Resurrecting an old friend

In the roughly ten years since my last post on this blog, the world has seen drastic changes expressed in many forms: politics, religion, economics, education, health care, you name it. It is amazing to see what has changed. 

For me personally there have been changes, too. For one thing I am ten years older, and I am experiencing many of the frailties of an aging body. Last year, I spent six months in and out of the hospital battling Acute Myeloid Leukemia (for an account of that adventure, see my blog Red Cells and White Cells and Platelets, Oh, My!) This year I am in need of eye surgery, because the chemotherapy I have undergone, did damage to my corneas. I am a living testimony to the adage "Getting old is not for wimps." 

Another thing that has changed for me is a growing understanding of my Christian faith. My experience with leukemia has heightened in me the sense of how desperately dependent on the Lord I am; not only day by day, but also moment by moment. 

As I contemplate all of these things, I am convinced that I must speak up about them. I started this blog in January, 2009, because it was becoming obvious to me that Christians were (and are) under attack for our beliefs. This fact is, of course, nothing new. Jesus Christ, the author of our faith, was persecuted and eventually executed on a Roman cross, perhaps, the most humiliating, cruel, painful means of execution ever devised by the heart of mankind. But Jesus of Nazareth had an ace up His sleeve. On the third day after His execution, He stunned the world by rising from His grave and making that fact known by appearing in the flesh to hundreds of people. By doing so He inspired and empowered His followers, aka the church, aka the body of Christ, to go forth into the world and change it forever. Some people don't like that.

Over the twenty centuries since the church was founded, there has been an incessant desire among people in every age to destroy it. Why would people want to do that? After all, the church was the driving force behind the development of hospitals, universities, and even, or perhaps, especially the notion that there is a loving God Who cares about His creation. It is ironic that, in contemporary America, the enemies of Jesus of Nazareth vilify Him as a hateful man Who is a threat to humanity. 

Jesus Himself said, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) That is exactly what He did on that Roman cross centuries ago. Not even the Roman Governor of Judea could find any fault with Him (John 18:38). The Roman centurion who oversaw the crucifixion admitted, "Truly, this man was the Son of God." (Mark 15:39) But the religious leadership of the day demanded that Jesus be executed, primarily because He was a threat to their privilege and authority. You see, the common men and women in Judea had been longing for someone to come and release them from their bondage. In their minds, the Messiah (Greek: Christ) would one day come and free them from the tyranny of the Roman Empire. 

When Jesus arrived on the scene, he quickly gained a following among the people to whom He stated

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

There are credible accounts both in and outside the Bible of wondrous healings and other signs that this Jesus was no mere mortal. 

One of the foibles of mankind is that we view the world through our own filter, as my wife would say. For four hundred years, Israel had suffered at the hands of his enemies, but the people had not heard from a prophet who might show them the way out of their plight. Then a young man named John came on the scene. He was an odd duck who stayed in the wilderness, clad in a camel hair tunic, eating honey and insects. But those who listened to his message were encouraged, for he proclaimed

...“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:23)

Finally, after 400 years, John was bringing hope to Israel. Through their cultural filter, they wondered; was the promised Messiah coming at last? Would He come marching in with a heavenly army to rout the hated Romans? Would He at last set the captives [Israel] free? John baptized countless Jews "for the remission of sins." People were cleaning themselves up so they would be presentable before the Lord's Anointed, now that He was about to show Himself. He would need some loyal warriors for His army.

What they all missed was that Jesus didn't come to rescue them from the tyranny of Rome. They had a greater enemy. They had been enslaved by the Roman empire for decades, but they were prisoners of war in the age old conflict between the Holy God, Creator of the universe, and Satan, once the most beautiful among the angels, now fallen into depravity, the chief purveyor of lies and opposition to God. 

They were looking for a mighty general. They got an unassuming carpenter... from Nazareth, a dirty little town in the middle of nowhere. What this carpenter came to free them from was the prison of their own sin. Israel has a long history of paying lip service to the God who created them, rescued them from slavery in Egypt, led them to a land full of bountiful resources, while they pursued other delights, including pagan worship, child sacrifice, murder, adultery, avarice...well, you get the picture.

They were the "poor," who lived unfulfilling lives. They were the "captives" who needed liberty from the oppression of Satan, who encouraged their lasciviousness. They were the "blind," who needed to have their vision cleared, so they could see how they had created their own misery by following after false gods who promised "the good life," but delivered only pain. They were the "oppressed," who needed to be set at liberty from the oppression of self-serving ways that led them to endless misery. 

The Carpenter from Nazareth came to free them from that, because even in a political hell, such as Roman occupation of their homeland, freedom from the oppression of a guilty conscience and self-loathing, that is the real freedom. 

Down through the centuries since Jesus appeared, people have had a choice. They can opt for false gods, who promise paradise and deliver things like addiction, loneliness, fear, falsehood, death and destruction, or they can come to the Lover of their souls for comfort and rest.

"...Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

What will you choose? 

In future posts I will address in some detail the salient points I have raised in this post. Like it or not, we are all involved in a spiritual war. How we conduct ourselves just might turn out to be a matter of life and death. 

Stay tuned.