Archive for September, 2009

“The heavens declare”

September 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm · Filed under God the Father, Old testament ·Tagged , , ,

 

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.           ( Psalm 19 :1 )

Perhaps these words remind you of the famous chorus from Haydn’s Creation. They are from Psalm 19, a great song of praise to God for his creation and for his law. I want us to think about this psalm today.

Now, the psalms are perhaps the greatest example of Hebrew poetry. Even when they are translated into other languages, such as English, we can still hear the poetry in them. How is it possible then to preach a sermon on a psalm?  I’ve always found it difficult and have not often attempted to do so.

This is because the last thing we want to do is to dissect the psalm, to analyze it minutely, to cut the soul out of it. To turn the most beautiful poetry into dry-as-dust precepts and theology. And whatever I say about the psalm will never compare with the sublimity of the original, or even with the English or Welsh translations. The best we can hope to do is to use our imagination a a little,  to see the background of the psalm. What did it mean to the person who wrote it, and what can it mean to us today?

 
A Psalm of David

First  we note that it was written by David. He had been a shepherd boy and had spent a great deal of time out-of-doors. He had looked up to the sky and seen magnificent cloud fortresses illuminated by shafts of light from the Sun. As he settled his sheep in the fold he gazed up at the night sky. He wondered at the stars and moon as he lay down to sleep under the sky.

In the morning he arose and  the Sun’s beams warmed his chilled bones  – bringing new life to him. He meditated on the power and warmth of the Sun. David then led his flock out to the pasture and sat down on a great rock from which he could watch them. Then he took up his harp and sang  a hymn to God. He felt the rock beneath him, solid and dependable, and he realised that God was like that rock. He was reliable – David could trust in him.

He sang, “The Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.  His words and his laws are perfect – they bring joy and life to my soul.” To his mind God’s laws were like the rays of he Sun penetrating everywhere and bringing life. Lighting the path ahead and showing the way. Warming the soul and comforting.

David meditated on his inner life. He realised that he had made mistakes,  and more than that, he had committed sins. God’s Law shone right into his very heart. David prayed that sin would not rule over him.

Once again he took up his harp and he sang a new song to God. He gathered all his thoughts together in the words of this psalm and sang it to the Lord. He ended with these words:
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer”.

Well, we’ve been using a bit of imagination. I don’t know whether these really were the circumstances in which this psalm was written, but they might have been.

Here is another version of this psalm put into simple English for those who do not speak it as their first language. It can also help us to get a fresh view of the psalm:

 

An EasyEnglish Translation on Psalm 19

           (This is) a song of David for the music leader.

     The heavens are telling us about the glory of God.
     The sky is showing the things that his hands have made.

     One day pours out the story to another day.
     One night tells the next night what it knows.

     (But) they do not use words and have no languages.
     Nobody hears their voice.

     (Yet) what they say goes into all the earth.
     Their words go to the ends of the world.
     God has made a home for the sun (in the sky).

     The sun comes out from his home like a bridegroom.
     He is very happy to run fast, like a very strong man.

     His sunrise is at one end of the heavens.
     He travels in a big circle to the other end.
     Nothing can hide from the heat of the sun.

     The book of the LORD is wonderful.
     It makes people feel alive again.
     We can trust what the LORD tells us.
     He points out the way when we are not sure of it.

     What the LORD tells us to do is always right.
     It makes us feel happy deep down inside us.
     What the LORD commands us is pure.
     It makes our eyes shine with new light.

     The fear of the LORD is a clean fear.
     It will always remain with us.
     Every word that the LORD says is true.
     Every one of them is righteous.

    They are of more value than gold,
     even a lot of pure gold.
     They are sweeter than honey,
     even the best honey that bees make.

     Also, they are a guide to your servant.
     Good things come if he obeys them.

     Who can know when he has made mistakes?
     Forgive me all my secret sins.

     Also, stop your servant from wanting to sin.
     Do not let sin rule over me.
     Then nobody will say that I did wrong.
     I will be clean (because you help me).
     I will not do anything very bad.

     Lord, I want everything that I say to make you happy.
     I want all my thoughts to please you.
     You are my Rock and you are my Redeemer.

 (  For information on this translation see  www.easyenglish.info  )

 

The God of nature and the Lord of Israel

This Psalm divides into two sections. In the first part  ( v1-6) David speaks of the glory of God as shown in the skies. He uses the name  El  for God. This is the general Hebrew word for a god – any god. It could be used of a pagan god. Or it could be used for God himself. ( Just as we use the words “God” and “god” in English.)

But from verse 7 onward the psalm changes gear. David talks about the Law and he refers to God as the Lord. This is the Hebrew name Yahweh ( or Jehovah) – it is the personal name God revealed to Moses from the burning bush. It is God’s covenant name – the name he uses when he is in a relationship with people. Yahweh, Jehovah, The Lord (as we usually translate it in English).

“The heavens declare the glory of God, but God’s Law reveals even more – his personal voice to his chosen people. He introduces himself to them by his first name, as it were.”
(From the Student Bible. Philip Yancy and Tim Stafford.  ISBN 0-340-41078-7 )

 

The glory of God

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
It was true in those days and its even truer today. The more we mere mortals look into the universe the more we are astounded at the immensity and beauty of it all. When we turn our telescopes at the sky we see distant galaxies shining with incandescent gas. We see rings round Saturn and moons orbiting Mars and Jupiter. We see amazing craters on the moon. We marvel at it all and we say, “Truly God is great, who created all this!”

You don’t need to know about the God of the Bible to be able to say that. You might never have seen a  Bible or heard of Jesus but you can still see the evidence for God the Creator. Only fools says there is no God.  ( Psalm 14 )

And the Apostle says: 
“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  ( Roman 1:20 )

The heavens declare the glory of God

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
here is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
(Psalm 19:2-4)

Although there are no audible words their voice is heard in every nation. The Sun, David says, shows God’s glory and its warmth penetrates everywhere. Without the Sun there would be no life on earth.

We talk about solar power as if it were something new. But we’ve all been living off solar power since time began!  If we burn wood in our grate then that  is just solar power stored by a tree. We may burn coal or oil to fire our power stations and use petrol in our cars but these fossil fuels are just solar power which has been stored away for vast periods of time.
We depend on the Sun for physical life and we depend on God’s truth for spiritual life. This is where the psalm changes gear.

 

The Law of the Lord

Yahweh’s Law is what revives the soul. It brings wisdom, joy, illumination. it warns of wrong paths and it shows the right path to take. For David it was the Law of Moses – the first five books of the Bible. That’s all he had. Yet he found that Law was able to bring light and joy to  his soul. We have so much more – the prophets, the psalms, proverbs, historic books – and that’s just the Old Testament. Then on top of that we have the gospels about Jesus and the writings of his Apostles.

The Bible shows us the way to live and it points us to Jesus, our Redeemer

David, as he reflected on God’s Law, became aware of his inward sins. He realised that it’s not just the outward things that matter.

Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
(Psalm 19: 12,13 )

He knew that God was his Rock and Redeemer.

 
Conclusion

What about us?  Do we know God as our Rock, our Redeemer? Do we know Jesus as the Saviour who brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light? He made it possible for our inward sins and faults to be forgiven.
 
If we can say the pagans had no excuse for rejecting the true God, what excuse do we have if we reject God, when we have the full revelation of himself in his Son Jesus. He is our Rock and Redeemer.

(Reflections on David the shepherd boy in this sermon were suggested by EasyEnglish commentary on Psalm 19 .   See    www.easyenglish.info    )

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“If my people”

September 18, 2009 at 7:21 pm · Filed under Christian living, Old testament, Prayer ·Tagged , , ,

2 Chronicles 7:11-22

Do you get depressed about the news – I know I do sometimes. Often it is nothing but a litany of murders, rapes, child abuse, violent robberies, financial scams, cynical exploitation of the poor and weak, marital unfaithfulness, sexual promiscuity, teenage pregnancies, homosexuality, drug abuse, binge drinking. All these things seem to be on the increase – not to mention the economic downturn and the problems of unemployment and debt. All these ills are but symptoms of the malaise of our society and it seems to get worse year by year. Of course, their has always been crime and humans have always been sinful. But there were in place in the past stern codes of morality and standards of behaviour based on the Ten Commandments which helped to hold back the worst effects of sin.

And then the state of the church is not promising. I ask myself, “Will there be a Presbyterian Church of Wales in ten or fifteen years time. I do remember asking this question 20 years ago! Well we are still here – but only just. There has been a steady decline in the membership of our denomination over the last 20 years or so. The fact the the decline is slow must not blind us to the truth that it is happening. Just as the decline of the Roman Empire took place over several centuries, so it is with our church and with our society.

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”   ( Matthew  5:13)

If God’s people in the church lose their “saltiness”, what then will be the state of society?

 

Complacency

We might think that just because Wales has a Christian heritage we will never lose our chapels and churches. After all, we are known as the Land of Revivals. God would surely never allow his church to disappear from Wales.  But on what basis do we say this? History  shows us that the churches in Asia Minor ( which were the first Christian churches  outside Palestine and had been established by the Apostle Paul) vanished when Islam took over that area. They had become corrupt and they were not able to stand up to the onslaught of militant Islam. Today in Turkey there are very few native Christians.

The same is true for the churches  of North Africa which were centres of theological scholarship in the time of Saint Augustine. Now they are no more – also destroyed by Islam.  this should be a warning to us in Wales.  Christianity can die out in a country and it will be replaced by something else. In Wales it might be materialistic Atheism that takes over, or New Age spirituality perhaps.

The ancient Israelites had the same kind of  misconception about he Temple and the city of Jerusalem. They thought that because it had been established by God it could never be destroyed. God would surely never allow his Temple to be removed – no matter how badly his people behaved. The prophets spoke out against this complacent attitude, this false hope, but the people took no notice. So it was a severe shock to the nation when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed the Temple and took the people off into exile!

 

God’s promise

Our reading take us a lot further back than those times -  right to the reign of Solomon, to the time when the Temple itself was built.  When the Temple was dedicated Solomon offered a long prayer to God (you can read it in 1 Chronicles chapter six)  in which he prayed that God would bless the nation and make his dwelling  in that place.

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
(2 Chronicles 7:1 )

And God answered. He spoke to Solomon in a vision at night. And God made a promise to Solomon concerning the nation of Israel.  It’s a promise we can also take hold of,  for under the New Covenant all who believe in the Messiah are part of the Israel of God.
 
This was the promise:

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”        (2 Chronicles 7:14 )

I believe this promise from God shows us the way out of our current plight. It shows how God can revive and renew his people. It shows how he can heal our nation and bring us back to himself.

Why do we not see revival in Wales, the Land of Revivals?  Well here, in these verses, we see three conditions for revival. Or rather, three hinderances we must get rid of. The three hinderances are:

  • Pride
  • Prayerlessness
  • Perversity

Let’s look at them:

 
1) Pride

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves.”
(2 Chronicles 7:14 )
 
These people need to become humble. But who are we talking about? Who are God’s people. In the Old Testament they were the people of Israel.  They were called by his name – they were Israel and he was the God of Israel. Their behaviour would reflect for good or bad upon the God of Israel

We also are called by his name. Jesus is the Christ and we are Christians – followers of Jesus  Christ.  And our lives will reflect on Christ himself. People will see the way we live and decide on that basis whether or not they want to have anything to do with Christ.

Yes, we are called by his name and this verse says we must  humble ourselves.

Why is lack of humility – pride – singled out here as the main sin? Pride was the original sin of mankind – and of Satan himself. It was pride that led to the building of the Tower of Babel.  It is pride that separates people from God and from one another. It is pride that lead to wars and strife.

(We are not talking here about the justifiable sense of pride that one might have in one’s country, one’s school or one’s work, but rather the pride of arrogance. The pride that thinks it is better than everyone else. The pride that sets itself against God himself.)

And perhaps spiritual pride is the worst – as with the Pharisees in the time of Jesus who thought they were alright. They prided themselves on their good works – when in fact they were spiritually poor. They were in a worse spiritual state than the very people they despised – the tax gatherers and sinners.

We must turn from that kind of pride and humble ourselves before God.

 
2) Prayerlessness

“and pray and seek my face.”  ( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

The most important thing of all is our relationship with God. It’s not just a matter of saying prayers, reciting set forms of words. It’s about being open to God and dependant on God, or rather,  realising our dependence on him.

No revival ever came to the Church without a lot of prayer beforehand. People had been praying for decades prior to the 1904 revival that there would be a spiritual awakening in Wales. Evan Roberts, the leader of that revival, himself had spent about ten years in fervent,  persistent  prayer before the revival came.  It wasn’t a matter of his personality and gifts -  it was the working of the Spirit of God.

So God’s people must humble themselves, and pray, and develop their relationship with him, before there can be any revival of the church. And without revival there will be no Christian Church in Wales in 50 years time.

 
3) Perversity

 
 (I’ve chosen this word purely to allow an alliterative scheme! What I am really thinking about is sin.)

“If my people … will seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven  …”   ( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

God’s people must turn from their wicked ways. Not just the people of the world, but those who are called by his name. This means that we are to live lives which glorify God.

Once again we think of the words of Jesus:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”  ( Matthew  5:13 )

If we are not “salty” then we will not be able to restrain corruption in our society. Ask yourself this question: “Is my life any different from that of any respectable member of society who is not a Christian?”  It ought to be  different. There should be some elements in our life which are only there because we are followers of Jesus. We are called to be more loving, more kind, more generous, more moral, and more honest than the people of the world.

In a sense we are responsible for the state of our nation. Had we shone brighter as  lights, had our salt not lost its savour, our society might not have got into the state it is in now.   In the Old Testament we read of Daniel praying for the nation (Daniel Chapter 9 ). He identifies with the nation completely and confesses the sins committed by the nation  -  sins of idolatry and contempt of God’s laws. Daniel has not committed these sins himself but he confesses them to God on behalf of the nation. Perhaps we need to pray  for our nation in this way.

There are also many sins which can be found among church-going people which are a hindrance to revival coming to the church.  Among them are sexual immorality, dishonesty, and a bitter unforgiving spirit towards others.

 Revivals are always preceded by people putting things right with God and with those around them. Confessing their faults, making reparation when they can, seeking to be reconciled with their neigbour.

 
Conclusion

This verse sets out the conditions for revival, but it also gives promises when these conditions are fulfilled. The promises are of reconciliation and restoration.

 

1) Reconciliation to God

“Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin …”
 (2 Chronicles 7:14 )

Once we have repented, confessed our sins to God and put our trust in Jesus who died for us, then we know peace with God. Our conscience is clear and our communion with him is restored.

 
2) Restoration of our land

“Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
 ( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

God promises to heal our land,  that is, to help to put right our social ills. There is no doubt that past revivals have brought healing to our land. They have always been followed by a wave of social reforms and an increase  in righteousness.

“Righteousness exalts a nation,
but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
( Proverbs 14:34 )

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
( 2 Chronicles 7:14 )

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“No pain, no gain.”

September 11, 2009 at 9:59 pm · Filed under Christian living, Jesus Christ, Sacrifice of Jesus ·Tagged ,

 See full size image

 

 

 

 

 

Mark 8:27-38

A Family Service at the Brecon Presbyterian Church

Talk  (A)
(Illustrated with felt board figures and scene.)

Jesus left Galilee and went to the area known as Caesarea Philippi. It was in Gentile territory – a pagan place. The town had been built in honour of Caesar by Philip, the ruler of that area. It was a place were they worshipped Caesar as a god. It was also been a place where, in the past, people had worshipped the god Ba’al.  As well as this, the Greek god Pan was worshipped here -  he was said to have been born in the area.

As they were going along the road to this place Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

“Some say you are John the Baptist brought, back to life. Others say Elijah the prophet has returned. Others say you are one of the other prophets who has come back,” they replied.

“Yes, but who do you say I am?” Jesus asked.

Peter said, “You are the Messiah, God’s Anointed One.”
Jesus then told them them to keep this knowledge to themselves for the time being.

 

The Messiah

But who was this Messiah Peter spoke of? The Jews were waiting for him to come. He was the one who was going to solve the nation’s problems. They had been under the rule of foreign powers for centuries but they believed the Messiah was going to come. He would restore the kingdom and bring new life to the nation. This was the hope of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus.

They had all sorts of ideas about what he would be like. But most of them thought of a mighty conqueror who would drive the Romans from the Holy Land and then reign as king in Jerusalem. Then they would defeat all the Gentile nations and rule over them.

No doubt Peter thought in these terms when he said, “You are the Messiah.”

But Jesus’ idea of the Messiah was very different. It was more like the “suffering servant” we read about in Isaiah.

 

Suffering and Sacrifice

Jesus started taking about the Messiah in these terms: “The Son of Man will suffer many things. He will be rejected by the religious leaders and he will be killed. But after three days he will rise again.” All this was very different from Peter’s ideas of the Messiah and Jesus emphasized it a great deal until it was too much for Peter.

“No, Lord, don’t talk like that! These sorts of things wouldn’t happen to the Messiah. You’re not going to be rejected and die.” (Peter  didn’t seem to have cottoned on to the bit about rising from the dead.)

Jesus must have felt then he was being tempted to turn away from the path God had set before him  – the way of the cross. It was just like on that previous occasion when he had been tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Then Satan had proposed ways of avoiding the suffering and sacrifice.

Yes,  it would have been easy for Jesus to do that. People were willing to follow him as a military leader. By using force and supernatural power he could have overthrown the Romans. But his way is not the way of force and military might.

“Get behind me Satan,” he said, “these are not God’s thoughts, but men’s.”

 

Talk (B)

 
Song written by Larry Norman in the 70’s

Some say he was an outlaw that he roamed across the land
With a band of Unschooled ruffians and a few old fisherman.
No one knew just where he came from, or exactly what he’d done.
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run.

Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery,
He could walk upon the water, he could make the blind man see.
He conjured wine at weddings and did tricks with fish and bread
And he talked of being born again and raised people from the dead

Some say he was a poet that he would stand upon the hill
And his voice could calm an angry crowd, or make the waves stand still.
He spoke in many parables that few could understand
But the people sat for hours just to listen to this man.

Some say a politician, who spoke of being free
He was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee.
He spoke out against corruption and he bowed to no decree
They feared his strength and power, so they nailed him to a tree.
Some say he was the Son of God, A man above all.
That he came to be a servant and to set us free from sin And that’s who I believe he was,
because that’s who I believe.

 

Talk (C) 

[Show various crosses - gold necklace, wooden, palm cross, etc.]

Take up your cross

Every day we see crosses all around us. People wear them as jewellery, they hang them on the wall, and they use them as key chains. When you pass by a church, it is not unusual to see a cross on the steeple. We even see many people who wear the cross as a tattoo. What comes to your mind when you see a cross? What does the cross mean to you? Is it just a piece of jewellery or a work of art?

For Jesus the cross was not a piece of jewellery or a work of art. It was the instrument on which he was going to be executed. When he said to his disciples that they would have to take up their cross and follow him they didn’t think he was talking about wearing jewellery or carrying an ornamental wooden cross. He meant that, as his followers, they would have to be prepared to die for their faith, if necessary.

 

Deny yourself

Jesus also talked about denying oneself in order to share  in eternal life. What does this mean? In the Middle Ages people thought it meant becoming a monk, treating yourself harshly, fasting for long periods, whipping your body and wearing hair shirts! But Jesus didn’t mean this. By denying yourself he meant forgetting yourself – letting go of selfishness and thinking about other people. Most of all, thinking about God and what he wants for your life. It’s about submitting to God’s will and living for others.
You know the saying: “If you want JOY in life then put Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last.”  J.O.Y.

If we are going to enter into God’s Kingdom then there are certain things we might have to let go of. Of course, we must renounce sin and turn away from all that we know to be wrong. We have to repent and ask forgiveness for our sins in the name of Jesus. But even after that there may be some things we have to let go of. They are not things that are wrong in themselves; it’s just that they might get in the way of eternal life.

Jesus said: What good is it if someone gains the whole world but loses his soul?    ( v 36)

 if we don’t let go of these things we might miss out on the most important thing of all – a relationship with God and the sure and certain promise of being with him for ever.

This is how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage in The Message:

“ … But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works! Calling the crowd to join the disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat;I am. Don’t run from suffering, embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self Help is no help at all. Self Sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an ever greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”

 

Choices

It’s true that in life we make all kinds of choices.

  • Will I look for wealth and power: or will I look for ways to help people?
  • Will I care for the people around me: or will I just selfishly seek my own pleasure?
  • Will I concentrate on money, fame or fashion: or will I work hard to develop my talents to use for the benefit of others?

 
At a most basic level it could be a simple as:  ”will I go to church this morning, or will I do something else?” For the grown-ups that “something else” might be playing golf, or washing the car.  For young people it might be going our with your friends. The point is that there will always be clashes in life. We often have to make a choice between one thing and another.  We have to decide our priorities. So, how much priority do we give to following Jesus?

 

Following

Jesus never said it was going to be easy to follow him. In fact he used the most stark image to describe it. “You’ve got to take up your cross”, he said. And he wasn’t thinking of a gold cross, or one ornamented with jewels. He was thinking about the cross carried by the condemned man -  the cross he was going to be crucified on. Some people have literally done that – they have died for their faith in Jesus.

Clarence Jordan was a well known preacher, scholar and farmer in the USA in the mid 20th. century. (He was one of the founders of  Habitat for Humanity.)  Once Jordan was invited to preach at a magnificent church. The pastor showed him everything and pointed to a beautiful cross on the steeple: “That cross alone cost us $10,000.’

Jordan said, “Time was when a Christian could get one of those for free.”

(“A Cloud of Witnesses” by C. Douglas Weaver, Macon GA: Smyth & Helwys, 1993)

It’s unlikely that we will be asked to die for our faith, but we must be prepared to live for it. To give it the top priority in life.

Clarence Jordan also founded a Christian community of both black and white people in South Georgia in the 1940s. This was revolutionary thing to do and the congregation were severely persecuted.  Jordan asked the help of his brother who was a lawyer. “Having political aspirations, the brother refused. Clarence suggested that his brother should go back to the rural church where they had both walked the aisle to accept Christ and explain something. ‘Tell them,’ said Clarence, ‘what you really meant to say was that you ADMIRE Jesus, not that you want to FOLLOW him.’”

(“A Cloud of Witnesses” by C. Douglas Weaver, Macon GA: Smyth & Helwys, 1993)

Do we just admire Jesus, or do we want to follow him?

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“Ephphatha”

September 7, 2009 at 10:29 am · Filed under Christian living, Jesus Christ, New Testament

Mark 7:24-37

Introduction

Today I am going to so something I rarely do – preach from a text, a single verse. Actually it’s really just one word from Mark 7: 34

“Ephphatha”, which means “be opened”.

This is the actual Aramaic word used by Jesus when he healed a deaf man and commanded his lips and mouth to be opened. But I want to apply it to this whole passage in Mark 7: 24 to the end of the chapter. Here we see Jesus going out into Gentile territory and breaking new ground, opening up new groups of people to the Kingdom of God. So it’s all about being open – in contrast to the closed minds of the Pharisees and Scribes. In the previous section they were criticising the disciples of Jesus for not going through the correct procedure before eating their food.

These men thought of religion as something just for the elite. Only for Jews, and only really for those Jews who were wealthy enough to be able to afford to go through elaborate time-consuming rituals. It was partly to get away from such people that Jesus went off to the territory of Tyre and Sidon. He also probably needed to get some rest and relaxation. So he left the country, he went abroad, out of Jewish territory.

Although Tyre and Sidon had originally been included in the land allotted to the tribes of Israel, the fact is that the tribe of Asher had never fully settled their territory. So Tyre and Sidon remained in the hands of the pagan Canaanites. At the time of Jesus it was a very mixed area, both ethnically and religiously. There were a few Jews around, but most people were pagans.

These were the cities of the Phoenicians who were great sailors. They were the first men to steer by the stars. They traded right across the Mediterranean, and even as far as Britain where they came to buy Cornish tin. They built cities in North Africa – most notably, Carthage. The Phoenicians who lived in Tyre and Sidon were known as Syro-phoenicians (that is Syrian Phoenicians) as opposed to the ones from North Africa who were known as the Carthaginians. They were all descendents of the ancient Canaanites and worshipped the god Baal.

(We read quite a lot about them in the Old Testament, in the story of Elijah. Jezebel was a Sidonian princess and worshipper of pagan gods.)

In Phoenicia there were also other tribes and races – Romans, Greeks and Syrians, among others. Two main languages were spoken by the common people – Aramaic (a language related to Hebrew which had been the official language of the old Persian empire) and Greek (which had been the language of the empire of Alexander the Great). Latin was the official language of the Roman authorities. The same situation existed in Palestine and it is very likely that Jesus and his disciples were bilingual in Aramaic and Greek.

 

 

Moving out

Mark tells us that Jesus and his disciples went to the vicinity of Tyre and stayed in a lodging place there. Jesus wanted to be on his own – but soon people heard who he was and started flocking to him. A woman came to him and begged that he would save her daughter from the power of an unclean spirit. We don’t know anything else about the girl. What was her name? How old was she? What form did the demon possession take? How had she come under this evil power? How long had she been in this state? We don’t know these things but we do know that her mother was desperate. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

She was desperate enough to come to this Jewish healer, even though she was just a gentile. “Gentile dogs” is what they were called by most Jews. And to the Jewish way of thinking dogs were unclean animals.

Now we come to the part of the story that causes most problems to modern commentators. It’s just so politically incorrect! Jesus refers to this woman and her daughter as dogs!

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

It seems so harsh. It makes it appear that Jesus was as narrow minded and judgmental as the Pharisees. But we notice one thing, which is not apparent in the English versions of the Bible.

When he speaks to her, Jesus doesn’t use the normal Greek word for dog, KUON, which just means a cur, any old dog roaming the streets. Instead he uses the diminutive form, KUNARION, a little dog, a pet dog. It’s almost a term of affection.

It is surely significant that Jesus used this word for dog. (By the way, if you are wondering why Jesus should have been speaking Greek, it was because this woman was a Greek-speaker. Although she was Syro-phoenician she didn’t speak Aramaic. Just as you can be of Welsh birth and nationality and yet not be able to speak Welsh. Jesus apparently was bilingual, so he spoke to her in Greek.)

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

The little pet dogs that lie under the table waiting for the children to drop scraps of food for them. Of course, no orthodox Jew would have such an arrangement in his household. The dogs, if there were any, would have been kept outside. But Jesus is talking to a Gentile woman, and Gentiles didn’t necessarily regard all dogs as unclean.

Jesus is saying, in effect, that he had come to bring God’s help to the Jews first. His mission was to show to the Jews that he was their Messiah. Only after that had happened would the Gentiles be included. Jesus is not excluding the Gentiles, he is just stressing that he is, first and foremost, the Messiah of the Jews.

Also he seems to be testing this woman to see if she really wants to allow God to work in her life. Or is she just looking for a miracle cure for her daughter? There are several other occasions in the gospels when Jesus seemed to go out of his way to put people off following him. He often needed to test their intentions.

But this woman rises to the test:

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

 It wasn’t just because of her clever repartee, it was because she showed faith in the God of Israel. She acknowledged that Jesus had come to the Jews first but she also wanted some crumbs to fall for the Gentiles. It’s an amazing combination of humility, boldness and faith.

And because of that faith Jesus performed an amazing miracle. He drove out the demon at a distance, without even meeting the girl. No words of power, no ceremony of exorcism, not even a command to the demon to go. He simply said, “The demon has left your daughter” – and it was so! She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

 

 

Moving back

Jesus stayed in the region of Tyre and Sidon for some time. (One commentator suggests about six months.) Then he returned home to Galilee. On the way home he went into the region of the Decapolis which was on the Gentile shore of Lake Galilee.

The people of this area were also pagan – a mixed population of Syrians and Greeks. But the area was close to Jesus’ home in Caphernaum and the people spoke Aramaic, just as he did.

In one of the villages they brought to him a man who was deaf and who had a speech impediment. Once again, we don’t know anything about this man. We don’t know his name or his age, or how long he had been deaf. Was it from birth? Was he indeed totally deaf or just profoundly deaf? Was his speech impediment a consequence of his being deaf? We don’t know.

This man lived at a time when there was no provision at all for deaf people. No one had yet devised a sign language for the deaf. There was no support, and no cure for his condition. This man was in a desperate plight. The people begged Jesus to lay hands on him, in the hope that it might effect a cure.

So there was this crowds of excited people all around the man – jostling and gesticulating. They grabbed hold of the man and propelled him toward Jesus. The deaf man must have been completely bemused. He didn’t know what was going on, or why they were pushing him toward this stranger! Immediately Jesus grasped the situation. He saw that the man was bewildered. So he led him away from the crowd, to a quiet place.

Now Jesus could have just laid hands on this man and cured him. But he wanted the man first to know what was happening – so that he would have faith in Jesus. So Jesus spoke to the man with signs and gestures:

  •  He placed his fingers in the mans ears, as if to say, “Your hearing will be made whole.”
  •  He touched the man’s tongue with saliva, as if to say, “Your speech will be made perfect.” (In ancient times saliva was believed to have healing properties.)
  • · He looked up to heaven and sighed deeply, as if to say, “God sympathises with your plight. He is going to heal you.”
  • · And then Jesus said the word “Ephphatha”, which means, “Be opened”.

 

Why does Mark record the actual Aramaic word Jesus used? I don’t know, but I can’t think of a better word to use. Just think of these three syllables:

Eph – Pha – Tha.

Each syllable requires moving the lips and the teeth. It must be just about the easiest word in the world to lip-read! So the man saw the word with his eyes. He knew he was being healed, and the next moment he could hear and speak.

At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

 

 Conclusion

“Ephphatha: be opened.”

This word seems to me to be the key to the whole passage. It’s all about openness.

  • Jesus went to Phoenicia and spent time among the Gentiles. He saw them as human beings, with human needs. Despite his words to the women he did not see them as dogs. He was open to them. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  He delivered the little girl from an unclean spirit. Her life was suddenly opened up to all that was good and pure. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  His conversation with the Syro-phoenician woman indicated that the saving power of God was going to be made available to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. Not yet, but after the Resurrection, and after the Day of Pentecost, the Good News was going to go out to every nation. The doors of salvation were going to be opened up to all. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  In the Decapolis, once again Jesus ministered to a Gentile person. He opened up a new life for this man even as his ears and mouth were opened. “Ephphatha: be opened.”

 

And what about us? do we need to open up too?

  •  Surely we need to be open to the fact that God can work in ways we can not imagine, outside our institutional religious structures. That’s just what Jesus was doing in that Gentile territory.
  •  We also need to open up to God himself. We can’t hide anything from him anyway. But he yearns for us to open our hearts to him – to receive the blessings of his Spirit.
  •  Then at last our ears will be open and we will listen to his word. Our mouths will be open and we will proclaim the glory of his name. We will tell others about this Jesus who “has done all things well”.

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