Friday, October 7, 2011

Next Door To Heaven (Chapter 8)

Next Door To Heaven (Chapter 8)
Ron Bailey

The Hour

The life story of Jesus of Nazareth is a thrilling demonstration of One who came, not to please Himself, but His Father. John’s account, in particular, is full of expressions which show Him to be ‘on course’ and in ‘perfect synchronisation’ with His Father’s will. He lived in the conscious approval of His Father and all His teachings and signs demonstrated it. We cannot linger on this wonderful story however; we have an appointment with a unique moment in history. John’s account of Jesus’ life has another feature; Jesus was conscious that His life was leading inevitably to His death. This death would not just be a natural consequence of ageing, or of circumstances which overwhelmed Him. His death would be the culmination of His life. Uniquely, this man was born to die.

Military campaigns often demand pin-point timing. “Synchronise your watches” is a key scene from many a war film. In general terms the stage was now set, but there would need to be perfect synchronisation of events. Christ’s appointment with His destiny was no approximation but timed to the very second.

John records a series of progress points, and reveals the element of truth. At the very beginning of His public ministry a domestic emergency arose. His attention was drawn to the fact by His mother who clearly intends His intervention. It was at a wedding celebration and there would have been considerable disgrace for the family if the situation had become more widely known. Mary addresses her observation and request to Him personally. They have no wine. (1) At this point there had been no public display of special powers, and it is interesting to wonder what Mary had in mind when she raised the issue.

Christ’s response is surprising in its apparent abruptness, although it is not as stark as it appears in our English translations. Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. We sometimes say of an individual that ‘he marches to the sound of a different drum; Christ was such an individual. He said so Himself using somewhat different words; I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. (2) Before His public acknowledge as the Father’s Son, Jesus was content to submit Himself to the authority of His mother and adopted father but from the time of His baptism in the Jordan, He never again submitted to Mary. He could do only what His Father authorized.

His hour had not yet arrived. What hour? Here was an opportunity for Him to display His Messianic authority. Moses had provided food in the wilderness why not Jesus at a wedding? However, when He provided for this needy family He did so in a way so discrete that only the servants and His immediate followers knew what had happened. (3) There were many aspects to Christ’s vocation, but the full scope of His Messianic role would be seen later. Above all others there was one supreme task to accomplish. One time which above all others would be His hour.

John’s account of things keeps this truth at the forefront of things. Neither Satan nor men could hurry that hour, although they certainly tried on more than one occasion. (4) His teaching continued, as did the miracles accomplished under His Father’s instruction, but it seems as though He always had His eye on another hour.

One of His acts of power is a special point of time reference in this gospel. The feeding of the 5000 is the only one of His miracles recorded in all four accounts. (5) Many Bible students feel that part of the reason for this is what is known as the Caesarea Philippi Confession of Faith. This was the time when Peter (and perhaps the others too) received a heavenly revelation of who Jesus of Nazareth really was. It was a true watershed. From this point the disciples knew clearly who He was, but they were not nearly so clear about what He had come to do.

The feeding of the 5000 was, without doubt, a spectacularly public display of power. John records the immediate response of some who experienced the miracle personally. Their response was to try to start a revolution. Our mental pictures of The Holy Land are usually of quiet country scenes with gently grazing sheep and the steady rhythms of an agricultural society. These were not the mental pictures of the Roman Legionaries who found themselves stationed in this seething hotbed of passionate nationalism.

The earthly lifespan of Jesus Christ was lived out in a country under enemy occupation with numerous terrorist groups committed to national liberation. The most violent group were referred to by the Romans occupation forces as the Sicarri; they carried hidden daggers and used to assassinate Jewish collaborators, especially in the crowds at festival times. This was merely, however, the ultra-violent terrorist fringe of a movement who called themselves Zealots. (6) One of Christ’s own disciples had been a Zealot, and it is possible that the term Iscariot is derived from Sicarri. Perhaps this is why Matthew (an ex tax-gatherer and hence collaborator) groups them together as Simon the Zealot and Judas the Assassin. (7)

Imagine the scene; a popular orator who could now become the front-man for a national uprising. Thousands of potential revolutionaries on a hillside ‘eating out of his hand’. Too good an opportunity to miss. Some activists refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer determined to take Him by force to make Him king. (8) But this was not His way, and this was not His hour. This was not His vocation. He acted promptly, removing his disciples from the danger zone and climbing the hill alone to receive fresh orders. (9)

It was in the shadow of these events that Jesus asked “who do the crowds say that I am?” Peter’s answer is unequivocal, Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God. (10) No sooner is this revelation established in Peter’s understanding than Christ’s thoughts turn to the significance of the role. His thoughts turn immediately to His hour; He must go to Jerusalem, He must suffer, He must be killed, He must rise again. (11) Peter protested and received the strongest possible rebuke. There could be no compromise on this issue. He was heading towards His hour and Peter’s misplaced compassion could not be allowed to hinder Him.

As events unfold the consciousness is of His appointment with the hour. The arrival and request of the non-Jews or Helenists provokes an awareness that the time has arrived. His soul is troubled but He knows that the whole purpose of His incarnation was to keep this appointment. It was in the consciousness of this imminent hour’s ultimate stripping of all His rights, that He stripped to the waist and acted out the role of the servant. It was with a supreme consciousness of the hour having arrived that He prayed the great prayer of personal consecration; which could only ever be accomplished by the works of the hour. (12) The repetition of the phrase is like the tolling of a great bell; the hour is coming. Mark records some of the words spoken in Gethsemene on the night of the betrayal. To the sleepy disciples He says Are you still sleeping and resting. It is enough! The hour has come! (13)

But other events were reaching their climax too, in an amazing synchronisation. Luke’s gospel adds another dimension to these momentous events. Those who arrived to arrest Him heard these extraordinary words; when I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness. The New International Version senses the mood in its freer translation; Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this is your hour – when darkness reigns. (14)

Satan’s and mankind’s wickedness has always had a restraint upon it. Although almost unbelievable evil had been seen in our world, the full force of a murderous malice aimed at God Himself had hardly been seen. For generations mankind had been able to hide behind the protest of an independent spirit; we will not have this man to reign over us. (15)
The prophet Isaiah caught this refusal to submit to God’s reign when He records mysterious details of the original rebellion;                              
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthert sides of the north;l
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.
(16) In this form of expression the rebellion is a bid for equality; I will be like the Most High, but as all restraint is removed in this cosmic conflict the expression takes on an unmistakable form; Crucify Him! (17) There is no hiding behind some kind of mutual co-existence now. The treacherous secret is out in the open. There never could have been two supreme beings in the universe; the nature of the usurper is clearly revealed; he intends to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. (18)

Calvary then was a battlefield where two mighty combatants were to meet. This was both My hour and your hour. A terrifying synchronisation of love and hate in all their full measure. The hour in which Evil and Good met is at the centre of the universe. A meeting in which one pretended to equality with God and who in this moment reaches out to take his prize, and One who existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. (19)

The cross was a demonstration. On the one hand it was an hour in which God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (20) On the other hand is wa an hour which demonstrated the workings of the darkest powers in the universe, in the attempted murder of God. It is a synchronisation beyond human comprehension of God’s carefully planned intention and foreknowledge, and the creature’s red-handed guilt. An old Charles Wesley hymn expressed a grateful wonder; Died He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? (21)

These are mysteries too profound for ordinary human words. God, however, has had a means of expressing something of the depths of these sufferings. The Bible itself tells us that Christ’s own Spirit has testified to His own sufferings. This testimony was ‘heard’ in the heart of prophets and is the source of much of their revelation. (22) King David was such a prophet, and Psalm 22 is that kind of prophecy. It is an amazing song written a thousand years before the hour, but recounts in powerful imagery the events of the hour. This psalm was not directly David’s testimony. David’s hands and feet were never pierced, not did men cast lots for his clothing. This is the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy. (23) It first words reveal its real author; My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (24)

If it is at all possible, read it now, down to verse 21. Its subtitle is ‘the hind of the dawn’ and the imagery is of a young deer hunted to exhaustion. Its atmosphere is heavy and brooding. It is Calvary’s cry of dereliction. It is prayer of One who in His identification with the human race in all its ruin is now a worm, and no man. He is quite alone; there is none to help. Alone, that is, except for His prowling enemies. He is impaled upon the horns of the wild oxen; this animal is almost certainly the now extinct great auroch. These were animals of prodigious and awesome strength and probably the most powerful animal known to those regions. In Bible idiom ‘horn’ is very often the symbol of power. The symbolism of Psalm 22 has its victim finally impaled on the horns of this terrible power.

There is a mystery within a mystery here. Ancient Israel’s laws were very explicit. If an ox gored to death a common slave compensation had to be paid to the slave’s owner. The price was fixed for all generations; thirty pieces of silver. (25) This fixed price may well have been in Matthew’s thoughts as he recorded Judas’ betrayal. Quoting from the prophecies of Jeremiah and Zechariah; They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel. (26) ‘Thirty pieces of silver’; the compensation price for a slave who had been gored to death by an ox.

Let’s return to our reading of Psalm 22. There is a point in the psalm where the whole atmosphere changes. It is half way through a verse in most modern translations, but Bible chapters and verse breaks are very arbitrary things. The New King James version format of the verses will help to make the point; Deliver me from the sword, My precious (life) from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horn’s of the wild oxen.
You have answered me.

I will declare your name to my brethren;
In the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
(27)
The translators have done us a real service here. Psalm 22 has two quite separate sections with two entirely different atmospheres, and the change comes with the conviction that the prayers of the first section have been heard and answered; You have answered me. (28) Later in the psalm the writer records, when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of you in the great congregation. (29) 

In the second half of the psalm He is no longer alone. He knows that His prayer is heard and He looks forward with absolute certainty to the joys set before Him in the fellowship of His church (the great congregation). It is the familiar pattern of so much Old Testament prophecy; the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. (30)

Understood in this way the psalm becomes a commentary on a passage in the letter to the Hebrews. Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications and entreaties to him who was able to save him out of death, with strong crying and tears; (and having been heard because of his piety). (31)

In the gospel account all these invisible mysteries are hidden from the natural eyes, but the moment of conviction that the work was accomplished rings through ‘loud and clear’; it is finished. (32) He had spoken of His death as a baptism which must be ‘accomplished’; using the same word. (33) Now emerging from His baptism, while still on the horns of the wild oxen, we hear the victor’s triumphal shout; ‘it is finished, it is accomplished, it is done! In one place, at one time, in the history of all creation evil in all its power and love in all its power kept their divine appointment, and the battle won. The appointment with the hour has been kept, and the Mission Accomplished.

Notes:
1. John 2:1-11
2. John 5:19 New International Version
3. John 2:9,11
4. John 7:38; 8:20.
5. Matt 14:13-21; Mark 6:33-44; Luke 9:11-17; John 6:2-14
6. A History of the Jews; Paul Johnson
7. Matt 10:4. This is a possible paraphrase. In Acts 21:38 the word translated ‘assassins’ is ‘sicarion.
8. John 6:15
9. Matt 14:23
10. Matt 16:16 King James. The ‘thou’ is emphasised in the original text.
11. Matt 16:21-28
12. John 12:23,27; 13:1; 17:1
13. Mark 14:41
14. Luke 22:53
15. Luke 19:14
16. Isaiah 14
17. Mark 15:13
18. John 10:10
19. Philippians 2:6 1901 American Standard Version
20. Romans 5:8
21. ‘And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour’s blood?’ Charles Wesley
22. 1 Pet 1:10,11
23. Revelation 19:10
24. Psalm 22:1
25. Exodus 21:32
26. Matthew 27:9; Jeremiah 32:6-9; Zechariah 11:13
27. Psalm 22:2-22 KJV. Notice how the last section of verse 21 has been separated from the main body of the verse.
28. Psam 22:21b
29. Psalm 22:24,25
30. 1 Peter 1:11
31. Hebrews 5:7 J N Darby translation.
32. John 19:30
33. Luke 12:50

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