David Bahn – Reflections

Isaiah 51 is a chapter of comfort and encouragement to God’s people, especially those weary from suffering and exile. It speaks to those who long for God’s salvation and are seeking reassurance of his faithfulness and power. The tone shifts from judgment (earlier in Isaiah) to hope, restoration, and the certainty of God’s deliverance.

Compare that to Jeremiah 49, which is a series of oracles in which God, through the prophet Jeremiah, pronounces judgment on foreign nations surrounding Israel. In this chapter, the focus is on several specific nations that had interacted – often adversarially – with Israel and Judah.

Thus says the Lord:
“Has Israel no sons?
    Has he no heir?
Why then has Milcom dispossessed Gad,
    and his people settled in its cities?
² Therefore, behold, the days are coming,
    declares the Lord,
when I will cause the battle cry to be heard
    against Rabbah of the Ammonites;
it shall become a desolate mound,
    and its villages shall be burned with fire;
then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him,
    says the Lord.             – Jeremiah 49:1-2

It is quite possible that the rich man here in Mark 10 is actually Mark, Peter’s secretary and scribe who recorded this gospel. The key to this idea: Only here in Mark’s gospel does it say that Jesus looked at him and loved him. It would seem only he would know that detail.

As I read/listened to this account today, the tender care of Jesus for individuals caught my attention. That became even more apparent to me in Jesus’ dealing with the blind man. He asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” Can you imagine being asked that by Jesus? How would you answer?

How might you discern that Jesus’ look toward you was a loving look? It would be in his eyes. It would be in the shape of his mouth. It would be in his facial expression. The fullest knowledge of Jesus’ love would be the larger witness of his actions. Washing the disciples’ feet. Forgiving penitent sinners. Healing the sick. Raising the dead. Going to the cross. Telling his disciple to take care of his mother. Dying in perfect faith and obedience. For us. Because he loves us.

How would you answer Jesus if he were to ask, “What do you want me to do for you?”

• A new car?
• A new job?
• A new body?
• Health?
• $1,000,000?
• Nothing?

The blind man’s situation was so clear and simple. Ours may be much more nuanced. So how about this: Treasure in heaven. It’s already there, being stored up for all who believe. Let’s follow Jesus together.

Some claim that Jesus didn’t speak to the issue of same-sex marriage. Clearly he did. “He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,” he said. Same-sex marriage was never part of God’s plan. And even though homosexual practices were not unknown in Jesus’ day, that was certainly not the issue at hand. Nevertheless, God’s design for marriage is clear: one man, one woman, as long as they both shall live. Jesus’ definition of marriage comes from Genesis 2:24, “For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

But wait, there’s more. For this truth about marriage is not only about male and female relationships to the exclusion of same-sex relationships. The whole question that sets this discussion in motion is about divorce. And there we have a sticking point. Divorce has touched every part of our family and many friends as well. A good friend describes divorce as the gift that keeps on giving – and not in a good way. It gives heartache, heartburn, broken hearts, and broken lives. It is not a good thing.

But, wait, there is even more here. For Jesus adds on another issue, pointing out that if a man “divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, [he] commits adultery.” This was sure to bring the self-righteous Pharisees up short. They were good with everything Jesus had said until that last part. Some, no doubt, had simply written off a previous wife for far less cause than sexual immorality, and gotten married again. 

If you want a hard comeuppance yourself, read Romans 1 & 2. For there Paul lists being thankless to God, and disobedient to parents right along side of sexual immorality as sins that condemn. What hope do any of us have?

The full understanding of Christian marriage is that it is a picture of the love of Christ for the church. He gave himself up for us so that we would be pure and perfect, without spot or blemish, holy and blameless before him. What we could never do – live a perfectly holy life as a man or woman, married or unmarried – Jesus has done. He is our righteousness, hope, and salvation. We, his church, are the bride of Christ. He will not divorce us. We are eternally his.

Time in erodes awareness of. I share that observation with church leaders when I help them with their mission planning or in the process of calling a new pastor. The longer we are part of a church the less aware we are of our unique identity, the practices we take for granted, and even how we relate to one another and those outside the church. That’s why it is so important to listen to the observations of new people and take seriously even critical comments we might receive in online reviews. We may just be unaware of something we’re doing that doesn’t make sense or even causes confusion or even offense.

Perhaps that’s what is going on with the people in Jesus’ day. The pharisees were so ingrained in their view of proper religious conduct that everyone thought they were the best of the best. This is what true religion looks like, they must have thought. Long robes. Long prayers. Large philactories. Pious poses.

So then Jesus tells a parable about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One a smug self-righteous pray-er. The other a lowly tax collector – the lowest of the low. Some tax collectors would levy taxes on the people at a rate far beyond what was due. They would then keep the extra for themselves. They were considered to be greedy, dishonest, unclean, disloyal, and spiritually compromised.

So I’m thinking that when Jesus tells this parable both the self-righteous Pharisees and the common folks were scandalized. The tax collectors might have snickered in dismissive rue at Jesus’ naiveté. Yeah, sure, they might have thought, like I and my buddies could actually be justified by means of that prayer. Or better yet, Why would I ever pray that prayer? If I did, I’d have to change my way of living.

We may have become jaded by the repeat of this story (time in). We might be unaware (eroded awareness) of how truly radical Jesus’ prayer actually was.

But let’s let this story arrest us. Let’s let the truth of God’s promises to humble and penitent people rest in our soul. Then let’s go sit with that tax collector and say with him, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.”

Have a listen to this song and hear about the place where kings and those without a name sit down together. It makes me think of coming to the Lord’s Table to receive God’s grace there.

Mention well-known Bible stories, and sooner or later someone will mention Noah and the Ark. I suppose it’s somewhat understandable. We envision cute little animals, bunnies, squirrels, kittens, and puppies scampering up the ramp into the ark. Let’s not forget the giraffes, camels, and elephants. These are the makings of the children’s Bible illustrations. Cute, but maybe a bit misleading.

Having visited the Ark Encounter in Williamson, Kentucky, I’ve learned a bit more about the challenges and necessary accommodations that were necessary to carry off this rescue mission. There had to be means of feeding the animals, disposing of their waste, providing for Noah and his family – eight people in all – including living quarters. The size of the ark impressed me as we saw it in full scale. The number of different animals “according to their kind,” was also explained.

Our visit was truly an ark encounter. It was surely worth the trip. We were edified and inspired – and tired after wandering through the various levels and displays inside the ark replica, and outside on the grounds.

All that said, the encounter of Noah with God and the flood would have been even more impressive. Noah and his family were spared from the destruction of the flood. And although Noah was a righteous man, his behavior following the flood showed that he was flawed – righteous as he may have been.

To some extent the entire Old Testament Scripture is a giant object lesson of what does not work. That’s not all that the Old Testament is by any means. But it does offer some food for thought. In this case, God’s direct intervention and decisive judgment on the wickedness of sinful men makes a point about his holiness and justice.

But the larger purpose of the Old Testament is to point us to Christ. We not only see what doesn’t work, but we are given promises of God’s ultimate deliverance through his Son. And while the ark provided salvation for 8 people, Jesus offers life and salvation to all who believe. And the New Testament speaks of baptism, connecting it with the flood and Noah’s deliverance.

The ark pointed ahead to something far greater: the cross of Christ, where God’s judgment and mercy met in full. In him, we find not only rescue from destruction but the promise of eternal life.

I walked into her classroom and asked the woman sitting at the desk in front of the classroom for Nici. Nici was a fifth grade teacher at the school. This was her classroom. I wondered where she was. She said, “Yes?” I had not recognized my own daughter-in-law! The ravages of cancer had attacked her so relentlessly. My heart broke for her. Within a year she was dead. I hate cancer!

When Job’s friends saw him from a distance they did not recognize him either. Pain, suffering, and disease does that to a person. Cruel. Sad. Devastating.

The devil is always God’s devil. That quote is often attributed to Martin Luther, although not likely a direct quote. It is, nevertheless, true. We see that in the passage from Job. “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.’” God put a limit on Satan’s influence over Job. 

God did not put a limit over the cause of Lazarus’ death nor over the extent of Nici’s cancer. But God did something better. In the case of Job we see his friends sitting in solidarity with him – silent for 7 days.  Though they would ultimately fail him, they did bring that brief time of comfort. Job will point toward Jesus who is the “Resurrection and the Life” (cf. John 11:25). Job will confess, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25).

That is our only true hope in the face of death and the devil. Not only are the limits set on both, Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, the Resurrection and the Life.

Even when suffering leaves us unrecognizable, we are not forsaken. Our Redeemer lives—and in him, death and the devil meet their match.

Randy Alcorn’s book, If God is Good, had a very positive impact on me. His opening thoughts about our judgment of God’s goodness – based on our very limited and focused observations – spoke to me deep within. He pointed out a Barna poll that asked: “If you could ask God only one queston and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask?” The most common response was “Why is there pain and suffering in the world?” C. S. Lewis realized, after his wife’s death, “If I had really cared as I thought I did, about the sorrows of the world, I should not have been so overwhelmed when my own sorrow came.”

So here we have a woman who was obviously suffering terribly. Jesus heals her. And everyone is happy about it, right? Not so fast. Can you believe the Pharisees actually use this as an opportunity to criticize Jesus?!? Really??? They don’t care about human suffering. They only care about getting rid of Jesus. They’ll do anything to discredit him – including stepping over a once bent-over woman to criticize Jesus’ act of steadfast love.

The psalm says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” Jesus who is God in the flesh (try to get your head around that concept!), cannot do anything but express the goodness of God. He shows how God’s steadfast love is enduring and present in that moment in response to the woman’s plight.

Jesus’ words to the Pharisees are also words from which we must learn. Shouldn’t this “daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?” he asks. We too easily get caught up in our own pain and suffering and become blind to the greater pain and suffering in the world. If we are to reflect the heart of God, we must see others from hearts made pure by the love of Jesus inside us. His steadfast love is for all people. He showed that to the bent over woman by straightening her up. She glorified God.