A Graveyard Visit

I stopped at the graveyard on the way home from picking her up from school. We were looking for a grave marker. Something that would tell us who was buried there. We wanted to find one that included the name Joseph. We took separate paths and looked for about ten minutes before finding it. A clear marker letting all know that Joseph was buried here. It is certain that those who knew Joseph well also knew where this marker was. They knew where the tomb was because they knew who Joseph was.

Sometimes when we are reading scripture we overlook simple details that are rather mundane. Below is one example of such a mundane detail:

Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

(Mark 15:43-47)

There are a few things that we can note about this simple burial story. First to note is that Joseph was a member of the Council. This means that he was a member of the group that helped to send Jesus to His death. It is not likely that Joseph would have been a Christian invention. The resurrection claims could have been refuted quite simply with claims from the Jewish leaders that there was no such person. We do not have any records of such claims from the Jewish leaders.

In fact, we can go further to say that there are actually no competing burial stories at all. The silence of the Jews on this matter speaks loudly to the truth of the Gospel narrative. If Jesus were not buried in the tomb of Joseph then we would know. There would be some record claiming that He had been buried elsewhere but there are none. This may seem like a rather mundane detail but why is it important?

The earliest records we have are claims from the Jewish leaders that the disciples stole the body. Why would they make this claim? There was something that they were trying to explain. Something that they refused to believe but has given people hope for 2000 years. Think back to my trip to the graveyard. If the friends and relatives of that Joseph knew where he was buried, then how many more people would know where the tomb of a member of the Council would be? How many of them do you think went and checked the claims of the women and the disciples? How many of them were at a loss to explain how the body of a dead man could go missing? So they make up a story to try to keep the masses quiet.

Their story gives us a certain fact about the resurrection account. The lack of a competing burial story testifies to its truth. The standing of Joseph in the community completes our knowledge of one thing with certainty on that Sunday morning 2000 years ago.

The tomb was empty. Praise God, He is risen!

The Problem with Rob Bell

The Problem with Rob Bell

Don’t get me wrong. I actually like Rob Bell and I have no intention of bashing him in this blog. He is a truly gifted storyteller that comes across as being genuinely passionate for the lost. I do not think that he has written his latest book simply to make money or to lead people astray. In fact, I would go further to say that Rob Bell has at least done modern Christianity a favor by bringing a discussion to the table that most people are afraid to speak about.

I have participated in discussions with atheists and agnostics for a good number of years now. It is often easy to dismiss the questions and objections of both of these groups without giving it some serious thought. Serious thought leads to serious questions and apparently Rob Bell has at least been listening to this group. The first chapter in his new book is really not much more than a summation of arguments of an atheist acquaintance of mine.

These are serious questions. They are questions that should be addressed. I applaud Rob for bringing them to light. However, the wording of a question can often lead one to an emotional response. Rob has phrased these questions in such a manner as to create an emotional response in the reader. As a pastor and a voice in Christianity that many listen to, Rob should make his case from scripture for whatever point he would like to argue in favor of without manipulating the reader by emotional pleas. However, this is a minor complaint. He is not the only one to use such methods for persuasive purposes.

My real problem is actually the underlying message in the book. Believe it or not I am not talking about the universalism that is throughout the book. No, there is something else at heart here that needs to be addressed and universalism is merely a symptom.

Perhaps Rob has seen too much of Fred Phelps in the news and it has caused him to question the God of the Fred Phelps of the world. Perhaps this is what led him to write Love Wins. Surely God does not hate everyone that Fred Phelps hates, right? A God like that is not just. A God like that is not love. A God like that is not merciful. You see what really irritates people about Fred Phelps is that he judges everyone and it is not his place to say who gets to heaven and who does not.

Nor is it Rob Bell’s place to judge everyone and that is really the underlying problem for both Rob Bell and Fred Phelps (and ironically everyone who rushes to condemn either of them). You don’t see the similarity? Fred sees judgment and condemns. Rob sees love and pardons. Each is sitting in a place that is not theirs. It is God’s to forgive and to condemn and not ours and sometimes in the heat of the debate we forget this. Perhaps the largest component of faith in God is trust. Both Fred and Rob have assumed the role of judge and in doing so have abandoned trust in God.

There are questions about hell that should be addressed. It should not be a topic that is avoided like the plague. Rob actually asks some of the questions in his chapter on hell. However, he has also assumed his conclusions and then chosen scripture to support this conclusion. Once again, this shows (at least in my eyes) an underlying lack of trust in God.

I trust that whatever happens to me when I die that it will be a perfect display of God’s love and justice. I think that most people who have faith in God could agree with that statement. The great temptation for all of us is to assume that the same will not be true for everyone else. We see the tremendous acts of love in a friend and we have a hard time seeing how God could condemn anything that they do. We see an awful display of sin in someone and have a hard time seeing how God could possibly love such a person. This is because we are not God.

I imagine that this book will sell a lot of copies. If you are interested in reading it, I would recommend going to Barnes and Noble for a couple hours. It really is light material for the most part and an easy read. I hope that it fosters discussion rather than acrimony but I doubt that it will.

A Challenge

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
(Luke 10:33)

It was a brutally hot Atlanta day when we knocked on the door of the apartment building in the projects. It was only ten o’clock but I was already covered in sweat when the young mother answered the door. Unlike many of the other doors we had knocked on, this woman seemed happy to see us and gladly accepted our meager food supplies that we offered her. Much like at many of the other homes we asked if there was anything that we could do for her. She asked for me to pray for her that day and I had compassion on her.

We entered her tiny apartment and were immediately struck by the odor of rotting meat. The heat outside paled in comparison to the stifling, stale apartment. I saw her small children in their dirty clothes and unwashed faces. I saw the dirt and trash that littered her floor. I also saw in her face expectancy- a hope that did not belong there and a tear in her eye. I began to pray for her and I had compassion on her.

We completed our rounds through the other buildings and spent some time playing with the neighborhood kids prior to heading home that day. My favorite part was always playing with the children. They are easy to love and they return the love without question. One of the kids had part of a pop tart stuck in his shirt and grape juice stains on his face. As he extended his arms for me to pick him up I could not help but have compassion for him.

Today I am still troubled by that day. What has become of us that we can keep this clean and send a check to someone overseas and call it compassion? Should we sleep comfortable at night because we know there is a 6 year old in Uganda that has it better than her peers because we sacrificed a few pennies? Is this really what Jesus meant when he talked about loving our neighbor?

If we look at the text that leads up to the Parable of the Good Samaritan we see that the question being asked of Jesus is pretty straight forward:

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."
(Luke 10:25-28)

This seems to me to be a fairly important question and answer session with very simple answers. Love God and your neighbor and you shall live. The only real question I have is how do I know if I love God and how do I know if I love my neighbor? Fortunately we have the answers in scripture so we do not need to guess. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our love of theology that we can miss some very simple concepts. Jesus tells us that if we love him then we will do what he commands. This is a stumbling block for many- for our pride does not want to submit to the authority of God in our lives. However if we first examine what Jesus has commanded us to do, perhaps our pride will not get in the way.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
(John 15:10-14)

Now if you have read up to this point you may have come to the conclusion that all you really need to do is love your neighbor in a sacrificial way to fulfill the commandment of Christ. Could it really be that simple? Paul seems to think so:

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
(Galatians 5:14)

So now we have come to the point in the story where we all find ourselves at some point. We are like the lawyer before Jesus looking for some way out of loving our neighbor. Even when the law is simplified to this degree we look for a way out. We wish to redefine it so it need not be messy and dirty. We wish to remove the compassion from the equation and replace it with legal requirements met on paper. Jesus did not really leave us that as an option though did he? The definition of love has not really changed as much as some people would like to have you think. So, back to our Samaritan…

As he journeyed
The Samaritan did not even need to go out of his way to love his neighbor. The opportunity will present itself as we journey. There will be occasions where we come to where people are in need and we will have a choice. We can meet them in judgment as did the Levite and the priest or we can meet them in compassion as the one who was praised by Jesus did. Seems like a pretty simple choice to me but yet I still choose to be like the priest and the Levite more often than not. I hope that you will join me in praying that I can be more like the Samaritan this year.

He had compassion
There was recently an opportunity at my church to meet a need of someone who had been left for dead by the side of the road. A request was made by the pastor and the people had compassion and responded like the Samaritan. There was a physical need that we could meet or we could choose to judge. This day we chose to meet the need and it was met with enough left over to meet the need of another couple who had also been left for dead. To have compassion for someone means to suffer with them. We all have opportunities every day where we can choose to suffer with someone or we can choose to let them suffer alone. I hope that you will join me in praying that I can be more compassionate this year.

The one who showed him mercy
There is a tendency today to redefine love in such a way so that it removes mercy from the equation. It tends to sterilize the word and make it mean something that it does not. There has been much backlash against any type of social gospel where the goal is to meet the physical needs of the people. This runs contrary to what Jesus taught. In this passage there is no conversation to convict the poor beaten man of his sins. There is no gospel tract left to make sure that the man knows he is deserving of the punishment he received. Instead there is a man that meets the physical needs of someone that is in need and as a result he is lifted up as an example of how we should act. I hope that you will join me in praying that I can show mercy to others.

You go, and do likewise
So there it is in red letters for you. The words of our master commanding our obedience. Do you love him? Scripture is pretty clear that if we do love him then we will do as he commands us. His commands are not burdensome although they may lead us to sweat or to get dirty. As I was swinging my pop tart young friend around in circles I was not thinking about how hot it was or how hard it was. I was not concerned with how dirty he was or what a fool I might look like. Instead, I was sharing the love of God with him. The challenge before me is to go and do likewise more frequently.

"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
(Micah 6:6-8)