August 28, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“These are the things you are to do declares the Lord: ‘Speak the truth to each other. Render true and sound judgment in your courts. Do not plot evil against each other and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all [of] this.‘” (Zechariah 8.16,17)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

In yesterday’s reflection, we heard God call both the foreign and domestic exiles to “have strong hands.” The first reference was to the rebuilding of the temple. It only makes sense that those who were engaged in the construction business should have strong hands. We are talking about carpenters, stonemasons, wagon masters, lumberjacks, foundry workers and the like. Their hands would portray the image of who they were. I have often wondered what the hands of Jesus looked like. He was both a carpenter and a stone mason. He apprenticed with Joseph, His earthly father, and may have become a master carpenter and a master mason by the time He was thirty. We know that Joseph died, or at least left Mary as her husband, at some point in time between when Jesus was 12 and 30. At that time, Jesus might have taken over Joseph’s business ventures and taught those same skills to His brothers: James, Joseph (Joses), Judas and Simon. (Some will submit that they were the older brothers of Jesus from Joseph’s previous marriage and already established in their father’s business.) Regardless, Jesus’ hands bore the history of His father’s work. They were strong hands fitted for the purpose of “building up the House of God.” What an interesting image we can see when Jesus confronts the Temple leadership, as recorded in Mark 14.58 and John 2.19, “Destroy this Temple and I will rebuild it in three days.” Of course, those who heard it scoffed at the very idea of such a fete. They will claim that it took 46 years to build the temple so how could Jesus be able to build it again in only three days. We might retort using a phrase from a different story which we have already mentioned “What is impossible for human beings is totally possible with God.” More reasonably, we might give thought that Jesus was speaking of something altogether different but somehow the same. We know that Jesus was speaking not of a literal building when He said this. He was speaking of His submission to the works of His Father’s hands, His Heavenly Father. His strong hands were meant for a different reference than physical labor. So let us consider some other labors which “our” hands might perform in the “building up of the House of God.”

The reference mentioned from John, chapter 2, is included in the story of Jesus’ cleansing the Temple at the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. The Synoptic Gospels put the story in the frame of reference concerning the last week of Jesus’ life. Regardless of the timing of when it happened, the language used doesn’t change. Jesus, seeing what the Temple had become for the fiscal benefit of the Temple leadership, called them out. He said, “My Father’s house was intended to be a house of prayer for all people. Instead, you have turned it into a den of thieves and robbers.” Let’s not think for a moment that Jesus was directing His displeasure solely at the marketeers and moneychangers. They were collateral damage in all of this which is what happens when you empower a person to do something which amounts to nothing. They were buying and selling in the temple under the guise of promoting salvation and a sacrificial system which God had declared “null and void” under the prophets. The Temple leadership merely capitalized (and I mean that in every fiscal sense of the word) on the expertise of the works of the hands of those in the marketplace. Imagine the thrust of the accusation concerning the purpose of the Evil One to “steal, kill and destroy.” Who was actually being addressed? Most certainly the hands of the leadership were not innocent in any of this. Instead of having hands made for praying, they had hands which evidenced their penchant for preying on others. I believe this is what Jesus was truly addressing as the sole purpose of the Temple was a soul purpose of God.

What else might “strong” hands be a reference to beyond prayer and the obvious industrial trades mentioned before? We can return to the Temple again to see a picture which Jesus used to illustrate the essence of true faith. On a certain day, obviously in a Passover season as it is when we often find Jesus in the Temple, Jesus and the disciples had gone to pray. They sat on the steps at one of the gates of the Temple to do what many people enjoy today in gathering places: people watch. Object lessons were, and are, in abundance in such opportunities. On that particular day, a widow came to make an offering. She took a significant portion of her whole possession, albeit mere “pennies” and put it in the offering box. It may have even been the offering for the poor. She did so with aged and gentle hands. She did so faithfully and humbly without fanfare. It was, after all, only a few pennies. Coming through the crowd, a rich man brought a large bag of coins which may or may not have met the definition of tithe (of which there were three) and either dropped the whole bag in the box or poured it out. Either way, the sound of it caught the attention of those in the vicinity. Perhaps one of the disciples themselves noticed the weight of the effort and falsely associated the volume of noise and funds with righteousness and salvation. As the internal or external cognition of the moment spoke, Jesus remarked that it was the offering of the widow which showed the greater faith. Why? Because she gave out of her poverty more than she was required where the rich man gave merely out of his overflow. What of these gifts which our hands bring to God. How much effort of faith have their carried and what is the image of such a labor of love?

Let us not soon forget another story of a similar situation. On another day, or perhaps it was just a continuing observation on the same day, it was noticed that a Pharisee stood by himself in the Temple to pray. We have seen that praying is a good work of “the hands” as the Temple was intended to be a “House of Prayer.” Notice that that Pharisee was standing alone. He was socially distanced? He was positioned to be separate from the rest who were there? Was it so he could be seen? Was it because he wanted the appearance of anonymity? Read in it and from it what you will. His prayer gives us some insight: “God, I am thankful that You have not made me like others who are here that are extortioners (could he be speaking of the moneychangers and their Jewish leadership taskmasters), oppressors (both Roman and Jewish representatives who placed burdens upon the people for their own gain), adulterers (politically, spiritually and physically and maybe a reference to those who were confronted by Jesus when their woman caught in adultery was presented to Him for judgment in order to justify themselves) and those tax collectors (Jewish “turncoats” who served Rome for a mutual benefit; one of those would have been Matthew/Levi whose name gives us a connection to the Levites who served in the Temple to lead in worship.)” I can see this Pharisee waving his hand, pointing fingers of accusation and then patting himself on the back as a weak approval of self-satisfaction that he tithes as the Law prescribes and fasts “twice a week” and not just once. Meanwhile, the Tax Collector stands at a distance in recognition that he is unworthy by the standards of others to be in that place but he is not alone (there are other sinners there, too, thanks to the inventory of the Pharisee). What do his hands do but beat his chest with sorrow and repentance, maybe he rends his robe a little to expose his heart to the Lord as he mutters “Woe to me, o God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Perhaps, the Tax Collector was in the vicinity of Jesus and the disciples giving them the opportunity to hear his petition. Maybe it was Matthew himself in a moment of realization being in the Temple with Jesus who judged no one but discerned the truth of everyone who was praying. Regardless, Jesus gestures and says “It is this man who will go home justified because of his humility far more than that one who exalted himself before God.” (Luke 18.9-14)

I mentioned “gestures” in the previous illustration from Luke 18 because 1) this reflection is about strong hands and 2) those gestures from Jesus indicate a spiritual discernment which speak to a judgment. We, as mighty ones of God and even those who are not, should not judge others unless we ourselves desire to be judged. How important it is to remember that truth when we contemplate our time on the Last Day as we stand before the Judgment Seat. What we want to hear as much as we pray for “Well done, My good and faithful servant,” is “Where are your accusers? Since there is no one here to judge you from among them then neither do I judge you.” It is only by the very hands of One who has born our sins to the cross and the grave that perfect justice can be administered. In her story as in our story, all eyes are on the gestures of those who stand for and against us. In her story, the accusing hands held stones carried into the Temple courtyard ready to be used to stone her because they had already made up their mind against Jesus. I believe we miss that part of the story. What hope the accusers must have had when Jesus stooped down beside the humiliated woman dressed only in her night robe (a story I have shared previously). Their eyes watched to see if Jesus would pick up even a small pebble in judgment of her. Instead, Jesus used His finger to write in the dust of the courtyard yet unswept by the “Levites,” the Temple custodians. With each step forward by the accusers to see what He was doing, Jesus wrote again. That means they took “two” steps as He wrote three times. According to the Law, the testimony of “two” witnesses was needed for an indisputable conviction. Without even asking, witnesses stepped forward once and then twice. However, as they approached the One they truly intended to judge (trust me, they did not want to stone their woman), they saw what He had scribed by hand on the Temple floor. No one knows for sure what Jesus wrote. Whatever it was convicted the accusers and dropping the stones behind them, they turned and walked away. With that Jesus declared, “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” Who “among” them was without sin? What was their testimony with their departure? Was it not that Jesus of Nazareth was the ONE!” Who had the upper hand? Who had the strong hand? It was those very hands which carried the cross to Calvary’s hill gesturing a sacrifice for all sins for all time. It was those very hands which the disciples knew very well which were offered to Thomas in the Upper Room eight days after His resurrection to bear witness that it was He whom Thomas desired to see. It was those two hands which took bread and broke it in the house of the Emmaus sojourners which caused them to see the fulfillment of scripture as they all had been told. It was the strong hands which put a stranglehold on sin and the grave with an anointing of His own blood to silence them forever as they sought to speak against those who called upon the name of the Lord and were called by His name.

These are the strong hands which God was speaking about as He envisioned the rebuilding of the Temple, the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel (uniting both north and south, as well as east and west.) This is what I believe God meant as He spoke the anticipatory set of spiritual discernment expressions of faith, hope and love to Zechariah and all the generations which would follow. In the words of Jesus to Thomas who never did touch the hands and side of the resurrected Jesus but merely saw them: Blessed are you because of what you have seen; greater still the blessing of those who have not seen and yet believe! We have not “seen” Him but I believe we have felt His strong hands on our lives. Shalom, y’all.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit in order that others be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind so we would know we are Your people and You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.