Jesus as revolutionary
I was reading in the book of Luke the other morning, bleary eyed as a certain someone who is about knee high woke me up early...perhaps this is why i am confused by the scripture passage, but I will post my wondering in hopes it may spark some discussion...
There is an obscure passage in Luke 22:35-38 which got my fuzzy brain wondering if coffee perhaps would aid in discovering what it meant. For the sake of discussion i will quote the verses below (from the New Living translation):
"Then Jesus asked them: 'When I sent you out to preach the Good News and you did not have money, a traveler's bag, or extra clothing, did you lack anything?'
'No' they replied.
'But now,' he said, 'take your money and traveler;s bag. And if you don't have a sword, sell your clothes and buy one! For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: 'He was counted among those who were rebels' Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.'
'Lord' they replied, ;we have two swords among us.'
'That's enough' He said."
This hit me rather strange. Here we have Christ telling his disciples 1) to bring their gear and money from now on on their journeys, and 2) to buy some swords.
Now, is he just saying this to, as he states, fulfill the prophecy that he would be considered a rebel or a revolutionary? I have no idea. This is perplexing. I have never heard this verse referred to...I have heard the converse, the idea that we are to go out without anything ...but this verse seems to indicate a shift in the mission statement. And the idea of arming .... hmmmm... i am lost on that one. The only thing I come to is fulfillment of prophecy. Is there more to it than that though?
A few verses later we have the swordplay of one of the disciples with the high priests' servant (Luke 22:49-51) where he hacks off his ear. His comment is very interesting: 'Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!'
Here seems the natural follow through of Christ's instructions. The disciple pulls out one of the two swords they were told to get, and puts it to use....I have heard this verse before, but the ones previous to it really change my slant on it. It seems now that the disciple was carrying through in a way, not acting rashly...
What application does all this have? I have no idea, but I wanted to put it out there to see what the rest of you think.
j.m.
A thought to ponder...
“If you tell me Christian commitment is a kind of thing that has happened ot you once and for all like some kind of spiritual plastic surgery, I say go to, go to, you’re either pulling the wool over your own eyes or trying to pull it over mine. Every morning you should wake up in your bed and ask yourself: ‘ Can I believe it all again today?’No, better still, don’t ask it till after you’ve read The New York Times, till after you’ve studied the daily record of the world’s brokenness and corruption, which should always stand side by side with your Bible. Then ask yourself if you can believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ again for that particular day. If your answer’s always yes, then you probably don’t know what believing means. At least five times out of ten the answer should be No because No is as important as the Yes, maybe more so. The Nor is what proves you're human in case you should ever doubt it. And then if some morning the answer happens to be really Yes, it should be a Yes that’s choked with confession and tears and...great laughter”
-Frederick Buechner
The Return of Ansel Gibbs
qtd. in Soul Survivor, Yancey
standing at the dying campfire...(is there anybody out there?)
I just re-read the last post to get a bearing on where this blog last was left off.
I am seeing that a lot of what I have been exploring isn't really the important stuff. Don't get me wrong, I think examining your faith is a crucial aspect of keeping it alive. I still agree with Plato's comment that 'the unexamined life is not worth living', but as my wife so bluntly put it some time ago, the basics are there.
The basics:
the Bible as truth
Jesus as who he said he is. (like C.S. Lewis said, Jesus is not some nice guy...he's either who he said he is or he's a madman.)
Our faith and those who laid the groundwork for 'modern christianity' may have gotten major things wrong, but the essentials, I feel, are there in my life. the rest is just details. Not that they aren't important, but the crucial things are there.
I guess the challenge for all of us is to try and maintain a healthy and accurate faith journey. We can so easily be led aside by the details and be distracted by teachings and or doctrines that are a little off center.
That out of the way...
I am wondering how you all are doing. I guess that is one of the benefits of a real 'campfire' situation...you get to see everyone sitting around the fire and at least make some kind of assessment based on their appearance (or based on the fact that they are even there).
Are you here at all?
Are you interested?
Would you rather try and revive this 'virtual campfire' of a blog or just take a leak on the coals and call it a night?
Personally, I don't know where I stand on that question... All I know is that I don't have it all together. I know it would be great to have a circle of guys around to help talk through things, hear from, share with.
I know I don't want to waste my breath and time by talking/typing into the darkness when there is no one there listening.
