Choose your Messiah Carefully

•March 29, 2012 • Leave a Comment

When I took my ‘O’ level scripture exam, which was based on Mark’s gospel, this was the one chapter that was missed out because it was seen as “too difficult”!

The Temple Will Be Destroyed

1As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Teacher, look at these beautiful stones and wonderful buildings!”

2Jesus replied, “Do you see these huge buildings? They will certainly be torn down! Not one stone will be left in place.”

Warning about Trouble

3Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives across from the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew came to him in private. 4They asked, “When will these things happen? What will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

5Jesus answered:

Watch out and don’t let anyone fool you! 6Many will come and claim to be me. They will use my name and fool many people.

7When you hear about wars and threats of wars, don’t be afraid. These things will have to happen first, but that isn’t the end. 8Nations and kingdoms will go to war against each other. There will be earthquakes in many places, and people will starve to death. But this is just the beginning of troubles.

9Be on your guard! You will be taken to courts and beaten with whips in their meeting places. And because of me, you will have to stand before rulers and kings to tell about your faith. 10But before the end comes, the good news must be preached to all nations.

11When you are arrested, don’t worry about what you will say. You will be given the right words when the time comes. But you will not really be the ones speaking. Your words will come from the Holy Spirit.

12Brothers and sisters will betray each other and have each other put to death. Parents will betray their own children, and children will turn against their parents and have them killed. 13Everyone will hate you because of me. But if you keep on being faithful right to the end, you will be saved.

The Horrible Thing

14Someday you will see that “Horrible Thing” where it should not be.  Everyone who reads this must try to understand! If you are living in Judea at that time, run to the mountains. 15If you are on the roof of your house, don’t go inside to get anything. 16If you are out in the field, don’t go back for your coat. 17It will be an awful time for women who are expecting babies or nursing young children. 18Pray that it won’t happen in winter. 19This will be the worst time of suffering since God created the world, and nothing this terrible will ever happen again. 20If the Lord doesn’t make the time shorter, no one will be left alive. But because of his chosen and special ones, he will make the time shorter.

21If someone should say, “Here is the Messiah!” or “There he is!” don’t believe it. 22False messiahs and false prophets will come and work miracles and signs. They will even try to fool God’s chosen ones. 23But be on your guard! That’s why I am telling you these things now.

Tom Wright gives us a good analogy of cartoons, and needing to understand the symbols and nuances of a time to “get” images from it (p 128).

Much of this passage is mysterious, but it does give a warning to beware of people claiming to be a Messiah.  Messiah-type characters come and go.  There have always been some to make the claim and probably always will be.  I was surprised to find that Wikipedia has a whole list of them.  Anyone who’s watched Monty Python’s Life of Brian can see the confusion when people, wrongly, decide someone is the Messiah and blindly follow them.

Jesus warns us to be careful and not to be fooled into following the wrong people the wrong way.  Jesus showed us the way God’s new way will be – and anyone trying to tell or show us anything different is not going to be from God.

We need to be alert to that, and make sure we know Jesus and God’s ways, so that we recognise when others are trying to take us a different way – however dynamic and attractive it may seem.

Tom’s prayer for today:

Give us courage and faith,

good Lord,

to hold on to you and your word

when all around us seems to be shaking and turbulent.

This year, I am again following the BigRead using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

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The Wrong Question

•March 28, 2012 • Leave a Comment

It used to frustrate me, that in maths tests you had to show your working.  Why was it not possible to just put the answer.  The reason of course was that it is possible to get to the right answer, by totally the wrong method; or to get the wrong answer, but have worked it out the right way, just making a small error along the way – in which case you would get most of the marks for your working out.

 

The Sadducees seem to have had all the clues, all the information needed, and yet somehow in their working out, have come to the wrong answer:

Life in the Future World

18The Sadducees did not believe that people would rise to life after death. So some of them came to Jesus and said:

19Teacher, Moses wrote that if a married man dies and has no children, his brother should marry the widow. Their first son would then be thought of as the son of the dead brother. 20There were once seven brothers. The first one married, but died without having any children. 21The second brother married his brother’s widow, and he also died without having children. The same thing happened to the third brother, 22and finally to all seven brothers. At last the woman died. 23When God raises people from death, whose wife will this woman be? After all, she had been married to all seven brothers.

24Jesus answered:

You are completely wrong! You don’t know what the Scriptures teach. And you don’t know anything about the power of God. 25When God raises people to life, they won’t marry. They will be like the angels in heaven. 26You surely know about people being raised to life. You know that in the story about Moses and the burning bush, God said, “I am the God worshipped by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 27He isn’t the God of the dead, but of the living. You Sadducees are all wrong.

And so the question they come to Jesus with, is not even the right question…

They are focussing, in their hypothetical question, on what will happen when someone dies.

Why, Jesus wonders have they spent their time making up this ridiculous question, about a situation they don’t even believe in –  instead of worrying about how they are living now.  What Jesus is coming to do, is not primarily about life after death, but about how we live now.  The new thing God is doing is to effect our lives, not our deaths.

People can get caught up in Christian faith being about, “Pie in the sky when you die”, but it is very much about here and now, living life to the full, living out God’s ways.

Tom Wright points us to the question of the Kingdom (p 124) – what is going to happen when God becomes King, and how does this relate to the world we’re living in now?  They like things how they are, they have power, and they don’t want God messing that up.  So instead of focussing on what God is doing now, they make up ridiculous questions to try to side-track him.

Yet what God is actually going to do, is way beyond anything that any of us can imagine (p 126).  There’s no point in putting out whys and wherefores, wondering about what we cannot know.  We need to get on with living with the God of the Living, and leaving the rest to him.

Are we focussed on the God of the Living?  Do we want to live out his ways in our lives today? Are we asking God the right questions to get the answers we need to hear?

Forgive me Lord

for the times I try to limit you;

for the times I misunderstand you;

when I get side-tracked by things that don’t really matter;

for the times I ask the wrong question.

May I learn to live with you,

in the here and now, and seek you ways.

This year, I am again following the BigRead using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Jesus, lent
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All Mine

•March 27, 2012 • Leave a Comment

When we went on holiday last year, I left the plants in the care of our son.  He was in charge of watering them, and generally making sure they were still alive when we came home.  With the right care, we anticipated that we would all be able to enjoy the produce.  I would have been quite disappointed if when they were ripe, he would have claimed them all for himself, because he had tended them for two weeks!  I would have been equally disappointed if he had decided to do his own thing, or make up his own rules in caring for the plants, instead of following the instructions he was left.

Renters of a Vineyard

1Jesus then told them this story:

A farmer once planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it and dug a pit to crush the grapes in. He also built a lookout tower. Then he rented out his vineyard and left the country.

2When it was harvest time, he sent a servant to get his share of the grapes. 3The renters grabbed the servant. They beat him up and sent him away without a thing.

4The owner sent another servant, but the renters beat him on the head and insulted him terribly. 5Then the man sent another servant, and they killed him. He kept sending servant after servant. They beat some of them and killed others.

6The owner had a son he loved very much. Finally, he sent his son to the renters because he thought they would respect him. 7But they said to themselves, “Someday he will own this vineyard. Let’s kill him! That way we can have it all for ourselves.” 8So they grabbed the owner’s son and killed him. Then they threw his body out of the vineyard.

9Jesus asked, “What do you think the owner of the vineyard will do? He will come and kill those renters and let someone else have his vineyard. 10You surely know that the Scriptures say,

`The stone that the builders

tossed aside

is now the most important

stone of all.

11This is something

the Lord has done,

and it is amazing to us.’ ”

12The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.

Psalm 24 tells us that

The earth and everything on it belong to the LORD (v 1)

We are merely caretakers, we are given instructions that work, and God is trusting us to get on with it.

God is still looking for fruit (Tom Wright p 121), but unlike the fig tree, this time there is fruit, the plants are not in trouble – but the tenant farmers are.

They have been entrusted with so much, but are failing to give what is due back to the owner.  They have refused to heed the messages the owner has sent, and now they want to get rid of his son.

They want to do things their way, they want to have everything for themselves, they have refused to consider the one that they need, the one who has just what they needed.

Is there something God is saying to us, that we fail to hear?  Is there something that we are holding back from him?

As our Lenten journey draws ever nearer the cross, these are questions for us to consider – lest we be evicted from his property.

Thank you Lord,

that you have given me everything that I have.

Help me to remember that.

Help to me hear the messages you send me,

to clearly understand and follow your instructions,

that I may not miss just what I need.

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in God, Jesus, lent
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