David Bahn – Reflections

Perhaps you’ve noticed the word. It appears in the psalms. Selah. There is no certain translation for the Hebrew word. There are some theories though. One is that is an annotation for a musical interlude. Many of the psalms are sung, “to the tune of, ‘Do Not Destroy,’ or ‘Doe of the Morning,’” are two examples. “Selah” appears 71 times in the Psalms (and 3 times in Habakkuk), and while its precise meaning is uncertain, it is widely understood to be a musical or liturgical pause, possibly signaling a break for reflection or a musical interlude. When I read the Psalms, I most often do not read outloud the word, “Selah.” If selah is a signal for a time of reflection, then the redaction in Mark 10:14 is a sort of New Testament selah. It certainly arrests me when I read “let the reader understand.” Understand what? First of all, I see that Mark inserted that comment in the middle of Jesus’ words. There was something that caught Mark’s attention as he wrote those words of Jesus: “When you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be.”  Second – and thanks to the Bible Challenge readings today, I see the connection with today’s reading from Daniel 9. Jesus repeats a prophecy recorded in Daniel 9:27 about the desecration of the temple under the Seleucids (1 Macc 1:54–59). Jesus announces a new desolation and destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which will be carried out by the Romans in AD 70. This event will end all temple worship and sacrifice.* I’m thinking Mark was trying to imagine the cataclysmic events that would have to happen when these words became reality. He wants the readers (you and me included) to recognize that this turn of events was like no other. And yet the end of all things will be far more catastrophic. Look today at the temple site in Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock sits there now. A monumental and impressive Muslim mosque stands where the very presence of God had been. Some may wish to replace that structure with a Jewish temple. Still others with a Christian church building. But the presence of God is in the hearts of his people. Kingdoms will rise and fall. Religious wars will be fought, lost, and won. False christs will arise. But we must not be deceived. We have been warned. We must indeed think about it, and recall that Mark wrote this after Jesus’ death and resurrection (let the reader understand: Selah!). * Italicized portion above is an excerpt from The Lutheran Study Bible © 2009 Concordia Publishing House Scripture text © ESV Available in the App Store

Maybe you’ve experienced a bait-and-switch. It was once common in car dealership ads. The ad would show a very nice car with lots of options and in tiny print would be the disclaimer, “As long as inventory lasts.” And it didn’t. Poof! No more luxury car at economy prices. And what about the prices for flights these days? Basic Economy?!? I do know some people who travel that way. But I at least want an assigned seat. Not quite a bait-and-switch, but very similar.

Sadly, some do the same with invitations to the Christian faith. If you believe in Jesus, all will go well with you. You’ll succeed at life, have all your needs met. You will have no financial troubles. Life will be as good as it gets (this side of heaven, of course). Think most televangelists, many cult leaders, and not a few religious hucksters.

If most people knew going in what the LDS church actually teaches, they might quickly check out: a divine couple, spirit children, and the idea of men becoming gods of their own planets. And then there’s the teaching that women must be brought through the veil by their husband to participate in that eternal destiny.

Jesus doesn’t operate that way. His yes is yes, and his no is no. He warns people that they must take up their cross to follow him. He tells some that they must sell all to be in his kingdom. Others he sends with no provision for a mission trip to who-knows-where.

Truly, others he comforts, heals, encourages, and blesses. His is not all gloom and doom. But there is plenty of reality in Jesus’ teachings so that we do not get discouraged when things do not go quite as hoped-for.

In fact the reality he lays out is daunting. Wars and rumors of war. Famine, and pestilences, terrors and persecutions loom in the future. This is no ad campaign. This is Jesus telling the truth about life in this world. And few would argue that it is so.

But Jesus is not only the Lord of Truth. He is the God of Grace as well. And these warnings are just that: warnings intended to prepare us for the challenges we will all face. But more than a warning, Jesus offers true hope. He says, “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

I need that hope – and so does the world.

You get to the gate for your flight and discover that you’ve been upgraded to first class!

You order your favorite meal and it is delivered by the most courtious server you’ve ever experienced, steaming hot and prepared to perfection.

You get up and find that your automatic coffeemaker has done its job. Coffee is well-brewed, hot and ready to drink.

You get to the store and discover that your favorite brand of coffee is on sale.

Oh, that it was that way when God looks at his people – his nation, the Jewish nation. He had done it all. Set things up for their unique identity as his special people, and a light to the nations. Done everything possible to provide the best environment for the nation of Israel to be all that they were intended to be. In particular, all that God had desired, deserved, and – frankly – demanded. He is the One to whom we will all one day answer.

But God is not like the despots in Egypt who demanded more and more bricks without the necessary resources to make them. He is truly good, merciful, gracious, and kind. But make no mistake, God is no wimp. He will demand an accounting.

I wonder if the people of Jesus’ day thought that God’s judgment of Israel, recorded in Isaiah 5, was only of that generation. I wonder whether they thought they were giving God all that he required. And I suspect they did. Sadly, however, and in more one way, they were not.

I have no illusions as to whether or not we today – the New Israel, the Church – meet all of God’s expectations. That by itself would leave us in a hopeless state. But there is One – the Christ – who does meet all of God’s expectations, and who is our righteousness, hope, and peace. May we who bear the name Jesus seek in every way possible to bear the fruit that he desires of us: faith, justice, mercy, and love.

His eye is on the sparrow: what a comforting thought! Hagar says, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Here have I really seen him who sees me?” (Genesis 16:13). And now here we read, “Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry.” And these beautiful words of Psalm 139:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
³ You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways. – Psalm 139:1-3

On the other hand, think of Jonah. He would rather not have been seen by God. He took off rather than going where God had sent him, and ended up praying to God from the inside of a great fish. So much for not wanting to be seen or heard by God!

My sister-in-law loves the song, His Eye is on the Sparrow. Jesus says that not one sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of the Father. So when God sees his chosen people enslaved, abused, and distressed by the Egyptians, he is moved to act. Moses will encounter God in the burning bush. He will go to Pharaoh and ultimately gain their release. For God not only sees, he dispatches help for those in distress. The deliverance isn’t instantaneous. But it was a mighty act of God’s deliverance.

This is but a shadow of the ultimate deliverance by Jesus of all those who believe in him. God saw us in our shame and sent his Son to save us. God sees. God acts. God saves. Thanks be to God!

Let my prayers rise before you as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. – Psalm 141:2

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. – John 12:3

Some people do not like fragrances. They become ill. They have a allergic reaction. Most people don’t really like smoke. It irritates the eyes and lungs. It obscures landscapes. Where it is there is fire.

God, however, likes both. Prayers arising before him as incense are a good thing. Jesus recognized the aroma of the nard filling the house of Lazarus and his sisters for what it was: an offering of love and an anointing in anticipation of Jesus’ death.

Lazarus, Mary and Martha knew something of death. They had seen it up close. They feared the smell of decay after four days. But the deep pain of death – at which Jesus himself wept – was replaced by the word of Jesus.

Now, however, a even more grievous death loomed. Jesus would soon be dead. Nothing would prevent it. Nothing will delay it. So Mary who had sat at Jesus’ feet while Martha had served, sits at his feet again. This time she sits there to pour out the nard. Expensive. Fragrant. Prophetic.

Judas will protest: this is wasteful. Others will wonder: why is he allowing her to do this? Jesus will put them all straight. Love is extravagant. It grows from hearts deeply touched by God’s love. It pours out expensive offerings. It moves the Lord of Creation to offer himself as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Love does that – no matter what criticisms may come.

It is engraved on the cornerstone of the worship center at St. John Lutheran Church – the church I served until I retired in 2021. We put it there because we had such a strong prayer emphasis. St. John has a n active prayer team, a beautiful prayer garden, and opportunity for prayer each Sunday. I don’t like to talk about the power of prayer as much as I emphasize the promises of God in regard to prayer.

Jesus promises that when we pray in his name, the Father will hear us and give us those things he knows to be good for us and our neighbor.

James tells us that we have not because we ask not.

Jesus teaches us to ask, seek, and knock. And those verbs are ongoing actions, keep on asking….

Jesus spent time in purposeful and dedicated prayer.

“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” is truly a fitting verse for the cornerstone of a church building.

But looking more closely at this passage – especially in the Isaiah quote – the focus is on both prayer and the opportunity that God’s house is to afford those outside the faith to come and pray to God. I believe Jesus was so upset not just because people were desecrating a holy place, but also because their desecration was hindering others from coming to God’s house – especially the sick, shamed, and separated people. He would that the weak, the lame, and the searching would find a place to come and pray.

We know that God is present everywhere. He has promised to be especially present when two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name. His house is a place to which we may all come to worship, sing, praise, give thanks … and pray. God’s house is to be that for all peoples.

I have recently been in conversation with a very worried mom. Her son is checking out of Christianity. He says that he isn’t an atheist, but warned her that he might go there. He might, he told her, go down the dark atheism hole. Thankfully they are still talking, and he is engaging with her respectfully. I suspect he may be triggered by outside influences to dismiss the visible church, religious formalism, and what he sees to be so much hypocrisy among religious people.

She is very afraid. She fears that the enemy – Satan – has gotten ahold of her son. And she knows what he wants to do with him.

Contrast that with Jesus’ ministry to the likes of Zacchaeus and the sinners and other tax collectors he encountered. In fact, Jesus reserved his harshest criticism for the religious leaders. Their long tassels, large philactories, lengthy prayers, and outward show of religion were of no value before God.

But how was it that people like Zacchaeus got not only Jesus’ attention, but even his praise?!? Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house. Then he says that salvation had come to Zacchaeus’ house. Jesus calls him a Son of Abraham. What gives here?

Faith gives Zacchaeus a new outlook on life. He suddenly and dramatically gives away his possessions to the poor, refunds all that he had defrauded and more, and makes all that known. This kind of behavior is not forced. He didn’t do it because he had to in order to be saved. He did it because salvation had come to his house. He did it because faith took ahold of him.

I hope and pray that the Holy Spirit will lead this young man back to Jesus—the One who welcomes the outcast, calls the sinner, and still walks into the homes of those others might write off. Even now, Jesus sees him, just as he saw Zacchaeus. And faith, when it comes, will not be coerced or manufactured. It will come as a gift, bringing new life, a new heart, and a new story—one marked by grace, not fear.

You can get a camel through the eye of a needle. It will simply be dramatically changed in the process! Don’t you just love that image? Puree of camel! The trick would be reconstituting the camel after it makes it through the eye of the needle. This, obviously, is hyperbole. Camels cannot go through a needle’s eye. It’s impossible!

That’s what the disciples say to Jesus when he makes that point even more clear. He says, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The reason isn’t because they are necessarily more evil than those without wealth. They may or may not be more evil. The reason is that wealth blinds us to our need for God. Wealthy people rely on their wealth to take care of their problems. They call the doctor when they’re sick. They adjust the thermostat when they are uncomfortable. They go on exotic vacations when they are bored. They pay others to take care of the mundane tasks of life. They easily become demigods. They are in control.

Living under the reign and rule of God is another matter altogether. It’s not that we cannot have wealth. It’s that we recognize whose wealth we hold as a sacred trust. It’s not a matter of eschewing air conditioning. It’s that we recognize who ultimately controls the weather – all the while being good stewards of the time, temperature, and seasons God gives us.

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis) Eustace is transformed into a dragon after succumbing to greed and sleeping on a dragon’s treasure. Later, he is “undragoned” by Aslan in a deeply symbolic and moving scene. Aslan tears away Eustace’s dragon skin layer by layer and then throws him into a pool, where he emerges as a boy again, cleansed and changed — both physically and spiritually. It is a painful process. But the results are delightful.

It can be agonizing for someone to transition from a life driven by wealth and materialism to one that’s free from the grip of greed. But the real hurdle goes deeper than the pain. That’s where the power of God comes in. When the Holy Spirit convinces us to abandon our dragon-scales of greed and avarice, he also changes us – but not from the outside in, but from the inside out. He creates new hearts in us (cf. Psalm 51:10; Ezekiel 36:26). He helps us see how fleeting is wealth and human strength.

We can not save ourselves – young or old, rich or poor, religious or spiritual. But what we cannot do, God has done in Jesus. He gives us eternal treasure that will not rust, fade, or corrode (Matthew 6:19-20), and frees us to love and serve him and our neighbor.