Peace comes in many forms. We long for the day when peace between nations will end all wars. Our hearts ache for reconciliation with those we have become estranged. Nature earnestly awaits the day when her relationship with humanity becomes symbiotic rather than parasitic. Our hearts and minds seek a state of tranquility. Our bodies ache for freedom from deterioration and decay. Can such a peace that fulfills all these types of peace be found?
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It’s time to get the Bible right. Many who open the Good Book do so with expectations that can only be dashed by the actual content they find there.
The Bible is not primarily a moral tale of great heroes of the faith. While you will find some heroic actions done with great faith, even the greatest characters in the Bible, excepting One, have fatal flaws.
When we approach the Bible with the intent to “dare to be a Daniel” or to ask, “What would Jesus do?”, we miss its central message. Indeed, Jesus came to model what perfect humanity looks like, but he knew what was inside the human heart: “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man” (John 2:24–25 ESV). Jesus knew that no one in this world could live the kind of life he lived. He came not mainly as a moral example but as a Savior.
Several years ago, someone shared an article with me written by a pastor from another mainline denomination. He accused the Old Testament of promoting polygamy, as if to say, “Look at all the examples of polygamy in the Bible!” While the author listed examples, he failed to provide citations. So, the person who shared the article with me and I opened our Bibles to find those examples and test his claims. Here’s what we found:
Polygamy does not end well in the Bible. The stories often portray the world not as it ought to be but as it really is. Even the greatest so-called heroes of the Bible committed heinous sins (2 Samuel 11). Polygamy, in the Bible, leads to jealousy, abuse, and a host of generational family dysfunctions. Israelite kings were instructed against it (Deuteronomy 17:14–17), though many succumbed to this popular practice of neighboring kingdoms. Well before David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he had already set his heart on this trajectory by going against God’s good instruction (2 Samuel 5:13).
The rockstar Bono said in an interview, “The Scriptures remain a plumb line to gauge how crooked the wall of my ego has become.” The Bible presents us with broken people whom God’s grace needs to touch and transform. After a long, duplicitous, and polygamous life, old Jacob finally humbles himself before the Lord (Genesis 32:30). The Bible offers a mirror in which we can see our fallen humanity, receive the salvation offered by the Savior, and be renewed (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Genesis 3:14-15
In the beginning God created the heavens and earth and all was very good (Genesis 1:1, 31). There is an inherent goodness about all things God makes. A beautiful scenic overlook, the graceful flight of a bald eagle, the wonders of the human brain, a charitable act, these are all glimpses of the goodness of God’s creation.
Yet, despite these glimpses of the goodness of God’s creation, it appears that what was made good has been marred. Continue reading
Genesis 6:1-22
Ancient stone towers litter an ancient village located at the southernmost tip of Greece. The stone towers served as family homes, at a time when the village was self-governed. The towers not only protected the village from outside invaders, but protected the villagers from each other. The families of that village had turned family feuds into a blood sport. When one family offended another, they would hurl rocks and boiling oil from the height their tower on to the other family. The families built higher and higher towers to gain the advantage; the cycle went on until the village nearly destroyed itself. Continue reading
2 Timothy 3:14-17
How can we say anything meaningful about God? If God is transcendent, defying our cognitive abilities to fully comprehend him, how can we say anything of certainty about God? Continue reading
Romans 5:2-5
No one, in their right mind, wants to suffer. Yet, all people experience suffering in their lives at some point. If you have not yet experienced suffering, just give yourself time. In a fallen world, suffering is inevitable.
The Bible says something very counterintuitive about suffering. It says the Christian can rejoice in suffering. “Through [Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:2–5 ESV)
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John 20:3-7
Distraught and weeping, Mary says to Peter, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” (John 20:2) Peter and another disciple immediately run to the tomb to check things out for themselves. The other disciple outran Peter. He arrived at the tomb first.
They would have cut the tomb where Jesus was laid into the rock of the Judean hillside. The entryway would have been low to the ground, so that the other disciple would have needed to bend low to peak in. As the sun had risen higher, enough light would have entered the tomb so that this other disciple could see what Mary could not have seen earlier. He sees the linen burial strips lying there. He does not go in. We can excuse him. This was, after all, someone else’s tomb. Laws prohibited, just as today, tampering with someone else’s grave.
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John 20:2
Mary, still literally in the dark, sees the stone taken away from the tomb where her beloved friend was laid. Given the low sunlight – the sun had probably just cracked the horizon – she probably could not see into his cave-like tomb. She assumes, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb…” (John 20:1)
Mary’s assumption was reasonable enough. Imagine you were at a cemetery walking up to the grave of your loved one. You see a pile of dirt next to a hole where you know your loved one was laid to rest, but you have not yet moved close enough to peer in. What might you assume? You might assume someone took the body. Mary did. She did not know better.
The darkness, in John’s Gospel, signifies something more than the early hour. We all, like Mary, start in the dark. We all, like Mary, start with assumptions about who this Jesus really is. In John’s gospel, people have been making all sorts of assumptions about Jesus. Some called him “the Prophet (John 6:14).” Others called him the Christ without yet knowing what that title meant (for example, John 7:31). Still others said he had a demon or was insane (John 10:20).
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John 20:1
In the wee hours of the morning Mary Magdalene went to the tomb of her recently deceased Master and friend, Jesus. The sun had not yet ruptured the horizon. When she arrived, the stone sealing the tomb, much to her surprise, had been taken away. (See John 20:1)
We know from the other gospel accounts that Mary Magdalene was not the only one there. Other women accompanied her. Yet, Mary Magdalene, in all the gospel accounts, is given center stage. Later we find out that she was also the first to meet the risen Lord.
When we take into account the culture of that time, Mary’s center stage presence at the empty tomb surprises us. A woman? Women were not even considered legally valid witnesses in a Jewish courtroom at that time. A woman like Mary Magdalene? Jesus cast seven demons out of this woman not long ago (Luke 8:2). She had a checkered past. Furthermore, if I am doing the math correctly, she was likely the youngest of this group of women who went to the tomb.
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John 12:12-19
The first Palm Sunday looked like people throwing a birthday party for a birthday boy they did not know. People had high expectations on the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem, but the full meaning of the event would not make sense till later. (Read John 12:12-19)
The crowd that met Jesus on the way expected a national hero. They came out to meet Jesus thinking he was the one who would lead an insurrection against Rome and return the nation’s sovereignty back to the Jews.
Other people there on that first Palm Sunday responded in a different way. They did not lift palms or chant victory. They boiled with rage. The Jewish leaders feared an insurrection would threaten their socio-economically beneficial relationship with Rome.
One day Jesus will come as a warrior king to palm branches and shouts of victory to claim his Kingdom once and for all (Revelation 7:9-10). However, if Jesus was marching to victory on Palm Sunday, victory started with a death march to the cross.
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