October 6, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves. Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye totally blinded!‘” (Zechariah 11.15-17)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I used to do a lot of community theatre “back in the day.” The parts I portrayed were always the “good” guy parts and I loved bringing those characters to life so that the audience could experience the goodness in them. But life is not always good in this world. It is far too easy, and too dangerous, to live in such a “cotton candy, pollyanish” mindset. We know that not everything in this world is “good, happy, peaceful, prosperous and positive.” We know of disasters, tragedies, disablements, contentions, violence, wars, poverty, pain and even the simplest of aches can beleaguer us. There are counterpoints in life. It was not until Israel had met up with the Phoenicians that these counterpoints became contradistinctions and opposing powers. Some were lead to believe that good and evil were distinct realities coming from opposite sides as different lives with authorities so distinct that one stood against the other as equals. To this end, in great part, the book of Job was given by God to confront such a heresy. Such heresy remains a huge part of the “great lie” which exists today. Satan is not a god on equal terms or with equal power. Satan cannot create but was created. Proverbs 16.4 states “God created evil for the day of evil that it would serve His purpose.” Did God authorize rebellion? Did God create sin? In some fashion we might say “yes” but only in so far as the forces of creation move against each other and in that contact life is brought to the fore. What is truth is the “good” always will triumph over evil, “right” always will exceed wrong, “light” will never be totally consumed by darkness and “life” will rise up over death. But there are times when discipline must become a part of who we are and who we are to become. We certainly don’t like discipline (corporeal punishment and determined exertion of the mind, body, heart and soul.) Discipline causes us to examine who we are, who we want to become and how we will achieve that becoming. Don’t think for a moment that Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, relished the hardships He faced in life. Don’t imagine that Jesus of Nazareth, who was and is the Son of God, was exempt from the trials and tribulations of living in the world on earth because He was the Son of God and thus divine in His nature. The reality of the incarnation was for Jesus that the same flesh of which we are a part as those who live in the same world was His flesh. That means the same struggles and challenges existed for Him that exist for us. There were things that did not come easy for Jesus. If we do not believe that for the words of His life we do not have (His childhood years except for his 12th, or Bar Mitzvah, year and those which followed until His 30th birthday when He was baptized and thus anointed as prophet, priest and king) existed differently than those which we do have (His birth, the threat of death leading to an Egyptian exile, the subsequent return to Nazareth and His ministry which included rejection, confrontation, challenges, trials, tribulations, death and resurrection), we would be mistaken. All was not bliss. In the Garden we see perhaps the greatest example of the angst which Jesus experienced between the human and the divine, the flesh and the spirit. There Jesus prayed in the midst of full disclosure: “If it be possible for You Abba, take this cup from Me!” He did not leave it there, however, as He concluded, “Yet, not My will [human and divine?] but Yours [that which is perfectly balanced] be done.” Perfection does not mean the absence of imperfection in the “kingdom of God” but the balance maintained in light of them both so that the goodness and righteousness of God is glorified. I know that is a challenge to consider for many. Let me offer this image for you that you might consider it further as follows. When Thomas heard that Jesus was raised from the dead and had appeared to many including the other disciples, he desired it himself. His grief had kept him separate from all of those he had grown close to. His grief had taken him into the shadows of doubt and self-challenge as to what he believed and what he understood. I have always said that Thomas actually speaks for all of us as much as Judas does. We just don’t like to think about it. For whatever reason, though Jesus appeared to others apart from the disciples who stayed cloistered in the Upper Room, He had not yet appeared to Thomas. Thomas thus put himself in position to “see” Jesus by returning to the Upper Room. As fate would have it, Jesus appeared. He did not appear for the others, though I am sure they were glad to see Him again, in that moment. He came for Thomas; and thus for us. Jesus showed Himself to answer Thomas’s question “Is it the real Jesus?” It is a question which has followed us from that moment to the very one we are living in now as we read this reflection (and for those who are not it is the same.) The question “It is the real Jesus?” is a validation of another question “Is the gospel of Jesus true?” Jesus showed Himself perfectly as God Himself is perfect. He divinity, which was fully revealed to three disciples on Mount Tabor in all its glory, and His humanity which was revealed in the crucifixion as he bled out from the cross and was buried, were now in perfect harmony. What did He reveal to Thomas? Ah yes: nail holes and a gash from a Roman spear. They were as real and as much a part of Jesus as taking bread or eating fish or walking through closed doors or being lifted up to Heaven. Those not so simple wounds, now scars indicating healing, were the reminders of living in the world but not becoming a part of it. They showed the discipline of grace and mercy which comes with a price to be paid so that we might become who we are meant to be if we so choose to receive them and believe them. Strangely, that will challenge what many have wanted to believe about our own “resurrection” bodies in the New Jerusalem. We may still have a flaw visible and tangible but not understood as a sign of defeat but of victory.

So, I asked director’s from time to time if I could play the “bad” guy. Not that I wanted to be bad but that there was more to life that needed to be made visible, tangible and dealt with. Of course, in theatre the “bad” guy rarely succeeds and is transformed. We know that to be true in the drama presented in the Book of Revelation. The reality of that drama as it is played out before John the Presbyter is that death comes, the unrepentant suffer interminably and eternally which the believer in Jesus the Christ no longer is bound by this world but liberated into the Kingdom of God forever. This was the reality given to Zechariah as well. He had a part to play in the drama presented to Israel and her leadership as well as to those who believed they had authority over her (and still do to this day). Zechariah had to play both parts. He was the good shepherd who breaks pots and the bad shepherd who feeds off flocks. The word given to him was real in its divinity and in its distastefulness. It was sweet and bitter. It was truth regardless of whether it was good news for those who had been abused by bad shepherds or bad news for those who presented themselves as good shepherds. And the penalty was made visible with the consequence of the loss of a right hand or arm. This is what is raised when giving an oath to swear “it is the truth.” We know the image that Jesus Himself sits at the right hand of God. The right hand speaks to the power and position of ruling authority and defining leadership. The left hand speaks to wisdom and the power of righteousness which brings fullness to the heart, mind and soul. Those who took oaths to be the true leaders of Israel (foreign and domestic) raised their right hands. In the day of Judgment, they would not be able to do so because it would be removed in battle. Gruesome? Terrifying? Unimaginable? It should certainly cause one to consider deeply the reality of who is in control of the Universe and all of its life. There is no other God…there is no negative equal to God. There are only the actors who will play their part to bring to light what is the ultimate truth. That truth is, was and will always be God, Yahweh Elohim, and the power of His Word to effect the gift of life in all its fullness.

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.