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Portrait Shaped by Scripture

Scripture Focus: Acts 18.24-28
24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor t and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 
27 When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers and sisters encouraged him and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. 28 For he vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. 

Reflection: Portrait Shaped by Scripture
By John Tillman

Apollos “proved” from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. 

This easy-to-miss phrase tells us that Apollos and the Jews had an agreed-upon interpretation of messianic prophecies and an agreed-upon set of facts about the life of Jesus. They compared the two and determined that they matched.

This was all happening just a few years after Jesus’ death. Information and people traveled fairly easily. Facts could be verified because people who experienced these events were still alive, including the people who condemned Jesus to death, those who carried out his sentence, and those who saw him resurrected. (1 Corinthians 15.3-7)

Our faith is a fact-based faith. The single-most important (and audacious) factual claim of Christianity is that Jesus was resurrected. Skeptics of this claim and of Christianity didn’t suddenly appear on the scene during the Age of Reason. Christianity was tested by skeptics immediately following the resurrection during a time in which its followers had no power or influence and it should have been easiest to disprove. 

Apollos was able to point to the portrait drawn by the writings of Isaiah and other biblical authors and then point to the life of Jesus. For many faithful Jews, it was obvious that they were the same picture. 

When we speak about the gospel or engage in discussion with those who don’t share our faith, it may be difficult for us to “prove” anything from the scriptures. Apollos’s audience knew the scriptures inside and out. Modern people don’t know or trust the scriptures. Not only do they not have positive knowledge of the scriptures, many have negative experiences with scripture being weaponized, twisted, and used to accuse, abuse, dehumanize, and attack them.

Before we prove anything from the scriptures, we may first have to show people a portrait of Jesus painted with our words and actions. If we can show the beauty of living in a way that shows the Father’s love, people will be willing to consider trusting our Father’s words.

Lord, help us to remember that some have been wounded by scripture.
Help our lives to be shaped by scripture into a beautiful artistic portrait of you.
May the picture we paint of you show that the scriptures are good so that others can believe the gospel.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for me. — Psalm 66.14

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

Today’s Reading
Leviticus 22 (Listen 4:41)
Acts 18 (Listen 4:06)

Read more about A Different Kind of Exile
In 1 Peter 2, we see that the scattered exiles from Jerusalem…Their lives—their good deeds—are literally the arguments they are to defend themselves with.

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The “default settings” of our mindsets about scripture have a big effect on our ability to make use of them in the ways Paul and Peter intend.

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Apotheosis of Politics

Scripture Focus: Acts 17.16-21
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

Image Note from John: The image in today’s post is a picture I took of “The Apotheosis of Washington” in the US Capitol, painted in 1865 by Constantino Brumidi.

Reflection: Apotheosis of Politics
By John Tillman

The United States drinks deeply from Greek and Roman culture—perhaps more deeply than it does from Christianity.

The founders of the United States were undeniably inspired by Christian ideals. But they were also undeniably inspired by Roman power structures and Greek theological anthropology that separates body and spirit.

The United States, in many ways, is a Christian nation. However, the influence of pre-Christian Greco-Roman ideals is so strong that one could say with equal support that the United States is a Greco-Roman nation.

As I write, I am visiting friends in Virginia, near Mount Vernon, and I’m sitting on a bench on the National Mall in DC, where the very layout of the streets and the architecture speak loudly about Greco-Roman influence.

Imagine standing with me and Paul in the dome of the Capitol to my right. Looking up, we would see, painted on the cupola “The Apotheosis of Washington.” Apotheosis means the elevating of someone to a god-like status. Washington looks down on us as he rises into heaven, surrounded by female figures representing victory/fame and liberty. Imagine walking with Paul past the Washington Monument to my left to see Abraham Lincoln sitting on a throne in a temple.

After walking around Washington DC as he walked around Athens, Paul might say to us, “I see that in every way you are very religious!”

I am a very patriotic person but I would probably respond to Paul saying, “Hey, we don’t REALLY worship these men or this country.” We might say, “Relax, Paul, it’s metaphorical…” 

But metaphors shape our thinking and if I’m honest, sometimes the way patriotism slides towards holy reverence bothers me. The way the founding fathers (or current want-to-be leaders) are venerated as if they were apostles or Moses or Jesus, frightens me. The way some equate the inspiration of our founding documents to the inspiration of the scriptures terrifies me.

As traditional religion declines, politics is the newest, fastest-growing religion. Political parties are denominations and candidates are gods and apostles. We must beware the temptations of this apotheosis of politics.

Jesus is indeed a “foreign god” to us. (Acts 17.18) His kingdom is opposed to, not aligned with, any human government or party. He intends to bring down the exalted and exalt the humiliated and the humble. We must hold our patriotism and our political activism more lightly than our faith.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Why are the nations in an uproar? Why do the peoples mutter empty threats?
Why do the kings of the earth rise up in revolt, and the princes plot together, against the Lord and against his Anointed?… Psalm 2.1-2

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
You are the Lord, most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. — Psalm 97.9

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

Today’s Reading
Leviticus 21 (Listen 3:08)
Acts 17 (Listen 5:28)

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Politics is the idol we bring with us to church just as the Israelites worshiped Baal alongside Jehovah.

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May no party or human leader be permitted to yoke us or Christ’s church to their cause.

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Older Than the Old Way

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 18.24-28
24 “ ‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27 for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. 

Reflection: Older Than the Old Way
By John Tillman

There’s an argument that the biblical sexual ethic is old and outdated. “That was the old way. Now we must think about sex in a new way.” The truth is more complicated.

Biblical sexuality is the “original” idea from page one of the Bible, but we rejected it on page two and never looked back. There is nothing “new” about the modern sexual climate. Sex has always been abused by the powerful, made a tool of addiction and manipulation, peddled for money, intertwined with slavery, and unlimited in its scope. This free-for-all leaves casualties and abuse in its wake.

Sexual ethics go beyond personal choices. God says the land, the dirt we came from, is affected by our defilement of one another. When we mistreat each other, the land itself gets sick. Creation is not inanimate, unaffected matter. “Cursed is the ground,” God says. And why? “Because of you.” (Genesis 3.17; 4.10-12)

When the only sexual limit is consent, human bodies, souls, and emotions are just hills to be mined or streams to be tapped. Secure the mineral and water rights; take what you want. Strip mine, clear cut, dam them up, dry them up, poison them…who cares? They signed on the dotted line. This is the old way. But older than the old way, is God’s way.

Current cultural sexual ethics are old, but in every age, God carved out for himself people to be different—to return to Eden, little by little. (Matthew 19.4; Mark 10.5-6)

In Leviticus, God instructs his people to be distinct in how they practice everything from handling money to how to treat one another’s bodies. God’s language centers on care for others, respect, and self-control. No one group is singled out. God’s people must be distinct from the pattern of normality all around them. “What is normal for them, must not be normal for you. What seems natural to them, must not be natural to you.”

This didn’t start in Leviticus. Throughout the Bible, there is a consistent pattern of God subverting the cultural norms of sex among those who follow him. God worked gradually and people followed imperfectly. They consistently followed culture rather than him, but God worked with and among them even amidst failure.

We are a part of this people. We may fail at times, but if we continually turn to him, he will continue to undo our curses and make us blessings to our land.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
You are the Lord, most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. — Psalm 97.9

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

Today’s Reading
Leviticus 18 (Listen 3:46) 
Acts 14 (Listen 3:54)

This Weekend’s Reading
Leviticus 19 (Listen 4:39), Acts 15 (Listen 5:43)
Leviticus 20 (Listen 4:18), Acts 16 (Listen 5:53)

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If we look carefully, we can see God actively disrupting cultural assumptions and human traditions that people in scripture accepted as normal.

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May each of us submit every part of our identities, including our sexuality, to God’s calling in our lives.

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Life in the Blood

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 17.10-12
10 “ ‘I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people. 11 For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. 12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.” 

Genesis 4.10-12
10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 

Genesis 9.4-5
4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

From John: We live in a world of casual, uncaring, bloodshed. Worse than that…we are often unmoved by that bloodshed. We are unmoved by children dying in shootings or children dying crossing the border or children dying in the womb. At least, not moved enough to change anything. As Russell Moore said in a recent Christianity Today article, “Americans—especially Christians—should ask just how much we have adjusted ourselves to this kind of horror. How numb to it all have we become?” 

We need to reinvigorate our hearts to care about the shedding of blood, our careless collaboration in it, and our callous response to seeing it. Because of this, we return to this rewritten devotional from 2021.

Reflection: Life in the Blood
By John Tillman

Biological facts often reveal spiritual truth. Our life really is in our blood. 

We often measure life based on brain activity. For example, the rapper, DMX, recently died after life support was removed following a coma/vegetative state. However, many of the brain’s commands are carried out by the hormones, proteins, and other chemical signals that travel through the blood.

Everything that makes us alive circulates in our blood. Life “moves” within us even when we are at rest. When blood stops moving, or is spilled out, life ends. 

The most important and revealing reason for the prohibitions regarding blood was spiritual not physical. Blood is life given for atonement. Since the blood of the first animal, killed by God in the garden to clothe Adam and Eve, animals have given their lives for human sin and creation has groaned for the blood spilled. (Genesis 3.21; Genesis 4.10-12; Romans 8.20-23)

All spilled blood, God says, is precious and holy, not only on its own but because it points to the blood of Jesus. Christ’s blood is the most precious blood in history, but every drop of blood shed draws precious meaning from his. 

Blood is still life and it should disturb us when blood is spilled. Blood is the life of our brothers and sisters of every race. Blood is the life of the unborn. Blood is the life of those dying of Covid. Blood is the life of both Christians and non-Christians murdered for their faith. Blood is the life of victims of every kind of violence whether in distant wars or neighborhood streets, whether in mass shootings or lone suicides.

So both the lives of a police officer lost stopping a mass shooting in Colorado and of a Black citizen, crushed by a police officer’s knee are united in that their lives point to and plea for Christ’s blood. One is lost in self-sacrifice and one cries out from the ground in a plea for justice.

May we revive a holy respect for blood, no matter where, how, or by whom it is shed. May we not carelessly “eat” blood by profiting from violence, supporting bloodshed, or indifferently shrugging off bloodshed that doesn’t affect us.

God will require an account. (Genesis 9.5; Isaiah 5.7) When he does, we must plead the blood of Jesus to cover all of our bloodshed. Only in his blood will we find true life. (John 6.53-57)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Jesus taught us, saying: “He who comes from above is above all others; he who is of the earth is earthly himself and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven bears witness to things he has seen and heard…since he whom God has sent speaks God’s own words, for God gives him the Spirit without reserve.” — John 3.31

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

Today’s Reading
Leviticus 17 (Listen 2:39) 
Acts 13 (Listen 7:36)

Read more about Paul’s First Sermon
Paul’s message is one of comfort but also a call to action; encouragement but also an energizing challenge.

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Two Goats and Jesus

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 16:21-22
21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.

Reflection: Two Goats and Jesus
By Erin Newton

Easter is over. What if we still don’t understand it?

Two men on Resurrection morning asked, “What just happened?” Jesus of Nazareth, powerful in word and deed, was crucified (Luke 24). They witnessed the horrifying event but walked away with more questions than answers. It was all so confusing.

Cleopas and his friend were called “slow to believe.” I think their slowness in faith was rooted in their inability to understand and not because they were lazy. Not because they needed higher education. Not because they were of lesser genius. Understanding takes time, questions, and pondering what we think we already know.

We have the benefit of the Spirit to help us as we look back on the Old Testament. When we think about Easter, we ponder why Jesus had to die—what was the meaning of his death? For those questions, one place we look is Leviticus 16.

Two goats are gathered for the Day of Atonement. One goat is killed, and its blood is used to cleanse the sanctuary from the innermost rooms to the outer. The second goat bears the fullness of the iniquities of the people and is banished from the community.

Jacob Milgrom explains, “Evil was banished to its place of origin (e.g., the netherworld, wilderness) or to some place in which its malefic powers could work to the benefit of the sender (e.g., to enemy territory) or in which it could do no harm at all (mountains, wilderness).” A ritual designed to purge and eliminate.

Jesus’ death on the cross more fully accomplishes this ritual. His blood purifies our approach to God so we can enter his presence without fear. His death banishes the power of sin to the wilderness, and we can be free from the bondage of evil.

Hebrews 10:10 says, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The need for ritual atonement is over but we still wrestle with how it all works.

Do we now descend into our daily routines? Do we re-enter the spiritually apathetic weeks on the calendar? I hope we do not. I hope we keep pondering the Gospel. I hope we never tire of asking questions and seeking answers.

Even the disciples left the cross with questions. Faith is a process. May our hearts, just like Cleopas’, burn within us as the Scriptures are opened.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds. — Psalm 36.5


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

Today’s Reading
Leviticus 16 (Listen 5:36) 
Acts 12 (Listen 3:49)

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Jesus takes sin far more seriously than anyone…sin is deadly serious business to the one who came to die for sins.

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