Donkey!!

Jesus walked on water, calmed storms, and healed people, but did you know he could ride two donkeys at the same time? 

That's what Matthew tells us in his version of Jesus' life (Mt 21). In preparation for his final entry into Jerusalem, he records Jesus instructing his closest friends to go into a village and find a "donkey, and a colt with her and bring them to me." 

They bring the two animals to Jesus, throw their jackets on both animals and then Jesus hops on both of them! Matthew tells us Jesus did this to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, "Tell the daughter of Zion (Jerusalem): Look your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Is 62.11, Zech 9.9). 

The other gospels only have Jesus riding on the colt and make no mention of two animals, so why would Matthew tell the story this way? It is most likely because he saw Jesus as the literal fulfillment of the words from Zechariah. 

He is so serious about rooting these events in the authoritative Hebrew scriptures, that he chooses to ignore the poetic force of the passage and instead interprets it literally. 

Mentioning the smaller donkey after the first is a way of strongly emphasizing the humility and peacefulness of the one riding the animal: "Your king is so humble and peaceful, that he rides on a donkey...not just a donkey, but a baby donkey."

Jesus rode into Jerusalem being touted by his followers as the triumphant deliverer of Israel, and Matthew more than any of the other gospels presents the strongest contrast between Jesus and the rulers of the day. 

Jesus rides into Jerusalem on two animals, struggling to keep his balance, on his way to inaugurate a revolution of peace. In this revolution people lay down their lives instead of taking them, and what could be a more brilliant picture of their peaceful founder than that.

Taking Back the World

We live in such incredible tension. The world around us is filled with incalculable beauty and yet unimaginable tragedy:

Pinochet's crimes against the Chilean people remind me of what Crossan says, "The primary goal of the Church is to take the world back from the thugs":

The affirmation that Jesus is Lord, is an affirmation of a world view that is wholly different than what we typically experience. May we find the strength to truly love others as we love ourselves and so change the tragic tide of history as we partner with God as he restores this broken world. 

Peel Me

I peeled apples tonight. Some of them were bruised and mushy in spots, but I was able to strip away the bad parts and still use them.

It takes me forever to do this task (one usually assigned by my wife), so I had lots of time to cogitate.

The process got me thinking about a line in Psalms where the author says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any hurtful way (Hb. derek, path) in me, and lead me in the lasting way (Hb. derek)" -Ps 139.23-24

What a painful process that is! I usually know the harmful "paths" I walk before I even ask. It's the act of peeling away the bad that hurts. 

But I am better without it. I am better without the sarcastic comments that cut others down; better without the selfish actions that rob others of joy; better without the thoughts that drag me to places I don't want to be. Peeling makes me better. 

The World Outside Ourselves

The heavens are telling the glory of God (Ps 19.1)....but what if we can't see them?

Spending time in nature grounds me. Witnessing the grandeur of the cosmos gives me perspective. Recognizing the beauty of creation gives me hope. 

A nurse I know who takes care of people as they near the end of their lives, always asks her patients whether or not they gardened. An odd question, but after years of collecting peoples answers, she has noticed a definitive difference between both the physical presentation, and the emotional attitude of people in relation to their answer. 

Those who did garden, complained less, were generally healthier, and seemed to have a perspective that the world did not revolve around them. Those who didn't garden were often grumpy, sickly, and appeared years older than they actually were. 

We were created to spend time in creation (Gen 1.28), gaining perspective and tapping into the life giving harmony that comes from acknowledging that we are not the center of the universe.

Spelling Sin

Hebrew Letter Aleph

Hayt, is the most common word for "sin" in the Bible. When transliterated into English the word ends with a "T", but in Hebrew it ends with a silent Aleph, the first character in the Hebrew alphabet. 

Things like a silent letter in such a powerful word did not go unnoticed by the Rabbis, whose specialty was squeezing profound meaning out of the smallest details.

Rabbi Baal Shem Tov, who is considered the father of Hasidic Judaism, was once asked by a student why the letter is even in the word. 

The Rabbi responded, "We all know that Aleph is the first letter of the alphabet and represents the first cause, root, and essence of all existence - God." 

He goes on: "The letter Aleph is silent in the word for sin in order to teach us that when a person commits hayt it is a sign that God's presence is not being 'pronounced' in his life. The sinner has temporarily forgotten the Aleph of the world."

It is a struggle to place God at the center of my life. But the more I acknowledge the Aleph the more I feel I am living as I was made to live.

Quote from R. D. Zaslow's Roots & Branches: A Sourcebook for Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity Replacement Theology, and Anti-Semitism.

Making Each Other Better

Does she make you a better person? Is he helping you become most who you are supposed to be? Are they building you?

I find the answers to these questions provide tremendous insight into our relationships. 

They remind me of a line in the NT book of Hebrews, "And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds." The idea of the verse is to engage in relationships whose byproduct is love.

The Greek word for provoke, is paroxysmon, which is where we get the English word paroxysm, "a sudden outburst of activity." In Greek it means "to spur on, provoke, or incite."

It is actually very interesting the word paroxysmon is used here, as it is essentially the only example in the Bible where the word is used in a sense of provoking something good. All the other examples would be more akin to a sibling provoking his brother or sister to the point of rage (cf. Deut 1.34; Acts 15.39, 17.16).

I wonder how many of our relationships need a "sudden burst of activity?" Or a not so subtle kick in the butt? 

If our relationships aren't making us better people; if they aren't producing love and the things that make the world a better place, it might be time to bust out the spurs!

Jesus, Why Are You Different?

Jesus gets arrested. That much is clear. But how it happened is less clear. Mark's version portrays a Jesus who has very little control.

He uses violent verbs to describe the arrest and tells us Jesus is basically manhandled and then deserted by his best friends.

John presents things a little differently. He notes that not only do the religious big wigs come to arrest Jesus, but they bring with them a speira, or band of some 600 soldiers. 

Jesus, "knowing all that was going to happen, asked them, 'Whom do you seek?' and they said 'Jesus of Nazareth.' And he said to them, 'Ego eimi,' 'I am'" - which is the same titled used in Greek for Yahweh.

Upon hearing this, the crowd "drew back and fell to the ground." Another round of this takes place, sans the falling, and then Jesus instructs the crowd to let his disciples go and he is "arrested and tied up."

Comparing these two events may lead us to ask how the arrest actually took place. But that's the wrong question. The fact that the event took place is probably a better concern. After that we might ask: Why did the authors present their versions the way they did?

When we ask that, we find that Mark more than likely wrote to a persecuted community and presents Jesus as one who suffers, is rejected and left all alone. He, through the Spirit of God, presented Jesus in a way that most fit the needs of his community. He presented a Jesus they could relate to.

John on the other hand, views the events of Jesus' life through the lens of the resurrected Christ. This is why Jesus knows the future in John, and seems so incredibly in control. That's because after the resurrection the community realized who Jesus actually was. He was Yahweh in human form.

The unique angle of these stories tells us something about the heart of God: he is incredibly concerned about meeting us right where we are. That's why there are four gospels, each meeting our needs in different ways, at different times. 

I Won't Do That Again

God has a serious problem. Shortly after creating human beings, they start offing each other. Brother killing brother at that.

Things really go downhill from there and in the end the earth is filled with so much evil and corruption that God decides to wipe the whole slate clean with a massive flood. 

He does preserve humanity by picking one guy and his family to carry on the human race. After the flood, God repeats his instruction to "Be fruitful and multiply," but he adds a stipulation not to kill each other. Seems like a fair request.

Then God makes a covenant with humanity, committing to never again use a flood to destroy the earth and its inhabitants. A covenant in the ancient world was a formal agreement between a superior and an inferior party, with the superior establishing the pact with the inferior. 

A ceremony was typically involved and in this instance God ceremoniously lays down his weapon, the bow (Hab 3.9-11), facing away from humanity, as a sign of his commitment not to flood the earth again.

Next time you look to the sky and see a rainbow, let it remind you of a God who is deeply invested in the world and who is desperately concerned about evil. Think about how he was genuinely puzzled by the condition of the world (Gen 6.6ff) and so he set a plan in motion to make it better.

Two Ways to Say the Same Thing

One way: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3.23

Another way:

Lyrics here.

"We were meant to live for so much more. Have we lost ourselves?" The line from Romans, and the lyrics of the song communicate much the same thing. 

Paul, the author of Romans, uses the Greek word doxa for the English word glory. In Classical Greek, doxa means "opinion" or "way of thinking." But Paul doesn't use it that way. He uses doxa as a way of communicating the Hebrew word kavod, which means "weight or splendor."

Both Paul and the song are saying: we were created to experience the substance, the full weight of the life God meant for us to live. And we missed it. All of us have missed it.

The difference is that Paul flat out tells us this, while the song asks us if it is true. Have we lost ourselves? Are we living life the way we were meant to?

Paul's statement comes right in the middle of a story. It fits there. But it shouldn't be taken from that story and left to stand on it's own.

Questions though, might be able to stand on their own. I love being asked questions because I feel empowered. I feel that the person asking the question actually cares what I think. It's so much better to allow people to come to conclusions on their own.