question we all ask. Will God answer?<\/p>\n
Does Jesus really answer our prayers for a good parking space? Or to find a \u201cjust right\u201d dress on a 75-percent-off clearance rack? I\u2019ve heard those kinds of testimonies\u2014healing common headaches, car accidents that almost but didn\u2019t happen\u2014often with a twinge of skepticism and concern, because there are usually people listening in the same room who suffer with multiyear, unrelenting, debilitating headaches or whose son or daughter died in a car crash.
\nDon\u2019t get me wrong. I want to give God all the credit He deserves. I have no doubt God wonderfully intervenes in answer to prayer and many times before we\u2019ve even prayed. But, for example, does He really orchestrate our worship services in ways we sometimes claim? \u201cDid you see how the last song fit the sermon perfectly? The song leader who picked it had no idea what the preacher was going to be preaching!\u201d
\nWell, if we\u2019re going to give God credit for those situations, then we had better go all the way and give Him credit for this one too . . .
\nI was preaching a sermon series on Galatians. One particular Sunday I planned to exposit the part where Paul was angry with the Judaizers for distorting the gospel of salvation by faith and insisting that Gentile converts be circumcised. My practice was to have a lay leader read aloud the upcoming sermon\u2019s text. So I asked him to read up to the point where Paul shouts through his pen, \u201cI wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!\u201d (Gal. 5:12).
\nThe lay leader hesitated. \u201cYou\u2019re not serious?\u201d
\n\u201cYes. In fact, read it like you\u2019re angry. Really emphasize it.\u201d He did not want to do it, but he was a team player.
\nIn those days our practice was to insert a moment of special music\u2014a solo, duet, or instrumental\u2014between the Scripture reading and the sermon. So the time came for the Scripture reading. Nervously, the lay leader began, but he valiantly pressed on to the punch line, gave it everything he had, and rang out the \u201cemasculate themselves!\u201d beautifully.
\nSeamlessly the piano played the opening notes of the special music, and without introduction our soloist, a petite college girl who was the poster child of innocence, stepped to the microphone and sang the wistful opening line, \u201cI\u2019ll never be the same again . . .\u201d
\nThe sanctuary erupted in laughter. She didn\u2019t get it and sang on. Someone explained it to her later.
\nShouldn\u2019t we credit God for that perfectly orchestrated serendipity too? Maybe it didn\u2019t feed any souls, but if laughter is the best medicine, it certainly healed multitudes that morning.
\nTrying to figure why, when, and how God chooses to grant our prayers is more challenging than calculus. At least there we have equations. Has anyone ever discovered an elegant (as mathematicians say) prayer equation?
\nThe answer is no. We are simply left in a conundrum. This story of the exorcising of the demoniac doesn\u2019t appear to help either. For as we shall see, Jesus received two main requests in this episode: one from the emancipated demoniac who wanted to follow Jesus for the rest of his life, and one from the legion of tormenting demons. Guess whose request Jesus granted? Not his brand-new disciple\u2019s but the demons\u2019! See what I mean? A conundrum.<\/p>\n
Exploring the Conundrum
\nLet\u2019s review. Here is the former demoniac\u2019s request: \u201cAs Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him\u201d (Mark 5:18).
\nHe was pleading. I picture him at Jesus\u2019 feet. \u201cPlease, please, please, let me go with You.\u201d If that isn\u2019t a heartfelt prayer, I don\u2019t know what is. Prayer is often nothing more than presenting our requests with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6), and what the man did definitely qualifies. True, Jesus stood right there with him in person and not \u201cup in heaven\u201d as we picture Him today when we pray. But in every respect the newly restored man\u2019s words were a passionate prayer request\u2014and one that came from a thankful convert. Why wouldn\u2019t Jesus answer that prayer?
\nThat\u2019s a question made more troubling when contrasted with the request Jesus did answer. In similar fashion the demons threw the man at Jesus\u2019 feet and cried, \u201cPlease, please, please, don\u2019t torture us!\u201d The heartfelt petition continued: \u201cHe begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area. A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, \u2018Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them\u2019\u201d (Mark 5:10\u201312).
\nThe Greek word for \u201cbeg\u201d is parakaleo, from which we get one of our words for the Holy Spirit\u2014the Paraclete\u2014because He is the one whom we passionately seek and who lovingly helps in our time of need. Is that not the nature of prayer?
\nSo the legion of demons voiced their \u201cprayer request\u201d through the enemy-occupied man\u2019s larynx, pleading for Jesus\u2019 mercy. Bible teachers offer various explanations for their desire not to be geographically displaced. Some assert that demons function within assigned regions and territories. That may or may not be the case. What is troubling, however, and further whirls the swirling conundrum, is the fact that Jesus not only said yes to this prayer but did so at the expense of two thousand pigs and the economic and emotional equilibrium of the pigs\u2019 owners and townspeople. \u201cHe gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside. . . . Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man\u2014and told about the pigs as well. Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region\u201d (vv. 13\u201314, 16\u201317).
\nSo why did Jesus deny the prayer of His new convert but grant the request of the demons?<\/p>\n
Explaining the Conundrum
\nWe find the answer by noting Jesus\u2019 instruction to the former demoniac and empathizing with a handful of people we hardly notice but for whom Jesus showed special concern: the man\u2019s family. \u201cJesus did not let him, but said, \u2018Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.\u2019 So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed\u201d (vv. 19\u201320).
\nWhen Jesus refused to grant the man\u2019s request to go with Him, He redirected the former demoniac\u2019s attention homeward. We don\u2019t know anything about the man\u2019s family, but he probably had a wife and children. Why would this be significant?
\nThink about his wife. Put yourself in her position. Was he a demoniac when she originally married him? This chapter describes him as someone living among the tombs of the dead: \u201cNo one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones\u201d (Mark 5:3\u20135).
\nWas he that kind of man when they married? Did she walk near the local cemetery one day, hear his insane screaming, find herself attracted, run home, buy a bride\u2019s magazine, and start planning her wedding? \u201cOh, Mother, I\u2019ve just met the most wonderful man! I can\u2019t wait to marry him.\u201d Of course not.
\nEven if her parents arranged the marriage, which is likely, they would not have chosen a crazy man for a son-in-law and the father of their grandchildren. Somewhere along the way in the marriage, something began to change in him. Perhaps one day he threw a fit. His irrational behavior escalated. His anger grew more and more frightening. Too often she had to gather the children together and run from the house. Her life had become a nightmare.
\nNothing helped. Not trying to be a better wife. Love him more. Pray for him. Eventually her parents intervened. Took her and the kids back into the protection of their home. Perhaps that sent her husband over the edge. He went berserk, and the whole town had to step in to drive him away, or there was no telling what he might do.
\nMaybe it didn\u2019t happen exactly that way. But something similar must have happened. Young girls don\u2019t marry demoniacs or overt abusers who turn home into hell. Her life had become a story she never could have imagined. As much as it wounded her spirit to hear him screaming at night in the hollows of the tombs, she was glad to be out of danger. Out of that marriage.
\nSo what was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to think when he showed up on her doorstep \u201cdressed and in his right mind\u201d (v. 15) after Jesus delivered him from evil? Just believe him? How was she supposed to know he\u2019d really changed? How was she supposed to believe it wouldn\u2019t come back\u2014whatever it was? Her husband appeared normal at the time of their courtship and wedding. Then later, out of the blue, he became a monster. Something in him\u2014a dark power that lay hidden\u2014rose up unexpectedly and devoured him, her, and their home. How was she supposed to believe the same thing wouldn\u2019t happen again?
\nIt would take more than his words: \u201cSweetheart. I\u2019m not the man I was. I promise you\u2019ll never see me behave like that again. You don\u2019t have to worry.\u201d How many women have heard similar words over the centuries? How many women have felt like a fool when he lapsed into the same behavior a second, third . . . or tenth time?
\nWhat she needed was not words. She needed evidence. Evidence of finality. Actually, the newly restored man did too. They all\u2014the man, the wife, the kids, the parents, the townspeople\u2014needed something they could point to. \u201cThere. See that? It\u2019s over. Everything\u2019s going to be different now.\u201d Enter\u2014or I should say exit\u2014two thousand squealing, frenzied pigs, bobbing and thrashing and growing silent in the churning waves, washing up waterlogged on shore. Heaps and heaps of useless pork. And Jesus said, \u201cSo does that help?\u201d You better believe it helped! The conundrum is solved: the demons got what they wanted so the man and his family could get what they needed.<\/p>\n
The Gift of Evidence
\nPerhaps the most fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith across the centuries is sola fide\u2014faith alone. Salvation does not come by human effort. No number of good works can earn the gift of eternal life. But like a swollen river that breaches levies and floods towns, over the centuries the sola fide doctrine has overwhelmed conventional Christian thought. We think that everything is based only on faith and not just the gift of salvation. But nothing could be further from the truth.
\nFaith is a gift, and God is the giver. Often faith comes by hearing the Word of God, but most of the time He gives and strengthens faith through the presentation of evidence. From the skies above and the stars beyond that \u201cpour forth speech\u201d (Ps. 19:1\u20132) to an empty tomb and expired swine below, God reveals the glory of His holiness and handiwork through observable data.
\nGod is in the business of making the incredible credible. Yes, He expects us to believe some unbelievable things, but the God who loves us supremely understands how the hardest things require the hardiest proof.
\nWhat could be harder to believe than the fact that you and I can be rescued from the power of sin and evil? While our plight might not be as graphic as the demoniac\u2019s, it is just as grave. The power of sin and evil from within controls us, as it controlled him. Paul addressed this with blunt pessimism in Romans. He wrote, \u201cI know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do\u2014this I keep on doing\u201d (7:18\u201319).
\nWe may not be bouncing off the walls of rough-hewn tombs, but we are just as helpless to cast out the domineering power of sin and enter spiritual freedom. According to Paul, only deliverance will do. And deliverance is precisely what Paul declared. \u201cWhat a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death\u201d (7:24\u20148:2).
\nThe demoniac\u2019s transformation was immediate. Mark offered this threefold description of his emancipated condition: \u201cWhen they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind\u201d (Mark 5:15).
\n\u201cSitting there\u201d\u2014as opposed to writhing in inconsolable, self-mutilating torment. \u201cDressed\u201d\u2014as opposed to exhibiting shameful nakedness. \u201cIn his right mind\u201d\u2014as opposed to uttering bizarre rants. This threefold description parallels our spiritual change too closely for us to miss the correlation between what happened to him and what happens to us as we are transformed into people of peace, of righteousness, and with sound minds.
\nThe point we must not miss, though, is that Jesus did not stop His transformative work. Even though profound initial evidence existed, that was not enough to reassure anyone\u2014the man or his family\u2014that the transformation was thorough and enduring. Everyone needed something more. Jesus graciously supplied that something more through the destruction of the pigs\u2014undeniable evidence of evil power vanquished.
\nEvidence. This is what God loves to give.
\nBy the time I was thirty-three, I had been preaching for nine years. All those years, I had to go through an informal ritual prior to every sermon. I reminded myself why I believed all this \u201cChristianity stuff.\u201d I rehearsed five points methodically, literally counting to five on my fingers: the reliability of Scripture, the classic arguments for God\u2019s existence, the unquenchable witness of the early Christians in the face of persecution, the perseverance of the Christian witness across the centuries, and remarkable modern-day testimonies. Having reminded myself of my belief system\u2019s validity, I could step behind the pulpit one more Sunday.
\nBut my intellectual process was like the Old Testament sacrificial system\u2014something I had to repeat week after week in order to hold my faith firmly. I longed for something more. A surer, more lasting confidence. I told myself, I shouldn\u2019t have to face these same questions and go through this ritual week after week. So eventually I asked a small group of my congregation to pray for me as I went away to a ministry conference. \u201cI need something to happen in my life to turn these question marks into exclamation points,\u201d I explained.
\nWhat happened is a long story for another time, but suffice it to say I longed for something, something which at that time I did not know God loves to give. At the very end of a four-day conference, a man approached me in a crowd of people. \u201cYou are wanting someone to pray for you, aren\u2019t you?\u201d I said yes. Nothing else.
\nHe laid his hand on my heart. When he did, my heart grew very warm, from the inside out. It was a strange sensation, not like the warmth of his hand on my chest. He said, \u201cYou\u2019ve been desiring purity strongly.\u201d He could not have known I had been memorizing Psalm 51:10: \u201cCreate in me a pure heart, O God . . .\u201d My knees went weak. He continued, saying, \u201cSometime over the next two or three days the Lord will give you the desire of your heart, and you will begin to weep uncontrollably for several hours.\u201d Then he simply prayed a prayer of blessing. That was it.
\nSure enough, partway through my five-hour trip home the next morning, I began to weep just as I decided to recite my Psalm 51:10 memory verse. I could not stop crying for the remaining three hours of the trip, even though I had to drive through two tollbooths on the interstate!
\nThere were no dead pigs after that event, but the experience was so profound I was forever changed and convinced. As I write this chapter, I am sixty-three years old. Over the past thirty years, I have preached another fifteen hundred times. Not once since that experience have I ever had to use my five-finger recital of \u201cWhy I believe . . .\u201d
\nSince that moment, when I first understood God as the one who loves to give evidence to help us believe, I have had numerous opportunities to proclaim that fact and participate in evidentiary experiences that have reassured many others. (Although I am pleased to report that no animals have been harmed in the making of this testimony.)<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. Make a list of at least five biblical examples of what God did or does to help people believe something about Him or His promises.<\/p>\n
2. 2. A common saying is the only things certain in life are death and taxes. But is there anything else you would include in that list of things you are absolutely sure about? What enables you to be so convinced?<\/p>\n
3. 3. Many people struggle to believe in God\u2019s goodness and their value in His sight. When has something happened that helped you become more confident in God\u2019s love? How about in His acceptance? Or in your value?<\/p>\n
4. 4. The Bible does not continue the story, but in light of the way Jesus treated desperate people so compassionately in the gospel records, what might He have done for the poor herders who lost all their pigs?<\/p>\n
Lord, sometimes I think the things that are most real are the hardest things to believe. I need Your help. Plus, there are things I once found easy to believe, but now they\u2019re not so easy. Would You help me believe? I will keep trying to believe what\u2019s true based on Your Word alone, knowing You\u2019ll give me the evidence I need in just the right way at just the right time as I stay focused on You. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nIt is common, when an author begins writing a novel, for him or her to develop the backstory. What led up to the point where the novel begins? How did the characters become who they are? What is the history of the place or situation they find themselves in? The full backstory, which never shows up in the novel, is important for everything that exists.
\nSimilarly, all Bible miracles have a backstory, a real one. Sometimes the facts in the biblical account can help you imagine the backstory, which in turn helps you discover more truths in the miracle itself. For example, in John 9 the gospel writer offered several facts about a blind man and his parents that help us imagine their lives prior to the blind man\u2019s healing. Craft a simple backstory based on those facts that helps you identify with their situation before and after the healing. Then go to dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app to compare your thoughts with mine.<\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
Travel Plans<\/p>\n
Calming the Storm<\/p>\n
Mark 4:35\u20145:21<\/p>\n
If you track the Lord\u2019s movements, you can discover His priorities and join in.<\/p>\n
If Neil Armstrong had not stepped foot on the moon, we might still be eating foil-covered TV dinners while watching grainy black-and-white Dick Van Dyke shows. The lunar landing was a great moment that changed history and our lives, but a great moment is never an isolated event. Most great moments in history are made up of minimoments. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, they fit together to form a whole picture.
\nWhen Armstrong\u2019s boot touched luna firma, hundreds of significant advances in propulsion, computing, communication, materials science, and physiology had already occurred on terra firma to make that possible. Each of these individual achievements, notable and necessary in themselves, were most meaningful because they contributed to that one great accomplishment.
\nOur important advances in technology, including what makes your toaster toast and your refrigerator defrost, owe themselves to the systems developed during the Apollo program. There\u2019s no telling how many modern conveniences and advantages we might not have today if it weren\u2019t for NASA\u2019s quest.
\nHere\u2019s the point: when studying individual moments of some importance, always look for how those moments fit into a bigger picture. Even Neil Armstrong\u2019s celebrity moment was part of a greater headline: \u201cThe United States Wins the Race to the Moon!\u201d
\nThis is an important but often-overlooked point when it comes to exploring Scripture. Too often we segment Scripture into individual stand-alone moments. It\u2019s one of the unfortunate unintended consequences of snipping Scripture into chunks and slices of chapters and verses: we view Scripture like a stack of sticky notes rather than a scrolling storyboard.
\nSeeing Scripture with fresh eyes often requires mentally erasing all chapter and verse markers. That\u2019s when you may be able to see a narrative flow too often obstructed by the intrusive stops and starts.<\/p>\n
The Two Shall Become One
\nHere\u2019s a case in point. In Mark 4:35\u20145:21, Mark strung together two miraculous events that we typically treat separately: Jesus calmed the storm, and Jesus delivered the demoniac. But what if the insertion of a chapter five marker inaccurately signals a stop in the action? What if those two events form one narrative and together provide an indispensable lesson?
\nThat\u2019s what I hope to explore as we look at this section with the markers removed (with fresh eyes). It\u2019s all one flowing story about one great moment. Here are the basic events: Jesus journeyed across the Sea of Galilee, faced and eliminated a violent storm, landed on the opposite shore, encountered and exorcised a demon-possessed man, and from there proceeded on with ministry. When you simply remove the markers, something intriguing springs to the surface: Were these two events merely sequential, or is there a correlation between the violent storm and the encounter with the demoniac? This calls for some textual investigation, a search for any clues to a correlation. We find at least two. \u201cA furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, \u2018Teacher, don\u2019t you care if we drown?\u2019 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, \u2018Quiet! Be still!\u2019 Then the wind died down and it was completely calm\u201d (4:37\u201339).
\nThe first clue that the storm and the demoniac\u2019s restoration might be correlated is that this threatening storm seemed beyond the ordinary. Jesus traveled in the boat with seasoned fishermen. Storms were common on this body of water, bounded by mountains that funnel winds from the north. However, the disciples\u2019 level of fear in this case suggests an abnormal intensity to the storm; it made crusty seamen tremble. Mark described it as furious, meaning \u201cangry.\u201d That is a common way of characterizing violent storms but perhaps more fitting than you might first think, until you consider the way Jesus responded to this storm.
\nMark chose the word rebuke. That was an odd way for Jesus to react. After all, a storm is a natural phenomenon caused by wind doing what it does by nature. The word rebuke is used when there has been willful intent behind an immoral or inappropriate act. The wind did not choose to stir up a furious squall.
\nAn unexpected furry family addition regularly reminds me what rebuke really means, with my wife\u2019s help. One day a cat showed up at our patio door and adopted us as her forever family. All it took was us feeding her a couple of times, and she decided we belonged to her. Clearly we were never going to get rid of her and appropriately decided to name her Sliver. More than occasionally, Sliver kills a mouse or small bird and presents it to us for\u2014I\u2019m guessing\u2014admiration. That always bothers me.
\nThen one day I witnessed Sliver\u2019s hunting process. She didn\u2019t just kill the mouse with one swift strike of her claws or clamping of her jaws; she maimed it. Then she batted it around for a while, hurt it a little more, tossed it, and pounced on it over and over, as though she were perfecting her skills. Until finally\u2014who knows why?\u2014she ended the torture by tearing off the head. Is that too graphic? Then you\u2019ll understand why I began to call Sliver \u201cYou murderer!\u201d
\nMy vitriol has only increased as I have seen that process repeated over and over with little squirrels, birds, moles, and more mice. Every time I inform my wife, \u201cThe murderer struck again.\u201d
\nBut my wife, who does not share my disgust, simply replies with undeserved grace, \u201cDon\u2019t call her a murderer. She\u2019s a cat. She\u2019s just doing what cats do.\u201d
\n\u201cHey, why are you rebuking me? I\u2019m not the one chewing off the squirrel\u2019s head!\u201d
\nOf course, my wife\u2019s point is the one I am making here about Jesus\u2019 way of relating to the storm. A rebuke is appropriate only when there is evil intent or negligence. You don\u2019t rebuke purely natural behavior, when something has no choice in the matter. The wind had not decided to swamp the boat and drown the people.
\nSo why did Mark use the verb rebuke to describe how Jesus dealt with the wind and waves? Apparently, he recognized a similarity between that event and how Jesus spoke to demons, because Mark used the same word to describe how Jesus exorcised the disruptive demon that could not contain itself when He taught in the Capernaum synagogue (Mark 1:25). Plus, He scolded the waves, \u201cBe still!\u201d with the same word He used to scold that demon.
\nThis provides one piece of evidence that something else is going on during the sea-crossing moment. That \u201csomething else\u201d becomes clearer and more convincing when Jesus and the disciples disembark on the lake\u2019s eastern shore: \u201cThey went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him\u201d (5:1\u20132).
\nAfter a detailed and shocking description of the condition of the man (often referred to as the demoniac) and his bizarre behavior (see previous chapter), Mark continued to describe his actions. Mark reported, \u201cWhen he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, \u2018What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God\u2019s name don\u2019t torture me!\u2019\u201d (vv. 6\u20137).
\nThe moment Jesus\u2019 toes touched damp sand, a shockwave of fear forced the stumbling demoniac out of his seaside den. The demoniac knew the Son of God was coming and who He was. How did he know? Who tipped him off?
\nWe learn later that this poor fellow\u2019s body is the physical address of a whole \u201clegion\u201d of demons. A first-century Roman legion consisted of about five thousand soldiers. Think about that. This is the first time Jesus set foot in that Gerasene region, and the moment He landed, thousands of enemy demons recognized their doom, rushed out of the darkness, and pled for mercy through the voice of their helpless host. Some kind of reconnaissance communication must have been going on in a spiritual dimension even before Jesus\u2019 beach landing.<\/p>\n
A Big Flak Attack
\nNow let\u2019s combine these two events that seem inappropriately separated by a chapter marker and in light of the textual evidence consider a possible unifying scenario. First, a rebuke-worthy, furious storm arose that could have thwarted Jesus\u2019 progress across the lake toward new territory. Second, a demon-infested man knew Jesus was coming, He was the Son of God, and He was about to wipe out the opposition. Does this not sound like all one event rather than two?
\nNear the end of World War II, the Allied forces engaged in bombing missions to destroy factories and command centers deep in the heart of Germany. We\u2019ve seen the old movies where a squadron of B-17s flies in formation toward its target, and as the bombers close in, the skies fill with flashes and thunder of antiaircraft gunfire\u2014so-called flak\u2014intended to prevent the bombers\u2019 destructive arrival. It\u2019s all one mission: the flight toward the concentration of enemy power, the encounter with ineffective destructive flak, and the release of explosive power that wipes out enemy war-making ability.
\nThis is exactly what we see when we don\u2019t separate the miracle of Jesus\u2019 calming the winds and the waves and the miracle of the healing of the demoniac. Jesus intentionally, almost abruptly, got in the boat on the sea\u2019s western side where all His ministry had been concentrated to cross over to new territory. He appears to be on mission. He suddenly faced the flak of malevolent winds and waves, but their fury proved ineffective. He proceeded to a very specific target where there was a concentration of demonic power, and He destroyed it. It appears to be all one event, not two.<\/p>\n
The Invasion Pattern
\nI believe this cosmic scenario is true to the text. But it should do more than impress us with high drama, for it also instructs us. The cosmic dimension of these two miracles shows what God intends when the gospel ministry of Jesus enters new territories in the lives of people like you and me. In other words, there is a pattern to God\u2019s saving work.
\nLet\u2019s imagine a scenario in which a troublesome area of sin in a person\u2019s life needs to be eliminated. This \u201cinvasion\u201d narrative presents the following four-stage, hopeful picture of what can happen.<\/p>\n
Enemy Interference
\nOur souls\u2019 Enemy will not sit idly by and let us engage Christ\u2019s power, which works in us to \u201cwill and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose\u201d (Phil. 2:13). He will stir up winds of interference of some sort when we invite God to work in new territories of character or behavior. That interference may be situational (e.g., life distractions, busyness), psychological (e.g., discouragement, doubt), intellectual (e.g., confusion, cynicism), or theological (e.g., \u201cthere is no such thing as demonic interference\u201d).
\nWhatever form the interference might take, it will initially toss you about. But as a follower of Jesus Christ, you can voice His authority to disempower enemy interference with simple prayers, even by just speaking Jesus\u2019 name aloud in the situation. The Holy Spirit affirms through Scripture that \u201cat the name of Jesus every knee should bow\u201d (v. 10), including beings who have no physical knees.<\/p>\n
Root Causes Exposed
\nJust as the demoniac rushed out of the darkness into the light, no evil power or influence can remain hidden in the Son of God\u2019s presence. It must reveal and identify itself.
\nAs a pastor, I have walked alongside many people who have suffered physical ailments that could not be diagnosed for a time. If and when the doctors finally identified the problem, great relief and hope rushed in. Why? An accurate diagnosis opens the door to effective treatment. The same is true for our struggles with spiritual ailments. When a person understands the root cause of their susceptibility to certain temptations and their struggle with discouraging sin habits, their release and relief are more likely. That\u2019s because the cause of our struggle with habitual sin often is not what we think it is.
\nFor example, people who have an anger problem often try to get over the problem by seeking better self-control. But many people with an anger problem find that the cause is located somewhere else. But where? The good news is that the presence of the invited Spirit of Christ shines light and exposes unrecognized root causes that, once identified, can be more successfully eliminated. The Lord often works in these areas through the assistance of trained pastors and counselors, but He also gladly exposes root causes through personal prayer and fellow believers\u2019 prophetic wisdom.<\/p>\n
Evil Powers Eliminated
\nThe demoniac suffered greatly from evil that resided in him. Let me make that point as strongly as I can. The text clearly defines his problem as a problem with resident evil, not constitutional evil. He was a normal human being with supernormal powers of evil occupying his body. The evil was in him but was not him. Once those supernormal powers were removed, he was immediately restored to normalcy. He went from uncontrollable acts of self-mutilation and insanity to psychological peace and sanity. This wonderful fact is made powerful by how graphically his problem was described. Mark said, \u201cNo one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him\u201d (Mark 5:3\u20134).
\nMost problems people have with sinful and selfish behavior can be controlled and converted into acceptable behavior by acts of the will. We can retrain, reward, remind, or remove ourselves in ways that help us do right things\u2014even when we\u2019d rather not. God gave us these tools and, through His Spirit\u2019s empowerment, uses them in our lives. But the demoniac\u2019s problem was different. It represents those problems that persist when normal methods of self-control do not work. For example, many men who struggle with pornography attempt to employ various techniques and external controls to keep themselves from sexual sin. But they still keep breaking those self-imposed chains. The rule of thumb is this: when normal methods of self-control aren\u2019t effective, you know at some level a spiritual power must be arrested and removed from any position of influence.
\nThe wonderful news is that these are exactly the kinds of problems that are fixed if the power of the gospel is unleashed in a person\u2019s life. When people do not experience the full emancipating power of the gospel and struggle unsuccessfully against chronic sin, they often say with resignation\u2014a resignation prompted by what is too often the church\u2019s conventional wisdom on the matter of chronic sin\u2014\u201cI am a sinner, and I will have to deal with this problem until I die.\u201d
\nBut that certainly contradicts what this narrative portrays. This miracle reveals that gospel power should result in redemption not resignation. Jesus wants to bring His righteous presence into every region of your personal geography. And when He comes, evil must be exposed and eliminated. But there\u2019s one more stage of this wonderful gospel. It\u2019s the one we covered in the previous chapter. Let me remind you.<\/p>\n
Experiential Evidence of Transformation
\nWhen Jesus brings the power of gospel ministry into a person\u2019s life, he or she is not left to guess, Am I a changed person? The Lord loves to provide evidence that strengthens your grip of faith on His promises and provision for ongoing freedom and transformation.<\/p>\n
Jesus\u2019 Incredible Priority
\nIsn\u2019t this wonderful news? And it\u2019s all right here in this one event composed of two miracles. But the news gets even better. I want to show you one more verse. It\u2019s one that does not get associated with this event, once again because of the pesky problem of somewhat arbitrary text divisions. So unfortunately, our subdivided Bibles close out the demoniac\u2019s story with verse 20 of Mark 5: \u201cSo the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.\u201d
\nThis sounds like a good place to stop, except the story is not actually over until we read on to verse 21: \u201cWhen Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake.\u201d
\nDo you see it? What did Jesus do immediately after healing the demoniac and destroying the demonic stronghold? He sailed back the way He had come across the lake. Why is that significant? It tells us when Jesus originally got in the boat to go to the region of the Gerasenes to destroy that evil stronghold, that was the only thing He planned to do.
\nYou would think He might have stayed to carry on some other work. But no. He journeyed across the lake, neutralized the enemy, and went back. He had one thing on His mind: to wipe out an enemy stronghold. By ignoring the chapters and verses and looking for when a story naturally begins and ends, in this case seeing Jesus\u2019 movement and timing, we gain a very clear picture of the intention behind His travel plans. We see His priorities. He was\u2014and is\u2014out to destroy enemy strongholds wherever they exist!
\nIt turns out that this story provides a visual template of something the apostle John saw clearly about the Son of God\u2019s incarnation: \u201cThe reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil\u2019s work\u201d (1 John 3:8).
\nOne day Jesus crossed a large body of water to do one thing\u2014destroy the enemy stronghold\u2014and then returned to where He had come from. Similarly, but much more grandly, one day Jesus crossed a large chasm between heaven and earth to do one thing\u2014destroy the Devil\u2019s works\u2014and then returned to where He came from.
\nWithout a doubt, it was a grand day when Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the surface of the moon. But how much greater was that day the Son of God stepped foot on earth? He came to reclaim every inch of this oppressed planet for His kingdom. The time Jesus vanquished the storm and liberated the demoniac is just one representative moment of God\u2019s eternal travel plans.
\nThose travel plans still play out today for you and me. No enemy stronghold can remain when Jesus arrives, and He would love to cross into any territory in your life to set you free.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. It\u2019s always encouraging to see how determined the Lord is to accomplish His purposes. Can you think of other biblical instances when God\u2019s determination was demonstrated?<\/p>\n
2. 2. Satan is a formidable opponent who tries to keep people from experiencing spiritual freedom and wholeness. Where might you still be facing resistance to transformation?<\/p>\n
3. 3. As this chapter revealed, eliminating evil power is Jesus\u2019 priority. He is ready and willing to make a special trip to deliver even just one person or to tear down one area of bondage in a person\u2019s life. Who would you like Jesus to focus on? In what area of that person\u2019s life?<\/p>\n
Lord, the matter-of-fact way in which You go about Your work of overpowering our Enemy astounds me. The battle is not always a long, drawn-out siege. It can be as simple as saying, \u201cBe quiet!\u201d I\u2019d like You to direct Your delivering power in the direction of __________. Thank You that I don\u2019t have to beg for this. It\u2019s already Your primary mission. I will trust that You are already on the way. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\n\u201cRead it like a letter,\u201d a Bible teacher once instructed our group as he handed out a version of Colossians stripped of chapter and verse numbers. He said, \u201cWhen Paul wrote, he didn\u2019t include chapters and verses.\u201d Those reference points, while helpful locators, trigger the analytical part of the brain. With the dividing references removed, you can see new, previously overlooked connections between passages.
\nFor example, mentally erase the verse and chapter numbers in Luke 10:38\u201411:13 and search for what theme and lessons connect those normally disconnected passages. Then compare your observations with mine on dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app.<\/p>\n
7<\/p>\n
A Cure for Can\u2019t<\/p>\n
Healing the Demon-Possessed Boy<\/p>\n
Matthew 17:14\u201320; Mark 9:14\u201329; Luke 9:37\u201343<\/p>\n
Want to improve your effectiveness? There\u2019s a scary but helpful question you absolutely must learn to ask.<\/p>\n
All my life I\u2019ve heard statements like this from churches and Christian ministries: if even one person comes to faith in Jesus Christ through our efforts, then it will all have been worth it. Maybe you have heard that too. But is it true?
\nIf you have played chess before, you know a common strategy is to sacrifice a chess piece, like a pawn or knight or bishop, if it means winning the match. God\u2019s Enemy is more than willing to trade one person coming to faith if he can keep a hundred away from God. So he is pleased when some Christian or Christian group continues using shoddy literature, shaming tactics, or questionable financial practices just because they can point to a couple of success stories.
\nIn God\u2019s kingdom, success can be measured quantitatively, or in numerical terms. I do not limit success to the number of conversions. The degree or quality of life transformation can also be measured. The apostle Paul wrote of being changed from \u201cone degree\u201d of glory to the next (2 Cor. 3:18 ESV). While those \u201cdegrees\u201d can be identified qualitatively, or by their subjective qualities, that doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t be measured. A person can change from showing Christlike patience one out of five stressful times to showing patience three out of five times. A person can change from being someone who turns away moderate wrath with a soft answer to someone who gives a soft answer even when that wrath is severe. While we may not have formal assessment measures like these, we still \u201cmeasure\u201d transformation by casual observation.
\nBelieve me, most pastors have high but often-disappointed hopes that the people of their congregations will grow in Christian character or increase the spirit of servanthood or learn to forgive at least twenty times seven, even if they can\u2019t make it all the way to seventy times seven. These things suggest the effectiveness of ministry, and they are perceived quantitatively.
\nIs this not what Jesus told His disciples? In the well-known chapter on fruit-bearing (John 15), Jesus said true disciples are revealed through both their quantitative and qualitative effectiveness: \u201cThis is to my Father\u2019s glory, that you bear much fruit [quantity], showing yourselves to be my disciples\u201d (v. 8). \u201cYou did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit\u2014fruit that will last [quality]\u201d (v. 16).
\nAny Christian, church, or Christian ministry has a God-given obligation to bear as much fruit as possible. This requires a willingness to ask the question: Are we as effective as possible? Let\u2019s use this question of effectiveness versus ineffectiveness as we approach the miracle of Jesus delivering a young boy from a tormenting demonic spirit. The question should help you see this miracle with fresh eyes.
\nAs the three Synoptic Gospels\u2014Matthew, Mark, and Luke\u2014report, this story spins on the axis of ineffectiveness. A young boy\u2019s father had brought his son to Jesus\u2019 disciples, begging them to exorcise a destructive demon from his son, but they failed (Matt. 17:16; Mark 9:18; Luke 9:40).
\nThat failure led to frustration and conflict. The father was frustrated with the disciples. And so was Jesus! But notice that the disciples\u2019 failure led to conflict with the religious scholars. In fact, that\u2019s what drew an animated crowd in the first place: \u201cWhen they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. . . . \u2018What are you arguing about with them about?\u2019 he asked\u201d (Mark 9:14, 16).
\nWe don\u2019t know for sure what they argued about. If the authorities were acting true to form, they might have been contending that unlearned blue-collar workers like the disciples had no ability or authority to exorcise demons in the first place: \u201cThat\u2019s why you failed.\u201d
\nBy the way, had the disciples been successful, there would have been no conflict. Have you ever noticed conflict tends to break out in the church after a perceived failure? When the building project doesn\u2019t produce increased giving as promised, when the pastor preaches on healing and no one gets healed, or when a switch to contemporary worship doesn\u2019t bring in more young families, people start to argue. Failure creates critics.
\nThe disciples\u2019 failure gave the religious teachers ammunition. They would have had nothing to say if the disciples had been effective. Even Jesus became a critic. \u201c\u2018You unbelieving and perverse generation,\u2019 Jesus replied, \u2018how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?\u2019\u201d (Luke 9:41).
\nAll three gospels record the same words. Jesus\u2019 rebuke must have scarred their egos. \u201cUnbelieving\u201d? \u201cPerverse\u201d? Harsh! The Greek word translated perverse means \u201cterribly twisted.\u201d The apostle Paul used it to admonish a sorcerer named Elymas, who tried to prevent Paul\u2019s delivery of God\u2019s Word. \u201cYou are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right!\u201d Paul said. \u201cYou are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?\u201d (Acts 13:10).
\nJesus\u2019 frustration couldn\u2019t be contained in just those two words, however. It got worse. How would you like it if someone said, \u201cHow long shall I put up with you?\u201d Clearly He was claiming the disciples should have effectively delivered the boy from his torment.
\nWhat was the torment? Even though people have tried to equate the boy\u2019s problem with something like epilepsy, the text does not allow it. Yes, part of the description sounds similar. Harmonizing the three gospel accounts paints the following picture: \u201cA spirit that has robbed him of speech seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. He often falls into the fire or into the water\u201d (Luke 9:39; Mark 9:17\u201318; Matt. 17:15).
\nBased on the description alone, we might treat this as a neurological problem. But Jesus\u2019 approach to saving the boy does not allow for that. He directly rebuked a demonic spirit and commanded the entity to leave the boy and not come back. \u201cHe rebuked the impure spirit. \u2018You deaf and mute spirit,\u2019 he said, \u2018I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.\u2019 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, \u2018He\u2019s dead\u2019\u201d (Mark 9:25\u201326).
\nLater when the disciples asked why He was successful, Jesus referred to the problem as a specific kind of demonic intrusion: \u201cHe replied, \u2018This kind can come out only by prayer\u2019\u201d (v. 29).
\nSome people suggest that Jesus didn\u2019t know what we know today about neurological and physical disorders, incorrectly attributing them to demons. Or if He knew, He chose to operate within His audience\u2019s worldview. However, we cannot reinterpret the passage any other way without damaging the text or making Jesus out to be a liar. Jesus, the bodily presence of the all-wise, all-knowing God, spoke to a spirit. Jesus healed many people and addressed their problems as physical. He did not see all maladies as being caused by demons. But in this situation, He did. And if that wasn\u2019t the case, it means Jesus led people (including us) to believe something untrue.
\nFrom within our modern scientific worldview, we may be inclined to rule out or severely downplay the reality of demonic forces at work in some, if not many, cases of human suffering. But Jesus did not, and that was a big part of His effectiveness.
\nAt this point we should address the question about having more effective ministries personally and corporately in our churches. This miracle confronts us with two lessons we often fail to learn\u2014two requests we neglect to make\u2014rendering us ineffective. One deals with our doubt, the other with our pride.<\/p>\n
Request One: Help
\nIn Mark\u2019s version of the exorcism, Jesus looked the father in his eyes and challenged his skepticism. \u201c\u2018How long has he been like this?\u2019 \u2018From childhood,\u2019 he answered. \u2018It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.\u2019 \u2018\u201cIf you can\u201d?\u2019 said Jesus. \u2018Everything is possible for one who believes.\u2019 Immediately the boy\u2019s father exclaimed, \u2018I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!\u2019\u201d (vv. 21\u201324).
\nDespite his skepticism, the father made the correct request: \u201cHelp me overcome my unbelief.\u201d This is one of two requests we must learn to humbly ask in the face of our ineffectiveness, which often traces back to some way in which we are not believing God\u2019s Word. This deliverance miracle, for example, confronts our modern rejection of, or at least skepticism about, the existence of demons. We habitually assume any human failure has natural causes that can be identified and rectified through better training, tools, or techniques. However, both Jesus\u2019 and the early church\u2019s ministries and teaching require that we take demonic interference seriously as we face human need and as we seek to perform kingdom ministry effectively. If you struggle to believe that, then the proper request is \u201cHelp my unbelief.\u201d
\nBesides finding the needed proof in the pages of Scripture, we can also find an unbroken chain of confirmation through the classic writings of church leaders over the centuries up to and including the present day. Early church historian Justin Martyr described ordinary Christians \u201crendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs.\u201d The early Christian apologist Tertullian wrote of Christians\u2019 power through \u201cnaming the name of Christ\u201d to cause demons to \u201cleave at our command the bodies they have entered.\u201d2 Augustine of Hippo said, \u201cThese false and deceitful mediators . . . contrive to turn us aside and hinder our spiritual progress.\u201d John Calvin warned against carelessness or faintheartedness regarding the number and untiring zeal and craftiness of demons. He wrote, \u201cWe have to wage war against an infinite number of enemies, lest, despising their fewness, we should be too remiss to give battle, or, thinking that we are sometimes afforded some respite, we should yield to idleness.\u201d4
\nOur modern-day minds are soaked in scientific rationalism, so we often doubt or avoid the number of supernatural realities found in Scripture. We are the progeny of several generations of skeptics, including biblical scholars who made it their mission to cleanse the Bible of the miraculous. However, in doing so, they gutted the very text they attempted to grasp. The supernatural elements woven throughout the Bible are like a book\u2019s binding: remove the binding and the whole book falls apart.
\nWe must believe in the supernatural realm, including the existence of demons, not only to align with Scripture and historic Christianity but also to effectively minister. If indeed it is true as the apostle Paul said that \u201cour struggle is not against flesh and blood\u201d but against spiritual powers (Eph. 6:12), if indeed as the apostle Peter warned our Enemy prowls about to devour believers (1 Pet. 5:8), and if almost every advance of Jesus was met with demonic opposition, then we are doomed to failure of all sorts if we do not heed the realities of and effectively confront the spiritual powers that oppose God\u2019s will.
\nMy first lesson in this regard occurred dramatically one Sunday night years ago as I conducted a Bible study on John 3:16. In the group sat a young mom who, to my surprise, did not understand the gospel of salvation by faith. She made a comment about working to earn God\u2019s grace that tipped me off. I was about to respond, but another group member beat me to the punch, turned toward the young mom, and gently shared the gospel of free grace through Jesus\u2019 work on the cross. It took only a minute and then we moved on.
\nA year later I had a conversation with the same young mom that unexpectedly returned to that John 3:16 Sunday evening. To my shock, I discovered this young mom had been nursing a grudge against the older Christian woman who shared the gospel so lovingly that night. When I asked why, the young mom grew angry and accused the older woman of cursing at her and spitting on her in the course of her gentle witness. She also added how disappointed she was that I did not step in to stop the abuse.
\nAlthough I had no previous experience of this sort, I discerned some malevolent interference and asked the young woman a diagnostic question\u2014\u201cHave you ever dabbled in Ouija boards, tarot cards, or s\u00e9ances?\u201d That\u2019s when I uncovered her exposure to some occult practices and was able to carefully lead her out of spiritual deception. Her life was transformed. Up until then I had no idea that enemy forces could disrupt the transmission of gospel words being sent across the airwaves. The brilliant philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote: \u201cDemons can effect a change in a man\u2019s imagination and even in his bodily senses, so that something appears to be other than it is.\u201d
\nCertainly we all need more faith than we currently have in many areas. Effectiveness begins by asking the Lord to identify and deal with whatever doubts we have: \u201cHelp me overcome my unbelief.\u201d However, in particular we must shed our skepticism about satanic interference. If we refuse to recognize and properly combat the oppositional schemes of God\u2019s Enemy, we will move blindly toward ineffectiveness and discouragement.<\/p>\n
Request Two: Why?
\nThe disciples brought the story\u2019s second request: \u201cWhy couldn\u2019t we drive it out?\u201d (Matt. 17:19; Mark 9:28). By combining Matthew\u2019s and Mark\u2019s accounts, we get this mind-stretching response that immediately captures our attention: \u201c[Jesus] replied, \u2018Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, \u201cMove from here to there,\u201d and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you\u2019\u201d (Matt. 17:20 ESV). \u201cThis kind can come out only by prayer\u201d (Mark 9:29).
\nUnfortunately, the urge to understand Jesus\u2019 meaning and how far to take it (i.e., literally throwing around mountains) pulls our attention from the profound power of the disciples\u2019 question. Their question is flat-out the most important yet most avoided question anyone who wishes to face the issue of ineffectiveness can ask. It often goes unasked, however, because it requires a great deal of courage and humility: Why did I fail?
\nSome people are only willing to ask themselves this question privately. But when they stop with that, they open the door to rationalization, self-justification, and blame-casting and miss key truths. It takes real nerve to ask someone other than yourself, \u201cWhy did I fail? What did I do wrong? How should I have done things differently?\u201d
\nAmong my hardest undertakings as a leader was to ask my staff to evaluate me . . . anonymously. Goodness knows, across the years I have always wanted my coworkers to recognize how hard I worked to be a good boss and do everything well so that they were pleased with me, my efforts, and my abilities. Anything less than a strong affirmation of those facts would have been a blow. On one occasion, that\u2019s exactly what happened. Would I ever do that again? Yes, I have to, or I might live in self-deception.
\nMost people, in every kind of employment, get evaluated from time to time. But I\u2019m talking about asking for it not just accepting it when thrust on you. As shallow as their understanding and flimsy as their faith may have been, these disciples brought Jesus the perfect question in the face of their ineffectiveness: \u201cWhy were we ineffective?\u201d
\nAfter years of pastoral counseling, I am convinced the question, \u201cHow should I do things differently?\u201d if asked humbly would have solved most of the marital problems, emotional struggles, and psychic confusion that brought people to my office.
\nIn the Christian life, we are supposed to accomplish a host of important tasks. Each of us has various roles to play and purposes to fulfill. When we have times of failure or experience the unpleasant signs of ineffectiveness, when we otherwise could and should be effective, posing two questions may cure the can\u2019t: \u201cWhere do I lack faith?\u201d and \u201cWhy have I failed to be more effective?\u201d
\nTry humbly asking those questions\u2014not just to yourself but also to others\u2014sincerely wanting to hear whatever the Lord or some other people may say, and you\u2019ll be well on your way to effectiveness. Don\u2019t miss that shortly after this miracle, Jesus sent out the larger group of seventy-two disciples and they returned thrilled to have discovered their power over demonic forces (Luke 10:17). Their success proves they must have taken Jesus\u2019 diagnosis (\u201cThis kind can come out only by prayer\u201d) to heart and learned their lesson.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. Which one of the quotes about demons from earlier Christian thinkers was most interesting, shocking, or powerful to you? Why?<\/p>\n
2. 2. Think about a responsibility or role in which you were told you were (or were made) ineffective. Did you ever ask why? If so, what did the person you asked say? If not, would you be willing to ask someone?<\/p>\n
3. 3. Of course, it\u2019s usually a cop-out to blame our failures on the Devil. However, there\u2019s no reason to let the pendulum swing to the opposite extreme and never consider satanic interference. Satan preys on our natural fears and weaknesses to make us ineffective. Is there some area where you\u2019re especially susceptible to his schemes?<\/p>\n
Lord, I want my efforts to serve others to be fruitful. No doubt I am often like the disciples. Partly successful. Partly not. I\u2019d like the percentages to improve. I know You\u2019re not asking for perfection, but I also know it pleases You when I achieve what You make possible. When I fall short, help me to be humble enough to ask why and listen honestly. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nOften two or more gospels record the same event but tell it differently. That\u2019s when it\u2019s important to harmonize, or blend, the accounts.
\nStart with one of the accounts, usually the one with the most detail, as your baseline and then add words or phrases from the other gospels that don\u2019t show up in the baseline passage. Then consider why one author included a fact or comment while another didn\u2019t. In most cases a more comprehensive picture of the one event emerges, helping you view the story in 3-D.
\nHere\u2019s a challenging exercise. All four gospels tell the story of Jesus\u2019 baptism: Matthew 3:13\u201317; Mark 1:9\u201311; Luke 3:21\u201322; John 1:32\u201334. Put them all together. Color-code them if need be and see what they all have in common. What insights come out of those observations? Check dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app to compare your insights with what I discovered.<\/p>\n
8<\/p>\n
Faith in Faith<\/p>\n
Healing the Woman<\/p>\n
Mark 5:21\u201334<\/p>\n
Some people warn us to put our faith not in faith, just in God. Is that what Jesus would say?<\/p>\n
I pulled up behind a car with a bumper sticker that read, \u201cLife is terrific. Business is great. People are wonderful.\u201d Apparently, the man and woman in the car had not read their bumper sticker in a while, because they spent the entire red light cycle screaming at each other. The way they were going at it\u2014spit-sprayed invectives shooting everywhere\u2014they needed windshield wipers inside the car. I thought, Life is terrific, huh? People are wonderful? Hey, you two, your behavior doesn\u2019t match your bumper sticker.
\nThat scene is not unlike how the church appears to the world: hey, you people, your behavior doesn\u2019t match your bumper sticker. Many of us live with a haunting, taunting sense that the onlookers are right, especially when it comes to how we say our faith should work. Our bumper sticker reads, \u201cPeace is incredible, contentment is constant, and problems are solved.\u201d
\nBut anxiety, frustration, discontent, and unsolved problems fill our lives, and we accept this! Why? If we came home from a superstore with an appliance that didn\u2019t work, we would take it back for an exchange or refund. But for some reason ineffective faith doesn\u2019t make us wonder whether we should exchange our beliefs about faith for something better\u2014a faith that works\u2014and keep doing that until our bumper sticker rings true. Sadly, instead, we weaken our theology. That is to say, we change our bumper sticker to read something truer to our experience: \u201cPeace is elusive, contentment is sporadic, and problems are overwhelming.\u201d
\nThat\u2019s just the way it is. Get used to it.
\nThe world needs to see something that works. People will flock to it. They need to see Christians who live with a genuine sense of God\u2019s presence, reflecting Christlike qualities and contented spirits, offering compassionate service that solves problems and changes lives.
\nNothing depicts \u201cfaith that works\u201d better than the story we are about to examine of the woman with a twelve-year hemorrhage. To see this miracle with fresh eyes, we need to prepare ourselves to view faith differently than we commonly do. While faith can be expressed through statements, faith is primarily action, not axioms.
\nConsider this. Christianity grew explosively in the first century before many of its core doctrines were clarified and codified. Many of the propositions we now say people need to affirm to be Christians were unknown to most people who brought their friends and neighbors to faith in Jesus as Lord and Christ. How could that be?
\nScholars often say that Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans presents the most thorough expression of systematic theology found in the New Testament. How did it come to be that kind of document? Clearly the Roman church at that time did not understand what they needed to believe. Paul had to supply fundamental theological truths and straighten them out. That was important and right. Yet long before Paul\u2019s letter, without any on-site apostolic influence, the church had grown fruitfully. Their faith was evidently theologically poor yet evangelistically rich. How did that happen?
\nDon\u2019t get me wrong. The faith propositions the church eventually hammered out, like the Apostles\u2019 Creed, are foundational and essential for the propagation and preservation of true Christianity around the world and across the centuries. But propositions are not faith. If you think I am adamant on this point, wait until you discover what Jesus did and said during one miraculous healing: \u201cA large crowd followed and pressed around [Jesus]. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse\u201d (Mark 5:24\u201326).
\nThis heart-wrenching account tells of a person in bondage, not just a person with a physical problem. For twelve years, she woke up every day to the inconvenience, embarrassment, shame, and loneliness of her physical condition. Can you imagine a life in which you couldn\u2019t even sit down without risking embarrassment? Can you imagine living with the stigma of being untouchable lest you make others ceremonially unclean? Your own husband would have to choose between romantic affection, even a compassionate touch, and religious devotion. She had every right to cry out, \u201cHow long?\u201d She had a reason to tear at the sky with her fingernails, clawing for divine attention, begging for relief.
\nWhen heaven above failed to respond, she did everything possible to find help below. She exhausted all her resources traveling from doctor to doctor in search of the solution to her problem. Don\u2019t think about doctors like today, however. There was no American Medical Association. No board of ethics. No standardized research. According to historians, some remedies those doctors might have suggested were<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u201cdrinking a goblet of wine containing a powder compounded from rubber, alum and garden crocuses\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 administering a \u201cdose of Persian onions cooked in wine . . . with the summons, \u2018Arise out of your flow of blood!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 creating a \u201csudden shock\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u201ccarrying . . . the ash of an ostrich\u2019s egg in a certain cloth\u201d<\/p>\n
When everything ran out, from her money to her hope, the only thing left flowing was her blood. She looked not only behind at a trail of stained years but also ahead to many more of the same. That\u2019s why the narrative refers to her physical problem as bondage. She was \u201csubject\u201d (Mark 5:25) to the bleeding and \u201csuffered a great deal\u201d even \u201cunder the care of many doctors\u201d (v. 26). So when Jesus cured her problem, Mark referred to her not as being healed but rather as being \u201cfreed\u201d (v. 29).
\nShe was desperate for the chains confining her to be broken, and Jesus was her last hope. She had no idea who Jesus really was or how He could possibly heal her. But she had to try anything, and this option was free. So she risked making everyone in the crowd angry with her, making Jesus angry with her, and having her hopes dashed one more time. She pressed through the crowd and reached out, assuming that even touching His robe\u2019s hem would be sufficient (v. 28). Instantly, she knew she was healed. She felt something\u2014some power?\u2014course through her body (v. 29).
\nAt that moment, Jesus felt power leave His body (v. 30). Someone had plugged in to His energy source without His invitation. The woman wasn\u2019t prepared for Him to stop in His tracks and demand to know who touched Him. Even when His disciples tried to persuade Him to move on, He insisted on finding the person who touched Him. Most likely the woman assumed He was angry and intended to at least scold her, if not punish her in some way. She probably wanted to run. But pushing through the crowd, away from Jesus, would be as obvious as yelling out, \u201cHere I am!\u201d So she had no choice but to fall at His feet. Quaking but pouring out words, she \u201ctold him the whole truth\u201d (v. 33), hoping to be spared from harm.
\nTurns out all Jesus wanted was to connect with her, to set her mind straight and her heart at ease. Given Jesus\u2019 modus operandi, this offered a great teaching opportunity for His disciples as well. The reassurance He wanted to offer and the lesson He wanted to convey concerned the power of simple, focused faith. That, according to Jesus, brought her healing (v. 34). Her desperation birthed and pointed her faith in Jesus\u2019 direction. No credit to her, though; she didn\u2019t know Jesus was the right direction. She lucked out. Her faith was not based on sound doctrine and believing all the right things. Plus, she did not come to Him as Lord, promising ongoing obedience. She merely wanted deliverance, and she tried Jesus.
\nIf we take this story at face value and Jesus\u2019 comment as raw truth, then we are left with one simple way of describing faith: faith is an act of focused desperation born of utter helplessness. Faith, often with little knowledge, involves lunging for God\u2019s powerful grace. That\u2019s exactly what Jesus said: \u201cYour faith has healed you\u201d (v. 34).
\nBut isn\u2019t that an oversimplification bordering on error? Certainly it wasn\u2019t only her faith that caused the healing. If she had lunged for any other Jew but Jesus, nothing would have happened. Why didn\u2019t Jesus clarify that? Why didn\u2019t Jesus make sure she knew who He was? He could have said, \u201cPlease understand, woman, I am the Son of God, which is the only reason you are healed right now.\u201d
\nBut He didn\u2019t do that. He created a dramatic moment\u2014\u201cStop the music!\u201d\u2014and would not rest until He had delivered this message: \u201cYour faith\u2014your idea that all you had to do was touch My cloak, your risking everything to push through the crowd even though you don\u2019t really know who I am and have not actually made any commitment to follow Me\u2014has healed you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just One Cause?
\nWas Jesus wrong? Did He not understand the complexity of causation\u2014that any effect usually has more than one cause? Aristotle did. He famously taught how any effect has four types of causes: material, formal, efficient, and final. If Aristotle understood the complexity of causation, certainly the Son of God did.
\nThink of it this way: When you get in your car to drive to the store, what causes your car to move toward the store? Certainly you, the driver. If you hadn\u2019t gotten into the car, the car would have gone nowhere.
\nBut then what about the engine? Unless you have a car like Fred Flintstone\u2019s, you can sit behind the wheel, shift it into drive, and push on the gas pedal all you want, but it will go nowhere without an engine. So is it the driver or the engine that causes the car to go?
\nAnd then there are the other components of a car. The key. No key and the engine doesn\u2019t start. Why else do we feverishly hunt for lost keys? But even if you have a key, without gas the engine won\u2019t start. Or you can have a key, gas, and an engine, but if you don\u2019t have a transmission, the car goes nowhere. So what causes the car to go?
\nAnd don\u2019t forget the more abstract causes. Think of all the laws of chemistry and physics, like combustion or F = ma. Without those, not only the car but the whole universe would be at a standstill.
\nFinally, think about the driver. People don\u2019t get in a car just to get in a car. They get in a car to go somewhere. They have a reason. The need to buy a gallon of milk, which causes the key to turn, the engine to start, the transmission to shift, and the car to go forward. What is the cause? All of these.
\nSo when Jesus said to the woman, \u201cYour faith has healed you,\u201d He certainly knew there was a string of causes. She could have wanted to get to Jesus, but if she hadn\u2019t had working feet, she couldn\u2019t have gotten there. If she hadn\u2019t had hands, she couldn\u2019t have touched His cloak. Jesus could have said, \u201cYour feet and hands have made you well.\u201d
\nBut then if she had not been ailing, she wouldn\u2019t have been healed, because she would have had no reason to go to Jesus. Or if she had never heard about Jesus being nearby, she would never have gone to Him. Perhaps Jesus should have said, \u201cYour neighbor who told you I was in town has made you well.\u201d
\nThen of course, as I have already pointed out, if her goal had not been Jesus, she would not have been healed. And more mysteriously, yet certainly a fundamental factor, if it had not been God\u2019s will for her to be healed, she would not have been healed. Shouldn\u2019t Jesus have said, \u201cGod\u2019s will gave you the faith to reach out and has made you well\u201d? In other words, there were many causes.<\/p>\n
Just One Cause Because . . .
\nSo why did Jesus isolate just one of many causes\u2014her faith? If we factor in the many other times Jesus emphasized the importance of faith (Matt. 8:13; 9:2, 29; 15:28; Mark 10:52; Luke 7:50; 17:19), it appears He wants us to dial up our sense of partnership in performing His will. He was saying, \u201cAs far as you\u2019re concerned, I want you to think and act as if the only thing that counts is faith expressed in action.\u201d
\nFaith in God\u2019s person, promises, and purposes embodied and revealed in Jesus to the degree that we take action is the one element of causation we contribute to the fulfillment of His will. Jesus often scolded His disciples about their failure to play their part.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 When people worried about the basic necessities of life, Jesus said, \u201cYou of little faith\u201d (Matt. 6:30).<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 When the waves were flooding the boat and the disciples thought they were going to die, Jesus scolded, \u201cYou of little faith\u201d (8:26).<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 When Peter was walking on the water but got scared and began to sink, Jesus reprimanded, \u201cYou of little faith\u201d (14:31).<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 When the disciples didn\u2019t understand His teaching and thought He was talking about making sure they had bread with them, Jesus said, \u201cYou of little faith\u201d (16:8).<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 When the disciples came up against a tough case of demon possession and couldn\u2019t deliver a little boy, Jesus really scolded them by not only saying \u201cYou unbelieving and perverse generation\u201d but also adding, \u201cHow long shall I put up with you?\u201d He then topped it off by telling them they couldn\u2019t exorcise the boy \u201cbecause you have so little faith\u201d (17:17\u201320).<\/p>\n
Certainly Jesus\u2019 commendation of her faith encouraged the woman, but He probably wasn\u2019t saying it for her so much as for His disciples\u2014and us today. We need more faith in faith. Not more faith than we have in Jesus, of course. However, we must believe in the role faith plays in the realm of causation. It\u2019s our part of the process of God\u2019s will being done here on earth as it is in heaven. Our faith is the engine by which God\u2019s will moves. Or maybe the gas, or even just the gas pedal. Whatever it is, it is necessary. Believe it.
\nFaith is an action not an axiom. If faith is an act of focused desperation born of helplessness, don\u2019t try to work it up by increasing your knowledge. Instead, like the woman, increase your sense of desperate need. Our Christian bumper sticker says we\u2019re supposed to have incredible peace, constant contentment, and solutions to problems. If that\u2019s not the case in your life, don\u2019t be satisfied with anything less. Be as frustrated as the woman in this miracle so you will do whatever it takes to connect with Jesus. Chronic anxiety, discontent, and plaguing problems? Believe \u201cif I can just get close to Jesus . . .\u201d That simple faith works. That\u2019s what people are waiting to see.
\nYou never know who\u2019s behind you watching.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. Is it possible for a person to hold an errant doctrine and still be in a genuine relationship with God or bear fruit as a Christian disciple? What if they don\u2019t yet comprehend Jesus as God\u2019s Son?<\/p>\n
2. 2. Faith is a gift from God, but in what sense is \u201chaving it\u201d still our responsibility?<\/p>\n
3. 3. It\u2019s a matter of conjecture, but what do you imagine the woman did after Jesus healed and commended her? Hint: How do we even know about her twelve years of suffering, all the doctors she saw, and all the money she spent?<\/p>\n
4. 4. Try to identify at least one thing you say you believe but are not acting on.<\/p>\n
Lord, I love the way You wanted to connect personally with this woman to affirm her courageous choice and teach this fundamental lesson about faith. It must be that You want me to live this way too. Would You please help me move from faith as a set of axioms to faith as a life of action? Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nIf you want a better idea of how a word or phrase should be understood and applied, start collecting all the instances you can find it in the Bible. Use an old-fashioned concordance if you have one. Or just type the word in a Bible website\u2019s search box. Note recurring ideas or circumstances around that word or phrase and any new insights and greater clarity you gain.
\nTry doing that with the word righteousness as used in the New Testament. Then go to Matthew 5:20, where Jesus said our \u201crighteousness\u201d must surpass that of Pharisees, and see what springs to mind. Compare your thoughts with mine on dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app.<\/p>\n
9<\/p>\n
Pull the Pork<\/p>\n
Catching a Boatload of Fish<\/p>\n
Luke 5:1\u201311<\/p>\n
Learn these two lessons and you will please God more than you can imagine.<\/p>\n
Somebody\u2019s been loading a lot of pork into our Declaration of Independence. \u201cPork\u201d refers to line items that get quietly tucked into a congressional appropriations bill and that provide money for pet projects. Our legislators can\u2019t seem to pass new legislation without adding pork. Like the time one congressional representative got an appropriation of two hundred thousand dollars for a tattoo removal program in the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Act.
\nThat\u2019s just politics. We get that. But \u201cpork\u201d in the Declaration of Independence? Yes. Not money for pet projects, per se. However, someone somehow slipped in some new \u201crights\u201d beyond the Declaration\u2019s three \u201cunalienable rights\u201d of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As a result, average Joe Citizen thinks he has some other unalienable rights: the right to live a convenient, pain-free life; the right to feel good about himself; the right to have as much as the next guy; the right to receive a paycheck regardless of performance; the right to break his promises when unexpected challenges come along; the right to pursue his passion and realize his dreams. As much as we desire these things, they are human accretions, not Creator-endowed unalienable rights.
\nYet Joe Citizen feels like a victim of injustice if these pork rights are not guarded and granted. Until someone exposes and pulls pork rights like these, they will continue to influence not only Joe Citizen but Joe Christian as well. We often sense injustice or feel discontent based on the world\u2019s standards rather than the Bible\u2019s. Without realizing it, we absorb what culture tells us we need and deserve for personal peace, fulfillment, or self-worth. We bring those expectations with us to church and into our relationship with God. Then when circumstances do not meet those expectations, we react as if we\u2019ve been mistreated, as if some fundamental right is not being upheld.
\nHere are some examples of pork I often hear passed around among Christians:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 If you have a passion for something, God wants you to pursue it. After all, that\u2019s how He created you.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 If you\u2019re good at something, then that\u2019s how God will use you. After all, that\u2019s how He designed you.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 It\u2019s important to feel fulfilled, and because God loves you, He will see to it that you are.<\/p>\n
Are you surprised I identify these expectations as pork? They seem so right. And often God does employ us in the direction of our passions and gifts, leading to a wonderful sense of fulfillment. But it\u2019s not a guarantee. If we think it\u2019s our right, then when our lives do not accord with these expectations, we feel frustrated, discouraged, confused, and even upset with God. So in a moment we\u2019ll explore the story of the miraculous catch of fish to recalibrate our expectations and pull these pork ideas from our minds in order to maintain a right relationship with God.
\nBefore that, however, consider this. Did you realize that only people in a wealthy, leisure-based culture would hold these expectations? About two-thirds of the world\u2019s population live their lives without the luxury (or is it a liability?) of thinking about matters like self-worth and personal passions, or asking questions like, What kind of work am I designed to do? Their preoccupation is survival, not self-fulfillment.
\nA missionary friend exposed my cultural blindness one day when he overheard me ask an ordinary teenager in a depressed eastern European country, \u201cWhat would you like to do for your career one day?\u201d Surprised he had no ready response, I supplied some multiple-choice options to jump-start a reply. That\u2019s when the missionary stepped in and changed the subject.
\nLater he pulled me aside to dial up my cultural sensitivity a couple notches. He said, \u201cDoug, you don\u2019t realize how you were asking a very American question. In the States, young people have so many opportunities. Self-determination is possible and normal. It makes sense that we can shape our future by choosing among an array of options. That is not the world our teenagers understand here. \u2018What do you want to be when you grow up?\u2019 is not a realistic question. You might as well be asking how he plans to go to the moon.\u201d
\nThe idea that we have a right and God has a responsibility to help us follow our passions and to provide a purpose that fits our gifts is \u201cpork\u201d that needs to be pulled from our list of unalienable rights. The famous pastor-scholar John Wesley penned a wise prayer that captures this spirit of surrendering our rights:<\/p>\n
I am no longer my own, but thine.
\nPut me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
\nPut me to doing, put me to suffering.
\nLet me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
\nexalted for thee or brought low by thee.
\nLet me be full, let me be empty.
\nLet me have all things, let me have nothing.
\nFreely and heartily I yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.2<\/p>\n
Yes, God gives us gifts and inspires our passions, but the use of those gifts and passions is dependent on His purposes, permission, and timing. The Lord has promised to give us an abundant life, but He is not obligated to do this according to our preferred form of occupation and self-fulfillment. This sounds almost unbiblical to people in our culture, but our examination of the miraculous catch of fish can help us see things differently.
\nThe story is straightforward. Jesus had been teaching a crowd of people while sitting in Simon Peter\u2019s boat anchored just offshore (Luke 5:2). When He finished, He told Peter to pull up the anchor, head for deep water, and cast his nets. Peter obeyed after momentary resistance. He tentatively said, \u201cMaster, we\u2019ve worked hard all night and haven\u2019t caught anything\u201d (v. 5).
\nWhen he did what Jesus said, the nets quickly filled with such a cord-busting catch of fish that he called for assistance from his partners in a second boat. The haul of fish nearly sank both boats (v. 7)! Everyone was astonished. But it is the ensuing exchange between Peter and Jesus that forces us to face a hard fact: this miracle was a case not of Jesus flexing His supernatural muscles but of Him orchestrating a character-shaping moment for Peter and a sobering lesson on surrender for all would-be disciples, including us. Jesus knew what He was doing.<\/p>\n
Who Knows Best?
\nFirst, Jesus custom-designed a moment for Peter. When we skim the gospel narratives in an attempt to size up Peter, it seems obvious he was a very self-confident, impetuous person. He was the kind of guy who would jump out of the boat to walk on water when nobody else would. Some possible evidence suggests that his fellow disciples did not appreciate his \u201cI\u2019ll be the first\u201d attitude that bordered on arrogance. Interestingly, Matthew, Mark, and John all recounted Jesus\u2019 walk on the water. But Mark and John never mentioned the part about Peter walking on water. Only Matthew did. That obvious omission at least raises questions about whether Peter\u2019s ego didn\u2019t sometimes inflate to unpleasant dimensions in the other disciples\u2019 eyes. After all, he was the one who famously boasted, \u201cEven if all fall away on account of you, I never will\u201d (Matt. 26:33)! He was the one who also insisted that Jesus not stop with washing his feet but bathe him entirely (John 13:9). Apparently, his penchant for going overboard was not reserved for water-walking attempts.
\nWhether or not Peter\u2019s pride frustrated the other disciples, Jesus was undoubtedly aware of it. Jesus never leaves pride unchecked in any person\u2019s life. That\u2019s a lesson I have learned more times than I care to remember and that led me to write the following poem:<\/p>\n
My ego is like Jonah,
\nPreferring Tarshish shores
\nOf fairer thoughts about myself
\nThan Nineveh affords.<\/p>\n
And when I can\u2019t escape
\nThe stormy thoughts of me,
\nMy ego boldly pushes forth
\nAnd casts me in the sea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell done, good man,\u201d I think
\nAnd float on hubris swells
\nUntil conceit is swallowed whole
\nAnd spat upon the shoals.<\/p>\n
So never can I swallow pride;
\nMy pride will swallow me
\nUnless I\u2019m overwhelmed by grace
\nIn forced humility.<\/p>\n
So I can\u2019t help but imagine that Jesus\u2014who never wasted a miracle\u2014had a specific purpose in getting into Peter\u2019s boat, telling him to cast out into deep water after unsuccessful all-night fishing and do it all again. He knew how Peter would react.
\nThere are many ways to hear Peter\u2019s tone of voice when he replied to Jesus\u2019 command by saying, \u201cBut because you say so, I will let down the nets\u201d (Luke 5:5). Given Peter\u2019s track record of prideful self-confidence, my guess is that Peter sounded less like an obedient child and more like a coworker whose tone of voice says, \u201cI know you\u2019re wrong, but I\u2019ll do you a favor this time and do what you want.\u201d
\nWhy do I suspect that was his attitude? Because of his reaction to the big catch of fish. Why would a person fall to his knees, overwhelmed by shame at that moment? Shouldn\u2019t it have been a moment of amazement and celebration? \u201cWow! This is fantastic. Thank You, Jesus!\u201d Even if he still fell at Jesus\u2019 feet, it would have been in gratitude and joy. But for Peter to say \u201cGo away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man\u201d (v. 8) suggests that he was convicted about his bad attitude: I am such a jerk. I thought Jesus didn\u2019t know what He was talking about. When am I going to learn? I actually think I know more than Jesus!
\nThis illustrates a kind of pork in our cultural mind-set that feeds a similar self-reliant arrogance. We believe we have a legitimate right to trust our own judgment and expertise without seeking the Lord\u2019s guidance in everything and deferring always to His superior knowledge and will. The apostle James addressed this independent spirit with one of the Bible\u2019s most specific descriptions of sin.<\/p>\n
Now listen, you who say, \u201cToday or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.\u201d Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, \u201cIf it is the Lord\u2019s will, we will live and do this or that.\u201d As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn\u2019t do it, it is sin for them. (James 4:13\u201317)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not that we explicitly claim to know better than or at least as much as Jesus. That attitude is simply implicit in the fact that we make so many decisions and plans without ever consulting Him.
\nSince we believe Jesus always knew what He was doing, most likely at least one purpose of this miracle was to overwhelm Peter with \u201cforced humility.\u201d The sooner we understand that humility is one of Jesus\u2019 goals for our lives, the better. The healthiest attitude we can adopt is that of Eli, who, expecting punishment, still said, \u201cHe is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes\u201d (1 Sam. 3:18).<\/p>\n
Crafting a Crisis
\nLet\u2019s not stop there. There\u2019s more pork to be pulled from our inflated bill of rights. Jesus seemed to have another purpose to this orchestrated miracle. This time, rather than imagining the attitude behind Peter\u2019s words, let\u2019s picture this moment exactly as described. It\u2019s a simple scene. Peter stood knee-deep in the biggest boatload of fish he\u2019d ever caught. And right then, while he was still surrounded by the most success he\u2019d ever had, Jesus called Peter to follow Him. Jesus said, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people\u201d (Luke 5:10).
\nWhy is that significant? Keep in mind that before this miraculous catch of fish, the disciples had a terribly unsuccessful night of fishing. That is not the time to ask someone to change careers. Most people would probably be ready to jump ship in a New York minute under those conditions. Jesus would not ask Peter to follow Him on the heels of a terribly frustrating night of fishing. Instead, He created a situation where Peter and the others had to make a radical choice. He gave them the best catch of fish in their entire careers! Two boats nearly sank, they were so loaded down!
\nIt\u2019s like being an architect and landing the most challenging and creative project of your career. It\u2019s like working for years as a nurse and getting promoted to head nurse. Or like being a writer whose novel every publisher has rejected, when suddenly your book is accepted and becomes a bestseller. And the next day Jesus steps up to you and says, \u201cNow leave all this and follow Me.\u201d
\nJesus! What are You doing? It\u2019s almost cruel. You gave these fishermen a taste of everything they\u2019d ever hoped for out of their fishing careers, and then You said to leave it! But that\u2019s what He had to do. Jesus forces us to make a radical break with our plans and purposes, dreams and desires.
\nWe are tempted to prefer a relationship with Jesus in which He follows us around our world, blessing us and our pursuits. Imagine if Simon had been a fishing entrepreneur. \u201cWow! What a catch!\u201d he\u2019d say. \u201cJust think how Jesus could bless our lives! All we need to do is stay close to Him and then ask Him to follow us out to the seashore once a day and give hand signals directing us to just the right spot to toss in our nets! We could make a mint, and of course we\u2019d tithe.\u201d
\nYes, the Lord wants to bless us. But the cultural pork in our Christian beliefs is that it\u2019s God\u2019s responsibility to bless us with a sense of fulfillment. Ergo, having a sincere passion for some good purpose signals that we have found God\u2019s will. God wouldn\u2019t give me this burning passion if He didn\u2019t want me to pursue it, would He? Of course not, we are told. But that\u2019s pork.
\nThe Bible presents a different principle concerning God\u2019s will. God\u2019s call comes not through a burning passion so much as through a burning bush. Just because you have a burning passion doesn\u2019t mean you are supposed to satisfy it. That is up to God. Most times He will; sometimes He won\u2019t. You may have to live with unfulfilled passions, even noble and selfless ones.
\nThis lesson is built into the very fabric of the maturation process. Young adolescents face it head-on. They have burning passions they must not act on until they can do so in God\u2019s time and in His way. Passions do not, in and of themselves, define God\u2019s purposes. Plus, God\u2019s role is not to fulfill our passions, even the ones He created within us. Disciples are people who surrender all their passions for one fundamental mission: to fulfill God\u2019s passion.
\nThat\u2019s how the kingdom works. The only rights we fight for are God\u2019s. We must be willing to walk away from our every hope and dream in order to accomplish His every hope and dream. So Jesus gave these fishermen an incredibly satisfying experience and created a crisis moment in which they had to make a life decision. With their minds knee-deep in what they were trying to get out of life, they had to want Jesus even more. What radical abandonment! They walked away not from empty boats but from full ones. They left everything. We too are called to leave everything behind to follow Him. Even our passions and dreams . . . and pork.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. Give a few examples of how people become frustrated when they assume they have a \u201cright\u201d that\u2019s being neglected.<\/p>\n
2. 2. Peter\u2019s right was a boatload of fish, or material success in his career. If Jesus were to give you a \u201cboatload\u201d of some kind of success you\u2019ve worked for and then tell you to walk away from it to follow Him, what might that be?<\/p>\n
3. 3. Scripture details other times God created \u201ccrisis\u201d moments to call people to total surrender. Can you name a couple? Can you identify a crisis moment in which you were called to total surrender?<\/p>\n
Lord, I sing songs in church about loving You more, needing You more, or wanting You more than anything else. Even as I sing them, I know they aren\u2019t completely true about me. But I want them to be. I trust You are moving me in that direction. Just help me make the right choice\u2014the total-surrender choice\u2014in those crisis moments and every moment in between. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nIn this chapter we employed several Fresh Eyes techniques from previous chapters, but none of that matters if you can\u2019t forget how you\u2019ve always thought about a story. Always start by identifying what you already think; then set it aside. It\u2019s not necessarily wrong; it\u2019s just in the way.
\nTry this. Go to the famous verse, \u201cPerfect love casteth out fear\u201d (1 John 4:18 KJV) and summarize how you often hear it used. Then set that aside and go back to the whole chapter. See whether we\u2019ve been applying it improperly. Check out dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app to see how that compares with my observations.<\/p>\n
10<\/p>\n
Why Jesus Wept<\/p>\n
Raising Lazarus from the Dead<\/p>\n
John 11:1\u201344<\/p>\n
God can do anything. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s always easy on Him.<\/p>\n
What happens to the moral strength of people who are immersed in a technology-driven culture that prizes and provides user-friendly, instantaneous access to user-focused products and experiences? When remote controls can adjust the conditions in our lives at the push of a button, we develop an aversion to hard work. When drive-up windows and online ordering allow us to acquire things we want quickly, we develop an aversion to waiting. When we can create our own playlists or online radio stations so we can listen only to the music we want to hear, when all the people in our households can watch or record whatever shows they\u2019re interested in, we don\u2019t have to be adaptable or deferential. When airbags\u2014literal or metaphorical\u2014surround us to minimize the effects of accidents or negligence, we don\u2019t have to face painful consequences. And speaking of pain, when a pill or an ointment exists for almost any ache or discomfort, we become conditioned to avoid pain and characterize it as an unfair intrusion.
\nI once spoke with a ninety-seven-year-old church member who had just had eye surgery the day before. She was quite a lady, all four feet, eleven inches of her. When she was a young girl, her family migrated from Texas to Kentucky in covered wagons to be sharecroppers. Hunger, blisters, and tattered clothes defined her growing-up years. I asked her, \u201cMiss Flora, have you had any pain since the surgery?\u201d
\nShe smiled almost as if I had asked a silly question. \u201cNo,\u201d she replied. \u201cNo pain. It hurts quite a bit, but no pain.\u201d At that moment I realized we came from different planets. In her world, physical discomfort (\u201churts quite a bit\u201d) didn\u2019t even qualify as pain.
\nI don\u2019t want to be one of those curmudgeons who go on and on about what\u2019s gone wrong with the world. But let\u2019s acknowledge this: when we live in a world where so much comes so easily, we tend to become morally weaker people\u2014people who find it hard to choose to do what\u2019s right when it requires long waiting or difficulties.
\nJust as physical muscles grow weak with lack of use, so do moral muscles. Think of a barbell. If a few generations ago people could lift a hundred pounds of waiting, today we can hardly bear ten pounds of it. The problem is character and faith development for Christians requires struggle and patience. But we find these hardships intolerable in a comfort-oriented culture.
\nThis comes as no surprise to the Lord. He understands our weakness and is not stymied by a culture that fails to shape character. No matter the times or seasons of history and cultures, He has one character development tool He always uses effectively: desperation.
\nDesperation moves people to do what their moral strength can\u2019t. As I look back over my life, I am convinced that no significant change, no substantive improvement, no shedding of sin would have occurred apart from desperate moments. Our Lord knows how to bring all of us to that point for our good. \u201cRemember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years. . . . He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna . . . to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD\u201d (Deut. 8:2\u20133).
\n\u201cGod causes us to hunger and then feeds us\u201d should be an axiom of our faith. To people going through times of hungering, it may not seem very loving. But God\u2019s plan is to make us desperate for Him and everything that really matters, to move us when we lack moral power. With this in mind, let\u2019s turn to Jesus\u2019 miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead.
\nThis miracle is famous not only for being the most astounding miracle of Jesus\u2019 public ministry but also for containing the Bible\u2019s shortest verse: \u201cJesus wept\u201d (John 11:35). Our \u201cfresh eyes\u201d task is to try to understand what made Jesus cry.<\/p>\n
Who Knew What When?
\nThe Jews who observed Jesus\u2019 tears drew this conclusion: \u201cSee how he loved him!\u201d (v. 36). They assumed He was grieving over Lazarus\u2019s death. Of course, that was a natural assumption, because people weeping over the loss of Lazarus surrounded the tomb. Many scholars believe Jesus felt deeply troubled and angry at death itself, even though He knew He was about to undo the death of Lazarus. Perhaps. But I think we should consider another possibility. It requires tracking back through the narrative and charting the main characters involved, where they were located, and what they knew as the events unfolded. \u201cNow a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, \u2018Lord, the one you love is sick\u2019\u201d (vv. 1\u20133).
\nThese three verses introduce four main characters: Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and Jesus. (Of course, there are the messengers, but they are not identified and play no significant role in the narrative, except to deliver the message.) Where were the main characters located? Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were in the village of Bethany. Where was Jesus? We can\u2019t be entirely sure of the location, but He was apparently some distance from Bethany. Most scholars assume He was about a day\u2019s walk away.
\nScripture then brings a few more people into the story: \u201cWhen he heard this, Jesus said, \u2018This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God\u2019s glory so that God\u2019s Son may be glorified through it.\u2019 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, \u2018Let us go back to Judea\u2019\u201d (vv. 4\u20137).
\nWho are the new characters? The disciples. And where were they? They were with Jesus. We now have all the characters identified. Let\u2019s create a simple diagram and group the characters together according to where they were located.<\/p>\n
Jesus and the Disciples
\nLazarus, Martha, and Mary<\/p>\n
The thick black line represents the significant geographical separation between the two groups. Now let\u2019s fill in the diagram with what these people \u201cknew\u201d as the events unfolded.<\/p>\n
So the sisters sent word to Jesus, \u201cLord, the one you love is sick.\u201d
\nWhen he heard this, Jesus said, \u201cThis sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God\u2019s glory so that God\u2019s Son may be glorified through it.\u201d Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days. . . . \u201cBut Rabbi,\u201d they said, \u201ca short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?\u201d
\nJesus answered, \u201cAre there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world\u2019s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.\u201d
\nAfter he had said this, he went on to tell them, \u201cOur friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.\u201d
\nHis disciples replied, \u201cLord, if he sleeps, he will get better.\u201d Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
\nSo then he told them plainly, \u201cLazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.\u201d
\nThen Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, \u201cLet us also go, that we may die with him.\u201d (vv. 3\u201316)<\/p>\n
The passage indicates the disciples knew at least nine things, listed in the left column of the following diagram. In the right column, I list eleven things Martha and Mary knew, eight of which perhaps Lazarus knew, if he was conscious during the worsening stages of his sickness. Some of these things are not explicitly stated in the text but can be assumed based on the timing of events and the reaction of the sisters when Jesus finally arrived.<\/p>\n
What the Principal Characters Knew
\nJesus and the Disciples
\nLazarus, Martha, and Mary
\n\u2022 Lazarus was very sick.
\n\u2022 The sickness would not end in death.
\n\u2022 Jesus would be glorified in it.
\n\u2022 He stayed put for two days.
\n\u2022 Jesus would be heading into trouble by going near Jerusalem.
\n\u2022 The disciples were worried for Him.
\n\u2022 After initially misunderstanding what Jesus meant by \u201casleep,\u201d the disciples finally understood when Jesus told them plainly that Lazarus was dead.
\n\u2022 Jesus was glad about that.
\n\u2022 Something would happen to aid their faith.
\n\u2022 Lazarus was frighteningly sick.
\n\u2022 Jesus loved Lazarus.
\n\u2022 They had sent a message to Jesus, assuming He would come help.
\n\u2022 If He got there in time, Jesus would save Lazarus (vv. 21, 32).
\n\u2022 They were waiting.
\n\u2022 Jesus had not come.
\n\u2022 Waiting . . .
\n\u2022 Jesus had not come.
\n\u2022 Lazarus was dead.
\n\u2022 Dead people stay dead.
\n\u2022 They were grieved and disappointed over Jesus\u2019 apparent unresponsiveness.<\/p>\n
A great value of making a chart is how it helps you condense the observations into a helpful summary. In this case, the summary statements below create a powerful contrast.<\/p>\n
What the Principal Characters Knew
\nJesus and the disciples knew everything would turn out for the good in a glorious way.
\nLazarus, Martha, and Mary knew only that they had sent a request to Jesus and things had not turned out for the good because Jesus had not come in time.<\/p>\n
This summary diagram sparked an interesting realization about what might have moved Jesus to tears. Right away I realized that the thick black line represented not only a geographical barrier but also a \u201cknowledge of God\u2019s will\u201d barrier. Lazarus, Martha, and Mary could not see over that barrier. Jesus had a plan to raise Lazarus, reveal His own glory, and build their faith. But Lazarus, Mary, and Martha did not know that.
\nAnd I thought, That\u2019s just the way it is when we pray. We send our request up over the knowledge barrier that stands between some desperate situation we face and God\u2019s undisclosed plan. We can\u2019t see over that barrier, so we usually remain in the dark as we wait for God to show up somehow. We have to believe something is going on, that God is working all things out for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), but we rarely know what or when or how.
\nSomething important happened in my life at that moment. I found myself bowing in my heart, surrendering to \u201cthe way it\u2019s often going to be.\u201d This story is not just a New Testament episode to be enjoyed. It\u2019s a revelation of how God works most of the time, and that struck me as wonderfully okay.
\nI thought, I really am okay with this. I can be in the position of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary anytime over anything for the rest of my life, and I will be content knowing that on the other side, where my prayers can go but I can\u2019t, I have a God who loves me and is working to show His glory and build my confidence in Him.<\/p>\n
It Hurts to Be Lord
\nThat was an interesting and life-settling thought, but it also led me to see with fresh eyes what may have been behind the tears in Jesus\u2019 eyes. Stop and think:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 Jesus told His disciples that Lazarus\u2019s sickness would not end in death, but He did not tell the ones who needed to hear most. He kept them in the dark; they knew only that He hadn\u2019t come and He hadn\u2019t replied. Don\u2019t you think Jesus knew what He was putting them through?<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 Jesus let Lazarus die. Jesus\u2019 friends were waiting and waiting. Watching helplessly as their brother suffered and grimaced, then turned lifelessly gray. Don\u2019t you think Jesus knew what He was putting them through?<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 When Jesus finally arrived, both sisters separately said to Him what they had undoubtedly spoken numerous times as they waited helplessly: \u201cLord, if you had been here . . .\u201d Their sense of having been neglected by Jesus likely doubled their grief over their brother\u2019s death. Their words have almost the same tone as the day the waves washed over the disciples, sinking boat and they screamed, \u201cTeacher, don\u2019t you care if we drown?\u201d (Mark 4:38). Don\u2019t you think Jesus knew what He was putting them through?<\/p>\n
Yes, He knew. So when He finally arrived and faced their grief and saw the disappointment in their tear-streaked faces, that\u2019s when Jesus wept. The text specifically says it was that sight that caused Him to be \u201cdeeply moved in spirit and troubled\u201d (v. 33), not necessarily the fact of Lazarus\u2019s death but the degree of desperation He had chosen for Mary and Martha.
\nOf course, this is conjecture, as it always is when it comes to explaining emotions. But this hypothesis fits with what the Bible reveals about the Lord over and over again. Compassion for all of us weak and lost and helpless children fills His heart. He must do certain things to teach, train, discipline, and strengthen us in faith and character. The things He must do often leave us wondering, worrying, and waiting in desperation. It\u2019s necessary. And it hurts not just us but Him . . . probably even more.<\/p>\n
Retrospective
\nAs I look back on my life, I am certain God has superintended all that has happened to me\u2014the directing of my path toward the fully good goals God chose\u2014with the divine and judicious employment of desperation. This is how it always works. We move toward God by spurts and surges sparked at points of desperation brought on directly by Him, by His gracious sculpting of our circumstances, or by the magnificently intelligent use of our best and worst choices.
\nThis is God\u2019s way of helping us choose His will without crushing our own. Through desperation He nudges our will to the very brink of making right choices but then steps back and leaves us right there so we can participate in the thrilling leap toward the right and good and eternal. \u201cI am the resurrection and the life. . . . Do you believe this?\u201d He asked Martha (John 11:25\u201326).
\nHe does not pad our falls but lets us be broken. He does not rescue us until we feel helpless. He does not shine light in the daytime but lets the darkness settle in until we cry for illumination. It seems almost cruel to our modern ears that have been trained to believe parenting is all about protecting children from all pain. But letting children cry sometimes may be the most loving act of all. And God always knows when and why and how long to let us cry.
\nIf we are to experience the fullness of life God makes available through the Holy Spirit, we must be desperate for it. There\u2019s no use in God offering a feast for which we have no appetite. But we can\u2019t make ourselves hungry on our own. Even this comes from God. He causes and allows our hunger to grow, our thirst to deepen, and our drives to intensify and remain unfulfilled until we reach a desperate point where only one right choice will feed our starving souls. God superintends our spiritual development through the ministry of desperation. Again I say, \u201cHe humbles us, causing us to hunger, then feeds us with manna\u201d (Deut. 8:2).
\nBut the insight we gain from the miracle of Lazarus\u2019s resurrection is that the Lord Jesus\u2019 own sorrow ignites when He takes us deep into desperation. What love! I believe that was what was going on inside Jesus at the edge of Lazarus\u2019s tomb and resurrection. He wept for how He made them weep. And that helps me love Him even more.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. This chapter suggests that the geographical distance between Jesus and Mary and Martha and their lack of understanding about what was going on symbolize what is often our experience in prayer. How often do you think this happens? Is it that way 90 percent of the time? Sixty? Forty? Is that always by God\u2019s choice?<\/p>\n
2. 2. Is there ever value in not knowing what God has in process while He\u2019s answering our prayers?<\/p>\n
3. 3. It is immensely difficult for people in our instant-gratification world to wait patiently. What other habits of Christian maturity are made difficult by the habits and expectations our modern culture creates?<\/p>\n
4. 4. Perhaps your parents said to you, \u201cThis is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.\u201d Did that mean anything to you then? I mentioned it helps me to know that Jesus weeps when He has to let us hurt. Does that help you? Why or why not?<\/p>\n
Lord, I have to admit, I would always like to know what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s very hard to believe You\u2019re working everything out for good when I can\u2019t see You working at all. But I know that\u2019s when I have to trust Your words in Scripture. So help me keep declaring in the darkness, \u201cYou will never leave me nor forsake me. You are the light of my life. Peace that passes understanding will guard my mind in Christ Jesus.\u201d Then help me wait patiently for You, Lord. I offer my waiting as an act of worship. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nIt\u2019s a paradox. Creativity flows out of grunt work and rigorous effort. Jazz musicians practice before they improvise. As this chapter suggests, to get fresh insights into Scripture, you sometimes need to do grunt work like making charts to organize observations and textual data.
\nYour final challenge in this book is, appropriately, a tougher one. Read through Acts 13\u201321 to chart Paul\u2019s missionary travels. Simply list the destinations and what made him choose each one. After you\u2019ve filled in the chart, make your observations and see whether you can draw any conclusions and learn any lessons from Paul\u2019s decision-making process. Then hop on dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app to compare your discoveries with mine.<\/p>\n
Notes<\/p>\n
Chapter 1
\n1. Joseph Scriven, \u201cWhat a Friend We Have in Jesus,\u201d 1855, public domain.<\/p>\n
Chapter 2
\n1. T. S. Eliot, \u201cThe Hollow Men,\u201d in The Poems of T. S. Eliot, eds. Christopher Ricks and Jim McCue, vol. 1, Collected and Uncollected Poems (London: Faber & Faber, 2015), 83\u201384.<\/p>\n
Chapter 3
\n1. Henry David Thoreau, Walden (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1897), 143.<\/p>\n
Chapter 7
\n1. Justin Martyr, The Second Apology of Justin, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, vol. 1, The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (New York: Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1903), 190.
\n2. Tertullian, Apology, trans. S. Thelwall, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, vol. 3, Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian (New York: Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1905), 38.
\n3. Augustine, The City of God, trans. Marcus Dods, in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philiip Schaff, vol. 2, St. Augustin\u2019s City of God and Christian Doctrine (New York: Charles Scribner\u2019s Sons, 1907), 176.
\n4. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), I.14.14.
\n5. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, trans. M. J. Charlesworth, vol. 15, The World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 1a. 114, 5.<\/p>\n
Chapter 8
\n1. William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark: The English Text with Introduction, Exposition, and Notes, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 192.<\/p>\n
Chapter 9
\n1. \u201cCongressional Pig Book 2009,\u201d Citizens against Government Waste, accessed January 28, 2018, www.cagw.org\/\u200bContent\/\u200bPig-\u200bBook-\u200b2009#II_\u200bCOMMERCE_\u200bJUSTICE_\u200bSCIENCE.
\n2. John Wesley, \u201cA Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition,\u201d in Historical Dictionary of Methodism, eds. Charles Yrigoyen Jr. and Susan E. Warrick, 2nd ed. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2005), 245.<\/p>\n
Fresh Eyes on Jesus\u2019 Parables sample chapter . . .<\/p>\n
1<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, Turkey\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hidden Treasure<\/p>\n
Matthew 13:44<\/p>\n
How can one little Bible verse capture the full meaning of salvation?<\/p>\n
I grew up well before the era of iPads. The closest thing we had to an attention-grabbing flat-screen instrument was an Etch A Sketch. Remember? You drew on it by turning two knobs that moved an interior stylus against the backside of a gray screen, leaving a black line. If you got good at it, you could draw almost anything, and then you simply erased the screen and started over by turning it upside down and shaking it vigorously.
\nThis is similar to what we often must do with our minds in order to see something new or even better in a familiar Scripture passage. Case in point: \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field\u201d (Matt. 13:44).
\nOne common interpretation has been \u201cEtch A Sketched\u201d into our minds by preachers dialing in this point: the kingdom of heaven is such a precious treasure that we, like the man, should give up everything to lay hold of it. Of course, that\u2019s absolutely true\u2014but probably not what Jesus was talking about. So let\u2019s flip our minds upside down, shake out the old teaching, and ask the Holy Spirit to help us discover something new. Let\u2019s start with a quick review of the facts:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 What did the man buy? Don\u2019t say \u201ctreasure.\u201d He wanted the treasure, but he had to buy the field where he found it in order to possess the treasure. That\u2019s an important observation.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 How did the man come up with the money to buy the field? He sold everything he owned.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 What was his frame of mind while doing that? He was joyful.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 Finally, what was the kingdom of heaven like? Wait . . . don\u2019t say \u201ctreasure.\u201d The first thing you must do whenever you approach a parable that begins \u201cthe kingdom of heaven (or God) is like . . .\u201d is to put the parable\u2019s elements inside a parenthesis so the phrase \u201ckingdom of heaven\u201d applies to everything that follows. This parable is not saying the kingdom of God is like any one element in the parable, such as the treasure or the man or the field. Rather, the parable is saying the whole picture that follows is what the kingdom of God is like. That is, the man finds treasure, hides it, joyfully sells everything, and buys the field. Given that basic rule of interpretation, we cannot interpret this parable the common way\u2014that the kingdom of God should be like a treasure to us.<\/p>\n
You might then be tempted to ask, \u201cSo what is this parable telling us to value so highly that we would give up everything to obtain it?\u201d Here\u2019s the bad news. If you ask the question that way, you\u2019ll never arrive at the answer, because too often we don\u2019t notice any unwarranted assumptions we make. Let me demonstrate by telling you a story.
\nFor more than thirty years, I have asked groups to solve the following \u201ctwenty-questions mystery\u201d: Mary lies dead on the floor. Tom is asleep on the couch. A colorless, odorless liquid surrounds Mary\u2019s body, and broken pieces of glass are also scattered around her. The windows and doors are all locked from the inside. What happened?
\nThe groups always start out with the same kinds of questions. Someone asks, \u201cHas Mary been dead a long time?\u201d
\n\u201cNo, but that\u2019s not relevant to the solution,\u201d I reply.
\nAnother person asks, \u201cThe windows may be locked, but are any of them broken?\u201d
\n\u201cClever question. But no, none of them are broken.\u201d
\n\u201cIs the liquid water?\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cDid Mary drop the glass before she died, because she got frightened?\u201d
\n\u201cNo,\u201d I say. \u201cBut you\u2019re making an unwarranted assumption.\u201d
\nEyes squint and brows furrow. Questions fly: \u201cIs it really a house?\u201d \u201cIs Tom really asleep?\u201d
\n\u201cYes,\u201d I say, \u201cbut go beyond the facts you were presented with. Who are you assuming Mary is?\u201d
\nA nurse? A murderer? A thief? Eventually someone hits on it: \u201cIs Mary a woman?\u201d
\n\u201cNo.\u201d I see the light turn on.
\n\u201cA little girl?\u201d
\n\u201cNo.\u201d
\n\u201cIs Mary human?\u201d
\n\u201cNo.\u201d And there it is.
\nFrom this point, the solution comes quickly: Tom is a cat. Mary is a goldfish. Tom knocked the fishbowl off the table, it broke, and Mary died.
\nIn the same way, our unwarranted assumption about \u201cthe man\u201d in this parable keeps us from understanding what Jesus was teaching about God\u2019s kingdom. Here\u2019s your hint: Who are you assuming the main character to be? What if the man who bought the field is not an ordinary human being like us but the Son of God?<\/p>\n
Christus Victor
\nWhat if this isn\u2019t a parable about all we must do to possess the kingdom? What if Jesus is the one who finds the treasure? What if we human beings are the treasure? What if the field is this world that belonged to Satan, the former prince of the world? And what if it is Jesus who gives up everything He owns to purchase (redeem) this world and reclaim us as His possession? What if that\u2019s what the kingdom of heaven is like?
\nDid you realize that for the first thousand years of Christendom that picture was likely the more common way of understanding salvation? It is sometimes called Christus Victor. Today the common view is penal substitution: that is, Jesus died in our place to pay for our sins. This view of salvation has its roots in a classic atonement theory Saint Anselm articulated in the eleventh century. After various revisions following the Protestant Reformation, it has become the dominant view of salvation. It\u2019s not that Christus Victor is right and penal substitution is wrong. They simply represent different ways of looking at the gospel. God\u2019s work of salvation is so great (Heb. 2:3), like a huge mountain, that we must view it from many angles to gain an accurate and comprehensive picture. But most Christians don\u2019t realize this and believe there is only one way to describe what Jesus accomplished on the cross.
\nYou could summarize the Christus Victor view of salvation this way: the prince of the world, Satan, possessed this world; the Son of God came to earth and defeated him on the cross, then established and commissioned the church to enforce His kingdom\u2019s rule on earth and reclaim lost people to His possession. That used to be a more common way to understand the gospel of salvation.
\nWhen I first viewed this parable from that angle, my whole idea of salvation expanded. However, I sensed the change was so big, it was important to check my new insight against Scripture. When I did, this short parable seemed to condense several verses about Jesus\u2019 death found in Hebrews and Paul\u2019s letters:<\/p>\n
1. 1. . . . then in his joy went\u2014\u201cFor the joy set before him he endured the cross . . .\u201d (Heb. 12:2).<\/p>\n
2. 2. . . . and sold all he had\u2014\u201c[He] did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing . . .\u201d (Phil. 2:6\u20137).<\/p>\n
3. 3. . . . and bought that field\u2014\u201cYou are not your own; you were bought at a price\u201d (1 Cor. 6:19\u201320).<\/p>\n
So my new insight checked out. As a result, I now believe penal substitution is one way to understand the gospel, but Christus Victor is also, and it may be the most glorious understanding we have. The King of the universe reclaimed this fallen world. Isn\u2019t that exactly what Handel wrote in his celebrated \u201cHallelujah Chorus\u201d?<\/p>\n
The kingdom of this world
\nIs become the kingdom of our Lord
\nAnd of His Christ, and of His Christ;
\nand He shall reign for ever and ever.1<\/p>\n
Plus, rethinking my assumptions about this parable not only resized my view of salvation but also upsized my longing to join the Lord in His treasure-seeking work. For this parable reveals our Lord\u2019s passion to reclaim us\u2014you and me\u2014as treasures that belong to Him. It tells of the lengths to which He will go to make a person\u2014any person\u2014His.<\/p>\n
How Far Jesus Goes
\nA couple years ago after church, a somewhat-unkempt and heavily tattooed young mom came up to me and my wife after having waited for people to clear out. Unfamiliar with church lingo and protocol, she asked cautiously, \u201cYou know your talk today?\u201d (She didn\u2019t call it a sermon.) \u201cWhy did you look toward me and say \u2018Hello, Turkey\u2019?\u201d
\nI had no clue what she was talking about. I felt sure I never said such a thing. My wife\u2019s quizzical look confirmed my doubts. I just replied, \u201cI don\u2019t remember saying that. Why do you ask?\u201d That triggered a somewhat-lengthy description of her troubled life but how, through her ups and downs with drugs and lovers leaving her with children, she had a loving grandmother.
\nShe went on to explain, \u201cGramma was someone who went to church a lot, and she prayed a lot, and I knew she loved me, but I was messed up. Last year my gramma died, but I got to see her before, and I said, \u2018Gramma, if I ever get back on the right track and you can see me from heaven making good choices, will you somehow tell me \u201cHello, Turkey\u201d?\u2019 That\u2019s what she always used to call me. Well, this is my second week coming here to church, and this morning I clearly heard you say \u2018Hello, Turkey.\u2019 So I\u2019m thinking I must be on the right track.\u201d
\nHer story struck me, and I told her how much God loved her and said, \u201cJesus knew what you asked your grandma to say. So He caused you to hear words this morning that I didn\u2019t say.\u201d
\nShe was dumbfounded. And I was able to introduce her to this Jesus who does remarkable, miraculous things to seek and save the lost\u2014to claim the buried treasures of this world. That\u2019s who Jesus is. That\u2019s what this parable is about. Our Lord looks at each of us as a treasure, and He will stop at nothing\u2014pay whatever price is necessary\u2014to help you become His possession!
\nHere\u2019s my suggestion: the next time you take Communion, don\u2019t think just about how much Jesus paid. Yes, it was His life He gave\u2014it was His body that was broken and His blood that was shed. But consider why He paid that price. He wants you to be His. He wants you to no longer be in any kind of bondage to any form of the Enemy\u2019s power. Satan has no hold on you. He has no claim on you.
\nTurns out you are an Etch A Sketch yourself. When you become His, Jesus wonderfully and lovingly turns your life upside down and erases the sin, shame, corruption, and marks the Devil left in your life, granting you a clean slate and heart that He writes on by His Spirit. Because you belong to Him.<\/p>\n
20\/20 Focus
\n1. 1. This chapter points out that the common interpretation of this parable emphasizes the enormous price a human being must be willing to pay to possess the treasured kingdom of heaven. What difference does it make to see yourself as the treasure Jesus paid to possess, rather than the kingdom being the treasure you must pay to possess?<\/p>\n
2. 2. The phrase \u201cand sold all he had\u201d was connected with Philippians 2:6\u20137, which speaks of the price the Son of God paid to redeem the world. Can you think of any other Bible verses that speak of His great personal sacrifice?<\/p>\n
3. 3. How might things be different in our churches and among Christian believers if the Christus Victor view of salvation was more widely proclaimed and embraced in our time?<\/p>\n
4. 4. Take a few moments to pray for a person you would ask Jesus to seek out and save in the miraculous way He claimed the young mom in the \u201cHello, Turkey\u201d story.<\/p>\n
Lord Jesus, I am so thankful You paid the price to reclaim this world . . . and me. I embrace by faith my freedom from sin and from Satan\u2019s hold on me. Help me walk out that freedom in practical ways that show the world I belong to You. Amen.<\/p>\n
Vision Check
\nWhenever you begin to think about anything, you start with assumptions you\u2019re not even aware of. The key to clear thinking is to release those assumptions. Don\u2019t let them control what you see before you check them out like we did in this parable. (Are we right to assume the man who bought the field is a person like ourselves?)
\nPractice this skill by going to 2 Corinthians 9:15, where Paul wrote, \u201cThanks be to God for his indescribable gift!\u201d First, identify what most people assume Paul meant by the \u201cindescribable gift\u201d and hold it in question. Then read the preceding verses (vv. 6\u201314) to see if the common assumption fits the context. Or is the \u201cindescribable gift\u201d referring to something else? Hop on dougnewton.com or the Fresh Eyes app to compare your thoughts with mine.<\/p>\n
Notes
\n1. George Frideric Handel, \u201cHallelujah Chorus,\u201d Lyrics.com, accessed February 5, 2018, www.lyrics.com\/lyric\/324457.<\/p>\n
title Fresh eyes on jesus\u2019 miracles: discovering new insights in familiar passages
\nauthor Newton, Doug<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acknowledgments The man who was, I think, the most creative and engaging preacher I ever heard died in a car crash when I was in sixth grade. I say \u201cI think\u201d because I never really cared about what he was saying at the time. After all, I was only twelve years old, and there were … <\/p>\n