How Jesus stayed his execution with a question – John 10:22-42, Part 4

In our study this week of John 10:22-42, we come to verse 30 which is Jesus’ big finish, referring back to the question originally posed to him by the religious leaders.  Remember the question?  It is the religious leaders’ question in verse 24: “Are you really the Messiah?”  In verse 30, Jesus does them one better.  He is not just the Messiah, he says, He and God the Father are one.

With that statement, Jesus has effectively dropped a theological bomb on the religious leaders.  Have you seen the meme where MMA commentators have a really big reaction to a turn of events in the ring?  The commentators lose their minds, astounded by what they just saw.  Something like that must have happened to the religious leaders.  When Jesus says, “I and the Father are one,” he is saying, “I’m not just the Messiah, I am God.”  And ka-bloom, the religious leaders had a huge reaction.  Look at verse 31.

“Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him,”

The Jewish religious leaders are tearing their hair out, pushing and shoving to try to find some baseball-sized rocks, because Jesus has just crossed the line…at least in their minds.  Notice that John, in this verse, writes the word, “Again.”  This is not the first time that the religious leaders wanted to stone him.  Back in chapter 8:59 they tried to seize Jesus when he said something similar, “Before Abraham was, I am.”  At that time the religious leaders knew that he was insinuating that he was equal with God, but now in chapter 10 verse 30, Jesus is blatant about his revealing his identity when he says, “I and the Father are one.”

So they take action to stone Jesus. Are they just angry?  No, they are following the Old Testament Law which says in Leviticus 24:16,

“Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.”

The religious leaders are correctly interpreting the Law.  Jesus is claiming to be God, and if he were merely a human, they would have been right in charging him with the crime of blasphemy.  But they were also very wrong in two ways. 

First, they didn’t give Jesus due process of a trial, but instead they rushed to capital punishment.  Second, and this is the more important way they are wrong, Jesus is not merely a human. When he says, “I and the Father are One,” he is telling the truth.  Of course, though, the religious leaders didn’t believe him when he said he was the Messiah.  They didn’t believe the miracles proved he was the Messiah, and they are definitely not going to believe he is God.

In their very self-assured opinion, with no possibility that they are wrong, they have determined that Jesus is wrong, and that he must die, having committed blasphemy.  With stones in their hands, Jesus speaks to them.  Look at verse 32,

“But Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’”

Jesus makes a very wise move here, which is no surprise because he is Jesus.  His method for stopping them before they start launching stones is to ask them a question.  We have seen Jesus harness the power of asking questions many times (such as this post). Now he stays his own execution with a thought-provoking question.

What question would be so effective?  It is a question about his miracles. His question about miracles points the religious leaders back to something very compelling.  He is basically saying, “People, I am not just saying that I am the Messiah, that the Father and I are one.  Anyone can say anything they want.  But I have proof.  My miracles!  What about the miracles I have done?”  In other words, Jesus is saying that he should not be executed because his miracles prove he is who he says he is. 

Will this rationale win over the religious leaders? We’ll find out in the next post.

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The time Jesus seems to condemn people, but actually isn’t – John 10:22-42, Part 3

In John 10, verse 26, Jesus makes a curious accusation to the religious leaders who are confronting him: “You don’t believe because you are not my sheep.” What does he mean? Is he condemning them forever?

No. We know that he cannot mean that it is impossible for them to be his sheep.  Why? Because some of the religious leaders actually did place their faith in Jesus.  One we learned about already way back in chapter 3, Nicodemus (see posts starting here).  There will be more, many more, religious leaders who believe in him.  So Jesus does not mean “It is impossible for you to believe in me.” 

I think it is far better to understand Jesus as trying to attack the religious leaders’ arrogance.  Almost as if he is using reverse psychology, telling them what they cannot be, and thus hoping to get them to imagine the opposite.  We do this with kids and with arrogant, overconfident people.  If you tell a person that they cannot do X, they will really want to do X, and they just might. 

For the most part, though, the religious leaders have made a vocal choice about not placing their faith in Jesus.  They have chosen to harden their hearts against him.  So he continues teaching.  In verses 27 and 28, he uses the sheep and shepherd metaphor that he had previously used in the earlier part of John 10.  Jesus describes his sheep, his disciples, as people who know his voice, who listen to this voice.  He also says that he knows his sheep.  There is a two-way relationship.  The sheep know him, and he knows them.  The result of this mutual relationship, Jesus says, is that the sheep follow him.

This is a picture of discipleship.  We are followers of Jesus.  A disciple is a follower, a learner from their leader.  We disciples of Jesus make it our practice to listen for the voice of Jesus, because we know he is good and wants good for us.  We do that by listening for his Spirit who lives in us.  We listen for his voice in his word, as we make it our practice to study his word.  We listen for his voice in our world.  We make space to listen, to be quiet and listen.  We listen for his voice in the words of his people, which means we intentionally and consistently place ourselves in a Christian community where we will hear other people speak into our lives, because we trust that God’s Spirit will speak through them.  This is why it is so important that we have people who disciple, mentor or coach us.  Spiritual directors.  Therapists.  Small groups.  Others who walk closely with God.  And we talk about it.  We don’t just have friends who walk closely with God, and then talk about sports, or our hobbies, we talk about our relationship with God.  Then when we hear the Spirit’s voice, we follow it. 

In verse 28, Jesus makes a comment that we have heard numerous times, that he gives his followers eternal life.  Notice the connection here to an important verse earlier in the chapter, verse 10.  Whenever we think about the life that Jesus wants to give us, we need to keep these two verses together.  In verse 10 he refers to abundant life, and here in verse 28, he refers to eternal life.  Both are important.  Jesus wants us to experience both eternal life one day after earthly death, and abundant life now while we are still living on earth. 

Jesus once told a parable about this. He said, think about God compared to a good earthly father.  An earthly father wants their children to have an earthly daily life where they know they are loved, supported and cared for.  Where they are guided with wisdom.  How much more does God want that for us because he is a good heavenly Father?

When it comes to eternal life, Jesus says two things.  First, we shall never perish.  We know that we humans will all die.  So Jesus clearly isn’t saying that his followers will never die a human death.   He is saying that in the eternal realm, we will never die, we will never be separate from him.  That’s eternal life. 

Second, he says that no one can snatch us from his hand. Here he is also speaking about our situation in the eternal realm.  Some have interpreted Jesus’ phrase as referring to Christians’ salvation status during our earthly life, that once we are saved, we will never stray.  I think it would be very odd for Jesus to be talking about our status of salvation during our earthly life, however, when the entire sentence is about eternal life after death. No, he is speaking entirely about the eternal realm, and he is saying that when we are in the eternal realm, we cannot and will not lose our lives. 

Jesus goes on in verse 29 to bolster his claim, saying it’s not just his strong hand that will protect us in the eternal realm, but it is his Father protecting us as well.  God the Father, who is greater than all, has given his followers to Jesus, and there is no way anyone can change that in the eternal realm. 

Then we come to verse 30 which is Jesus’ big finish, and we’ll talk about that massive statement in the next post.

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How some Christians today might be like the religious leaders in Jesus’ story – John 10:22-42, Part 2

The Jewish leaders have Jesus cornered on their home turf, the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus’ disciples had to be nervous.  Look what happens in verse 24:

“The Jews gathered around him, saying, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly’.”

I find it interesting that the religious leaders claim that Jesus is keeping them in suspense.  These religious leaders are those who believed they properly interpreted and obeyed the Scripture.  They are questioning Jesus as if they are eager to learn that he is really the Christ, the Messiah, the promised savior of Israel.  As if he hasn’t already given them ample evidence toward that fact.  As if they hope he is the Messiah, think he probably is, and they just aren’t sure, so they want him to confirm it so they can believe in him and worship him. 

As if…NO!  None of that.  They religious leaders feign interest, but they have an ulterior motive.

Jesus is no dummy.  He knows the religious leaders really don’t believe in him.  We have learned a lot from Jesus’ interaction with the religious leaders in the previous 9+ chapters of John, and he, so far, has not been one to give in to their demands.  How will he answer them now?  Their question is basically, “Tell us, Jesus, Yes or No…Are you the Messiah?”  Look at verses 25-30.

“Jesus answered, ‘I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one’.”

When I was in India, one day I was on a run with my friend Paomin, and he mentioned to me a video he watched where a person from a different religion said that Jesus never claimed to be God.  Paomin asked how I would respond to that person.  I brought up this passage, John 10:25-30.  There are other places in the Gospels where Jesus makes claims to be divine, but I think in this passage he is very, very clear.  Let’s take a deeper look.

First, in verses 25-26, Jesus disagrees with the premise of the Jewish leaders’ question in verse 24.  The premise of their question is that Jesus has not plainly told them that he is the Messiah.  His response in verses 25-26 rebuts them in two ways. One way is when he says, “I did tell you.”  The second way is when he says, “My miracles…speak for me.” 

The issue of him revealing himself, Jesus says, has nothing to do with him. He has revealed himself. He both claimed to be the Messiah and acted like the Messiah was supposed to act.  Instead, the issue of him revealing himself has everything to do with the religious leaders and the fact that they refuse to believe in him.  They don’t believe his words, and they don’t believe his miracles.  He is not what they expected or wanted.  They assume their knowledge is correct, and they choose not to believe him.

Jesus gets right to the heart of the matter.  Lack of belief.  The Jewish leaders had their hearts and minds set on a different way of understanding God and God’s work in the world.  Their hearts were hard.  So hard that when Jesus shows up right in front of them, they refuse to believe.  That sounds like pride, doesn’t it?  Like stubbornness.

The religious leaders’ coldness to Jesus freaks me out a bit.  I suspect most of us believe that if Jesus showed up in our world, we would instantly recognize him and start worshiping him and following him.  We imagine he would be an obviously overwhelming presence such that we simply could not ignore him or have any doubt that it is him.  I mean, it’s Jesus!  We would definitely know it is him.  We would be overjoyed that he is with us.  

Or would we?  Is it possible that there is a human tendency to believe that we are absolutely correct in our understanding of God, that there is no chance that we could be wrong.  Do we humans ever struggle with that kind of arrogance or pride or self-assuredness?  Yes, we do.  We can have a tough time living in humility.  We can rebel at saying, “I might be wrong about this,” and rarely seriously wonder if we are wrong about something. 

My point is that I think it is highly possible that you and I might stare Jesus in the face and say, with confidence, “You’re not Jesus, because you’re not acting like Jesus would act,” believing that we actually have the proper understanding of how Jesus would act if he were here.  I think it is very possible that you and I might be the religious leaders in this story. 

Hear me on this. I’m not saying that Jesus is walking around your community or mine, and we have missed him or disrespected him.  I’m not saying that every single one of us is exactly like the religious leaders in this story.  My guess is that most readers of this blog would self-identify as people who believe in and trust in Jesus.

What I’m saying is that I think we would do well to learn from the mistakes of the religious leaders. They weren’t evil incarnate.  They were people just like you and me, people who have a predisposition to arrogance and pride. People who struggle with the kind of humility and teachability that faith in Jesus requires. 

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Does your view of God matter? – John 10:22-42, Part 1

I’d like you to consider the following question.  True or False: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  That’s a quote by pastor and author, A. W. Tozer in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, about the attributes of God. Read the quote again. What do you think about it? True or False?

The ramification of that quote is the idea that if we are wrong in our conception of God, in our understanding of God, then we will be much more likely to be wrong in the way we live our lives.  No doubt there are people throughout the history of the world who have been wrong in their conception of God, and they have lived incredibly good lives.  There are also people with excellent theology, but are truly awful people.  But my opinion is that, generally-speaking, the quote is correct.  If it is correct, we will want to have proper thoughts about God, because our thoughts about God will inspire us to live in a way that is in line with the heart and mission of God. 

The important next question, then, is this: are we thinking rightly about God?  This week on the blog, we’re going to meet some people who were thinking very wrongly about God.  They will serve as a cautionary tale for us.  But first, let me back up a bit.

I spent the month of March 2023 teaching in India, and therefore took a hiatus from the blog. While I was away, guest preachers filled in for me at Faith Church. So if you’ve been following our blog series through the Gospel of John, you’ll notice that there are no posts about John 8:12 through John 10:21. Four weeks ago, my father-in-law, Dr. Sandy Good preached John 10:1-21, and the next week my dad, Dr. Harold Kime, preached a Palm Sunday sermon.  Then on Easter I preached John 11:1-45 (blog posts starting here), because Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life,” and then goes on to resurrect his friend Lazarus from the dead.  Last week was Current Events week (blog posts starting here).  Now we’re back to the Gospel of John.  It would seem that we should begin John 12, but we skipped twenty verses in John chapter 10! This we’re going back to cover what we missed. 

Before we start John 10:22-42, I want to say how thankful I am for the various guest preachers we had during the month of March when I was in India.  In addition to the two preachers I mentioned above, we had three from Faith Church who continued the Gospel of John series.  One preached John 8:12-30 about Jesus being the Light of the World.  David Hundert preached John 8:31-59 about Jesus being God before Abraham. Emerald Scaffe preached John chapter 9 about the story of Jesus healing the blind man who said, “I was blind, but now I see.” 

In these sermons and the chapters preceding them, one of the story lines we’ve observed is the deteriorating relationship between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders.  For example, look at John 10, verses 19-21, the last few verses before our passage for today:

“At these words the Jews were again divided. Many of them said, ‘He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?’ But others said, ‘These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”

When the Gospel of John mentions “the Jews,” the writer is almost always talking about the Jewish religious leaders. What we see in John 10:19-21 is that not only was the relationship between Jesus and the religious leaders in bad shape, but also the relationship between the religious leaders themselves is conflicted because of Jesus.  What in the world should be done about this Jesus? 

That brings us to verse 22, and the passage we’re going to study today.  The scene changes between verses 21 and 22, so let’s read verses 22-23 to find out where Jesus goes next. 

“Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.”

Jesus heads back to Jerusalem for another feast.  Your Bibles might include a text note to let you know that the feast is Hanukah.  Like most Jews, Jesus follows the custom of taking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast.  He’s not doing anything out of the ordinary by going to Jerusalem or by walking in the temple courts.  Yet, the Jewish leaders remain on high alert for him, almost as if they have alerted all the authorities to keep an eye out for him.  We’ll find out what happens in the next post.

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Would Jesus make you angry? – John 10:22-42, Preview

Imagine with me that Jesus shows up in the flesh in your community. I live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA, and I’m writing this in April 2023. What would it be like if Jesus lived here?  I’m not talking about his second coming.  I’m talking about a fictional scenario.  A thought project.  Just as Jesus was born into Palestine in the first century Roman Empire about 2000 years ago, imagine what it would be like if Jesus would be born into your community.

To continue this thought project, let’s try to keep the details as similar to the real story of Jesus’ life as told in the Gospels.  He was raised in anonymity, just a regular child in a tiny town, growing up to support his family in their family business. He had brothers and sisters, and he learned to be a craftsman just like his adopted father.  At some point between his twelfth and thirtieth year, his father passed away. Being the oldest son, Jesus became the proprietor of the business, having the primary responsibility for making sure his mother is cared for.  Perhaps, people reason, this is why he makes it to his 30th birthday without marrying.

Right around that time, in his 30th year, Jesus’ life takes a dramatic turn.  He becomes a traveling preacher, making a big name for himself by supposedly doing miraculous healings.  If he showed up in our era doing miracles, I have no doubt he would have followers.  I suspect he would be well received by many people in Lancaster County.  Miracles have a way of attracting supporters.

But would he have any detractors in our community?  In this fictional scenario, let me tell you about Lancaster County as it is in our day, very religious.  Lots of churches.  Lots of people who say they believe in God and are part of those churches.  How might those religious people feel about this upstart traveling preacher who supposedly does miracles?

If Jesus showed up in Lancaster County, would the religious people immediately believe in him?  Would they go out to hear him preach?  Would they change anything about their lives to make room to learn from him and follow his ways?

My guess is that most of us believe we would embrace Jesus, worship him, follow and support him, if he showed up in our communities.  I mean, it’s Jesus!  Of course we would celebrate him.

Or would we?  Is it possible that Jesus might actually make us uncomfortable or upset?  I ask this question because of what we’re going to study in the Gospel of John this coming week on the blog.  Take a look at John 10:22-42 ahead of time.  It’s one of those stories in which Jesus makes people really angry.  Religious people.  People who believe in God.  People like us.  They are the ones who have a very bad opinion about Jesus, and they get extremely upset.  Why?  What does Jesus do to make the religious people so mad?

Join us on the blog next week, and we’ll talk about it further.  We’ll learn how this story about Jesus has important implications for Christians in our day and age.  See you then!

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We need flourishing-producing togetherness for…Creating Culture, Part 5

I traveled with my wife Michelle to Cambodia in 2016.  We visited the town where an organization named Agape is located.  Agape rescues formerly trafficked women, helps them find healing, introduces them to Jesus, and gives them job training in a steady, safe employment environment.  Michelle’s company employed the women to make a variety of products, paying the women a fair wage. 

What I saw in Cambodia is an excellent example of flourishing-producing togetherness. What is flourishing-producing togetherness?

What we learn from Scripture in our previous posts here and here is that culture change requires Flourishing-producing Togetherness.

If we want to create a new culture in which everyone can flourish, we must do so together, in community with one another, learning and following the way of Jesus in our real day-to-day lives.

Scriven says that culture change “is nothing less than the prospect of social change through the witness of small groups—cells of Christians…who by their solidarity with Christ remake the world.”[1]

We create culture together, living like Jesus lived, together. Love is the foundation for Christian communities who want to create new culture.

Christian communities, therefore, do not battle with culture in order to make it great again.  Instead Christian communities create new culture, for human flourishing, if they work together, guided by love. That is precisely what I saw Agape doing in Cambodia.

The town where Agape is located used to be a destination for Western men to travel for sex vacations. So many men were coming to town to indulge in evil, that a Cambodian businessman thought he would capitalize on the situation by building a hotel to accommodate the men.  During the process of building the hotel, Agape got started in the area, seeking to change the culture.  Agape was started and run by Christians working together to pursue God’s heart for justice so that there might be human flourishing.  Agape slowly but surely rescued women, helped them find healing, find Jesus, and job training.  The culture of the town gradually changed.  Brothels went bankrupt.  Prostitution dwindled.  The man realized he was going to have an empty hotel.  He sold it to Agape, and they turned it into a school, church, and other uses. 

What about us? How can we work together to change our culture for human flourishing?  If you are a part of a church, consider how to apply flourishing-producing togetherness to your small group, to your Sunday School class, to your committee or ministry.  We can work together to create new culture no matter where we live.  As we conclude, consider these questions:

Are we listening to what is going on in the lives of those we normally see as creating problems.  Are we asking questions, listening, learning about them?  Or are we assuming we know better and judging them?

Are we looking for ways to show love to them?  To walk alongside them?  Are we doing that as a group, together?  As a community of Jesus followers, wanting to create a new culture in which we live more like Jesus lived?

Can you imagine it?  More and more people experiencing the flourishing life of Jesus not only in their own lives, but in church families, and spreading around us ever more in our communities.

[1] Scriven, Charles. 1988. The Transformation of Culture: Christian Social Ethics After H. Richard Niebuhr. Scottdale, PA, Herald Press. Page 194.

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Jesus’ disciples followed his lead in…Creating Culture, Part 4

Enlivened by his Spirit, Jesus’ new community launched on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).  On that day, Jesus’ disciples preached to the descendants of Israel, Jewish pilgrims from many lands who gathered in the city of Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost.  What started as a Christian community of 120 men and women, led by Jesus’, was bolstered by 3000 more on that momentous day (Acts 2:41).  We call this community the church, and we will see how it creates the new culture of the Kingdom of God. 

In the account of the beginning of the church (Acts 2-6), we read the earliest references of the first Christians applying Jesus’ teaching in their community.  In Acts 2:42-47, the church quickly became a new culture within an old one, precisely because they were in community with one another.  In this passage the writer of Acts describes for us in rich detail what this new culture included.  In Acts 2:42-47, we read:

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

What we see in this passage is the very beginning of a brand-new culture within an already existing culture. What is this brand-new culture?   First, the earliest Christians based their new culture on a theology of togetherness, devoted to the teaching of the apostles, which was based on the teaching of Jesus, as we learned in the previous post.  Just as Jesus was so compelling, drawing crowds of thousands to follow him, the new community of the church would do likewise because their lives were filled with his life of love.

Second, the earliest Christians created a new culture of relationship based on Jesus’ teaching.  They called it a fellowship, and it involved being together regularly, meeting daily in temple’s courts, and meeting in homes, sharing meals and worshiping together.  Here we see the relational aspect required for Christian communities to create culture. They were committed to one another, communicating with one another about how to live the way of Jesus.  Creating the new culture could not be accomplished in a solitary way. 

Fellowship also affected their weekly calendar.  We are accustomed to a work week that begins on Monday, and for many, that work week finishes on Friday or Saturday, leaving Sunday as a day off.  Thus worship gatherings most often happen on Sunday.  But in the ancient culture of the new community called the church, Sunday was the first day of the week, and thus the first day of work.  Because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday, the earliest Christians commemorated that crucial event weekly by gathering for worship and fellowship on Sundays.  This would require many of them to work during the day Sunday, and then gather in the evening in their house churches.  Fellowship, then, was vital to the creation of the new culture, even when they didn’t have a day off from work to make gathering convenient.

Third, the earliest Christians created a new cultural approach to economy, one that undergirds human flourishing, and is consistent with the teaching of Jesus.  The historian of Acts tells us that the church believed and lived as though they had everything in common. They sold their possessions and goods, and they used the proceeds to give to anyone as they had need.  Previously Jesus taught the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18ff) to sell everything he had and give it to the poor, and now the disciples took Jesus’ teaching to heart.  They did not see possessions as owned by the individual, but owned together, for whoever had need.

As the narrative continues in Acts 4:32-37 the writer of Acts gives us additional stories of Christians selling possessions, thus enabling them to support people in need.  Also in Acts 6:1-6, we read that the church had a food distribution ministry for widows, who were extremely vulnerable in that culture.  This is the church at work creating culture to make sure the vulnerable are cared for.  When there is an ethnic breakdown in the food distribution system, the church addresses the injustice by creating a leadership structure to make sure needs continue to be met equitably.  The Christian community created a new culture focused on loving sacrifice together to make human flourishing possible for everyone.

Finally, in Acts 2:42-47, the earliest Christians created a new culture of communal worship, gathering regularly in homes around tables for discussion about the apostles’ teaching, for celebrating communion, and for praising God. 

These are the marks of the kind of culture Jesus commissioned his followers to create, a culture of togetherness that would lead to flourishing.

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A uniquely Christian approach to…Creating Culture, Part 3

“What is a uniquely Christian approach to changing culture?”  The answer is found in looking at Jesus!  As we will see, he created a new culture, a culture in which people flourished.  Jesus’ new culture had it’s roots long before he became a human.

In fact, this new culture started with a family. To a husband and wife, the aged and childless Abram and Sarai, God promises an heir that would lead their family to multiply into a large family.  Thus God says that “all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you,” (Genesis 12:3).  What a picture of flourishing, and for the whole world! 

Some 400 years later, to Israel’s leader Moses (Exodus 6:2-8), God gave a unique Law Code to help the nation that had grown out of Abraham’s family fulfill the promise of human flourishing.

What God taught Moses and the nation of Israel was that they were to be different from the nations around them.  Many times, God tells them that they are set apart to be his chosen people, and thus they are not to live in the manner of other cultures.  God establishes and guides the creation of their new culture through the Law that he gives the nation of Israel.

The foundation of the Law is found in Deuteronomy 6 where we read God asking the people of Israel to love him with their total being.  The new culture of God was vastly different from the religions of other cultures of that day, because the people of Israel and their God would be in close relationship.  It was a covenant, a treaty, an agreement of love between the two parties, like nothing the world had ever seen.

The people of Israel were to be a community that lived out the purpose of human flourishing.  As they migrated to and took possession of the Promised Land of Canaan, Israel was surrounded by people groups who had cultures that were not in line with the phrase “human flourishing”.

Thus the Lord instructs Israel in Deuteronomy 12:4 and 31, “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.” Israel’s practice of religion was to be vastly different from that of the surrounding nations.

One example of this was the Canaanite practice of human sacrifice. God guided Israel to create a new religion that abolished the sacrificing of human life (Deut. 18:10).  Another example is that God gave Israel strict regulations on what was clean versus unclean food (Deut. 14).  Also, God taught the people how to practice cleanliness. All so that they would flourish.

Next Israel was to create a culture marked by justice.  That meant the eradication of any practice based on a philosophy of “might makes right.”  In Deuteronomy 10:17-19, for example, Israel is to actively remember their own experience of injustice when they were oppressed as enslaved foreigners for over 400 years in Egypt.  That terrible era in their history, the Lord says, should cause them to create a culture free of oppression, and instead create a culture noted for justice, especially to the marginalized.

He specifically mentions that they are to take up “the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and love the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.”  This new culture is exemplified by the heart of the Lord himself, who embodies justice, which he illustrates by saying that, “he shows no partiality and takes no bribes.” 

Israel was a community of faith, creating a new culture of human flourishing.  In establishing an entirely new culture based in the justice of the Lord himself, Israel became a beacon for the cultures around it.  Israel’s new culture was designed to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham, that his family would be a blessing to the whole world.  In this new culture, this new way of doing life, God’s desire was his people who know his love, and live with such flourishing that all the peoples of the world would experience the blessing of flourishing as well.

As biblical history progressed, however, Israel would fail to live up to the Lord’s ideals. The prophets of Israel began to point to a new hope, a coming savior who would restore Israel to the kind of culture where humanity would flourish.  So we cross over into the New Testament, which describes how the earliest Christians found that messianic hope in Jesus Christ, a hope that a new culture based in him was available for the flourishing of all.

Jesus described the creation of that culture using the image of the Kingdom of God as the ultimate destiny of all human cultures.  While God’s Kingdom had not yet been fully consummated, Jesus preached that in him the Kingdom was near (Mark 1:14) and through him the Kingdom was working its way surprisingly and mysteriously into the world. 

It is Jesus’ teaching on prayer, what we now refer to as The Lord’s Prayer, that perhaps gives us the best understanding of what kind of culture Christian communities should create for human flourishing.  In Matthew 6:10, Jesus teaches us to pray to the Father that his Kingdom would come, that his will would be done, “on earth as it is in heaven.” 

This new culture being ushered onto and through the earth, as Jesus envisioned it, was marked by humans doing the will of God.  As the will of God is perfectly obeyed in heaven, so it will be in the new culture, in the way we go about our everyday lives. Jesus himself was a living, breathing example of how to live out that new Kingdom culture on earth, and furthermore, he shaped a new community that would demonstrate his new way of doing life to the rest of the world, inviting everyone to join them in the flourishing.

Like the Law of Israel, Jesus’ teaching was rich in justice, flowing from love for God and others.  Once when asked what the greatest command of the Law was (Matthew 22:34-40), Jesus quoted the passage I mentioned in the previous post on which many churches base their mission statements, a passage from Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,” after which he noted that the second greatest command is “Love your neighbor as yourself,” from Leviticus 19:18.

He would further demonstrate this love through his own ministry of healing the sick, freeing the demon-possessed and providing food for the hungry.  Then Jesus called his followers to do the same.  In Matthew 25:31-46, in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, he goes so far as to say that when his followers minister to the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and the prisoner, they are ministering to him.  If they do not minister to those in need, they are neglecting him.  So much did Jesus want his followers to create culture for human flourishing that he embedded himself in identity with those in need.  

Jesus grounded this new theology of togetherness in love when he said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35).  The new culture of the Kingdom of God would pursue human flourishing because it would be marked by love for one another, for the least of these among us, as that is the kind of love Jesus himself gave to us.  This is how we will change what we see going on in our world.  Jesus gave us the blueprint.

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Some important definitions and cautions about… – Creating Culture, Part 2

In his book Culture Making, Andy Crouch suggests that “the only way to change culture is to create more of it.”[1]  If he is right, the Christian approach to changing culture is to create new culture. So in this post, let’s take a look at some definitions and cautions to help us think Christianly about creating culture.

First, Crouch provides a helpful caution suggesting that Christians, when they have resorted to condemning, critiquing, copying or consuming culture, have failed to produce the human flourishing envisioned by Christian theology. 

That brings us to our first definition: what is Christian theology?  It is defined in many ways, and for our purposes this week, I am going to suggest that Christian theology is “ideas about God that are in line with the heart and mission of Jesus, so that they result in people living lives in line with the heart and mission of Jesus.”

Second, Crouch cautions us by noting that “the only way to motivate a large enough bloc of [people] to act in a way that really shapes the [culture], is to create an alternative.”[2]  So if we want to change our culture, we will fail if we try to battle our culture in a culture war.  Instead we should create new culture. 

And that leads to our second definition: what is culture?  Culture is defined many ways.  For our purposes, I am going to refer to culture what culture should be, not what it always is.  Culture is humans working together to create a world where humanity can flourish. 

Flourishing?  I’ve used that word a lot in recent years.  Now for our third definition: what is flourishing?  It’s a word from nature, and we see it all around in spring time.  Flowers with healthy roots, access to water, sun, and nutrients in good soil will thrive and blossom.  Fruit trees will produce. 

For humanity, Jesus referred to flourishing when he taught about the abundant life (John 10:10).  Paul described it with the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  When we think of creating culture that is flourishing, we should think of people who are growing the Fruit of the Spirit in their lives.  We should also think of a society where injustice is being eradicated.  The Old Testament Hebrew has a wonderful for this, shalom.  It means “peace,” but it’s a wider, deeper peace than we normally think of.  Shalom is being a peace with ourselves, with others, with nature, with God.  That’s the kind of culture of human flourishing we Christians are called to create. 

That flourishing culture leads us to another caution. When we think of creating culture, most often we envision individual artists, painting, sculpting, designing, building, making music, drama or writing works of literature.  Individuals can create important cultural artifacts, but substantive culture change happens best by groups of Christians working together.  Churches, for sure.  But other Christian groups as well. 

Here is a fourth caution: Christian communities are normally seen as having different purposes than creating culture.  A church is for making disciples, right?  A church is for loving God and loving people.  But this week I’m going to try to convince you that Christian communities also need to see ourselves as people who must work together to create culture for the purpose of human flourishing.

Another caution: to create culture for human flourishing we must guard against seeing ourselves as custodians of culture.  A custodian of culture sees its mission as maintaining the status quo or tradition.  Certainly we should keep or preserve traditional aspects of culture that lead to flourishing.  Healthy marriages, healthy families, healthy church families.  But not all traditional culture has been healthy culture that led to human flourishing.  We do not want to be custodians of culture.  We need to be honest about which parts of our tradition and current culture are not helping people flourish. We will need to exercise patience and sensitivity during the process of creating culture. 

A final caution: churches would do well to review our mission statements, and the way we strive to accomplish that mission. My own church is like many churches that have a mission statement involving some version of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 22:34-40, that the greatest commandments are loving God and loving people. At Faith Church we try to focus on loving God and people by worshiping, fellowshipping, making disciples of Jesus and reaching out to share the good news of Jesus in word and deed. My guess is that most other Christian churches do the same.

How many churches, though, would understand their primary mission as a theological mandate to create culture?  What we will see is that there is a clear Scriptural vision, fully in line with God’s Kingdom purposes, so that churches must see and express their mission as creators of culture.

With these cautions and definitions in hand, we can return to the question we’re seeking to at least begin to answer this week: “What is a uniquely Christian approach to changing culture?”  The answer is found in looking at Jesus.  As we will see, he created a new culture in which people flourished.  In the next post, we’ll learn how Jesus’ new culture had it’s roots long before he became a human.

[1] Crouch, Andy. 2008. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. Downers Grove, IL: IVP. Page 67. There are those who disagree with Crouch, such as James Davison Hunter in To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. We’ll talk about Hunter’s work in a future post.

[2] Ibid, 72.

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Does our culture need to change? – Creating Culture, Part 1

What is a uniquely Christian approach to bringing change our culture? 

It’s a big question.  Christians have many opinions about how to answer it.  Often very different opinions. 

Before we can attempt an answer to the question, I think we need to examine the question.  The question, “What is Christian approach to changing culture?” assumes some things. 

What culture am I talking about?  I’m talking specifically about the culture of the United States of America.  And I’m specifically suggesting that many, if not most, Christians would say that our American culture needs to be changed.  But does it?  Does our culture need to be changed? 

You might think that the answer is so obviously a loud YES to that question that you might be surprised I’m even asking it.  What is so obviously wrong with our culture that most Christians would say our culture needs to be changed? 

This brings us to the headlines of the past week. 

As of April 10, 2023, there were 147 Mass Shootings in 2023.  A mass shooting is defined as a shooting in which at least four people were killed or injured.  In that same time period, there were 14 mass murders.  A mass murder is defined as a shooting in which at least four people are killed. Think about this astounding reality: In just over three months, there have been 147 mass shootings and 14 mass murders in the USA. Worse, 2023 is not starting out radically different, as if this is a new situation in our culture. The stats from many recent years are awful.

In Tennessee, where one of those awful mass murder shootings happened last month in a school, three Democratic lawmakers began protesting gun laws, speaking boldly in opposition.  The Republican-majority Tennessee state house voted to remove two of the three from the state house.  Why only two of three?  Why not all three?  Some have suggested racism was at work.  The two removed were black.  The one not removed was white.  After the removals, there were two open seats in the house, and that necessitated action to fill those seats in the interim.  Maybe not surprisingly, the local districts that had originally elected the two men voted to appoint the men back to their seats.  But how did this happen in the first place?

Or take Florida where there has been a battle between the governor (a conservative) and Disney (seen as progressive) and its tax status.  Actually, Florida is an ideological battleground of sorts, as there has also been talk of banning books. But it’s not just Florida. Numerous local school boards across the country are hearing from some of their constituents that they should ban books or curriculum.  Any time you hear about book banning, you should be concerned. So why would Americans, living in a land of free speech, ask school boards to ban books?  Because they claim the books and curriculum are based in Critical Race Theory, better known by its acronym, CRT. 

(My sense is that most people who are fired up about CRT have never read a single article explaining CRT, let alone read a book about it. I decided I wasn’t going to be one of those, so I read Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Third Edition, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, 2017. I would be interested in hearing what readers of this blog think about the book, and if you have anything objectionable in it. From my perspective as a Christian theologian who is trained in both biblical and theological studies from conservative, evangelical institutions, I found nothing objectionable in the book.)

Whether it is about abortion, sexual ethics, the entertainment industry, the Supreme Court, gun rights, social security, or a plethora of other concerns, who or what molds our thoughts and beliefs about these issues?

Especially in evangelical Christian circles there is much talk about how to address these issues.  Some dream of the country reverting to what they consider to be a more righteous time.  One of their primary methods to bring about that culture change is the use of political power.  From the national level Supreme Court justices to the local level School boards. 

Throughout history, though, when the church has mixed with politics, it has generally gone very poorly.  Political power can be used for good, and it should be molded toward the common good.  But a distinctly Christian response to creating culture has a much more nuanced answer than to control the political conversation and political power. 

Hear that one more time: a distinctly Christian response to creating culture has a much more nuanced answer than to control the political conversation and political power. 

What is that distinctly Christian response? In the next post we’ll begin to talk about it.

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