The Emptiness of Scrapping the Supernatural

  • January 16, 2015
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  • Park Forum

Daily Reading
Genesis 17 (Listen – 4:02)
Matthew 16 (Listen – 3:43)

Matthew 16.15-16
“But what about you?” [Jesus] asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

In 1819, while sitting in Monticello, Thomas Jefferson finished working on his book, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. The book would later be given the moniker, The Jefferson Bible. For countless nights Jefferson painstakingly worked his way, with razor and glue, through English, French, Latin, and Greek copies of the New Testament piecing together his own account of Jesus. The book holds Jesus as a key leader in thought and ethics, scrapping any reference to supernatural works or divine claims. 

Jefferson looked to Christ exclusively as a moral guide. The Founding Fathers’ Naturalist views informed his work as he helped lay the foundation for American government and thought. (He began talking about the book two decades prior to its publication, in the years preceding his presidency.) Reading through Jefferson’s creation as an American is enlightening. Much of our culture’s tendency to reduce religion to moralism is set like an orchestra to the tuning pitch of Jefferson’s perspective of Christ. Reading The Jefferson Bible as a Christian, however, is disheartening.

Jesus is never given the chance to connect speech to action in Jefferson’s account. I found myself startled  at the end of the Jefferson Bible. Jesus was hung on the cross and breathed his last. He spoke nothing to the heavens. After the account of his death, I turned the page and the book was over. The earth did not tremble at the loss of its redeemer. No women anointed the body of their lost friend and savior. There was certainly no resurrection in Jefferson’s account. As I sat in silence I realized that the Jefferson Bible leaves its readers only with a moral burden. 

Jesus’ teachings give us aspirations for a great life and clarity of our mistakes. This was Jefferson’s lone pursuit. But the jig is up for most of us today; we know moralism can’t deliver. It’s Jesus, the Son of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. He gives us hope, joy, meaning, and peace. Peter’s proclamation that Jesus was the Messiah seems odd in an age of skepticism, but it’s the heart of why everything else in the Christian faith matters. 

Prayers from the Past:
He that is immortal suffered much for us: Jesus, the Christ. 

Celestial offshoot of David’s race: Jesus, the Christ.

Jesus, the Christ; glorified throughout the world, the only Son, the deathless: Jesus, the Christ.

In His mercy he came down from heaven to earth: Jesus, the Christ. 

From all eternity he has pointed out the true way of life: Jesus, the Christ.

Jesus Christ, Son of Mary.

— Prayer in an Egyptian sarcophagus, unknown date.

Miracles and Parables Among Skeptics
Part 5 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Weekend Readings

Saturday: Genesis 18 (Listen – 4:59); Matthew 17 (Listen – 3:46)
Sunday: Genesis 19 (Listen – 5:33); Matthew 18 (Listen – 4:25)

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TBT: The Miracle of Christ Healing

  • January 15, 2015
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  • Bethany Jenkins

Daily Reading
Genesis 16 (Listen – 2:18)
Matthew 15 (Listen – 4:23)

Matthew 15.29-30
[Jesus] went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. 

The tokens of Christ’s power and goodness are neither scarce nor scanty; for there is in him an overflowing fulness. He that knows the worth of souls, would go a great way to help to save one from death and Satan’s power. He sat down on a mountain, that all might see him, and have free access to him; for he is an open Savior. He sat down there, as one tired with his journey, and willing to have a little rest; or rather, as one waiting to be gracious. He settled himself to this good work.

Such was the goodness of Christ, that he admitted all sorts of people; the poor as well as the rich are welcome to Christ, and with him there is room enough for all comers. Such was the power of Christ, that he healed all sorts of diseases; those that came to him, brought their sick relations and friends along with them, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet. We read not of any thing they said to him, but they laid them down before him as objects of pity, to be looked upon by him. 

Whatever our case is, the only way to find ease and relief, is, to lay it at Christ’s feet, to spread it before him, and refer it to his cognizance, and then submit it to him, and refer it to his disposal. Those that would have spiritual healing from Christ, must lay themselves at his feet, to be ruled and ordered as he pleases. This is an instance of Christ’s power, which may comfort us in all our weaknesses; and of his pity, which may comfort us in all our miseries. [1]

Prayers from the Past:
We pray to you, God, our Sovereign, Christ, King for ever in the world of spirits,

stretch out your strong hands over your holy church and over the people that will always be yours.

Defend, protect, preserve them, fight and do battle for them, subject their enemies to them, subdue the invisible powers that oppose them, as you have already subdued those who hate us.

Raise now the sign of victory over us and grant that we might sing with Moses the song of triumph.

For yours are victory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

— Hippolytus of Rome, 235 C.E.

Miracles and Parables Among Skeptics
Part 4 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Footnotes

[1] Abridged from Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 1692). Peabody: Hendrickson.

 

The Real Reason We’re Uncomfortable With Miracles

  • January 14, 2015
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  • Park Forum

Daily Reading
Genesis 15 (Listen – 2:53)
Matthew 14 (Listen – 4:14)

Matthew 14.25
Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.

We’ve become remarkably good at explaining miracles. There are modern theories that posit the blind could have been healed with herbs transferred from Jesus’ hands. Others that propose those raised from the dead weren’t really dead, but in shock. There is even an academic paper which models the “hydrodynamic situation” of the sea parting in Exodus. “The Crossing is possible provided that a low-tide phase and a storm-induced drop in water level occur in the northern part of the Gulf of Suez.” [1]

Rather than saying miracles didn’t happen (Pew Research says nearly 80% of Americans believe they are possible) we explain how they happened via natural means. We’re comfortable with miracles so-long as God plays by our rules. 

God becomes dangerous the moment he does something we cannot do for ourselves. We’ve seen the ways in which we can manipulate our own world, create our own cures, and solve life’s problems through our own ingenuity. When a problem exceeds those limits we want to know that we’ve reached the impossible, not the realm of dependence. 

Increasing in understanding is a sign of a growing believer. The sign of a mature believer is that they don’t allow their pursuit of explanation to eclipse the realities of why God works and what he has done. Some of the Bible’s miracles might well have material explanation. God created everything; it’s no less a miracle when he orchestrates his creation for his purposes. Some of the Bible’s miracles likely don’t (or can’t) have such an explanation. Regardless of how each miracle occurred, natural or otherwise, the reason why they happened will always be supernatural. Christ’s miracles were practical expressions of God’s radical, persistent, and sacrificial love for humanity — and this is perhaps the greatest miracle.

This realization removes our facade of control. The single thing every miracle in scripture has in common is that the recipient had given up on, or exhausted, any natural way to solve their own problems or grow in their own faith. Our root problem is not the plausibility of miracles, but the in the belief that God is good. We struggle to trust that when we relinquish control to him our lives become immeasurably better as he does what we cannot do for ourselves.

Prayer
God, you demonstrated your own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5.8) Thank you for the miracle of your love. We cannot explain it, but it has changed us forever. Help us not only to understand you, but to trust you.

Miracles and Parables Among Skeptics
Part 3 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Footnotes

[1] N. E. Voltzinger and A. A. Androsov. Modeling the Hydrodynamic Situation of the Exodus. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (St. Petersburg Branch), Russian Academy of Sciences, 2002.

Three Reasons Jesus Spoke in Parables

  • January 13, 2015
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  • Park Forum

Daily Reading
Genesis 14 (Listen – 4:04)
Matthew 13 (Listen – 7:23)

Matthew 13.10-11
The disciples came to [Jesus] and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.”

Jesus’ disciples were flummoxed. While this happened often to these men to whom the Messiah would entrust his church, this time we might have shared their bewilderment. Jesus came to save the lost, redeem the oppressed, and show God’s love for the world. Yet, for some reason, he concealed his message in parables. His answer to their question, that some have been given knowledge and others have not, looks disturbing (more-so when lifted from its context, as above). What was Jesus saying?

1. Jesus was responding to the religious elite’s rejection of him. The rejection of Christ, recorded in the previous chapters of Matthew, is harsh. Just prior to this encounter the religious leaders respond to one of Jesus’ miracles by calling him an agent of the devil. [1] “The die has been cast,” summarizes Pastor Stanley Toussaint. “The people of Israel are amazed at the power of Jesus and His speech, but they fail to recognize Him as their King… they have separated the fruit from the tree.” [2]

2. Parables mercifully spared the hard-hearted from rejecting Christ’s message. Instead of rejecting the religious leaders as they rejected him, Christ began speaking in parables. He delivered grace to all who would hear and gave the hard-hearted space to respond. (The Pharisees Nicodemus and Saul of Tarsus later come to faith, as does religious council member Joseph of Arimathea, and many others.)

3. What was concealed in parables was revealed on the cross and after the grave. If humankind’s primary problem was lack of knowledge then Jesus would have doubled down on his teaching so none would perish due to ignorance. Instead he went to the cross to die the death we deserved and rose from the grave to give us the life we could not have earned. We may wrestle with Christ’s teachings, but the answer we need is found in his sacrifice.

Prayer
God, thank you for your patience with those who rejected you. Apart from you our hearts are like theirs. Thank you that you walk with your rejectors, sacrifice for them, and love them so deeply you would give your life. Give us patience and fruitfulness as we respond and share your grace with those around us.

Miracles and Parables Among Skeptics
Part 2 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Footnotes

[1] See Matthew 12.22-32. | [2] Stanley Toussaint, Behold the King. p. 168.

 

Faith Among Skeptics

  • January 12, 2015
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  • Park Forum

Daily Reading
Genesis 13 (Listen – 2:16)
Matthew 12 (Listen – 6:41)

Matthew 12.6

[Jesus said,] I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

“Modern philosophy has been inhospitable to the soul,” laments Alan Mittleman in the Harvard Theological Review. [1] No longer just the soul, but anything non-physical is called into question or explained as a consequence of material realities. (Love, joy, and pain are each given physical root in chemical responses.) How are we to deal with things of faith which transcend the concrete?

In some ways this isn’t just a modern problem. Timothy Keller explores a real philosophical challenge from the first century though a fictional conversation between a Roman and his Christian neighbor. Watch the disconnect between religious Roman life and Christianity, as well as the beauty of a faith which transcends the zeitgeist: 

The [Roman] neighbor says, “Oh, you’re a Christian. That’s great. I love religion, all the pageantry. That’s really wonderful. Where is your temple?” 

The Christian would’ve said, “We don’t have a temple. Jesus is our temple. He has fulfilled it. He’s the final temple. We don’t need temples anymore.”

The neighbor would say, “Well, you have no temple? Where do your priests operate?”

“We don’t have any priests. Jesus is our Priest. He’s the final Priest. He has put priests out of business. We don’t need any mediator. He’s the Mediator.”

“No temple? No priests? Where do you do your rituals, the things that make you acceptable to God?”

“Jesus is our sacrifice, so we don’t have any more sacrifices.”

Finally, the neighbor says, “What kind of religion is this?” 

The Christian would say, “It’s no kind of religion at all, because we didn’t get a religion; we got a person. We don’t have a God so high up there we need a religion to sort of get in connection with him. ‘Come in, God. Come in.’ He came to us. He died for us. He came into our midst, and now we don’t have a religion. We have a person.”

Prayer
God we are so thankful we’re not called to earn you, but called to know you. We acknowledge that your ways are beyond ours. Give us faith to trust and knowledge to understand. We want to know you. We want to be articulate about who you are — sometimes in conditions hostile to things of faith and spirituality. Give us grace, boldness, and wisdom as we have opportunity to share who you are and what you’ve done for us.

Miracles and Parables Among Skeptics
Part 1 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Footnotes

[1]  Alan Mittleman (2014). Making the Case for the Soul in an Age of Neuroscience. Harvard Theological Review, 107, pp 485-493. | [2] Keller, T. J. The Lord of the Sabbath. The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2006.