jonesy
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Post by jonesy on Jul 18, 2006 12:44:50 GMT
Luke 7 tells the story of the Centurion who sent Jewish elders to Jesus to plead his case. Now his case wasn't for himself but someone else an ailing servant.
As Jesus neared his residence, the Centurion again sent word through intermediaries not to come because he wasn't worthy of Jesus presence under his roof just say the word and his servant would be healed. I find it interesting that the Jews were so taken with the generosity and good heartedness of the Roman centurion that they interceded for him with Jesus. I find it interesting that they sought Jesus out, He wasn't liked among their religion. He commended the faith of the Centurion and commented on it.
The Centurion had insight I think he saw Jesus for who He was a Messiah. He imparted his faith to the religious leaders who were the recipients of his generosity; might we do the same? He had compassion and grace towards those he was near he held his servant in regard. There is to me so much of a prophetic nature in all of this it boggles the mind.
I see in scripture what I would call reflexive truths, for example "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased" is written of about God, who casts Himself as a Father in stating this. The Centurion speaks of authority in Matt 8; the Centurion gives a soliloquy about the goings and comings of authority and in so doing reflects the Messianic authority of Jesus, the Centurion the icon of Caesar.
Healings and such, the next verses deal with a dead son raised in a small town all point to the Jesus who eschewed the Messianic form of might they all expected and instead gave grace to whoever sought it. When we are tempted to find a solution in might and strength of the human kind remember the Centurion official of Rome who knew where the real power was held, in the swarthy hands of a small town Messiah, not in the marble and granite facade of an empire. And as an expert on authority he knew the real thing when he saw it, or in this case knew it sight unseen. John
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jonesy
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by jonesy on Jul 24, 2006 3:49:25 GMT
Jesus stood and watched the folks put in their offerings he was impressed with the smallest offering given-the seemingly insignificant widow's mite. Funny how these two cents have transcended not only their denomination but time itself. In so doing their worth has become inestimable for the kingdom hinges on things such as this. Our littleness becomes what is beloved of the Father. Her putting in all she had which wasn't much makes me think of days when we were told we needed to be 100% committed. How many times has that phrase come back to haunt us? Sometimes in reality our commitment wasn't nearly that strong we were 70% or 50% or 30% committed but we were 100% of that thirty percent it was all we had and we put it in. Jesus saw it and was blessed even if you weren't at the time. John
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jonesy
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by jonesy on Jul 24, 2006 12:13:10 GMT
An additional thought on this subject. The widow who was insignificant in society amongst the poobahs and their moohlahs wasn't ashamed to put her "two cents in" in the midst of the hoopla and hype. Be you in all of your insignificance. John
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Post by Jason_Coates on Jul 24, 2006 13:47:43 GMT
Thanks John. You make cents as always. In fact, if I had a dime for everytime you said something centsible!
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jonesy
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Posts: 69
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Post by jonesy on Jul 31, 2006 18:55:10 GMT
Thirty odd years ago in my hometown I became a Christian one night kneeling beside my bed praying scared out of my wits. That day had been a brush with death, now I'd grown up knowing about God from a smattering of church attendance and such. My enduring our pastor's exegesis the only remembrance is that of his punctuations of up and down in his speech patterns. He smoked a pipe, wore a clerical collar and seemed like a grandfatherly figure who could have passed for God himself for all I knew. I had at one time looked with scorn at this figure cut by a clergyman after I had been "Born Again" as a real Christian. Over the years I’ve found that real Christianity isn't amplitude of ardor or virtuous living it's been in seeing Jesus in the humdrum of life and accepting that as the reality of His kingdom. That's not a passive existence however it is actually a most dangerous thing to do, it involves trust.
I had fabricated a rather sophisticated belief system and philosophy of theonomics not to be Christian so much as to bargain with God. I'd created a place to do commerce with God in my life as a means of survival in the religious system I was in. After a time He said enough! And proceeded to rampage through my life turning things over, kicking man centered diversions and in general clearing the decks of my life wholesale. I had in effect come to a place of utter worthlessness, my trade deficit was sizeable and my means of negotiation my urgency of vision was shot. I found myself living in that same room, the one I'd knelt in on that fateful August night. I'd met another pastor who could've passed for God in his demeanor and I learned through his friendship that I didn't have to earn my keep. We sat in a restaurant one morning where I'd been meeting with him about some grand broadcasting scheme and it wasn't panning out. He accepted that and I thought "Oh well, next!" shockingly he said, "We could just be friends and not have a reason to." In all of my years as a "real" Christian I'd not enjoyed a "real" friendship that didn't have some world changing import, it just wasn't done we were building a Kingdom ya know!
Jesus made friends with some men and women and it shocked them that He wanted a friendship with them, Martha thought she was to assume her role as a subservient woman who needed to earn her keep. Jesus told her she mattered as a person not in some role she played in the Kingdom. It was scandalous for Him to elevate a woman to a station as disciple, as friend, as someone who ministered to Jesus in their relationship.
I want to delve into this further in the vein of "Well if we're all just friends how does anything get done?"
John
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jonesy
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by jonesy on Aug 1, 2006 21:44:25 GMT
To follow-up on the above post-"If we're getting things done how can we be friends?" The truth of the matter in my opinion is that life isn't meant to be neat and tidy or purposeful; it isn't goal oriented, success motivated or measured in the accretion of power and wealth. The bigger barns parable makes me think this, if in gaining the whole world we loose our souls isn't merely about hedonism and greed. Christians like to comfort themselves with the notion that because they're driven with some vision, a calling, a mission that all is well in the accomplishing of. I think of it as an existence where a periscope is needed, the outside world exists through a narrow angle view and is either friend or foe. We have silhouettes of enemy forces for ready identification and immediate action. Jesus who scripture reveals knew the hearts of those around Him readily engaged them in relational terms in a sense He "Slept with the enemy". He lived with, ate with, and loved the people around Him. When they sinned such as Peter lying about the temple tax he addressed the issue at its root.
More later... John
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jonesy
Junior Member
Posts: 69
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Post by jonesy on Aug 2, 2006 11:20:05 GMT
Mt. 17:24-27 here is the incident after the descent from the mount of transfiguration where Peter has lied about paying the temple tax. Peter is enamored with his idea of Jesus but not Jesus himself. He creates a defense, a fabrication to reinforce this idea of Jesus' entrance into the good graces of the officialdom of Israel. Jesus asks Peter about this and uncovers a truth in the process, a truth of whose we are. He asks Peter "...from whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes-from their own sons or from others?" The answer is from others and so Jesus sends Peter to go and receive a collection from a fish for the tax and give it to the officials.
How much are you worth, what price do you render to someone to gain acceptance? Who taxes you to be a part of their sphere of friendship, of relationship, of religious propriety? Or of whom are you extracting something to be acceptable to you, to live up to your ideals? Jesus, I think was after the notion of membership fees for relationships, of paying something in return for admittance when something of greater value and far more expansive was at hand. That something was the wealth of a familial relationship that Jesus had invited them to.
He told them of His impending death an intimation, and yet when faced with the mere possibility of offending a temple official Peter goes into overdrive, not unnoticed by Jesus. Is the intimacy of our relationship first of all with Jesus and then others a commodity? Do we hold dear the ideas of someone, be it a friend or Jesus more than the person themselves and in so doing tax our relationships? The mutuality of family is such that we are by birth or adoption what we are-not by what we do. When we free others from the bondage of being responsible for making us anything-happy, sad, or accepted we enter into the freedom of mutuality and egotism is checked at the door. We are released from the attachments to our need to be made happy by someone else, and instead able to enjoy the moment for what it is.
I can't really say that Peter went out and caught a fish and took a coin from its mouth or that Jesus was saying it was improbable not to offend these folks in some way, the tax being the least of their worries. My guess is that the tax came from the fish's mouth and Peter saw that Jesus was serious about their familial relationship as sons of the Father. John
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