Category: Christian

Mary visits Elizabeth

Her two journeys, three months apart, would have been hard (about four days on foot) and perhaps dangerous for a young woman travelling alone. She must have been a determined young lady. We don’t know if her parents approved or not, but clearly she was going to make the trip come what may.

A Greek commentary on John

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Cruising the gospel – Luke 1:26-56

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A fragment of Luke’s gospel
(Wikimedia)

Luke 1:26-38 – Elishwa (Elizabeth) is now two thirds of the way through her pregnancy. It seems Gafriel (Gabriel) is a pretty busy angel around this time, having spoken to Zekharya (Zecheriah) about Johanan (John)’s birth, he now returns, this time to Glila (Galilee) to speak with Maryam (Mary) about her coming pregnancy.

His task this time is to visit the small village of Nasra (Nazareth) to visit and convey a message to a young virgin, Maryam, who was already engaged to marry Yosef (Joseph). The name is often shortened to Yose. Significantly Yosef was a descendent of King Dawith (David) and this explains the sense of Yahshua as a king, accounting for ‘royal’ in the sense that we who follow Yahshua are a ‘royal priesthood’. Remember that when you pray for someone or something. If you pray for someone to be healed or for a demon to be thrown out, it will be done because you are royalty! You did not deserve the title ‘royal’, but you inherited it as a brother or sister of King Yahshua.

The name Josef comes from the Hebrew root y-s-p, meaning ‘to add’. For an example, see Genesis 30:24.

Gafriel appears and tells Maryam, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! Yahweh is with you.’ Luke tells us that this really worried Maryam, it’s likely the angel used the Holy name Yahweh, or perhaps the permitted Hebrew alternative Adonai (my Lord), today he might have used the Hebrew term Ha Shem (The Name). But however Gafriel put it, it would have been an astonishing thing for a young woman to hear. This is the sort of thing that might happen to an older man, especially if he was a priest, but to a young woman from one of the other tribes it would seem impossible, perhaps even forbidden. But who can argue with an angel, a messenger sent from the presence of Yahweh?

Gafriel immediately steps in to reassure her (Luke 1:30-33)

  • He tells her not to be afraid as she has found favour with the Almighty.
  • He says she will become pregnant and a son will be born and should be called Yahshua (Jesus). (This part may not have been very reassuring.)
  • He explains that this child will be great and will be called Elohim’s son.
  • He says that Yahweh will give Yahshua the throne of Dawith.
    And finally he says that this son will rule over Yisra’el (Jacob)’s descendants for ever and his kingdom will never come to an end.

These are very heavy-duty promises! Maryam expresses confusion, but the fear seems to have left her. She wants to know how she can become pregnant as she is a virgin. Gafriel tells her plainly, ‘Ruach (the Holy Spirit or Yahweh’s breath) will come over you and the power of Elyon (The Most High), so the baby will be called Ben Elohim (Son of God). Even your relative Elishwa is six months pregnant though everyone said it wasn’t possible. Nothing Yahweh promises will ever fail.

Maryam’s reply was simple – ‘I’m Yahweh’s servant, may what you have told me happen’.

Luke 1:39-56 – Maryam wasted no time, she hurried off to see Elishwa in the Judean hill country. When they met, Elishwa was filled with the Holy Spirit and loudly proclaimed Maryam to be blessed and her coming baby too. Elishwa’s baby jumped in her womb on hearing Maryam’s voice. Maryam was inspired to say more as well, see Luke 1:46-55 (often called ‘The Magnificat’). This is rightly a famous passage and it pays to read it through carefully. Compare it with the words of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 and Psalm 113. I leave this as an exercise for the reader – What’s the same? What’s different? What is significant? Leave a comment below, tell me what you discovered.

This was no flying visit by Maryam, she remained with Elishwa for three months, until it was time for Johanan’s birth. Then Maryam travelled back to Nasra to her parent’s home. Her two journeys, three months apart, would have been hard (about four days on foot) and perhaps dangerous for a young woman travelling alone. She must have been a determined young lady. We don’t know if her parents approved or not, but clearly she was going to make the trip come what may; she knew it was important. She might have taken the shorter route through Samaria, or she might have taken the Jericho route in order to remain in Galilee and Judea. We don’t know. Luke 1:39 tells us that she hurried which suggests she might have chosen the shorter route.

See also:

The Wikipedia articles provide some useful information backed up by detailed references. If you want to understand the background in further detail they’re a good place to start, though they do focus a bit on Catholic and Orthodox opinion and teaching.

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Finding Jesus
Jargon and the Holy Spirit
Want to learn to follow Jesus?

Intro and a Temple incident

Luke is pointing us to the very basis of why Yohanan’s birth will be so important. His father, Zekharya, was a priest. In Jewish thought the role of a priest was as a conduit between Yahweh (who is perfect and holy in every way) and sinful humanity.

A Greek commentary on John

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Cruising the gospel – Luke 1:1-25

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A fragment of Luke’s gospel
(Wikimedia)

Luke 1:1-4 – Luke, a Greek medical doctor, was clearly well educated, so he begins this Greek history as any good Greek historian would have done around the turn of the 1st century AD. He writes a formal introduction, explaining what he wants to achieve and the name of the person he is writing to. Theophilus might be a personal name, but taken literally it means lover of God or friend of God, suggesting it’s intended for anyone who wants to give their allegiance to the Jewish deity Yahweh. Yahweh is a Hebrew name meaning I am or I’m who I am or I’m what I am. When Moses was told to go and speak to the Israelites enslaved in Egypt, he wanted to know who he should say had sent him with this extraordinary message of freedom. I am was the name provided to him for that purpose. It was an appropriate name then and it’s an appropriate one in 100 AD and remains appropriate today as well. Jesus comes to us via Latin Yesus from the Greek Yesous which in turn is from the Aramaic Yeshua; and that’s how Jesus would have been known by his family and friends. The Hebrew equivalent is Yahoshua which means Yahweh saves. Nothing could be more appropriate than that! It’s the same name as Joshua who led the Israelites into the promised land after 40 years in the wilderness. And Yahshua (Jesus) has a similar mission to Joshua’s, leading all who will follow him into an even greater place of promise to be and remain permanently with him and the Father.

Luke explains first that others have written accounts like the one he’s embarking on here, and mentions that he’s taken particular pains to search out the truth of everything so his new account will be trustworthy and accurate. And the reason Luke gives for the effort he is putting in is so that starting with the eyewitness accounts he can write a clear and well-ordered sequential account that can be relied on.

John’s birth foretold

Luke 1:5-25 – Luke decides to begin with the birth of John the Baptist. The Jewish Temple was under construction by Herod the Great’s architects and building labourers at the time of John’s birth, the Temple itself was in use at that time, though not yet complete. But Luke probably wrote his account shortly after the Temple had been torn down by the Romans in the year 70 AD. It was a time of great tribulation and despair in Jerusalem, but presumably Luke was writing elsewhere in the Greek part of the Roman Empire.

Zekharya (Zechariah) the Priest and his wife Elishwa (Elizabeth) were devout Jews but elderly. Zekharya’s division was taking its turn at work in the Temple, and he’d drawn lots for the task of burning incense at the altar. While he was doing this work, the Angel Gafriel (Gabriel) appeared to him. He learns that Elishwa will bear a son and that he’s to be called Johanan (John). But because of his doubts, Zekharya will not be able to speak until Johanan’s birth. Lack of faith is a serious failing, especially so for a Jewish priest.

The angel makes a few things clear about the boy to be born.

  • He’ll be a joy and delight to his parents.
  • Many will rejoice because of his birth.
  • He’ll be great in Yahweh’s eyes.
  • He must never drink alcohol.
  • He’ll be filled with Ruach (the Holy Spirit) even before he is born.
  • He’ll come ahead of ha Mashiach (the Messiah) in the spirit and power of Eliya (Elijah).
  • He’ll turn the hearts of parents to their children.
  • He’ll turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous.
  • He’ll get people ready for ha Mashiach.

Law and grace

And right here, Luke is pointing us to the very basis of why Yohanan’s birth will be so important. His father, Zekharya, was a priest. In Jewish thought the role of a priest was as a conduit between Yahweh (who is perfect and holy in every way) and sinful humanity. The same was true for all religions in those days and it’s particularly clear in Roman religion where the Latin word pons, pontis means both bridge and priest. Indeed, we can take it further: pontifex is a bridge builder, and Pontifex Maximus, the greatest bridge builder, was the title given to the most senior priest, the Roman High Priest. Today the Pope holds this Roman title, Pontifex Maximus.

In Judaism the most senior priest was known as the Chief Priest. He was the only person ever allowed into the Holiest place in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Once a year a rope was tied around one of his ankles and he would enter the Holy of Holies, first the Ulam (a porch), then the Hekhal (the Holy Place) , and then the Debir (the innermost sanctuary in the Temple). He would be in the presence of Yahweh there, and if the Chief Priest was incapacitated or died while he was there, other priests would be able to use the rope to pull him out without entering the holy place themselves.

Zekharya, though of the priestly family, could not enter the holiest place himself. The altar of incense was in the Hekhal, just outside the Holy of Holies which was screened off by a heavy curtain.

So, here’s the thing. Yahweh was unapproachable by anyone other than the Chief Priest. Yahweh’s Law, given to Moshe (Moses) must be fully obeyed, throughout a person’s entire life. Zekharya and other members of the priestly family could make sin offerings and other offerings as required when someone failed to obey the law in some way. But there always had to be a Priest in the loop, a sinner could not be purified any other way.

This promised son, to be called Yohanan, would prepare the way for ha Machiach (the Messiah) who would bring in a new covenant in which all people could approach Yahweh directly. So Zekharya and Elishwa had major roles to play as the parents of the one who would prepare a way for the Messiah and a new and different way to approach Yahweh. The old way of the Law was going to be replaced by a new way of grace.

Nobody, not even Zekharya and Elishwa could imagine what this new way would be like, but the son to be born in their old age was going to announce it and prepare for it, the angel had made that clear enough.

Struck dumb

It’s easy, perhaps natural, to see this as punishment for Zekarya’s disbelief. But there’s another, more likely, and I think better possibility. If Zekarya is able to speak he’ll probably relate his doubts to friends, family, and anyone willing to listen to the ramblings of an aged man. He’ll also tell them that he is to become a father, but they can see his age and his wife’s age, and for that reason alone nobody will believe a word he says. Better then, that he says nothing until the child is born. That way, faced with such a miracle, people will have little choice but to believe everything he tells them.

One other point might confirm my last paragraph. Luke is providing some historical background to the beginning of a new relationship between Yahweh and his people. This new relationship will replace punishment for wrong action with forgiveness and a new beginning. Under those circumstances seeing Zekarya’s dumbness as punishment is a bad fit with the rest of the story Luke is planning to write. It would be like starting off on the wrong foot.

Meanwhile in the Court of Israel and/or the Court of the Priests, people were beginning to wonder why Zekarya was taking so long over burning some incense. When he did leave the Temple he was unable to talk, they realised he’d had a vision as he was making signs about it. He returned home when his period of service was complete, Elishwa became pregnant and remained in seclusion for five months, rejoicing that she had been favoured by Yahweh and was now free of criticism and the disgrace of a woman unable to provide her husband with a son.

See also:

The Wikipedia articles provide a lot of useful information, all backed up by detailed references. If you want to understand the background in further detail they’re a good place to start.

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You might also like:

Finding Jesus
Jargon and the Holy Spirit
Want to learn to follow Jesus?

Are we dead or alive?

If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too.

Dry bones (Wikimedia)

Click thumbnails to enlarge

A few days ago I posted Butterfly dead or alive? I considered the difference between a dead butterfly and a living one. I thought about this in biological terms, suggesting I’d write again soon on the spiritual aspects for people following Jesus. This is that second article.

I’ll go through each of the main points from that earlier article to draw spiritual truth out for anyone who believes they are alive in Christ. So here goes…

Ability to move

If I’m spiritually dead, then like the dead butterfly I will be unable to move. But what is spiritually equivalent to the physical ability to move? There may be more than one way of looking at this. Read Acts 17:1-8. What does this mean, in real, practical terms? Try reading the entire chapter, Acts 17, and it will become clear. Paul was explaining to Greek philosophers in Athens that the ‘Lord of Heaven and Earth’ is not served by humans because there’s nothing we can provide that he doesn’t already have. Instead he’s the One who gives us life and breath and everything else we might need. You’re not spiritually alive until you start paying attention to Jesus and agree to let him work in you and through you. He will change you in so many ways, all of them good. But if you’ve never met him before and never spent time with him you will not become alive spiritually. When you allow him to touch you in this way you will become alive and aware and, like the living butterfly, you’ll be able to move with energy that is within you, the essential energy Jesus has placed in you. The dead butterfly would be dried up and provide food for the ants. The living butterfly can detect predators, move to safety, and gather energy from floral nectar.

When we’re spiritually dead we can do nothing to help ourselves, but when Jesus has made us alive we can move freely, and not just in this physical world for we can now move spiritually too. It’s difficult to describe this to someone who has not yet experienced it. But come on in! You will never regret it.

Appearance, colour, lustre

As you continue to learn from Jesus you will become a thing of beauty and fragrance, well maintained spiritually, colourful, clean and cared for. The body ages and deteriorates over the years, but the spiritual heart and life will never age or fade.

Ability to sense danger

There are forces of spiritual evil in the world, as well as the more obvious physical dangers we face from falling rocks, dangerous drivers, illnesses of many kinds, or the occasional thunderstorm, earthquake, or volcano. Jesus does not give us any guarantee of safety from the physical world, but he will alert us to and protect us from spiritual danger and damage – if we pay more attention to him and his Holy Spirit than we do to our own ideas and preferences. Often, sadly, we do not.

Reproduction

This is an important one.

Spiritual reproduction is not like biological reproduction, although both result in growing numbers. In the case of spiritual reproduction it’s mostly a matter of living lives that will make people ask themselves, What’s different about them? People tend to know a good thing when they see it. If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too. So I’d better become kinder, more gentle and helpful and generous, more loving towards the people around me.

Metabolism

Living creatures of all kinds, including people, have an active metabolism, it begins in humans and other animals when a sperm fertilises an egg cell, generating the very beginning of a new organism. And that metabolism continues all day and all night, year in and year out, until that new organism dies through accident, illness, or old age. There is a spiritual analogue for metabolism too. There are complex actions and interactions going on in the life of the church. A church can be healthy or sick, it can be hungry or fat, it can be happy or truly miserable. There are spiritual gifts poured out over people who follow Jesus and gather as church. These gifts are crucial in forming and sustaining church growth in helpful and useful ways.

I’ll finish by mentioning two phrases that are sometimes used in church circles; they both come from Romans chapter 6 and verse 11.

  • The first one is ‘Dead to sin’
  • The second is ‘Alive in Christ’.

Would you rather be dead, or alive? That, my friends, is the choice before us.

See also:

You might also like:

Loving more fully and widely
John 15:9-17 – Love and fruit
Trump, Vance and fruit
An old castle made new

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Start with Jesus

A good start would be to state that church is defined by everything that Jesus is and does and teaches and by nothing beyond that.

Building work

church constitution – 3

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Click to enlarge

Perhaps it’s time to focus a little more closely on the people who make up church.

Where should we look for guidance?

We have to start somewhere if we want church to be the way it’s supposed to be. Here are some people and places we might consider approaching.

  • The Pope – If you’re a Catholic this might seem like a good place to begin, but you’re going to find it hard to get an audience with the Pope so you might have to set your sights a little lower. Working your way down the hierarchy bit by bit you’ll probably find the local parish priest will be the only representative you can actually talk to.
  • The Archbishop of Canterbury – An Anglican will find the same issue, you’ll probably end up talking to the local vicar.
  • Your friends at church – Friends have the great advantage of being approachable and helpful, but perhaps you feel they have very little authority in spiritual matters, no more than you have yourself, maybe. Or possibly you don’t have any church friends.
  • Christian authors, websites, and published advice – There’s going to be an awful lot of reading there and you still may not find what you need.
  • The Bible? – Now there’s a thought! It’s still a lot of reading, and there are many translations to choose from. However, you can safely ignore the entire Old Testament because everything it contains was written before church began 2000 years ago. You could read Luke’s Gospel and Acts, they might once have been a single book and cover the life of Jesus and the story of how church originated and developed during the first 80 years or so. Not a bad idea! You don’t even need to buy a Bible, try these links to Luke and Acts (completely free).
  • What (or who) might be better than the New Testament? Might I suggest Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

The story really begins with Jesus’ Father, he planned everything and sent Jesus as a go-between. Jesus is as human as you and I am and we can relate to him as a messenger sent by his Father to explain everything we need to know. What you should d0 is find out why Jesus matters and why he sowed the seeds of church. Talk to him (that’s called prayer) but don’t make it complicated. Just talk to him like you would to anyone else. It doesn’t have to be out loud, Jesus is really good at hearing you think. That may seem strange at first, but as you get to know him better it will become easier, less weird, and really a lot of fun; he’s very much a fun guy, understands where you’re coming from and is very much on your wavelength. Try to spend time with other people who are getting to know him – you’ll help one another along the way.

I’ll give you a couple of hints about what he may show you. You can also read my personal story of discovering Jesus if you like. But remember, everyone’s story is different, your story will be unique to you. As you set out on this journey, try to remember the points below:

  • You matter to him, he cares about you.
  • He has far better answers about church than any of those people we mentioned earlier, from Popes and Archbishops on down.
  • Church is not about a place, it’s about people – his people.
  • Church is not complicated, it’s very, very simple. You can begin to understand all this with your friends or, if necessary, on your own – here’s one way to get started…
  • Sooner or later (probably sooner) you will come across the idea of church services. I recommend a bit of caution here.

    It’s a simple guide to help you think about what church really is and what your part in it might be. I wrote it a while ago and it needs updating, something I’ll try to do soon. Here’s a short extract.

Let’s think about Jesus a bit more. What do already know about him? I’ll tell you one thing right away, he’s a builder and he’s an exceptionally good one. The photo show an active building site here in Cirencester where I live, if you enlarge the photo and look at it carefully you’ll see at least four builders at work. Despite the many pictures out there that claim to show Jesus, we don’t really know what he looked like though if you saw him in the street you might assume he was Arabic, not European, African or Asian. But if you really want to get to know someone, never begin with appearances, you’ll always learn a lot more from watching them at work. Jesus works for his Father’s business, he works in the building trade, turning all of us who follow him into a wonderful construction called the Church. He follows the plans his Father gave him and he builds not with bricks, stones, tiles and cement, but with people, ‘living stones’ as Peter puts it in one of his letters.

Start to follow him and he’ll use you in this great project, fitting you gently and carefully into a space where you’ll be a good fit with those around you. Together you will become a permanent part of what he is building.

You’ll understand right away that this isn’t how church is usually described and it’s not how Jesus is usually described either. But I want you to start thinking in terms of a living body, not a stone building put up by ordinary builders according to some architect’s design. Another way of envisaging church is as a body of people with a common purpose, relating well with one another, growing to look like Jesus in their thoughts and actions.

Jesus, although he is not here today in bodily form, interacts, communicates and relates to us through his Spirit.

The Constitution of church so far

1 – Church is not a particular place or building. It is, instead, a particular people

2 – A named place is not required, people can meet anywhere convenient to them.

3 – Jesus is the foundation of church, and he, personally builds it. We are not leaders in this work, we are servants working for and guided by Jesus, the Master Builder.

We’ll take those as the first three clauses of our Constitution for now. Perhaps they’ll be all we need – church is simple to define! Though people who don’t understand it sometimes make it seem complex, difficult, and counter-intuitive.

See also:

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You might also like:

Church as a network – INDEX
I will build my church
Church as we know it

Introducing Luke

Luke’s gospel and Acts probably began as a single book dedicated to Theophilus (a Greek name meaning ‘friend of god’ or ‘lover of god’) and written to provide a clear background and history of the church from the birth of Jesus up to the time of writing – less than 90 years later.

A Greek commentary on John

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Cruising the gospel – Luke

A fragment of Luke’s gospel
(Wikimedia)

Before we begin working through Luke, here’s a brief overview of the book and its author.

Luke is usually considered to be a Greek medical doctor who accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys around the Mediterranean. There’s no evidence that he was associated with or even met Jesus. Luke was a gentile or perhaps a Greek-speaking Jew. The many ‘we’ passages in Acts demonstrate Luke was with Paul on these occasions (see Acts 16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; and 27:1–28:16). Further, Paul mentions Luke as his companion and co-worker in Colossians 4:14 (“Luke, the beloved physician”), Philemon 24, and 2 Timothy 4:11 (“Only Luke is with me”). Early church tradition consistently tells us that Luke wrote the gospel and Acts and adds that he was from Antioch in Syria, did not marry, and died in old age.

The author

Luke’s name is not mentioned in the gospel itself, and he’s an undistinguished person to be credited as author of a gospel; Matthew, Mark and John were three of Jesus’ disciples and perhaps thought to be more authoritative for that reason alone. However, Luke’s standard of Greek is very high, perhaps better and more learned than any other New Testament author.

Date of writing

This is not settled. Some authorities accept an early date, around 60 AD or a few years later. Supporting this are the facts that Acts concludes with Paul under house arrest in Rome, no mention of Nero’s persecution, and nothing about the Jewish War. But the commonest estimate is later, 80 to 85 AD, after the destruction of the Temple. This view is strengthened by the fact that Luke draws from Mark’s gospel, and that 21:20–24 seem to have been written with knowledge of the fall of Jerusalem.

Purpose

Luke’s gospel and Acts probably began as a single book dedicated to Theophilus (a Greek name meaning ‘friend of god’ or ‘lover of god’) and written to provide a clear background and history of the church from the birth of Jesus up to the time of writing – less than 90 years later. It may later have been converted into two volumes, one to accompany the other gospels and the second as an account of the early years of the church to be followed by the more detailed work of the collected letters written by Paul and others.

Theophilus may have been an early gentile follower of Jesus, the words ‘most excellent’ hint that he might have been an imperial official in the the Greek-speaking part of the Empire, but the way Luke writes suggests he might stand in for many Greeks of slightly lesser importance all of whom were ‘lovers of god’ and followers of Yahshua (Jesus).

See also:

The Wikipedia article on the book gives a lot of useful information all backed up by detailed references. If you want to understand the background in further detail it’s a good place to start. The article about the author is also useful and provides ample references.

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Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

You might also like:

Introducing Luke
Finding Jesus
Want to learn to follow Jesus?