When God shows up!

Reflections are everywhere - in crystal blue lakes and shining, marble surfaces, in the glass of towering skyscrapers and the concave lenses of ever-present cameras. They capture my thinking and mesmerize me, enticing me to look again because there's more in the picture!

The Revelation of John

Chapter 16

A Continuation of the Bowls of Wrath

John begins wrapping up his revelation by bringing his last series of 7 to a close.  He pens the sixth and seventh bowls of wrath to set up a catalyst for the culmination of the the book.  He wanted to write about ushering in a new age, the Christian Age, as his assurance to Christians across the empire  by using imagery to depict the crushing of Rome, an evil perpetrator, along with all parties responsible for persecuting Christians.  He tells of a huge battle between the King of kings and the world's leaders in Chapter 19 and a new age to follow.  He begins here with the sixth bowl of wrath.

Verse 12 -

Καὶ ὁ ἕκτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν μέγαν τὸν Εὐφράτην, καὶ ἐξηράνθη τὸ ὕδωρ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ἑτοιμασθῇ ἡ ὁδὸς τῶν βασιλέων τῶν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς ἡλίου

(The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates.  The river became a baked river bed so it could serve as a road for the kings from the lands of the rising sun.)

Isaiah was one of Israel's most revered prophets.  He spoke of doom for Israel in a number of places, one of them being Isaiah 7.  He writes of the hardest times on Earth and a king east of the Euphrates rendering Israel useless as part of the country's punishment for a rebellious spirit.  It's hard to miss the parallel in Revelation 16 since John writes of plagues and disasters striking the Earth and its inhabitants because they persecuted God's people and would not turn from their evil ways.

Another parallel for Revelation 16.12 also exists in a passage in 2 Esdras 15.  That author envisioned a time when God would draw all the nations together, particularly the lands in the east for a large battle.  God would overcome these nations in battle in retribution for the brutalities they had rendered his people.

Verse 13

Καὶ εἶδον ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ δράκοντος καὶ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ θηρίου καὶ ἐκ τοῦ στόματος τοῦ ψευδοπροφήτου πνεύματα τρία ἀκάθαρτα ὡς βάτραχοι

(I saw three, impure spirits appearing as loathesome frogs coming out of the mouths of the dragon, beast, and false prophet.)

John turned next in his writing to the dragon, identified before as Satan in Revelation 12.9 and who had authorized a beast to act and speak on his behalf, presumably Rome's emperor and other leaders, and a second beast as well to aid the first beast, probably the regional governors Rome used to rule the provinces.  The false prophet in verse 13 could be identified as the second beast if John was merely trying to write with variation in terms used.  But, the false prophet could also represent some other power, possibly the Jewish nation since they had resisted turning to the Messiah, Jesus, when he came.  Paul's experiences recorded in Acts and his various letters paint a picture of persecution by Jews across the Roman empire and in the capital city itself.  Finally, John adds a note about the ugliness and loathesomeness of evil leaders who sound a call to arms to battle goodness and honor, that is, a battle against God.

Verse 14

εἰσὶν γὰρ πνεύματα δαιμονίων ποιοῦντα σημεῖα, ἃ ἐκπορεύεται ἐπὶ τοὺς βασιλεῖς τῆς οἰκουμένης ὅλης συναγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν πόλεμον τῆς ἡμέρας τῆς μεγάλης τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ παντοκράτορος

(And even though the three of them are inferior powers, they signaled the kings of all the world's people to gather for battle on the chosen day of God Almighty.)

John interrupts his great battle thoughts for a moment to insert the sudden nature of this battle, or at least the unexpected outcome that will come from this great battle.  Christians had been clamoring for justice for all those responsible for their mistreatment (Revelation 6.10).  John anticipated their next question, "When is this chosen day going to happen?"  So, John answers their question this way.

Verse 15

Ἰδοὺ ἔρχομαι ὡς κλέπτης. μακάριος ὁ γρηγορῶν καὶ τηρῶν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, ἵνα μὴ γυμνὸς περιπατῇ καὶ βλέπωσιν τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην αὐτοῦ

(Watch! I am coming like a thief.  Be sure to keep your clothes close by your bed for a quick escape if you are roused from your sleep so that you won't be seen shamefully walking around naked.)

John then returns to his thought about bringing the kings of the Earth together for battle.  He tells them where the battle will take place.

Verse 16

Καὶ συνήγαγεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν τόπον τὸν καλούμενον Ἑβραϊστὶ Ἁρμαγεδών

(And they gathered in the place called Harmegedon in Hebrew.)

The battle was to be on a hill (הר, har, hill).  But there is more in the use of this word "hill," where the fortress of Megiddo (Megedon) resided, than mere translation offers.  As one can see from the picture at the beginning above, this hill had a walled town on its top.  It commanded a view of the valley.  And, that was important in a time before satellites.  Anyone approaching would be seen miles away. Megiddo lay at a heavily traveled crossroads.  Groups of people constantly traveled this road because it was straight and flat, right across a plain.  Even armies liked to use this road going to and from countries like Egypt enroute to Syria, Assyria, or Babylon. Tracking a group's movements could be done from the hill fortress at Megiddo.  Bringing the kings of the Earth to Megiddo for a fight gave an immediate advantage to God because he could ready himself for battle as he saw the armies approaching.

But, the tactical advantage was not the only reason God was meeting all the kings of the Earth at Megiddo.  Zechariah 12 contains a prophecy of God taking action against all the people of the Earth who have made his people drink from a cup of catastrophe in the same harsh way that they had treated his people all along.  In order for people to understand the depth of the mourning from this devastating blow, John recalled the episode burned into the Jews' memories of the time when all of Judah mourned for the death of one of their own very Godly kings, Josiah.  The peoples of the Earth would experience the same deep mourning that the Jews had experienced for King Josiah who had been fatally wounded at Hadad Rimmon in Megiddo.  John's audience would also understand this reference as a way in which God was avenging his people.  Jeremiah himself had written laments for the king which people had such affection for (2 Chronicles 35.22-25), but for the peoples of the Earth, there would be no such lament, for who would cry out deeply for the desecration and debasement these kings had carried out against God's people over a long period of time.

This passage contains a deeper meaning than merely the place of the battle.  Jews would have had an additional understanding of Hadad Rimmon.  Syria had idols that they worshiped and Hadad and Rimmon were two of them. Hadad, in particular, was the idol's name representing the sun god.  Since John had just written that the 4th angel had poured out his bowl of anger on the sun, and people were burned up by the heat, John presaged his naming of Harmegedon with a bowl of anger poured out on the sun to conjure up the visual of the sun god whose image represented a number of victories made in this plain of Megiddo over a 300-year period against the people of the one true God. This sun god would be vanquished and the victories of old for those who followed this god would be turned into pain for the people who had mistreated God's followers.

Verse 17

Καὶ ὁ ἕβδομος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν ἀέρα, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν φωνὴ μεγάλη ἐκ τοῦ ναοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ θρόνου λέγουσα· γέγονεν

(The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice could be heard from the throne inside the temple booming out, "It's time to pay up!")

At this point John ends his series of the seven bowls of wrath.  What follows is the culmination of the 7 bowls of wrath.  He had taken care with the first four bowls to represent the plagues of Egypt, the pivotal and seminal event in Jewish history on which everything afterward made sense.  This was followed by the plague of darkness in the fifth bowl.  In Egypt, the plague of darkenss was the precursor to the death blow to the firstborn, the dark hours that led directly to the death of every Egyptian family's firstborn, God's victory against Pharaoh, and the beginning of the era of God's people.

Now for God's new covenant with his people, the Christians, John is making it clear that God is acting in the same seminal and pivotal manner.  Rome's leadership, the new Pharaoh, would experience the same awesome power against them.  God would deliver his new people from their oppression and start them on the path of coming into their own.

Verse 18

καὶ ἐγένοντο ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταὶ καὶ σεισμὸς ἐγένετο μέγας, οἷος οὐκ ἐγένετο ἀφ’ οὗ ἄνθρωπος ἐγένετο ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς τηλικοῦτος σεισμὸς οὕτως μέγας

(Brilliant bolts of lightning streaked across the sky, noises were everywhere, the rolling of continuous thunder sounded, and such an intensive and extensive earthquake was felt.  One like it had never been seen by humans since they had inhabited the Earth,)

After delivering his people in an astonishing way, supernatural signs and wonders would follow the deliverance as a way of strongly punctuating that the ruler of Heaven and Earth had acted, all people had noticed, and now his people would have their recognition and their revenge.  This had also accompanied the sixth sealed message in Revelation 6.14 and again in Revelation 11.18-19 after the announcement of doom by the seventhth trumpet.  People notice when God shows up.

Verse 19

καὶ ἐγένετο ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη εἰς τρία μέρη καὶ αἱ πόλεις τῶν ἐθνῶν ἔπεσαν. καὶ Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη ἐμνήσθη ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ δοῦναι αὐτῇ τὸ ποτήριον τοῦ οἴνου τοῦ θυμοῦ τῆς ὀργῆς αὐτοῦ

(reapportioning the great city into three parts and crumbling the cities of other nations.  The great city of Babylon was brought to God's attention, and he gave them the taste of their own cup of wine, his raging fury)

The last bowl of God's anger is also followed by a reference to Babylon.  This is no mistake and is also a part of the symbolism from Jewish tradition.  The king of Babylon swooped in and sacked Jerusalem in 587/6 BCE and deported many of its people.  He had made quite the entrance onto the stage of Jewish history.  Ever after, the Jews related their great troubles to Babylon's conquering the center of their nation, ridding them of their king, and setting up a puppet government that paid tribute to its king and its pantheon.  However, God had a whole series of pophecies against Babylon for their terrible treatment of the Jews.  Jeremiah 50.28, 29, 45, 46 contain representative verses of what God would do to avenge the treatment of "Babylon." So, to punish "Babylon" in John's time, Rome was "rearranged" by the earthquake that no one had ever seen the intensity of before.

Verse 20

καὶ πᾶσα νῆσος ἔφυγεν καὶ ὄρη οὐχ εὑρέθησαν

(All islands disappeared from view, and mountains were nowhere to be seen.)

Verse 21

καὶ χάλαζα μεγάλη ὡς ταλαντιαία καταβαίνει ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ ἐβλασφήμησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι τὸν θεὸν ἐκ τῆς πληγῆς τῆς χαλάζης, ὅτι μεγάλη ἐστὶν ἡ πληγὴ αὐτῆς σφόδρα

(Immense, hundred-pound hailstones dropped from the sky on people below, who cursed the god of this plague because it was so brutal and unrelenting. )

The last two verses are clear references to the way the Old Testament viewed an outpouring of God's vengence against men, as found in Micah 1.3, Habakuk 3.6, and Ezekiel 26.15-20.  John had used this imagery as the basis already for Revelation 6.14 and 11.18-19. In addition, he recalls Old Testament prophecies like the ones in Zephaniah, and in particular Zephaniah 3.6-8.  And John uses exact wording matches to Exodus 9.23-24 where God directs a hailstorm to hit Egypt like no one had ever seen before in order to convince Pharaoh to let his people go.  Using all of the catasrophic doom imagery of the Old Testament, John was showing the Christians that the same message God had always used for his people who had been mistreated, he was telling them now.  God would deliver his people so that there would be no mistaking that his enemies had met their day of reckoning and would have no way to escape his anger.

Accompanying the Old Testament allusions in John's writing is the echo of other apocalyptic books written before or contemporary with John's apocalypse.  The apocalypses of 2 Enoch, 2 Baruch, 2 Esdras, and the Sybilline Oracles all talked of an age when a messiah, a son of man, or at least a savior would return and usher in a new age.  Particularly, 2 Esdras 15 is parallel to Revelation 16.  The author writes about countries that oppressed God's people as Egypt had done, and their deliverance followed plagues and disasters like he had brought on Egypt at an earlier time.  He spoke of kings from the east gathering to oppose God in battle.  He wrote of supernatural signs that accompanied God's destruction of nations, a blazing sun to burn up sinners, and terrible storms of hail, and flashing swords.  He also speaks of Rome as Babylon and its provinces as Rome's prostitutes who would also be destroyed.  Perhaps, these beliefs were circulating at the end of the first century and beginning of the second, causing the same material to be used in both books, or perhaps one of the books served as a blueprint for the other.  Whatever the case, John in Revelation assured Christians living at that time that God was acting on his people's behalf for their mistreatment at the hands of Rome and its provincial governments.

The message at the end of the bowls of wrath is not the end of time.  Instead, God was going to show up for his people.  He would usher in a new age, the era of his only son.


Even 2000 years removed from John's writing, I cannot help but read what God did to deliver to his people and be reassured that the same God still shows up time after time - for his people and for me as his follower.  He delivered his people the Jews.  He delivered his people the Christians.  He will fight my oppressors too.  Rome has passed into oblivion, but modern oppressors still fight hard to debase those who follow God's only son.  When I see that oppression, I nod knowingly, believing that God shows up with 100-pound hailstones to pound those who curse his name and never turn from their ways of insulting him and his people.

God still delivers.  It's one of his most resounding messages.  And I give him my heart because he shows up - still - and forever!



[Introductory photo of reflection is found at boredpanda.com]
[The first song is Gracious Tempest by Hillsong Young and Free.  The second song is Do It Again by Elevation Worship.]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]

[Translations from Greek are my own.]

Apocalyptic moments with God

Reflections are everywhere - in crystal blue lakes and shining, marble surfaces, in the glass of towering skyscrapers and the concave lenses of ever-present cameras. They capture my thinking and mesmerize me, enticing me to look again because there's more in the picture!

Literature differs from one era to the next.  The myths of really ancient literature, such as the ones told by the Egyptians differ in length and style and a few other ways from the myths told up the timeline by a couple thousand years in Greece.  The tales of the gods of the Norse people differ in style and content from the myths down the timeline a thousand years from the Greeks' tales.  So it goes.  Different eras produce different literature.

One would expect Hebrew literature not to be an exception.  One can see short narratives, for instance, in the earliest tales of the Hebrew people, but by the time of David, the narratives have lengthened and have a different purpose and style than the earlier narratives.  Poems of the Israelites can also be seen as early as the Exodus story (Exodus 15, which many call the Song of Moses), but its form, style, and type are certainly different from the forms exhibited in the book of poetry called Psalms.  A person can see the robust style and technique of a poem like Psalm 119 as very different from the straightforward and focused praise poem of Exodus 15.

So, it really should not surprise anyone at all that the New Testament, too, contains different forms of writing.  Even though it was a much more tightly constrained time period than any of the comparisons in the above paragraphs, its literature still shows variation because of place, time, purpose, and author.  An exercise in accounting for the differences between the synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John illustrates the affect of different circumstances for different audiences in different settings.  And as a person reads the New Testament as a whole, it would not take a genius to notice that the book of Revelation is very different from the other books of the New Testament.  It stands alone.  In fact, it has a greater similarity to a couple of Old Testament books (Daniel and Zechariah) than it does to any of the New Testament books.

But, literature exists in genres.  It would be the rarest of books that stand alone with no connection to other books of its type.  That should be a great indication to any reader that one might want to look for a genre of literature that Revelation fits even if he or she has to look outside the New Testament for comparisons.  At the same time that Revelation was being written, in fact, the books of Second Baruch and Second Esdras were penned.  They contain the same fanciful imagery, visions, and guidance of a human by heavenly beings that Revelation does.  First Enoch one of the first to be written, is somewhat older by a couple or three centuries, but it still contained the features that Revelation adopted of heavenly beings explaining the scheme of things to come to Enoch.  Second Enoch as well might be slightly older than Revelation, but its contents were very similar.  And the Apocalypse of Peter, written around the same time as Revelation, was actually given canonical status by Christan groups in Egypt and Ethiopia, but it never achieved that status by Roman Christians, who had a great deal of influence in canon formation.  Other apocalyptic material existed, but the mention of the above books helps one to see that apocalyptic writing was a genre and a style of writing over about a 400 year period that Revelation fits into.  Understanding the style and genre gives great insight into the interpretation of the New Testament's last book.

Revelation 16 is representative of the help one can receive in interpreting its symbols by knowing the genre of apocalyptic literature.  A series of angels are pouring bowls of wrath onto the Earth.  Immediately one notices that a literal understanding doesn't give insight.  Instead, one knows from other apocalyptic books that angels deliver God's messages to chosen humans.  These angels do things like ride in different directions around the Earth and report to God what they saw (as in Zechariah) or open scrolls and explain its contents (as in Daniel).  They measure things (as in Second Enoch and Ezekiel).  Or they interpret great battles' consequences for all who live on the Earth (as in Second Esdras).

The bowls of Revelation 16, then, are actions of angels with a message for the inhabitants of Earth.  They are symbols belonging to the story of Christians who have cried out for God to avenge their oppression and suffering that has been unfolding in previous chapters.  The seven seals, for instance, show that God has received reports from his angels of his people's suffering, then reveals that he is going to act on their behalf to avenge their suffering.  Seven trumpets follow to publicly announce to his people that God knows who exactly is responsible for the persecution against his son's followers and that their end is new.  After the trumpets, John sees a vision in the sky of an evil force (Satan), who tries to eliminate Christianity as it was being born from Judaism and that Roman leaders (the first beast) and Jewish leaders (the second beast) had been in cahoots with the Romans and on their own oppressing his sacred people, now those who follow the slain lamb.

In auspicious manner (because Revelation 15.1 says these seven angels' actions are God's πληγὰς ἑπτὰ τὰς ἐσχάτας... ἐτελέσθη ὁ θυμὸς τοῦ θεοῦ  ["seven last plagues... that finish his anger"]), seven angels start pouring out bowls of anger onto the Earth.  The first four recall God's dealings with the king of Egypt 1500 years prior to John's time in a Great Deliverance that alleviated his people's pain of suffering. The first four bowls of anger conjured up the accompanying signs of that Great Devliverance in foreshadowing what God was about to do for his people in John's time because the emperors of Rome, their governors, and Jews everywhere around the empire had been persistently persecuting them.

Verse 8

Καὶ ὁ τέταρτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ καυματίσαι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἐν πυρί

(The fourth one poured his bowl out onto the sun causing people to suffer from extreme heat.)

Verse 9

καὶ ἐκαυματίσθησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι καῦμα μέγα καὶ ἐβλασφήμησαν τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἔχοντος τὴν ἐξουσίαν ἐπὶ τὰς πληγὰς ταύτας καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν δοῦναι αὐτῷ δόξαν

(When people felt the tremendous heat, they spoke profanities against the name of God, the one having the power over these plagues, and refused to give him due honor.)

Verse 10

Καὶ ὁ πέμπτος ἐξέχεεν τὴν φιάλην αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον τοῦ θηρίου, καὶ ἐγένετο ἡ βασιλεία αὐτοῦ ἐσκοτωμένη, καὶ ἐμασῶντο τὰς γλώσσας αὐτῶν ἐκ τοῦ πόνου

(The fifth poured his bowl onto the beast's throne, and its kingdom became dark.  People bit their tongues to endure their suffering.)

Verse 11

καὶ ἐβλασφήμησαν τὸν θεὸν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐκ τῶν πόνων αὐτῶν καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἑλκῶν αὐτῶν καὶ οὐ μετενόησαν ἐκ τῶν ἔργων αὐτῶν

(They spoke profanities against the God of Heaven since they had to endure suffering and had been covered in festering sores.  But they did not say they wanted to change the behavior that caused their pain.)

There are some very close parallels with Second Esdras at this point.  The first 4 bowls of anger speak to God's anger about the treatment of his people.  That also is a theme using the same kind of symbolic language of leading his people from torment out of Egypt in Second Esdras 15.5-12.  The fourth bowl of anger uses imagery with the sun and extreme heat.  The same kind of imagery of destruction of the abusers of God's people is used in Second Esdras 13.8-11.  The sun isn't mentioned in that context, but fire, flames, and sparks spewing from the Messiah's mouth to burn people and to show humanity that God is in control and through his anger he brings accountability  to a group of people mistreating those who live by his name is the same.  Rejection of God and refusal to change behavior by those who act profanely against him in the bowls poured out by angels 4 and 5 of John's vision parallels Second Esdras 9.7-13.  And although there is the same kind of imagery in Day of the Lord passages in the Old Testament, such as Isaiah 13.6-18, the details of apocalyptic imagery represent the denoument an age and a beginning of a new era, not just a cleansing.

The above parallels with Second Esdras make the point that God's people have called out to him, that he has heard them and will act against the ones subjecting them to mistreatment.  Both books were written about the same time with the same message.  They corroborate the treatment of God's people at the hands of the Romans, and both show that God is acting with superlative means and with supernatural, unmistakable, inimicable justice against this invincible empire.  Both make the comparison to the Egyptian deliverance, which was Judaism's pivotal, seminal event.  Both have overtones that this time God is acting on behalf of his people the Christians, including those Jews who believed and accepted Jesus for who he was, but excluding those Jews who believed Jesus to be a prophet, not the son of God or the messiah.

One of the reasons John's Apocalypse resonates with me is that, at times, I have found myself on the opposite side of Christianity.  I have been in situations when no one knew that I was a Christian, and so I saw others rail against it as an evil in the world.  I have heard people say God doesn't exist and Christianity is a mere superstition.  I have heard and been in the presence of scientists speaking about the impossibility of God's existence, that we as sentient beings have created a god out of necessity for controling the masses of people.

Admittedly, ashamedly, my silence against such terrible profanity against the Maker of Heaven and Earth fits into the category of these Romans and Jews who persecuted Christians for their beliefs in a superstition that God's son rose from the dead and will return for his followers.  Deservedly, I should accept my judgment of festering sores or death from not getting to drink Earth's lifesources of water.  My early years as an adult were characteristic of idealism and relentless pursuit of knowing more about God.  But my middle years were filled with silence as the scientific pursuits of knowledge encroached on my faith rather than supplementing it.

But, with knowledge, there is a tipping point.  It must decide to continue to supplant one's spiritual beliefs or decide to make it subsidiary to faith because knowledge seeks arrogance and self aggrandizement and doesn't coexist with the humble nature of faith well.  It was evident that supplanting my belief would place me in a kingdom that would become dark.  So I thank the God of the Great Deliverance from Egypt and the God of the Great Deliverance from Rome for allowing time for the profanity of silence to change  into a voice for the sake the kingdom of light.  I am grateful to have changed discomfort from the extreme heat of the sun into letting others see that God stands with his people and acts in their lives.  John's apocalypse, his disclosure of the One who stands with his people, even me, brings me to an unclouded moment with "the one who has the power over the plagues," who deserves my due honor!



[Introductory photo of reflection is found at https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8d/82/3a/8d823a0a3cc358656c1e2c48f6eb19a1--stunning-photography-photography-ideas.jpg]
[The first song is There Is A Cloud by Elevation Worship.  The second song is So Will I by Hillsong.]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]

[Translations from Greek are my own.]

Representation

Reflections are everywhere - in crystal blue lakes and shining, marble surfaces, in the glass of towering skyscrapers and the concave lenses of ever-present cameras. They capture my thinking and mesmerize me, enticing me to look again because there's more in the picture!

Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_image

From the early portions of the Old Testament, it appeared that God selected a people to represent him on the Earth.  But several hundred years later, the Prophets very plainly told the Jews they had not lived up to their calling.  Some prophets told them they had lost their chance.  God was moving on without them.  Other prophets said that although the Jews had totally squandered their chance to represent God on the Earth, he would grant them a second chance if they asked for forgiveness and changed their ways.  This second series of prophecies were what the Jews put their hope in.  So, they desperately tried to cleanse themselves of their weaknesses and live better lives. Over several hundred years and switches in world empires later, they thought they had accomplished this.  By the time Augustus Caesar became emperor of Rome and all of its conquered provinces, the Jews felt very much like they again represented God on the Earth, especially if put against the likes of the barbaric, evil, and bloodthirsty Romans.
But during the reign of Augustus something happened in the Jewish province of Rome that should have altered the entire direction of Jewish beliefs.  The Jews' whole world should have been rocked and people there should have repented of their impoverished representation of the One whose power created the Earth and directed the destinies of countries on the Earth.  God's chosen one that they all thought would come at some point in their history actually did come.  Their entire belief system and their very existence depended on the appearance of this messiah, but the Jews, especially their leaders, didn't acknowledge his presence or his teachings.  And they were definitely privy to his presence in their country.
70 years after this event in Judea, Luke traveled through the same realms of the world that Paul traveled, even traveling with Paul at times.  He saw what Paul saw.  The Jews still felt that they represented God wherever they had their communities. They ran Paul and his associates out of several towns and confronted Paul at nearly every turn for presenting the idea that they had missed their messiah, God's chosen.  And all in full view of the Romans, who thought that the Jews were a really obstinate, arrogant group, rebellious to the core, not the representatives of God on Earth.  
Luke knew how strongly the Jews denied that they had lost the opportunity to accept God's change by accepting Jesus' message, so he wrote stories such as the ones found in Luke 15 where Jesus told parables of God's patience to accept them if they wanted to be found.  But Luke also wanted the Jews to know their time had expired to represent God, and that they had had good warning. So, he included a story in his writings (Chapter 16) where Jesus dealt with the issue of a time when the Jewish leadership had been presented a chance and a choice to quit misrepresenting God.  Jesus' story was aimed directly at the majority party of the ruling sect in Jerusalem, the Sadducees.  Those leaders had been wealthy.  The people hadn't been.  And the people had seen the rulers accumulating money and power in a rather corrupt manner.
.Jesus had not been coy.  He told them that a wealthy house owner heard his manager was corrupt, so the owner called him into account for his actions.  The manager knew he would be canned because he was corrupt (from getting more money than he should have from people to line his own pockets and from treating those people poorly). The manager  went to all the owner's debtors and reduced their debts so that when the owner did fire him, they would take him in.  Thus, Jesus directed his words straight to the leaders who had cut deals with the Romans to retain their leadership and to keep their purses full.
Verse 9
Καὶ ἐγὼ ὑμῖν λέγω, ἑαυτοῖς ποιήσατε φίλους ἐκ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ τῆς ἀδικίας, ἵνα ὅταν ἐκλίπῃ δέξωνται ὑμᾶς εἰς τὰς αἰωνίους σκηνάς
(I say, go ahead and make friends of those you overcharged for your own gain and have now short-changed the house owner with.  When it disappears, those are the friends who will be the ones to accept you into their vain and empty lives for the rest of your days.)
 The Jewish leaders should have been interested in hearing about acceptance that would lead to a place for them for the rest of their days.  They had perpetuated a belief system that they alone had represented God on the Earth, and they would be rewarded for it.  The regular Jews understood that God wanted their undying love.  They saw God's heart.

But the leaders didn't see the same thing. They had dismissed the prophets that had told them otherwise and embraced the ones that told them they had been reinstated as the guardians of God on the Earth.  Jesus was telling their leaders otherwise.  But, they couldn't hear it.  Instead, they wanted to play games by quibbling over whether or not there even was a place to spend the rest of one's days.  The Sadducees, the majority party, had said no, the Pharisees, the minority, said yes.  And the two ruling sects were split on how to handle money as well.  Sadducees were aristocratic and didn't let religion get in the way of business while Pharisees placed a little more value on the use of money collected in God's name, namely the tithe and supporting temple worship.  But the Sadducees held the majority.  So, Jesus leveled his charge at them.  First, there was a place to spend the rest of a person's days, and second, their value of money from corruption in business was a determining factor in receiving that place.  
Verse 10
Ὁ πιστὸς ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ καὶ ἐν πολλῷ πιστός ἐστιν, καὶ ὁ ἐν ἐλαχίστῳ ἄδικος καὶ ἐν πολλῷ ἄδικός ἐστιν
(The  person who is trustworthy with a little is trustworthy with a lot.  And the one who is corrupt with a little is corrupt with a lot.)
Verse 11
εἰ οὖν ἐν τῷ ἀδίκῳ μαμωνᾷ πιστοὶ οὐκ ἐγένεσθε, τὸ ἀληθινὸν τίς ὑμῖν πιστεύσει
(So, if you can't be trustworthy in obtaining your riches through honest means, who will trust you with true riches? )
With clarity that even the Sadducees could not twist, Jesus tells them 
Verse 12
καὶ εἰ ἐν τῷ ἀλλοτρίῳ πιστοὶ οὐκ ἐγένεσθε, τὸ ὑμέτερον τίς ὑμῖν δώσει
(and if you can't be trustworthy with someone else's affairs, who will give you what could have been rightfully yours?)
The statement is in question form, but the question was not asking for information.  It was rhetorical and the apparent answer could not have been misunderstood by the majority group.  They had forgotten that the rule of reciprocation applied to a higher power than Rome.  God was on his throne and was faithful to those who reflected that principle.  

And, there was one more thing.  Although the statements Jesus used about corruption and wealth were metaphorical in his parable, he didn't want them to construe his metaphor into a claim that the story's moral didn't apply to their misrepresentation of God.  So Jesus didn't leave it unsaid.
Verse 13
Οὐδεὶς οἰκέτης δύναται δυσὶν κυρίοις δουλεύειν· ἢ γὰρ τὸν ἕνα μισήσει καὶ τὸν ἕτερον ἀγαπήσει, ἢ ἑνὸς ἀνθέξεται καὶ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταφρονήσει. οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ
(It is impossible for a household servant to serve two masters.  He will hate one and love the other or he will side with one and look contemptuously on the other. It is impossible to serve God and corruptly amassing wealth.)
And even though Jesus' statements were about faithfulness to God and the fact that God was rejecting those who represented him for their unfaithfulness, Jesus used another word to make it clear what their position was in the equation.  He didn't mince words.  His analogy was not of a loving father giving a message to his sons.  It wasn't of a loving God trying to woo his wayward chosen people.  It was of a house owner and his servant.  The Sadducees got it.  They were serving their ill-begotten money as if they were servants in its house.  They were not servants in God's house.
Jesus' words from Luke come at a time between what the prophets said and what Paul experienced, and Luke made them surface again during a time in the Empire after Titus had destroyed Jerusalem for Rome's sake.  Jesus tried to alter the Jews' thinking and get them to accept what God was telling them through him.  The one who called himself the Son of Man, the picture the Jews had made of God's handpicked person, and who identified himself in a number of instances as I AM, hadn't altered the Jews' track.  What a clear signal that Jews were on a whole different trajectory than Christians.  God had moved on.  The Jews had lost their standing to represent God.  Christians had received the standing to now show the world the Great I AM.
The signal is still clear.  It reminds me of what I should be in the business of doing.  I should be representing God by showing generosity to those who need it, not trying to look out for my own gain (in all areas, but money included).  People need acceptance and favor... and yes, money sometimes.  I think that more often than not, the question God asks me is, "Do I represent him or not in showering people with what they need?"  There was a countdown timer set for the Sadducees.  They let time expire without altering how they would spend the rest of their days.  Fortunately for me, my timer's still counting and I can walk through the rest of my life representing well one Lord, not two, since that is impossible.



[Introductory photo of reflection is found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_image]
[The first song is Everything I Do by Bryan Adams.  The second song is On the Throne by Kari Jobe.]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]

[Translations from Greek are my own.]

Those who accept

Reflections are everywhere - in crystal blue lakes and shining, marble surfaces, in the glass of towering skyscrapers and the concave lenses of ever-present cameras. They capture my thinking and mesmerize me, enticing me to look again because there's more in the picture!

I can imagine John, deep in thought, taking a walk through his adopted hometown of Ephesus.  The last two decades had been a far cry different from his days in Galilee.  Here the hustle and bustle of a large commercial center in the Roman Empire had drowned out the quiet memories of the homeland of his youth.  But he would never, never forget them.  Today they were fresh on his mind because he was observing the people around him.  The people here appeared to be consumed with trying to be so important to themselves, to impress others, to make a buck at everyone else's expense.  Where he grew up 55 years ago wasn't much different from that - until Jesus had come into the world.  After that, every little event that had happened and every insignificant person Jesus had acknowledged stuck in his memory because Jesus had time for people and treated them right.  And, most importantly, he represented God whose valued did not reflect those found on the Earth.

But here he was in the midst of an important Roman province where the Romans themselves were a ruthless, restless, and arrogant lot because of the extent of their great empire.  The Greeks, whose city he was now living and walking around in, had a certain arrogance too, but for different reasons.  They were the remnant of a worldwide empire whose glory years still appeared everywhere in their architecture and temples.  They were a sophisticated people because they had established an educated citizenry.  Ephesus had shared in that glory.

But as great as these two societies had been, both Romans and Greeks were guided by their own power and enlightenment even though they gave lip service to a pantheon of Gods.  They failed to acknowledge that one God allows nations to rise and fall.  They hadn't recognized the Maker of the world when he had arrived on his own created planet as light in the midst of darkness.

John Chaper 1

Verse 9

Ἦν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον, ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον

(He came into the world as true light, shining on everyone.)

John had for quite some time now wanted to write memoirs of a man who had had time to stop and affect people.  He thought of Jesus - absent in the lives of most people of this city - but so ever present in the lives of those he had touched.  Jesus had had time for people.  He had changed people.  John stopped his walk for a moment to watch people hustling around.  For sure the people in Ephesus needed time with the Teacher.  He wished they could feel his touch, change their lives, and know his spirit in their beings.  Then they could understand the concept that people don't have to die. They could believe Jesus is God's son, escape from a world of death, and look forward to a world of life.

John last saw Jesus on the Earth somewhere between 29 C.E. and 33 C.E.  From that point on, a tremendous turn of events had put Christianity on the path to become a worldwide religion.  Paul had converted to Christianity within four years of Jesus' death, and by the 40s had begun his journeys through Asia Minor, including this city of Ephesus where John was now hurting for his fellow townspeople. For 25 years Paul had followed God's lead all over the north Mediterranean world spreading the news of Jesus.  John had followed in some of Paul's footsteps and had ended up here in Ephesus.  John interrupted his walk again to muse over the question of why so many people who had had exposure to Jesus through Paul's tremendous efforts wouldn't change.  Why wouldn't they want to leave this world to go to their true home.  Why wouldn't they recognize Jesus and accept what he had to offer?

Verse 10

ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν, καὶ ὁ κόσμος δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ ὁ κόσμος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω

(He was in the world created at his hands, but the world didn't acknowledge him.)

John remembered feeling at Jesus' ascension into the heavens that Jesus' story was here to stay and would affect change in people's lives.  Somewhere in the 50s the collection of stories called Mark began to be circulated to help the events of Jesus coalesce instead of dissipate into thin air.  No longer would those events be merely a group of oral stories for centuries ahead to forget about.  Paul helped the cause as well, going to the center of the empire, Rome itself, to affect the Master's change in the lives of people in the world's capital.  Paul's story on the Earth ended there.  He left for his new home from Rome.  But the Romans had heard Paul tell them that Jesus had come to give them life and and an extraordinary place to go after their lives here had ended.  What a model for everyone!

During all of this time, Peter also had worked hard in spreading the story of Jesus.  He had ended up in Rome about the same time as Paul and closed his life on Earth near the same time.  John himself had migrated to Ephesus about a decade after Paul had been there and had become the renowned leader of the faith in the commercialized coastal area of western Asia Minor.  Yet even after almost 50 years after the presence of Jesus on the Earth and three great leaders to tell the people his story, here he was, wondering why so many people bustled about with no regard for the Teacher's touch.

John continued his walk through Ephesus thinking about how Jesus' story had come together even more with the efforts of Luke to recount Jesus' life and Paul's efforts for the people living in the northern Mediterranean.  At about the same time, another Jewish writer, had written the story of Jesus' life for the Jews of Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome in the fading years of the century before Domitian became Emperor in 81 C.E.  People called it Matthew because it had used stories circulated right after Jesus' life, the ones Mark recorded, but had added others from Matthew's connection to the family of Joseph.  He felt grateful that the Christian faith had taken root in most of the provinces across the Roman Empire as a result.

Now times had begun to change.  A really different kind of emperor had taken the seat of power in Rome who thought he was God.  Eyewitnesses to Jesus' life had disappeared.  Only he was left to combat this most imperious of all emperors to date.  For a moment he thought he knew how Jesus must have felt.

Verse 11

εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθεν, καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸν οὐ παρέλαβον

(He came to his own creation, but the people of his own creation didn't accept him.)

As the only remaining eyewitness to Jesus' life and teachings, death and resurrection, he resolved to take action.  The people needed the Teacher's touch and his forgiveness.  How could he convey that?  Not through simply retelling the events of Jesus' story.  That had been done.  John needed to share the heart of Jesus, the mind and soul of the Son of God.  He wanted people to believe that Jesus really had come in the flesh, died, and woken again to live.  He wanted people to trust the stories already in circulation, the stories of forgiveness for wrongs against others and God.  Someone needed to give insight to God's Imprint on humanity, the one who had been with God, who was God.  His light had pierced the darkness never to be extinguished.

Besides the Romans and Greeks in this city needing the Master's touch, a group of Christians called Gnostics, had emerged who actually disclaimed that Jesus, the Son of God, had walked the Earth.  Jesus had been only a man.  God could never inhabit a man's body - his psyche, maybe, but not his body.  They needed the real message of Jesus, and they needed his forgiveness.

John knew he had to quell that message.  He had to tell the stories of real people with real personalities that had seen a real Jesus and been changed.  Jesus had been authentic.  His teaching was actually and exactly what God wanted for his creation.  Who could really reject Jesus if they saw his heart fully and his father's unfailing love?

So, as John finished his walk and entered his house, he decided then and there that he would reach out to the people in Ephesus and the surrounding region.  He would put pen to parchment telling of actual people who had encountered Jesus, one after another, and changed the course of their lives here and in the next life, that extraordinary place where he was waiting for them.  He got excited to eloquently articulate and illustrate the mind, heart, and soul of Jesus and show that Jesus met people and changed each one.

Verse 12

οσοι δε ελαβον αυτον εδωκεν αυτοις εξουσιαν τεκνα θεου γενεσθαι τοις πιστευουσιν εις το ονομα αυτου

(But to all those that did accept him and believe who he was, he gave the power to become the children of God.)

John got what he wanted.  He wanted to write his memoirs so the people around him could see Jesus' heart, soul, and mind.  They saw it.  He changed Ephesus.  And he left behind two spiritual sons, Polycarp and Papias, who powerfully led God's flock after him in the area.

John's telling of Jesus' goodness, forgiveness, and love has allowed every Christians who has succeeded him, including me, to see the one who changed the world.  I can accept Jesus for who he was, believe and trust him, and receive the gift of the power to also become God's son.

And I do.  I accept... and believe... and trust... and have been on the path of transformation... from grace to grace... from death to life!



[Introductory photo of reflection is found at http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-child-children-little-boy-kissing-his-reflection-in-a-mirror-school-33689180.html]
[The first song is The Light of the World by Lauren Deigle.  The second song is Grace to Grace by Hillsong Worship.  The third song is Home by Chris Tomlin.  The fourth song is Forgiveness  by David Crowder.  The last song is Behold by Hillsong Worship.]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]

Walking away from Rome

Reflections are everywhere - in crystal blue lakes and shining, marble surfaces, in the glass of towering skyscrapers and the concave lenses of ever-present cameras. They capture my thinking and mesmerize me, enticing me to look again because there's more in the picture!

The words were uttered on the side of a lake.  They would have been easy to miss.  The situation started with Jesus' question, "Do you care about me?" and ended with "Follow me."  Between these phrases, most of the dialog was about Jesus letting Simon know that he would be counting on him to guide his followers.  But all of that dialog was foretelling how Simon would spend his life.  At the tail end of the Q&A part of the conversation in John 21.18-19, Jesus foretells Simon's death.  The remark is easy to miss, especially when reading for gist.

The short remark was to forewarn Simon of a difficult death.  Simon could easily see the metaphor of protection and provision for Jesus' little lambs before Jesus finished speaking to him, which is what Jesus wanted him to do.  But, the statement that followed the Q&A was less metaphorical and more matter of fact.  Jesus knew Peter's last day wouldn't be a soft landing at the end of an illustrious life.  He separated his guidance portion from the death forewarning with the repetition of the word  ἀμὴν (amen or something on the order of "truthfully").  Jesus wanted him to know not to expect to go softly into the dark on his last day.  His reward would be only, but certainly, in the next life.  So Jesus began:

Verse 18a

Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, ὅτε ἦς νεώτερος, ἐζώννυες σεαυτὸν καὶ περιεπάτεις ὅπου ἤθελες

(Here's the truth.  When you were younger, you got yourself ready and went wherever you wanted to go.)

Yes, Simon was young in the early days of The Way.  He had the energy and charisma to lead the little lambs to a robust belief in Jesus' Way.  He would lead in Jerusalem in the face of the Jews that wouldn't recognize Jesus as messiah, in Corinth in the face of gnostics who would spiritualize Christianity into simply an inner light for a serene life, and in Rome in the face of the most brutal and indifferent masters of a world empire.

But, Jesus continued speaking:

Verse 18b

ὅταν δὲ γηράσῃς, ἐκτενεῖς τὰς χεῖράς σου, καὶ ἄλλος σε ζώσει καὶ οἴσει ὅπου οὐ θέλεις

(But when you get old, you will raise your hands for someone else to get your ready and take you where you don't want to go.)

Yes, Simon would grow old.  He would cross paths with powerful people and stand for the faith, but eventually one of those powerhouses would be his nemesis, leading him down a path he would not want to travel.  His life would end.

Verse 19a

τοῦτο δὲ εἶπεν σημαίνων ποίῳ θανάτῳ δοξάσει τὸν θεόν

(He said this to signify what kind of death he would honor God with.)

A great historical account exists of the end of Simon's life.  The story recounts events that happened exactly as Jesus said.  The account exists in both Latin and Greek and is called today, The Acts of Peter.  Section 6, labeled Martyrdom of Peter, relates the episode.  Simon is told by Christians close to him in Rome that Agrippa was actively seeking to kill him.  They urged him to leave Rome so that he could continue to teach them from afar.  Peter took their advice, disguised himself, and left Rome.

At the outskirts of the city, Simon saw a man approaching him on the road.  As they passed each other, Simon recognized the other man to be Jesus.  Peter spoke out:

Και ο πετρος ιδων ειπεν αυτω κυριε που ωδε

(Peter noticed him and said, "Lord, where are you going?")

Και ο κυριος ειπεν αυτω εισερχομαι εις την ρωμην σταυρωθηναι

(The Lord said to him, "I am going into Rome to be crucified.")

Και ο πετρος ειπεν αυτω κυριε μου παλιν σταυρουσαι

(Peter replied, "My Lord, are you being crucified again?")

Και ειπεν αυτω ο κυριος ναι πετρε παλιν σταυρουμαι

(The Lord answered, "Yes, Peter, I am being crucified again.")

Και ελθων εις εαυτον ο πετρος και ιδων τον κυριον εις ουρανον ανελθοντα

(Then Peter watched the Lord ascend to Heaven.)

The account went on to say that Jesus' words all those long years ago by the side of the lake flashed through Simon's mind.  It is clear that Simon also remembered Jesus' last instruction to him (John 21.19).

Verse 19b

καὶ τοῦτο εἰπὼν λέγει αὐτῷ· ἀκολούθει μοι

(He then reiterated to Peter, "Follow me.")

Simon could hear again Jesus' voice imprint at the end of his prediction, "Follow me."  That remembered imprint caused Simon to turn to follow Jesus' wish of going back into Rome to suffer crucifixion for his Lord.  All Rome could see the crucifixion of Jesus a second time through his body.

And from his head-downward position on the cross, Simon told the followers of Jesus that had gathered there, the mystery of the cross, namely that everything on Earth is backward to the way of the cross.  Simon quoted Jesus as saying, "Unless you make the things on the right as the things on the left, and the things below as the things above, and the things behind as the things in front, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."  Matthew West captures this message from The Martyrdom of Peter wonderfully well in his song, My Finest Hour.

 As time has passed, I have looked on accomplishments that have come my way, what I would consider my finest hours.  They usually led to making life a little better in some way or to giving my children an example.  Only recently have I tried to look on things that have happened and queried Jesus, "Where are you going (with the skills and experiences you have given me?)."  I expect that the answer is the same one Simon received, "I am going into Rome to be crucified again."  I translate that into my own life as "I am visiting your experiences for you to use them for my honor."  So, like Peter, I turn back to take up again what I have done in order to honor God.  

Let it happen.



[Introductory photo of reflection retrieved from http://www.topdesignmag.com/62-impressive-examples-of-reflection-photography.  The second work of art is retrieved from http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/St.%20Peter%20Lives%20of%20the%20Popes.html]
[The first song is Be Not Afraid, I Go Before You Always by Harsh Realm.  The second song is My Finest Hour by Matthew West]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[The Greek text used for the Acts of Peter and the kingdom of heaven quotation of Jesus is taken from The Ancient Martyrdom Accounts of Peter and Paul by David L. Eastman]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]

Raised voices

Reflections are everywhere - in crystal blue lakes and shining, marble surfaces, in the glass of towering skyscrapers and the concave lenses of ever-present cameras. They capture my thinking and mesmerize me, enticing me to look again because there's more in the picture!

 Nobody really likes for the government to give deadlines and force people to conform.  Not now and not in the Roman Empire of old. The story found in Luke 2.1-20 starts with the oppressive Romans forcing their will once again on their provinces.  It began with a royal decree and with two people in a difficult situation that no one in the world had ever really heard of.  Mary and Joseph were married, yes, but they shared no intimacy until the child was born that Mary was pregnant with.  She was about to deliver that child, so the decree to register at a designated census center was awful timing.  It meant traveling about 3 days on foot, disastrous for a woman ready to deliver a child.  And for what?  Just to register for a census?  The world power Romans were demanding a count of people in its provinces.  Ridiculous!  But the two obeyed the decree.

Joseph and Mary both knew the child would be special.  They had had visitations and dreams that God himself was coming to be with his people through their child.  So far, Joseph and Mary and Mary's cousin Elizabeth had shared this secret.  But, the circle was about to widen.  It would start with this census although Mary and Joseph didn't know that.  Once in Bethlehem, Joseph tried to stay at the local inn, but it had no vacancy.  The innkeeper offered them the stables where the donkeys, sheep, and goats were being kept for his tenants.  Since they didn't have a choice, they took the stable.

It doesn't take much imagination to know what a long journey can do to hasten a pregnant woman's delivery.  Joseph set up an area in the stable for sleeping.  But as he was about to settle in, he heard Mary's cry.

"What is it?" he said, turning to look at Mary as she cried in pain.

"He's coming.  I'm having the baby!"  She could barely draw breath to talk because of the contraction seizing her.

He swung into action.  He ran to get a large bowl of water and a number of cloths for both baby and Mary.  Then he delivered Jesus, their baby boy.  After several trips for water, Joseph had both wife and baby washed and clean.  He wrapped the little baby in a cloth.  Mary and he took turns holding their newborn, gazing lovingly into his face.  After a long while, they all needed rest, so they laid him in the trough filled with hay where usually the animals ate.  He settled down next to Mary to admire the new life that had just come to them and to wonder what might lie in store.  It crossed his mind how much less than ordinary this birth was.  This special child was born away from its home, so no relatives were there celebrating his birth.  He lay in a feed trough in a town not his own where nobody knew of his coming into the world.  After all the messages from God to prepare him and Mary for this birth, surely God from his highest place in the heavens hadn't let this birth slip his notice.

In front of the inn, a group of men were running to its entrance demanding to know if a child had been born to anyone that night.  The innkeeper didn't know, so he said, "No!  Everyone with a room was sleeping."

But, the men were insistent.  "No?" they shouted questioningly.  "The answer cannot be no.  We have just experienced something extraordinary.  There has to be a child here.  The rest of the town is silent.  There would be families together in the houses if one of the women of the town had had a baby.  Someone must be here who has had a baby."

Joseph heard the rising tone of voices in front of the inn.  He roused himself from his and Mary's make-shift bed to see if the excitement was a danger to them.  As he rounded the corner, one of the men ran over to him, "Do you know of anyone who has had a baby tonight?"

"Why?  Who are you?" Joseph asked.

"We are local shepherds.  We were watching a flock just on the other side of this hill."  The man's voice betrayed his uncontained excitement.

"Tell me what you experienced that was so extraordinary?" Joseph asked.

Then Joseph heard the astounding sequence of events that had just occurred outside of town.

Verse 9

καὶ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐπέστη αὐτοῖς καὶ δόξα κυρίου περιέλαμψεν αὐτούς, καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν φόβον μέγαν

(An angel from the Lord stood beside them and the brilliance of the Lord lit up the countryside around them.  They were seized with terror.)

Verse 10

καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ ἄγγελος· μὴ φοβεῖσθε, ἰδοὺ γὰρ εὐαγγελίζομαι ὑμῖν χαρὰν μεγάλην ἥτις ἔσται παντὶ τῷ λαῷ

(And the angel said to them.  "Don't be afraid!  I am here to deliver news to you that will bring tremendous happiness to everyone.")

Joseph recognized immediately that  God was now starting to announce the special nature of this child to a broader circle.  Mary lay completely exhausted in the stable trying to sleep, but Joseph knew she would want to hear this story, so he brought the shepherds to her for her to hear.  The shepherds repeated their experience to Mary, then continued telling why the angel said they had appeared to them.

Verse 11

ὅτι ἐτέχθη ὑμῖν σήμερον σωτὴρ ὅς ἐστιν χριστὸς κύριος ἐν πόλει Δαυίδ

(because on this day a savior has been born, who is messiah, Lord, in the city of David )

Verse 12

καὶ τοῦτο ὑμῖν τὸ σημεῖον, εὑρήσετε βρέφος ἐσπαργανωμένον καὶ κείμενον ἐν φάτνῃ

(And here's a sign for you - you will find a baby just born, wrapped and lying in his baby bed)

I would imagine Joseph and Mary were brought to tears recognizing the magnitude of what had happened.  God was starting to make others aware of his plan to be among them in this child.  They had to have been ecstatic.  But, the shepherds were not finished.  "That's not all," they spoke with heightened speech.  "Right after the angel told us about a savior being born..."

Verse 13

καὶ ἐξαίφνης ἐγένετο σὺν τῷ ἀγγέλῳ πλῆθος στρατιᾶς οὐρανίου αἰνούντων τὸν θεὸν καὶ λεγόντων

(Suddenly, with the angel, a crowd of many more angels appeared from the sky with these words: )

Verse 14

δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις θεῷ 
καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς εἰρήνη
ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας

(Great honor to God in the highest heavens!  
And on Earth, peace.
From its inhabitants, their highest praise!)

"That's why we're here.  We had to come see the new baby boy who deserves our highest praise!"

And people everywhere through all generations since that time continue to come see.  That's because we, as did the shepherds, feel the awe and splendor of someone in the highest heavens announcing to us on Earth - peace.  I, for one, am here with my highest praise to tell the story's beginning again... again... again... again...



[Introductory photo of reflection by David Kingham retrieved from https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/best-seasons-and-locations-for-night-sky-photography/]
[The first song is Oh, Holy Night by Josh Groban.  The middle song is Let the Heavens Open by Kari Jobe.  The last song is I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day by Casting Crowns]
[The Greek text used is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]