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John 3:14-21 - Lectionary for Lent 4B

3/8/2018

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3/8/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our Gospel reading for this week, from John 3:14-21, refers back to our Old Testament reading in Numbers 21. Here Jesus explains that he is the fulfillment of the bronze serpent in the wilderness.

In Numbers, because of the people’s sin, God sent venomous snakes to bite and kill them. He then set up a cure. If people looked at a bronze serpent, lifted up on a pole, they would be rescued. Jesus’ statements seem to clarify that the looking was done in faith, trusting that God would rescue them.

Jesus describes himself as the fulfillment of the serpent in the wilderness. He, being fully human, but without sin, is visibly the very thing which brings death. Every human, with only two exceptions recorded in biblical history, dies. We all know that will happen. It’s inherent in our humanity.

Jesus, however, is not like us in a very important regard. He has no sin. Therefore, death cannot hold him. When he is lifted up on a pole, killed  to death, he appears for all the world to be our complete equal, suffering death as well.

Jesus has a different solution, though, one which doesn’t show up in our understanding. He will draw all people to him, giving eternal life to all who believe. This is the way God loves the world. He loves it in such a way as to create life through faith in Jesus.

This is precisely what Jesus will do. After a few years of walking with his disciples, teaching them, and bringing healing and hope to crowds of people, he will be lifted up. The one who is perfectly human will become accursed in death for all the descendants of Adam. The one who is perfectly divine will be raised from the dead, bringing life to all who believe him. This is the Gospel of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Ephesians 2:1-10 - Lectionary for Lent 4B

3/7/2018

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3/7/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our New Testament passage from Ephesians 2 draws a very subtle distinction for us between the way we should consider sin and the way we should consider righteousness. Let’s take a look at just a few of the implications of the passage.

The apostle Paul says that we were dead in our sin and disobedience. The displeasure of God is fully earned by us. The God who has commanded that all his world remain very good, the way He made it, will not look with favor on any disobedience, great or small. When we fail to live in perfect obedience, love, and trust to God, and at peace with any of our fellow humans, we have justly condemned ourselves. It’s our fault, period.

How are we rescued? In verse 4, it is by God’s grace and mercy. This is nothing we deserve. It is not that God recognizes anything good in us. It isn’t that our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds. None of that! It’s God’s mercy that creates salvation. There’s nothing we could do, and even if we could, we wouldn’t do it.

Condemnation, then, comes from us. It’s our fault. Mercy is all God’s fault, if we can use that terminology. The only way I can be rescued from sin and death is that God chose to redirect his righteous anger against my sin. He chose not to condemn me. All the glory then goes to God.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Numbers 21:4-9 - Lectionary for Lent 4B

3/6/2018

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3/6/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

In Numbers 21, the people of Israel have sinned against God by their grumbling. They show that they don’t trust God’s provision, even though he has shown them again and again that they are perfectly safe due to his care.

God provides a solution which makes absolutely no sense to our logic. He has Moses create a bronze replica of the snakes which are killing the people. It is to be raised up on a pole. When people look at it, they will live. As I said, the solution makes no sense. There is no earthly reason to think this would work.

What’s the sign of God’s glory? The solution he prescribes does work. Even though it’s something that really can’t work, it does. There are only two ways we can understand this passage. One way is to discount it as a the foolish babbling of primitive people who didn’t know that venomous snake bites aren’t cured by looking at a piece of sculpture. That’s an irresponsible way to consider people in antiquity. I have said it many times throughout my career as a teacher of ancient things. People in antiquity weren’t stupid. They knew that this was not a solution that should do anything. They did it anyway. Why? Because they know what a miracle is.

A miracle, after all, is an action that would not normally happen. It’s considered miraculous when the unexpected, or even impossible happens. That’s precisely what we see in our Old Testament passage. God prescribes a way in which lives will be preserved and the ill effects of a venomous snakebite will be reversed, in this one instance. It works. It’s miraculous.

In the Bible God describes a number of situations which we must consider miraculous. When he creates the world out of nothing it’s a miracle. When he says that guilt for disobedience is inherited by future generations of Adam’s race, it happens. When he says that a perfect sacrifice can take away the guilt of sin, it’s a miracle.

How, then, do we deal with the miracle of Christ’s death on our behalf, to take away our sin? It’s the way of salvation for us created by God’s decree. It works. Why? Because he said so. So Christians urge everyone to look to Jesus in faith, expecting that he will, indeed, accomplish salvation on our behalf. Yes, it’s impossible. But it’s real.


If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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Psalm 107:1-9 - Lectionary for Lent 4B

3/5/2018

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3/5/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

The imagery of Psalm 107:1-9 is that of bringing people from a wilderness into a city where they can remain. While we often think of the wilderness as a place of escape, a place where you can go to leave your troubles behind, a place of solitude and rest, in the biblical cultures the wilderness was viewed quite the opposite way. The wilderness was a place where you might be eaten by wild animals if you managed to avoid dying of thirst or exposure first. Actually, I suppose you would be eaten by the wild animals after dying of thirst or exposure also. The wilderness is a place of death. It’s a place you want to avoid. It’s a place you need to escape.

Where do you go? You go to the cities and towns. Those are wonderful places! They have a water supply. They have access to food. They have other people who will help protect one another from the wild animals. The robbers and other criminals hide out in the wilderness. The cities have fortified walls to protect the citizens from those who would harm them. The city is the place to be.

What happens when people cry out to the Lord? He hears his people and he rescues them. He brings them to a city. He puts them into a civilized state. In that environment they are able to thrive. They may prosper. They can live in safety and peace.

Today we seem to fear the cities. Could it be that we have allowed them to become the uncivilized places? It’s high time to take them back and domesticate them.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

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    About Throwing Inkwells

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