John Tillman - The Park Forum

May 16, 2024May 14, 2024

Miracles for the Undeserving

Scripture Focus: Luke 7.6-8
2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Reflection: Miracles for the Undeserving
By John Tillman

Deserving. Undeserving.
Faithful. Unfaithful.
Believing. Unbelieving.

These themes run through Capernaum and are especially highlighted in the story of the centurion and his servant.

The Jewish elders who came to Jesus said the centurion was “deserving” of a miracle. Why? Because he loved “their nation” and financially supported their place of worship. They liked him because he helped them.

Who deserves a miracle? Good people? Benefactors? Public servants? Important people? People we like?

In short, no one. God owes no one miracles. The centurion doesn’t deserve a miracle for being “one of the good ones,” and the Jews don’t deserve one either. Miracles are acts of mercy, not spiritual reimbursements.

That doesn’t mean the centurion didn’t show good qualities. One of the centurion’s best qualities is that he recognized that he was undeserving. His humility shows in his sending servants to stop Jesus from coming to his home. His repentance shows in his acts of mercy and service to the town. His faith shows in his recognition that Jesus did not need to be present to act in mercy.

The amazing detail of this story is not that Jesus did the community a solid by paying off the nice guy who did nice things with a nice miracle. It is that the outcast Gentile, working for the Empire, representing a man who thought himself to be God, recognized that Jesus, not Caesar, was the ultimate authority. The centurion calls Jesus “Lord.” But the insiders, the Jews, the people worshiping the God who sent Jesus and called him “My beloved Son,” did not recognize Jesus’s authority. They rejected him as Lord.

Jesus did many miracles in Capernaum. However, Capernaum was not a place of great faith. Jesus would condemn the area for persisting in unbelief despite all the miracles he did there. (Matthew 11.23-24)

No one is deserving, yet Jesus does miracles for the undeserving. No one is completely faithful, yet Jesus is amazed at the faith that he finds on the earth. Those who should believe—who saw miracles—rejected faith. Those who have reasons not to believe—being the “wrong” race, party, or having the wrong job—are found among those who call Jesus “Lord.”

The gospel is the ultimate miracle. None of us deserve it, yet Jesus offers it to us. Call him Lord, and come under his authority.

Thank God that he does miracles for the undeserving.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. — Matthew 5.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Zephaniah 3 (Listen 3:38)
Luke 7 (Listen 7:14)

Read more about Josiahs Need Zephaniahs
The next generation needs us to model condemning our past sins, confessing them, and being free. Josiahs need Zephaniahs.

Josiahs Need Zephaniahs—Readers Choice

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May 14, 2024May 12, 2024

Invitation to Re-creation

Scripture Focus: Zephaniah 1.7
7 Be silent before the Sovereign Lord,
for the day of the Lord is near.
The Lord has prepared a sacrifice;
he has consecrated those he has invited.

Reflection: Invitation to Re-creation
By John Tillman

Zephaniah’s shocking beginning rewinds the order of creation. Zephaniah sees God turning back to Genesis page 1. As pages turn, humans and beasts, then birds of the sky, then fish of the sea, are wiped away like chalk from a blackboard.

Why does God take this drastic step? Is all humanity doomed? Is there any hope in this darkness?

When predicting the outcome of an NBA finals match, a sports commentator might say, “This team will wipe the floor with their opponents.” In case you don’t know basketball, no humans are ever used as mops. The prognostication implies one opponent will dominate the other in a decisive victory. Like sports commentary, apocalyptic visions and prophecies are often poetically exaggerative.

Zephaniah is predicting that God will dominate and destroy every evil thing in creation and win a decisive victory over sinful kings, warriors, leaders, economies, and all wicked powers. Not one evil thing or human will escape, and their defeat will be humiliating and overwhelming. He will wipe the floor with them.

Zephaniah makes the purpose of this destruction clear. The world is unmade to wipe the floor with humanity’s idols. This newly cleaned space will be inhabited by those whom God saves by his mercy. (Zephaniah 3.9) He will wash the feet of those who enter.

No religion deals with evil as directly as Christianity does. Some prefer God wink at evil and pretend it doesn’t exist. Other philosophies excuse evil as “alternative choices” that are “good” for those who choose them. Even prominent leaders who claim to follow Christ have embraced this kind of moral relativism with “ends justify the means” mentalities.

These tactics of dealing with evil are as gutless as they are meaningless. In Jesus, God takes on evil directly, at cost to himself, on behalf of the victims. He enters the ring, becoming the ultimate victim of evil to win the ultimate victory over evil. Those who cling to evil will be swept away in the battle. Those who cling to Christ will be credited with a victory only he can win.

As Zephaniah says, “he has consecrated those he has invited.” This is the invitation Jesus extended to the rebel on the cross. This same invitation was extended to me and to you and to all humanity. Have you accepted this invitation? Have you extended it to others?

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life. — Ephesians 2.8-10

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Zephaniah 1 (Listen 3:09)
Luke 5 (Listen 5:04)

Read more about A Bad Day Fishing
Jesus will show up on our worst days. He is calling us to fish. Peter never catches a fish without Christ’s help. And neither will we.

A Bad Day Fishing

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May 13, 2024May 15, 2024

No, Not Like That

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3.1-2, 16
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
2 Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.

16 I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.

Reflection: No, Not Like That
By John Tillman

A common objection to faith is that if God is all-powerful and all-good, how does he allow evil to exist? Either he is not all-powerful, for he cannot stop evil, or he is not all-good, for he will not stop evil.

Habakkuk has his own version of these objections. Habakkuk is distressed by violence and injustice. The legal system is corrupt. The guilty go free. The innocent are unprotected. He objects that God is not taking action.

God says, “I’m already doing something about it. The Babylonians are on their way.” (Habakkuk 1.1-4)

Rather than rejoicing, Habakkuk questions God’s choices. Surely God cannot use such ruthless, violent, and prideful people. “No, God. Not like that! Not those people. Not those means!”

Perhaps Habakkuk just wanted a new king or a few judges replaced, but God saw deeper problems. We can be like Habakkuk in many ways. We see evil and think God isn’t taking it seriously. But when God acts, we think God is going too far. We didn’t want him to take it that seriously.

God takes both justice and mercy more seriously than us. He knows better than us the costs of holding them both.

In the parable of the tares in the wheat, Jesus implies that evil is more intimately bound up with us than we think. The tares cannot be pulled up without damaging the wheat. When we ask God to pull up weeds, he can see the weed’s roots are tangled around our own.

We must trust God when he chooses to address evil, whether it is in our hearts, in our institutions, or in our countries. We may not understand how long it took because we don’t know the depths of his patience and mercy. We may not understand how severe the judgment is because we don’t know the depths of our own evil. We may not understand the means God uses because we don’t remember that God can and will use anyone and can turn any evil to good use.

More than anything else, let us stay in dialogue with God, as Habakkuk does. We don’t have to hold back our doubts, fears, or objections. If we draw close to him, God will draw near to us. He will confront us with our sins. May we repent. He will comfort us in our distress. May we lean on him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed. — Psalm 51.8

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Habakkuk 3 (Listen 2:59)
Luke 4 (Listen 5:27)

Read more about He Became a Servant Beyond Jubilee
Habakkuk’s psalm longs for the Lord to make himself known…What Habakkuk waited for, we have seen in Jesus.

He Became a Servant

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May 10, 2024May 8, 2024

Transforming Cities of Blood

Scripture Focus: Nahum 3.1-3
1 Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims!
2 The crack of whips,
the clatter of wheels,
galloping horses
and jolting chariots!
3 Charging cavalry,
flashing swords
and glittering spears!
Many casualties,
piles of dead,
bodies without number,
people stumbling over the corpses…

Reflection: Transforming Cities of Blood
By John Tillman

“Woe to the city of blood,” Nahum says.

God is often described as a vineyard owner or farmer, but God also loves cities. God will one day unite our world with the city of Heaven. This heavenly city will also be a life-giving garden with a tree at its heart, providing healing to the nations.

Cities can produce life, industry, and creativity, and can bless the surrounding country. Instead, Nineveh is built on blood. Ease of life for the powerful is whipped from the bodies of slaves. The profit of industry rolls on wheels that crush the poor. Cavalry, sword, and spear enforce the will of prideful tyrants, setting themselves up as gods among men.

God placed humans in a garden to cultivate the earth, but as soon as we got the chance we made cities rather than gardens. Cain, cast far from his agricultural family, plants a city. Rather than a harvest of righteousness, suffering and oppression bloomed. The great cities of humanity throughout the scripture (Babylon and Nineveh are archetypes) are symbols of human rebellion. Cities in their mold run counter to our divine vocation.

One false narrative says that big cities are always evil and “small towns” are always good. Another says that cities are always wise and sophisticated and outlying areas are populated by rubes and fools. Christians shouldn’t fall for either of these. Big doesn’t equal malevolent and small doesn’t equal benevolent. A city with a population under 1,000 can be a city of blood as easily as one with millions of citizens. We should be honest evaluators of ourselves, our culture, and our communities, considering them with sober judgment. (Romans 12.2-3)

Do we live in “cities of blood?” We might be shocked to think of our communities as “Nineveh” but if we open our eyes and ears we might find similarities. Can we honestly say we don’t notice modern versions of Nineveh’s whips and chariot wheels? Don’t we see, metaphorically, the blood of the poor and bodies of the discarded in our streets? Don’t we see people bowing down to leaders who set themselves up as god-like saviors?

The false urban versus rural dichotomy obscures the fact that no matter if you plant a city or a garden, God judges it by its fruit. Whether in the city or in the countryside, God loves cultivation. Wherever we reside, transforming communities is a divine mission.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. — Psalm 85.13

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Nahum 3 (Listen 3:04)
Luke 1.39-80 (Listen 9:26)

This Weekend’s Readings
Habakkuk 1 (Listen 2:39), Luke 2 (Listen 9:26)
Habakkuk 2 (Listen 3:20), Luke 3 (Listen 9:26)

Read more about No Such Thing as God Forsaken
It may be a long road and a long exile between condemnation and redemption. May we not lose hope in our God or hope for our cities.

No Such Thing as God Forsaken

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May 9, 2024May 8, 2024

Nineveh’s Regression

Scripture Focus: Nahum 2.13
13 “I am against you,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“I will burn up your chariots in smoke,
and the sword will devour your young lions.
I will leave you no prey on the earth.
The voices of your messengers
will no longer be heard.”

From John: We will look back today and tomorrow at devotions from 2022 about how the once repentant city of Nineveh, fell again into sin. May we never grow complacent in our repentance or comfortable with sin.

Reflection: Nineveh’s Regression
By John Tillman

About 150 years after Jonah’s visit, Nahum writes to Nineveh with exactly the kind of message Jonah wished to carry: “The Lord is against you. You’re going to burn.” The city that once experienced the fires of revival would experience the fires of judgment.

Jonah’s warning to Nineveh had an unexpected, and for Jonah, undesired, effect. Repentance swept the streets. People from the king down to the lowest servants turned to God and mourned their past sins. Jonah condemned their spiritual ignorance, yet God had compassion for people “who cannot tell their right hand from their left.” (Jonah 4.11)

It was a shocking outcome. An empire that grew fat on evil, fasted and mourned. A city considered a lost cause, was saved. People Jonah hoped would taste God’s wrath, tasted his mercy. But eventually, Nineveh regressed.

We don’t know how long the effects of the revival recorded in Jonah endured. Perhaps that generation of Ninevites continued in repentance and it was the next generation that returned to sinfulness. Perhaps they went “back to normal” a week after the disaster was averted. Either way, we can draw a lesson for ourselves. May we not find ourselves in the position of the Ninevites who once tasted mercy, then spat it out to gulp down rebellion instead.

When we repent, let us make sure that it is not just surface repentance to avoid the catastrophe some Jonah-like prophet warns us of. Repentance and humbling ourselves are continual practices in the Christian faith, not one-time events. Let us repent and continue to repent. To reform and continue to reform.

God’s still in the business of forgiving those we would condemn and having mercy on those we would castigate. He’s still redeeming lost causes and lost cities. But he is also running out the clock on evil and will not leave the wicked unpunished. No matter how far gone someone is, we shouldn’t write them off, because God may be in the process of writing them into his story. However, there does come a time when God allows people to write themselves out.

Unrepentant evil will be crushed, regardless of whether it is found in Nineveh, Jerusalem, or in our modern cities or churches. The Lord is still for us. Let us seek him while he may be found and hear him while our ears can hear and our hearts can respond. (Isaiah 6.9-10, 55.6; Mark 4.9)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
My eyes are upon the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me. — Psalm 101.6

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Nahum 2 (Listen 2:06)
Luke 1.1-38 (Listen 9:26)

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Read more about Becoming Light
Help us not be like those who are of the dark.
They are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

Becoming Light — Readers’ Choice