How the Kingdom of God Comes: With Waiting

Mark 1.1-1.8

Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.  -Simone Weil

If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.  (Romans 8:25)

For some of my kid's birthdays and Christmases we have had special presents or occasions planned.  The surprise that they felt was planned carefully by Dawn and myself for quite a while before the event happened.  When everything was ready, the surprise unfolded.  Foretold scripture makes me think of that planning for a surprise.  No doubt it says a lot about God's foreknowledge, but fulfilled scripture also shows what God has been planning for a long time and the meaning behind human history.  History is a story full of preparation for the coming of Jesus.

Such preparation was not left to the written word alone, but was fulfilled in the coming of John.  Fulfillment comes when the words come off the page and live and breath in the lives of people and the events of history.  The voice of one calling in the desert comes alive in John.  He immersed people in the waters of the Jordan as a preparation.  For what?  Immersion in the Holy Spirit.  John anticipated the one who would open the door to a new reality where people could be soaked and floating along in the currents of God's Holy Spirit through the words and work of the Messiah.  God just could not wait to bring us such a gift, a surprise that he had always planned on: being one with me.

Scriptural fulfillment is a big picture of what God wants to do with me everyday.  He has wonderful plans in store for me and each person.  He longs to bring them about in my life.  My part is to wait.  Wait with eagerness, with anticipation, with joy.  In the waiting there will be preparation.  In the preparation, personal change.  Those changes will lead to the power to live fully with him and abundantly in a new life.

Lord, it is a good thing you sent one more powerful than I to take me through this life.  With him the yoke of living becomes easy and light.  His presence reaches into the deepest places of my soul, out into the reality of this world, and up into the highest heaven which I cannot even imagine.  I am embraced, held, and carried along daily by your hand.  Fulfill your plans in me and through me, Father.  I hope in you.  Amen.

Who's in Charge?

Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.  So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.  (John 19:7)

Here is an example of irony in John's gospel. Pilate "hands Jesus over" to be crucified. The soldiers "take charge" of him. Following these statements, Pilate and the soldiers continually and unknowingly fulfill scripture after scripture through their actions. John almost describes them as acting out a script.

It is not that they were forced to do something they didn't want to do. Pilate meant to shame Jesus and the Jewish nation by calling Jesus "King of the Jews." The soldiers acted out of greed in stealing Jesus' clothes and perhaps out of malice in giving him vinegar for his thirst and a spear thrust to ensure his death. If they were actors in a play, they were not playing parts, but just being themselves.

The scene was laid out long before. The cruelty and mockery of people at the cross was nothing less than the picture of human justice without God painted long ago. However such a scene was foreseen, it was true to fallen human nature. Entirely predictable. God's plan was to take the irony of people who thought they were in charge and show that his plans and hopes would supercede all of theirs.

Pilate and the soldiers and the Jewish leaders thought they were in charge because they were giving the orders not realizing that their orders were already accounted for and allowed by Jesus and his Father. They were allowed to show what kind of people we truly are and how God cannot be outmaneuvered by any evil. Like a two-year old saying "Mine!" or "No, I won't!" these people found themselves swept into a much larger world than Rome or Israel. The kingdom of God was present and superceding their little actions with the reality of God's influence on the behalf of his Son and his people. Human will opposed Divine will and was overcome with goodness. Scripture fulfillment just showed the inevitability of God's victory.

The irony is not that everything is planned out before I do anything. The irony is that my efforts to oppose God and his kingdom will end up working for him. Nothing will circumvent the kingdom of God. All will bring God glory and show his goodness. God's light may show in spite of my actions and intentions, but it will shine. The irony is that thinking and living as if I am in charge clearly shows that I am not in charge even of the "little" things that are mine to do.

As John thought and wrote, he saw the hand of God in the cross. Each moment seemed choreographed for this purpose. This was to give Jesus' followers certainty that the cross was not a mistake or a problem, but the known outcome of human sinfulness confronting God's mercy and grace. It was the final, best effort of humanity to push God away when he had come too close. The resurrection is God's answer to that effort. He will not leave. He will not abandon us.  God's love is in charge, not human rebellion.

The other picture at the cross is John and Jesus' mother. Jesus entrusted John with the care of his mother. Perhaps he also explained to the ones who knew they weren't in charge what they could take charge of. Realizing God is in charge frees me to work under him and for him in my own place, in my own family, and in my own ways. In the midst of the apparent tragedy of Jesus crucifixion, Jesus says to his closest friend and his mother: "Love each other. Do what you can for each other. This is what you can do. I'm in charge of all that is happening here.  Now I'm giving you this to be in charge of: Love each other." So the ones who thought they were in charge were not and the ones who stood helplessly before Jesus were given a command by the one who was really in charge.

Lord, let me stand before your cross with helplessness. Let me stand before you knowing I am not in charge. Let me be so faithful to stand and wait for you, even as John and Mary did. Let me follow your commands even if they come from the cross. Only in this kind of helplessness can I find what you would have me to do. Amen.

So here are the two pictures of myself. Either I think I am in charge and I go forward to do what I think is best. In the end I crucify Christ either through fear, greed, or necessity. I can also stand in utter helplessness before the cross. I can watch the will of God being done all around me. I can do what he asks me to do, knowing he is in charge: Love one another.

Jesus Mediates Biblical Truth

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)

When I train students in my laboratory, I often have them read about things before they try them out.  I have them read through a procedure and tell them that they may not understand all of it, but just to read it to get an idea of what we will be doing together.  After they see and practice the procedure, reading it makes much more sense.  The “fulfillment” of a procedure is in its execution.

So it is with the Bible.  Many things were heard from God and some of it was understood.  But fulfillment did not occur before Jesus.  Perhaps there was an inkling of what “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” meant through Moses, the Law, Wisdom, and the Prophets.  When Jesus came, though, then the true execution of that phrase was made plain.  Not only did he illuminate the entire Bible, he refashioned history according to its true fulfillment and showed the future in his being and in his teaching.

Everyone in Jesus’ hometown hoped that he was talking about how Israel would come out on top and all the pagan nations would be punished and destroyed.  They hoped for a ruler to make a merely earthly kingdom.  While Jesus pointed to himself, he dashed their hopes of Messiah, even speaking blasphemy to their ears.  He explained that although he fulfilled the scriptures, the people of his hometown would be the first to reject this fulfillment: a kingdom beyond Israel embracing the pagan nations.

So when I come to the Bible and when I speak about it, the true understanding and execution of the scriptures can only be found in Jesus.  He is more than an example.  He is more than a sacrifice.  He is more than a victor.  Fulfillment comes “today.”  He is my ever-living, ever-present guide and friend.  It is Jesus opening my mind to the scriptures and their meaning through an encounter with him.

Lord, you have brought such joy and simplicity to obeying you!  Jesus is the mediator of all truth.  The Bible is now his book to teach me with so that I too might fulfill the scriptures even as I hear from him.  Let my ears hear the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.  Amen.

Like the people long ago, I am tempted to see Jesus’ fulfillment of the scriptures as the fulfillment of my personal earthly happiness.  I do not want him to fulfill all the scriptures, but just the ones that might make my life easier and more pleasurable.  I need to take seriously the parts of the Bible that I might not want to see fulfilled.  In these places I may discover places in my life that need healing and redeeming as Jesus shows leads me into all truth through his Spirit.