David Bahn – Reflections

Jesus heals the leprous man on this occasion by touching him. This is a remarkable fact apart from the healing. In Jesus’ day, if you touched a leprous person, you became unclean and would have to be excluded from religious and social life. On this occasion the reverse happens. Jesus’ touch cleanses the leper.

We might easily overlook or underestimate the significance of this moment. But reading Leviticus 14 today reminded me just how elaborate the process was for addressing leprosy under the Law. I found myself smiling at the curious details—how the priests, in their consecration for this cleansing work, had to apply blood and oil to the right earlobe, right thumb, and even the right big toe. It’s a vivid reminder of how serious and sacred this whole process was.

The issues they faced were not only personal to the person who had leprosy, but to his family, and even his house. There’s a whole chapter or two that outlines the means by which the priests were to deal with the disease.

Leprosy is a serious disease – medically-speaking. Philip Yancey and Paul Brandt wrote a book titled, Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants. The vivid descriptions of the suffering of persons with leprosy are arresting. Brandt describes Leprosy as “a painless hell.” I won’t traumatize you with some of the dreadful descriptions they offer. The suffering of those who have this disease is nearly unfathomable.

Jesus changes all that for this man. By Jesus’ touch he is healed. He is to go tell the priest and make an offering to prove that he has been cleansed. No toes, earlobes, or thumbs are mentioned. But the way Jesus confronts the Pharisees in other places, describing their tithing mint and cumin and describing their long prayer tassels and large philactories, I’m sure there were priests in the Temple at Jerusalem who did these sorts of things.

All this was being replaced by Jesus’ ministry. He is ushering in a new way by means of his life and teachings. That new covenant will be inaugurated by Jesus’ suffering and death. Even more far-reaching and profoundly prophetic, this act on Jesus’ part hints at the full restoration of our bodies in the life of the world to come. It shows how true God’s word in Isaiah is: “You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4). It gives us reason to heed the urging of Psalm 150: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!”

Have you not heard? I thought of this in regard to Jesus’ final answer to Satan, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Luke 4:12). The phrase is found in a number of places in the Bible, including Isaiah 40:28, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” I think also of Jesus’ words, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it (Luke 11:28).

If only Naaman and Gehazi had listened to and kept Elisha’s word to heal his disease. If only they had been as believing as Naaman’s servants. They urge him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”  The implication: if he said it, do it! What have you got to lose?

Hearing God’s word goes beyond not losing something. It’s not just a matter of a better outcome. Hearing God’s word and keeping it is a matter of life and death. Think of it. Adam and Eve didn’t hear and keep God’s world, and they plunged the world into sin and death. Naaman almost didn’t hear and keep God’s word through the prophet, and nearly was not healed of his leprosy. Gehazi didn’t listen to Elisha’s word about not accepting a gift from Naaman, and ended with the disease of which Naaman was healed. (You’ll have to read about that in the remainder of the account recorded in 2 Kings 5.)

Every time Jesus was tempted by Satan – including the time Satan misquoted or misapplied Scripture – he brought his life and decisions under the word of God. He had heard the word of God from childhood. He had kept it faithfully. In that he is our example. But he is even more: he is the Word of God incarnate. God in the flesh, and a living testimony to God’s faithfulness through the most dire of situations, conquering sin, Satan, and death: our Redeemer and Lord.

Have you heard?

• You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. – Deuteronomy 8:18
• I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God. – Numbers 15:41

“Would you Rather” is a popular conversation and party game where players are presented with two options and must choose which one they would prefer—even if both choices are difficult, funny, awkward, or thought-provoking. It’s a game of decision-making, used to spark discussion, reveal preferences, or just break the ice. [Thanks Chat GpT, for that summary.] Here are a few of my own forced choices.

• Would you rather spend a winter in Siberia or a summer in Death Valley?
• Would you rather eat only sardines for dinner or skip dinner every day for the rest of your life?”
• Would you rather do nothing but watch paint dry for a week or zip line across the Grand Canyon?

Contrast that, however, with the choice given David when he had to choose between three difficult options on account of his faithless act of taking a census of his fighting men.

So Gad came to David and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Choose what you will: ¹² either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

David, remarkably chooses the third option, willingly choosing to be visited by the sword and angel of the LORD. I realize it is a three-day experience of God’s brutal punishment as compared to three months or three years. But still, the Lord is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). So why put yourself in the way of his retribution? In spite of it all, David concludes, “Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is very great.” 

So, would you rather…

…spend your life in a dead-end job or follow Jesus in a totally new calling? Peter and Andrew chose to follow Jesus to become fishers of men. – Matthew 4:18-20

…give a second hand gift to God, or give him the first fruits of your bounty – at great personal cost? David’s choice was the latter: “I will not take for the LORD what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” – 1 Chronicles 21:24

Our choices may not always be as true and good. But God’s choices are pure and good.

Rather than letting us walk in darkness, he chose to shine the light of his salvation on us. – Isaiah 9:2

God chose to send his Son, and put all things under he who is the Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9:7

Jesus chose not to give in to Satan’s temptations for bread, fame, or ease of life, but to obey God’s commands and live according to his values. – Matthew 4:4-10

We don’t really have a choice. Jesus makes it clear, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” – John 15:16

So in a world of “Would You Rather?” choices, we rest in the astonishing truth that God has already made the most important choice: he would rather die than lose us forever. He would rather redeem than condemn. He would rather seek and save than leave us in the dark. He has chosen us to live and serve with joy under the reign and rule of the one who chose us first.

We have a Bahn-Grimm Family tree hanging in the front entryway of our house. It dates back to the 1400’s, showing the generations down to my great grandparents. My great grandfather was one of 11 children born to Johannes Bahn and Anna-Margarethe born Grimm. Three of my great-grandfather’s siblings died in 1846 and two others in later years. This particular chart was a gift to my uncle who traveled and taught in Germany and other places world-wide. Based on his travels and records we were able, years ago, to visit and be allowed into the Bahn family home in Benshausen, Germany. It was quite a treat to sit in the very house in which our ancestors lived, dating back to the 1600’s.

That is all well and good, but it holds no candle to the genealogies listed in today’s readings. List after list, tracing lineage back to Adam, Noah, Abraham, David and others are given. These things mattered to the people of Jesus’ day. And Luke records this in his genealogy, tracing Jesus’ lineage backwards to “Adam, son of God.” Jesus is the Second Adam (cf. Romans 5:12–21; 1 Corinthians 15:45), and the perfection of all that God had intended Adam and his descendents to have been.

But I notice, also, the warning John the Baptizer makes in the face of the lineage of Jesus: “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.” 

Lineage is one thing. It gives us a sense of who we are. “My great-grandmother survived that. My family overcame great hardship. I come from a long line of political elites. I’m a fifth generation Texas LCMS Lutheran” (I am not such a one). But lineage does not guarantee favor before God. A careful reading of these genealogies reveals not a few scoundrels in the blood line. We seldom hear, “My great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was a murderer and adulterer (King David). Or, “My great-great-great-great-great-great-great….got drunk one night, fell asleep naked, and had to be covered by his sons (Noah).

John makes this clear. Our claim to a lineage is one of faith. Those who are of faith are the true sons of Abraham, Paul writes (Galatians 3:7). Genealogies were important to trace the human lineage of the Messiah. He was promised to Eve, tied to the tribe of Judah, the Son of David, and born of a virgin. (cf. Genesis 3:15; Genesis 49:10; 2 Samuel 7:12-13)

We who believe in Jesus are children of God. By his gracious choice. Honored to be brothers and sisters of Christ. John’s word to us is simple: bring forth the fruits of repentant faith. Love God. Love your neighbor. Thank God for the One who alone is worthy of all honor, glory, and praise. Jesus traces his lineage all the way back to Adam. He is the very Son of God.

It’s one of my favorite movie quotes (a paraphrase actually). “Who are those guys? They can’t track us over solid rock can they? Can you do that? I can’t do that. Can you do that? Who are those guys?” Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are on the lamb and being tracked down. They can’t seem to get away because the guys tracking them were just that good.

In this reading from Mark, Jesus is introduced to us as the Son of God. Then Jesus is baptized by John and declared by his Father to be his “beloved Son.” After his temptation, Jesus calls his first disciples, and shortly thereafter he is confronted by an evil spirit with the taunt, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”

This Jesus, whom God loves, who is the Son of God, who heals diseases and casts out demons is nothing like the false Gods of which Isaiah speaks:

All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.¹⁰ Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? – Isaiah 44:9-10

And what does the True God do? Hear Isaiah again:

Remember these things, O Jacob,
    and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you; you are my servant;
    O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
²² I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud
    and your sins like mist;
return to me, for I have redeemed you. – Isaiah 44:21-22

At his baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and begins the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy:

The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me,
    because the LORD has anointed me
to bring 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;
² to proclaim the year of the LORD‘s favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. – Isaiah 61:1-3

Too often we want to be identified as a Democrat or Republican, gay or straight, pro-life or pro-labor, or any number of ways. Best we take seriously our identity as “oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”

I know this story. I know how it ends: Jesus is found in the temple after Mary and Joseph’s anxious three-day search. When chided by his parents, Jesus replies, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

So many questions. How were they supposed to know? Where did they search for three days? Where did Jesus stay at night? Didn’t anyone know where he was when his parents searched for him – surely they asked people, “Have you seen our son?” Where did they look? Did Jesus just stay in the temple during those three days – a temple urchin of sorts? So many questions.

God asks questions not for his own information, but for the sake of those he asks. Perhaps Jesus is doing that now. He is wanting his parents to know what to expect of him from then on. He is not formally considered an adult at the age of twelve. The formal rite of passage to adulthood for Jewish boys occurs at the age of thirteen. It would be then that he becomes a son of the commandment (the literal meaning of the Hebrew bar mitzvah). Nevertheless Jesus is even now beginning to ask questions.

This is how they found him: “in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” Jesus’ actions in the temple – listening, asking questions, and astounding teachers with his understanding – reflect both his growing maturity and his divine identity. He is not yet an adult, but he is showing a maturity beyond his years. The people are amazed. His parents are astonished – and no doubt a bit angry and relieved all at the same time: conflicted. 

“Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” This question, in particular, is telling. Where does God belong? In his house. And now, we are told, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Those who believe are the place of God’s dwelling. 

Do you know where Jesus is? Is he in your heart? He belongs there.

Four times in chapter 2 of Matthew’s gospel, there is mentioned a fulfillment of Scripture. Some we are familiar with: Bethlehem being the place of Jesus’ birth, and the inconsolable weeping of the women over the death of their children. We can even see how these are easily connected with Jesus’ lineage, and the events surrounding his birth. Two are a bit more obscure: “Out of Egypt I called my son,” and “he shall be called a Nazarene.”

When you look at the context of these prophecies, even the more familiar ones are not obviously fulfilled by Jesus. The promise of Bethlehem’s source for Israel’s redemption is more obviously tied to the then-current situation of Assyrian threats. Look at the later verses of this chapter:

When the Assyrian comes into our land
    and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven shepherds
    and eight princes of men;
⁶ they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
    and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
    when he comes into our land
    and treads within our border. – Micah 5:5-6

And the prophecy of the return of Jesus from Egypt is even more obscure when you read the fuller context:

Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son.
² The more they were called,
    the more they went away;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
    and burning offerings to idols.– Hosea 11:1-2

But Hosea holds the key to understanding how Jesus fulfills the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament. He is the fulfillment of all that God intended his people to be. He did what Israel could not do – nor can we. He lived a life of perfect faithfulness, entrusting himself to God in every situation. Loving God first without reservation, and loving his neighbor as himself. So whereas Israel had failed to follow God as they should have Jesus would follow God’s will and plan perfectly. Whereas the battle would rage between Israel and the Assyrians and would never establish a perfect kingdom, Jesus would overcome sin, death, and the devil.

Frankly, the fulfillment of Jesus being called a Nazarene is quite obscure. This is not a direct quote of any Old Testament prophet. The word, “prophets” (note the plural) offers us a clue to the best understanding of this prophecy. It is not a direct quote, but a thematic understanding of Jesus’ ministry. Nazarenes were not highly thought of. Remember Nathan’s response to Philip about Jesus (from Nazareth), “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” – John 1:46.

Then there is the inevitability of Herod’s death. Like taxes, death is certain to come to us – unless Jesus returns first. This tyrannical ruler would not reign forever. Joseph would need to take his wife and son to Egypt for their safety. But he would not have to stay there. Herod would die. It is inescapable and inevitable.

But we should remember, also, that the fulfillment of God’s word, promises and prophecies is also inevitable. The Bible says that God’s word endures forever. That means it remains true and alive, powerful and active beyond our days on earth. When we die, God’s word does not become invalid. The fullness of God’s grace and truth will define our lives beyond life on this earth. It is not only inevitable, it is  the eternal foundation of our Christian hope.

The glory of the Lord shone around them. The people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple. I noticed today the connection between the appearance of the Glory of the LORD at the dedication of Solomon’s temple in the Old Testament, and the glory of the Lord surrounding the angels at their announcement of Jesus’ birth. 

“The glory of the Lord” refers to God’s revealed presence, his holiness, and power – especially as he makes himself known in mercy and judgment, in history and ultimately in Jesus Christ. It inspires reverence, worship, and awe and is the destiny for which creation longs. John witnesses to it in his account of the incarnation, “the Word became flesh…and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14).

Christ embodies the glory of God in humility, suffering, death, and resurrection. Hebrews 1:3 says Jesus is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.”

God’s splendor, holiness, majesty, might, and power, as magnificent as they are, only begin to describe His glory. God’s glory is also bound up in his humility, his grace, mercy, and specifically seen in Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, resurrection, ascension, and final coming.

This is all connected with the initial reports of the glory of the Lord in the Old Testament. The glory of the Lord was seen in the pillar of cloud as God lead the children of Israel through the wilderness. It showed up on Mount Sinai for six days as Moses ascends to receive the Law of God. The glory of the Lord comes down when the Tabernacle is dedicated. And it shows up in our readings today at the dedication of Solomon’s temple.

But look more closely – especially at the passage from 2 Chronicles 7 today.

When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” – 2 Chronicles 7:3

And at Jesus’ birth the angels say, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” At his baptism and at his Transfiguration God says clearly that he is pleased with Jesus. We who honor him, recognize that the fullness of God’s glory dwells in Jesus, will seek to love God and neighbor and will find in his steadfast and gracious love power to live to his glory.

There is something disorienting about reading of Jesus’ birth in May. We may talk about having Christmas in July. We may say that we should celebrate the Savior’s birth every day. We may even speculate that the day of Jesus’ birth was most likely in May. Clement of Alexandria, an Early Church Father suggested dates in April or May. But it still seems wrong, or at least slightly inappropriate to be reading about Jesus’ birth in May. After all, the world over celebrates either December 25 or January 6 (Epiphany – which is called the Christmas of the Gentiles) as the day of Jesus’ birth.

Inappropriate as that may be there are at least two issues with regard to Matthew’s account, and the Old Testament foundations of Jesus’ conception and birth that seem quite appropriate to consider.

First is the startling fact that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. This is right up there with the resurrection. Babies aren’t conceived apart from a sexual union between a man and a woman. We know how babies are conceived. Even in this day of artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization, there is extraordinary difficulty associated with success in this manner. And it really wasn’t an option.

Some have suggested that the prophecy in Isaiah doesn’t really state that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. They argue that the Hebrew in Isaiah 7:14 is best translated as, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman [emphasis added] is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.” This is the RSV translation, part of the scandal among conservative Christians regarding that translation of the BIble. The Greek is unambiguous, however, and the RSV gets it right there: “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” I’ll go with Matthew here. This was a miraculous conception, and a marvelous gift from God, taking on human flesh in this manner. A miracle “wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger” (cf. Luke 2:7).

Second is the clarity of God’s word about human sexual relations. There is no doubt about how God feels about people who hook up sexually. The passage from Deuteronomy goes into great detail here. Bottom line, if a man has sexual intercourse with a woman outside of marriage he is to take her as wife, or be severely punished – both the man and the woman.

We’ve lost that battle today in the church. Fornication is an out-of-date prohibition in the minds of almost everyone outside the church, and even some within it. This should not be. God’s design is that one man and one woman should be united as one for life. The pattern is given in Genesis 2:18: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

There are many who have failed to keep this commandment pure – within and outside of the church. But those who follow Jesus turn to God in contrition, repentance, and faith. They know they need God’s mercy and forgiveness to sustain a relationship with him. They also know that God’s perfect, pure, and spotless Son is their righteousness. Our Savior: born of a virgin, crucified by sinners, raised in power. He is gracious, merciful, forgiving, and gloriously alive.