New Thoughts (12/08/12-12/09/12)
Luke turns our attention to these women in the crowd following Jesus. They are mourning and lamenting Jesus. Those words lose much of the power of what is being expressed here. That mourning is not just a bunch of sad faces, drawn expressions, and sobbing. It’s a grief that cuts so deep that they are beating themselves. It’s as though they wish to dull the emotional pain by increasing the physical pain. It’s far more to do with an urge to self-destruction. The grief is so deep that life is no longer of interest. Given the means, they might just end it all right here and now. There’s nothing left to live for. That’s the sort of thing that mourning expresses in this application.
Then there is the lamenting. This might have been more the wailing that would burst from the lungs of those suffering such depth of anguish. It might have been a bit more formal, consisting in dirges being sung. Think, for example, of Lamentations, which is something of an extended dirge for the whole of Israel. Of course, as our attention turns to the idea of dirges being sung, we may well be put in mind of that curious practice we’ve heard about, where the family would hire professional mourners to swell the ranks observing the passing of their loved one. Even this, though, contains an important seed of a concept: This mourning, this singing of dirges, was a thing reserved for one’s kin. It was a death in the family that led to such display.
As to the idea that maybe these were professional mourners who were following Jesus out to Golgatha, I have to say that I find that doubtful. I am mindful that the Sanhedrin had sought to keep this whole thing at least a little bit quiet. They had sought a time of seclusion in which to arrest Him, held council overnight to avoid some of the publicity, brought Him before Pilate at the earliest possible hour, all in hopes of avoiding any popular resistance to their own plotting. Now, Pilate’s decision to send Jesus over to Herod, and his efforts to see justice done, had stretched things out, such that it was apparently somewhere around noon when things really started to happen. But, it’s still a very quick thing, and who had the time to arrange for professional mourners to be ready? Who would have known what hour to have them prepared for? And, for all that, who would pay them? The only family Jesus had in the city would be His mother, maybe His brothers and sisters. They were hardly in any position to foot the bill. His disciples? Well, if Judas was the treasurer, and he was no longer in their number, was the treasury with them? It’s unclear. But, the sum of events says to me that those who were so distraught as they followed Jesus from the city were truly distraught, not simply paid to act as though they were.
And their distress was as for one of the family. Indeed, it was for one of the family, for the very head of the family! For those who mourned truly for the loss of the Savior were surely those who had been called to adoption by His Father and ours. And so, they mourned. They mourned as for the loss of an only son. And this, too, was in satisfaction of ancient prophecy. “O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes! Mourn as for an only son, a lamentation most bitter. For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us” (Jer 6:26). Indeed, one does not wish to read much further in that section, where God comes to judge His people and finds them entirely wanting.
I find it plausible that Jesus hears that very prophecy in His own thoughts as He hears their wailing, sees their anguish. And so, He pauses. Indeed, He pauses to point out to them their own great peril. In part, I see this continuing the tears He had shed at the beginning of the week. Back when He was freshly come into the city in triumph, as He spoke final denouncements upon the Pharisees and the Sadducees for their corruption of the true faith, He had spoken: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling” (Mt 23:32). Not long thereafter, He had pointed to the temple His disciples so admired and stated that “Not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down” (Mt 24:2).
Don’t mourn for Me! I will die out here, it is true. I will suffer for a moment. But, the Father loves Me, and I shall live. I even now retain the authority to take My own life back. You, on the other hand, live amongst a sinful and rebellious people, and God’s Justice must come. The thieves in the vineyard are even now making their final insult against its Owner. And this, too, He had spoken of. They will throw out the Son, stone Him to death, and then, what will the Father who owns that vineyard do? The answer was clear then. It is clear now.
To be sure, there are aspects of this brief lesson that we ought to keep close to our own hearts, recognizing that there remains a final judgment, a time when the entirety of existence shall be called to accounts. But there is also a very clear reference here to the fall of Jerusalem not so many years hence. If we suppose Jesus to be about 33 years old at this point, and His birth, let us say, around 4 BC or so, then the year is something like 27 AD. Forty more years, and the stones of the temple would indeed by torn apart by the Roman conqueror. But, it is the period that led up to that final destruction that seems to me the more terrible.
Reading through Josephus’ record of the people of Jerusalem prior to and during that final siege, it is easy to understand how Jesus would assign to them the sentiment that she who was barren was more blessed than she who bore. The whole point of a siege is to starve out the populace so that they must capitulate. Yet, so stubborn were those in the city that they even fell to eating their own young to survive, rather than surrender. And, that stubbornness, requiring the legions to be afield that much longer, only made them more resentful, more inclined to inflict a high cost on the vanquished when the inevitable finally came to pass.
“Blessed are the barren wombs that never bore.” Those words were intended to shock, and I’m quite sure they did. Through the entirety of the Scriptural record, the barren womb had been held up as evidence of God’s displeasure. I would not go so far as to say God held it to be such, but to the woman who could not bear child, it certainly felt that way. Think of the competition of Leah and Rachel to bear children to Israel. Oh, God! Open the womb! Think of the blessings shouted about Mary, “Blessed is she who bore You” (Lk 11:27). This was the way things were understood. Children were a blessing, and if one could not produce children, it must be a curse.
As an aside, here, I would note a footnote I came across in a Jewish study text. This applied to the command in Genesis to go forth and multiply. By the present day Jewish understanding of that command, it had not been obeyed unless and until the couple produced both a son and a daughter. How, then, could these daughters of Jerusalem perceive the barren womb as anything other than a curse? It prevented them from ever obeying God’s own command to go multiply.
And yet, Jesus says they will, in that day, see it quite the other way ‘round. Far better, far more satisfying an outworking of God’s Providence for them, that they had never borne child. In that statement alone, Jesus indicates the full terror of what is happening in that moment. Everything is being turned on its head! What was a blessing is become a curse. A people who had been chosen is, at least for a season and in the majority of cases, being rejected. Where there had been light, darkness is coming, and where there has been darkness, the Light is about to shine. We, reading from the advantageous point of the future, understand that there is both positive and negative to be found in that upheaval. For those who would live through the fall of Jerusalem, though, it would be a wholly negative affair.
There was a reason He had taught earlier that when the time came, those who still held to Him should flee without a moment’s hesitation. Don’t go back to the house to fetch the valuables. Don’t even drop in having come down from your roof. Just get out of town, and get out fast. Time will be of the essence, and once those siege lines are drawn, there will be no further opportunity to depart. One begins to realize what in incredible blessing it was for the Church that persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem had been so fierce. They had already, by and large, departed. When Jerusalem fell, they were not there. They were in Antioch, or other locations. It may be that there was still some cell of the new sect remaining in the city as things began to spiral downward. But, I would have to believe that they were given warning and made their way out before it was too late. Even if they did not, though, I know this: God is just, and they did not die in vain.
Then, we have Jesus bringing back the words of Hosea 10:8, indicating the depth of terror that will accompany this judgment. They will seek for even the earth itself to hide them from the wrath that is upon them. No, this is beyond the Roman destruction of the city. This is back to hiding from God, a God justly wrathful at His people for their treacheries against Him. It is as futile as were the efforts of Adam and Eve to avoid His gaze back in Eden. How shall we hide from the Omnipotent, Omnipresent God? And yet, we are forever fooling ourselves into thinking it can be done, aren’t we?
But, Jesus pulls this prophecy from memory to great purpose. Again: He is continuing what He had already been saying about the fall of Jerusalem, of His people. He is seeking to impress on those who love Him just how terrible this judgment is going to be. This is serious! Judgment is coming and it will be severe. You have been taught of what happened to the Northern Kingdom at the hands of the Assyrians. You have been taught of what happened to Judea at the hands of Babylon. And yet, you have fallen back into the very same habits again. The results will be no different. The hands will be Roman, but the severity of God’s Judgment will be no less upon you. Indeed, it will be greater. Sodom and Gomorrah had it easy by comparison! If, then, there remains a seed of faith in you, if you have heard the Truth and been freed by it, take heed! This is your final warning.
It is striking that Jesus, even in extremis, is teaching. This particular lesson is clearly delivered in the prophetic voice, but it remains a lesson. For all that, weren’t the prophetic messages ever and always intended as lessons? Those with ears and hearts open to what God was saying would hear to their advantage. So it is in this case. Those whom God had called to Himself would hear to their advantage. Sadly, that number would hardly be enough to turn the tide for Jerusalem. But, for the Church? Yes. They were more than enough.
If, then, we ask to whom Jesus is speaking, it is to one and to all. However, it is with the clear understanding that only the elect, the ones with hearts changed by the work of the Holy Spirit, who would benefit from His words. It was ever thus, and it ever shall be.
But, the very fact that He is teaching! He is not reviling those who have so persecuted Him. He is not heaping abuse upon the Romans who are enforcing His death. Indeed, they seem not to much enter His thoughts at all, except as the latest tool in God’s hands. What is to become of Rome is not of interest to Him at this moment. Their role in events is not of interest. They, too, will have their time to settle accounts with heaven’s God. But, at the moment, it is the ones who He had long called His own which are being measured and found wanting. It is upon them that woes are coming. It is to their accounts that His death is being assessed, and the price will be unimaginably high. But, amongst their number are those who are saved. There is that ever-present remnant, and with the terrors to come now irreversible, it is incumbent upon Him to speak to them, to warn them in order that they might depart before it’s too late. Did I say might? There is no question but that they shall, for He is yet in perfect control of history as it unfolds! Yet, they are, like ourselves, possessed of a free will, and that will must be informed if it is to freely choose the right path.
So, having quoted Hosea, Jesus closes this final lesson with a most enigmatic question. “If they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry?” We might take that as green wood, rather than a tree, for the term in question can indicate any manner of thing which has been constructed from the wood of the tree. That would include, significantly, such things as the beam of the cross which is at this point upon Simon’s shoulders as he follows Jesus down the road.
It could well be, though, that Jesus really is thinking in terms of trees. Such a thought would continue the prophetic echoes that He is bringing forth. Perhaps He is in mind of Ezekiel’s words. “The Lord God says, ‘I am about to kindle a fire in you such as shall consume every green tree along with the dry trees. That flame shall not be quenched! The whole land, from south to north will be burned’” (Eze 20:47). That would certainly suit the situation found at the fall of Jerusalem. The destruction would be total. Those who remained in the city, whether comparatively righteous or unrighteous would suffer together. The famine produced by the siege would reduce both good and evil to otherwise unimaginable atrocities committed in the struggle to survive.
Yet, it strikes me as being in keeping with what we have seen of Jesus’ nimble mind that He would see that beam upon Simon’s shoulder, the one He knew full well He would soon be nailed to, and took His lesson’s image from that most visible prop. If they do these things in the green wood… Recall that He is not the only one being led out to be crucified this day. These things – these crucifixions, so terrible that in years to come even Romans would begin to condemn the practice, are being done with green wood, timbers fresh cut and roughly shaped to square them for the task. And wouldn’t such a thing be natural for the Carpenter to observe? See? They don’t even bother to cure the wood for such a task!
So, there is certainly this aspect to it: If they will crucify the innocent, what of the guilty? If they are this cruel in dealing with small and even non-existent crimes, what do you think they shall do when it is time to deal with the entire rebellious nation? You think this is bad? Just wait!
I do think, however, that Jesus, even though He speaks of the fall of Jerusalem, simultaneously speaks of that day which remains future even for us. In that day, the wood is green. What shall we make of that? Well, clearly in that day the very Son of God, Life Himself, walked with man, talked with man. The kingdom had, at least for that brief period, made its presence felt. We could take a somewhat longer view and consider what fervor and faith there was in that earliest church. Consider the verdict of history. Twelve men and yet they turned the world upside down! A minor sect of a minor religion in a subjugated territory on the edges of the empire, and yet, in not so very many years, that minor religion would find itself the state religion. And, that minor religion would spread with the state, finding its way to far distant shores.
Yes, and while the heady power of being state sponsored would prove a disastrous temptation for the Church, yet the Church was preserved. God has proven particularly adept at preserving His Word against all who would pervert it to their own ends, and He continues to be adept. He continues to bring judgment upon all those who would bend His Truth to their own profit, who would use what is good, just as the devil their father uses it, as a base from which to launch temptation and evil.
But, think about the state of the faith in our own time. It is heard over and over again that we here in the West are living in a post-Christian culture. We are living in what is very nearly a post-religious culture. But, there is that in mankind that demands religion, however false, so what transpires is that we find a developing neo-pagan culture. We must have our idols, if we will not have God! So it has ever been. But, the concern felt by the faithful in looking upon such a situation? That, I think, is something relatively new. The wood, it may seem, is getting dry. We see the numbers dropping, as far as those who claim faith in God’s Christ. We see the numbers plummeting more sharply still if we seek to assess those claimants to determine the number whose claims are more than just words.
Because we are in a much more information saturated age, we are made more keenly aware of the erosion of faith. We are, after our fashion, too well informed, too thoroughly up on the news. The news, after all, is inherently bad. Good news, we understand, doesn’t sell, doesn’t make the numbers. Bad news gets the attention, so bad news it is. And in the midst of that, the green sap of faith may begin to drain out of us. We keep hearing the dire reports, and it seems the Church is doomed. We are a dying minority, and it may well be that the word of God will pass away with our generation.
These thoughts come to us, yet they ought to be rejected out of hand! This is but evidence that our flesh is still putting up a fight against its betters. Look: It is true that God uses strategic men in every age to preserve His Word for the ages. It is also true, though, that He is the moving force in that preservation. He is in control. My! Just contemplate the history of the last few thousand years. Consider how near to extinction knowledge of His Word has been at many a time! We need only look at a few such moments to recognize the miraculous intervention of God in the events of mankind. Consider the efforts of Rome to exterminate this Christian sect from its midst. The degree to which multiple Caesars pursued this end, still using that same cruel cross as one of several means of ensuring the extermination, is well known. Yet, Christianity did not die. It even thrived!
Consider, then, the fall of Rome well after it had become the center of the very Christianity it once sought to expunge. The barbarians came into the great city itself! And they placed no value in books and learning. If it wasn’t an obvious and fungible valuable, it might just as well be put to the torch. All that rich early history of the Church was suddenly under threat. The library at Alexandria would be lost. Rich deposits of great historical value would be in in ruins around the known world. Yet, by God’s planning, the necessary texts survived. The geographic centers of faith shifted. And, if the Roman church became ever more decadent as it became more politically powerful, then there were those raised up whose concern was not for power but for Truth. And they would become a power in their own right. And they would suffer corruption in their own right. And God would see to it that others arose to uphold the Truth. It has continued thus through all the ages into our own day. And do we suppose that God, having preserved a witness for Himself lo these many years is suddenly going to fail when faced with the situation in our own day? Don’t let the wood of faith run dry in you! He is even yet on the throne. He is still in control.
Does Jesus speak to this point as He looks upon these ladies of the remnant in Jerusalem? I don’t know. The footnotes of the Geneva Bible have this to offer on His meaning. “What will they do to you who are unfruitful and void of all active righteousness?” That’s a point worth contemplating, and certainly applies for those others in the crowd, the persecutors who were pursuing Him even to this extreme that they might have their amusement at His demise. In this perspective, Jesus Himself is the green wood, and the nation of His people the dry. And yes, as concerns the more immediate judgment of Jerusalem’s fall, that is certainly a reasonable way to understand things. But, it leaves me off the hook, doesn’t it? See? He exacted His vengeance against them, and this is just an interesting footnote to history.
But, these things were not written to give us a history of those few years. They were written for our edification. They were written to instruct those of us living in the last days. That being the case, there must be a lesson for us in what is written. If the concern is fruitfulness, that is certainly a perennial concern. If the concern is in regard to active righteousness, yes! There is cause for alarm in every person in every age. I must, however, stress this point: If it’s about ‘active righteousness,’ how shall we measure that? Is it a question of activity right at the moment of His return? Is it activity sufficiently near to that point? Is it about some minimum amount of activity accumulated since conversion? My concern is simply this: Such an understanding of the point may tend to push us back towards the mistake of the Pharisees, the idea that there is some level of goodness we can achieve that will earn our inclusion amongst the green wood, that we will make for ourselves an escape from God’s vengeance. And, that, I believe, is problematic.
I’m not even sure that my own perspective of the application is any less fraught with that risk. Yet, I see the fundamental question of the sap pointing to my faith. I use the term ‘my faith’ advisedly. It is His faith else I have no faith. Yet, I am, by His own teaching, responsible for my faith. He has implanted it. I must exercise it, feed it rather than starve it. Can I fall from faith? I do not believe so, for He is faithful and it is He Who has put this faith within me. But, I am responsible for its care. So, it is not inappropriate to consider whether my faith remains fully alive in me, whether it remains fresh, so to speak.
It is not even that there is some sort of physical safety to be obtained by maintaining my faith in such a fresh, green-wood, condition. Were that some manner of preservative against hardship, surely Jesus would not have ascended that cross! No, that’s not the point. It’s not the depravity of man against which we require protection. It is the utterly righteous wrath of God. It is not because of Rome that they would be crying out for the mountains and hills to hide them. It is because God Himself rides in the vanguard.
So, how is that sap of faith in me? I find it difficult to determine. It ebbs and flows, I think. There are certainly those exhilarating moments such as I experienced a few weeks back. There are those points where I find my preparations confirmed by the providential coincidence of what is preached. These holy collisions never cease to amaze me! But, what about the day to day? What about the outworking of faith? That’s a more critical question.
In preparing for today’s Sunday School class, I was revisiting an earlier stage of this study of the Gospels, looking at the record of the death of John the Baptist, considering the character of Herod Antipas, and how he reflected that part of the visible church which comes for entertainment alone. If faith is but a sense of wonder at these occasional arrangements of God, if it’s just a “Hey! That’s neat!” response to the fact that my study notes of a morning happen to coincide with what the pastor’s preaching, or that I happened to decide to listen to a particular CD which was, after its fashion, preaching the same message, but then it’s all forgotten and nothing changes: am I doing any different?
There are times in these morning studies when I really have to ask myself whether it’s faith or habit. There are times when I have to contemplate the degree to which I keep my faith a private matter, or a matter to be shared only amongst those of like faith, when I see a clear need for concern. It’s one thing to believe, to accept as true. It’s another thing entirely to be shaped by that Truth. Put it another way: It’s one thing to go about referring to Jesus as Lord. Indeed, did He Himself not say, “Many will come to Me in that day, saying, ‘Lord! Lord!’”? But the word is of no value if it’s just a word. Is He Lord? Does His Word command and I do? Or is it just an interesting read, a thing to do of a morning? If His Word is my command, then how is it that I remain so private? How is it that I am not given over entirely to the work of the kingdom?
Now, let me say this: I understand that there are reasons why the entire church is not off on missions. It cannot (at least by human contrivance) be done that way. There is a need for those who remain behind, work to make a living and take from that living to fund those who are wholly committed to the field work. I get that. I get that there can be an aspect of any employment (or nearly any) that is yet a holy vocation. I would like to believe that the way in which I pursue my employment reflects that understanding. I would like to, but then, I know myself.
I am hardly at a place of perfection in that regard. I do believe I can say that I try. But, I also know of too many dark corners in my being, whether work related or home related. I know too many times when my efforts, even within the context of serving the church, are clouded by thoughts and attitudes that have no place in such service. I can know resentment in serving God, and this is not right. I can know a sense of necessity, of forced compliance, and this is not right.
How fresh is my faith? Never so fresh as I should prefer, yet always fresher than I suppose. It remains fresh as I labor to freshen it, yet this transpires only as He moves my soul to seek that refreshing in Himself. How blessed I am that He so moves me! I need look no further than Tuesday night prayer to understand this. How often has it been the nights when I wanted nothing more to do with that weekly hour that I would get the call asking me to stand in? And now? Now, it would seem that at least for the present season I am no longer standing in, but simply standing. I can tell you flat out that this is not a position I would be in of my own volition. It is most uncomfortable for me. Yet, there I am. Why? Because God knows I need to have my faith freshened. It’s not because I’m some heroic prayer warrior. Hardly! I am, truth be told, a most neglectful prayer warrior. But, I serve a heroic God, and He has, for His own sovereign purposes, seen fit to make me pray more fully, at least this once a week.
Really, God. You are amazing. I don’t know that I need say any more at this point. You’re amazing!
