Thursday, May 31, 2007

Marriage in John: Becoming One with God (Part 4)

Mary and Martha and the Raising of Lazarus

(Mary and Martha represent the third scene in which woman play a prominent role in John. The woman caught in adultery is a later addition.)

As with the story of the Samaritan woman, the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus recalls a romantic scene in Genesis. This time it is the meeting of Jacob and Rachel. The similarities between John 11 and Genesis 29 are as follows…
  • Both men approach a tomb/well with a stone covering it (John 11:38 -Gen. 29:2-3, 8, 10).
  • Both men order the stone to be removed (John 11:39 -Gen. 29:7-8)
  • Both groups of people are reluctant to remove the stone (John 11: 39 -Gen. 29:8)
  • Both men are moved by the sight of a woman (Mary - John 11:33, Rachel Gen 29:10) Both Jesus and Jacob weep. (John 11:35 - Gen. 29:11)
  • Both stories involve three main characters (Mary, Martha and Lazarus. (John 11) Rachel, Leah and Leban (Gen. 29))
  • Both stories record this phrase "Now ____ loved _____." In the case of Jesus it is Martha and in Jacob's case it is Rachel (John 11:5 - Gen 29:18)

In addition to these connections, one must also take account of John 11's surrounding context. The Shepard imagery which pervades Genesis 29 is matched by the image of Christ as the Good Shepard in John 10 (the chapter immediately preceding Lazarus' resurrection from the grave). In that passage Jesus states "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). Thus Jesus' actions in John 11 must be understood in light of the image he paints of himself in John 10. Like Jacob he is removing the stone to lead his sheep out to pasture.

In addition to these connections its also important to note that Jesus' meeting with Martha echoes the earlier story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman.

  • Both women come out to meet Jesus (4:9 - 11:20)
  • Both women claim to know something "I know that the Messiah is coming...(4:25)" "I know that he will rise again... (11:27)"
  • Both women speak of the Messiah "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that one comes, He will declare all things to us.” (John 4:25) “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” (John 11:27)
  • Both women go back to the place where they had come from to call others (John 4:28-29; John 11:28)
  • Both groups of people come out to meet Jesus “They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.” (John 4:30)“And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.” (John 11:29)

This is very interesting since the first story also has a connection to the only other betrothal scene in Genesis.

The Anointing and the Triumphal Entry

The anointing performed by Mary as well as the Triumphal Entry continue John’s marriage theme. This is the fourth scene where a woman plays a prominent role. The scene is in keeping with previous marriage episodes, echoing the most explicit biblical book on marriage, the Song of Solomon.

John 12:1-3 states, "Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."

I want you to take note of the unique portrait John paints of these scene. This scene is one of the few stories that is repeated in each of the four gospels. Only John tells us that Jesus was reclining with Lazarus at the table and only John records that fragrance of the perfume filled the house. These details, while perhaps reminiscent of a first hand account, bare a striking similarity to Song of Solomon 1:12. "While the king was at his table, My perfume gave forth its fragrance.” The connections to Jesus as King comes only a few verses later where in the triumphal entry Jesus is proclaimed "King."

But the extended passage from John 11:54-12:23 also has ties to another passage in the Song of Solomon. Jesus return from Ephraim through the events of the triumphal entry bare comparison to Song of Solomon 3:6-11.

6 "What is this coming up from the wilderness Like columns of smoke, Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, With all scented powders of the merchant? 7 "Behold, it is the traveling couch of Solomon; Sixty mighty men around it, Of the mighty men of Israel. 8 "All of them are wielders of the sword, Expert in war; Each man has his sword at his side, Guarding against the terrors of the night. 9 "King Solomon has made for himself a sedan chair From the timber of Lebanon. 10 "He made its posts of silver, Its back of gold And its seat of purple fabric, With its interior lovingly fitted out By the daughters of Jerusalem. 11 "Go forth, O daughters of Zion, And gaze on King Solomon with the crown With which his mother has crowned him On the day of his wedding, And on the day of his gladness of heart."

Note the following similarities with Jesus movements in John 11:54-12:23.

  • Jesus comes comes from the “wilderness.”
  • He is perfumed. The fragrance is so strong it could be described as “smoke.”
  • Jesus enters Jerusalem with the crowds surrounding him.
  • Jesus makes for himself a chair (a chair that is on a donkey.)
  • John invokes the phrase “daughter of Zion” from Zechariah.
  • Jesus’ hour (His Wedding?) has come.

The connection to the Zechariah passage (“daughter of Zion”) and king Solomon should not be overlooked. Just as Jesus is proclaimed king entering Jerusalem on the back of donkey, Solomon likewise was anointed king, entering Jerusalem on a mule.

The Anointing and the Triumphal Entry are thus the final preparations for the "hour" of Christ's own marriage.

(to be continued....)

Marriage in John: Becoming One with God (Part 3)

The flow of blood and water in John 19:34 is the culmination of a marriage motif that runs throughout the gospel of John. The significance of this event therefore can only be felt when one understands the totality of this marraige theme.

The Wedding of Cana

John’s marriage theme begins at the Wedding of Cana where John subtley presents Jesus as the Bridegroom. When the mother of Christ (Note: She is always referred to as Christ’s mother in John's gospel, never as Mary) approaches Jesus about the lack of wine, she assumes a role that in Jewish cutom is reserved for the mother of the groom. One can see by Jesus initial response that this is more than a mere request for wine. Jesus implies that she is pushing him towards His Hour (2: 3-4).

But Jesus does supply the wine and in the process moves towards this hour by taking role of the bridegroom. When the headwaiter tastes the wine, he turns and praises not Jesus but the bridegroom. In this John subtly implies that Jesus is the real bridegroom. "The hour" of which He speaks is a reference to his own wedding which has yet to take place.

It should be noted that this scene has a great deal in common with Christ's crucifxion. Among the many unique details connecting the two events are:
  • The “mother of Jesus,” (2:1 - 19:25)
  • Containers of wine “set there” (2:6 - 19:29)
  • Someone receiving a drink. (2:8-9 - 19:29-30)
  • The hour – which Jesus often uses in reference to his arrest, death and glorification (7:30; 8:20; 12:23, 27; 13:1, 17:1).

Thus in Christ's first miracle, John has subtly implied that Jesus is a bridegroom moving in the direction of his own "hour" or wedding.

The Testimony of John the Baptist

That which was implicit in the Wedding of Cana is made explicit in the Testimony of John the Baptist.

In 3:38-30, John the Baptist tells his disciples, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before Him.' 29 "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. And so this joy of mine has been made full. 30 "He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Here John clearly calls Jesus the Bridegroom while comparing himself to the best man.

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

John’s record of Jesus' conversation with the woman by the well (only a few verses removed from John the Baptist previous statment) echoes two passages from Old Testament; the betrothal of Isaac in Genesis 24 and the rape of Dinah in Genesis 33.

John 4 possess the following unique points of similarity with the story of Isaac's betrothal

  • A man travel to a foreign land where he sit down by a well of water.
  • From the town a woman comes to draw water.
  • The man requests a drink.
  • When the woman learns the man’s identity, she rushes home to tell others.
  • Her family invites the man to stay.
  • Though no betrothal takes place, the inter-textual echoes suggest there should be.

Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan Woman also, suprisingly, recalls the rape of Dinah in Genesis 34.

  • John states that the place where Jesus met the woman was near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph (John 4:5). The plot of ground is only mention three times in the Old Testament. The first time it appears, it immediately precedes and leads to the rape of Dinah (Genesis 33:18:-20).
  • Like the Samaritan woman, Dinah goes out…
  • Like the Samaritan woman, she is met by a man who… loves her, speaks tenderly to her.
  • Like Jesus disciples, the son’s of Jacob only later return to discover what has occurred.

Though John is certainly creating contrasts between Jesus’ conduct and that of Shechem’s, the desire and pursuit of a wife remains consistent with John’s marriage motif.

(to be continued...)

Flow of Blood and Water: Becoming One with God (Part 2)

“but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. 35 And he who has seen has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.” John 19:34-35


Both the piercing of Christ’s side and the subsequent flow of blood and water in John 19:34-35 are unique to John’s gospel and it is safe to say that the author percieves in them a great deal of importance.
  • Three times he swears to the event. (1) "He who has seen has borne witness" (2) "and his witness is true" (3) "and he know that he is telling the truth…”
  • This conclusion, “so that you also may believe,” foreshadows the very conclusion of John "But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and by beleiving you may have life in his name" (John 20:31).
  • So striking is this testimony it has been called, “the most solemn protestation of accuracy to be found in the whole work.” No where else does John make such a passionate and personal claim.

What importance then does the author percieve in this flow? First, I would like to begin by saying that John does not entend us to believe that Jesus died of a broken heart. While this may indeed be what biological cause of the flow it is certainly not the significance that John intends. Two factors from John's gospel demand careful consideration.

  • The flow is the consumation of an extensive water motif.
  • The piercing is likewise the culmination of a continual use of marital images.

Over the next few posts I will argue that the flow is a capstone binding these two themes together to reveal in Christ side a powerful depiction of theosis (becoming one with God).

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Becoming One With God (Part 1)

Saint Athanasius the fourth century church father and ardent defender of the trinity once said that Christ "was made man that we might be made God." Its a rather shocking statement to modern evangelical ears but Athanasius was by no means alone in this opinion among the early church. Hilary of Poitiers (c 315-367), for example, held that "the assumption of our nature was no advancement for God, but His willingness to lower Himself is our promotion, for He did not resign His divinity but conferred divinity on man." The object of Christ's incarnation, according to Hilary was that, "that man might become God."


Five years ago I would have shuned such a notion. The fall of man, I was taught, was predicated on his desire to become "like God" (Genesis 3) and is therefore a sinful desire. Only heretics like the mormons teach that man can become God. It is a perspective that true Christians should immediatly reject as was done in the creation-science seminar I watched last night.

But even the New Testament seems to express at times directly something of this idea. For instance Peter writes in his second letter, "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature... (2 Peter 1:4)" And Jesus in John's gospels prays, "that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may beleive that You sent Me. (John 17:21)"

Today I agree with Athanasius and Hilary of Poitiers. In the following series of posts I would like to tell you how I came to this perspective through realizing the significance of John 19:34.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Seeing the World as a Christian

I delivered this message for Grace Foursquare's Youth Group this past Christmas. I scribbled out these notes in preparation. I hope you can understand the argument. It's a message that has been brewing in me for a long time.

You’re growing up and you guys are beginning to see the world in a completely different way. The simple answers that you had when you were children just don’t cut it anymore. How many of you used to believe that Santa Clause placed those presents under the tree. How many still believe in Santa Clause? Why not? You can’t see him, right? It seems too obvious.

Now you guys are pondering more important questions. “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “Is there a God?” And Like Santa Clause you're thinking of chucking the latter. Why? Because you can’t see God. You can’t touch God. You can't hear God. You can’t smell or taste Him. You're thinking, “I’d believe if I could see him.”

The established elite, scientist, artist, and educators, today almost unanimously teach that what we can, see, taste, touch, smell and hear is all there is. There is nothing outside this material world.

  • Scientist teach Evolution - In its broadest sense, it is the attempt to explain everything through tangiable existence and thus without God.

  • Artist teach Subjectivism. There is no meaning beyond the physical/tangible work of art. There is only opinions, no right and no wrong. There is only painting, the dance, the sculpture and nothing more. There is no God

  • Educators teach us tolerance - Tolerance today is not about accepting the God given right of individuals to disagree but a mandate to recognize that intangible beliefs do not have a tangible existence and thus cannot be regarded as True. Thus there is no God

Thus, we live in a world that denies the existence of God. So why should you or I believe that He exists?

I'm going to tell you up front tonight that I’ve never seen God. Never heard God nor have I smelt him or tasted him. I’ve never experienced God with my five senses. In fact even the Bible clearly says, “No one has ever seen God.” (John 1:18) So where does that leave us? God doesn’t exist, right? Wait. Let's think about where that leads us.

Our eyes only see objects. They cannot see meaning. If we abandon God based upon empirical criteria we must also abandon such notions as love, beauty, morality, justice, hope and equality. For like God, these ideas are immaterial and cannot be verified through empirical experience.

I can't empirically verify you as a person either. The philosopher Descart argued, "I think therefore I am" I know I think and possess feelings. But do you? I can't honestly say. You may simply be a robot, an animal, or a figment of my imagination. Sorry, your movement, speech and actions doesn't compare to the the empirical evidence I have for my own existence. I know that I feel pain. I experience it. But I don't know if you feel pain. I can't experience it for myself.

But even if I could come to believe that you exist, empirically I know even I won't exist forever. Because I can see in the experiences of others that this physical life will come to end. We will die. You know whats even more scary, all the things we do in this life won't matter a bit. Because we will all be forgotten. We will die and we will be forgotten. How do I know this? How many of you know your grandparents? How many know about great-grandparents? How many know about your great-great-great-great-great-grandparents. If you being the children of your parents do not know the people who lived, laughed, struggled and died so that you may exist how is your memory secure?

It was this very notion that lead the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes to despair "meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless" We will die and everything we have been and done will be forgotten (Ecclesiastes 1:1-11). In his despair he sought...

  • pleasure, riches and fame (2:1-11)
  • education (2:12-16)

But in the end, he recognized, death, the limits of this physical world, will overtake us and destroy any meaning that we vainly create.

I've seen the sorrow in this perspective. The first funeral I ever attended was in my sophomore year of high school. A long time fellow student of mine, Holly Phillips, had been killed tragically in a car accident. She was beautiful and now she was dead. I attended the funeral more to support my fellow students then to morn the absence of Holly. But as I sat near the back watching the people in the dark sanctuary, I realized for the first time what life is apart from God. Except for the uncontrollable wailing of Holly's mother at the front of the room, everyone sat in uncomfortable silence listening to her pain. Students unaccustomed to death fidgeted in their seats. Holly's mother was alone. She was divorced and now her only child was dead. Her wailing was the guttural response to a future without hope or meaning. All that she had was gone and she had nothing, nothing, nothing tangible to hold on to.

If there is nothing outside the physical world, then life is like a board game without an object or a point. We run around seeking a goal that does not exist, a point that is beyond recovery. No wonder that suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds. The only logical response to a world like this is to kill oneself. We all die. Only the smart one ends it sooner rather than later.

BUT ITS NOT LIKE THIS. I don't want you to despair. There is life. There is more than what we can see taste touch smell and see. Their is something beyond the limits of our physical senses.

Let me give you a little bit of philosophy. The greatest of all the Greek philosophers was a man nicknamed Plato. In his book the Republic, he offered a picture to illustrate the world in which we find ourselves. We are like prisoners in a cave, Plato said. All our lives we have been chained to face the wall. without the ability to turn around. Behind us, men travel back and forth on a walkway and a fire behind them casts shadows on our wall. Because of our limited perspective we tragically mistake the shadow for the reality. This allegory is a great illustration of Plato's theory of the forms. Plato believed that reality is eternal, true, invisible and unchanging. Material things as we can see from our experience quickly fade away and die. But true things remain forever. 1+1 will always equal 2. It was that way before man existed. It will be that way when we are gone. A particular horse is only a concrete representation of the idea of the horse. When that particular horse is gone, when all horses are gone, the idea of the horse will still remain. It is an eternal truth that man can recognize or choose to ignore. It does not need him to be true.

This is not difficult stuff.

Think of a symbol like the American Flag. We understand what symbols are – Symbols are intangible representations of intangible ideas. For the empiricist the American Flag is simply a multi-colored piece of cloth. But for the one who has eyes to see it is the tangible representation of the United States itself.

Like meaning, the modern empiricist is also unable to see design. He or she would be unable to distinguish between and Indian Arrow head and a rock. Although made of the same substance one is the creation of random events the other of purposeful design. Is it any wounder that many leading evolutionist can see no difference between a person and a fallen twig. To him both are objects and nothing more.

In both these examples there is a reality beyond surface appearance. It is true and eternal weather or not one recognizes it.

The reason I’m saying all this is because I want to bring clarity to how one comes to know God. I can’t see God but so what I can't see meaning, love, justice, hope etc. either. I still know they exist. I see a car and although I can't see the designer, I know that it was designed. I can't see the wind but yet I see the effects of the wind.

But there's more. God hasn't remained aloof, a distant and unexplainable force. The gospel of John tells us something good and true has occurred. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was with God and the Logos was God. He was with God in the beginning.” The word Logos is an ancient word that Greek Philosophers used. It meant the Point, the Purpose, the Explanation for all that is.” It was the invisible and eternal creative force that brought everything into existence and held everything together. And the beauty of this is that John 1:14 states, “The Logos became Flesh and dwelt among us.”

Earlier I quoted you only part of the verse, “No one has ever seen God. The verse goes on to say "But God the one and only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.” This God is the man Jesus Christ

This magic eye picture is a good illustration of who and what Jesus is.

When you look at the picture
you may only see a repeating pattern of electronic art. But if you stare at it, meditate upon it an image begins to emerge. In the same way when some look to Jesus they see only a man. But for those who stare and reflect He is the image of God. In John 14:1, Jesus says, “He who has seen me has seen the father.”

One of the greatest "Christian films" that has ever been produced was neither written nor directed by a Christian. But the film illustrates the gospel so well I can not help but mention it here.

To the blind, The Shawshank Redemption is merely a story about prison. It is a story of a man named Red who befriends a man named Andy. Both Red and Andy are prisoners in Shawshank prison serving life sentences. Told from the perspective of Red, Andy is always offering his fellow inmates hope of the outside world. He provides them beer on a roof top, music in the rec yard, and a library stock full of books. You see the prison in which these men live is more than a building of stone. It is the world they know. It is a world they are surprisingly afraid to leave. Why? Because nothing exists for them on the outside. The world is Shawshank and nothing more. The fear and loneliness of the outside world is so great that it leads Brooks, a parole, to suicide. But Andy sees things differently. He reminds his fellow prisoners again and again of a world that exists outside the walls. And it is only in Andy's escape from Shawshank and the hope of seeing him again that Red finds life instead of death when he himself is paroled.

The Shawshank Redemption is a movie about Plato's allegory. Just as the gospel of John is in a small sense devoted to Plato's understanding of the world. But the Shawshank Redemption goes beyond Plato's allegory to answer the question that has troubled so many. How does a man escape and exist in that world outside our tangible experience? The Shawshank Redemption provides that same answer as John. We need a savior, a hero to rescue us from ourselves, a guide to point the way and go before us, and friend to wait for us there. Andy is Jesus. And we are Brooks or Red. To the first life is bleak and pitiful and unworthy to be lived. To the later it is full of beauty and wonder because their is friend who waits for us beyond.

The Shawshank Redemption not only illustrates the surface/subtext existence that we find ourselves in (the prison represents our tanigable existence while the outside represent the eternal world) it also symbolically points to our need for Christ. Thus the movie is a fitting picture of how Christians view the world. Just as surface plot of the movie is not blatantly about Christ or the material/immaterial devide, so this world in which we live does not blatantly reveal God. Meaning arises through reason reflection (sometimes called "faith." lol) We cannot see God with our natural eyes but we can and do see him in our immaterial existance (the life we live everyday).

Just because you can't see something dosn't mean its not there. Like the Shawshank there is meaning in the world we so often fail to see.

Only in seeing God do we have life. And only in Jesus can we see God. The second funeral I ever attended was for my cousin Nathan. In the summer before his senior year of highschool he developed cancer. The last time he ever walked was to receive his high school diploma. One month later he died. The funeral I attended was in stark contrast to the one I witnessed for Holly. It was a sanctuary full of believers. Sure there were tears but there was also a deep sense of hope and celebration. There is sadness at the funeral of Christians for sure. But the sadness is recognized to be temporary. I was sad that I would never see my cousin again in the life here and now. But I knew that I would see him again in that life to come. Thus we sang and clapped, thanking God for the wonders of his creation. We listened to songs about our future in Christ and invited others to be apart. Joy was present in difficulty because for both Nathan and his family because there is friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Real Beauty?



If you thought that was telling check out this site...

www.portraitprofessional.com/content/gallery.php

Is this fantasey more beautiful then the real?