And There's More

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When one stands at the rim of the Grand Canyon he finds himself warned to stand back and, at the same time, invited to enter and explore. I believe that illustrates the fear of the Lord. I also believe it links the fear of the Lord with the word godliness – to be awed by that which is truly awesome.

First Timothy 3:16 describes true godliness as the breathtaking mystery of God among us as one of us. It has to do with authenticated reality, not some occult hocus pocus. The footprint of the God-man was clearly predicted by the prophets of old and was fully vindicated by God’s Spirit in the claims and actions of Jesus of Nazareth. In the process it was observed in the angelic realms and by human angels/messengers in the world of man. But there is more. The wow-factor of this mystery is expressed in three more amazing categories.

God preached to the Gentiles

He who came to Israel as the promised Messiah of the Jews, brought hope to Gentiles! He invited people who were legitimately afar off and wrongfully scorned to come to him and trust in him and receive from him forgiveness and life. Although prophesied, even the Apostles seemed not to have seen that one coming.  

God believed on in the world.

From his closest family and friends to sinners drawn from the fringes, in spite of entrenched opposition, his invitation was received, and he became the object of a forsake-all faith.  

God Received up into glory.

His last footprints were left on the hill top of Olivet. From there his followers walked away to urge others to trust him and look forward to his return. In the decades before the political church, they carried this message across continents without brandishing a sword or planting of a bomb. Since then, in spite of the political church, others have continued to offer his saving grace even though victimized by defamation, legislation, isolation, and execution.

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The Mystery of the Truly Awesome

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I believe First Timothy 3:16 is a text which should be read before any reading of the Gospels. No matter what facet of Jesus’ life and ministry we study we ought to let the Spirit remind us that we are dealing with a mystery which should bring thoughts and actions of awe (godliness) to our lives – thoughts and actions which mimic the footprint of the King whom we serve now in hostile territory and in whose Kingdom we will serve “when the dark night has ended, and the storms come no more.”

The text tells us that the mystery of godliness is nothing less than the incarnation of Christ. Here are the first three categories of that awe inspiring mystery.

God manifest in the flesh.

In some respects I fear that people who reject this truth have a better grasp of it than those of us who believe it. They understand its ramifications on their lives and hate it. They grasp the “impossibility” of it apart from an act of God and they scorn it for that very reason. We, on the other hand, seem to treat it as an oh-yeah-that part of our faith and, for eleven months of the year, live our lives woefully unconcerned with the spine-tingling, miraculous wow-factors which surround it. 

God justified in the Spirit

The biographies of Jesus' walk among us reveal that the Father, through the Holy Spirit, orchestrated every aspect of his earthly pilgrimage so that his identity and his authoritative claims were thoroughly authenticated and declared to be right and righteous. This is vital to the peace which belongs to those of us who are justified by faith in him, and it is the basic reason for this series of devotionals.

God seen by angels

This can refer to the fact that Jesus’ authenticity was witnessed in both the natural and supernatural realm; and, also, because angellos (angel) can refer to human messengers who bring good news (eu-angellion), it can also refer to the many witnesses who observed his life and gave testimony to its authenticity even to the point of laying down their lives. 

God, give us grace to stand at the threshold of such a panorama of mystery with such awe that we step back in stunned wonder and step forward with a longing to explore it deeply.

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When the Footprint Meets the Foot

Tom Brown, in The Tracker, describes a desperate, wilderness search for a lost boy. Through footprints he became acquainted with the boy long before he found him. Then came that dramatic moment when footprint met foot and Tom ran across the open field to embrace him. In that case the trail was made by the one who needed to be rescued. In the case of Jesus, the footprint is the one who can rescue us! In both cases the meeting of the footprint and person who made it is overwhelming. When the footprint is of the Rescuer, the response of the rescued one is captured in the word godliness.

As with so many biblical qualities of the heart, godliness has been imprisoned in a list of stuff. Once the lost soul has met his Rescuer we set about showing him the proper way to bow and shake hands, the look of inappropriate enthusiasm, and the official way to speak.

However, the term for godliness is not that how-to oriented. It is linked, rather, to an attitude rising spontaneously when the lost soul meets, with breathtaking force, the mystery of godliness who is the embodiment of the footprint. That imagery of godliness carries the force of being awed by that which is truly awesome.

Interestingly, in some texts godliness is linked to the matter of economics. It makes sense. We tend to reveal what truly awes us by where we spend our “discretionary” money and for what we bind ourselves to long-term indebtedness.

This word brings us to our own response to the record of Jesus’ walk on our planet, and the response created in the lost souls who found in him forgiveness, life, and hope. It presses on me the question: does my life spring from a well of overwhelmed awe for who he is and what he has done?

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Know Who You're Talking To

Picture Credit Unknown / Quote: hhcomings

To catch the force of what Luke recorded regarding Jesus’ authority, it will serve well to explore the look of two basic words which can get muddled in our thinking. The words are:  Power and Authority. They are siblings; but they are not twins.

Power (dunamis) speaks of the actual strength to do a task. Jesus used it in Matthew 28:19-20 and in Acts 1:8. He has the actual strength and resources to accomplish what he promised.

Authority (exoucia) speaks of the legal and or ethical right to promise, command, expect, and do things.

Power exercised without authority is insubordination. Authority to act without the power to act is useless.

It is the word authority in the context of Jesus' acts of power which is important to Luke's narrative. Exoucia combines the word for “out” and a form of the verb “to be.” To my ear it says, “out-being,” and has to do with what we sometimes call our jurisdiction. It begins with “personal space;” but it grows to include that which causes certain people to adjust themselves to your priorities when you are present in person or simply in their mind. It is the influence of your existence, your presence, or your memory to affect the choices of others.

Luke used “authority” first in the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. Satan claimed authority to offer him the kingdoms of the world. Jesus rejected the propaganda and, thereafter demonstrated his authentic authority in action and word.

Consider the power demonstrations (dunamis) of his authority (exousia) in the flow of events.

• He demonstrated authority over demons. (Notice - the people used both words - authority / power - in their reaction to this event.
• He demonstrated authority over physical ailments – fever, leprosy, paralysis, a malformed hand, a military officer’s servant.
• He demonstrated authority over a school of fish.
• He demonstrated authority over death.

With the possible exception of the fish event, do you see any correlation between these and the identity of his footprint in the lists we have mentioned? 
We never escape the issue of authority; and it is vital to know who's who in the authority structures of our lives. There are too many not-so funny-stories about mouthy workers discovering that they were talking to their boss... for the last time. The issue is deadly if we fail to understand the authority invested in Jesus Christ. In the next devotional I hope to show you two events Jesus used to make the connection between his footprint and his authority. His miracles were not for show, they were for recognition.

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Nazareth Was Not A Primary

In the two times Luke gave us Jesus’ list of the identifying features of his footprint the list is not exactly the same. We would not expect it to be. He is not hawking a catchy, mnemonic campaign platform. However, there is a statement found both times. When Jesus read from Isaiah it appeared first in the list; but in his message to John, he put it last. It is important and would play an important role in the course Jesus took to claim his authority.

The poor have the gospel preached to them.

I think the remark is misunderstood by some. I know it rankles many. For the moment, though, I will set it aside. What interests me here is Jesus' homily which included a jarring accusation and turned the amazed audience into a vicious mob.

Basically, he said, “I am who I am. I’m not here for your vote. This is not a primary, and I’m not running for office.” 

• You are going to try to discredit me with slogans.
• You want packaging… a road show.
• You will fulfill the truth that a prophet is not honored in his own country.
• And, although you are Israelites, you will be left out in the cold.
• Elijah ministered to a gentile woman, not any of the Israelite women, during a famine.
• Elisha ministered to a gentile soldier with leprosy, not to any Israelite lepers during his prophetic tenure.

These were the words of a man who assumed considerable authority, and they had the same impact on the Nazarene congregation as they have had on pagans and hypocrites, and sometimes even devoted disciples down to this day. They invite resistance. In Nazareth, the people tried to throw him over a cliff.

From this point on Luke recorded significant features of Jesus’ demonstration that his claim was not an idle one, and that his footprint would bear it out.

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The Footprint of the King

We are apt to say we do not know a lot about the Kingdom which Jesus will bring. When Jesus identified himself with the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-3, he gave his observers a footprint to follow. Whether he also quoted Psalm 146:7-9 we cannot know. However, from that day forward Jesus demonstrated his personal compassion for the very ones mentioned in both of those passages and other Old Testament footprint texts.

Some make the mistake of thinking Jesus’ miracles were precedents for all time. While he did give the same empowerment to the Apostles to signal the beginning of the era of the Church, he did not establish any works of that nature for the centuries beyond the Apostles. Rather, he sent the members of his Church (not a preeminent clergy) to come alongside the same people in need and to use their giftedness and resources at hand to bring comfort, encouragement, and the Gospel. His criteria for the admission of surviving mortals into his Kingdom at the end of the Tribulation is telling.

We may safely gather that this footprint will identify the overall character of the Kingdom when Jesus comes to reign in person. In all quarters he will personally direct the ministries of his citizens in a still fallen world which will still fall on hurting souls.

That is why, when John the Baptist began to have doubts, Jesus sent this message.

Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard:

• The blind see,
• The lame walk,
• Lepers are cleansed,
• The deaf hear,
• The dead are raised,
• The poor have the Gospel preached to them.

There was the footprint of the King for any who wanted to track him; and there it remains to be followed by those who trust him.

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Did He Just Say What I Think He Said?

Hebrew Scroll / Hebrew Text of Joshua 1:1
Be sure to read from right to left.

A scroll was handed to the man. He unrolled it to a particular passage and read. No spaces… no punctuation… no distinction of upper case and lower case… no chapters and verses.

Possibly local folks looked at each other and nodded with pride. The local boy had “gotten him a good larnin’.”

I suppose it is possible everyone may have been so impressed with being impressed that they really did not hear what the man read.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me;
because the LORD has anointed me 
to preach good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
And to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.

I imagine smiling faces as he handed the scroll back to the presiding Rabbi. Then came the eyebrow-popper.

“Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

As he continued to speak the stunned congregation may have struggled to remember what he read. When reality sunk in they would have understood he had just claimed to be the mysterious Messiah spoken of in that prophecy.

It is not difficult to imagine men leaning toward each other. “Did he just say what I think he just said?”

We do not know remarks immediately following this declaration. Perhaps his “gracious” speech came from another of the cameo sketches of the character of the Messiah.

The LORD executes justice for the oppressed,
Gives food to the hungry.
Gives freedom to the prisoners.
Opens the eyes of the blind.
Raises those who are bowed down.
Loves the righteous.
Watches over the strangers.
Relieves the fatherless and widow.

Whatever he said, he put on the table the identifying marks of who he was… and is. Whether he added that text to his talk is not known. What is known is he made a claim... a big claim... and the people knew it then better than we realize it today as our eyes hurry over the account. 

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Do We Forget the Mystery? !

“Rum thing,” said a committed cynic to a friend one evening in the midst of a discussion about the historicity of the Gospels. “All that stuff of [James G.] Frazer’s about the Dying God. Rum thing. It almost looks as if it had really happened once.” 

With those words the cynic shoved a committed but troubled young atheist toward theism and, ultimately, to faith in Jesus Christ. The young atheist was C. S. Lewis, and my reason for the quote is to reintroduce an often overlooked feature of the Gospels. (C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy. Ch. 14)

To understand that feature it must first be stated that there is no fact-based reason to doubt that the Gospels are authentic. Of course, that is not the same as to say there are no denials. There are denials on every side; but they rise from what can be identified as a dedication to ideology rather than accuracy. Trashing the Gospels is important to those who long for an animal-driven paganism and to those who are still trying to prop up a sex-driven intellectualism. To even hint that the Gospels record eye-witness reports of the events they describe is to open the door to uncomfortable questions regarding accountable vulnerability to Someone who is out there.

The fact that neo-pagans and sensual-intellectuals “overlook” this authentic mystery is not a surprise; but, do we as Christians overlook it as well? I would suggest that the Christian community does seem to be without awe when it comes to the inspired accounts of a mysterious visit to our planet, and it may relate to the same problem of vulnerability to accountability.

In order to speak to this point devotionally, I hope to sketch the intentional flow of one of those Gospels (Luke) in its record of the career of this mysterious Man called “Jesus" – a career which unveiled his fascinating identity and unpacked his frightening authority.

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