Category: Bible (Page 270 of 361)

It’s hard to know what to say at a funeral.

At least I’ve never been very good at it. I suppose it depends on the life of the deceased. When a person lived a long life, knew the Lord, and died with family and friends intact, the service sits different than a gathering for one who’s life was cut short by tragedy. That’s when the words come harder.

Jesus stepped into a heart-wrenching situation when he arrived in Bethany to visit the sisters of his now dead friend, Lazarus. Jesus’s interaction with Martha sounds fairly typical:

Jesus: Your brother will rise again. Martha: I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Then typical disappeared. Jesus looked into Martha’s eyes and stated, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?

Eternity flared inside Martha. The resurrection arrived in the person of Jesus. Martha ran for her sister, and Jesus joined them in weeping for their loss.

Jesus, of course, did more than weep. Going to the tomb and ordering the stone covering the entrance removed, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out!

Lazarus exited the tomb, not like a zombie, but healthy and renewed. (I’ve heard it said that Jesus needed to be specific when calling Lazarus from the dead, because if he’d commanded a general come out!, all the dead people entombed there would have risen. Certainly an interesting conjecture).

What to say at a funeral? Still hard for me, but much easier when knowing the person we’re honoring now stands face to face with the resurrection and the life.

John 11 in week forty-five of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Rosie Sun

A couple thousand years ago, my ancestors painted their bodies blue, wrapped their faces with animal skins, and worshipped trees in the ancient forests of Northern Europe.

Not much different from where I live today in Boulder, Colorado.

Jesus once told a group of Jewish leaders, I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me. At the time, Jesus spent his days gathering the lost sheep of Israel, knowing that beyond their borders a lost and hungry world waited.

So when I hear Jesus go on to say, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd, I believe he had my Celtic ancestors in mind.

Eventually, thanks to people like the Apostle Paul and Saint Patrick and many unnamed others, the gospel spread from Israel to Europe and beyond.

Of course, I’m one of those other sheep as well. Thankfully, the work of Jesus spans the globe and extends throughout time. All of us not present at the time of Jesus’s teaching reap the benefits.

The good shepherd gathers his sheep from all around the world with this promise: I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.

And so today, like my pagan forefathers, many will hear his voice, choose to leave the way of the thief, and follow the Good Shepherd.

John 10 in week forty-four of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Andrew Shelley

Among his many prophecies, Ezekiel shared a funeral lament concerning the king of Tyre. Interestingly, over the years many commentators understood this passage to refer to Satan. See if you see why in these words from the Lord:

You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God…You were anointed as a guardian cherub…You were on the holy mount of God; You walked among the fiery stones.

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Your heart became proud…you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor, so I threw you to the earth.

Sounds like Old Scratch, does it not?

But the passage also shares tons of detail that only apply to the king of Tyre, ruler of a fabulous wealthy nation, who turned his pride into a consuming passion. So we don’t really know for sure.

Either way, Ezekiel underscored the Lord’s hatred of pride. The oldest sin, rebellion in the heavens, coalesced around pride. The king of Tyre featured here is only one of a long line of arrogant and domineering monarchs found in scripture.

Pride—the Lord hates it. This point arises again and again in scripture, perhaps one of the strongest themes that emerges. I struggle with pride, and you struggle with pride. Pride leads us to dark places, and overweening pride evidences the darkness of our hearts.

Fortunately, the flip side exists: God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Praying in the direction of humility, I’m more in line with the grace of God than the resistance of God. Which seems a better place to be.

Ezekiel 28 in week forty-four of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Norbert Buduczki

After a bout of hard teaching, when Jesus affirmed to those closest to him that he was indeed sent from God, and was the only way to God, and they must eat his flesh and drink his blood—offensive language especially to Jews—a number of his followers left.

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

I don’t often think of this period in the ministry of Jesus. Crowds surrounded Jesus constantly, listening to him and considering his words. Some folks found Jesus compelling, others not so much. But here formed a pivotal moment. Jesus shared stark truth, and many of his closest followers walked away. The call to commitment, the radical nature of Jesus, turned their stomachs.

Today people use the term deconstruction to describe their path away from Jesus. I hear the word used as people talk about leaving the faith over issues of the church, and over church people’s attitudes towards politics or race or gender or sexuality—any number of issues. Deconstruction serves as a hip word for leaving, what older generations called apostasy.

People turned from Jesus in Galilee, and people turn from Jesus today. I’ve watched people turn from Jesus all my years of ministry. To stay and wrestle with the hard truths of Jesus, to endure the strictures of his teaching, to hash through confusing Bible passages takes commitment and resolve.

I notice that those who de-construct rarely re-construct. I don’t know why, I cannot speak for them. But I have the feeling that they’ve wanted to leave for awhile, and using the cover of deconstruction makes it seem like someone else’s fault. And perhaps it was. I understand the challenges of faith and the urge to walk away. I hope and pray they return to Jesus.

But I resonate with the words of Peter when Jesus asked him, You do not want to leave too, do you? Peter replied, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.

As for me, I can’t walk away—there’s nowhere else to go.

John 6 in week forty-four of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Nick Jio