Scriptures and the Power of God

After the Pharisees failed to trap Jesus in his words about paying taxes, their rivals the Sadducees had their turn:

"That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 'Teacher,' they said, 'Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. Finally, the woman died. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?'

Jesus replied, 'You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.'

When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching." ~ Matthew 22:23-33

Sometimes I wonder if we are often in error - even though we may know the Scriptures - but because we do not know the power of God.

• "If a person dies before he's baptized - even if he's heard and believed and repented and confessed and is on the way to the church and is killed in a car wreck - he's lost and forever damned."
  
  Really? The God who held the sun still in the sky for a day can't prevent or delay the death of someone who wants to be immersed into Christ before he can do so? The Son of God who stilled storms and calmed lakes can't forgive a broken, desperate soul who recognizes His divinity ... even if he's being crucified a few arm's-lengths away?



• "If a person doesn't understand that she is being baptized for the remission of sins, her baptism counts for nothing and she is condemned to an eternity in hell."
  
  Oh? The God who knows the number of hairs on our heads and the number of IQ points inside them and the teachings we have been barraged with - for better or worse - by folks with the best of intentions teaching us at our churches ... that God can't credit the belief of such a faithful one (as He did with Abraham) as righteousness ... or at least the deep desire for it?



• "If God is love and is not willing that any should perish, then eventually He will save everyone."
  
  Then, the God who obliterated all the evil tenants of the earth in a flood, ordered the herem-extermination of child-sacrificers, and whose Son spoke in no uncertain terms of the fates of those on His left and His right ... they were just joshing? That there is only kindness and no severity to those who will not believe? That He is merciful, but not just; loving but not righteous? Because, as I understand it, it is impossible for Him to lie.

We could go on and on. (Many have.) If we did, we would probably still be arguing as much from our ignorance of Scriptures as of the power of God.

But I think we especially underestimate His power.

And that may help explain why we so seldom pray and let Him work through us as powerfully as Paul did:

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. ~ Ephesians 3:20

Easter Sunday: Risen Indeed

The tradition I handed on to you in the first place, a tadition which I had myself received, was that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried; and that on the third day, he was raised to life, in accordance with the scriptures; and that he appeared to Cephas; and later to the Twelve; and next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time . . . . This is what we preach and what you believed. --Corinthians 15:3-6,11

Easter Vigil. The Lord is risen indeed. They shouted it in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, and Arabic. There were bells, alleluias, smiles, laughter, and a deep sense that there is hope. This community of handicapped people and their assistants was loudly proclaiming that Christ's body did not remain in the tomb, but was raised to new life, and that our own bodies will join him in glory.

While all this joy was filling the chapel, I saw that Nathan stood up with Philippe in his arms and left the church. Philippe's body is severely distorted. He cannot speak, walk, dress, or feed himself and needs help every second of his waking hours. He had been lying in an assistant's lap, quietly sleeping. but when the celebration became more lively he started to howl, an anguishing howl coming from deep down in his being . . . .

When I saw Philippe in Nathan's arms I suddenly realized what we were proclaiming on this Easter vigil. Philippe's body is a body destined to a new life, a resurrected life. In his new body he will carry the signs of his suffering, just as Jesus carried the wounds of the crucifixion into his glory. And yet he will no longer be suffering, but will join the saints around the altar of the lamb.

Still, the celebration of the resurrection of the body is also the celebration of the daily care given to the bodies of these handicapped men and women. Washing and feeding, pushing wheelchairs, carrying, kissing, and caressing--these are all ways in which these broken bodies are made ready for the moment of a new life. Not only their wounds but also the care given them will remain visible in the resurrection.

It is a great and powerful mystery. Philippe's poor distorted body will one day be buried and return to dust. But he will rise again on the day of the resurrection of the dead.

He will rise from the grave with a new body and will show gloriously the pain he suffered and the love he received. It will not be just a body. It will be his body, a new body, a body that can be touched but is no longer subject to torture and destruction. His passion will be over.

What a faith! What a hope! What a love! The body is not a prison to escape from, but a temple in which God already dwells, and in which God's glory will be fully manifested on the day of the resurrection.

Easter season is a time of hope. There still is fear, there still is a painful awareness of sinfulness, but there also is light breaking through. Something new is happening, something that goes beyond the changing moods of our life. We can be joyful or sad, optimistic or pessimistic, tranquil or angry, but the solid stream of God's presence moves deeper than the small waves of our minds and hearts. Easter brings the awareness that God is present even when his presence is not directly noticed. Easter brings the good news that, although things seem to get worse in the world, the Evil One has already been overcome. Easter allows us to affirm that although God seems very distant and although we remain preoccupied with many little things, our Lord walks with us on the road and keeps explaining the Scriptures to us. Thus there are many rays of hope casting their light on our way through life.

Our Prayer

Almighty, everlasting God,
on this day
you conquered death through your son
and opened for us the path to eternal life.
And so we celebrate in joy
the feast of his resurrection.
Make us new through your Spirit,
so that we too may rise
and walk in the light of life.
We ask this through Jesus Christ.

Source: Henri J.M. Nouwen, Show me the way (Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992). Used by permission.

Jesus and the Devil

by Lauren Winner
an excerpt from The Voice of Matthew
(Chapter 4: Jesus and the Devil)
March - April, 2007

¹The Spirit then led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
²Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. After this fast, He was, as you can imagine, hungry. ³But He was also curiously stronger because of His fast. And so He was able to withstand the devil, the tempter, when he came to Jesus.

The Devil: If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

Jesus:(quoting Deuteronomy) ⁴It is written, “Man does not live by bread alone.
Rather, he lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” _{Deuteronomy 4:4}

The point, of course, is not that Jesus couldn’t have turned these stones to bread. As you will see a little later in our story, He can make food appear when He needs to. But Jesus doesn’t work miracles out of the blue, for no reason, for show or proof or spectacle. He works them in intimate, close places; He works them to meet people’s needs and to show them the way to the Kingdom.

⁵ Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem, and he had Jesus stand at the very highest point in the holy temple.

The Devil: ⁶If You are the Son of God, jump! And then we will see if You fulfill the Scripture that says, “He will command His angels concerning You, and the angels will buoy You in their hands, so that You will not crash, or fall, or even graze Your foot on a stone.” _{Psalm 91:11-12}

Jesus: ⁷That is not the only thing Scripture says. It also says, “Do not put the LORD your God to the test.” _{Deuteronomy 6:16}

⁸And still the devil subjected Jesus to a third test. He took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain, and he showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in all their splendor and glory, their power and pomp.

The Devil: ⁹If You bow down and worship me, I will give You all these kingdoms.

Jesus: ¹⁰Get away from Me, Satan. I will not serve you. I will instead follow Scripture, which tells us to "worship the LORD your God, and serve only Him." _{Deuteronomy 6:13}

¹¹Then, the devil left Jesus. And angels came and ministered to Him.

¹²It was not long until powerful people put John in prison. When Jesus learned this, He went back to Galilee. ¹³He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum, a town by the sea in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali—¹⁴He did this to fulfill one of the prophecies of Isaiah:

¹⁵ “In the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the road to the sea along the Jordan in Galilee, the land of the Gentiles—¹⁶in these places, the people who had been living in darkness saw a great light. The light of life will overtake those who dwelt in the shadowy darkness of death." _{Isaiah 9:1-2}

¹⁷From that time on, preaching was part of Jesus’ work. His message was not dissimilar from John’s.

Jesus: Turn away from sin; turn toward God. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

By now Jesus desired a community around Him, friends and followers who would help Him carry this urgent, precious message to people. And so He called a community around Him. We call these first beloved followers disciples, which means “apprentices.” The first disciples were two brothers, Simon and Andrew. They were fishermen.

¹⁸One day Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee when He saw Simon (also called Peter) and Andrew throwing their nets into the water. They were, of course, fishermen.

Jesus: ¹⁹Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.

²⁰Immediately, Peter and Andrew left their fishnets and followed Jesus.

²¹Going on from there, Jesus saw two more brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They, too, were fishermen. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee getting their nets ready to fish. Jesus summoned them, just as He had called to Peter and Andrew, ²²and immediately they left their boat and their father to follow Jesus.

²³And so Jesus went throughout Galilee. He taught in the synagogues. He preached the good news of the Kingdom, and He healed people, ridding their bodies of sickness and disease. ²⁴People talked about this Jesus, this Preacher and Healer, and word of His charisma and wisdom and power and love spread all over Syria, as more and more sick people came to Him. People who were too sick to walk persuaded their friends and relatives to carry them to Jesus. The innumerable ill who came before Him had all sorts of diseases—they were in crippling pain; they were possessed by demons; they had seizures; they were paralyzed. But Jesus healed them all. ²⁵Large crowds from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from the ten cities called the Decapolis, from Judea, and from the region across the Jordan—these cripples and demonized and ill and paralytics came to Jesus, and He healed them, and they followed Him.



Download and read all of Matthew 4 from The Voice of Matthew