Thursday 3 February

Job 30:1-32:22

What I find so engaging about today’s passage is that it almost perfectly lays out what Job understood by holiness; and it’s quite a challenging list.  First of all are the avoidance of lust, adultery and the use of dishonest scales.  Then, sharing bread with the poor, helping rear the fatherless, guiding the widows and clothing the naked.  Ouch.  Even though I’ve heard it many times, I still find it so challenging to be reminded that holiness is inextricably linked to compassion towards others.  My natural desire is always to see compassion stuff as a bolt-on to bible reading, prayer and the avoidance of thought-sins but that is deeply mistaken.  And then Job unpacks what idolatry is; paying some homage to the sun or moon or saying to gold “you are my security” (that one stings a little, doesn’t it?).  Finally he returns to the treatment of others; not gloating over the problems of rivals and showing hospitality to friends and strangers alike.  I find this description of living under the covenant of God both highly convicting (note to self - more repentance needed) and highly inspiring; I would love to live this way.  And that is probably not surprising.  After all, holiness in ancient Israel was not thought of as restrictive or disempowering but as a beautiful and delightful way of reflecting the graciousness and purity of the living God.

Matthew 22:15-46

What a heart-pumping crescendo this is! There are so many rhythms and melodies clashing together in this momentous climax to Jesus’ living ministry that I have no hope of scoring even a fraction of it.  Jesus utterly outwits his challengers and undercuts the entire world-view of the Roman Empire.  He pronounces a clear judgement on the raging debate of his day (Sadducees vs Pharisees) and whittles down all the old testament revelation down into two simple points - “Love God and self” and “the Christ has always been the Lord”.  

I do not accept for one second the idea that Jesus established a church-state divide in his “render to Caesar” statement.  Instead, he turns a theoretical question back onto a demand for a decision on the part of his listeners (what he always, always seems to do).  If I may paraphrase Jesus, I believe his sentiment is that each of us must decide to whom our allegiences lie and then act accordingly. While life will no doubt include rendering certain parts of ourselves to forms of human authority, the biggest question that will ever be put to us is what we have chosen to do about God’s authority over us; have we rendered to him what he is due or have we held things back?

And, when people (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses) claim that Jesus never claims to be God they are just plain wrong.  Right here, right at the tumultuous climax of Matthew’s gospel Jesus clearly points to the fact that the Christ - the Messiah who would come to bring God’s wonderful new age into being - was the Lord of David.  Listeners would know that the Christ had not yet come to end Israel’s spiritual and physical exile and yet they were now being told that he was around at the time of David.  In Jewish thought I do not believe there could have been an alternative conclusion to this showing that the Christ was more than human; he must be either an angel or God himself.  But Jews would know that an angel could not have been called Lord by the great King David; this man after God’s own heart would only have reserved such reverent service for the one true God Yahweh.  So the people of God listening to Jesus are left with a conclusion so world-shaking that they could only stand, stare, gob-smacked and with a deafening sense of trepidation.  Could this man before them actually be the Christ?  And, if he is, does that mean this is in front of us the One, the Only Lord, Immortal, Unapproachable in holiness, Matchless in power, Master of Creation, the Fear of Jacob and the Guardian of his people Israel??

Psalms 18:16-24

In the day of my disaster, the Lord was my support.  What a huge thing this is. Not overstating things, not making false promises, not denying the difficulty of life but just saying that in the worst moments there is one who will be there ready to hold our mouths above the waterline and keep us from drowning in despair.