36. Anger

God in the Psalms No.36  – God of anger

Psa 21:9 In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.

There are some things about the Lord that make us do a double-take. Is the Lord really like this? On one hand we’re told that God is love (1 Jn 4:8), so how, we wonder can He also be a God of anger, a God of wrath who destroys people? This needs thinking about!

Let’s start with that incredible man of God, Moses: Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.” (Ex 4:14,15).   This is where looking at the context is important, for this comes near the end of a long conversation where the Lord has answered all of Moses’ questions, explained what would happen, given two miraculous signs and still Moses says, “send someone else to do it.” There is nothing more that God could say or do more than He has already done in this conversation. Moses’ response is now just selfish obtuseness and there is no excuse for it. God’s anger has been slow to come but anger is the only response to it.

So what is anger?  A Bible dictionary definition is, “a feeling of displeasure resulting from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc.” It is a natural, right and just response in certain circumstances. We so often link anger or wrath with a quick, hasty and selfish response to an offence, but with God it is the exact opposite. It is a slow, measured and concerned response of justice. It is slow (Psa 103:8) because God doesn’t just react to people, He gives a fully measured, perfect response to the situation. The anger or wrath of the Lord is not a capricious self-concerned response, but a slow concerned response. We might nod at someone’s sin and excuse or ignore it  but God knows that unrestrained sin spreads and destroys so He first speaks against it, speaks and speaks again, and then acts against it. A willful ignoring of His calls is just that, a willful ignoring! It is an act of stupid rebellion; it is pure folly. Stop and think what emotions you could express: happiness at it. Well that is obviously stupid! Neutral and unfeeling?  How can you remain unfeeling about a gross crime?  Our problem sometimes is that we simply don’t feel enough, we don’t think enough about the crime. If you were a husband and father and your house was invaded by an armed gang and you were tied up and your wife and daughter raped in front of your eyes, what would you be feeling? Happiness? Don’t be silly!  Passive neutrality? You’ve got to be joking! It will be absolute, total, hostile anger. Everything in you will be blazing against them – and rightly so!

So why do we wonder, when perfect, beautiful God who calls out and calls out and calls out and has to watch increasing (because it is increasing before He acts) stupidity, eventually expresses anger?  The answer has to be because we simply are blind to the awfulness of the stupidity. Why does God judge and destroy?  To stop the spread of destructive sin. As someone has said, the incredible thing is not that God destroys one or two individuals, but that He doesn’t destroy all of us!  That is the wonder of the Cross! It is God’s means of diverting His righteous anger over sin. Why does He ever act against sinners then?  So save the situation getting worse, to save others from the spreading destructive nature of what this person or people do.

35. Joyful Presence

God in the Psalms No.35   – God of joyful presence

Psa 21:6 Surely you have granted him eternal blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.

There are two bad attitudes expressed within the human race. The first is to deny the existence of the Lord (that’s the atheist), and the second is to attribute to Him wrong or bad attributes. It is the latter one we want to deal with here. There are many people, and this really does include Christians, who have a negative view of God. They see Him as a hard God (Lk 19:21) or a harsh God (Mal 3:13). They are contemptuous about God (Mal 1:6) by the way they live, indicating they believe He is an absent Lord, and they’re glad.

Wrong understanding of God is very common and it may be that we have such attitudes because of the things that happened to us before we came to know Him, things that harmed or hurt us, things that came from a fallen world, or things that came through our own sinful foolishness, and because of that sinful foolishness, we never (then) turned to the Lord for help. Thus we had a bad view of life and subsequently (and subconsciously) of God. We even attribute the way we think to the way we think God thinks. We are not charitable and so we cannot understand God being charitable. We are not forgiving so we find it difficult to believe that God is forgiving. We expect people to work to achieve acceptance, so we believe God wants us to work to achieve His acceptance. In all these ways, we have wrong ideas!

The truth is displayed here by David and it needs thinking about. First of all he says, Surely you have granted him eternal blessings, referring to himself. Eternal blessings? Yes, things from heaven that are unlimited in their life. If we give a Christmas present it normally has a limited life and may be broken or thrown away within months or years. The good things that God gives, do not have a ‘shelf life’, they go on and on and on and on. They are eternal because they come from an eternal God.  Because of who they were, Israel were automatically blessed as God’s covenant people (Deut 33:29 & Psa 33:12). Blessing, goodness from God, was part of the package of their relationship with the Lord. Many times in the Old and New Testaments we come across the words, “Blessed is the man who….” e.g. Psa 89:15 – “Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence”. To be blessed means to have received all the goodness of God, and that comes over in Scripture many times as we just said. Many times the Bible tells us we can receive this goodness that makes us happy, and the Psa 85 quote tells us that we will be really happy when we walk in the light of God’s presence, and that has echoes of our verse above - glad with the joy of your presence.

These verses tell us that it is a wonderful thing to be in the Lord’s presence, a joyful thing. We sometimes use C.S.Lewis’s book ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ to illustrate spiritual truths, with Aslan the Lion picturing Jesus. When three of the children first hear Aslan’s name mentioned, they each have lovely thoughts and feelings, even though they don’t know who he is yet. Lewis understood this truth we see in this verse, that actually knowing God, being in His presence, even thinking about His presence when you have a right understanding, is a most wonderfully joyful thing. Why? Because He is love, He is utterly good, and so it’s a lovely thing to be in the presence of such a Being – well it is if you have turned your heart to love and goodness and towards Him – then it will be THE most wonderful thing possible – this ‘being in His presence’!

34. Victories

God in the Psalms No.34  - God who gives victories

Psa 21:1 O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength. How great is his joy in the victories you give!

Victories are all about battles. The battle may be one football team against another, one basketball team against another, one fencer against another but in every case there is a victor and a loser after a battle. Historically, depending where we come from in the world, we can look back to days gone by of great battles in wars.  At the present time we look back to the past hundred years and, seeing two wars that engulfed the globe, hope we will never have such things again.  Yet David still lived in a time when there were those who sought to fight against him to bring him down. In the face of this he turned to the Lord and the Lord gave him victories, and it was in this he now rejoiced.

Many Christians don’t realize this dimension in their lives.  The apostle Paul spoke about this in Ephesians 6 when he started speaking about our ‘armour’.  He said, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12). Yes, this is the truth; we don’t fight a physical battle but a spiritual one. This battle is waged at two levels. First there is the obvious external battle, then there is the internal one.

The external battle is people who, under the enemy’s prompting, come against us. It may be with words, it may be with actions. Whichever it is, it comes as hostility and it’s probably because we are Christians. Hopefully we did nothing to bring it on; we were just targeted by the enemy. It happens. It’s a battle where he seeks to wear us down and bring us down.  But there will also be an inward battle going on whereby the enemy tries to make us give up, tries to get us to respond badly, tries to get us to respond using the same ungodly and unrighteous methods that he uses. If he can do that we are no longer representing Jesus. The battle on the Cross was Satan trying to get Jesus to rail out against humanity, to curse us – be he remained sinless, he had the victory!

So how does God give us victory?  When temptations come, He shows us a way out (1 Cor 10:13). Sometimes he gives us the wisdom to know how to act in the face of it, the knowledge of what to speak (Acts 7:10), but sometimes that wisdom is just simply to flee the thing (Gen 39:12). In any and every situation God’s grace is there for us (2 Cor 9:8). Grace, that thing that Paul wanted for his readers in every letter he wrote, is simply the divine ability in us to overcome, to handle the situation like Jesus, with the goodness of Jesus or the kindness or gentleness or truth or love of Jesus. These are the things we use to overcome because ours is not a physical battle but a spiritual one.

There was something else that Paul wrote in Eph 6 that is pertinent here: “put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then” (v.13,14). Do you see that? Three times he says stand. You see the truth is that we have been given a position to hold, ground to hold onto. Our role in this battle is to hold on to what we’ve been given. What is that? Sonship!  We are children of God, temples of the Holy Spirit and therefore holy people. Satan will try to get us to forget that and think and act just any unbeliever. The battle is to hold onto that, and you know what? God is working to give us the victory by His Spirit within and by sovereign acts without! Let’s rejoice in that!

33. God Answers

God in the Psalms No.33  - God who answers distress calls

Psa 20:1 May the LORD answer you when you are in distress

Imagine a little boat in a storm, surrounded by mountainous waves, the mast broken, the rudder missing, drifting in the enormity of the ocean, lost! In the heaving cabin a figure is at a small radio set, with a microphone in his hand, crying out that well-known international distress call, “May Day, May Day, is there anyone out there”. As the battery gets weaker and weaker, hope begins to falter. There is no one out there! But still the call goes out, “May Day, May Day!” And then, almost at the point of giving up, there is a crackle from the receiver and a voice answers, “Distressed vessel, we have you on our radar, we should be with you in half an hour.” Relief! We’ve been heard! Some one knows! They are coming!  Who they are doesn’t matter; they’ve heard us, they are responding to us, we’re no longer alone in this. Half an hour later an enormous ocean going tanker appears dwarfing even the mountainous waves. Rescue has come!

David knew ‘distress’, David knew times when he seemed alone, facing huge odds, in peril, desperately needing help. The second half of the above verse is interesting: “may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.” It’s possible that in this psalm he was addressing his men. They went out in the name of the Lord; they were the Lord’s people, and therefore they may assume that when they cry out in distress, the Lord will pay special attention to them. Do you remember the occasion when Jesus stayed on the hillside to pray and sent the disciples across the lake (Mt 14:23,24)? The disciples were out on the lake buffeted by the wind and the waves, going nowhere! Yet Jesus on his hillside viewing point, sees their distress and goes out to them!  They are his disciples so he keeps his eye on them and will be there for them when they need him. If we are God’s children, let’s remember that the Father is there for us; we’re His family!

Have you ever noticed this, that when we’re in distress, all you need is the Lord’s voice breaking through?  All we need is to know that He knows and when in the midst of the trial, His voice breaks through, that is enough!  To hear God’s voice and to know it is Him, is the most wonderful thing! He’s there, He knows, He’s responded! It’s all right!

But it doesn’t stop there.  David continues in the second verse: “May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.” When you’re in distress and you cry out, the Lord will answer, that’s the first bit, but He’ll also do something and send you help! At the point of distress we don’t care what help as long as it is help. At the point of distress we come to place complete reliance and trust in the Lord. However He’s going to do it, we don’t care, as long as He does it. We’ll just trust and rejoice in the help whatever it is, and however it comes. When you’re desperate you’re like that!

Later in the psalm David reiterates his trust: “Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.” (v.6). Note in this that David knows who he is. He knows he is God’s anointed one, the one chosen by God to lead. For us, as we said above, we’re to know we are God’s children, and know that because we are, our Father in heaven who watches over us, will see and hear and answer and come on our behalf. He may leave us for a bit, while we learn some things, but He will come. You have doubts about this? If you have children think back to times when there were small (perhaps they still are) and cried out in distress. Did you just stand there?  No, you responded to their distress!  So does God!

32. Fearful

God in the Psalms No.32 - God who is fearful

Psa 19:9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever.

The fear of the Lord is a strange thing. It is one of those concepts that makes people dive for cover, yet it is so common in Scripture. So often we define this fear as an awesome respect, but it’s actually stronger than just respect. It is awesome. Consider what one of the psalmists said: “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him.” (Psa 33:8). There is the basic call to fear or revere God, but it was then followed by reasons:  “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” (v.9-11)

Do you catch the awesome sense of concrete existence and purpose, God’s sovereignty in those following verses? When God speaks, things happen. When God plans, it happens!  If people try to stand against His plans, they still happen! God’s presence and plans are like a gigantic steamroller before which nothing can stand. Unless you are blind and stupid, to be confronted with this bearing down on you is awesome, fearful. When a steamroller comes, you get out the way or you’ll be crushed. That is a healthy sort of fear! It’s not that the steamroller has evil designs on you; it’s just simply that it’s so big it will crush you if you stand in front of it while it’s moving.

Having this awareness means our lives are changed. Consider some of the things Moses said to Israel in their early days of experiencing the Lord: “Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning“ Ex 20:20.  At Sinai Israel had their first encounter with the Lord and it scared the life out of them!  It’s OK, said Moses, just let this awareness, this fear, keep you from doing wrong.  Then he taught them the Law: “Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the LORD your God” Lev 25:17.  Again and again he said, this is how you are to live, with this awareness, this fear, reminding you why you are to do it.

Again he quoted the Lord: “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!” (Deut 5:28,29). God wanted to bless them and blessing  came when they were rightly related to the ‘steamroller’, and that meant following His design for them.. Indeed keeping God’s laws was the sign or expression of this awareness: “you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life” (Deut 6:2).  This awareness, this fear was expressed by lovingly serving the Lord whole heartedly: “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good” (Deut 10:12,13)

The ‘fear of the Lord’ is therefore not some abstract thing that the Lord seeks to impose on His people to subdue them. It is simply the recognition of the awesome greatness of the Lord and when we have it, it helps provoke us into living according to His design for us, so that all of His blessings come to us. How wonderful!

31. Perfect

We pick up and now continue the series on God in the Psalms

God in the Psalms No.31 – God who is Perfect

Psa 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless.

We have previously considered God who is good and God whose words are flawless, but because we so often struggle with this concept we consider it more widely with this verse now.  Why do we struggle with the idea that God is perfect? Because we often don’t understand what is going on in life and we can’t see the whole picture and so we wonder why God doesn’t turn up and do something.  Perhaps it’s also because we have had negative experiences in life, especially when we are young, and those experiences act like a stain or scar on our lives and the hurt of them distorts our thinking and makes us question God’s goodness. This questioning is not unusual.

Gideon did it: “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about” (Judges 6:13) He looked at their circumstances and concluded that God could not be with them. Abraham struggled similarly: “Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” (Gen 17:17) and this after he had previously believed and been declared righteous (Gen 15:6), and later his wife similarly struggled, “Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him…..Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” Then the LORD said to Abraham, “…..anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.“ (Gen 18:10-14).  When confronted with what seems impossible, we wonder and question, but God is perfect and when God says something He means it!

This idea of God being perfect comes out many times in Scripture: “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” (Deut 32:4) God is entirely dependable (a rock) because everything He does is utterly good. “The law of the LORD is perfect” (Psa 19:7). All of God’s decrees are perfect.  “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). Perfect here means complete, whole, lacking in nothing. Whereas we may look at our own lives or the lives of people around us and see that they lack a lot (strength, grace, wisdom, humility, love, gentleness, peace – the list goes on and on!) NOTHING is missing from God.  Think of any good characteristic and He has it.  When John wrote, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (1 Jn 4:18) the perfect love he was referring to was God.

But our verse above speaks of the way of the Lord.  The Lord’s way refers to the way God thinks, moves, acts, lives and works. It’s all about the way He expresses Himself and interacts with us. This is why this is so important. It’s not only that He himself is perfect but it’s about how He relates to us. We may not understand what is happening, either because it is too complex for us to work out, or because we can’t see the whole picture, but our call is simply to trust Him, that because He IS perfect, He is working the best for us in it. We may not be able to see that fully until we get to heaven, but for now we have to learn to accept this amazing truth. It will transform us!

39. John on Patmos

People who met Jesus : 39 :  John on Patmos

Rev 1:9,10,12,13 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet… I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me…. someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.

I never intended writing this meditation until I was doing the previous one and realised that, like Paul, John had encountered the risen and ascended Lord Jesus. Now I know that earlier in this series I covered the apostle John but never touched on this incident. This is as much a time-space historical incident as any other and is a legitimate meeting between John and Jesus. Each of these encounters has told us something about the person and something about Jesus, and this one is no exception.

Most scholars date the book of Revelation as being written by John about AD95 which makes it something like 62-65 years after the death of Jesus. John must be in his eighties or even his early nineties. As noted in the earlier meditation we consider John is the apostle who became a senior elder in the Church and probably settled in Ephesus where eventually he was arrested in a time of persecution and was exiled to the prison island of Patmos, where he stayed for possibly a couple of years before being returned to Ephesus to see out his remaining years. He is an elder statesman of the church, one who knew he was especially loved by his Lord. He isn’t going to be martyred but he surely has only a few years left on this earth before he goes to meet his Saviour in heaven.

It is a Sunday (as the Christians had now designated it the first day of the week, or the Lord’s Day). Presumably he has been praying and is caught up in the Spirit when he suddenly hears an incredibly loud voice. He turns to see who is addressing him in such a way and receives a revelation that has astounded men ever since.

There before him stands one in the form of a man who stands in the midst of seven Lampstands which are later shown to be the seven churches of Asia Minor (v.20). He holds in his hand seven stars which are shown to be the angels or leaders of those churches (v.20).  He is clearly coming as Lord of the church. He is dressed in the manner of a priest or judge of that day. In that form his characteristics are even more significant. His white hair indicates age and wisdom. His eyes penetrate and see everything.  His mouth speaks words that cut right through to the heart of the matter and destroy all opposition. His face shines with absolute purity, there is no doubt whatsoever that what this Being says will be absolutely right. We see Jesus here in a very different form from that seen in the Gospels, as the Lord of the church, one who comes on behalf of the church of God (see 1 John 2:1,2), and yet one who comes with corrective and challenging words to His church. He is Lord AND Saviour (judge and priest)!

His effect on John is similar to that which we saw in Saul – he fell at his feet as though dead. Such was His awesome presence!  He then touched John, apparently to restore him, and encouraged him with one of the Bible’s 366 “fear not’s”.  He described himself as one who exists in eternity (first and last), who is living, but was dead, and who, because he was resurrected, now lives for ever.  Without a doubt this is the risen and reigning Lord Jesus. Because of what he has done and who he is, he also has the authority to say who enters death, who enters Hades (hell) and when.  He is the supreme overseer over life and death.  He has earned that right.

Jesus comes to reassure and the way He does it is by revealing the wonder of who he is himself. Before he commissions John he reassures and strengthens him. Then he goes on to instruct John to record a) what he has seen, b) what is happening [Revelation 2 & 3] and then c) what he will be shown will happen later on [Revelation 4 onwards]. In conclusion He reveals Himself as the one who speaks as Lord over the church, and what follows in the next two chapters is His word to these churches.

So, to conclude our series, we have two very different people from the ones we have seen previously. John is an aged and revered elder who is still to be a mouthpiece for his Lord. It is almost as if he is being rewarded for his long-term faithfulness by being given this revelation. Jesus is no longer the itinerant preacher but the risen Lord and Saviour of the world. He is head over the Church and comes with words of both correction and encouragement. He comes now as a figure before whom no man will stand. Now he is awesome, now he is to be revered and worshipped. This is the Jesus who today is reigning at his Father’s right hand in heaven, before one day we will stand. This is a very different Jesus from the man who walked in Galilee. This is the Son of God as he really is. How wonderful. Worship him!

38. Saul

People who met Jesus : 38 :  Saul

Acts 9:3-7 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.

Of all of our encounters with Jesus so far, this has to be the strangest. Jesus has died, has risen and has ascended into heaven. Life on earth carries on. For a zealous young Pharisee going by the name of Saul of Tarsus, this meant cleansing Judaism of false cults, and particularly of the cult of the followers of the now-dead Jesus of Nazareth. He had recently witnessed the stoning of the heretic, Stephen (see Acts 7:58, 8:1), and had then gone on to persecute the Christians and “destroy the church” (Acts 8:3), putting Christians in prison. As part of his campaign to round up the Christians, Saul went to the high priest and obtained permission to go to Damascus and arrest and bring back any Christians he found there upsetting Judaism (Acts 9:1,2)

Thus we come to our verses today where Paul is on his journey to Damascus. He was later to testify that it was about noon (Acts 26:13). Suddenly it was as if a spotlight from heaven shone on him. Whether it was the sun breaking through the clouds on him or a supernatural light we aren’t told specifically, yet the latter is more likely for he fell to the ground. Something impacted him and all strength went from him. This is more likely than he simply knelt down for there was no reason for him to do that. Loss of physical strength is known to sometimes be a response when the powerful presence of the Lord comes.

As he lies there on the floor, he hears a voice speaking to him, asking why he was persecuting him. His response indicates that he realises that he is having some sort of heavenly encounter for he asks, “Who are you Lord?” It may sound a strange question to ask God but sometimes in the presence of the Lord you do find yourself asking questions that seem to have been inspired by Him. It enables the Lord to declare himself. He is Jesus! The one who is speaking to Saul is the risen Jesus. He has come to call this zealous but wrongly directed young man to a new calling, to become one of the greatest mouthpieces of the Church. For the moment Saul has not got a clue what the future holds. All he knows is that he is now blind (see v.9) and had to be led by the hand to reach Damascus where Jesus has made arrangements for him (see following verses).

Later on Paul, as he was to become known, spoke of his pedigree: “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” (Phil 3:5,6) yet all of this, he realised, counted for nothing. All this, he realised, did nothing for his standing before God, because he had been persecuting His Son, and now knowing the risen Lord Jesus was THE most important thing in life for Paul, indeed it was life itself.

The life that followed for this young Pharisee was indeed incredible. He wrote many letters to the local churches that he had helped establish and he travelled many miles in establishing them. He stands out in the New Testament as the most influential apostle. His writings, coming down the years of history, have transformed the church. He had insights about his lord and about his lord’s church like no other apostle. He was indeed a remarkable person and he was used by the Lord in a major way in establishing the Church.

This is all the more remarkable for the fact that he had opposed the church and seen it as a subversive force, undermining Judaism. He summed up his own experience in the light of what the early church knew of him, “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” (Gal 1:23)  Expanding on that he told them, “For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But … God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, (Gal 1:13-16)

Why doesn’t God turn all rebels around, someone might ask, and I think the answer is that He is only able to do that dependent on the heart of the individual. Paul was all out for God – but didn’t realise he was going the wrong way. Thus when he received the revelation on the Damascus road, he willingly received it – accompanied as it was by the supernatural voice and blinding experience – and went all out in the new direction. A question we might ask ourselves is, are we open to be redirected by God and will we be all out for Him as He guides?

37. Joseph of Arimathea

People who met Jesus : 37 :  Joseph of Arimathea

Jn 19:38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.

It is not easy to stand out from the crowd. In fact when you are in the minority it is often very difficult and you can face ridicule and rejection. Standing up for the truth, when everyone else is going in the opposite direction can be both difficult and even dangerous, yet that is what we are faced with when we come across the references to Joseph of Arimathea – and he only appears in a few verses.

Joseph of Arimathea, although appearing in few verses, appears in all four Gospels. Jesus has just died in the middle of the afternoon, and Matthew tells us when this occurred: “As evening approached.” (v.57a). Each of them in slightly different words, tell us what John tells us in our verse above, that he “asked Pilate for the body of Jesus,” and that Pilate gave permission for him to take it. It is Mark who tells us that, “Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.” (Mk 15:44,45) i.e. the handover had not be straight forward, for Pilate had had to check with the centurion who was overseeing the crucifixions that Jesus had actually died. It must have taken some courage for Joseph to have gone to Pilate which is why Mark records, “went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body.” (Mk 15:43). Now our reason for saying that comes from all else we find out about Joseph.

Let’s consider what the accounts tell us about Joseph. Matthew tells us that he was “a rich man from Arimathea ….. who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.” (Mt 27:57) Luke simply adds that Arimathea was a town in Judea. It is thought that it was a small town about 20 miles northwest of Jerusalem. So he’s not a Galilean; he’s a southerner. Mark tells us that Joseph was, “a prominent member of the Council.” (Mk 15:43). Luke confirms he was a member of the council, the Sanhedrin.

We have already noted that Matthew identifies him as a man who had “become a disciple of Jesus,” (Mt 27:57) as we see above John does. Both Luke and Mark describe him as a man who was “waiting for the kingdom of God” (Mk 15:43, Lk 23:51). Luke also describes him as a “good and upright man,” (Lk 23:50) and Luke also adds, in respect of the council’s decision to act against Jesus, that he “had not consented to their decision and action.” (Lk 23:51)

Thus we see that Joseph was a highly respected member of the Sanhedrin who had obviously encountered Jesus, had become a follower, and was looking for the rule of God to come, and wasn’t afraid to stand out in disagreement with the rest of the Council, and now came to perform a simple service for Jesus after he was dead.

What was that service? Matthew tells us that, “Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.”(Mt 27:58-60). Mark confirms this as does Luke. Instead of allowing the body to simply be put in a criminal’s grave, Joseph wants to give Jesus a proper burial and so uses his own new tomb that had never been used before. It is interesting that Joseph’s original home was some twenty miles away from Jerusalem but he clearly now lives in or near Jerusalem and already has a tomb carved out for his own future use, in the surrounding area.

So what have we found out about Joseph? He is wealthy, a follower of Jesus, a prominent public figure, a member of the Council, but not afraid to go against the flow and disagree with them when they determine to do something he considers wrong, and not afraid to go to Pilate for the body of one considered a criminal. What stands out in all this? He is not afraid to stand out for Jesus (even when he considers Jesus dead). He is willing to risk reputation and, perhaps, even his position on the Council. What a challenge! How many of us keep quiet when we are in the minority and someone with a large mouth is denigrating Jesus or Christians generally? I always quake at God’s words to the old priest, Eli, “Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.” (1 Sam 2:30) We have been warned!

36. Pilate

People who met Jesus : 36 :  Pilate

Jn 18:28,29 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. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

Pontius Pilate does not read well in history. He is the Roman Governor in Jerusalem and he is backed by the might of Rome. He features strongly in these closing hours of Jesus’ life. While the name of Caiaphas is mentioned only 9 times in the Gospels, Pilate’s name appears 61 times. As the Roman Governor he is the final authority in Jerusalem and although Caiaphas may be the topmost man in Judaism, while Israel is under the dominion of Rome, Pilate is the man with ultimate authority.

He enters the story when Jesus is brought to him early on the Friday morning by the senior Jews who are seeking his death, for only Pilate has the authority to bring the judgment of death. When they come to Pilate he asks, what are the charges? They reply that Jesus is a criminal (Jn 18:30) and so he tells them to go and judge him by their own laws and they object that they have no right of execution (v.31). It is then that Pilate takes Jesus inside to interrogate him and he asks him if he is the king of the Jews (v.33) Now this may appear a strange diversion except Luke tells us what led to this: “And they began to accuse him, saying, “We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king.” (Lk 23:2) In their accusations they try to bring out things that would get Pilate’s interest.

Thus the conversation with Pilate now revolves around Jesus being a king which ends in Pilate feeling that he is harmless and so for the first time he declares him innocent: “Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” (Lk 23:4) At which point they declare, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.” (Lk 23:5). This gives Pilate a way out: “On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.” (Lk 23:6,7). So, so far we have one declaration of innocence and one grabbing at a straw not to have to make a judgment.

Thus Jesus is sent to Herod who interrogates him – unsuccessfully – and sends him back to Pilate, so next we find, “Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death. Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.” (Lk 23:13-16) Note: a second declaration of innocence and a further attempt at getting Jesus off from the death penalty.

Pilate then offers the choice of Jesus or Barabbas to be released as was the custom at the Passover (Mt 27:15) but the crowds call for Barabbas to be released. This further ploy to get Jesus off has not worked. So again we find, “For the third time he spoke to them: “Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.” (Lk 23:22). Now the crowds get stirred on: “they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” (Mt 27:23) and at this point Pilate caves in: “When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” (Mt 27:24) But Pilate, you can’t do that; it IS your responsibility! You alone have the power over death in this situation; merely washing your hands doesn’t absolve you of your responsibility!

Thus it was that Jesus was then taken away to be crucified. The man with the final authority had failed to use it. At least three times he had declared Jesus innocent. Several times he had sought to avoid making a judgment against Jesus, yet at the end of the day he condemned an innocent man by appearing to opt out – but he was in no position to opt out. He was Rome’s representative in Jerusalem. He could have done what the high priests feared and used the power of his legions against them – but it was easier not to and so an innocent man was condemned. What a travesty of justice!

Pilate screams across history at us, you cannot avoid your duty, if you are in positions of power, and expect to get away with it. You will go down in history as a coward and you will be answerable to God. Public figures have many perks that go with their positions but they also carry greater responsibility and will answerable to God when they fail to exercise it rightly. Pilate’s terrible failures to stand up and be counted for justice bring warning to all who hold similar positions of power. be warned, you are answerable to God.