But he woke 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!



I am surprised by people from time to time, but not usually.  However, Jesus surprises me with his teachings and actions frequently.  Reading the New Testament over a number of years produces little surprise for some people who have studied it.  Reading it again is merely a mundane or routine exercise in duty for them.  But for me it offers enchantment in places I have glossed over in the past or enrichment to the passages that I thought I had milked for meaning.  Here at the time of year when Jesus died and rose on the third day of death, a passage I have read a huge number of times has resonated in my mind and enriched me this weekend.

One aspect of the New Testament's rising from death has always been amazing to me.  The three famous "raisings" Jesus performed, Jairus' daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus, were mentioned as just one of many miracles and were not given "magnanimous" status.  The Church Fathers that followed in the years and centuries later didn't highlight those ocurrences either.  That's surprising to me.  Nobody returns from death, and so to be a living example of someone back from the dead should have been given tremendous more press than it received.  There should be an apocryphal book ascribed to Lazarus or to the widow's son, or to Jairus' daughter.  Church historians should have follow-up biosketches of the people Jesus raised, but they don't.  That's so amazing to me.

Matthew 27 records an event that should be just as amazing.  It should be in the annals of the Church Fathers for sure.  The examples in the above paragraph are raisings of single individuals, but Matthew records "many" people all at once being released from death, walking out of their graves, and mixing again with the people of Jerusalem.  If there is a superlative term greater than magnaninous, stupendous, or incredulous, I would use it for this miracle of miracles.  But the event is mentioned as a matter of course in the two effects of the aftermath of Jesus' death.

Verse 51

Καὶ ἰδοὺ τὸ καταπέτασμα τοῦ ναοῦ ἐσχίσθη ἀπ’ ἄνωθεν ἕως κάτω εἰς δύο καὶ ἡ γῆ ἐσείσθη καὶ αἱ πέτραι ἐσχίσθησαν

(And it happened that the curtain in the temple was ripped in half from top to bottom, the Earth was shaken, and rocks were split apart)

Verse 52

καὶ τὰ μνημεῖα ἀνεῴχθησαν καὶ πολλὰ σώματα τῶν κεκοιμημένων ἁγίων ἠγέρθησαν

(Tombs were shaken open and many bodies of good people who had fallen asleep were woken up.)

Verse 53

καὶ ἐξελθόντες ἐκ τῶν μνημείων μετὰ τὴν ἔγερσιν αὐτοῦ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν πόλιν καὶ ἐνεφανίσθησαν πολλοῖς

(They left their tombs after his resurrection, came into the Holy City, and were seen by many.)

Many dead people mixing with many live people, πολλοῖς (many).  How does that get overlooked in a city of 75,000 inhabitants (an average of what scholars have estimated)?   Were they Christians or devout Jews since they were referred to as the ἁγίων (holy ones, good people)?  What kind of lives did these people live before and after their raising?  Did some of them change?  Did they wholeheartedly embrace the Christian movement as it separated itself from Judaism in the decades following their resurrection? Were they all followers of Jesus to begin with when they died or good Jews who would turn to Christianity after coming back?  Did they become Christian leaders in the years following Jesus' ascension?

The wording of the passage, πολλὰ σώματα (many bodies) could be interpreted that these many people who came back to be seen in Jerusalem appeared to others in the same way Jesus did when he appeared to the men from Emmaus or to his apostles and Mary.  He had qualities not quite like the rest of us humans.  He could just appear and disappear at will, and the ones mentioned above didn't recognize him at first.  However, he was in bodily form and everyone did finally recognize him.  Also, each of the main verbs used in the three verses, with the exception of came (verse 53), is passive.  Every action was caused by someone other than the subject of the sentence.  The agent causing the action is not mentioned except in the case of were seen by many in the Holy City (verse 53).  The other actions or verbs could only have one agent, but an implied one rather than an explicit one.  Only God or Jesus who had been charged by God could cause the earth to quake, the temple curtain in the Holy of Holies to rip in half, the rocks to split, tombs to open, and dead people to come alive again.  Only one person.  This would imply that that they were not under their own power.  So they didn't enter Jerusalem as if they were doing it of their own accord.  They were made manifest (were seen), ἐνεφανίσθησαν, so they might not have been continuously seen like they were when they were alive.

Either way the record reads many people! They were dead but came back to life.  That is no small event.

But I get it.  They are not the main attraction.  They were not the ones who taught about the Dominion of God.  They didn't raise themselves from the dead or perform many other miracles.  They didn't die a criminal's death or have all authority over the affairs of Heaven and Earth.  That was someone else - Jesus - God's son and chosen deliverer for his people of Israel.  Jesus, who said he could lay down his life and take it up again, told us he was going away to prepare for us a place and come again to take us to live with him.  Jesus, who told us he came so that we could have life and an extraordinary place, is the one with the story of stories to repeat for the generations to come - not Lazarus, the widow's son, or Jairus' daughter, and right, not even many people back from the dead, all at one time.

I plan to wake up from death when my life on Earth is over.  I look forward to having life in an extraordinary place after life here because Jesus was true to his father's charge to share his life with us.  He laid it down, he took it up again.  He woke up three days after he stopped breathing, appeared to many, many people, and is now preparing places for me and for all those who say, "You are the one who was chosen, the son of the living God."

[Introductory photo of reflection is found on Instagram's Natural Mirrors Amazing Places to Visit, retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/qaisarazeem/photography-of-nature/.  The second work of art Welcome Home is by Danny Hahlbohm and retrieved from http://www.fulcrumgallery.com/Danny-Hahlbohm/Welcome-Home_663673.htm]
[The first song is Alive in You by Jesus Culture.  The musical narration, He is Here, is found on Creative Sheep.com.  The last song is He Reigns by Newsboys]
[The Greek text used for the New Testament references is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]

Finality? Not on your life!

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!

When Doing Battle with Gazing Globe
by Lynnette Henderson

Death for four decades of my life was such a note of finality.  Yes, I knew about the resurrection.  Yes, I knew that Jesus provided his followers the promise of life after death.  And, yes, I believed in that I would be "raised" after I die to live in a place called Heaven.

But, death has a different aspect to it now for me.  At the end of four decades my son died an agonizing death from a rare bone cancer.  I went through every agonizing moment of his life between diagnosis and his departure along with my wife and daughter.  His death immediately affected all three of us, and over time we have all three sought God in very different ways.

But this blog is not about my son's death.  It was the starting point to a new aspect about life.  It started with the selection of John 14.2,3 to be read at my son's graveside service.

Verse 2

ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ πατρός μου μοναὶ πολλαί εἰσιν· εἰ δὲ μή, εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν ὅτι πορεύομαι ἑτοιμάσαι τόπον ὑμῖν

(In my father's compound are many rooms. If not so, then would I have said, "I go to make a place ready for you?")

Verse 3

καὶ ἐὰν πορευθῶ καὶ ἑτοιμάσω τόπον ὑμῖν, πάλιν ἔρχομαι καὶ παραλήμψομαι ὑμᾶς πρὸς ἐμαυτόν, ἵνα ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ καὶ ὑμεῖς ἦτε

(And if I have gone away to make a place ready for you, then I am coming back for you to join me so that where I am, you can be too.)

At the beginning of seeing with new eyes, I read this as a place to go.  But, as I have reflected many a time on this passage, I see that Jesus is talking about leaving this place, the Earth, merely going to another place to make some preparations.  Death was merely the break point between the two.  There is no separation at death, no note of finality, nothing to show a time lapse of dying, going through a Judgment Day, then "making it" to Heaven.  There is only mention of Jesus coming again so that we can join him in specially prepared family accommodations.  Jesus said it himself, "I came to give you life and an extraordinary place.  Life here, life there... no death, merely transition, merely exchange of one environment for another.

That was the start of considering again what Jesus offers his followers.  Then I started noticing Jesus' statements about life.  It didn't seem that he was talking about the way we lived our lives on Earth to obtain a position in an afterlife.  His idea of life was what happens at conception and stops when the body wears out or whose heart stops.  But the emphasis was not on what stops, but what is interrupted here on Earth, but continues in a dimension not known or seen by those left behind.  When I read for the thousandth time Jesus' conversation with his Twelve one day about a good shepherd, I thought I might have a grasp on Jesus' idea for life.

John 10.17-18

Verse 17

Διὰ τοῦτό με ὁ πατὴρ ἀγαπᾷ ὅτι ἐγὼ τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν μου, ἵνα πάλιν λάβω αὐτήν

(It's for this reason that my father loves me.  I lay down my life just to take it back again.)

Verse 18

οὐδεὶς αἴρει αὐτὴν ἀπ’ ἐμοῦ, ἀλλ’ ἐγὼ τίθημι αὐτὴν ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ. ἐξουσίαν ἔχω θεῖναι αὐτήν, καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχω πάλιν λαβεῖν αὐτήν· ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔλαβον παρὰ τοῦ πατρός μου

(No one takes it from me.  I lay it down of my own accord.  I have the authority to lay it down and take it up again.  This charge I have obtained from my father.)

When Jesus was on trial before Pilate, Pilate tried to play the life and death card with Jesus where death is so final (John 19.11).  Pilate thought Jesus was being too coy and complacent with him for Jesus to be in such dire straits.  So, Pilate told Jesus he had the power to stay his execution or command his execution.  Jesus replied,

Verse 11

ἀπεκρίθη [αὐτῷ] Ἰησοῦς· οὐκ εἶχες ἐξουσίαν κατ’ ἐμοῦ οὐδεμίαν εἰ μὴ ἦν δεδομένον σοι ἄνωθεν· διὰ τοῦτο ὁ παραδούς μέ σοι μείζονα ἁμαρτίαν ἔχει

(You have no authority over my life except what is given to you from above.  So, those who delivered me to you have a greater wrong.)

So, my mind finally saw that following Jesus gives me access to life (not a synonym for lifestyle).  The life that comes into us in a mother's womb and that stops at our last heartbeat... unless, of course, we have decided that Jesus is God's son, in which case life does not stop when our heartbeats quit.  We simply have a transition from one place where a certain type of life existed to another place, made ready for us when we join Jesus.  Life is laid down on a planet in a solar system, taken up again in a dimension elsewhere.  Our DNA encodes when our heart will wear out given a certain set of circumstances, much like Pilate's dictate to Jesus.  But, I hear the words Jesus spoke to our DNA by extension of his answer to Pilate, "You have no authority over my life."

That added nuance of insight for me has liberated me from thinking that I would die, my life stopped, my lifestyle evaluated, my soul making the lifestyle cut and spirited away to Heaven at some future point in time.  My new way of thinking allows me to live freely here, honor God, acknowledge his son and his teaching, and transition to live freely again in another dimension.  Death is robbed of its note of finality.

"My soul will dance on the wings of forever."

[Introductory photo of reflection is When Doing Battle with Gazing Globe by Lynnette Henderson and retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lynnette_henderson/2513227934/.  The second work of art Welcome Home is by Danny Hahlbohm and retrieved from http://www.fulcrumgallery.com/Danny-Hahlbohm/Welcome-Home_663673.htm]
[The first song is Say the Word by Hillsong United.  The second song is Touch the Sky by Hillsong United]
[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.]

So like me

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!

It was near Caesarea Philippi that Jesus tested the waters with the question of who he was (Matthew 16.13-20).  Peter reacted as Jesus had hoped, so he knew that Peter was representative of those who had followed his teachings.  His time of teaching and healing was to the point he could leave.  From then on, Jesus pressed to go to Jerusalem.  He had to be face to face with the Jewish leaders, the scholars and groups of Jews who were regarded as the keepers of the Law by the rest of the Jewish nation, to get them to give him due consideration.  Several days later, his meeting and conversation with Moses and Elijah again spurred him to turn his attention to Jerusalem (Matthew 17.1-13).  The stage had been set.

The Twelve followed Jesus into Jerusalem, not realizing that the end was imminent for him.  Matthew presented the public conversation between Jesus and those who represented the only true God on the Earth.  It was clear from the time Jesus entered Jerusalem that the Jewish establishment wasn't going to give him due consideration.  The hours were disappearing.  Jesus was on his collision course with crucifixion.  He knew he had only a moment in time to point out what was happening on Earth here in the heart of the Jewish nation.  He had distinctly different impressions of the Jewish leaders than they did of themselves.  His portrayal of them in Matthew 23 was a clear, unmitigated peeling back the layers of behavior the Jewish leaders had hidden behind for hundreds of years.  He wanted the people to know that they were being misled, misguided, and mistaught.  Jesus began by saying not to imitate the scholars and Pharisaical leaders, and then he exposed their layers one comparison at a time.  His last comparison is recorded in verses 27 and 28.

Verse 27

Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι ὑποκριταί, ὅτι παρομοιάζετε τάφοις κεκονιαμένοις, οἵτινες ἔξωθεν μὲν φαίνονται ὡραῖοι, ἔσωθεν δὲ γέμουσιν ὀστέων νεκρῶν καὶ πάσης ἀκαθαρσίας

(Oh-h-h you actors and interpreters - scholars of the Talmud and Pharisees - how disgusting!  You are like tombs that have been whitewashed on the outside, making it clear that dead men's bones and all that is unclean lie behind the rock.)

A tradition had grown up over a couple hundred years with whitewashing tombs.  The stone to the cave of the tomb was painted white as a sign to all that the cave was a tomb so that  people could be warned that this was an unclean place.  The comparison was obvious to Jesus.  The scholars and Pharisees had painted themselves white with all of their demands on those who were giving their best to follow the law.  But everyone could see through their pious facades to the lifeless motions behind.

Jesus was adamant.  The people supposed to be representing God weren't.  Not even a little. They should have been understanding of the human condition.  But no.  They didn't have the desire to accept those who had gone on long journeys with their inheritances, hit bottom in pig sties, and returned to the one who loved them.  They should have helped each other stand against lures that pulled them from the straight and narrow.  But no.  They didn't have the commitment to those succumbing to temptation to stoop and write in the sand to stave off accusers.  They should have turned a listening ear to those who had had life throw them curves.  But no.  They didn't have the compassion for their fellow Jews who had been beat up by life, passing by, instead, with turned heads, leaving someone that they disapproved of to show kindness.

They ignored completely incidents like men getting together to bring a lame friend to Jesus for healing.  And when they found it impossible to get their friend in front of Jesus because of the crowds, they jostled him to the roof, sawed a hole in it, tied ropes to the four corners of his crudely fashioned mat frame, and lowered him to Jesus' feet.  They failed to stand with reckless abandon in the presence of the Almighty, calling out his name, acknowledging that he was all around them in the many and monumental acts of acceptance, kindness, compassion, patience, and mercy of Jesus.  Even dead children and adults were raised to life as they watched.  How could they not look to the skies, then fall to their knees with the name of Yahweh on their lips?!!

Jesus often used puns and he did so here, too, with a metaphor. The words φαίνονται ὡραῖοι, translated "making it clear," has a remote meaning on occasion of "making it beautiful."  Whitewashing was a way to dress up the tombs, making them as attractive as possible, distracting onlookers from knowing the uncleanness inside.  Such were the leaders of the Jewish nation.

Verse 28

οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς ἔξωθεν μὲν φαίνεσθε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις δίκαιοι, ἔσωθεν δέ ἐστε μεστοὶ ὑποκρίσεως καὶ ἀνομίας

(This is so like you.  Outwardly you want it to be clear that you are doing all the right things, but inwardly you are actually acting a part, delivering a good speech, and bending rules.)

On the surface, these piercing words against the scholars and Pharisees seem uncharacteristic of Jesus' acceptance of others and his willingness to give people second chances.  On the other hand, the timing of his words make them particularly astute.  In about 48 hours, he would sit around a table to observe the Passover meal, take bread and wine, pass them to each of his Twelve, and announce to them a new covenant that he wanted to make with them.  Very noticeably, Jesus wanted to make this new covenant a time to remember him, his ways, and his teachings - teachings distinctly different from the Jerusalem crowd's "acting, interpreting, and bending rules."  He was replacing the Jewish established leaders as God's representatives on Earth.  He, the Son of Man, the Messiah, the Son of God was offering life and a genuine way of following God to those who would remember him till he came again.  The inner and outward values would be the same genuine article, not arbitrary or merely oratorical.

Something I cannot ignore powerfully draws my attention to these two sayings.  Jesus used the word ὑποκριταί  to refer to the leaders in Jerusalem.  The word was used in a couple of ways.  First, it was used to mean an actor in a play.  Second, it was used of an orator delivering his promises or of an interpreter of what was being said.  Used in Jesus' context, the terms showed how poor an interpreter the leaders had become and how memorized their lines were.  They were lame actors, languid interpreters.  The second, saying uses a different form of the noun, ὑποκρίσεως, meaning the part of an actor, the delivery of the speech, or the manner in which something was translated.  The meanings applied not to the people themselves, but to their actions.  All the Jewish leaders had to do was to look back on their actions... and there were many because their lives were full of them.  On top of that, Jesus framed both sayings in a μὲν ...  δὲ sentence structure.  This structure is perfect for showing absolute contrasts in meaning.  The first statement shows one reality, the second an opposite but equally true reality.  It was one of the Greek ways of showing a particularly poignant paradox.  The leaders themselves could not miss the starkness of how Jesus was portraying them.  Over the next two days they would not rest until they had captured him in the dead of night, accused him of blasphemy against God, and delivered him to the Roman governor who would execute him by morning.

Jesus' words here speak to me deep in my heart.  My tendency to judge others' actions while seeing my own actions without judgment cuts me.  That tendency should have been overridden years ago. All humans are hypocritical in one way or another.  So, who really can cast the first stone?  And Jesus is right.  The judgment I project on others is really just a sign of the rottenness I hide.  My judgment of others boomerangs to judgment on myself, creating a cycle.  The cycle forms a chain, one round link inside another round link, inside another round link, chaining me to acting, pleasing words, and poor translations of God's principles for my life.  But, I hear Jesus' words and realize I need to stop the rattle of those chains because there's a better life, an authentic life.

[Introductory photo of reflection retrieved from http://penniur.upenn.edu/publications, taken by Jason Mirachina]
[The first song is At Your Name by Phil Wickham.  The last song is Chain Breaker by Zach Williams]
[The Greek text used is the Nestle Aland 28th edition]
[Translations from Greek are my own.]