Nathanael Szobody

Mark 16

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What can be more exciting that being spoken to by an angel? How we would want to tell of it, to share the wonderful experience! Why is it then that the women who went to the empty tomb and saw the angel, and heard him tell them that Jesus was risen, and that they were to go tell his disciples, kept silent out of fear? Surely being spoken to by an angel was enough to convince them that an extraordinary thing had taken place. Jesus had risen! They saw the guards laying on the ground like dead men, they saw the empty tomb, and they spoke to a heavenly creature! How does this not turn their mourning into dancing?

Perhaps the answer is because of exactly what happened to Mary Magdalene when she finally did tell them; they did not believe. Nor did they believe when the two disciples who spoke with them on the road to Emmaus told them that they had walked and talked with him.

We can laugh at their hardness of heart and nod our heads in pious agreement when we read of Jesus rebuking them for their unbelief. After all, we have believed!

Or have we? Certainly for those who have faith that Jesus, the Son of God, died and rose from the dead then they believe. But is that it?

Notice what Jesus commands them to do once they have been shown and finally believe that he has indeed risen; he tells them to go tell everyone!

It is completely consistent with God’s life of self-expenditure. We have nothing, are nothing, and doubt even what is given, but who we are is what Christ has made us to be. Though we did not seek him; just as the disciples did not seek him even after he had promised them that he would rise from the dead, he still made a people out of us by uniting us with his death that we might share in the life of his ressurection. What he is he made us, though we were in opposition to it.

And the command remains; “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”. Is this just about preaching? Certainly that is the emphasis, and even that condemns us. For we are like the women who went to the tomb; we have been told, we know he has risen and his life is in us, but we fear the rejection. We tremble at people before we rejoice in the risen Christ.

And yet there’s more. We were not given this life only to talk about; but we were given it to pour it out. Jesus shows himself to the disciples, tells them the good news that he has risen, and then immediately sends them out to do the same: to give away what was just given them! That is the very essence of the gospel. It is the only thing that can be had for sure and for always, because it is the only thing that can truly be given away limitlessly.

So now believe truly in the risen Christ! Not just the empty tomb, but in the life that left that tomb and now dwells in us. This is a faith that embraces what is given to such an extent that no longer fears the reaction of people, but only desires for them to befilled with the same ressurection.

God’s Image; Objective?

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Many find it beneficial to understand the essence of God’s character apart from creation or his interactions with people so that we may get to the heart of who he is. How is this possible for us who have never seen, heard, or been shown anything other than what God wills to relate to us, his creation?

Do we want to speak of his power? Power over what? How do we know he is powerful? We know of his power only in relation to his ability to create and dispose of his creation according to his will.

His omniscience? His sovereignty? All these things are only known in relationship to how he deals with us, his people.

Ah, but his glory? Look in scripture; God’s glory is always described as his greatness in the relationship he has established with his people. If it is the cherubim and seraphim who glorify him it is because of the lamb who was slain, or because of his righteousness in judgement. All these things pertain to his relationship.

It appears that God simply isn’t interested in revealing anything to us that is ‘outside’ of creation, or more importantly, that does not pertain to our relationship with him.

How can one even speculate “If God had not created”?? He did create! And thus he is a creator! If he had not created we would be talking of a completely different God. Since it is what he did we must conclude that it is what he is and serves to help us define who he is insofar as he is revealed.

God’s image is not in the abstract (as far as he has revealed it to us). God’s image as it is revealed is summed up in relationship. For even the Trinity is a relationship of three in one in which humans take part when they enter his rest. This relationship is sacrificial giving of life, otherwise known as love.

All other attributes, therefore, serve this character of self expenditure for his creation. Clearly, then, it is futile to try to come up with any sort of ‘objective’ explanation of God’s image, when all that he is shown to us in the context of a relationship with the individual!

And praise the Lord for that! For now when we study his word and seek his face we can know that whatever we find is what he desires us to know for the sake of giving it to us.

Religious Experience

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There are a variety of human emotional experiences and states of consciousness. This wide range of mental activity is one of the things which set humans apart from all other creatures. The interpretation of these experiences, however, is determined by one’s cultural mindset.

Since spirituality is integral to all human cultures it is no wonder that many unusual experiences in altered states of consciousness are attributed to other unseen powers. This cannot prove the existence of God, but only indicate that there is across the board a place, and even a necessity, in the minds of all humans for the existence of a higher state of being than that which is within human capacity.

The Leaven of the Pharisees

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“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod'” said Jesus to his disciples.

Jesus had just fed four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish. He had gotten into a boat and sailed to another town with his disciples, and there the Pharisees had asked for a sign from him to prove that he was from God.

The Pharisees in this town had not seen Jesus feed the four thousand on the other side of the lake, but the disciples had. And Jesus’ warning was issued to them who had both seen his miraculous providence of bread and Jesus’ subsequent refusal to give the Pharisees a sign. The four thousand people wanted only full bellies and healed bodies, the Pharisees wanted to prove to themselves that Jesus was not who he said he was, but the disciples were the clay that Jesus was molding.

For their sake he worked miracles and refuted the Pharisees. But they did not understand. When he gave them this warning the disciples thought he was rebuking them for not bringing bread along in the boat. They also, had their narrow understanding of who Jesus was, but to them Jesus was compassionate.

He reminded them that when he fed the five thousand with five loaves there were twelve baskets left over, and when he fed the four thousand with seven loaves there were seven baskets left over. “Do you not understand?” he asked.

Do we understand? The people wanted to be provided for, the pharisees wanted to prove their spirituality, but what did Jesus want to teach the disciples?

Jesus did not come to fill us with what we think we need. He did not come to make us feel spiritually sufficient, he came to pour out his life for many. And in warning the disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees and that of Herod, both people who prided themselves in representing the Jews as God’s chosen people, he was warning them against a self-serving spirituality.

The Faith of Isaac

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“By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.”

This is the faith of one who has received a promise, the promise of Abraham, his blessing and his covenant, and who, without seeing whence it came nor where it was to go, held fast to it. He held fast not because God had spoken directly to him, nor because he himself knew where it led ultimately, but because it came from the mouth of God; he held fast. Certainly he had been blessed with the wealth of his father Abraham, had witnessed the provision of God on Mount Moriah, and had been prospered in his life-time, but as for the fullness of the promise that through the seed of Abraham all nations would be blessed, he was no closer to seeing than Abraham had been. And yet he believed.

But it wasn’t that simple either. According to his understanding the promise is to the first-born. Was this not the first fruit, what was offered to God? Was not Esau the strong one who conquered the land and brought home meat for the family? Esau was the one whom Isaac loved and cherished. It was for Esau that Isaac dreamt of God fulfilling his promises in a mighty way, conquering enemies and spreading God’s fame by his strength. If Esau had found favor in Isaac’s eyes as his first-born, then surely he had found favor in God’s eyes, had he not?

But Isaac lived by faith; not in his son, not in his beloved wife who had comforted him since his mother’s death, not even in his own blessing from God, but in the promise of God to whomever God chose to send it upon. And this faith produced a love that is stronger, more miraculous than any other love he had experienced on earth. It was a love that brought pain and sorrow in his old age and defied all human reason, but it was love that descends from heaven by power of God’s spirit through faith in his promise.

The Existence of God

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The existence of God can be argued for as long as philosophers want to entertain the possibility of their not being a God. One has to wonder; if it is so clear that God does not exist, then why are proponents of this idea still so preoccupied with proving it? Also, if God does exist, and he is the absolute cause, the infinite power, then why do believers in this God feel it so necessary to him for them to prove it?

God’s Image in the Murderer

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In the covenant that God made with Noah, he laid down a law:

Whoever sheds the blood of man,

by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image.

The basis for prohibiting murder was that it was the destruction of a person made in God’s image, so it is taught. But how do we understand image? Is it in physical appearance?

According to Scholastic theologians the image of God is the mental and rational aspects of humans. God is seen as infinite knowledge and perfect logic.

Calvinist teachings explain it as a combination of human’s ability to reason and the vice-regency of humans. That is, humans are to rule over the earth and reflect God’s manner of dealing with the world.

However, neither of these views seem very complete since it would excuse killing, say, a mentally incapacitated individual or someone who was too lazy to rule over what God had given. For, hypothetically speaking, these individuals would have potentially ceased to reflect God’s image.

There are also problems with the view that God’s image is the ability to reason, for satan is surely more intelligent in purely rational terms than humans. He must be in order to deceive them all!

I believe that God’s image is the capacity to willingly expend the self for the sustenance of the life of another–both physically and spiritually. For this reason God gave Eve to Adam; that he might sustain her in love. For this reason humans are placed over all the earth; to care for and sustain it as, through God’s providence they are also sustained through it. For support of this view we need look nowhere but to the cross, where the one act that communicates the fulness of the relationship that God desires between him and humanity was the expenditure of his own life.

Therefore, the command to not murder was not just because the murdered individual was created in the image of God, but because the act of killing was the destruction of God’s image in the murderer to the fullest possible extent (physically speaking).

Each covenant that God established revealed more than the previous about the relationship God sought to have with people. To Adam and Eve he only promised the coming of one who would crush Satans head. But now to Noah he reveals a bit more of the character of this relationship. By using the most obvious act of the taking of life, God communicates that at it’s most simple and profound, God desires a relationship of mutual self giving to nurture the life of another.

Covenant of the family

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In response to Nathan’s request.

I am open to different interpretations of meaning and various understandings of the spiritual state of an infant, while remaining convinced in practice. Ok, that was nebulous. Basically; I think it’s futile to get bogged down in discussion on how one can know if a child has faith; the Bible simply does not address it. From the perspective of baptism, I don’t even like to refer to the doctrine as that of infant baptism. Rather, family baptism seems to be more scriptural.

Matthew 15

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In Jesus’ earthly ministry he did two sorts of miracles for the people: he healed and he fed. (He also walked on the lake, but this was only with his close disciples.) These are the most basic needs for human life. We need food to sustain the body and good health to prevent it from dying. God knows how to get our attention. He knows we are selfish and look for what will provide for us. These needs are not the problem; the needs are created by him! The problem is that we do not see that our physical needs are God’s tools of nurturing not just the body, but a means of allowing us to feel the lack of spiritual fulfillment. For in our physical need we look to God in faith for that relationship that will provide for us in every way.

Contentment

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Contentment is the character of patience. We can force ourselves to ‘be patient and wait,’ to allow God to work his will in his time. But if this patience is not felt, or practiced with a willing spirit, then it will only lead to frustration. We can attempt to be patient, but in the very act of doing so create a restlessness of the spirit that causes us to be in fact more impatient than ever–even though we continue to wait.

For this reason Jesus teaches us not just to wait, but not to worry. The birds of the air are provided for and the flowers of the field are sustained in beauty for their appointed time, so God will also care for you. This is the message of contentment, because to simply teach waiting, or patience, is a good discipline, producing self-control, but the spirit remains unsatisfied.

Contentment is not a discipline of practice, but one of perspective. Contentment says “whatever it is that I need is already given, so what is there to wait for?”

Sometimes what is given is for the future. In this case it is hope that is given, and waiting for the fulfillment of that hope is a contentment in its gift for the future. It is not, however, a waiting for what one feels is needed in the present.

This is why it is a matter of perspective. We make plans and strive to succeed, we make goals and build hopes. In all this God is there, so we think, to help and encourage and make our lives wonderful. We feel oh so pious when we tell ourselves to wait on God; that he will give what we need. This is good and true, for it is God’s promise. But what we need is not what we are told by our culture’s dictums that “you deserve”. What we need is a joy in not having, so that our spirit is truly content with nothing.

The nothing is what the world percieves to be the essence of God’s promises. We do not understand a promise to be a thing; but rather the foreshadowing of something; its guarantee for the future. But God’s promise is spoken by his Word, through which all things were created; his Word which is the reality of the person Jesus Christ. So a promise from God is the essence in itself.

This is why it is a matter of perspective. We need what we do not have until Jesus tells us that God will provide. Then we know that we are provided for and realize that what we lacked was not the thing, but the contentment without it.