Contemplative Bible Reading

John 7:2-4 (New Living Translation)

2 But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, 3 and Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where your followers can see your miracles! 4 You can’t become famous if you hide like this! If you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!”

Most followers of Jesus Christ mean well. These statements are from Jesus’ own brothers. They  meant well, but listen to what they said:

You can’t become famous if you hide like this!

Gosh. If Jesus didn’t follow their advice, He wouldn’t be famous.

I cringe at the thought. How stupid was this advice? Yet, how correct from a worldly point of view. Of course they were right. You have to go to the big city to be big-city famous. Of course they were being just plain stupid.

Then we have me here today. I know how the world works. I am smart; I am accomplished, and I can give you all kinds of great advice. Is my advice, however, worldly or Godly? Uh, er, well, um, let’s change the subject quickly.

God, help me with my unbelief.

1 Samuel 30:3-6 (New Living Translation)

3 When David and his men saw the ruins and realized what had happened to their families, 4 they wept until they could weep no more. 5 David’s two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel, were among those captured. 6 David was now in great danger because all his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

So much for being the greatest King ever or the greatest warrior ever or the greatest Psalm writer or  the greatest dodge ball champion in the history of Israel. When things go bad, watch out. As verse 6 states,

they began to talk of stoning him (David)

Whoa. What a minute. This is not talk of hanging in effigy or such, this is talk of get the real guy, put him in the middle, and throw rocks at him until he is dead.

David had decided to take the fighting men out on a mission and leave the women and children behind. The result was catastrophic as someone stole the women and children and all the possessions of life. The fighting men weren’t happy with David’s judgement.

Such if the plight of the person who decides for the entire group. Sometimes you are wrong, and your friends quickly forget that you are friends.

1 Samuel 24:13 (New Living Translation)

As that old proverb says, ‘From evil people come evil deeds.’ So you can be sure I will never harm you.

This strikes me as a quote from the movie “Forest Gump.” That is not quite correct, but similar.

If you see a person performing evil deeds, that person is evil. Pretty simple stuff, but often the simple stuff is not popular in today’s post-modern or post-post-modern or whatever we call it world.

1 Samuel 23:15-18 (New Living Translation)

15 One day near Horesh, David received the news that Saul was on the way to Ziph to search for him and kill him. 16 Jonathan went to find David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith in God. 17 “Don’t be afraid,” Jonathan reassured him. “My father will never find you! You are going to be the king of Israel, and I will be next to you, as my father, Saul, is well aware.” 18 So the two of them renewed their solemn pact before the Lord. Then Jonathan returned home, while David stayed at Horesh.

Jonathan sure has a good plan. He has seen the future and he is certain enough of it to tell David all about it. Trouble is, Jonathan, like all of us, is pretty bad at predicting the future.

The future will have David as King and Jonathan will be right next to him. (Some translations say Jonathan will be second in command to the king.) The next few chapters of 1 Samuel smash Jonathan’s predictions as he and his brothers die in battle on the same day as their father King Saul.

Got any great predictions for the future of the world? Do you see yourself as second in place to a great leader? Keep the news to yourself so no one will have a record as to how foolish I am.

Luke 16:15 (New Living Translation)

Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.

Put the last sentence of this verse under that tag “#IknowthisfromJesusbutIhateit.”

Surely Jesus didn’t know what he was saying. Surely this is a bad translation. Surely there are things that the world, especially me, honors that are not detestable in the sight of God. Surely the worldly honors I seek are highly esteemed by God.

Right? Can I get an Amen to any of that? No, I can’t, and I don’t deserve an Amen because I am wrong.

Jesus said it and meant it, and it is up to me to deal with it in my prideful pursuit of worldly honors.

Mark 9:38 (New Living Translation)

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.”

And so it began or so it continued. John, he is the culprit here but it could be me, divides people into them and us. John tells Jesus that they are doing wonderful things. But they are they and they are not us, so what are we to do?

John was a wonderful person; he was a dedicated follower of Jesus. He didn’t like them because them was not us.

In my relatively short life, I have met many wonderful dedicated followers of Jesus say the same words. I have said them as well. What is it about us that we divide dedicated, wonderful followers of Jesus into them and us?

God, please help me in my unbelief.

Mark 9:30-31a (New Living Translation)

30 Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, 31 for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them.

Jesus wanted more time so that He could teach his followers.

As the pendulum swings in Christianity in this modern or post-modern or whatever-we-call-it-this-weekend world, I witness a swing more towards practice and less towards knowledge. (For those who study artificial intelligence, this is a variation of the declarative vs. procedural knowledge debate, but I digress.) This is mostly good stuff from well-intentioned good people.

Still, we see Jesus wanting time for teaching. There were things that Jesus wanted his followers or students to know. He needed some time.

Question: Jesus was God. Why didn’t He just snap his finger and viola, the knowledge would be in the minds of the followers?

I have no answer. I often wish God would do such for me and eliminate all that need for time, but I, thankfully, don’t understand all the ways of God.

Mark 7:1-5 (New Living Translation)

1 One day some Pharisees and teachers of religious law arrived from Jerusalem to see Jesus. 2 They noticed that some of his disciples failed to follow the Jewish ritual of hand washing before eating. 3 (The Jews, especially the Pharisees, do not eat until they have poured water over their cupped hands, as required by their ancient traditions. 4 Similarly, they don’t eat anything from the market until they immerse their hands in water. This is but one of many traditions they have clung to—such as their ceremonial washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.)

5 So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”

I love the language used in this translation of this passage. It is clear to me what the Pharisees and teachers of the religious law were defending. They themselves called their practices “age-old traditions.”

Note how they were not defending the law that God had given them. They were defending a man-made tradition.

I like traditions. The older I am, the more I like traditions. Still, I have to admit when a tradition is a tradition and nothing more. The Pharisees admitted that in this passage. Still, they defended it to the death (of someone else).

1 John 2 (New Living Translation)

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

…

26 I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. 27 But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

There is the world and what it offers, and there is the Holy Spirit and what it offers.

The world offers us things we crave. These things are great fun, but they fade.

The Holy Spirit, in contrast, offers us everything we need to know, everything that is true.

How is it that I seem to confuse the two so often? How is it that I drift back to the world so often?

God, help me in my unbelief.

1 Peter 1:23-25 (New Living Translation)

23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;
their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
25     But the word of the Lord remains forever.

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

Being born again, i.e., having a second chance at everything sounds pretty good. Sometimes that is what we teach about a life following Jesus Christ. Perhaps we sell it short.

When we are born again, we are not given a second chance at life here and now. That here-and-now life is temporary and short. Verse 23 tells me that rebirth in Jesus is not a  short-term second chance. The rebirth is eternal.

The new eternal life comes from the eternal word from God. That word from God is the Good News that Jesus of Nazareth was truly the Son of God appointed to take away the sins of the world—my lousy sins.

I pray that I will understand this and live it every day.