David Bahn – Reflections

Sometimes we lose sight of how radical Jesus’ ministry, teaching, and practices were. We’re so used to seeing the Pharisees as unreasonable and overly legalistic. They were always criticizing Jesus and pointing out how he was dishonoring the traditions and teachings of Moses.

Reading today from Jeremiah I’m reminded of how true this is. Jesus was teaching a radical departure from what many Jewish people had learned. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah about keeping the sabbath in no uncertain terms. God was clear, “do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work.” 

So questioning the man who was healed and upbraiding him for carrying his bed (cf. John 5:9-11) after he was healed is not as unreasonable as we might think. No burden-carrying allowed. This wasn’t just the Oral Law (later written down and called the Mishnah). This was the word of the LORD through the prophet Jeremiah.

And now Jesus is directly commanding a man to carry a burden. I guess literally he is not carrying it “out of his house.” But that is a pharisaical spin which would be totally abhorrent to Jesus.  But there is something far more important and earth-shattering at work here. The account in John 5 is not just about a man being healed by Jesus. That would be enough. Or even Jesus doing it on the sabbath; though that is the issue that will define the moment for all. This is an account where Jesus is showing himself to be God in the flesh.

“The Word became flesh,” John records (John 1:14). And the Word is asserting himself as lord of the sabbath. Jesus has made himself equal to God by his action, his command, and his speech. This will never do according to the Jewish leaders. But this is the case. Jesus has spoken. It shall be so.

One more thing interests me in today’s readings. I’m struck by Jesus’ warning to the healed paralytic. “Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.” (John 5:14). I wonder what is behind that comment. I wonder about this man’s history and the circumstances of his paralysis. In any case, I sure hope the man paid careful attention to Jesus’ warning.

Each day of the 49 week Bible Challenge we are asked: In today’s readings, do you notice a promise to trust, a command to obey, a truth to embrace, a warning to heed, or an encouragement to rest in? What do you learn about God, about yourself, or about the world? Is there one verse or thought that stands out to you today? Talk to God about it.

It’s clear to me that for Jesus, some of the Sabbath restrictions were not just superfluous, but even obstructive to the Commandments of God. Sabbath restrictions came to bare when Jesus healed the paralytic. He did it on a Sabbath and the Jewish leaders were offended by that. Now Jesus’ disciples were plucking grain as they walked through the fields, rubbing away the chaff and eating the grain. The Pharisees took note and called them out. “Look,” they said, “why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Jesus will explain that they are doing something much less offensive than David had done 1000 years ago

The account of this is found in 1 Samuel 21-22, and the full story records the brutality of an envious and insecure Saul. When he discovers Ahimelech had given the sacred bread to David and his men, he orders the death of all the priests. When his own guards refuse to kill the priests, Doeg kills all the priests except for Abiathar. Insecure people resort to brutal tactics. I wonder whether Jesus had that in mind as he recognized how insecure the Pharisees and Jewish leaders were in regard to his mission and ministry. He is, afterall, bringing new teachings which will require new attitudes (new wine in new wineskins). 

Jesus has already set them straight about fasting, telling the people that the disciples were not fasting because the bridegroom was present. He is the bridegroom. His presence was not cause for fasting. It was cause for faith. But the Sabbath rules seem to get Jesus’ greatest attention and the greatest reaction of the Pharisees.

This is what I am reminded about God: He is lord of the Sabbath, and as such will point people away from a ritualistic view of faith, toward a true love for God and sincere love for neighbor. For that I am deeply thankful.

Each day of the 49 week Bible Challenge we are asked: In today’s readings, do you notice a promise to trust, a command to obey, a truth to embrace, a warning to heed, or an encouragement to rest in? What do you learn about God, about yourself, or about the world? Is there one verse or thought that stands out to you today? Talk to God about it.

There is a promise to trust, a command to obey, a truth to embrace, an implied warning to heed, and a delightful encouragement to rest in.

The Promise

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” – John 4:13-14

To drink the living water of Jesus is to believe his word and promise. It is to recognize that he is greater than Jacob, Paul, Luther, Einstein, or any other human being. It is to trust his promise, and to find refreshment in the spiritual overflow of his grace into our lives.

To drink the living water is also to allow that water to well up from within our souls, overflowing into the lives of others. Grace upon grace. Mercy and kindness. Love and favor. This water isn’t just for our refreshment, it is meant to overflow from us to others. John also records, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’” – John 7:37-38

The Encouragement & Command

This promise of Jesus is also encouragement to rest in: we are not simply to be refreshed. We are to refresh others. This is also the implied command to obey. The command is more fully expressed in Isaiah 12:4: “make known his deeds among the peoples.” The Samaritan woman does this enthusiastically. She will tell people all about the one who told her everything about herself. She would also convey – just by the telling – that Jesus did not condemn her, shame or embarass her. He loved her. He saw her. He called her to a better way of life.

Truth & Warning

Jesus is greater than Jacob who give these people this well. His fame echoed through the centuries since he lived. But Jesus’ fame is from eternity to eternity. From the very beginning to the end of time and on into eternity, Jesus has been, is, and will be praised. The warning: don’t try to fill yourself with fleeting waters that never quench our deepest thirst. We do need to drink and eat. But even more we need the water of life that comes from Jesus. It satisfies for all eternity.

I am ever more aware of my own faults, flaws, and failures. I would be lost in a vortex of despair were it not for Jesus’ water of life. Refreshing. Reviving. Sustaining. For all eternity. So I will, “Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously. I will let this be made known in all the earth.

A seminary classmate many years ago made this point regarding infant baptism. He said, “If a baby was bitten by a fiery serpent (referring to Numbers 21), and took the child and held him up to look at the bronze serpent the child would surely be spared!” His point was that we don’t have to understand God’s promises, or how they work, we simply need to believe, and even then we don’t always comprehend what we believe. God’s promises, afterall, are incomprehensibly amazing!

To put an exclamation point on that reality we have the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. It’s one of those “Yes, but…” conversations. Jesus says something. Nicodemus says, “Yes, but…” Jesus answers that concern. Nicodemus says, “Yes, but…” finally Jesus makes it clear. This is not something you can do. You can’t be born again spiritually by your own effort any more than you can be physically reborn period.

This is all God’s doing. God sent fiery serpents as a punishment to the children of Israel for their grumbling. He sent a remedy to their pain in response to Moses’ intercession. And those who looked to the bronze serpent were spared – even, surely, little babies.

The point in all this isn’t so much about baptism – although it touches on baptism. The point is that God’s word is absolutely reliable. God can be trusted. “Every word of God proves true,” says Agur (Proverbs 30:5). And so it does. The most precious word is so beautifully given to us – two-fold. 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus was exalted upon a cross for all the world to see and through faith in him we will be saved.

I love the story of Jesus turning water into wine. It says so much about how Jesus knows how to celebrate. It speaks of how Jesus would be a welcome guest at any Christian wedding. It reminds us that wine is a gift of God that, as the psalm says, gladdens the heart (Psalm 104:15). It is testimony of Jesus’ excellence in provision and grace. Not only changing water into wine, but changing it into the best wine. How I would love to have been there and tasted that wine!

The story of Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams is a keeper too. Forgotten Joseph languishing in prison is suddenly un-forgotten. Remembering his ability to interpret dreams the baker informs Pharaoh of Joseph. Joseph is brought before Pharaoh, gives the honor to God and correctly interprets the dreams. He then becomes second only to Pharaoh in all the land of Egypt. What a story of prison rags to royal panoply!

And look how God regards the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. They get to eat the tithe with the Levites. At least every three years they would feast with the best. 

How seriously, however, do we take the other side of the provision of God? Do we see him also in the realm of scarcity? Do we see God at work only when times are good, things are running well, and we are happy and well-fed. Or do we recognize God’s activity in all realms and seasons of life?

To some degree seedtime and harvest, day and night, times of famine and times of plenty are the simple arc of life in this fallen world. There are bound to be days of want as well as days of delight. God is behind it all.

It’s not that God wishes to starve people when he sends hard times upon us. But sometimes he has to get our attention. We can easily grow complacent. We can easily forget how God provides for us each day.

In the days of difficulty, his love for us is no less. He wishes for us to come to him. He desires that we find comfort in his goodness, grace, and mercy. It might be that he is teaching us a lesson about being prepared for hard times by laying up reasonable reserves to tide us over (think of Dave Ramsey’s Rainy Day Fund). It may also be a reminder that man does not live by bread alone (cf. Deuteronomy 8:3).

But it could also be God wishes to remind us of his abundant provision, and wants to teach us to look to him not only because we have to, but because he is rich in mercy and abundant in grace. God loves us and greatly desires good for his people. God has shown us his glory in Jesus’ miracles and ministry. When we see his goodness before our eyes, let us put our faith in him.

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.