Jesus at the Hard Rock Cafe

Photo by Paweł Sikora Sikorr

Larry Hurtado who is a favorite Bible scholar of mine and whom my wife, son, and I got to hear lecture recently, is probably the world's leading expert on how exactly Jesus' followers wrapped their minds around what for them psychologically was an utter impossibility: that this guy they knew was actually God. We can go into that sometime.

Another topic he is studying is just how unique in the world the early Christian movement was. He recently wrote a book called Destroyer of the gods:  Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, where he points out that a lot of what we take for granted about the whole idea of religion came from Jesus' movement, from Christians.  (*Unfortunately Professor Hurtado passed away in 2019).

A little while back he blogged on one example he came across...

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Passing by the Hard Rock Café in Edinburgh today, I noticed again their slogan: “Love all, serve all,” and noted that it reflects the (likely unconscious) influence of the NT upon western culture.  For the motto self-evidently owes to the sentiments first expressed in NT passages such as Matthew 5:43-48, with its distinctive injunction to “love your enemies” as well as your “neighbour”, and Matthew 20:26 (and Mark 10:43-44), with the striking demand that “whoever would be great among you must be servant of all.”

I suspect, however, that neither the founders (nor the Seminole Indians of Florida who now own the restaurant chain) are aware of this.  It just shows how the values and themes of the NT have now become part of the conceptual “ground water” of western culture.

My recent book, Destroyer of the gods:  Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World (Baylor University Press, 2016) makes the points that early Christianity (in the first three centuries) had distinctive features, and that these once-distinctive features have now become cultural commonplaces for us.  I don’t refer to the Hard Rock Café or its slogan, but there’s lots of other (and, hopefully, more interesting) stuff that I hope will address our “cultural amnesia.

Advent - A Tale of Two Messiahs

How messiahs are supposed to be

As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
     seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah—
from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, 
    one whose origins are in the distant past. 
So the Lord will hand the people of Israel over to their enemies until the time when 
     the woman in labor gives birth. 
Then the rest of the king’s countrymen will return 
     to be reunited with the people of Israel. 
He will assume his post and shepherd the people by the Lord’s strength, 
     by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. 
They will live securely, for at that time he will be honored 
     even in the distant regions of the earth.


Micah, 5.2 - 4

Christmas marks the point at which God invaded his wayward world. It won't be long now before the invasion takes place, when the True King makes his move and lands on the beaches of our world, armed to the teeth. The Messiah is coming, but when he does he will confound all but a handful of followers. For his battles and weaponry will not be what we expect at all.

When Mary and Joseph made their trek to Bethlehem there was no single, universally accepted idea of what the Messiah would be like. Some people, mostly the monied interests, didn't believe there would be a Messiah at all. Of those that did believe, there were some that thought he would be a supernatural being like an angel, while others said he would just be a mighty warrior, like King David.  This is probably why Herod called for the experts in such things: To cut through the morass of ideas and get some dependable advice. The experts famously replied with today's scripture.

Despite all the squabbling, there were certain things any real Messiah was expected to do. He must ride into Jerusalem, sword drawn, armor gleaming in the sun David-like, and fight the final, bloody, climactic battle against the forces of evil, understood by one and all to be Rome. Once he utterly defeated the pagans, Messiah would restore the glory of Israel and rule over it in peace and security. The gentiles would be forced to admit that Israel was God's chosen people and they would stream to Jerusalem, hoping to enjoy some of Israel's blessings.

This is wildly different from what Mary's child actually did when he grew up, so much so that no one got it at first. Sure he rode into Jerusalem -- though brandishing no razor-sharp sword. But he didn't defeat the Romans; they defeated him. He didn't usher in peace and security: Israel was still in captivity.  Most of the nation rejected him outright. Even his closest followers were completely at a loss how this man who seemed in so many ways to fulfill the Messiah's role utterly failed (they thought) in his mission. Remember those plaintive words in the Gospel of Luke? "But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel!"

Action Figure

The ultimate victory

The Jewish people so dearly yearned for that powerful, action-figure Messiah that they would or could abide no other.  And today many good Christian people pine -- sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously -- for his Second Advent when it is eagerly expected that something much more exciting and bloody will occur. Something more like what the first century Jews hoped would happen, perhaps.

Because the second coming is when evil will really be defeated, the Messiah will finally rule, and then the world will be forced to admit that we were God's chosen people. Right?  

But no. Jesus' Second Coming, for all it's importance is, in the words of the scholar Leon Morris, a mere "mopping up operation." The cosmic, messianic victory that "destroyed the devil's work" was won in the 1st century with the invasion of a baby and the execution of a criminal and we celebrate the start of that victory now.

Make no mistake: Jesus Christ will return on the clouds of Heaven, establish his eternal Kingdom, right all wrongs, and judge the living and the dead.  But also make no mistake that the prophesied King has already come, "whose origins are in the distant past," the child of "the woman in labor who gives birth," as our scripture says.

He did reunite his countrymen in the Israel of God, he did take his post and has shepherded his people for the past 2000 years. He is honored in the distant regions of the Earth, is he not? Peace and security? He gave those to us as well (see the Gospel of John 14.27 and 10.28 - 29).

Most important of all, Jesus did ride triumphantly into Jerusalem where he fought the climactic last battle with the true Enemy, and from that battle he did emerge victorious. Counterintuitive as it is, the true Messiah was the one who invaded quietly as the baby of Bethlehem, won his greatest victory nailed to a cross, and inaugurated his Kingdom by emerging from a tomb.

*          *          *

Our Lord and our God, thank you for invading our world by stealth as a small infant so that you could rise up from among your people and take down the forces of evil. Until you return, help us to be faithful in carrying out our own mopping up operations. In Jesus Christ's name we pray this. Amen

Seeing the Kingdom

The Kingdom of God, which is the main subject of the Gospel (see here and here for more), is not a far future thing. If you are reigned over by the Messiah Jesus from his throne in Heaven, then you are a citizen of that Kingdom now. Yes, there is a time still future when every knee will bow whether they accept his reign or not, but his reign as High King of the Universe exists in the present.

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Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. 

Jesus: The kingdom of God comes—but not with signs that you can observe. People are not going to say, “Look! Here it is!” They’re not going to say, “Look! It’s over there!” You want to see the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is already here among you.  (Luke 17.20-21, Voice)

He says, “Do not ask about the times in which the season of the kingdom of heaven will again arise and come. Rather, be eager that you may be found worthy of it. It is within you. That is, it depends on your own wills and is in your own power, whether or not you receive it. Everyone that has attained to justification by means of faith in Christ and decorated by every virtue is counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven."

Cyril of Alexandria (AD 375-444)
Commentary on Luke, Homily 117.

If the devil has been driven out and sin no longer reigns, then the kingdom of God is established in us... St. Paul described the nature of this kingdom in this way: “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” If the kingdom of God is within us and is righteousness, peace and joy, then someone that remains in these is surely within the kingdom of God. Someone that remains in unrighteousness, conflict and the melancholy that kills the life of the spirit is already a citizen of the devil’s kingdom, of hell and of death. These are the signs whether it is God’s kingdom or the devil’s.

John Cassian  (AD 360-435)
Conference 1.13.

Ascension

Thoughts for a Sunday Morning

Jesus of Nazareth returned bodily to Heaven last Thursday, 40 days after his resurrection. Today is "Ascension Sunday" when many of his followers remember that fact.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the all-glorious Father, may confer on you the spiritual gifts of wisdom and vision, with the knowledge of him that they bring. I pray that your inward eyes may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope to which he calls you, how rich and glorious is the share he offers you among his people in their inheritance, and how vast are the resources of his power open to us who have faith.

His mighty strength was seen at work when he raised Christ from the dead, and enthroned him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all government and authority, all power and dominion, and any title of sovereignty that commands allegiance, not only in this age but also in the age to come. He put all things in subjection beneath his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him who is filling the universe in all its parts.

Letter to the Ephesians chapter 1 verses 17 - 23, Revised English Bible

Curiosity

(This is rewrite of a post I wrote over two years ago. Since we've been talking about the "Gospel of the Kingdom of God" recently this seemed to me like a good time to dust it off).

At one point in my life I belonged to a church that was very focused on Christ's 2nd coming (almost to the exclusion of the first) and entranced with the idea of interpreting Bible prophecy. Back in the day we'd sit around for hours arguing who the Beast would be and how long we had left. My views have changed considerably but a lot of my friends are still oriented that way and we sometimes discuss eschatological events, online or elsewhere.

Recently, in a Facebook group, this question was posted: "What is the fulfillment of the prophesy below, especially verse 25?" referring to The Book of Daniel, chapter 7, verses 19 - 27 ERV).

“Then I wanted to know what the fourth animal was and what it meant. The fourth animal was different from all the other animals. It was very terrible and had iron teeth and bronze claws. It was the animal that crushed and ate its victims and walked on whatever was left. I wanted to know about the ten horns that were on the fourth animal’s head and about the little horn that grew there. That little horn pulled out three of the other ten horns. That little horn had eyes and a mouth that kept on bragging, and it looked bigger than the other horns. As I was watching, this little horn began attacking and making war against God’s holy people and killing them. The little horn kept killing God’s holy people until the Ancient King came and judged him. The Ancient King announced his decision about the little horn. This judgment helped God’s holy people, and they received the kingdom.

“And he explained this to me:

‘The fourth animal is a fourth kingdom that will come on the earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms. That fourth kingdom will destroy people all around the world. It will walk on and crush nations all around the world. The ten horns are ten kings that will come from this fourth kingdom. After those ten kings are gone, another king will come. He will be different from the kings who ruled before him. He will defeat three of the other kings. This special king will say things against God Most High, and he will hurt and kill God’s special people. That king will try to change the times and laws that have already been set. God’s holy people will be under that king’s power for three and one-half years. “‘But the court will decide what should happen, and that king’s power will be taken away. His kingdom will end completely. Then God’s holy people will rule over the kingdom and all the people from all the kingdoms of earth. This kingdom will last forever, and people from all the other kingdoms will respect and serve them.’"

Pretty fascinating stuff, eh? Here is my admittedly impertinent response:

"It will be fulfilled at an indeterminate date when an unknowable world power shakes its fist in God's face, tries to create its own culture ('changing times and laws'), and persecutes the saints -- as has happened repeatedly down through history. At a point known only to God and none of our business (but still the subject of endless speculation) the Father will draw his preordained line in the sand, the church age will close, and Christ will "come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead."  

"Beyond that I think it would be presumptuous to speak. :)

In other words, I've been forced to admit that Jesus really meant what he said -- virtually the last thing he said -- before he returned to Heaven:

The apostles were all together. They asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time for you to give the people of Israel their kingdom again?” Jesus said to them, “The Father is the only one who has the authority to decide dates and times. They are not for you to know.

(Book of Acts chapter 1 verses 6 - 7 ERV)

When and how the second Advent happens is none of our business. Nothing I'm aware of in the last 2000 years has altered that stubborn fact, Harold Camping, John Hagee, William Miller, the Mayans and a host of others notwithstanding.

I'm getting a bit ahead of my current series on the gospel, but the Messiah's Kingdom has already been set up and is he is ruling. That's what it means when "all authority in heaven and on earth is given to" someone and they "sit down at the right side of God." The universe has a king who has established his Kingdom, and we are his foot soldiers seeking to spread his rule to the world using the same weapons Jesus used: love, self-sacrifice, and the power resident in the Great Announcement (i.e., the gospel). Some day he will come back to end this exodus, to finish this journey, to "come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." That we have been assured of.

But the date that will happen he keeps to himself.

How The End Comes

At one point in my life I belonged to a church that was very focused on Christ's 2nd coming (almost to the exclusion of the first) and entranced with the idea of interpreting Bible prophecy. Back in the day we'd sit around for hours arguing who the Beast would be and how long we had left. My views have changed considerably but a lot of my friends are still oriented that way and we sometimes discuss eschatological events, online or elsewhere.

Today, in a Facebook group, this question posted: "What is the fulfillment of the prophesy below, especially verse 25?" referring to The Book of Daniel, chapter 7, verses 19 - 27  (In keeping with the CEB Blog Tour, I'm quoting from the Common English Bible)...