The Sylvr Pen

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” Isaiah 53:1

“Watch out!”

“Beware!”

“Take heed!”

“Keep awake!”

“Be vigilant!”

“Do not be deceived!”

During His last week, Jesus not only taught and healed. He also admonished. His admonitions were for all, including us today.

Multi-people, Multi-warnings

He admonished the scribes and Pharisees repeatedly about woes to come upon them for their selfish hypocrisy, deceit, and spiritual blindness (Mt 23:13-16,23-28).

He admonished the multitude to beware the scribes, Pharisees, and other hypocrites and false teachers and leaders (Mar 12:38-40). He admonished them to look to God as their teacher, master, and source of truth, rather than men (Mt 23:8-10).

He admonished His disciples about many things, particularly for the moment at hand to “pray, so that you don’t fall into temptation” (Lk 22:46 NIV).

And He admonished a select few of those disciples about terrible times coming very soon, and what to do when certain specifics happened (Mar 13:14-15; Lk 21:20-21).

Who Has Believed?

Where does prophecy, fulfilled in His Passion Week, come in (since that’s the theme in this month’s posts)?

In giving that last specific warning to some of His disciples, He Himself referred to a prophecy of Daniel (Dan 11:31). And amid His other admonitions He quoted the prophet Isaiah’s words above, “Who has believed our report?…” and applied them to his warnings. (Check out the context by reading Isaiah 53:1-5.)

John 12:37-38 and Romans 10:16 both later applied that same Isaiah verse to people’s failure to believe in Christ as Lord and Savior–“that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled.”

Worth Heeding

The value of “taking heed”—believing and obeying—made itself evident when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD. Those who received and acted on Jesus’ prophetic warning (passed on by the disciples) fled the city in time and escaped its horrific bloodbath and destruction (Schaff’s History of the Christian Church, vol 1, p. 402).

Heeding Christ’s warnings can do us similar good. Let’s realize the word “watch” that Jesus repeated in prophecies (as in Mk 13:33,35,37) means “keep awake, alert, vigilant, on guard.” Let us get well acquainted with His words in all the gospels and take them seriously. Then let us…

Watch out!

Beware!

Take heed!

Keep awake!

Be vigilant!

And not be deceived!

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.” -Psalm 118:22-23

While in the temple, Jesus quoted this prophecy–to those sent to stumble Him up with hard questions in front of the people (Mat 21:42; Mar 12:10;  Luk 20:17). In the process He stumbled them up by asking, Haven’t you read this (implying, don’t you get it)? Then He voiced His own (unpleasant) prophecy–about stumbling…

Not a Cliche

Stumbling them up wasn’t His main aim. All the people standing there needed to ponder this prophecy, too. So do we, much more than we tend to do.

Some of our doctrinal truisms become cliches in our minds before we get too far in Christian life, and we fail to build that new life on them. Since this one is about the main stone in the figurative building that the Bible says all Christians become part of (1 Pet 2:5-9), we really need consider and apply it!

The Context

Jesus quoted Psalm 118:22-23 immediately on the heels of his parable about wicked vineyard workers who abused the owner’s messengers and finally killed his son. He declared that “the kingdom of God” (which the vineyard represented) would be taken from them and put in the charge of others “bearing the fruits of it.”  Now, about the stone he declared, “Whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder” (Mat 21:44). Oo.

Not too hard for us to figure out its basic meaning, this side of the Cross and the birth of the Church. Those leaders perceived, too, that He was talking about them (Mat 21:45). Their reaction, unfortunately, was to “get” not it, but Him! (Mat 21:46).

The Big Picture

Clearly, He is the Chief Cornerstone, rejected by many “builders.” Peter made this clear in His courageous speech of Acts 4:10-12, then again in his first Epistle, where he also called the true believers “living stones… being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1Pe 2:4-9).

This imagery would hold especially great meaning for Peter because the new name Christ had given him meant rock, and Christ had also told Peter that He would build His church upon a great rock.

How We Fit In

But what does this mean for us? Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:11-16 give the answer. Each of us as a living stone in a living Temple (God’s worldwide true church), is meant to edify (build up) that Temple, that whole body of Christ, by supplying the rest of the body/temple with the gifts God puts in us to share, so that all might be unified in Truth and in Christ, growing up into Him as the head, exhibiting His true righteousness and holiness (Eph 4:24). Let us not lose sight of this picture, nor fail to aim toward living it out.

Jesus did more than teach during His last overloaded days in the temple. Another thing He did was heal.

I might have ignored this fact except for a visit a week ago to a church that’s conducting special prayer this Wednesday for various healings—because, said the pastor, Jesus healed during Passion-week.

Hm? With that in mind as I read through the gospels, I noticed Matthew 21:14. Otherwise, I well might have rushed by, paying little attention.

Why Important?

Why was this significant enough for Matthew to mention? One reason that occurs to me is that the healings testified to who Jesus was, by fulfilling Old Testament prophecies. Compassion for the suffering always played a role in His ministry, but verification of His identity as Messiah (Christ) was of key importance.

Back in His own hometown synagogue, early on, He had declared Himself the fulfillment of  the Isaiah passage He was then reading (Lk 4:17-18). Among other things, it prophesied that He’d heal the brokenhearted and give sight to the blind. Matthew 8:17 mentions another prophecy of His miraculous healings in Isaiah (Is 53:4 HNV, NIV, and NASB fn).

Living Evidence

On His way to Jerusalem, Jesus healed Bartimaeus’ blindness. In nearby Bethany, shortly before entering the city, He even raised Lazarus from the dead! And now in the temple He was healing some more.

Earlier, when John the Baptist, discouraged in prison, sent to ask Jesus if He was, after all, the promised One, Jesus told the messenger to inform John of how “the blind see and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and deaf hear; dead are raised up and [the] poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Mt 11:2-5). These miracles attested to Him being Christ.

Now, in the temple, the religious leaders were questioning His “authority” to do the things he was doing there–like driving out the money-changers, and teaching authoritatively (Mt 21:23). His prophecy-fulfilling miracles of healing served as part of the evidence that He had all the authority in the Universe!

Who Desires Healing?

The “odd” thing was how opposed the leaders were to His healing and speaking truth there. But their concern was not for the needs of the masses, nor the real Truth of God, but that their apple cart not get upset—or their money tables—and that was what Jesus and His healings were doing.

Part of the essential Jesus Christ is His anointing to heal, and His compassion for those in need of it. He healed then, and still heals today, sometimes astoundingly. I’ve seen it, and experienced it myself.

All those people that He healed then, died later. The inevitable happens, and all ills do not get healed in this earthly life. But in that great resurrection still to come, our glorified bodies will be free from all disease, our hearts from all sorrow, our souls from all sin (1 Cor 15:42-44,49). The Great Physician heals completely, in His time. “By His stripes we are healed” (Is 53:5).

‘Zeal for Your house has eaten me up.” -Psalm 69:9: John 2:17

If you knew you had only one week to live, how would you spend that week? Jesus knew that’s all He had, and the way He spent it is telling.

I admit I must not have been paying attention, all those times I read through the gospels, to how much, and what kind of activity, He crammed into that week. I think my mind always kind of jumped from the triumphal entry to the Last Supper and the time of the cross, and just lumped all the rest of the Bible text with His earlier times of ministry, the three-plus years before.

But what a loaded week! And one of the major things Christ loaded it with was teaching. Not wimpy instruction, either. Incisive. Confrontational. Dangerous.

Loaded Teaching

He began with a bang (or two)—shocking, provocative, action-packed and highly demonstrative: killing a fruitless fig tree with a curse, upturning temple tables, driving out workers, confronting money-grabbers head-on. Coins flying everywhere. Money-changers  scrambling to retrieve “their” scattered cash. Him with a whip of cords, driving them out. Tumult!

Then, after He re-entered that temple to teach the masses gathering there to hear him—and also the scribes and Pharisees—he minced no words and avoided no truths that needed to be spoken. He confronted the hypocritical leaders with thinly veiled parables obviously about them: the wicked and unfaithful vineyard keepers, the son who said he’d serve his father but then didn’t, the wedding guest thrown out because he lacked the acceptable garment…

Loaded Dialog

After this followed a lot of verbal jousting with the scribes and Pharisees and the spies they sent into the crowds to try to trip Him up, confound His teaching, and make Him look bad before the people.

His answers may have been quiet and even-toned–or they may have been like Ravi Zacharias’s machine-gun-speed shooting forth of demolish-the-opposition answers. Whichever the case, this was verbal war, and the stakes were high: the honor of God and the souls of men. In the process, even many of the Pharisees and scribes did come to true faith. But those who didn’t now were stirred to murderous anger.

That didn’t stop Him. He went on. And He told them what they needed to hear, whether they would receive it or not. He knew He was “asking for it.” But then, as He also pointed out to the disciples, it was for His execution that He had come in to Jerusalem.

Last Week: Lamb or Lion?

How would you spend your last week? That’s how He spent His. He came into Jerusalem to lay down His life as a ransom for many. But before He did, He poured Himself out in zeal and love for God’s house, God’s truth, and God’s people.

Truly He came in to accomplish much that week, not only as the Lamb of God, but also as the Lion.

Those people pouring into Jerusalem that “Triumphal Entry” day got a lot of prophecy right about Christ being the Messiah, the King to come. But their rosy picture had flaws they were ignoring.

Donkey

For one thing, this prophecy about how the King was coming. On a donkey? What conquering king rides into his conquered territory on such an animal? He parades or gallops in on a mighty steed instead–as Revelation 19:11-16 pictures Christ’s future appearance.

Donkey riding has served often as a sign of peace/truce. After all, how well do you suppose a donkey would behave in battle? And there’s something humbling about it, as Zechariah 9:9 even notes. I just read recently about how, in the First Crusade, so many horses died that knights resorted to other animals as mounts, like oxen–but that this so humiliated some of them that they turned and went home.

Weeping

Then, He’s weeping, again (Lk 19:41-44). As He wept before Lazarus’ tomb, now as He nears Jerusalem He weeps over it–and prophesies its horrible destruction! Odd thing for a conqueror to do on a “triumphal entry.”

Deliverance from What?

Other little truths would have nagged the Christ-followers, if they’d known or acknowledged them. Like Christ’s naming three decades before (Mt 1:21). Why did God then command the name Jesus? Because He would save His people from…Rome? No, “from their sins.” The wildly elated crowd in the Entry procession probably were thinking political salvation instead.

The verse that follows Psalm 118:25-26 (Ps 118:27) would have given them pause, too, if they’d considered. But it’s highly unlikely they were thinking of Christ Himself as the sacrifice! Yet when He entered the Temple and taught there in the next few days, as the leaders’ fear of the crowds now allowed, His parables contained pictures, hints, like the vinedressers killing the owner’s beloved son so they could get the inheritance (Lk 20:13-15).

The Turned Tide

What turned the crowd so quickly against Jesus a few days later? Was it a different crowd entirely, or did the sight of Jesus being dragged around like a helpless victim so disappoint them that it was easy for the chief priests to stir them up to call for His horrible execution (Mk 15:11)?

Jesus kept telling His disciples it was necessary that He be betrayed and put to death. He had pointed out and explained many ancient prophecies that foretold that part of the story. But they couldn’t process it, couldn’t even begin to accept it.

And Us?

What about us? Are there negative parts of God’s promises we conveniently leave out? Like 2 Timothy 3:12; Matthew 10:34-39 and other similar verses?

Part of the Christian life is suffering for righteousness’ or Christ’s name’s sake. We experience so much blessing in our western world that we may be unprepared and shocked when pain, trial, and even persecution come. Let us, let me, remember that God doesn’t promise just a pleasant walk in the park with Him, but a life that will stretch and grow us more and more into His image. Let us make sure we are putting our faith in the Truth, and the True God and Christ, and not some imaginary picture our minds paint.