Jesus Serves

November 1, 2013

Imagine coming home and finding Jesus there. He’s dressed in grubby clothes—the kind you wear to clean house. He’s in the bathroom cleaning away. The faucets sparkle. The toilet gleams and even has that blue water in it. The dirty towels are in the laundry, and Jesus is on his knees working on that stubborn soap scum in the tub. How would you feel? Awkward? Embarrassed? No doubt we would try to get Jesus to the living room where we could be good hosts. We would say, “Jesus, you are much too important to be doing this.”

Enter into the world of the upper room. It was customary for guests to have their feet washed. It was considered a servile job — a job left to slaves, children or an exceptionally submissive and dutiful wife. Would any of the Twelve do it? They probably wouldn’t have minded washing Jesus’ feet. But would the thought have occurred, “I’m just as important an apostle as everybody else—why should I wash their feet?”

Jesus laid aside his garment. Not only was he going to do the slave’s job, but he looked the part. The one who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped took on the very nature of a servant — a slave. Jesus washed their feet (John 13:1-17). Peter’s protest no doubt broke the awkward tension and captured other’s feelings. But protests aside, a necessary lesson was being taught.

Jesus is Lord and Teacher. If he could do this for them, then they should serve others. With a towel and a water basin, Jesus shattered our proud, self-importance—our clamoring for position. How can any of us ever say, “I’m too important to serve,” when our Lord washed feet.

David Lipscomb became editor of the Gospel Advocate in 1866 and started the Nashville Bible School in 1891, which later became Lipscomb University. In 1873, Nashville was faced with a cholera epidemic. The first case was reported on June 7th. Two weeks later the cases numbered 397. Likely hundreds died that summer. Lipscomb wrote in the midst of that crisis, “Every individual, white or black, that dies from the neglect and want of proper food and nursing is a reproach to the professors of the Christian religion in the vicinity of Nashville.” But he did more. He led young men into the slums “where they prepared wholesome food and cleaned the filth from the affected area” of cholera victims. Lipscomb nursed cholera victims because he served a Lord who washed feet.

You have heard it said, “Jesus saves.” How true and wonderful that is. But equally wondrous is the truth that Jesus serves, and so must we who follow Him.

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Posted by Russell Holden

In Herod’s Jail

May 31, 2013

I wonder what John the Baptist pondered in Herod’s jail. It doesn’t seem quite fair. If anyone had ever lived a self-sacrificing, dedicated life, it was John. God set him apart even before birth. He was not to drink wine or strong drink possibly suggesting a perpetual Nazarite vow (Luke 1:15, on Nazarite vows see Numbers 6). His life was at best ascetic. His clothes remind us of Elijah – camel’s hair clothing and a leather belt (Mark 1:6, 2 Kings 1:8). His food was locusts and wild honey. Even Jesus referenced his austerity: “What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses” (Matthew 11:8, ESV).

It was from prison that John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another” (Matthew 11:3, ESV )? We long for Jesus just to say “yes”. Instead, he answers about the blind seeing, the lame walking, the lepers cleansed, the dead raised, and the poor hearing good news. To this he adds, “And blessed is the one who is not offended by me” (Matthew 11:6, ESV). The first century world had many who claimed to be the One. False “messianic” uprisings had led some astray. Rather than an easily offered “yes,” Jesus recounted evidence to one in prison who may have been struggling with the purposes of God in the world. Was John’s subtext something like this? If you are the coming King, will you make things right soon… like getting me out of prison?

After John’s disciples left, Jesus acknowledged the greatness of John. John was the “Elijah to come” the fulfillment of Malachi chapter four, “yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11). John prepared the way for the coming King and his Kingdom, yet he would die before the day arrived. Beheading at a tyrant’s whim doesn’t seem quite fair. Like Moses, John the Baptist could only look at the promised from afar.

Life can be disorienting. Pondering God’s ways can leave us questioning. Real life doesn’t always work out the way we think it should. But John the Baptist’s case is also paradoxical. It is in his suffering, sacrifice, and even death that we see the depth of his faith. It is his worst of times that provides us the greatest instruction.

Life can be disorienting, and our questions perplexing. But faith can anchor us to the God who is there, even when life doesn’t work the way we think it should. God’s ways are not our ways, yet it is He who has promised someday to wipe away all tears. I wonder what John the Baptist pondered in Herod’s jail.

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Posted by Russell Holden

What Will You Do With Jesus?

March 29, 2013

The scene was DeVos Hall in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The occasion was a public discussion on the resurrection of Jesus. The participants were N.T. Wright and Marcus Borg. Borg is a member of the Jesus Seminar, which questions whether many of the gospel sayings are actually from Jesus. He stated during the presentation that he believes Jesus of Nazareth is mouldering in the grave, but he still believes in the Christ of faith. Wright is known for his massive three volumes: The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, and The Resurrection of the Son of God. Wright believes that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and his work emphasizes the importance of world view in the study of Jesus.

Borg is educated and eloquent. He passionately believes that his approach to Jesus salvages the church for the modern world. He doesn’t believe that the modern mind can believe in miracles. How can people today believe in someone rising from the dead? Borg believes that the dead simply do not rise.

Borg has adopted the world view of naturalism. Such a world view says the physical world is a closed system. There is no possibility that God can intervene in human affairs, so miracles are ruled out by definition. But we have to back up and ask whether this world view is true. Naturalism tends to be reductionistic to everything human. Are my emotions, thoughts, and morals simply biochemical reactions? Even for the person who would say yes to this question, it is a difficult proposition to live with consistently. We tend to behave in such a way that these very human traits are viewed as of a different order from indigestion.

Science does not necessarily lead to naturalism. Science developed within the Christian world view, and today, many scientists hold a Christian or theist world view. It is not logically inconsistent to say the natural world operates in an orderly and understandable way (that we can discover by the scientific method), and the creator of the natural order can intervene when he desires.

The scientific method is also not the only way of evaluating truth. You can’t put historical evidence in a test tube or replicate an experiment with it. In both philosophy and history, we must reason correctly and weigh the evidence. We must look for consistency of thought and preponderance of evidence. We may never arrive at absolute certitude, but we also can’t remain neutral.

So what will we do with Jesus? As C.F.D. Moule has said, “If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested by the New Testament, rips a great hole in history, a hole of the size and shape of Resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with?”

Listening to Borg made me wish the audience could have stood up and recited, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:17–20, ESV).

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Posted by Russell Holden

Anno Domini

December 28, 2012

The Latin, Anno Domini, is better known as simply AD. It means “in the year of the Lord” and is short for Anno Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (“in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ”). Years before the Christan era are designated a.C.n. (for Ante Christum Natum, Latin for “before the birth of Christ”). In English, it is common to use the abbreviation BC for “before Christ.” This calendar intended to have the Christian era begin with the birth of Christ.

Although others had attempted to date from the time of Christ, our current system was devised by Dionysius Exiguus (“Dennis the Small”) in AD 525. He was assigned the task of creating tables for calculating future dates for Easter. The previous tables in use had been dated from the emperor Diocletian. Dionysius did not want to perpetuate the memory of a tyrant who persecuted Christians. Instead he calculated AD 1 as equaling the 754th year from the founding of Rome.

Calculations like these are never easy, and there are reasons for believing that Dionysius may have miscalculated. Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews mentions a lunar eclipse immediately after the death of Herod the Great. That causes modern chronologists to suggest that Herod died in 4 BC. This in turn causes a revision in the date for the birth of Jesus. Although the intent of the dating system was to date an era from the birth of Christ, the miscalculations give us the oddity of Jesus being born in 4 BC or earlier.

Other calendar systems exist. January 1, 2013 in the Jewish calendar is 19 Tevet, 5773 (before sunset). The Jewish calendar dates its era from creation using the genealogies in Genesis to arrive at this calculation. The Islamic calendar dates itself from the Hijra, when Mohammed emigrated from Mecca to Medina. The Persian calendar also calculates from Mohammed’s emigration from Mecca to Medina, but it is a solar calendar in contrast to the Islamic lunar calendar. The Chinese calendar dates from the first legendary emperor, Huangdi or the Yellow Emperor. The Hindus also have a calendar that has been used in India since about 1000 BC.

As we enter a new year, this history lesson reminds us that Jesus is so significant that we date time by him. No other calendar dates simply from someone’s birth. Jesus is that significant. Have you examined the evidence? Do you have faith in him? Have you obeyed His teachings? Can you call Him Lord?

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Posted by Russell Holden

The Meaning of Jesus’ Resurrection

April 6, 2012

How can we express what the resurrection means?

It means vindication. Jesus really is the Messiah, the Anointed One, who fulfills the promise made to David. The chief priests had rejected him. The crowds had cried, “Crucify him!” Peter preached that the resurrection gives us the certainly “that God has made him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

It means forgiveness. The wages of sin is death. God warns against eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17, ESV). The sacrificial system of the Law of Moses was a pointer to what God would some day do on the cross. Life was in the blood. A life was accepted in exchange for the life of a sinner. “He (that is God) made him who did not know sin a sin offering in our behalf, in order that we may become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It means reconciliation. Adam and Eve had walked with God in a way that it is difficult for us to imagine. Our only hint is in Genesis 3 when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden, and they knew what the sound meant, so they hid themselves because of their sin. Paradise was lost. Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. Yet, God has sought to reconcile the world to himself. Because of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, we can approach the throne of grace with confidence. As Christians, we become a temple of the Holy Spirit. We look forward to once more having access to the Tree of Life and walking in God’s glorious presence.

It means transformation. Yes, I need to be forgiven of my sin, but I also need a moral makeover. I need to become a better person. Following Jesus and putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit is the process of that moral transformation. God’s desire is that we be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29).

It means eternal life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead anticipates and is the basis of the resurrection at his coming. Death has been conquered. Yes, we may still have to experience physical death, but those who are in Jesus have life and hope of eternal life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24, ESV). “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11, ESV).

How wonderful and marvelous — He is risen!

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Posted by Russell Holden

They Laughed at Him

February 26, 2012

The situation was grave, and the request was urgent. Jairus’ daughter was dying, so he sought Jesus’ help. When he found Jesus, he fell at his feet and implored him to come to his house. Think about this for a moment. Have you ever felt so desperate that you fell at someone’s feet to make your plea?

Jairus’ only daughter was dying. Let the word “only” sink in. It is not that with several children you have one that can be expendable. The death of any child would be horrible. Yet, there is a special pain that accompanies the word only. To lose an only daughter is to have no other daughter left to comfort you. To lose an only daughter is to have no other daughter to give you grandchildren.

Do you think Jairus was urgent getting Jesus to move in the direction of his house? After all, the crowds pressed around him. It would be like seeing an ambulance with lights flashing and siren sounding stuck in a traffic jam. Then Jesus himself stopped to ask who touched him. And then a further delay as Jesus spoke with a woman who had been ill for twelve years but was now cured. No doubt a wonderful cause as you worry that the joy of the past twelve years of your life may be fading away.

While Jesus was speaking, the bad news from home arrived: “You daughter is dead; do not trouble the Teacher any more.” Yet, Jesus pressed on. He assured Jairus that she will be well. But when they arrived, they were confronted with the realities of death — weeping and wailing. Jesus responded, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.” But the hearers knew death only too well, and they laughed.

This laugh of derision was changed to joy. Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter, but I suspect that the disciples of Jesus heard this kind of laugh again.

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. Acts 17:32, ESV

And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” Acts 26:24, ESV

With this laugh, I am reminded that the disciple is not above his master, and what they do to the master, they will do the one who follows. They laughed at Jesus, and some may very well laugh at us, but I am persuaded of the power and reality of Jesus’ resurrection.

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Posted by Russell Holden

A Touchable Jesus

February 10, 2012

Jesus’ encounter with Mary after his resurrection has led to a bit of unfortunate speculation (see John 20:17). The King James Version reads: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” The speculation assumes that Mary was forbidden to touch Jesus, yet later Thomas was invited to touch Jesus (John 20:27). This interpretation seeks an explanation in the reason given in John 20:17, and so proposes an ascension to the Father before the ascension recorded in Acts. Something happens in this “first” trip to heaven that allows him to be touched later.

Several problems exist with this speculative interpretation of John 20:17. First, “touch me not” doesn’t necessarily imply that Mary has not touched Jesus. Sometimes we say “don’t touch me” after being touched. Even beginning with the KJV reading, I think this interpretation starts with an unwarranted assumption.

Second, “touch me not” renders a Greek verb that is present imperative (a command in the present tense). Prohibitions in the present imperative often convey the idea of stopping an activity in progress.* Several translations try to convey this idea:

  • Do not cling to me… ESV
  • Stop clinging to Me … NASB
  • Do not hold on to me… NIV
  • Do not cling to Me… NKJV

These translations are conveying the correct notion that Mary is clinging to Jesus, and he is asking her to stop. She doesn’t need to cling to him, for he hasn’t yet ascended to his Father — they still have some time left, although this also gives her a warning that their relationship is going to change with the ascension. He has a mission for her, and he needs her to let go and find the brothers and give them his message. This correct understanding of the verb completely negates this interpretation.

This interpretation fails to take in account a chronologically close encounter with Jesus and the women who come to the tomb: “And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.” (Matthew 28:9, KJV) The time between this encounter and the encounter with Mary would have been very short. This too argues against this interpretation.

What I find encouraging about these scenes is that the resurrected Jesus is a touchable Jesus. I had a Greek professor who believed that the popular Christian conception of the afterlife was a little too much Plato and not enough scripture. I sometimes wonder whether when we hear “spiritual body” that our minds don’t go to something ghostly and insubstantial, yet scripture presents us with a touchable Jesus.

*Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, p. 724.

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Posted by Russell Holden

If Christ Were Not…

December 26, 2011

Published in 1852, Henry Roger’s book, The Eclipse of Faith, imagines what it would be like if Jesus Christ were erased from history. He imagines going into a library and finding no trace of the life and words of Jesus. No Golden Rule. No Good Samaritan. No Prodigal Son. Pages of law books that had formerly protected women, children, and the poor are blank. Alarmed he looks into volumes of art history. Paintings like Raphael’s “The Transfiguration” and da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” are missing. He thinks of the great poems of Milton, Dante, Wordsworth, and Tennyson, but he finds only empty pages. It hits him that if Christ were erased from history great works of philanthropy and missions would cease – hospitals, schools, orphanages, and missionaries. If Christ were erased from history like a great hand erasing chalk writing from a blackboard, the effects would be devastating.

A Newsweek poll agreed with Henry Roger’s assessment. If there had been no Jesus…

  • 61% believe there would be less kindness
  • 47% believe there would be more war
  • 63% believe there would be less charity
  • 58% believe there would be less tolerance
  • 59% believe there would be less personal happiness

But Jesus never intended to be only a great moral teacher. He never intended to be just a flavoring for Western Civilization.

Yes, it is possible to have a cultural benefit if some people know and follow the Golden Rule at least part of the time. Jesus undoubtedly has influenced law, art, and literature. But in recognizing the profound influence of Jesus, we must ask ourselves the bigger questions. Did Jesus die for our sins? Is Jesus Lord?

The skeptic may complain that unkindness, war, greed, intolerance, and unhappiness still exist and ask, “What has Jesus really done?” But in answering the bigger questions, we have a reply. We need to go beyond the lip service of Jesus as a cultural influence to Jesus as Lord. The more profoundly Jesus transforms us, the more our world will change. We must confess that this world is not yet as Jesus would have it to be. But to erase Jesus is to erase hope.

It’s possible to enjoy the cultural benefits of a world influenced by Jesus. But Christ’s greatest gift is received when we trust and obey. It would be devastating if Christ were not. But it would also be devastating to our life and eternity, if Christ’s we’re not.

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Posted by Russell Holden

Who’s in Control?

June 3, 2011

The news of the day can be disturbing — natural disasters, wars, brutality, and human deceit. Our world careens along, and we may wonder: who’s in control?

Early Christians had an answer for that question even when it seemed the forces of the world were against them. They were encouraged by a psalm of David , Psalm 2 (see Acts 4:25). So influential was this psalm that it has 18 allusions or citations in the New Testament.

The first stanza of the psalm speaks of the nation’s conspiracy and rebellion (2:2-3). In the ancient world, kings were often vassals (subordinates) to a greater king. In the ancient near east, when a new king assumed the throne, vassal nations often used the circumstances to revolt. But this revolt is against the sovereign God and his Anointed One (Messiah).

The second stanza (2:4-6) emphasizes God’s power and ends with the line: “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill” (Psalm 2:6, ESV). The third stanza (2:7-9) affirms the sonship of the Anointed One, the King. We must recall the promise made to David. God speaks of the kings in David’s dynasty and assures David, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (2 Samuel 7:14a). Jesus is the Son of God in an even greater sense than the other kings of David’s dynasty. The third stanza affirms the ability of the Son. He will conquer.

The final stanza (2:10-12) makes an appeal and ends with a beatitude. The appeal is to “serve the LORD” and “kiss the Son.” The concluding beatitude is: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him (i.e., the Son).”

This psalm finds its way into a prayer of the early church when faced with persecution. After citing from the first stanza of Psalm 2, they pray:

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. (Acts 4:27–30, ESV)

The early Christians took comfort from Psalm 2 that God and his Anointed One are in control despite outward appearances. They knew that “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess” (see Isaiah 45:23 and Philippians 2:10-11). “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Leave a Comment » | assurance, Christian living, God, Jesus, sovreignty | Permalink
Posted by Russell Holden

When Doomsday Fails

May 27, 2011

Unless you were in a total media blackout, you heard the predictions of Harold Camping. He predicted the rapture to occur on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at around 6 p.m. His followers sold possessions (after all they weren’t going to need them for long) in order to get the message out. I admire their boldness but lament the message wasn’t true to the Bible.

Camping believed that Noah’s flood was in 4990 B.C. He took the words from Genesis 7:4 (“Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth”) to be a prediction of the end of the world. He argued that a day equaled a thousand years because of 2 Peter 3:8 (“With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day…”). By the way, Peter is quoting from a Psalm 90, and the psalm says that a 1000 years to the Lord is also like a watch in the night. Camping takes the 17th day of the second month in Genesis to equal May 21. So 7000 years after the flood, Camping was predicting the rapture. He is now recalculating and arguing that the Judgment Day was spiritual and the new date for the rapture is October 21, 2011.

In case you didn’t notice, Camping’s argument contains many assumptions. But the biggest problem is the argument contradicts Jesus’ own clear statement:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. Matthew 24:36, ESV

Jesus had all the same biblical data that Camping has, but Jesus said he didn’t know and taught that his coming would be like the thief in the night — that is unexpected (Matthew 24:43 and 1 Thessalonians 5:2). After his resurrection, the apostles were inquiring about the times, and Jesus instructed it wasn’t for them to know (Acts 1:6-7).

Camping is not the first predictor of doomsday. Many predictions have been made since the 19th century. The new millennia brought about the feverish activity of many speculations as it did in A.D. 1000. My concern is when the prediction of doomsday fails. It may discourage faith and seeking after the truth of Jesus Christ by some, and it may encourage the skeptics to scoff even more.

The Bible does not teach us to predict dates for the coming of Jesus. But it does teach that Jesus is coming again, and a Day of Judgment lies ahead for each of us. Instead of encouraging speculation, it warns us to be prepared.

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Posted by Russell Holden

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