Daddy

Morsels of food are delicious because of the little things, the subtle seasonings, the dash of salt, the sprinkle of garlic, the garnish of parsley, the touch of glaze, or the hint of lemon.  Ahhhh - so delicious!

The beginning of Luke 11 contains a curious question to me.  People had been uttering prayers to their gods for thousands of years.  Jews had been praying to Yahweh for around 2000 years.  So there should have been no mystery about praying.  People had been asking for protection and revenge, asking for rain for their crops, asking for children, asking for safety on trips, and asking for peace for a long time.  They had been lauding their gods' actions, thanking them, and seeking their wishes and wisdom for just as long.

So, when the Twelve were with Jesus, and one day they wanted him to teach them to pray, it strikes me as a really curious request.  Sure, they saw Jesus pray, sometimes short utterances, and sometimes all nighters.  I suppose they thought they were missing out on something.  Perhaps they saw his healings and thought there must be something special about Jesus' prayers that weren't in their own.  Perhaps they thought there were words they weren't using or that they should start using, like an incantation of some sort, that would give them the powers that Jesus had.  Their motive was unclear.  But, Jesus complied.

The more famous version of this prayer is in Matthew 6, but Luke 11.2-4 contains the content as well, just not the same concluding part.

Πάτερ, ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου

(Father, your name is honored.)

ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου

(Allow your realm to be established.)

τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δίδου ἡμῖν τὸ καθ’ ἡμέραν

(Give us our bread for the day each day.)

καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἀφίομεν παντὶ ὀφείλοντι ἡμῖν

(Forgive our failures as we have forgiven those who have failed us.)

καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ

(And don't make us stand trial for evil but rescue us from it.)

If a person analyzes what Jesus said in his model prayer for his followers, one finds that Jesus makes sure that his father's name is honored above all names.  He shows concern about the father's realm being established on Earth.  He looks to God for daily needs like hunger.  He asks for forgiveness based on his own forgiveness, and asks for God's grace.

So, how is that different from the prayers humans had been offering to all of their gods over the thousands of years prayers had been offered?  The first sentence is something that Jesus didn't change at first glance.  Honor God.  The second showed his enthusiasm for the establishment of a new understanding for God's "kingdom," one that would be spiritual, the domain of the mind rather than the physical, a domain of geography.  That was different.  The third sentence shows reliance on God for his daily provisions and kindnesses.  Many people want more, for example stored provisions (wealth) and greatness (as opposed to kindness).

The fourth is a little astounding since it has two parts.  The first part is standard for every prayer to every god.  But, Jesus' father is different, so the second part is really different from other prayers.  God wanted attitudes to be right.  Jesus' father didn't want people to come to him in their haughtiness.  That would be what was happening for those trying to always do right things, then coming to God for forgiveness of their minor infractions.  No, Jesus' father wanted people to love him and others.  He knew that if people forgave others, they would know first-hand what God was forgiving them for - their failures of all kinds and sizes - their release in order to love better and love more.  In fact, Jesus put it another way in the scene with Mary and the alabaster jar in Luke 7.47: the person who has been forgiven little, loves little.

The fifth part has been so enigmatic to me for most of my Christian life.  I could not fathom that Jesus would say to pray for God not to lead me into temptation.  Why would he do this?  So I could fail?  To show my character?  Does God lead people to hard testing to prove themselves to him?  And why would I have to then pray for God's deliverance if he led me into temptation in the first place?  But, learning Greek has helped me understand the words better that Jesus was using.  The first term, εἰσενέγκῃς, is to bring someone into something.  The second term is the word for trial, πειρασμόν, literally and figuratively.  Jesus models a request to God not to bring someone to trial.  Why?  Because we have more than a few evils in our lives to condemn us and sentence us.  Jesus shows us to request God not to bring us to trial for our misdeeds, but to rescue us from them.  No one wants to incur the wrath of God due to his condemnation.  Instead, we want someone to forgive, give us a second chance, to deliver us from our circumstances of wrongdoing.  This way of thinking matches perfectly what the message delivered later to the Roman world was all about.  It was a wording for the idea of grace.

Grace is always a tasty morsel to swallow and savor.  But there was another very tasty morsel.  It appeared in the very first utterance of the prayer, "Father, your name is honored."  With a second glance at this phrase, one can notice a really different prayer from the first phrase on.  Yes, honor God's name, for sure.  But who is God - the holy one of all, the name above all names, the Lord of Hosts, God creator of all?  Of course!  But those attributes are not his name.  Yahweh, was the name of God for every Jew.  Other nations called their Gods by different names as well.  But what is Jesus' God's name?  The common name for the person who raises you, loves you, protects you against the world, cares for you, gives you food every day, forgives you when you fail, doesn't hold things against you as if you're standing trial, but gives you that second, third, and fourth chance to get something right.  Oh yes, that name... Daddy, Father, Papa!  He knows a person in and out.

As sweet a sound as these words are to us, the scholars of the Talmud and the Pharisaical sect couldn't stand the thought.  The God of their understanding was so great, mighty, untouchable, and holy that they would not allow someone, no matter who they said they were, to denigrate Yahweh.

But not me.  This prayer is special.  It ends with the grace I need.  It offers the stuff I rely on every single day I live as a provision from God.  It helps me always to check my attitude of love through forgiveness.  But sweetest of all... it begins with me calling my papa's name, who else!

Lord teach me to pray.

[I used the Nestle-Aland, 28th edition, text for this prayer, but it follows the critical analysis for the "hard reading" of the passage.  That usually means the barest reading from all the variants.  But, I had to break from the "hard reading" approach because there are two phrases that are lockstepped together.  I also think the manuscript families are too divided on this passage to make a "hard reading" judgment call against the semantic and grammatical lockstep of thought for the part traditionally translated, "Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name," and "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."]

Incredulous, isn't it?

Morsels of food are delicious because of the little things, the subtle seasonings, the dash of salt, the sprinkle of garlic, the garnish of parsley, the touch of glaze, or the hint of lemon.  Ahhhh - so delicious!

Events in Mark chapter 9 happened rather privately for Jesus and his 12 closest followers.  Mark is rather episodic in nature, so for Jesus' followers who later told the story, the events probably were not as coordinated as they appear when Mark assembled the information later.  A definite theme, however, does emerge from the events as Mark has written them.

The events started with a vision on a hilltop with Simon, James, and John.  After the vision, they all heard the voice of God himself.  That's astounding and inspiring - God's audible voice heard by everyone there at one time.  That would have been special.  What did the voice say?

Verse 7

οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἀκούετε αὐτοῦ

(This is the son I love.  Listen to him.)

That set the stage for the rest of the events in the chapter.  At the foot of the hill after walking away from where God affirmed his son, Jesus, Simon, James, and John walked up on a squabble.  The other nine and some more followers of Jesus who had gathered with them were arguing with the scholars of the Talmud.

Mark doesn't comment on what the argument was about.  But, the situation that sparked the argument was explained to Jesus.  A boy's father had brought his son to be healed  probably by Jesus.  But in Jesus' absence, his followers had tried to get rid of the spirit that had plagued the boy.  The nine followers left behind had tried to do what they had seen their teacher do, but unsuccessfully.  Mark records Jesus' response to this whole situation.

Verse 19

ὦ γενεὰ ἄπιστος, ἕως πότε πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἔσομαι; ἕως πότε ἀνέξομαι ὑμῶν; φέρετε αὐτὸν πρός με

(What an incredulous generation!  How long must I be with you?  How long must I endure you?)

Perhaps Jesus was nonplussed by the fact that an argument had ensued by scholars of the Law over the followers' inability to dismiss the spirit.  Perhaps, Jesus was frustrated at how his followers were trying to throw out the spirit.  Perhaps Jesus was agitated about someone asking his followers to get rid of a "mute" spirit when that was not the reason for the boy's inability to speak.  Mark only records Jesus' response to the situation.  But as disgusted as Jesus was, he still called the boy to him and ordered the spirit to leave and never return.

Simon, James, and John had just heard the voice of God themselves, and then, they saw a spirit leave a boy at the command of Jesus.  What a powerful tandem of circumstances to impress on one's mind that Jesus was God's very own son.

Another event highlighted the prevailing attitude that Jesus might have been referring to when he said What an incredulous generation!  Verses 33-37 record the short trip to Capernaum on which Jesus continued to instruct his Twelve.  Jesus had had been explaining just before the trip that he would be killed and woken back to life, so they were discussing who would be the best one to lead after Jesus' departure.  So he brought in a child and set him in the middle of them for his lesson to them.  He hugged the child and spoke:

Verse 37

ὃς ἂν ἓν τῶν τοιούτων παιδίων δέξηται ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου, ἐμὲ δέχεται· καὶ ὃς ἂν ἐμὲ δέχηται, οὐκ ἐμὲ δέχεται ἀλλὰ τὸν ἀποστείλαντά με

(Anyone who waits on children like this in my name doesn't just wait on me but the one who sent me.)

Every parent would know exactly what Jesus said.  You "wait on" children to nurture them, to protect them, to love them, to show them what is right, to teach them how to live life.  And it is "waiting on them" in his name that gives the power to lead them in the ways of his father who sent him.  What a powerful image - waiting on a child as Jesus, who was servant of all, would do in order to lead him into decent living.  That is the model for waiting on someone in his name.

Verses 38-41 record even another event of an incredulous generation.  The Twelve had come up on someone casting out powers that controlled people.   John was the one to tell Jesus:

Verse 38

εἴδομέν τινα ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου ἐκβάλλοντα δαιμόνια καὶ ἐκωλύομεν αὐτόν, ὅτι οὐκ ἠκολούθει ἡμῖν

(We saw a man who wasn't following us casting out powers in your name.  We opposed him since he didn't follow us.)

Verse 39

ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· μὴ κωλύετε αὐτόν. οὐδεὶς γάρ ἐστιν ὃς ποιήσει δύναμιν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματί μου καὶ δυνήσεται ταχὺ κακολογῆσαί με

(Jesus said, "Don't oppose him.  Nobody who can do something powerful in my name can turn around and speak badly of me.")

Jesus followed the statement with a statement of acceptance:

Ὃς γὰρ ἂν ποτίσῃ ὑμᾶς ποτήριον ὕδατος ἐν ὀνόματι ὅτι Χριστοῦ ἐστε, ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐ μὴ ἀπολέσῃ τὸν μισθὸν αὐτοῦ

(If someone were to give you a cup of water because you have the name of the Chosen One, I assure you he would not lose his reward.)

While Jesus was alive, spirits recognized him, his authority, and his power.  God endorsed him personally.  Vicariously, through Mark's writing here, Christians today, as did the Twelve at the time, also can be recognized as his followers if we lead others in his name.  And followers today can bless others through acceptance of them because we have his name.

The tasty morsel in all of this is the acceptance of others who might not follow Jesus according to our own understanding of how to follow Jesus.  The Twelve encountered this exact situation.  They opposed him, but Jesus told them differently.

Verse 40

ὃς γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν καθ’ ἡμῶν, ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐστιν

(The person who is not against us is for us.)

I am certainly guilty of viewing others' beliefs as flawed in some way when I don't think my own belief is flawed.  So, acceptance is hard for me to act on.  But if God personally endorsed Jesus, a spirit who controlled someone else's life endorsed Jesus by obeying his command, and someone not in the Twelve's group of followers endorsed Jesus, my response should be easy.  Don't oppose those who come in the name of Jesus.

If others who recognize his name and wait on us with water won't lose their reward, if waiting on children in his name to lead them to him will gain us a reward, then, why am I so haughty?  Why so judgmental?  I know - incredulous isn't it.  I can hear Jesus saying that.  I am working to replace that thought with the most important words in this chapter:

"This is the son I love.  Listen to him."  Period.

Shaking the stars from the sky

Morsels of food are delicious because of the little things, the subtle seasonings, the dash of salt, the sprinkle of garlic, the garnish of parsley, the touch of glaze, or the hint of lemon.  Ahhhh - so delicious!

I hear people refer to God's inactivity sometimes when they talk about the strength of the Muslim world, the killing of  Christians in Islamic countries, or in their opinions of the current administration's lack of expression of faith in God.  Talk like that sticks in my throat because the situations like the ones these people are complaining of have recurred in history time and time again.  I want to share the message of John's seven seals with them so badly because it addresses the same situation in John's time.  If I ever do share, the person responds with something like, "The seven seals?  That's about the end of the world.  I'm not talking about that."  So, I go into explaining how the seals might just be about God's seeming inactivity rather than the end of the world, something like what is explained below.

Before a person writes something, thoughts and ideas have to be rumbling around in his or her mind.  Then the thoughts get sorted.  As they flesh out in one's mind, they begin to connect to examples, definitions, statistical data, previous places that they have seen or read about, comparisons of one idea to like ideas, and whether their thoughts arise from a cause or effect from some other occurrence.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in Revelation.

What was rumbling around in John's mind for him to write his information for the seven seals.  How did he sort those thoughts, flesh them out, and connect to like ideas?  We have only his final product, so one has to reverse engineer to see what was on his mind.  The first four seals have been commented on in an earlier blog (click here). They help to show what was on John's mind.  Reverse engineering the sixth seal also shows clearly what John was thinking as he wrote.  The sixth seal is found in Revelation 6.12-17.

Verse 12

Καὶ εἶδον ὅτε ἤνοιξεν τὴν σφραγῖδα τὴν ἕκτην, καὶ σεισμὸς μέγας ἐγένετο καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ἐγένετο μέλας ὡς σάκκος τρίχινος καὶ ἡ σελήνη ὅλη ἐγένετο ὡς αἷμα

(As  he opened the sixth seal, I could feel the rumbling of a tremendous earthquake, and I could see the sun become dark, making people feel that they should wear their course mourning garments made of hide with hair on it, and the whole moon looked like blood.)

Verse 13

καὶ οἱ ἀστέρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἔπεσαν εἰς τὴν γῆν, ὡς συκῆ βάλλει τοὺς ὀλύνθους αὐτῆς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου μεγάλου σειομένη

(Stars fell to the ground from the sky like a forceful wind shaking a fig tree in the winter, scattering its figs everywhere.)

Verse 14

καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς ἀπεχωρίσθη ὡς βιβλίον ἑλισσόμενον καὶ πᾶν ὄρος καὶ νῆσος ἐκ τῶν τόπων αὐτῶν ἐκινήθησαν

(The sky appeared as if it were being rolled up as scroll.  Every mountain and island was moved to a different place.)

The imagery of these verses stands out to any reader.  What has happened to cause the catastrophe depicted here?  John wrote before the days of science fiction arrived, so he wasn't portraying some alien invasion or end of life on earth scenario from a meteor strike.  So, what caused the disasters he mentioned?

Since John grew up in a Jewish environment, he surely had to have been influenced by the teachings from the Old Testament.  One of the teachings coming out of the prophets was that the nations surrounding Israel would face a judgment from God for all of their mistreatments of God's people, Israel.  And, Judea and Samaria themselves eventually faced the wrath of God for all of their own wrongdoings.  Rumbling around in John's head were passages like the following.

In Joel 2, the writer depicts God's anger against his people in order to get them to return to more godly ways.  And, in chapter 3, Joel begins with wrath for Tyre and Sidon for their treatment of Israel, then generalizes the fury of God to all of the nations surrounding Israel.

Joel 2.10 - The ground rumbles and shakes in front of them.  In the sky, the sun and moon are dark, and the stars' brilliance cannot be seen.

Joel 2.31 - The sun will become dark and the moon will become blood before the great and dreaded day of the Lord.

Joel 3.15 - The sun and moon will become dark and the stars' brilliance cannot be seen.

Isaiah chapter 13 is about God venting his anger on the nations surrounding Israel and on Babylon in particular starting in verse 14.  Similarly, chapter 34 is a general condemnation of the nations around Israel and of Edom in particular starting in verse 5.

Isaiah 13.10 - The stars and constellations of the universe don't give off any light.  The sun is dark as it crosses the sky, and the moon doesn't give off any light.

Isaiah 13.13 - I will shake the entire sky and the earth will quake because of the fury of Yahweh and his mighty people on the day of his burning anger

Isaiah 34.4 - All the celestial bodies will disintegrate and be rolled up like a scroll.  They will wither and drop like a leaf or a fig from a tree.

Joel and Isaiah speak of a day of reckoning for Israel's neighbors and enemies, and Joel speaks of a furious reaction from God toward his people Israel.  The idea was formalized into the phrase the day of the Lord.  This day of furious wrath to be poured out on the nations was not an end of the world depiction.  It was a time when God dealt with Israel's enemies.  It came against different nations at different times.  Other prophets wrote about this day of the Lord, but the imagery for this day that John used in Revelation was from these two prophets' portrayal of this day of reckoning.

The use of Joel's and Isaiah's ideas were front and center in John's thinking as he considered what the culmination should be for the events in the previous 5 seals.  The report to God from his angels in the first 4 seals revealed the conditions of the Earth's inhabitants.  It wasn't a pretty picture.  People were fighting, killing, starving, submitting to brutal conquerors, and dying in barbarous ways.  The scene in seal 5 showed martyrs for faith in Christ.  What should the natural conclusion of that be?  In John's world, it was time for a day of the Lord.  God would act in a decisive manner to show the enemies of his people the Christians that he was in control and would vindicate himself and the people who worship him.  One can hear John thinking, "Yes, I will use the scenes from the well known day of the Lord imagery that no Jew or Jewish Christian would miss, as comfort for the terror so rampant during his own days of Roman rule.

One more image was necessary before he closed out the message for the sixth seal (verses 15,16).

Verse 15

Καὶ οἱ βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς καὶ οἱ μεγιστᾶνες καὶ οἱ χιλίαρχοι καὶ οἱ πλούσιοι καὶ οἱ ἰσχυροὶ καὶ πᾶς δοῦλος καὶ ἐλεύθερος ἔκρυψαν ἑαυτοὺς εἰς τὰ σπήλαια καὶ εἰς τὰς πέτρας τῶν ὀρέων

(The Earth's rulers, governing officials, military commanders, rich and powerful, slaves and freemen hid in the caves and rocks of the mountains,)

Verse 16

καὶ λέγουσιν τοῖς ὄρεσιν καὶ ταῖς πέτραις· πέσετε ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς καὶ κρύψατε ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου,

(Saying to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of the one sitting on the throne and from anger of the Lamb.)

 John writes especially about the Romans, but also the Greeks, Egyptians, and other influential nations in all their power, conceit, and dependence on their wealth.  The five seals building up to this sixth seal spelled out all their arrogance and bias against God's people the Christians.  John could hear the voices of the martyrs facing death by these countries asking God, "How long?"  So he outlined the response found in the prophets of the Old Testament as shown above.  He said there would be a day of reckoning and continued with the Old Testament idea of what would happen to the arrogant and evil people who had mistreated Christians.  He quoted Isaiah.

Isaiah 2.19 - They will go into caves in the sides of rock cliffs and caves in the ground as they face the terror of Yahweh in glorious power when he decides to act suddenly to shake the earth.

Isaiah 2.21 - And they will go into crevices in the rocks and behind rocky crags as they face the terror of Yahweh in glorious power when he decides to act suddenly to shake the earth.

I am sure John could have meant Isaiah's remarks for the gentiles in the world at large.  But, it doesn't escape notice that the two passages from from Isaiah 2 are prophecies particularly against the Jews.  Luke's account of Paul's encounters with the Jews in Asia Minor in Acts was not a nice log of Paul's treatment at their hands.  If Paul's treatment was representative of what the Christians at large experienced, then quoting Isaiah 2 was not a mistake on John's part and was meant for Jews, too, because of their treatment of Christians.  The Jews would be included on the day when God came to shake the earth on behalf of his people the Christians.

And there is a tasty morsel in all of this talk of catastrophe.  Jesus' title for himself was Son of Man.  An influential work of the time, but not in the Old Testament, was the Book of Enoch.  It can be found in the pseudopigrapha of the Old Testament, and it speaks about the Son of Man about 200 years before Jesus arrived on Earth.  In one particular passage, 1 Enoch 46.4-5, the Son of Man specifically is said to be the one to remove and depose kings and powerful people from their seats, thrones, and kingdoms.  1 Enoch 62.3-4 also speaks of what the Son of Man's presence would be like for the rich and powerful.  The author said kings, governors, high officials, and wealthy landowners would feel sudden pain like a woman is hit with when pains of childbirth seize her.  On their day of judgment, day of terror, these people would be terrified and rejected when they see the Son of Man in all of his glory.   This is one of the reasons why the Jews of Jesus' time thought Jesus would usher in an earthly realm since he took the name Son of Man. Since that expectation was not met, some felt that Jesus was not the Chosen One, which in Enoch was identified as the Son of Man.

So, when John was writing about the kings, rulers, military officials, rich and powerful in verses 15 and 16, he was applying the passages from 1 Enoch to the time when the rulers of the world around the Christians - the Roman military, Jewish landowners, governors of provinces, and influential others - would kill and antagonize Christians, thereby rejecting the Son of Man.  The Jews had already rejected him and killed him and continued to harass Christians everywhere, so they were no different from the surrounding nations.  All had to face this day of the Lord, day of terror. And what gives credence to all of this "referencing" of this outpouring of God's and the Son of Man's fury is that Jesus referred to it himself when on the way to the cross (Luke 23.30).

Given the Old Testament's use of the day of the Lord as a part of an ongoing cycle of purging and restoration for his people, there is every reason to think that the same thing would be true in the era of the Son of Man.  Two thousand years have come and gone since Jesus was killed.  It is easy to see in history that God has continuously purged and restored his people around the world.  John's words in the sixth seal didn't have to portray a one-time judgment of those opposing his people.  They could have followed the Old Testament model of different days of the Lord for different generations.  But, if the New Testament model is different, then it would appear that John was writing comforting words to those in his generation - God would purge and restore them.  He didn't want them to depart from their faith under such heavy duress.  He wanted them to endure beyond the hard times and be assured that God would act on their behalf - against the Roman governors, Roman officials, Roman military, and wealthy, influential people from all countries.  God would prove through Jesus that his people had not been duped.  They would be vindicated.  John ends the sixth seal on that exact note.

Joel 2.11 - Yahweh issues a command to his tremendously large army camped in front of him, an innumerable host, who executes his command.  It is the the dreaded day of Yahweh.  Who can endure?

Revelation 6.17

ὅτι ἦλθεν ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ μεγάλη τῆς ὀργῆς αὐτῶν, καὶ τίς δύναται σταθῆναι

(For the day of his great anger has come.  Who can endure?)

In the thick of anti-Christian sentiments that have happened toward me from time to time by groups that would steal my faith, it is easy to say that God has not shown up to defend me or himself.  It is easy to trade faith in the Son of Man and his representation of God for money, prestige, position, comfort, privilege, or expertise.  It is easy to say that God didn't show up for me to prove me right in my faith, so no, no faith for me.  It's so easy.  It is necessary for me to remind myself once in a while that God does shake the earth for me, that the Son of Man does show himself in his splendor for me, that no matter who or how high-up someone is when mocking my faith, the Son of Man deposes them for me.  Then it makes my path of faith so much more bearable.  I know I have millions of people, some of whom I read about in seal 5, that have gone before me and stand with me.  And, passing faith to my children is not a burden or task, but a passing of a torch of light piercing a darkness that can never, never extinguish its light!



[Translations from the Old Testament above are mine using Biblia Hebraica.  The purpose of the blog is to highlight Jesus, so verses in the New Testament are given in Greek using the Nestle Aland text (28th edition) {used in every article of this blog}.

For additional information on the seven seals, see the book Discerning the Seven Sealed Scenes by David Singleton published by iUniverse.]

Lord status

Morsels of food are delicious because of the little things, the subtle seasonings, the dash of salt, the sprinkle of garlic, the garnish of parsley, the touch of glaze, or the hint of lemon.  Ahhhh - so delicious!

David wrote a psalm about doing the right thing (Psalm 37).  He recognized the world around him was full of people who didn't treat people right.  So, he wrote lyrically contrasting the two types of people.  His words inspired Jewish readers to do the right thing for many years afterward.  One of the most inspiring verses comes in verse 25.

"In my journey from youth to old man, I have never seen those who live decently left destitute or their children begging for food."

Matthew 6.24-34 doesn't record Jesus' thoughts in order to know if these psalm lines were on his mind, but the words he used echoed in his sentiments.  Early in his public teaching, Jesus seemed to have been struck by people always thinking about making enough money - whether just to live on or to impress others. Apparently it seemed to Jesus that accumulation of money and the things that accumulation would bring permeated people's thinking.  He felt the need to say a few words about that permeation of thought (verse 24).

Οὐδεὶς δύναται δυσὶ κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει. οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ

(Nobody can serve two masters.  Either he will despise one and show a lot of care for the other or he will be loyal to one and have little regard for the other.  You cannot serve God and the accumulation of money.)

Jesus had just made a bold statement.  He had elevated the status of wealth.  Everyone knew that money was important.  People have to have it to live on.  So, yes, money was important.  Why would Jesus make it a big deal?   I think the answer is in the breakdown of how money comes to people.  To Jesus it evidently was in showing care and loyalty.  People spend a lot of time caring about whatever accumulates money for them.  And, when they spend that much time accumulating something, they inevitably are loyal to taking the time to bring in more.

To Jesus the two ingredients of serving a master were showing care and being loyal.  That was a problem for him when he looked at people and saw them showing those two characteristics for accumulation of money instead of for God, his father.  Jesus elevated the status of pursuing wealth from something people do for a living to a consuming pursuit being master of people's lives, a God pursuit.

The secret to understanding this elevation of status is found in the word κυρίος (lord).  The word poses a fairly significant problem for Americans.  When the constitution was passed in 1787, it contained provisions against elected officials accepting titles related to a monarchy, such as Lord.  Lord, of course, has been one of the main translations for κυρίος since the King James Version was published during the days of the British monarchy, and its influence on subsequent translations has been enormous.  The constitution had no diminishing effect on the use of lord as a translation for κυρίος even though an elected official couldn't accept the title.  But it did diminish the use of lord in Americans' everyday speech, so much so that Americans only use the word now when referring to the royal line of succession or  the upper class of people living in a monarchy in a historical era.  Master, used above, is not really a suitable substitution, but given the American proclivity against all words monarchical, it was almost the only word left that still contains most of the semantic domains of κυρίος.

One of the great problems with the word master is that it implies the idea of slavery, an idea that is more repugnant to Americans than lord.  Both lord and master leave bad tastes in Americans' mouths because of such a raw, mistrusting experience with the rulers and owners who embodied the ideas meant with these words.  People don't usually consider the implication of benevolent with either word.  κυρίος, on the other hand, did imply that a person in charge of others' lives in some way was worthy of the title because he could be trusted to take care of the people he was over.  Usually it was for protection, but in many areas of the Mediterranean Sea, it was also for organizing society in a way that allowed people not to worry about how they should go about daily living and fulfilling their basic needs. 

Thus, when Jesus used the word κυρίος, he was implying a benevolent protector/provider.  This would explain Jesus' consternation with the Jews' idea of accumulating money.  The effect of wealth allowed a person to depend on it to provide and protect, God's place.  But for Jesus, his father, God, was κυρίος, not the accumulation of money.  There was no substitute for his father's provisions.

Verses 28-30 have a morsel of flavor in them as Jesus continued to illustrate his point.  He illustrated first that people could trust his father to give them food and drink.  Then, he addressed provision for clothes by asking a rhetorical question.

Verse 28

Καὶ περὶ ἐνδύματος τί μεριμνᾶτε; καταμάθετε τὰ κρίνα τοῦ ἀγροῦ πῶς αὐξάνουσιν· οὐ κοπιῶσιν οὐδὲ νήθουσιν

(Why are you stressed about clothing?  Learn from the lilies dotting the countryside.  How do they become so beautiful? They don't work hard or make their own clothes.)

Verse 29

λέγω δὲ ὑμῖν ὅτι οὐδὲ Σολομὼν ἐν πάσῃ τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ περιεβάλετο ὡς ἓν τούτων.

(I tell you that Solomon in all his splendor was never dressed as finely as they are.)

Verse 30

εἰ δὲ τὸν χόρτον τοῦ ἀγροῦ σήμερον ὄντα καὶ αὔριον εἰς κλίβανον βαλλόμενον ὁ θεὸς οὕτως ἀμφιέννυσιν, οὐ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὑμᾶς, ὀλιγόπιστοι

(If God dresses up the meadows with wild lilies today and and people throw them in their little bread ovens tomorrow, don't you think he would do much, much more for you, smallfaiths?

This last illustration shows how much Jesus was dismayed with the way that people didn't trust in their father and his for the necessities of life.  Instead, they depended on money accumulation.  It wasn't enough for him to raise the status of people's dependence on their own ability to eat and dress, and do so nicely, to κυρίος (lord) status, he also coined a term for the people exhibiting this attitude.  No secular records exist using the word Jesus called such people.  He combined the words for small and faith and used it as a term of address.  He was probably just stating facts by using this word, but it would be easy to see how the people who heard him might take the term as sarcasm.

These three verses (28-30) also have a little sting to them.  Where it might be slightly veiled whether or not Jesus had Psalm 37.25 on his mind when he started talking about people's trust in God for their basic provisions, it isn't veiled at all that Psalms 37.20 is used.

"But the wicked will die,

The Lord's enemies are like flowers in a field - 

They will disappear like smoke."
(New Living Translation)

The apparent innuendo of Jesus' words definitely show the connection of "the Lord's enemies" in Psalms 37 to those in his own crowd of listeners not trusting his father for the basics of life.  Jesus' reference to the flowers of the field disappearing in smoke is a dead give away of the connection.  And in case there was any misunderstanding of who κυρίος was in either Psalms or his own words, the Old Testament reference uses יהוה Yahweh), translated as Lord in verse 20 above, the most sacred of the names for God,   Yes, that stung a bit.

But the words sting a bit for me too, I who live in this great modern era.  I  see myself working hard and priding myself on the type of clothing I can buy and the type of restaurants I can eat in when not cooking at home.  I fully understand the God replacement idea Jesus spoke about.  While I am not wealthy by my own country's standards, my country's standards for "working class" are still head and shoulders above most of the rest of the world's standards for the same designation.  I find myself in need of a picture of lilies dotting the countryside being better made and more attractive than the clothes on my own body.  I need an understanding of how temporary those lilies-more-beautiful-than-my-clothes are since they are thrown in a fire and burned, yet my clothes remain because my father thinks that much more of me.  I need a good reminder of Jesus' sentiments echoed in Psalms 37 of living decently, doing the right things, showing a lot of care for my creator, and being loyal to him for any accumulation of things that come my way.