Blood on the Door

While reading a passage in John, I noticed something interesting. For those of you who don’t know the Bible, the Book of John is one of the four “gospels” or biographies of Jesus’s life (the other three being Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

The passage in question was John 18. This chapter covers the events of Jesus’s arrest and part of His trial. After teaching and ministering for roughly three years, the enemies Jesus had made (by His teachings threatening their power) were finally able to execute a plan to kill Him, with the help of one of Jesus’s close friends and disciples, Judas. The part of the passage I found particularly thought-provoking was John 18:28, which reads:

Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.

The Jews arresting Jesus wanted to be able to partake of the Passover meal, a tradition they had been doing since it was instated by the Lord in Exodus 12. If they entered the house of a Gentile (non-Jew), they would be ceremonially unclean according to their understanding of the law, and would be unable to eat the Passover.

The first Passover was while the Israelites (the Jews) were slaves in Egypt (a very long time before Jesus came around). The Lord had sent nine different plagues upon Egypt, so that the Pharaoh would release the Lord’s chosen people, the Israelites. After each plague, Pharaoh’s heart was only hardened further. The Lord commanded the Passover as preparation for the final plague.

Each household was to select a lamb, a year-old male without defect, and slaughter it at twilight. They were to take the blood from the lamb, and spread it over the sides and top of their doorframes, and after that, they were to roast the lamb and eat it. All of it, along with herbs and unleavened bread, in haste, and eat unleavened bread and no yeast for seven days.

At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, from Pharaoh’s firstborn to the livestock’s firstborn. However, the firstborn of the houses of the Israelites, which had blood on their doorframes, were spared. Seeing this, Pharaoh finally broke and sent the Israelites out of Egypt.

And the Lord commanded them to celebrate the Passover every year, as a reminder of how He had taken them out of Egypt.

It was this celebration that the Jews wanted to partake in, so they did not enter the house of Pilate, the Roman governor when they brought Jesus to Him. Interestingly enough, they didn’t care about whether Jesus (also a Jew) was unclean or not. However, there is something more that is terribly ironic about this.

As described in Matthew 26:17-30, earlier in the evening of His arrest, Jesus had eaten the first meal of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Verse 18 says:

He replied, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.’

Jesus was preparing to celebrate the Passover. At this time, key parts of the Passover meal were the bread and the wine.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Jesus was explaining what He was about to undergo- His death by crucifixion- and why it was necessary. He was about to be killed for the sins of the world.

As I just said, Jesus was preparing to celebrate the Passover. He was preparing to be the blameless lamb slaughtered at twilight.

And much as the blood of that first Passover lamb covered the door frame and protected the homes of the Israelites (who were now killing Him), the blood of Jesus would cover the sins of the world, and protect it from God’s wrath against sin.

Jesus was the true Passover, and the Jews were rejecting Him, and keeping themselves from becoming ceremonially unclean. Ironically enough, Jesus, through His blood, was the only one who could make them truly clean.

Now, what about you? Are you an Egyptian, or one of those in the mob killing Jesus? Are you rejecting Him, even though He’s the only way you can achieve what you really want and need? Or do you want to be the Israelites, and have your sins be covered by the blood of Jesus?

He died for you, and His blood is there. Do you cover your doorframe with it?

Sense in a Senseless World

On my post on Approaching Atheists, Ubiquitous Che commented how my post could be reread in Steve Irwin’s voice, like the Crocodile Hunter was explaining how to approach a dangerous animal. What’s funny is this exact same thought occurred to me as I was writing it.

I went over and visited his blog (Che’s, not Steve Irwin’s), rhetoric sans pareil, where I can across a recent post of his. In it, he talks about the Brights movement.

I’ve heard about the Brights movement before, but only as a typical reactionary “They’re trying to make theists sound dim!” What it actually is, if I understand it right, is a simple attempt to promote understanding of the naturalistic worldview. In his post, Che says he will now more promote the positive points of naturalism, which he calls “beautiful and fulfilling,” instead of attacking differing worldviews.

(By the way, the Brights movement says the opposite of “Bright” isn’t “Dim”; it’s “Super,” because Supers believe in the supernatural. While it still sounds like they’re labeling atheism as something for smart people, anything that makes me feel closer to flying around and shooting lasers out of my eyes earns a point in my book.)

Ironically, this sounds suspiciously like a main way of evangelizing Christianity, summarized in a quote from Madeleine L’Engle (that was used in the Approaching Atheists series):

We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.

My reaction to this? I actually view this as good news. Many of the atheists I’ve come in contact with have been completely focused on attacking theism- even to the point of simply mocking it while making no attempt to understand it. It’s nice to see them acknowledging that they won’t win people by simply attacking their worldview alone.

Moreover, I can understand how someone could be content, or even happy with a naturalistic worldview. Were it not for my belief that Christianity is the most rationally justified worldview, I might even be a Bright myself. Except for one thing…

It might be easy to be a Bright when life is good. When the sun is shining and everything is going right, the idea that God might not really exist is trivial- you are happy without God, so why do you need Him? He is only irrelevant clutter, and your worldview is better of without Him.

However, life is not always good. This is a fallen world, and bad, senseless things do happen. Things happen in life that make us question our sanity and whether we have any shred of meaning in the cruel, cold universe.

Times will come when you will wonder if, as Shakespeare wrote, it is “nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die: to sleep.” But then you will come to the concept of death, and no matter how you rebrand it, as “peace” or “rest,” you will still have to come to the acknowledgment that, under the naturalistic worldview, death means an ending of your person- you will cease to exist.

Not only that, but this ending, this quick disintegration into nothingness, could happen anytime. It could come very suddenly- you could die tomorrow, or even today, or in fifty or sixty years. But one thing is for sure: death is certain; you will die.

And when life turns dark, and when death stares you right in the face, advancing on you or someone you love, there will be no order, no sense, no meaning. No comfort will be gleaned from the heavens, for even the stars themselves must die. The entire cold universe will eventually fade and end, and everything you did while on this tiny blue spec, all the pain you suffered, will be meaningless.

So if you are happy being a Bright, that’s fine, stay that way. I hesitate to say this, because it’s not really true; the message of the gospel is a message of urgency, for we do not know when we will die. However, I acknowledge that you may not be ready to accept the gospel yet. My job is to plant or water the seed. Only God can make it grow.

But please understand this:

You may not think you need God now. That is fine. But there will come a time when you will need Him. For your sake, please do not turn away from Him then. He’s not your enemy, someone you have to fight to the end. He’s your father, and He wants to comfort you. When the dark times come in your life, remember Him.

Many have turned to atheism when they look at the suffering and say “There is no God.” I believe many more look and say “God is our only hope.” Atheists often accuse theists of clinging to God because they are scared. Perhaps we just understand the implications better.

Approaching Atheists

Jason at The Cynical Christian is running a series, with Jennifer F. of “Et tu?” – the diary of a former atheist called “Approaching Atheists.” In it they discuss how Christians should interact with atheists. You can browse the whole series by checking out the posts labeled “approaching atheists”. I particularly thought the most recent two posts (as of now) were beneficial to read: the Top 9 Don’ts and Dos for Talking With Atheists.

Definitely check out the series. This is a very important issue for modern Christians in this society, as atheism is on the rise. We need to know how to talk with atheists, how to understand their position, and ultimately how to win some of them over.

Sadly, I think many times in interactions between Christians and atheists, the Christians end up doing more harm than good. Three don’ts for talking with atheists particularly jumped out at me as things I see a lot and that cause major problems: “Quote the Bible,” “Use a lot of Christian catchphrases,” and “Devalue the importance of science and logic.”

Often when talking with atheists, people quote the Bible. Although this is generally done with good intentions, and there is definitely a time and place to use the Bible, at least understand that an atheist does not believe in the Bible. As the article on Don’ts points out, quoting the Bible to an atheist would cause the atheist to feel like you would if your doctor used a Harry Potter book as his source of medical information.

Additionally, quoting the Bible without any sort of justification other than “it must be true because the Bible says it” to an atheist will only reaffirm his or her probable belief that all Christians are merely mindless sheep devoid of logic who couldn’t spot a circular argument if it bit them on the nose. Christians don’t need to be illogical to truly believe in their faith. We know that. We need to show the atheists that.

The next don’t I mentioned was the use of a lot of Christian catchphrases. If, right off the bat without much of an explanation, we tell an atheist to “Open your heart to Jesus, who died on the cross for you, and be washed in the waters of baptism, for the forgiveness of your sins that are covered with the blood of Chist and so that you may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who will dwell in you,” chances are he or she will shut down right away. Although we know what these phrases mean, someone unversed in Christian theology will only hear religious mumbo-jumbo that will probably reinforce the belief that theists are illogical.

Finally, and importantly, many times Christians devalue the importance of science and logic while they talk with atheists. As the series points out, to many atheists, science and logic are the pinnacles of existence, as they are “what separates us from animals.” Science and logic have their uses, and to simply deny them will cause the atheist to close you out very fast. This isn’t to say that there is a place for pure faith, but it’s hard to convert someone on “blind faith” (although this isn’t to say that it can’t be done).

Also, keep in mind that science and logic are works of God. To refuse to give them the respect they deserve would be to dishonor a facet of God’s great creation.

One other thing to note is that, although atheism is increasing in our society, outright atheism is still in the minority. Far more common, however, are nonreligious people who act very much as if they don’t believe in God, and probably rarely think on the issue. For the most part, we should use these guidelines for talking with these people too, at least until we get to know them better.

In an increasingly secular society, it is very important we know how to interact with atheists, so we may sow good seeds among the still-white fields.

The End of the Story

I’ve recently been thinking about worry and stress. Certainly in today’s world we seem to find much to stress about.

It’s important to remember that, even Jesus, during his time here on Earth, underwent stress, as described in Luke 22:39-46:

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Jesus was preparing to undergo something that I will venture to guess that none of us will ever have to go through- the very violent death that was crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. Also, not only was He preparing for earthly torture, but also for the spiritual burden of taking on the monstrous expanse of the sins of humanity. He certainly had a little to be stressed about.

Compared to the trials of Jesus, our present worries seem to lack significance. However, we should still follow Jesus’s example of responding to stress.

And what did He do? He prayed, not that God save Him from death, no matter the cost, but instead “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” He commended Himself totally to God.

He also instructed his disciples to pray that they not fall into temptation. They too were very stressed (they were “exhausted from sorrow”), and Jesus needed them to be strong for the trials that were soon coming.

What happened after Jesus prayed for God’s will to be done? Did things get instantly better? On the contrary, things got very bad very fast. While He was still speaking, a mob came up and seized Him, and while He was taken away, Peter, one of His foremost disciples, denied ever having anything to do with Jesus. Jesus was then mocked and beaten by guards, given a sham trial, brutally flogged, taunted by a vicious crowd, and ultimately crucified.

If we end the story there, we have a pretty bleak picture. After praying for God’s will to be done, what is arguably the very worst thing that could of happened did. If we stopped there, we could glean very little comfort out of knowing that God is in control of everything.

However, the story does not end there. After all these disastrous events took place, people then thought the story was over too. It was far from it, though. After lying dead in the tomb for three days, Jesus Christ rose to life, and with His resurrection He triumphed over His enemies and brought the central event in the ultimate plan of God. If an observer had turned away at any point before this, he would only know of the dark happenings and never learn of the glorious finale.

We need to remember this in our lives. No matter what stresses we’re going through, no matter what worries plague us, no matter what seemingly endless trials we’re being subjected to, we need to understand that, beyond our present troubles, is something so wonderful, so amazing, that the moment we finally catch sight of it, all our stresses, all our worries, will vanish in an instant.

And I know this comfort is dulled in the middle of stress and worries. When undergoing trials, our sight is blinded to the end, and the thought of “this won’t matter in the future” is little help in surviving the present. However, we still need to pray for God’s will to be done.

Remember, God isn’t some uninvolved king ruling from a vast distance. Jesus came down to earth, and He knows what it is like to be overwhelmed by stress. He sweated blood, and was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He knows exactly what we’re going through, and He wants to help. As the famous hymn goes, what a friend we have in Jesus.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal

All the stresses, all the worries, all the trials we go through on this earth, no matter how big, and no matter how small, are temporary. They are simply light and momentary troubles.

Remember that our story does not end with them, but with an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Christian

I was talking with someone about a conversation she had with a friend of hers. I don’t remember the details, but it involved the use of the word “Christian.” The person I was talking to said how she had a “Christian” upbringing. This offended her friend, as she felt that her own upbringing was being called “not Christian.” Her friend also talked about how she was offended when the person I was talking to talked about how her children had “Christian friends.” Her friend seemed to think this implied that Christian friends were better.

Her friend felt like her upbringing was “Christian” too. She wanted to be called a “Christian.” When asked if she believed in Christ, she said no, but didn’t think that made a difference.

This (of course) got me thinking about the word “Christian.” In modern society, the word “Christian” has started to become trivialized. In his book Mere Christianity (a very good book, by the way), C. S. Lewis talks about this problem of abuse of the English language. You can read the passage here.

Lewis compares the word “Christian” to the world “gentleman.” He talks of how “gentleman” used to mean something simple- one who had a coat of arms and property. However, the meaning has changed, from the actual definition of the word, to instead describe the qualities a gentleman should have. This is a very important idea.

The first time a group of disciples were called “Christians” is chronicled in Acts 11. The second half of the chapter describes the church in Antioch. The text of Acts 11:19-26 reads:

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

The transliterated Greek word for “Christian” used here is “Christianos,” which literally means “a follower of the Anointed [that is, Christ].” Looking at the above passage, we can determine several qualities that the Christians at Antioch possessed.

First of all, the message at Antioch was preached to both Jews and Gentiles. We read that the Lord was with them, and many “turned to the Lord.” Perhaps more importantly, Barnabas there saw “evidence of the grace of God.” They were also “true to the Lord with all their hearts.”

So, according to the passage, I would venture to say that, for one to be considered a Christian in the true sense (as opposed to whatever the whims of culture consider it) he or she must be a believer and follower of God (being the true God), be true to Him with all his or her heart, and have His grace for the times when they fall. Therefore, unless another way has been found to earn the grace of God besides through the death of Jesus (or a way has been found to live a perfect life that is free of sin), the only way to be a Christian is to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

One final thing: why are people in secular society so anxious to earn this title of “Christian”? Why would people want to be considered Christian if they do not follow Jesus Christ?

Just like “gentleman,” people like the qualities associated with being considered “Christian.” This is actually very good. People recognize “Christian” as something good, and if you are not “Christian,” then that is something bad.

True Christians need to seize this opportunity to tell others just why being a Christian is so good. And, above all, we need to continue behaving as Christians should.