Gospel Harmony Joy Note 14...

Whilst it might sound a bit ... odd ... to say that I have found a bit of comfort in the confusion I am encountering in my parallel Gospel at the moment, I have.  I have found comfort in that I am apparently as confused as those listening to Jesus!

Well, I do have the Holy Spirit and the hindsight of history going for me, but I freely admit that some of what Jesus is saying is confusing to me, to what I know of the Gospel. Yet it does not distress me. Perhaps that is because I feel as if a painting is being worked on before me and I, as the audience not the artisan, could not possibly know or see what the whole of the painting will be until it is revealed.

Does that make any sense at all?

Today, I read from where I left off with John sending folks to ask about Jesus up to where the parables begin. As a whole, I am not sure I followed well the journey and the teaching of Jesus. But several points to ponder did arise for me:

Matthew 11: 20-30 speaks woe upon Chorazin and Bethsaida for not repenting. First, I am trying hard to remember (and am failing) if the message of repentance has been presented as strongly previously as it is here. But what struck me most, within this passage, is how paramount context really and truly is. Once again I was confronted by a set of verses I knew but yet had no knowledge of its context: the come-ye-who-are-weary verses.

Matthew 11: 2-19 and Luke 7:18-35 conclude with the problem of disbelief (and dismissal). To the Pharisees and all those who served as detractors to Jesus and Ministry, John wasn't good enough because of what he was not eating and drinking and Jesus wasn't good enough because of what He was eating and drinking. Neither were good enough to be prophets, to be from God. The human ideas of who and what and how God's interaction with man should be colored and twisted all that the Pharisees saw.

Then, we move on to Jesus speaking woe in rather sharp comparisons. I mean, the reference to Sodom is harsh and horrible. Sodom and Gomorrah are the epitome of the sinful, fallen world, places where no faith existed!  Chorazin and Bethsaida were worse??

Yet all this pointing out of the need for repentance is not followed by suggested acts of godly behavior or holy living. Instead, it is followed first by Jesus giving praise to God that His message is hidden from the worldly wise (scholars and teachers of the Law) but yet revealed to the worldly un-wise, babes those who are not strong enough or have the wherewithal to attempts to follow all the precepts of the Law themselves. Jesus giving thanks and praise for the hidden things of God.

And then, second, He invites all those who are weary and heavy laden to come rest in Him, He whose yoke is easy and light.  Thus, the answer to repentance and rest is Jesus, not man or man's works.

I wondered, today if those weary and heavy laden included not only the ones of which I had been taught (the ill, the distressed, the struggling), but those who are weary and burdened by the impossible task of following the Law. I wondered if Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees, those would would boast on their wisdom and strength, as much as He was speaking to the weak who throw themselves at His feet!  Could that possibly be?

The next section is exactly that, is the story of the woman who threw herself at the feet of Jesus and cleaned them, kissed them. In Luke 7:36-50, the word repentance does not come up again, and yet the woman is clearly repenting of her sins. In addressing the woman's actions with Simon, Jesus compared her care of His person with the one who was supposedly serving as host. The woman honored Jesus far more than the host. Yet when Jesus spoke the word of forgiveness to the woman, it was not for her actions, but for her faith.

I could see, how, one could read this and want to immediately set about washing the feet of others (or its modern equivalent) in order to achieve such a level of great forgiveness and the status of being greatly faithful. But what passed through my mind is that Jesus spoke of her love and her care, but said she was forgiven because of her faith. So, therefore, was this really a fruit born of faith example? The fruit does not save; faith does. But faith produces fruit and fruit is one of the tangible evidence of faith to which we can point.

This thought drew me back to that pesky petition in Part Three of the Large Catechism. Forgive us our sins as we forgive others. Boy, does that ever sound like Law! And knowing how I struggle in the forgiving of those who have truly harmed me, at times, that one petition terrified me. Understanding Luther's teaching in that bit of the Christian Book of Concord was a mighty battle. Yet at the end of it, I finally grasped that what Luther was saying was that our ability to forgive comes from being forgiven ourselves. Thus, our being able to forgive is a sign and a seal that we are, ourselves, forgiven.  So, we are speaking of the fruit that gives testimony of the faith and by that faith we both are forgiven and can ask for forgiveness.

Fruit came up in the next section, Matthew 12: 22-37 and Mark 3:20-30. Incidentally, this reading was another shocking encounter/example of the need to read and consider the context of verses. In this case, I speak of the house/kingdom-divided-against-itself-cannot-stand set of verses.

Imagine my utter surprise to discover that those verses are couched not in examples of how families and churches and businesses cannot succeed unless all are working toward the same goal, but are actually encompassed in the story of Pharisees condemning and judging Jesus for casting out demons, saying that such action proves He is not from the house of David, but of Beelsebul! What???

The whole divided passage is basically Jesus pointing out the fallacy of the Pharisees argument, of their logic. If Jesus was actually serving Beelzebul in the casting out of demons, He would be hurting the house, the cause, the work of Beelzebul. He would be undermining Beelzebul and causing eventual failure, ruin, collapse. Now, if Jesus were going around saving demons (however that would look is beyond my imagination), well then the accusation of being from the house of Beelzebul would fit.

In this section, Matthew 12:30 stands out in its simplicity (another juxtaposition moment): "He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather scatters."

From there to the end, the focus is on what is spoken, what is confessed. By their own words, the Pharisees, the blasphemers would be condemned. Reading that made me think of the bits of the BOC that are fills with such fierceness when it comes to preserving the Gospel, the pure doctrine. Those bits ring with the intensity of being a matter of life and death. What we believe, teach, and confess matters. 

Deeply. 

Wholly. 

Eternally.

Matthew 12:38-45 made me laugh. A great big guffaw. Then, of course, I wondered if it is wrong of me to laugh. But there you have folk asking for a sign and Jesus refusing. His refusal, as with the call to repentance, is filled with harsh comparisons. My goodness! He adds Ninevah to the mix of Sodom and the rest!! All throughout the history of man are littered requests for signs. It is as if are saying to God, "Yes, I remember the deed of old, but what have You done lately?"

Or maybe it is equally apt to say that we are constantly asking, "How could this be?"

Michael Card, in writing a trilogy of albums on the life of Christ, has a song about Joseph.

How could it be this baby in my arms
Sleeping now, so peacefully
The Son of God, the angel said
How could it be?

Lord, I know He's not my own
Not of my flesh, not of my bone
Still Father let this baby be
The son of my love

Father show me where I fit into this plan of yours
How can a man be father to the Son of God
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter
How can I raise a king, how can I raise a king?

He looks so small, His face and hands so fair
And when He cries the sun just seems to disappear
But when He laughs it shines again
How could it be?

Father show me where I fit into this plan of yours
How can a man be father to the Son of God
Lord for all my life I've been a simple carpenter
How can I raise a king, how can I raise a king?

How could it be this baby in my arms
Sleeping now, so peacefully
The Son of God, the angel said
How could it be? How could it be?

Poetic license abounds, for sure.  But two thoughts in this song have remained with me over the years: 1) The struggle Joseph must have faced in raising the Son of God and 2) The fact that man's inclination is to reject encounters and images and actions of God that do not fit with what we believe they should be.  

Chief among those:  How could it possibly be that Jesus is a King?  Other than speaking and teaching with authority, nothing in the life Jesus lives spoke of, evidenced royalty and power and dominion.  Jesus often fled from those wanting to be His "subject."  He led no military coup.  He set up no kingdom.  He made little sense.  He was poor.  And He died as a criminal.  Just a few of the reason why He could not possibly be a king.

The readings end with a sundering of sorts.  The people of Galilee, his neighbors and leaders of Jesus' community have rejected Him.  His family have questioned His actions, His choices, and seemingly come to stage an intervention ... perhaps.  But when Jesus is told His siblings and His mother have arrived He is response is to establish the bonds of spiritual families as being as strong as that of families.

Were I not so exhausted at the moment, I would look up the references of the talk of families in the Psalter.  Talk of betrayal.  Talk of abandonment.  Truly, the more I read in this parallel Gospel the more I realize just how much Gospel is contained within the Psalter.

And I wonder ... is reason God had me hiding out in the Psalter all this time so that I could finally read and see and understand the Gospel apart from the thick glasses of works righteousness that have been blinding me and distorting its message all of these years?

Would that it were this be true!  

I confess that the next section header noting parables are next has me trembling a bit in fear and in dread of failure.  For I am quite certain that the majority of what I know about the parables is all Law and little, if any, Gospel.

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!