Matthew 27:39-46
The Word of Regeneration
Whether it takes the form of a drive-thru sampling of what the church has to offer or of drive-past sniping at the target which is Christianity, a merely dilettante acquaintance with the cross of Christ will prove to be unsatisfactory.
Nor is merely academic interest to be much preferred. Knowing the texts is of little use if there is no interest in the big picture as it presents itself in redemptive history.
We need to linger here and really look at that centre cross to really see what it is that is happening there. As we hear that deep sorrow expressed as inflicted in the fierce anger of God upon his servant we are drawn to two intimately related conclusions; that Christ (God having determined to save the 'others') must suffer and that you (God having been gracious to bring you to the cross) must be born again.
Showing posts with label Regeneration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regeneration. Show all posts
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Stemming of our Revolutionary Unbelief.
Matthew 27:39-46
The Word of Regeneration
To stem Revolutionary unbelief we will need more than slogans and opponent's thoughts brought captive. Into every circumstance we need to import our full assurance of understanding that God knows what he's doing and that his Word is his Word indeed; to be trusted in and acted on.
We need to reverse the order as a matter of urgency; starting and staying with appropriate Scripture in it's context we can proceed to bring thoughts captive and sloganize to our hearts' content.
Maybe we could call the 'thought capture:' 'theology' and the 'sloganizing:' 'preaching.'
The Word of Regeneration
To stem Revolutionary unbelief we will need more than slogans and opponent's thoughts brought captive. Into every circumstance we need to import our full assurance of understanding that God knows what he's doing and that his Word is his Word indeed; to be trusted in and acted on.
We need to reverse the order as a matter of urgency; starting and staying with appropriate Scripture in it's context we can proceed to bring thoughts captive and sloganize to our hearts' content.
Maybe we could call the 'thought capture:' 'theology' and the 'sloganizing:' 'preaching.'
Face up to the Taunts and to the Forsakenness.
Matthew 27:39-46
The Word of Regeneration
Hear the words and meditate on their meanings. What does it mean that he should be forsaken, that he could not save himself, that he would not come down from the cross?
The Word of Regeneration
Hear the words and meditate on their meanings. What does it mean that he should be forsaken, that he could not save himself, that he would not come down from the cross?
Friday, March 16, 2007
The Word of Regeneration
Matthew 27:39-46
Passing By the Crossroads of all the Ages.
Three Easy Steps to Taunting God in his Face.
Borrowed Words Incoherently Spoken
With the light extinguished, the temple deserted and the curse placed firmly on the crucified one, the almost incoherently spoken words are borrowed from the despairing part of the Psalm and left hanging without resolution as the Word of God himself (of whom it must be said that he is with God and that he is God) speaks to God (who stands silent) out of his own darkness, desolation and accursedness. His cry of agony in death is blended with the incoherent cry of the new birth.
Passing By the Crossroads of all the Ages.
Three Easy Steps to Taunting God in his Face.
Borrowed Words Incoherently Spoken
With the light extinguished, the temple deserted and the curse placed firmly on the crucified one, the almost incoherently spoken words are borrowed from the despairing part of the Psalm and left hanging without resolution as the Word of God himself (of whom it must be said that he is with God and that he is God) speaks to God (who stands silent) out of his own darkness, desolation and accursedness. His cry of agony in death is blended with the incoherent cry of the new birth.
Borrowed Words Incoherently Spoken
Matthew 27:44-46
44 • And the robbers who were crucified with him
also reviled him in the same way.
45 • Now from the sixth hour
there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
46 • And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice,
saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"
that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
What has been spoken from the cross up till this point?
• The 'only one who knows what's going on' prays for everyone else.
• The man without a shirt on his back settles his family's affairs.
• The 'king for a day' makes a promise about tomorrow.
Thus far a line could have been traced through the words spoken by Jesus on the cross which would make some sense even to the casual onlooker who thought him to be deluded. If this were a show of defiance then it's magnificent and even if only mere delusion there is true grandeur and real pathos to be seen. But that sort of reasoning comes to a halt right here with the fourth word spoken from the cross.
Not just the mob and the authorities are against him, he is, to everybody's certain knowledge, at odds with reality even although there is a certain internal logic, up to this point, that can be traced. 'What would Jesus do?' we ask but if they ask, 'What will Jesus say next?' the answer will surprise them beyond measure. What the crowd is shouting is also following a line and it is very clear that the two lines are not parallel: sooner or later they must meet.
It is at this shocking juncture that the two lines do meet. The acting out of Psalm 22:7 and the taunt-song lifted up from Psalm 22:8 lead us to think that just perhaps a further text from Psalm 22 is suitable for a further flight of fancy from the centre tree? Maybe Psalm 22:26 will fit:
But putting aside all pretence that we are not reading this with the hindsight of knowing that he was the Messiah — the Resurrection rather spoils any other posture — we ought still to be shocked by the words. All we can do is to recognise that these words were placed in the experience of David the king (great ancestor of his greater son) so long before in anticipation of when the agony of Calvary would be so great as to necessitate recourse to a script of words to say what was at the heart of so great a death as he had to die.
44 • And the robbers who were crucified with him
also reviled him in the same way.
45 • Now from the sixth hour
there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
46 • And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice,
saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"
that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
What has been spoken from the cross up till this point?
• The 'only one who knows what's going on' prays for everyone else.
• The man without a shirt on his back settles his family's affairs.
• The 'king for a day' makes a promise about tomorrow.
Thus far a line could have been traced through the words spoken by Jesus on the cross which would make some sense even to the casual onlooker who thought him to be deluded. If this were a show of defiance then it's magnificent and even if only mere delusion there is true grandeur and real pathos to be seen. But that sort of reasoning comes to a halt right here with the fourth word spoken from the cross.
Not just the mob and the authorities are against him, he is, to everybody's certain knowledge, at odds with reality even although there is a certain internal logic, up to this point, that can be traced. 'What would Jesus do?' we ask but if they ask, 'What will Jesus say next?' the answer will surprise them beyond measure. What the crowd is shouting is also following a line and it is very clear that the two lines are not parallel: sooner or later they must meet.
It is at this shocking juncture that the two lines do meet. The acting out of Psalm 22:7 and the taunt-song lifted up from Psalm 22:8 lead us to think that just perhaps a further text from Psalm 22 is suitable for a further flight of fancy from the centre tree? Maybe Psalm 22:26 will fit:
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever! [Psalm 22:26]but instead the words that are borrowed from Psalm 22 come from the other end of the Psalm, from the Psalmist at his most disconsolate, from:
To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? [Psalm 22:1]we hear words that, up until that 'Preparation Friday' no one had been prepared to hear from a Messianic pretender.
But putting aside all pretence that we are not reading this with the hindsight of knowing that he was the Messiah — the Resurrection rather spoils any other posture — we ought still to be shocked by the words. All we can do is to recognise that these words were placed in the experience of David the king (great ancestor of his greater son) so long before in anticipation of when the agony of Calvary would be so great as to necessitate recourse to a script of words to say what was at the heart of so great a death as he had to die.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Three Easy Steps to Taunting God in his Face.
Matthew 27:41-43
41 • So also the chief priests,
with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying,
42 "He saved others; he cannot save himself.
• He is the King of Israel;
let him come down now from the cross,
and we will believe in him.
43 • He trusts in God;
let God deliver him now, if he desires him.
For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
It all started with a simple slogan about him having 'saved others …,' which none of them believed but it was worth it for the dramatic effect of the taunt it led up to, 'He cannot save himself.' Simple and effective it might have been but you could only repeat it once or twice and then there was a need for some other witty comment to call out.
Before the taunting started some of these men went to Pilate in high dudgeon, complaining that the sign over the head of Jesus said, 'This is Jesus the king of the Jews' but that was hours ago. The need for a claim to ridicule overcame the political objections as satire often does, and the 'King of Israel' was taunted to come down from the cross. The form was the same as the 'He saved others' slogan but the content was bolder with the challenge to authority in revolution mood around the cross.
Revolution is closely allied with unbelief so it ought to be no surprise that before the darkness was over these masters of wit and repartee were plundering Scripture for their ammunition. Perhaps it was the wagging head of some passer-by that 'inspired' them to take up Psalm 22 at precisely the point where the wagging heads lay off:
How can those men be restrained who in a few hours go from coining their own phrases to quoting Scripture itself in a challenge to Almighty God?
They were quoting Scripture (and Scripture that spoke prophetically and appropriately to the unfolding event at that) in derision of the one who was being punished because he dared to see himself prophesied in Scripture.
41 • So also the chief priests,
with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying,
42 "He saved others; he cannot save himself.
• He is the King of Israel;
let him come down now from the cross,
and we will believe in him.
43 • He trusts in God;
let God deliver him now, if he desires him.
For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
It all started with a simple slogan about him having 'saved others …,' which none of them believed but it was worth it for the dramatic effect of the taunt it led up to, 'He cannot save himself.' Simple and effective it might have been but you could only repeat it once or twice and then there was a need for some other witty comment to call out.
Before the taunting started some of these men went to Pilate in high dudgeon, complaining that the sign over the head of Jesus said, 'This is Jesus the king of the Jews' but that was hours ago. The need for a claim to ridicule overcame the political objections as satire often does, and the 'King of Israel' was taunted to come down from the cross. The form was the same as the 'He saved others' slogan but the content was bolder with the challenge to authority in revolution mood around the cross.
Revolution is closely allied with unbelief so it ought to be no surprise that before the darkness was over these masters of wit and repartee were plundering Scripture for their ammunition. Perhaps it was the wagging head of some passer-by that 'inspired' them to take up Psalm 22 at precisely the point where the wagging heads lay off:
"He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!" [Psalm 22:8]perhaps they had no recollection at all of where the words came from.
How can those men be restrained who in a few hours go from coining their own phrases to quoting Scripture itself in a challenge to Almighty God?
They were quoting Scripture (and Scripture that spoke prophetically and appropriately to the unfolding event at that) in derision of the one who was being punished because he dared to see himself prophesied in Scripture.
Passing By the Crossroads of all the Ages.
Matthew 27:39-40
39 • And those who passed by derided him,
• wagging their heads
40 and saying,
"You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself!
• If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
For those who passed by — and Jerusalem was thronged with pilgrims for Pesach / Passover — it seemed little more than an excuse for headshaking. The claims of a destroyed temple being rebuilt in three days seemed an idle boast to those who didn't get the personal reference (and would they have been any more receptive to a man who called his body, 'this temple' and prophesied that he would rise the third day after death?)
For such passers-by the words, 'the Son of God hanging on a cross' seemed to be made up of two ideas utterly incompatible with each other and therefore signifying nothing.
Pilgrims they might have been but the passers-by don't seem to have recognised that they were acting out a couple of significant Scriptures as they went. The reading of the book of Lamentations takes place at Tisha B'Av, the commemoration of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and not at Pesach but the references in Lamentations to passers-by are quite prophetic of these headshakers:
39 • And those who passed by derided him,
• wagging their heads
40 and saying,
"You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself!
• If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
For those who passed by — and Jerusalem was thronged with pilgrims for Pesach / Passover — it seemed little more than an excuse for headshaking. The claims of a destroyed temple being rebuilt in three days seemed an idle boast to those who didn't get the personal reference (and would they have been any more receptive to a man who called his body, 'this temple' and prophesied that he would rise the third day after death?)
For such passers-by the words, 'the Son of God hanging on a cross' seemed to be made up of two ideas utterly incompatible with each other and therefore signifying nothing.
Pilgrims they might have been but the passers-by don't seem to have recognised that they were acting out a couple of significant Scriptures as they went. The reading of the book of Lamentations takes place at Tisha B'Av, the commemoration of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and not at Pesach but the references in Lamentations to passers-by are quite prophetic of these headshakers:
"Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger." [Lamentations 1:12]but, as remains to be seen as this story unfolds, the most significant verse prophesying these words and that behaviour is Psalm 22:7
All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem; "Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?" [Lamentations 2:15]
All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;the full magnitude of what they were seeing opens up to us when we see the significance in what they were doing, just passing by.
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