The traditional understanding of Jesus’ life that I have been immersed in is this. I am a sinner, violating God’s law. That law demands perfect obedience to it by me to enter into heaven, to be saved. John Piper paints this picture. Imagine a large boulder, a rock that is immeasurable. That rock is God’s righteousness, his moral perfection and standard that he demands his creatures live up to. Because I, like all human beings, have sinned against God and do not meet God’s standard, that boulder stands over me as God’s wrath and judgment. The doctrine of imputation comes into play at this point in the metaphor. Jesus has perfectly obeyed the law and has met this impossible standard that God has set and demands. He exchanges with me, by faith, his perfect obedience for my sin. The effect is that this boulder now becomes my rock-solid, immovable foundation upon which I stand before God in his judgment. Jesus now stands under the same boulder and stands condemned by God for my sin. That picture is a beautiful picture that Piper paints, and is very helpful in understanding his doctrine of imputation.

This year, along with some guys at my church, I am reading through the entire Bible in 90 days–I should be done in March. Recently the reading plan completed the Torah, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. After reading those books I don’t feel like this is the best reading of Israel’s Law. Nor do I believe that it is the most desirable reading of the Law.

Genesis 1 paints a vocation for humanity. That is to be God’s image on the earth, exercising God’s dominion and filling the earth with his image through family. Adam and Eve, as we know, failed to complete this task. When God called Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 the promise of a family living in a land climaxes in the promise that through Abraham’s family God would bless all the families of the earth. Abraham’s descendants would restore humanity to its original vocation. When rescued from Egypt God gives Israel the vocation of the royal priesthood (Exodus 19:6).

Pushing this farther is how God introduces the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. The wording of the commandments indicates that the Law is a moral standard that Israel is to live up to in order to be God’s people and live in the land promised to Abraham. Rather, it is how they are to live because they are God’s people and are going to possess the land.

In Deuteronomy 27 God lists out the blessings and curses for faithfully living out God’s Torah. The blessings climax with God saying that Israel will be so blessed that the nations will have to come to them for sustenence. If Israel is unfaithful to the Law she will not be blessed and will be so dependent upon the nations that they will be carried off into exile.

The picture that emerges is that Israel’s obedience to the Law is about fulfilling Israel’s task, her vocation, Adam’s task. The blessing that God intended to unleash upon the world through Adam will be realised through Israel being faithful to God through Torah. It’s how Israel is to live as God’s people. It’s eschatological.

So when Jesus comes and is the fulfillment of Israel, he is taking on this eschatological destiny. He is observing the Torah in the way God intended so that God’s blessings could come upon the earth. It’s not the picture that Piper paints, as attractive as the picture is. Jesus is bringing Israel’s vocation to pass. He is bringing Adam’s mission to completion. His miracles are part of this blessing that God planned and promised to unleash. The healings and forgiveness and love and compassion are the eschatological blessings being realized.

It’s a question I have had to wrestle with ever since I started to read N. T. Wright. Before reading his work the model Christus Victor wasn’t something I took seriously. Instead I dressed it up within the framework of another model, namely penal substitution.

But Wright has forced me to ask the question a new, “Why did Jesus have to die?” My normal, penal substitution/neo-Calvinistic, conservative evangelical answer would have been along this narrative. Man has sinned and transgressed God’s law. Because of this sinners deserve and will get the just sentence of hell–eternal conscious torment. Jesus came, lived a perfect life and did not violate God’s moral law. He was crucified on the cross and raised from the dead. God exchanged man’s sin for Jesus’ perfect obedience. Jesus’ crucifixion was him suffering God’s wrath–hell–in dying, the wrath for the sins of those who are in Christ. He was raised to prove, justify, vindicate his penal substitutionary death–proved that Jesus’ death did satisfy God’s justice. It was our proof of purchase, our receipt from God to show we are going to heaven. In short, the reason why Jesus died was to take away my sin so that I will go to heaven when I die if I believe in him.

Wright has forced me to grapple with the historical picture of Jesus. To come to terms with the narratives the Gospels have painted of Jesus and the meaning to Jesus’ death within those narratives. That Jesus was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth. He ministered three years and taught about the “kingdom of God,” painting a picture of what it will look like while implicitly critiquing Israel for failing to be that picture as they were called to be. He was hailed a king on Sunday; condemned and died as a rebel king on Friday, and raised to life on Sunday. In short, Jesus’ death was the climax to Jesus’ ministry to bring about the kingdom of God here on earth.

The challenge is how to put these two narrative strands together in a way the honors both. Are the Gospels Passion narratives (another name for the story of Jesus’ final week on earth, his time in Jerusalem ending in his death) with extended introductions? Or are they something else? How do we take the picture of Jesus in the Gospels and put it together with what Paul and the others say in the epistles? It’s the end all, be all question at the heart of the Christianity. It’s the question I look forward to answering with my high school students this Sunday.

N. T. Wright likens this question and the event of the crucifixion to some of the ancient maps. Like these maps with Jerusalem being the center of the world, so is the cross of Jesus the center of Christianity. How these are put together determines everything.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

There is much to be said here. Verse 5 bridges the hymn back to what Paul has been talking about. The model that Messiah’s colony should follow is that of their Messiah. The Love and Humility that are to be the central virtues of the colony are shown in the gospel story, the story of Jesus. The relationships that make up the colony, not just personal relationships but those of business practices and those of commerce. This mustn’t be reduced to how one treats his friends or fellow Christians. It is the entirety of human life. The parent-child, husband-wife, employer-employee, teacher-student, business-client relationships must all be built around this narrative, this story. The king must rule and govern according to this narrative, the people governed by the king must follow the king according to this narrative. The whole society and community must be centered on the virtues this narrative glorifies.

The hymn itself contains so much to be digested. From Philippians 2:6 we learn that Jesus existed in form as Yahweh and yet distinct from the person Yahweh. We learn about the place of Jesus within the triune nature of God. He is equal with God in his nature and being and existence. And yet there are at least two distinct persons sharing this same nature, God. There is the father and there is Jesus, both God yet not the same person.

Secondly the hymn teaches the incarnation of God in the Messiah Jesus. Jesus, one of the persons who shares the nature (μορφή) of God, became a man. The hymn doesn’t say that Jesus ceased being God but rather became a servant to God, giving up his rank and status. Just as the Psalms say man is lower than the angels, so Jesus descended down to the level of human. But he didn’t just go down the level of human where he could have rightfully taken and/or established a throne to rule of the entire planet. The incarnation went farther and God became a servant. Not just some one who serves another person voluntarily or is paid for the service. Rather Jesus became a doulos, a slave (μορφὴν δούλου λαβών). He gave up all rights. He so humbled himself that he died the death required of him.

Thirdly the hymn gives us the justification of Jesus, the vindication of Jesus. God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave Jesus the name above all names, Lord. Hidden in this exaltation is the resurrection. The spirit of Jesus didn’t receive this reward but the whole person, the God-man Jesus. He was raised from the dead and brought before God to receive his vindication before all of the world. Jesus is Lord of the world. He is lord over all lords, even Caesar.

Fourthly, the hymn gives the eschatological goal of Jesus’ mission: the bringing the world under the rule of Jesus. Every tongue confesses and every knee bows. He is their king, not Herod in Jerusalem. He is their Lord, not Caesar in Rome. Jesus, the one exalted to Lord, will bring all the world under his rule and dominion. And not in the providential rule of Jesus as God, but the kingdom of the Jewish Messiah and the Jewish God. And at the confession of Jesus as Lord by all of the world and all who live in it, the father of Jesus, God the Father, will fully display his glory in the whole world being filled with knowledge of him.

Fifthly, this eschatology of Jesus gives the church its mission, to declare to the world that Jesus is Lord–not Caesar. He is the rightful king. They must repent and surrender to him, bowing the knee and confessing the tongue. The church is to be the colony the brings Jesus’ lordship to the earth and shows the world what the lordship is to look like when Jesus bring the whole world under it. And by seeing that lordship on display in the church, God’s imperial colony, they will abandon the domain of sin and death and join the dominion and lordship of the Messiah Jesus.

Thus as individuals we must model our lives after the life of Jesus, being obedient to God to the point of crucifixion. As a community, the church is to be obedient to God to the point of crucifixion. The world must see what it looks like to be obedient to its Creator and Lord. It must see the true strength of humility and love, forsaking the self to look to the well-being of the other. By living lives of other-focused humility and love, the church completes its task of declaring that God has retaken his throne as king.

And when that task is complete, the world will be transformed into a world that not even the Garden of Eden could compare to. It will be the world that God had envisioned Adam and Eve to create. We won’t go back to the Garden because we will go forward to the heavenly city come down to earth with Jesus seated on the throne ruling as a slave to his God and to his people. And it is this slavery that we model our lives after, giving up all rights to any claims we might have in the knowledge that such abandonment will be vindicated with the greatest reward God will give. So let us figure out how to create a society whereby the virtues are not ambition at the cost of the other, but rather humility and love for the other at the cost of the self. Every level of that society will love the other above the self. That will be when we make heaven a place on earth, if I may borrow from a certain song.

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Paul gives his command or admonition within the framework of a “if…then” conditional statement. It’s like when as a kid I wanted to go play video games with my high school friends, Jay Wolf and Christopher Bunch, and seeking permission from my parents. They would say, “If you will clean your room, do the dishes, and finish the laundry,then you can go play video games at your friend’s house.” My parents would give me conditions to fulfill and upon filling those conditions I could go and have fun. Parents are the masters of “if…then” statements.

Philippians 2:1 gives the conditions: encouragement from union with Christ, comfort from his love, common sharing in the Spirit, tenderness, compassion. In other words, Paul is saying if the Philippians are these things then they can obey the command. Are they united with Jesus? This union means to be joined with Jesus in such a way that one’s own identity becomes Jesus. He represents us before God and we represent him before the world. His name is our own. That which God has given him–vindication and resurrection and blessing etc.–we share with him. Read passages like Romans 6:1-11 or Ephesians 2:1-10 or Galatians 2:16-21. Paul wants to know if there is encouragement from this union.

Do the Philippians possess Jesus’ love expressed most fully in his incarnation and death and resurrection? It’s the love that means Jesus doesn’t cling to his divinity but is found as a slave in human likeness and becomes obedient to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). It’s the love that enables his people to overcome all things (Romans 8:38-39). Do they possess this love from Christ?

Do they share together the Holy Spirit? Does the Spirit inhabit and indwell the Philippian Christians?

If these conditions are true of them, then Paul has one request: complete his joy. What’s his joy? From Philippians 1, correct me if I’m wrong here, it is his declaring that Jesus is Lord to the world in partnership with the Philippian church. He rejoices in seeing God complete his good work in them. He rejoices in those who share the gospel, whatever their intentions and desires. Christ, himself, is his greatest joy. He asks the Philippians to complete that joy, complete the sharing of the gospel message that Jesus, through his life and death and resurrection, has been declared and made Lord of the world. Complete the work of the kingdom.

To complete his joy, the Philippians are to be unified in their love for others and valuing them above themselves (Philippians 2:2b-4). The unity they are to exemplify is one that takes their differences and bring them together in a glorious harmony. This unity brings order to their chaos. It allows each person to come to the community as an equal and participate. They are all united to the one Christ, experience his one love, fellowship in the one Spirit. They are one, therefore be one. Have the same purpose and love. Accomplish the task of proclaiming Jesus is lord. Show the world which is in chaos that Jesus brings shalom, peace and order. Be like a song, which takes various instruments and singers and brings them into one. Be like a body which has many parts that do different tasks but is still one (1 Corinthians 12-14).

To do this he changes their virtues that they are to esteem and value. No longer are they to seek their own glory and ambitions but they are to act in humility. They must lower the value they place on themselves. Paul turns their focus outwards, away from the self of the individual and the community, to the world around the Philippians. If they were sitting in pews at a church, Paul would want each individual hearing the letter read aloud to seek to fill the needs of the persons to the left and right. Then this community of individuals who value and esteem others more than themselves would seek the interests and needs of the communities around theirs. And these communities would then seek to fill the interests and needs of the society around them and the world.

It was Jesus who said he came not to be served but to serve and give his life. Paul points out the humility of Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8 as he empties himself to take on the form of a servant in human form and became obedient the point of crucifixion. That is our model. This is the virtue that the King has established for his kingdom. If we belong to his kingdom, then that is our virtue. We humble ourselves and look to the other. We are to show the world what the future kingdom looks like by living it out right here and now. It starts at home with family and moves in the local and state and national and global scenes.

It’s time for preachers of the gospel to stop looking only at how to help individuals to be more humble in their own immediate spheres. It’s time to start thinking in a kingdom way, a kingdom that spans the globe as Revelation envisions. How do we get these individuals to be humble? How then do we get these humble individuals to come together as a community and a kingdom and show the world the way God created it to be? That has to be the question.

And it is that question that I just cannot think in terms of. How does one get an entire community to look totally away from self? What does that look like at a systemic level? I don’t know. It’s so different from the Western World that I live in which is based upon the “American Dream” that creates poverty and injustice, and then feeds off of it. My ways of thinking are so ingrained in this mindset that I cannot help but think, “Do what’s best for me and mine.” That’s not humility. That’s selfish ambition and vain conceit, even if I’m doing it with the best intentions.

I look at the nation I look in. It worships the economy and that idolatry is coming back to visit us. The Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement has sprang up to say that there is something wrong with the system that this nation lives in, the system that worships the economy. Neither movement has the answer, but Jesus’ kingdom does. But the church needs to get the model down so that we can go to the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements and say, “Here is the answer to the problem you’ve correctly identified. It’s the Kingdom of Jesus!” But how do we model it on a large-scale, systemic fashion. How can we move this country, not just the individuals living here, to this virtue of humility and love?

Oh God, help me become more humble like my King Jesus and love others and value them more than myself. What can I do to be more Christ like? How can I move this people, this nation, this human race to be the people you created them to be? Oh please show us how to be model Jesus to a world that is crying out for him to come and be their king! It’s in his name that I plead. Amen.

12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.
15 It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. 16 The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. 20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24 but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me. (Philippians 1:12-26 NIV)

The question here in this text seems to be the impetus for the advance of the gospel, that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth is the risen Messiah and Lord of the world. Why share this declaration of good news? Paul has been arrested and his arrest has been the cause for the advancement of Jesus’ Messiahship and Lordship. Men and women have come out of the woodwork to boldly proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom of God and its King. But there are two motivations that divide this group into two camps.

There are those who do so out of love and goodwill, both to Paul and to those around him. They are part of Paul’s partnership whereby men and women defend and proclaim Jesus as Lord, and not Caesar. Through love they boldly proclaim Christ. The second group is another story. They see Paul in prison and the seek to do him harm. They begin to spread the news that Jesus is Lord in order to bring harm and shame to Paul. Their motives are false and insincere. But for Paul, it does not matter. Both are proclaim the good news that Jesus has been declared by God to be the Lord of the world through his resurrection. And Paul rejoices in this, contrary to the intentions of the latter group.

And it’s this joy that Paul has in seeing Christ proclaimed that has John Piper writing books like Desiring God and God is the Gospel. What is Piper seeing? Paul rejoices because of his confidence through the prayer of the church in Philippi and God’s gift of the Spirit of Jesus that he will not be put to shame. Jesus will deliver him (σωτηρίαν, soterian). So Paul has courage to exalt Christ in his own body through life or death. Because for Paul, to live is to represent Christ here on earth and build up Christ’s people–the Philippian church for example–and to die is to go to a state of existence in the very presence of Christ. And that plane of existence is far better than any life here on earth. For Piper, that’s the joy! Paul’s greatest treasure is Christ and we must seek to satisfy ourselves in God through Jesus the Messiah by the Holy Spirit.

But Paul is split between this “greater joy” of being with Christ and living on earth as Christ’s ambassador and the fruitful labor that comes with that. The need and the joy are in tension with each other here. For Piper they are not. Joy in Christ produces the fruitful labor. But I don’t see Paul grounding one in the other in this passage. Rather, I see Paul putting aside the “greater joy” for the “joy” that comes in the needed fruitful labor for the name of Christ among the kingdom-people. I see in Paul a love, mirroring that of his Lord, that looks totally away from the self and towards the Other to provide joy for them.

I might be making too much of this and could be splitting hairs. But I feel like Piper’s form of Christian Hedonism doesn’t understand “love” the way Jesus does and models, nor the way Paul does and models. Paul says in Philippians 3:17 that the Philippians are to follow his model. I think we would be wise and do the same. Our joy is in the fruitful labor that we sacrifice for here and now as Christ’s ambassadors. Is it a greater joy to be in the presence of Christ? Not arguing. But Paul set that joy aside to continue to minister to those who needed him. As Captain Spock from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn said, “The needs of many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.” While Utilitarian, there is room for this ethic in a truly Christian view of love–the source for our ethics.

So I want to start out with some background on the city. The city was established by Philip II of Macedon to take possession of neighboring gold mines as well as establish a garrison on the strategic route between Amphipolis and Neapolis. The city remained autonomous until Philip V of the Antigonid Dynasty brought it fully into the Macedonian kingdom. The Romans defeated the Antigonids in 167 BCE and moved the political power to another city. The city disappears from the record until 42 BC when Marc Antony and Octavian pursued Julius Caesar’s murderers to a plain west of the city and defeated them. Soldiers from one of Octavian’s legions were settled here to colonize Philippi. In 30 CE Octavian became emperor of Rome and settled more soldiers there, possibly members of the elite Praetorian Guard. The idea of the settling soldiers there was to remind the people of the area that Rome owned the land. The presence of the colony was to wave the flag of Rome over the surrounding territory.

And it’s this narrative of Roman colonization that intrigues me as I read Paul’s letter. It’s my conviction that this is a primary narrative through which one is to understand the church and her mission. The church is to wave the banner of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is the Lord of the world. Just like the presence of Roman soldiers in the colony of Philippi was to remind the region under its authority that Rome was here and ruled over them. It reminded the people that Caesar is lord. I see the church as the same, the church is here to remind the world that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar in his various incarnations today, and he rules over them.

This narrative makes the most sense of the letter to me and I’ll hit on them as I go through the letter. In short, Paul says in Philippians 1 we are to advance the gospel–the message that the risen Jesus is Lord–even chains. Modeling Christ to the world, shining his light (Philippians 2), shows the world how their Lord expect them live. Our citizenship belongs to Messiah’s kingdom, not Caesars (Philippians 3). But I’ll get more into it when I get the specific texts.

It is my sincere prayer that those who read this will be blessed as they journey with me through this letter and learn how to live as proper citizens in Christ’s kingdom.

As a Southern Baptist, one of the most crucial battles my denomination fights is over the Bible. More specifically, one of the battles it fights is for the authority of the Bible in the life of the Christian. Wayne Grudem devotes an entire chapter to defining and defending the authority of the Bible.

So what is the authority of the Bible?

In my circles the authority of the Bible is similar to that of a court of final appeals. In ancient Israel, when a person filed suit, the case would go before a judge. The judge would render his decision either for or against the person filing suit. If dissatisfied that person could appeal to the king of Israel or Judah. But the king’s decision in the matter is final. There’s no place else in Israel/Judah to go once the king decides. When we think of the Bible’s authority we think of it as appealing to the king.

In contemporary times, it would be similar to filing a suit in the courts. If the lower-level judge rules against the person filing, there is an appeals judge that can overrule the decision. This process can go all the way up to the US Supreme Court. But once the Supreme Court rules, there’s no other court to turn to. The decision is final.

But is this right? Is the Bible a document that we turn to as that final court to vindicate one’s claims to doctrine and ethics? Is that the way the Bible has authority?

I don’t think so. I think there’s a better way that the Bible wants us to understand authority and how it is exercised in relationship to Scripture.

First, let us understand this central point. Only God has authority. All other authority is delegated by God to the individuals or institutions. Jesus tells Pilate during his trial, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11 NIV). Paul writes to the church in Rome, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1 NIV).

Second, that authority is given to Jesus. The Messiah himself says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18 NIV). As Paul tells the Colossians in Colossians 1:15-17 NIV,

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Jesus exercises this authority in the idea of the Kingdom. In the Greek, the verbal root from which the Greek term “kingdom” is the verb that means “I reign/rule.” It speaks to a sovereign ruling over his territory and people. And thus God’s authority is synonymous to his rule or reign as king to judge and heal. It’s his reign to put sin to death and bring new life to his creation through resurrection. God’s authority, given to Jesus, is his authority to put away sin and heal his creation.

The Bible, first and foremost, is a story. It’s the story of the Triune God creating and recreating. It’s the story of God defeating sin and healing his creatures. It’s the story of God redeeming his creation through the family of Abraham and his family, climaxing in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. It’s the story of God’s exercising his authority to put sin to death and put his creation project back on track.

And in encountering this story, the Holy Spirit brings God’s authority to bear on the reader, whether the community or the individual. God speaks life to the reader in the power of the Spirit through the Bible. The Spirit works through the reading, preaching, teaching, and studying of Scripture to unleash God’s authority. And through that power new life and holiness is brought to bear on the reader/hearer.

One might compare this to the creation song of Genesis 1. The newly converted Christian is like the newly created earth, formless and void. The Spirit hovers over the dark earth, just as he indwells the new believer. God speaks to the earth, ordering and shaping it, filling it with land and trees and seas and fish and all kinds of creatures. God in a similar way speaks through the reading of the story of Scripture to produce the virtues and habits in the individuals to shape and create a community to speak to the world who the true God really is.

Thus as the narrative that is above all other narratives, the meta-narrative, it determines the doctrines and dogmas we believe. It outlines the virtues and habits of behavior the kingdom-people are to hold and follow. It creates the culture we present to the world ensnared by sin and death and darkness.

To paraphrase N. T. Wright in Scripture and the Authority of God, the authority of the Bible or Scripture is God’s authority exercised through Scripture. It’s God exercising his authority through Scripture, not the Bible having authority.

As we near Easter I’ve been thinking over the Passover narrative from Exodus 12. Some things have bubbled up to the surface that I had never really seen. Images from the actual event and different contexts within the Exodus narrative. And I want to take the time to share them. They’re probably nothing new to some of my readers but they are to me.

The first observation is going to take two posts to cover. And it is this, the Passover is the climax of the confrontation between the force of creation, the Creator, and the forces of anti-creation, sin and evil. And I break it up into two parts to focus on the characters and the actual confrontation.

Moses is called by Yahweh in Exodus 3-4. In Exodus 4:10-17 Moses gives his objection to go before Pharaoh to demand the liberation of the Hebrew slaves is a lack of eloquent speech. That shocks me given Moses was risen in the Pharaoh’s house as a prince. Not saying it’s out of the realm of possibility just that I found it shocking.

Yahweh’s answer is simple Aaron will speak for Moses. God will tell Moses what to tell Pharaoh and Aaron will say it. And it’s in 4:16 that we find this, “He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.” Moses is set up as God to Aaron, and Aaron as the prophet. And thus we have the side of the force of creation, the Creator, Yahweh.

And as Moses rival, Pharaoh is cast up as the anti-God, the force of anti-creation. In this narrative the personification of sin and evil, as Moses is the personification of God. Pharaoh, in the Egyptian pantheon, is said and believed to be the embodiment of The sun god Ra, the chief god. Pharaoh is the parody of the creator God. He is set up to be man’s attempt at replacing God.

And this confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh becomes something greater. Exodus 5-15 is really the confrontation between God and the evil that has attempted to depose him as king and thwart his redemptive plan began through Abraham and his family. The forces that would seek to defeat God’s redemptive activities will not go unchecked (even those in Canaan, but that’s another topic; Genesis 15:12-16).

As Admiral Adama told the mutineer Mr. Gaeda, “There will be a reckoning.” For Pharaoh, his time has come. And it will cost him and his people dearly, personally, economically, and nationally. And the climax of this reckoning will be the events of the Passover.

Mark 10:35-45

But Jesus, sensing this fear, turned to them and told them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him severely, and kill him. Yet after three days, he will rise again.” This isn’t what they were expecting.

In fact watch what James and John, brothers and sons of the fisherman Zebedee, ask of him, ‘Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Permit one of us to sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.”‘ These two men wanted the place of honor in Jesus’ kingdom.

To sit at the right and left hand of the king was to be honored above all others in the kingdom. The person who sits there answer only to the king. They are in a position of power, prestige, fame, and fortune. Short of the king, this person is the most powerful person in the kingdom. They rule over the kingdom as the second in command.

And it is this position we are all trying to achieve. We want to be recognized by the king. We want to attain positions of power and prestige. We want the fame. And sadly enough we will do whatever it takes to get it. If it means walking over our friends, family, and loved ones we will do it. We want the position of honor. We crave it.

And for good reasons too. We as humans have a place in this universe. God created us to be royal priests. And here’s what I mean by that. Humans, in God’s story, were specially created to be a mirror. To the rest of the world we are to reflect God’s wisdom and sovereignty to bring order to the world. We are to rule over the world as God’s representatives. And we are to reflect to God the praise and love and adoration from creation. We are to offer worship on behalf of all of the world. We as human beings were to sit at God’s right hand.

But then sin came into the picture. That story that humanity was to tell was corrupted. Instead of being God’s representatives, we humans have rebelled and tried to take the mantle of king of the universe from God. As a result we are greedy, prideful and arrogant, rude, unkind, hateful, slanderous, murderous, and lustful. We will use all of those things to achieve power, to take God’s throne and make ourselves the king.

Jesus responds to this audacious request, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” He asks them if they can endure the path that has been set before him: to be reject by his own people, beaten, mocked, spat upon, to be killed. Can they endure that?

And James and John answer him, “We are able.” They say yes to his question. So Jesus say this, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I experience, but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give. It is for those for whom it has been prepared.” They will endure the hate and mockery. They may even be put to death. Oh yes they will. But it has already been determined who is at his right hand and left.

The others hear this and get angry and Jesus takes this moment to teach all twelve of his disciples, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus redefines power and authority, and how to use them. Looking to the Romans, the Gentiles, Jesus points out how they use power. They exercise their power and authority as tyrants, violently holding on to power if need be. They will hurt anyone, in any way needed, to hold on to their power. But not in Jesus’ kingdom, not amongst his followers.

His followers must become slaves to all and serve them. That is the path to greatness in Jesus’ kingdom, in God’s story. It’s putting others first. It’s the path of mercy, the way of love. And Jesus points to his own future as his example. He has come as king to rule over Israel, to be that human who was both king over creation and the priest on behalf of creation. He was being the true human who served others, had mercy and compassion on others. He loved others.

In the movie Braveheart, William Wallace is about to invade England. He’s just won his first major victory against England and has been knighted by the Scottish nobles. The nobles ask him to name a king but he just walks to the door.

One noble asks, “What will you do?”

Wallace responds, “I will invade England and defeat the English on their own ground.”

The noble mocks, “Invade? That’s impossible.”

Wallace defends himself with this impassioned plea, “Why? Why is that impossible? You’re so concerned with scrabbling over the scraps from Longshanks’ table that you’ve missed your God-given right to something better. There’s a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide the people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.”

It is the Christian life to serve others before oneself. To love others and be compassionate towards those in need. It is to follow Jesus own example. For he did not come demanding people to bow to him as a future king. He did not raise up an army and rebel against the governing authorities.

He came and healed the sick, conquering disease. He fed the hungry, fighting unjust hunger. He cast out demons, reclaiming the spiritual realm. He calmed storms and took small lunches and fed thousands, subduing nature. He called men to himself and empowered them to continue this service, rescuing his fellow humans. And people flocked to this man, hoping him to be the long expected king.

And then he entered Jerusalem and confronted both the ruling class of Jerusalem and the Roman governor. Instead of fighting them with violence, he loved them and submitted himself to their authority. He allowed them to perpetrate their injustice against him. He allowed them to kill him. He fought them with non-violence. He fought with mercy. He had every right to fight back. But instead chose to have compassion one more time and endured the most heinous death known to man ever.

And on the third day, God vindicated him. God showed the world the way he wants his creatures to live and to govern themselves and the world: with love. Jesus used his title to provide the world with freedom from tyranny and from being tyrants. He paid the price of freedom. He became the slave to the Gentiles and subverted their power from them.

The Challenge
So I challenge you today. How do you live your life? Is the way of the Gentiles, trying to gather up all the power and authority and position you can? Do you force people into giving you that power and position? Do you live like the Scottish nobles and English did in the movie Braveheart?

Or do you live the way of the crucified Messiah? Do you live the way of love and mercy and compassion? Do live to sere others? Are you going to make war against tyranny by being the slave and helping others? Do you want to be the human that God wants you to be?

Understand it will not be easy. For those who were with Jesus when he came in his glory were convicted criminals. Insurrectionists who deserved to be crucified. To sit in the place of honor in Jesus’ kingdom is to be crucified with him.

But what awaits you is far greater. Though you will die, you will be raised up to eternal life in a new heaven and new earth. There will be no more death and disease, no more heartache and tears. There will no longer be any hate or pride or greed or jealousy. It will be a place of pure, unpolluted joy. All there will love each other. And everyone in that new heaven and earth will be the royal priest they were intended to be.

Which do you chose? The life of the Gentile or the life of Jesus? You must chose.

Psalm 24
There are three points established by David in this poem. The dominion, the people, the king.

In 24:1-2 David declares, “The earth belongs to Yahweh, and so does everything in it. The world and all of those who live in it. Upon the seas he established it and upon the rivers he founded it.” David claims that in light of God being the creator of everything, he has dominion over his creation, the entire creation. There isn’t anywhere in all of reality and escape God’s domain and the step outside the place where he reigns. From the land to the seas to the skies and all that fills them, He owns and has dominion over all things. The universe is his dominion.

In 24:3-6 David asks this question, “Who will go up the mountain of Yahweh? Who will stand in his holy place?” Who are the ones who will live in God’s dominion? Who bears the distinction of being God’s people that he will enter into covenant with to be their God? David’s answer is this, “He who has clean hands and pure in heart. He who does not lift his soul on what is false. He who doesn’t swear deceit to his neighbor.” This person, David says, “will receive blessing from Yahweh, and will receive mercy from God his savior.” In other words David sums up his answer like this in 24:6, “This is the people seeking him, seeking the face of the God of Jacob.”

The third point establishes Yahweh as King of this dominion and people. And Yahweh is coming as king to rule. Watch starting in 24:7, “Your rulers open the doors, and lift up the gates of the ages and the King of glory will come in.” There is a king waiting to enter, the gates and doors need only to be opened. David asks and then answers the all important rhetorical question, “Who is this ‘King of glory’? He is Yahweh, mighty and powerful. He is Yahweh, powerful in war… Who is this king of glory? He is Yahweh, the one who commands armies! He is the king of glory!”

I think this Psalm is teaching us that God possesses all of creation. And that God is returning to his creation to rule over it as king, doing away with his enemies in victorious battle. And David’s charge is to prepare himself and those who will hear his call for this coming by cleansing their hands, purifying their hearts, and rededicate themselves to worship Yahweh and follow his Torah.

Matthew 5:8
Remember what we talked about when we first started looking at the beatitudes. In Matthew 4:12-17 Jesus is preaching that the kingdom of heaven, the promised return of God as king to rule over the world through his Messiah as king over Israel. It is God’s return as king.

And in the Psalm David says that God is ready to return as king. He stands waiting for the gates to open. The victorious King of glory has come and is ready to rule.

It is Jesus’ mission to call Israel to open the gates to welcome God in as King, as well as to act out God coming in and re-establishing himself as king. And therefore his ministry in Galilee is the calling of Israel to become the pure in heart and open the gates for the king to rule. Jesus is calling Israel to be those who ascend the mountain of God and stand in God’s holy place. And in going to Jerusalem Jesus opens the gates for Israel and enacts God’s return. In dying on the cross Jesus shows God to be the powerful one in war by defeating sin and evil. And in raising him from the dead God establishes his reign through Jesus, the risen Christ, over the whole creation.

And hear what the Psalmist says about those who dwell in this kingdom, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (16:11). To stand in the presence of God, the reigning king, is to be in the presence of joy and pleasure. There is no evil and no sin to steal that joy. There is only love, vibrant and living, flowing from person to person.

Matthew 15:1-28
What then does it mean to be pure in heart? The prevailing idea in Jesus’ day was to be a Jew, and not a Gentile. Gentiles weren’t the people whom God chose, given Torah and Temple, entered into covenant with. It is the Jews. And even further there differing ideas within Judaism about what it meant to follow Torah and worship in the Temple. The Sadducees had their way, the Pharisees their way, the Essenes their way. Everyone argued about what it looked like to follow Torah in the way God intended so that they could be seen as holy, separated from the pagan and evil Gentiles.

In Matthew 15 Jesus challenges this whole notion. Jesus’ disciples failed to wash their hands before eating a meal. The Pharisees saw this and called Jesus out on it for breaking the traditions of the elders. The hand washing wasn’t for sanitary reasons, germs and stuff, but to show them to be faithful Jews over against faithless Jews and pagan Gentiles. Jesus counters with saying they fail to obey the written Torah with these traditions, climaxing with him quoting Isaiah 29:13.

Then Jesus goes on to say this about being clean and pure, “10 And he called the people to him and said to them, ‘ Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.’ 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’ 13 He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. [3] And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, ‘Explain the parable to us.’ 16 And he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? [4] 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.’”

Jesus redefines purity from external observations of rituals and traditions to internal attitudes and thoughts. Sexual immorality is a matter of the heart, not of deeds. Lying and cheating comes from a heart that lies and cheats. His disciples aren’t clean and pure, holy and set apart as God’s people, because they don’t wash their hands but because their hearts are evil.

In Matthew 7 and 12 Jesus says ones deeds reflects the condition of the heart like fruit reflects whether or not a tree is healthy. If the fruit is healthy fruit, the tree is healthy. If the fruit is bad then the tree is bad. Good trees don’t produce bad fruit and bad trees don’t produce good fruit. So how then does one become “pure in heart” if we are sinners and have unclean hearts?

We have to be made into a good tree. We have to have our hearts changed. In short, we need the resurrection. It is only through the resurrection that we can be created anew with a pure heart. And we can only experience the resurrection if the Holy Spirit will apply it to us and begin the new creation in us. As Paul says in Galatians 6:15, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

And that brings us to something Paul said in just the previous chapter, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). What sets us apart from the rest of the world is faith, believing the Jesus was raised from the dead and is the Lord of the world. And what evidences that belief is the action of love. Love expresses faith in Jesus.

So pray that God will show you how to love, those in this room, in this building, and those to whom this church is sending you to. Learn to love. Learn to no longer keep accounts of wrongs but be kind and gentle. Swallow pride and arrogance. Endure, bear up, hope, and be faithful. For it is through love that we will truly lean and know as God intended for us to do.

Let us pray: We bow our hearts, we bend our knees. Oh Spirit come make us humble. We turn our eyes from evil things. Oh Lord we cast down our idols. Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts. Let us not lift our souls to another. Oh God let us be a generation that seeks your face, oh God of Jacob.