The Many Names of God –
Names of Jesus – Part 2
Matthew 16:13-14, John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets
Matthew 16:15-17, 20, Christ/Messiah (Gospels)
1 Corinthians 15:1-21, Christ/Messiah (Letters)
Revelation 5:6-13, Lamb/Lamb that was Slain
John 10:11-16, Good Shepherd
Random Walk in a Gallery of Religious Art, Step 34: Isaiah 40:9-11; John 10:11-14, The Good Shepherd, by Bernhard Plockhorst
John 14:3-6; 8:31-36, Way, Truth, Life
John 11:23-27, 14:6, Resurrection and Life
John 6:35-51, Bread of Life
Isaiah 5:1-7, John 15:1-6, True Vine
John 10:1-10, Door of the Sheepfold
Random Walk in a Gallery of Religious Art, Step 24: John 10:7-21; Psalms 23, The Good Shepherd
John 1:4-9, 9:1-7, Light/Light of the World
Matthew 2:1-4, John 18:33-39, John 19:19-22, The King of the Jews
More Names of God
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Matthew 16:13-14, John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the prophets (2/18/2009)
Have you heard the joke that The Odyssey wasn't written by Homer, but rather by another blind Greek of the same name? Surely you know that William Shakespeare didn't write the works of William Shakespeare, although it isn't clear who did, because no two modern writers can agree. I'm sure that no one would publish a book saying that Homer wrote The Odyssey, Shakespeare wrote King Lear, Peter wrote I and II Peter, and Paul wrote the Pauline epistles, because in general people would rather believe in some sort of mysterious conspiracy.
People had the same problem in deciding who was going around preaching the good news, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and restoring sight to the blind. Surely the obvious answer – Jesus bar Joseph of Nazareth – couldn't be right. For one thing, they knew him from when he was a kid. For another, they knew he was from Nazareth, and everybody knew that nobody would know where the Messiah was from, or alternatively that nothing good comes from Nazareth, take your choice. Consequently rumors flew about who was doing all these miraculous things. The interesting thing about the rumors was that all the candidates were real heavyweights: John the Baptist risen from the dead, Elijah, and Jeremiah led the polls.
Matthew 16:15-17, 20, Christ/Messiah (Gospels) (2/19/2009)
We've all heard the saying, "Actions speak louder than words." We all normally act as if words speak louder than actions, however, and certainly the entire advertising industry is built on that idea. Jesus did no advertising that he was the Messiah, the Christ. In fact, he routinely forbade people and demons who had figured it out from telling anybody. What was the point of this "Messianic secret"?
The Old Testament offers two primary models for the Messiah (Hebrew OT) or Christ (Greek OT – the two words are identical in meaning). One model was a powerful military leader who would lead the people of God out of oppression and back into a glorious earthly kingdom. The second model was for a servant who would suffer for his people and lead them back to God. Now, first-century Palestine was ruled by powerful Gentile foreigners called the Romans. They had soldiers, they levied taxes, they installed governors and puppet kings, they didn't put up with any backtalk, and they ruthlessly put down insurrection. Which model for the Messiah, do you suppose, was popular in first-century Palestine? As a matter of fact, several small rebellions against the Romans were led by Jews claiming to be a messiah or The Messiah, both before and after the time of Jesus; the most famous of these is Simon Bar Kochba, who led a rebellion around A.D. 133. Jesus had no intention of being a military messiah, so he did not want people to know he was The Messiah until after they knew who he was. Even his own disciples, who had been with him for three years and should have known who he was, asked at the Last Supper, "Now will you restore the kingdom?" Nevertheless, because actions do indeed speak louder than words, all sorts of people kept figuring out that Jesus was the Messiah.
1 Corinthians 15:1-21, Christ/Messiah (Letters) (2/20/2009)
Paul was not a follower of Jesus, he was a follower of Christ. He never met the human Jesus, as far as we know, but he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Reading the first few chapters of Acts should be enough to convince anybody of the truth of the resurrection, because it's the only thing that could account for the overwhelming change that took place in the disciples in the less than two months from the crucifixion to Pentacost. And Paul, never a disciple, was changed from a persecutor of Christians to one of the foremost makers of Christians.
Read Paul's argument about the resurrection carefully. It is very tightly reasoned, as is appropriate when writing to a largely Greek congregation at Corinth. Greeks loved logic, and they loved to argue. Apparently some of the Corinthians were arguing against the resurrection of the dead. Paul's rebuttal is this:
- If the dead are not raised,
- Then Christ is not raised.
- If Christ is not raised,
- Then faith in Christ is not only worthless, it's based on a lie.
Revelation 5:6-13, Lamb/Lamb that was Slain. (2/23/2009)
I see that forgiveness has made the papers again. Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not against forgiving your enemies, and I'm glad that this family can leave their bitterness behind. Still, I'm always exasperated and a little saddened when forgiveness of one's enemies makes the news, for two reasons.
In the second place, forgiveness is required of us whenever someone asks our pardon (Luke 17:3-4). We don't get any special points for it. In fact, we are supposed to bless our enemies and pray for our enemies (Luke 6:27-28) even when they don't ask our pardon. Things have come to a pretty sorry pass when the world thinks forgiveness on the part of a Christian is newsworthy. And besides, as fellow-reader Joan S. has so astutely pointed out, forgiveness – even when we are not asked for it – allows us to stop fretting and stewing and damaging ourselves over the wrong done to us. In short (and this is me again), it allows us to stop our enemy from doing us any more damage.
But in the first place, news articles about one person forgiving another person get the story exactly backwards from the scripture. The fact is that scripture is vastly more interested in when I should and how I can obtain forgiveness for my sin against God. Here's the score sheet:
- Forgiveness of sins against God: 94 mentions
- Forgiveness of your sin against me: 20 mentions
- Forgiveness of my sin against you: 4 mentions
Yesterday we saw that Jesus is God's Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world. How does a lamb take away sin? By being slaughtered as a sacrifice to God on behalf of the sinner. I tell you what, people, the Lamb was not slaughtered so that I could forgive you or you could forgive me. The Lamb was slaughtered so that God could forgive me and you.
John 10:11-16, Good Shepherd (2/25/2009)
Back in January we learned that one of the names or titles used for God and for the Messiah in the Old Testament is "Shepherd of Israel" or just "Shepherd" (for example, Genesis 49:24b; Psalms 80:1-7; Isaiah 40:10-11; Ezekiel 34:11-15, 23-24). I've pointed out before that sheep are, as far as I know, the only domesticated animals that can't survive without people to take care of them. The Jews knew this a lot better than we do, because by and large they were shepherds themselves. So when Jesus talked about being the Good Shepherd, his listeners made two associations: with God as the Shepherd of Israel, and with a caretaker of the helpless. I read a very beautiful commentary once in which the writer said that on a trip to the Holy Land he had watched shepherds call their own sheep by name out of a large communal flock. He was amazed to learn that the shepherd did indeed know his sheep, and they knew him!
Today's reading comes immediately after Jesus gives sight to the man who is blind from birth. Jesus is talking to a group of Pharisees, who were among the most scripturally learned people in Judea. There can be no doubt that they understood his reference to the Old Testament scriptures, because after Jesus finished speaking they immediately started debating among themselves. Some of them said not to listen to him – "he's got a demon." Others said, "these are not the words of a man who has a demon," because a man who has a demon cannot heal the blind. This is the pattern we see repeatedly in the book of John. First, Jesus performs a work of power (the healing). Second, either Jesus or John explains what it means (Jesus is the Shepherd who takes care of the members of the flock, even to the point of defending them with his own life). Third, the people who see this have to make a decision, either for belief or unbelief.
Random Walk in a Gallery of Religious Art, Step 34: Isaiah 40:9-11; John 10:11-14, The Good Shepherd, by Bernhard Plockhorst (7/16/15)
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German painter Bernhard Plockhorst (1825 – 1907) was a member of the Nazarene movement – not the denomination but an artists’ group that tried to return to a more natural depiction of Jesus and his times, in contrast to earlier artists who put people in “modern” clothing and settings. Plockhorst has given us this absolutely iconic picture of Jesus as The Good Shepherd. Even if you’ve never seen the original, you think you have, because it has been reproduced, copied, modified, adapted, stained-glassed, sculpted, and figurined for the past 100 years! And a good thing, too. We should never forget that one of the Bible’s principal symbols for God and for Jesus is the shepherd who lovingly tends his sheep: us. And we should never forget that we are poor, hapless creatures, totally dependent on our shepherd. Previous Step. Next Step. |
 "The Good Shepherd" by Bernhard Plockhorst, from the Gamble family Bible, now in the private collection of Regina Hunter. Photography by Daryl Lee. |
John 14:3-6; 8:31-36, Way, Truth, Life (2/26/2009)
Sometimes I think I know the way to somewhere, but I get lost. Other times I think I don't know the way, but I arrive there just as if I did. And sometimes I don't need directions at all, I need a tutor, because where I want to be is not a destination, it's a way of life. Thomas was thinking about directions, and what he had was a tutor. Practice God's word in your life.
And by the way, have you noticed how often Jesus is talking to us as a group, and not as individuals? We're all in this together.
John 11:23-27, 14:6, Resurrection and Life (2/27/2009)
Throughout the centuries, various explorers, alchemists, novelists, and scientists have looked for the secret of eternal life. (Some of them have been smart enough to look for eternal youth, as well. If I'm just going to keep getting older and more decrepit, forget it!) More realistic investigators look for the secret of increased longevity. Generally speaking, the secret-of-eternal-or-at-least-longer-life folks want to sell you the secret. Or keep it for themselves and rule the universe, WHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!, one or the other.
Everyone who is looking for the secret of eternal life should get in touch with God. God has been saying for thousands of years, "Turn away from your sin, and live!" (Ezekiel 18); "Keep my commandments, and live!" (Proverbs 7); "Forsake the foolish, and live!" (Proverbs 9). Why? "I have no pleasure in the death of anyone; so turn, and live!" (Ezekiel 18). We didn't seem to be getting the message, so God sent Jesus to give us the secret of eternal life: a right relationship with God through Christ.
John 6:35-51, Bread of Life (3/2/2009)
Mark loved action. Matthew loved teaching. Luke loved history. John loved puns and metaphors. John reports relatively few miracles and almost no parables; however, he reports and explains Jesus' metaphors in great detail. Several of these metaphors have become recognizable names for Jesus. We saw John's pattern last week: miracle, long explanation that often revolves around a metaphor, decision for belief or unbelief.
All of John 6 is about bread. It was getting close to Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread (6:4). Jesus performed the only miracle reported in all four gospels, the feeding of the 5000 from 5 loaves of bread and two little fish, with 12 baskets of bread left over. (Actually, there were 5000 men, plus women and children; this is clear in the Greek in all four gospels.) The crowd followed him around the lake after he crossed directly over, and he told them, "Y'all aren't following me because you believe, but just because you got enough bread to eat." While teaching in the synagogue shortly after this, he contrasts the manna God gave to the Israelites in the desert to save their physical lives with himself – the living bread that God gives to ensure eternal life (below). In vss. 60-69, some believe, and some don't. For those who believe, Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Isaiah 5:1-7, John 15:1-6, True Vine (3/3/2009)
One of the standard images of Israel in the Old Testament is as the vine that God plants in the Promised Land (e.g, Psalms 80, Jeremiah 2:21, Jeremiah 6:9, Ezekiel 17, Hosea 10:1). Isaiah begins to sing about the vineyard and the planter, and all the children of Israel are sitting around the table listening to the radio and saying, "Now, isn't this a great song?" But then the blow falls. The vine is unfruitful, and God is going to let it be destroyed. God looked for the fruit of justice and righteousness, but He got violence and crying. He looked for mishpat and got mispach; He looked for tsedaqah and got tsaaqah. The poetic form of the verse emphasizes the deformed fruit produced by the vine.
Thus when Jesus says "I am the true vine," he is laying a claim to be the true Israel. He and his branches will bring forth the good fruit that God has been seeking. The downside is that any unfruitful branch is pruned out and used for fuel.
John 10:1-10, Door of the Sheepfold (3/4/2009)
Depending on the source you read and the period of time you consider, there were ten or so first-century men who claimed be, or whose followers asserted them to be, the Jewish Messiah. Many of the Jews were looking for a messiah, partly in response to the Roman occupation of Palestine. It's probably fair to say that most of them were looking for a political and military leader who would overthrow the Romans and reestablish the Kingdom of Israel. Most of the claimants were military leaders who made no claim to Davidic descent. Even one of Jesus' disciples, Simon, was a Zealot, which was a sort of insurrectionist political party. After the resurrection, the disciples ask, "Lord, will you restore the kingdom now?" (Acts 1:6). This widespread expectation of a military messiah was probably the main reason that Jesus forbade demons and people to tell anyone that he was the messiah. He wanted them to learn who he was before they learned what he was.
Jesus warned his disciples at least twice against false messiahs. In Mark 13, he warns of false messiahs that would follow him, and in today's reading, he warns against false messiahs who preceded him. In doing so, he also gives them another name for himself, the Door of the Sheepfold.
Random Walk in a Gallery of Religious Art, Step 24: John 10:7-21; Psalms 23, The Good Shepherd (4/2/15)
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Modern Bibles tend to have fewer illustrations than the 19th-century Bibles we’ve been looking at, but many of us see stained-glass windows every week. This is a particularly beautiful window, and it illustrates a particularly beautiful concept: God is our shepherd. The 23rd psalm is probably the best-known Old Testament example of this idea, but it’s not uncommon. When Jesus said that he was the “Good Shepherd,” a lot of his listeners thought he was crazy – “he has a demon!” Others weren’t so sure about that. They argued that since demons are known to cause illness, it doesn’t make any sense that a man who has just cured a blind man could have a demon. Either way, they knew enough about the scripture to realize that in saying he was the Good Shepherd, Jesus was claiming to have a unique relationship with God. You can tell from the crown of thorns that the artist had Jesus primarily in mind, but when I see this window, both Psalm 23 and John 10 are in my mind. Previous Step. Next Step. |
 The Good Shepherd, stained glass, courtesy of Merkel United Methodist Church. |
John 1:4-9, 9:1-7, Light/Light of the World (3/5/2009)
A few days ago I told you that John loved puns as well as metaphors. Today we see one of the great puns. If you read more than one translation, you have probably noticed that John 1:5 is translated in two different ways. Some translations, like the King James, say that the darkness could not comprehend the light. Others, like the English Standard version, say that the darkness could not overcome the light. This is not a difference that results from two different words in the Greek manuscripts. The Greek word is katalambano, and it means either "understand" or "overpower" depending on the context.
A few translators think, and so do I, that John really did mean both, and that's why he used this ambiguous word. These translators use English words like "grasp" or "master," which also have two meanings. I'll tell you why I don't think John used katalambano by accident. Most of the time, John writes easy Greek. John's Greek is easy to read. John's Greek has short sentences. John's Greek has easy words. Nevertheless, at approximately the point in the space-time continuum that somnolence is gaining ascendancy over the reader, John instantaneously deviates from this pattern, and both lexical and syntactical difficulty are augmented. So John is definitely not writing easy Greek because he doesn't know any hard words. I'm sure he used katalambano precisely because it means both "comprehend" and "overpower." Darkness is not able to understand Jesus, and it's not able to overpower Jesus, the Light of the World.
Matthew 2:1-4, John 18:33-39, John 19:19-22, The King of the Jews (3/6/2009)
God's promise to David was that there would always be a descendant of David on the throne of the kingdom of Israel (2 Samuel 7:8-17). Eventually the earthly kingdom of Israel was enslaved by the Babylonians. After a couple of changes in overlord nations and a brief period of independence under the Maccabees, Israel had a king again, Herod the Great. Herod and his son Herod didn't really count, though, for two reasons. They weren't descendants of David, and they were just puppet kings of Israel under the Romans. So during this whole period of time – almost 600 years – the Jews kept pretty close track of who the descendants of David were, just in case the nation became independent again, and because they also knew that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. Herod was upset at the idea that the king of the Jews had been born because he knew his title was not especially legitimate. The high priests were upset first because a legitimate king would seriously upset the Romans (John 11:48) and secondly because their own power base would be eroded (Luke 20:9-19). The ultimate irony is that Jesus was recognized as the King of the Jews primarily by foreigners – by the wise men from the East at the beginning of his life, and by Pilate, the Roman governor, at the end.
More Names of God
Names of God - Introduction
Sacred Names
Other Names
Names of Jesus - Part 1
Names of Jesus - Part 2
Names of Jesus - Part 3
Names of the Spirit
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