1.     Why is this passage listed among difficult passages?

The difficulty in this verse has always been the exclusiveness of it.   While this is culturally troubling in our era when tolerance for various religions is popular, we also need to ask what Jesus who also said, “we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22) could have meant for people who followed God in the Old Testament, for example.  

2.     How do we deal with the difficulties in this passage?

            Remember that the NT context was even more polytheistic than ours.

We need to remember that this was spoken into a much more polytheistic world than ours.  Greeks and Romans had pantheons of gods and goddesses.  Yet NT preachers like Peter and Paul uncompromisingly preached the uniqueness of Christ.   According to Acts 2:31-33,36 the uniqueness of Christ is established by the resurrection, exaltation and then by Pentecost itself.  According to more of Peter’s early preaching, Jesus was the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy concerning a prophet to come (3:22,23).   One purpose was to “give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel” (5:31).   In a Gentile’s house, Peter declared that Jesus had been appointed by God as “judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42). 

            The Larger issues

It is important to examine the contextual question that Jesus is answering.  Thomas has just asked where Jesus is going and implied that he would like to know the way to that place but does not know (v. 5).  Jesus had been speaking of the heavenly place he was going to prepare a place where his followers would join him and his Father (vv. 1-3).   If Jesus had merely answered that he was the way, perhaps we could have considered narrowly confining the discussion to Christ’s followers, trying to ignore universal applications of this saying.   But Jesus also included two other words in his answer both of which have very universal implications in the gospel of John.    Jesus added that he was also the ‘truth,’ a term found 21 times in John beginning with John 1:14,17; and ‘life’ which is found 39 times in John beginning with John 1:4 but especially crucial in John 5:21-29. 

These two words and related passages bring up larger issues.  This is not just about Christianity as a religious system; it concerns the wider truth about who God has appointed. 

Da 7:13-14

“Before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away.”  NIV

Jn 5:25-27  “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”  NIV

These two passages reveal to us that Jesus has been appointed by the Father to unique heavenly roles and authority that transcend earth and time.   In the light of these, Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 is simply a graciously revealed mundane corollary of these critical extraterrestrial truths.  The idea of Christ having been appointed is behind Paul’s thinking in Acts 17:30,31.  Jesus referred to his appointment himself in John 17:2 as he prayed, “You granted him authority over all people.”

Crucial to this overall passage is Jesus’ admonition “believe also in me” (Jn.  14:1 ESV).  

            What about people who lived before Jesus?

There are several interesting passages in the Bible that help us with regard to how Jesus might possibly be “the way” for people who lived before him.  

Heb 11:40

God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. KJV

The culmination of the argument of Heb. 7-9 is in Heb 9:15.  “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” NIV

From these verses, we can conclude that in some way, Jesus’ sacrifice made earlier sacrifices truly effective in a way they could not have been without his work.  Thus he was “the way” for Jews who followed faithfully before him even though they only looked forward to him (Heb. 11:40). 

More mysterious but also helpful is 1 Peter 3:18-20.   “He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.” NIV

We don’t claim to fully understand this one.   In fact, it usually raises as many questions as it answers.   But at the least, it gives us a hint that Jesus may be “the way” for some who lived before him in ways that we do not understand.

This passages do not do away with all our questions, but they give us indications that God as thought of these issues ahead of us and dealt with them too.  And someday, we will know the whole story. 

In addition, there is a relevant principle that can be developed from Scripture that judgment is proportional to light.  But that is beyond the scope of this study.

If one is interested in the more academic theological issues of pluralism and inclusivism, I found online, a paper written by a student, Matt Blackmon, for a course at Dallas Theological Seminary that I thought was very helpful in summarizing some of the theological issues.    http://mattblackmon.org/pyne/truth.pdf

3.     What are the key truths or inspirational messages of this passage?

 

It is very important not to let our concerns about how to apply these words to those who have not heard Jesus’ words interfere with their main intention which is to assure and instruct those who have heard him.   In these verses Jesus’ main intention is to reveal incredibly good news to every one of his disciples.

1. Jesus is preparing a place for us to go when we die that is with him and our heavenly Father.   His leaving the earth for a time involves a time of preparation for his later return for them.
2. Jesus is going to return to take us to be with him (14:3).   Whether he is referring to his coming to gather the elect (Matt. 24:31) or his escorting of individuals when they die, he does not exactly specify.   The point is he is going to personally be involved in making our reunion with him happen.
3. We can trust him and our heavenly Father about this otherwise very fearful issue.  Hebrews says,  “He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb 2:14,15 NIV).

I was aware of a strange mix of emotions as I read the news story (http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100309/christians-expelled-forced-to-abandon-33-foster-kids-in-morocco/index.html ) about the Christian couple forced from their Moroccan orphanage at Ain Leuh in the middle of the night for interrogation and then forcibly expelled from Morocco while their 33 orphans grieved.   Outrage, sadness, and cynicism about Islam all churned in my heart. 

My wife and I lived in Morocco for three years while I was stationed at the naval communications center that used to be there.   We had visited that orphanage ourselves back in the early 1970’s and met the founders, two single women who had dedicated their lives to caring for abandoned children.   I remember the pleasant spot on the hillside up in the Middle Atlas region where the rambling house sat.  As I recall, it was surrounded by fruit trees and gardens, for the ladies taught the children how to preserve foods while they canned much of what the family ate.  They had come before WWII and had been there ever since.   I do not know if Village of Hope uses the same compound, but the article mentions the founders that I met.

Now, after the orphanage has been helping children for about seventy years, some fanatic government official comes along and turns the foster parents out, suddenly orphaning the children for a second time in their young lives.  How thoughtless and heartless can one be?   There is certainly not even a hint of a golden rule in that man’s mind—fundamentalist ideology perhaps—but no true alms-giving or charity.

For the children, I pray words from the OT where the God of Abraham warns those who persecute the fatherless.  He says that their defender is strong and He will fight for them (Pr. 23:10,11)!   For the foster parents, I pray from Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

1.     Why is this passage listed among difficult passages?

One difficulty in this passage is why Jesus appears to uncharacteristically let the Pharisees off the hook, or does he?

  A second difficulty is in how to apply the quote from the OT to the situation.  What we quickly learn, however, is that digging into the OT context will quickly answer both questions and resolve both surface difficulties rather easily.

2.     How do we deal with the difficulties in this passage?

First we must be careful to understand Jesus correctly.  If we do, we discover he is not letting the Pharisees off at all. 

 “When Jesus said, ‘I came not to call the righteous but sinners,’ we must understand what he was saying.  He was not saying that there were some people who were so good that they had no need of anything which he could give; still less was he saying that he was not interested in people who were good… Jesus was saying, ‘I did not come to invite people who are so self-satisfied that they are convinced they do not need anyone’s help; I came to invite people who are very conscious of their sin and desperately aware of their need for a Saviour.’   He was saying, ‘It is only those who know how much they need me who can accept my invitation.’”  William Barclay  (in loc.)

 Barclay also points out that the Greek word for call is the word used for formally inviting people to dinner.   The Pharisees were those who had been called to this dinner. Hm…

Adam Clarke points out that the introductory words of v. 13 were a “form of speech in frequent use among the rabbis.”   Jesus is quoting from Hosea 6:6 and encouraging the Pharisees to look it up and learn.  What do we find when we do that? 

 Hosea 4:1 is God’s charge against Israel, especially her religious leaders.  There was no faithfulness (Hebrew– ‘emet), no love (Hebrew — checed), no knowledge of God – acknowledgement of God, following of what they knew – in the land.    

 Chapter 5:2 is a call for God’s discipline of Israel until they seek him (5:15).   Then chapter 6 begins with verses very germane to Jesus’ metaphor of himself as the physician. 

 Hos 6:1

“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.”  NIV  The verse Jesus quotes reiterates the last two points of God’s charges in chapter 4.    Mercy is the same Hebrew word (checed).   I like the ESV translation of the word “steadfast love.”    TEV translates helpfully too, “I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.” Hos 6:6

3.     What are the key truths or inspirational messages of this passage?

 

The Pharisee’s religion was self-serving, focused on externals, and pride engendering.  Sometimes our religious practice becomes similar.  If so, it falls to the same challenge that Jesus gave to the Pharisees here, especially when we consider the fuller text of the Hosea text to which Jesus was alluding.   This passage is a constant reminder that God is looking at the heart more than any external liturgies.  If external rituals are a genuine expression of love for God –great.  But if we are going through the motions as the Pharisees were while letting the inside be unchallenged by Jesus’ principles, then we are condemned along with them. 

 What insight might this passage give us concerning missionary work in another culture?  Concerning evangelism in our own culture?

 One person in our study mentioned that the Pharisees concept of holiness was a separatist concept requiring them to move away from sinful people.   Jesus, however, did not have that concept.  He was willing to associate with sinners in order to be their spiritual physician.   The Pharisees, the “holy” people of their day, criticized Jesus for his stance.  Sometimes the same kind of criticism is heard today.    But Jesus sent us to be salt and light among those who need him.

I was out of town Saturday and didn’t have my Bible programs installed in my laptop yet.  (It involves calling the West coast company and getting precise instructions as to the exact order in which to install multiple disks. So I have delayed.)   But anyway, it made me take time to do something I never do at home, find a place to read my favorite version online.   I found a website called Biblica, the website of the former NY Bible Society.  There I could easily read my favorite version, NIV, online.  Several other versions are available as well.  I could also look up passages in several versions in parallel columns.  For example, I brought up John 1 in NIV and KJV and John 1:14 in TNIV and Amplified.    There is also a concordance that will search for multiple keywords at once.   I searched for “love + righteousness” and it found the passages where both words occurred in the same verse.  There are also a couple of online devotionals on the site.  It’s a good place to go for basic Bible reading and devotional input on the road with your computer.   I’m adding the link to my list of recommended sites.

Not often in my life has it happened that I have stepped in a church and the sheer beauty and grandeur of the architecture, the art and the overall interior design left me rapt in wonder.   At such times there is an immediate sense of awe.  No one has to quiet you for the sacredness of the space is so immediately apparent that a sense of inner hush stops the noise of aimless verbosity.   

Such an experience happened to me Friday when JoAnne and I visited St Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford Connecticut.    The soaring Gothic span, the breath-taking splash of translucent red, blue and sun-yellow  panes,  the repeated larger-than-life reminders of precious Biblical truths and events all combined together to bring an inner swell of reverence.    It was simply awesome.

Yet at the same time, there was a noon mass coming up a few minutes after we left and only a very small hand-full of parishioners were assembling to worship, presumably in one of the side chapels.  It seemed to be a living commentary on the change in values that has happened in the last fifty years.  The church we were visiting was built in the early 1960’s to replace one destroyed by fire in the mid-fifties.   The “greatest generation” and their parents must have sacrificed greatly to construct this house of worship.  Yet today’s generations were not here today.   Churches across the Northeast are experiencing the same unfortunate contrast, and Roman Catholic dioceses are closing churches in response.   I am saddened as I think about this disparity.

Yet God has not changed.  “His greatness no one can fathom.”    “He is great and greatly to be praised.”  He is still awesome in his sanctuary and desires for us to make his house a house of prayer for all people.   Who are those today who will accept his invitation worship and prayer?    Who will offer sacrifices of praise by confessions of faith, hymns of praise and personal testimonies?   Who will intercede for the sick, for growing children, pastors, and for the work of the kingdom?   I am afraid sometimes we are more like the generation of the OT who lived well in their own “paneled” –read finely decorated– homes and took care of their own pleasure and business well while the house of God fell into neglect. 

May God help us to rise up and fill every house of worship; to indeed remember our Creator while we have strength to offer back to him as our most reasonable and logical worship.  Happy are the people—the generation—whose God is the Lord!

HR

Helpful, encouraging and paradigm-shifting!   Those are words that come to mind to describe this book (Evangel Publishing House, Nappanee, Indiana, 2007) about “balancing professional responsibilities and personal needs” in Christian work.   Everyone in ministry knows what it is to go through times when life seems out of control or things are way out of balance.  Dr. Headley writes this book to help us through such times.   He points out how important it is to recognize that our experience and practice of our work is framed, outlined, shaped, and guided by the metaphors and mental pictures that we have internalized concerning our profession and our role in it.  His discussion brought back to mind key moments in my own ministry.   I recalled one stretch in particular in my early years when I was working too much, living too close to work, and neglecting my family.   I remember having to consciously think of my wife as my number one parishioner.   It wasn’t a perfect metaphor shift but it served at the time as a helpful reframe of the kind that Dr. Headley talks about.   Dr. Headley mentions many much better shifts in thinking that can help us at critical growth times in our ministry to make the adjustment to another size church, another family situation, or another stage in our personal lives. 

Dr. Headley includes a powerful chapter on the disciplines of ministry and another that develops principles for the practice of ministry.   In these, he reminds us, for example, that retreat is not wasted time as our self-talk is prone to pronounce.  Rather it is following the example of Jesus in pursuing a recreating rhythm of engaging and disengaging that keeps us spiritually strong and our ministries more powerful as well.  Again, how you think about it is crucial.

Anthony Headley is a licensed psychologist and professor at Asbury Theological Seminary.   I heard him speak at a ministers’ retreat recently and found him an engaging and very caring person.  I highly recommend this book for pastors.  It would also be an excellent resource for pastors’ growth small groups such as the Wesleyan LDJ groups.

1.     Why is this passage listed among difficult passages?

 

The first and chief difficulty is the sheer immensity of the idea of mountain-moving faith.  Did Jesus really mean that could happen? 

 A second smaller issue is how to relate the various contexts in which similar sayings occur. 

This type of saying about mountain-moving faith appears in four different places in the synoptic gospels.  In Mark 11:22-25, it is in the context of the story of the fig tree and teaching about forgiveness follows.  We find it in Matthew 21:21,22 also in the context of the quick demise of the fig tree.   We also find a very similar saying in Matthew 17:17-20 in the context of the  disciples’ inability to heal the boy brought to Jesus immediately after the transfiguration.   A fourth mention is in Luke.  Set in the context of a teaching section on the challenge of forgiveness, Luke 17:5,6 NIV reads, “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”   6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

2.     How do we deal with the difficulties in this passage?

The first question we need to take up is, “Is this saying about faith moving mountains intended to be taken literally?”   I believe the answer to this is found in the fact that the saying has variety in the various places where it is found.  In Matt. 17 the mountain moves from here to there.  In Matt. 21 the mountain is thrown into the sea.  In Luke 17 the mulberry tree is uprooted and planted in the sea.  In Mk 11, the mountain moves into the sea.   These differences are what one would expect from a teacher who taught the same basic truth in various settings and used similar but varying illustrations.   Each illustration is then seen to be for the purpose of stretching the thinking of the disciples, of helping them to think that God in them is able to do “immeasurably more”  than all they had up to then “asked or imagined” (Eph. 3:20,21).  The fact that the illustration seemed impossible was part of the point.  The verse is not there to be looked at literally, that is not the point.  But to limit the power of faith would also be to not get the point Jesus is making.  Faith in God is more powerful that we think.  “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Lk 18:27 NIV).   Think about Peter walking the water.  He was doing the impossible and when he started to sink, Jesus chided him for doubting and having “little faith” (Mt. 14:31). 

 Another thing we can do is look for possible Scripture background.  One book pointed out that the question regarding the fig tree would have come as the disciples neared the Mount of Olives. 

 “Now, in current expectation regarding the time of the end, the Mount of Olives played a special part. It would be the scene of a violent earthquake on the day of the Lord. “On that day,” said one of the prophets (referring to the day when the God of Israel would take final action against the enemies of his people), “his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south” (Zec 14:4).” (from Hard Sayings of the Bible, Copyright © 1996 by Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, Manfred T. Brauch, published by InterVarsity Press. All rights reserved.) 

 Perhaps Jesus’ choice of illustration in the story of the fig tree is influenced by his knowledge of the ultimate history of the mountain they are looking at.    

3.     What are the key truths or inspirational messages of this passage?

Despite all our more methodological questions about the these passages, the main purpose of Jesus is abundantly clear and simple every time.   Each time he was helping the disciples to see that they were living at a level of faith far less than was available to them.   He was encouraging them to step up. Whether it was the charge of watching themselves lest they cause offense to others (Lu. 17:1-3), the challenge of forgiving others (Lu. 17:3-5; Mk. 11:25,26), the desire to be able to heal the boy (Mt. 17:19,20), or the question about the fig tree (Mk 11:20-24; Mt. 21:18-22);  each time the disciples had too little faith to believe that either what Jesus had done or what he had asked them to do was possible.  Jesus was assuring them that they needed more faith and with it they could meet the challenges.    [Additional Scripture to compare include: Mt. 8:13; Mt. 9:29,30; Mk: 9:23; Mt. 8:26; 14:31.]   

One person asked, “When we say a person has greater faith, what do we mean?”   It’s a thought-provoking question. We decided together that it meant several things.  First it meant that they had an increased vision of who God is, of his power and a greater sense that he was at work or of what He was doing in the current situation.   As a result of this they also showed increased trust and confidence in God and were able to act on that confidence and infuse others with it too. 

Finally we noted that Jesus may also be trying to encourage us along the line that it really doesn’t take much faith.  If we only have a little (mustard seed size) we can do great things.

Sun peeked out this morning (Friday Feb. 26); the scenery was beautiful with thick clumps of snow clinging to branches.  

Schools closed again today–probably so everyone has a chance to dig out.   It was time for me to clean-up and open up too.   I spent about an hour and a half horsing the snow blower.   JoAnne and I measured about 15 inches from this storm so far.   It was about the weightiest snow I remember trying to move.   What normally took one pass with the blower in 2^nd gear now took 3 trips, two of them in first gear.   The plowman had opened our drive a little but later I heard he blew his transmission battling the heavy stuff.   Later he brought in a Bobcat and finished the job here, piling up 10 ft. banks in places.  

The birds were busy at the feeder including the flock of about eight mourning doves and another of four or five pigeons.  The male and female cardinals look so beautiful against the stark white.   My regulars are the chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, and juncos, with the goldfinches at the thistle seed feeder and crows and gray squirrels on the ground.   My suet cakes attract Downey woodpeckers and red-bellied ones as well as not-so-welcome starlings.  Occasionally we’re visited by blue jays, titmice, hairy woodpeckers, and house/purple finches.  Hawks drop by now and then to make life tough for the smaller birds.  To me, feeding birds adds so much more interest to the winter.