Month: April 2009

John 5:31-40

Hello everyone. The blog will be a little bit earlier tonight. The roommate and I are going out tonight due to the generosity of a friend of ours from church who is enabling us to go see a murder mystery play. Before we tackle that mystery, I shall write tonight about the mystery of the question of who the Son of Man is. We’re going through the New Testament now looking for clues of the Trinity and the self-understanding of Christ and right now, we’re in the gospel of John. Tonight, we’ll be looking at John 5:31-40.

31“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. 32There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. 33“You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

 36“I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. 37And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39You diligently study[c] the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

In the Jewish system, there was a legal requirement that a matter had to be settled by two witnesses. Thus, Jesus has made some extraordinary claims up to this point and he is going to be making his defense. Let’s keep that in mind. He wasn’t making self-abasing claims for which he would not need to call forth witnesses really. Witnesses would be called for extraordinary claims. Jesus has spoken much about himself, but why should the unbelieving audience take his words as is?

The first one is John the Baptist. Jesus says that the Baptist pointed to him but then says “Not that I accept human testimony.” This would indeed have to be a grandiose claim. Jesus is setting himself up in some way above humanity. Of course, he was fully human but he was not merely human.

He then points to the Father as testifying through the works that Jesus was doing. The miracles were not done just to attract a crowd. The miracles were done to point to the nature of the kingdom. He then says that the Father has testified of him and tells the Jews that they have never heard his voice or seen his form.

Implication? Christ has.

Do we really stop when we read the gospels to consider the claims that Christ is making and how unique they are? We’ve become so familiar with them that the story is just a story. Instead, it is the greatest story of all and should hold us in wonder. Consider what the incarnation means. God the Son, who needed nothing, knew no suffering, and already had an existence of complete joy, took on the human nature that you live with, though not with its sinfulness of course. He entered a world of suffering and pain and death and took upon himself the worst of it. Why? It cannot be need. It can only be want. John 3:16 does say it best. It’s because he loved the world.

Shame on us for not being in awe.

Yet there is another way the Father has spoken and that is in Scripture. Jesus tells them that they are diligently studying them for they think that by them, they have eternal life, yet the Scriptures testify of Christ and they do not come to him for eternal life.

Let’s consider this.

First off, Jesus is saying that the Bible talks about him. Again, either this claim is true or it’s totally false and Jesus would either be the ultimate deceiver or on a major ego-trip. Second, he claims to be the one who can give eternal life. He is greater than the Scriptures. Coming to them cannot give eternal life. Coming to him can.

Tomorrow, we shall close out this chapter.

John 5:24-30

Hello everyone. We’re back on discussing the Trinity again. It’s quite appropriate for now as I spent the early afternoon today with a wonderful pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses and got to speak to them about who Jesus is according to the Bible. Wonderful time. Speaking about the Trinity just fills me with the awe of worship and the wonder that Jesus came and did what he did. The Word became flesh. Those are truly words that should leave us in awe once we believe them

Today, as you can see from the blog title, we will be looking at John 5:24-30. Here is the text.

24“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 25I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

 28“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

For some of you who might be thinking eschatology will be a big discussion on this one, no. I don’t do that here at Deeper Waters. I do have my own eschatological viewpoint, but this blog is about mere Christianity and about the viewpoints that we hold in common and not the ones we differ on.

To begin with, Jesus is basing your eternal destiny on his words. If you hear his words and believe in them, you will not be condemned. You will instead have eternal life. In fact, when the resurrection comes, it is his voice that will cause the dead to come out of their graves.

Some people see a problem with the Father granting the Son to have life in himself. Why? The Son is begotten of the Father so it fits in perfectly with a Trinitarian concept. The Son and the Father are that inter-connected and all that the Son has, he has because of the Father. Trinitarians agree with that.

The Father has also given authority to judge to the Son of Man. When the time of the last day comes, he will judge. This is quite stupendous that Christ is making such a claim. The Jews would have thought God would be the judge and here Jesus is saying that he is going to be the one who is to be the judge. You will be raised to eternal life or you will be condemned and which one it is depends on what the Son says.

Jesus also says “By myself, I can do nothing.” How is this going against the Trinity? Do Trinitarians believe that Jesus can be a rogue agent acting independently of the will of the Father? That he can go and do his own thing while the Father does something different? Not at all. This instead shows their intense unity.

When Jesus judges, it will be the will of the Father also for he will judge according to what he hears and his goal will not be to please himself but to please the Father. When we read these passages, we should see the deep relation that is shared between the Father and the Son. We might think it’s against Trinitarianism on face value, but I would suggest some who think that see what it would mean if Jesus said a point opposite to what he really said.

In truth, we have powerful evidence of the Trinity. The more one sees how Christ saw himself and his relationship to the Father, the more convinced one should be of the Trinity.

Susan Boyle: The 1:24 Critic

Yesterday, I blogged on Susan Boyle and in listening to her today on YouTube, I saw consistently remarks being made about the girl at 1:24 in the video. The term used often to describe her is one I will not use here as I prefer this to be a blog that is family-friendly. I’m sure my readers can use their imagination and realize what that term was. The girl at 1:24 can be seen here in this video of Susan Boyle’s performance on “Britain’s Got Talent” which you should see if you haven’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

The problem people have with this girl is that she was rolling her eyes at the thought of Susan being a great singer before she said anything. She had pre-judged her wrongly. Personally, I agree with that. I am not here to condone that. If something is wrong, there can be reasons why it was done but never justifying reasons why it was done. You cannot justify an evil action. God does not justify sin. He justifies sinners.

However, what sickens me about this is that I’m sure this girl is regretting the action that was done enough. There don’t need to be any reminders of that. What also sickens me is that while we sit here and condemn her for how she was acting, let’s be sure that many of us were in the exact same boat. There is a reason Susan Boyle was a surprise. No one was expecting it. This includes the judges. The judges made it clear that the audience had been internally laughing before she sang and that everyone there was against her.

This girl in the audience is just like the rest of us. We’re cynics today that are quite superficial. No one was willing to give Susan Boyle a shot for so long. Everyone had pre-judged her. Could it be that in wanting to go after the girl in the video, we’re instead really wanting to go after a scapegoat so we can excuse ourselves for having the exact same attitude?

Those of us who are Christians should be especially aware of this. How many of you all know your past sins? Do you really need to be reminded of them? Do you really want them put on display for everyone to see? This girl did something wrong and unfortunately, she happened to be the one the camera was on at the time. I seriously doubt the other people in the audience were much better. Does that excuse what she did? Again, it does not. It should make us realize that we could easily be caught under the microscope unawares and we don’t want our sins to be broadcast.

Instead of condemning this girl, which has already been done, maybe we should take some time to examine ourselves. Are we any better? Still call the sin wrong, but remember the sin is not the sinner. We don’t know this girl’s spiritual state. She could be a Christian. Let her know the forgiveness of Christ again. She might not be. Are we showing her the love of Christ?

Susan Boyle is to be honored, I agree. However, let us make sure that we are being real with how we deal with others. Are we any better?

Susan Boyle: Incredible!

I said today we could return to the topic of the Trinity unless something happened.

Well, it did.

I heard a program today talking about Susan Boyle, this lady who blew away an audience that was entirely cynical so I thought I’d go and give a lesson. Now I consider myself one with a tin ear and some of my favorite words to hear in church are “You may be seated.” Thus, I’m not expecting something. I figure I’ll listen and say “Eh. That was nice.” Then I’d go on with my day.

Well, if you’re like that, take a look and see what you think. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Something I love about this is that Susan Boyle is an underdog. Everyone I’ve shown this video to who hasn’t seen it has been entirely cynical just like the audience was. When you see it, they start rolling their eyes. It’s unbelievable it seems to think that this frumpy lady will actually have any musical talent at all.

Within 10 seconds of her singing, the tune had changed incredibly.

Soon, the mocking whistling was turned into whistling of cheers. Soon, the eyes were no longer rolling but were standing there mesmerized. Soon, the smiles were not smiles of playfully humoring Miss Boyle, but of intense delight at what was being witnessed before them.

Susan Boyle has blown a hole into the cynicism of our age. Everyone else in the world had been passing up this lady. Now I understand she sang karaoke at local bars and was singing in the church choir so her village knew about her talent, but was there any chance of her making it on a national scene? None at all. Take a look at her. You think she can do anything?

Well yes. Yes I do.

And I will confess I am quite sure I would have been just as cynical had I not known.

And I pause when I think about that to wonder what a crazy connection. Why is it I am thinking physical appearance somehow has something to do with musical talent?

How many people have we rejected? I emailed a friend of mine to tell him about this and he replied that he’d been doing Bible Studies and had just got to the passage where it talks about man looking on the outside but the Lord looks at the heart.

How many years has Susan Boyle been overlooked?

But notice what she says? She knows when she goes out onto that stage that she is going to rock that audience. At the same time, one sees a great humility in her. She is so stunned when she hears how much she is being praised and is hesitant to admit what Simon says that we all recognize, Susan Boyle is a little tiger.

I see Susan’s talent as also further evidence of objective beauty. Sorry to all you people out there who think beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, the ear. If you hear this and do not think that her singing is beautiful, you are wrong. Yes. There is truth content to statements about beauty and the audience knew it. This has been one of the most hit YouTube videos and as I was on Facebook today, I saw that she already had 89,000+ fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if by now that number is past 100,000.

Because everyone knows beauty when they see it even if they can’t define it.

Susan Boyle reminds me of the transcendent. She enables me to reach a place outside myself it seems. While I described myself as having a tin ear, I get near to teary-eyed listening to this lady sing. Something about her moves me dearly.

In calling to describe it to my mother who had seen her on some of the TV programs, she said something that I had considered. I can probably get great joy out of this lady because like many of you out there, I can relate to her.

Many of us are seen as the underdogs in this world. When I was preparing to go off to Bible College, a group was funding me for disability and was telling me to not go into ministry. I could not handle preaching. I wish they had been there when I did my senior sermon before my entire student body. Today, I am where I am not because of a disability, but in spite of it. I have worked and read and studied to be where I am.

Yet I know what it’s like to be overlooked as I worked at a job for over three years I didn’t like with people just assuming less of me when they saw me. Finally, I have a chance and I’m somewhere where my ability is being recognized. People judged by appearance alone when appearance had nothing to do with my ability. I’m suspecting my story can be quite similar to many of your stories.

For all of us who go on in spite of the opposition reaching for our dreams, Susan Boyle is an inspiration. I thank God that there are women out there like that who reach for their dreams and inspire the rest of us to do so.

Susan Boyle. I don’t know if you’ll ever read this. I’d be honored if you did. Let me say this to you. May God richly bless you in your continuing career. You have been a voice for many of us as well in our own paths. Since you sing at church, I assume you’re a Christian, and I wonder what it will be like after this life to get to hear that beautiful voice of yours in the heavenlies. We may not be able to hear that yet, but you can rest assured your performance on “Britain’s Got Talent” brought some of Heaven to us.

After The Tea Party

I’m one of those many Americans who went to a tea party today. If you did, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did mine. Today has been an interesting day as a result. I found myself in places I normally wouldn’t be and got home to find a final post in a debate I’m in with the debater making a slanderous remark about autists. Many of you will know about the blog I did on Obama, Socialism, and my story. I do not take such lightly so I wish to let you know I am quite livid about this tonight. Am I personally offended? Not really. I am offended on behalf of all those out there like myself and some who are unable to defend themselves. 

Which is one reason I decided to forego the usual blog tonight, which is what we will be returning to very soon. I say that instead of tomorrow because anything could come up. I doubt it, but it could. Tonight, I’d like to post on my thoughts after the Tea Party. As I do, I don’t want it to be a political blog really. I’d like to tie this in with the church today. 

It was quite exciting to see so many people come out in support of a cause. The numbers were tremendous and it would be great to get a full count. All of these people are coming out because they don’t like what’s happening in their government. In one day, numerous tea parties showed up all over America.

I’m not against that. I think a grassroots movement is wonderful. I think it’s excellent that people are taking their own time, such as my taking my own PTO from work, to come to these parties and let their voices be heard. 

I think it’s so wonderful I ponder “Why isn’t the church doing anything like this?”

Wouldn’t it be great to see the church one day also organizing all across America at rallies speaking out against the evils we see in culture? Let our voices be known about the homosexual movement. Let them be known about the abortion movement. Let them be known about the removal of prayer from schools. Let them be known about the way we are treated in the mainstream media.

If bad politics gets us angry, and it should, we should be all the more angry at the sin that is destroying our culture. Just last night I had a conversation with a good friend of mine who I believe is allowing the poison of relativism to creep in. The main position I saw presented last night was that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a shame so many Christians are buying into that and maybe after this Trinity series we will see some blogs devoted to that topic.

We Christians tend to talk a lot about changing society as well. The only problem is we rarely seem to do anything. Strangers all across various cities came together and united because they didn’t like the politics going on. One of our speakers I believe got it right. It’s a moral problem at the start. That’s something the church needs to address. 

The church is called to be salt and light in the world. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a requirement from Christ. Spreading the gospel is not an option. It is a command. If we can unite across the country for a political cause, surely we can do so for a Christian cause.

John 5:19-23

As I write this, I am pondering the great need for Christian thinking today. I’m in a debate with a friend right now who is trying to convince me that beauty is an example of relative truth. Frankly, this is the kind of thing that terrifies and saddens me both. It is a form of relativism that is poisoning our society and reminds me that we need to get back to good Christian thinking.

That’s one of the reasons for this long series I’ve been doing. One aspect of thinking Christian is the proper thinking about God and Christianity is unique among the religions of the world in the teaching of the doctrine of the Trinity. Right now, we’re studying it in the gospel of John. Follow along in your Bibles in chapter 5.

19Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 21For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.22Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

A lot of people would look at the first verse and think that this is a verse that disproves the deity of Christ. It’s quite the opposite! It’s a very strong verse for who Jesus is. The Son does not do anything of himself, but rather he does what the Father does. The two are consistently acting in joint unison. Can we imagine how it would be also if Jesus were to say “The Son does what he does by himself and he doesn’t need the Father for anything!” If that were the case, we’d have a totally different system of thought going on. 

The Father also shows the Son all he does, which would point to a pre-existence of the Son and an eternal one at that. The Son has been there to see all that the Father is doing and the Father is in an intimate relationship with the Son in that he truly reveals himself to the Son, which is the kind of relationship hinted at in John 1:18.

Verse 21 gives the power to raise the dead to the Son and to give life to whoever he wants. The power of giving life which was seen to be in the hands of God in the OT is also seen to be in the hands of the Son in the NT.

The other action attributed to God in the OT that is given to the Son also is judging. Jesus claims though that the Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son. Either Jesus is fully deity or else he is the hugest egomaniac ever usurping the rights of God and claiming them for himself.

The last point is that the goal is that all will honor the Son as they honor the Father. I remember presenting this to a Jehovah’s Witness once in an online conversation who immediately realized that he had a problem. Lest you think I’m putting words in his mouth, he told me that he was having a problem. I don’t know anyone who denies the deity of Christ who can follow this verse.

It’s also again either a most egotistical statement or a great truth. Jesus is claiming to be honored as God is. It is statements like these that make me realize that we do not often realize what Jesus said. Ben Witherington once said that he’s not surprised that Jesus was crucified after three years of ministry. He’s surprised he wasn’t crucified earlier!

Surprising indeed.

John 5:16-18

Easter has come and gone, but I hope you all will remember throughout the year that Christ is risen. If we have new readers that are staying with us after this weekend through hearing about us at Slipstream, welcome aboard. Right now, we’ve been going through the Bible for clues to understanding the doctrine of the Trinity. Right now, we’re in the New Testament and in the gospel of John.

In John 5, a miracle takes place in that Christ heals a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and was waiting by a pool for a healing. Jesus tells him to take up his mat and walk. This gets him into some trouble with the religious leaders of the day as the day the man was healed was a Sabbath. It was forbidden to carry a mat on the Sabbath as that would count as carrying a weight. Before too long, the authorities find out Jesus had told him to do such so now they come to challenge him. Let’s see the first part of what is said in John 5:16-18.

16So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus did not deny that he was “working” on the Sabbath. However, in response to the Jews, he claimed that his Father was always working on the Sabbath and that he was working too. To the Jewish mind at the time, this was tantamount to claiming to be deity.

It’s important when we realize this to also realize that while in a modern American culture, the way to claim to be God would be to step out and say “I’m God.” That wasn’t the way that Jesus would say it in an honor-shame culture. We often have this mindest that if Jesus did not come out and explicitly claim deity by our understanding, then he never did. Jesus did explicitly claim deity, but it was most often done by Jewish understanding and not ours.

Where did they get this idea that he was claiming deity? Jesus said his Father was always working. Who would it be that was working on the Sabbath? It would be God, as he is at work in providence sustaining the creation. Just as God is at work, Jesus claims that he is also at work. In essence, Jesus is claiming to be a co-laborer right alongside God.

Note that it was in stating his relationship to God that he was making himself out to be God. He never corrects the Jews on this in this whole exchange either. He never states something along the lines of “You are misunderstanding me.” Instead, he keeps going.

This dialogue has a lot in it and so we will spend quite a bit of time on it. Tonight, we will leave it at the point that Jesus sees himself as working alongside God and is justified in working as God is always working. Also, Jesus sees himself in a unique relationship to the Father that points to his unique status.

He Is Risen!

I hope everyone has had a blessed Easter and I hope we’re still getting readers that have joined in from the suggestion of Slipstream. That’s a ministry broadcast out of the U.K.. A link to their ministry can be found on the right side of this page. A number of other Christians have been following through with blogs on the resurrection. A list of them can be found on the blog from the Thursday before this blog.

Today, we talk about the resurrection.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Slipstream invites all readers to go to their website to hear Gary Habermas give a talk on the resurrection. I encourage that as well and recommend his excellent website of www.GaryHabermas.com. For an excellent book on the topic, get the book he co-authored with Mike Licona called “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus.” The book also comes with a game where you can quiz yourself on the material that you’ve read to see how much you’ve learned. 

The case for the resurrection today is focusing on the facts of the empty tomb and the resurrection appearances, both of which are attested to in the creed in 1 Cor. 15:3-8. Now some may say the empty tomb is not mentioned explicitly, yet to say that Jesus was buried and that he rose again would in the mind of a Jew imply an empty tomb. There was no concept of Jesus resurrecting and a body still being in that tomb.

The appearances point to the fact that the disciples claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ. Paul mentions that there were 500 who say him at one time. He’s practically telling the people that they can go and ask for themselves. The witnesses were there. The story would be well-known especially since this was an early Christian creed. It would be known who these witnesses were.

The appearance to Paul is quite important in that Paul was one who was a skeptic and went on to die for his faith. There is no reason why Paul would embrace a faith he sought to persecute unless he believed it was true for some reason and a stron g way he would have come about that conclusion is by having an appearance of Christ to him. Some attempts to explain away the conversion of Paul are quite hysterical, particularly one like Dan Barker who says that Paul might have been struck by lightning. 

The most noted attempt to explain the appearances is hallucination. Hallucination doesn’t work though as first off, they don’t explain the empty tomb. Second, people have to be in a suspectible state of mind to have hallucinations. The apostles were not. Third is the problem that if hallucinations had taken place, they would have been in Jesus in Abraham’s bosom or something like that. They would not have been hallucinations of a resurrection. Fourth is the problem of group hallucinations. That all of these people would hallucinate the same thing is extremely unlikely. 

Another case can be made based on who it was. The argument for the resurrection of Christ fits in with biblical prophecy and the claims of who Jesus was and one can build a whole doctrine of atonement around the resurrection. It is the missing piece that fills in the gaps in the puzzle.

This is why N.T. Wright believes the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most likely explanation for all that followed and this can be seen in his work “The Resurrection of the Son of God.” If you want your PH.D. in the study of the resurrection, you need to go with that one. 

There’s something else about this creed in 1 Cor. 15. It can be dated to within one year of the events. This is a gold mine in ancient history. In that kind of study, we consider ourselves fortunate if we have an account just 100 years after the events took place. 

A lot of my readers are already Christians and I’ve pointed to the work of others for a lot of this as a single blog cannot go into all of this. Perchance later on I might do a series on the resurrection. I’d be amiss to not end this with the application of the resurrection truth.

I do not tend to be an emotional person. I would like to tell you that my life is filled with passion for Christ, but I would not say it is. A friend of mine pointed out to me recently that that’s not what really matters. What matters is how you act and not how you feel. There’s a lot of truth to that and we’ve easily confused the two.

There were times today though that I really did stop to think, “Yes. He is risen.” There are times I think that we have sadly heard the story so much all of our lives that the grandeur of it has not sunk in. Imagine if you lived right next door to a beautiful cathedral and you could walk outside and see it any time. You might be at a disadvantage compared to a tourist who can only see it when they travel a great distance and then feel blessed to be there.

I think we do that with the resurrection also. We’ve got so familiar with it that it doesn’t stun us as it should. We can hear about the resurrection but does it really sink in? As I ponder this, I think this is the problem a lot of marriages go through. Too many people in them don’t stop to remember the joy of their honeymoon and take for granted that they’ve got the other person. They seem to lose sight of the wonder that this person really is in their lives.

The resurrection should be something that stuns us. We must remember that death is a defeated foe. We do not say good-bye to loved ones in the Lord. We say “Until we meet again.” It’s only a temporary separation. It is not eternal.

It also doesn’t stop from us. Resurrection is not just of us. It’s resurrection cosmos. C.S. Lewis showed this well in the Chronicles of Narnia. When a deeper magic takes effect, even death itself will work backwards. We are not going to Eden though. We are bypassing Eden. We are getting something that will make Eden look paltry. 

The resurrection is good news. It is because of that that I believe we have hope in this world.

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

That Saturday

Some of us have been working with the ministry of Slipstream this weekend. You can find a link to Slipstream on the side of my blog and you can find a list of fellow blogs participating on the blog post I made Thursday. Last night, I blogged on the crucifixion and how we call it “Good Friday.” Tonight, I’d like for us to think a bit about what that Saturday with Jesus in the tomb must have been like.

There are all these apostles and they had believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Their dreams had just been dashed to the ground. They may not have known much about the Messiah, but they surely knew that a Messiah would not be crucified. To be crucified was to be under the curse of God. Jesus had been making some unique claims. It would seem that those claims were false due to the treatment that he had.

But now they must be on the run somehow. It was bad enough that their Messiah had been crucified. They were the ones who had followed him. If the priests were looking for others who would be a threat after the movement Jesus had started in his 33 years, the apostles would have been next on the list.

They had left everything to follow him, so what did they have? Pretty much nothing. They would have been shamed by all their family and friends for being duped by a false Messiah. Not only that, all their hopes and dreams of Israel being freed from Roman power were gone as well. Their great light had died. He had spoken so well and worked so many miracles, that it would be a wonder to know exactly what was going on in their minds on that Sabbath Saturday.

Let’s not forget the women also. The women had been the financial contributors often of the ministry of Jesus and had been there for him. They were followers in many ways just as the men were, which was quite revolutionary in the time of Christ. Jesus had treated them the way no teacher ever had.

Yet they had watched him on the cross. They had seen his skin ripped off of him. His internal organs would have been exposed. They had seen him as the nails were driven into his wrists and his feet. They had watched him die on that cross. They had been there when he was buried. They were watching and seeing the stone be sealed shut on that tomb.

And seeing it be sealed shut on their hopes of him being the Messiah. The stone was as strong a “no” as you could possibly want.

What were they doing that day? It was a day of rest, so they wouldn’t be doing much. Where the apostles looking out the windows constantly behind locked doors wondering if Caiaphas would be coming by soon seeking to put to death the followers? Were the women being scolded by their husbands for being duped by a charlatan and giving so much of the money they had to him? 

What about the leading Jews on the Sanhedrin? Were they celebrating their victory? They had managed to not only put to death that wicked deceiver, but they had done so with the help of the crowd. Truly, they had been the saviors of Israel. Because of the action of crucifying a blasphemer, they had avoided bringing God’s judgment on their nation. Their future ancestors would look back and be thankful.

What about Pilate? He had heard and seen a number of things? There’s a legend that there’s a lake where one can see the spirit of Pilate still trying to wash his hands of the crime he committed. What was he thinking? Had he sold himself out to the Jews? What about his wife? She had told him to do nothing to that righteous man. What if he was a righteous man? What if he had put to death a righteous man?

We don’t know about that day. Nothing was written, but it is something worth speculating about. When we think of how dark that day must have been, we can see how wonderful things were when that day was reversed.

And that is our topic for tomorrow.

Good Friday

Good. What does the word mean? The word good in Aristotle referred to that which is desirable for its own sake. Ultimately, the true good for himw as happiness. We Christians locate that goodness in God. We have things that we consider good by their nature, but that is because they possess being and insofar as they are, they are good. For actions and events, we have a different criteria. For some reason, we call this day “Good Friday.”

Have you ever wondered about it?

Do we see Mormons celebrating the day that Joseph Smith was killed? Do we see Jews celebrating the day that Moses died? Do we see Muslims celebrating the day that Muhammad died? Do we see Buddhists celebrating the day that the Buddha died?

Yet we choose the day that our Lord died, and of course I know that he rose again, and we call that good. There is a lot in that statement. Tonight, let’s look at that.

I wish to remind everyone about Slipstream ministries, which can be found in the links section at the right, whose request on their podcast is responsible for my writing this series this Easter weekend instead of the usual Trinitarian study. It seems Deeper Waters has had more hits than usual and if you came from Slipstream or another blog that is doing this event, welcome aboard. I hope you enjoy what you read and I hope that you will stick around afterwards. Unless noted in advance, Deeper Waters will bring you a new blog every evening.

Good. Let us make it clear. I do not believe we are saying the death of the innocent Son of God in itself was good. It was a sinful act done by wicked men and as such it was not good. Does that mean it was not used for good? Of course it was! That’s the glory of God. He takes what is even meant to be used against him and uses it for his own glory.

What is good is that the ultimate act of evil really brought about the ultimate good. We have been blogging lately on the Trinity and I would like those of us who have been thinking Trinitarian to consider the way that we look at the cross in light of the claims of Christ. Either Jesus was claiming to be God and was not and considering the level at which he made the claims, it was then the most righteous act that could be done putting to death the most wicked blasphemer of all, or he was who he said he was, and then it was the most wicked act that could ever be done putting to death the only righteous one who ever lived.

No one leaves the cross neutral.

Why is this called Good Friday? It is because of the good that came out of it. It was the greatest good. God’s plan worked. He did it at the greatest cost possible. He did not use a created being, a mere tool to bring about man’s redemption, but rather he gave his only Son. 

In the Brothers Karamazov, the skeptic Ivan asks his brother, the religious one, Alexei, a question. If he could build a perfect world but know that in order to do that, he would have to make one innocent person suffer the worst pain possible, would he do such?

Apparently, God would and did, and he made it so it wasn’t one of us, but the Son took it on instead.

Look at the cross. It should have been you. It should have been me. This is one reason I’m hesitant to condemn my brother for his sins. I will condemn the sins, but even so, I will not do so with glee. My brother needs my encouragement to not walk that way again. I deserve the cross just as he does. 

Good Friday reminds us that God is in control. The crucifixion was not an accident. God knew it from all eternity. How does this work? I will not even claim to know. Eternity is such a mind-boggling concept, but I believe that that is true based on my philosophical ponderings and my exegesis of Scripture.

If God is in control, that also means redemption is not an accident. We are not a mere afterthought. We have always been there. I consider it a very orthodox statement that if God ceased to think about you, he would cease to exist as God. God knows all things at all times. That includes you. If he lost thought of you, then he would be temporal. Maybe an OVT can accept that. I cannot.

The main area that needs to be covered is how the followers of Christ handled this event when it happened. How would they have seen it? That will be our topic tomorrow.