[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Friday, May 17, 2013

[Paul]

Well folks, as I write this it's Friday afternoon here in the eastern part of the Americas.  I hope that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that your day is going well, went well or will go well, depending on where in this world you happen to live.

Each issue of the "Gospel Messenger," the official publication of the Gospel Association for the Blind, has a column called "Baffling Bible Questions Answered," and, for those interested, one of their columns will be presented here.  Please note, however, that I'm not presenting this information as _my opinion answerwise and _only _my _opinion.  There may be other acceptable answers to the questions posed.  The columnist for this part of the magazine, although not named, is probably Pastor Robert Rathbun, editor and also pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lowell MA.  With all that in mind, let's begin.

Luke 6:20
Matthew reports that Jesus said "the poor in spirit" were blessed.  Luke leaves out "in spirit," making the meaning very different.  This is certainly a discrepancy in the Gospel accounts.

ANSWER:  In the first place, as anyone who travels and speaks in various places knows very well, the same sermons and messages are given many times and often are slightly adapted to fit new audiences.  It would be foolish to assume that Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount only one time, or that He failed to use His comments on its various themes over and over again.  The Beatitudes must have been spoken dozens of times as Jesus traveled in Galilee and in Judea.  One should not assume that a difference in reports on Jesus' comments on a familiar theme must describe the same incident.  The differences in the accounts are not discrepancies in the Scriptures.

Note that Luke says specifically that Jesus looked around at His disciples, defined in verse 17 as "a large crowd" of followers, and, shaping His words to their condition, said, "Blessed are you who are poor." In this context "poor" and "poor in spirit" are equivalents and convey the same thought:  A grinding poverty drove most of the ordinary folk of first-century Palestine close to despair and focused their hopes not on this world but on the appearance of the Messiah or on the next world.  The destitute seem more likely to sense spiritual needs than the prosperous.  The poor are blessed for they, far more than the well-to-do, yearn for the kingdom of God.

Luke 7:8
What did the centurion mean when he said both he and Jesus were men "under authority?"

ANSWER:  The centurion meant that, as an officer in the Roman army, he could trace his authority back to the emperor himself.  Thus when he spoke an order, he spoke as a representative of the greatest power on earth and would be obeyed.  In saying this, the centurion confessed his faith that Jesus could trace His authority back to God and when Jesus spoke he spoke with the full authority of God Himself, and His word carried the full authority of God here on earth.  Thus, if Jesus simply spoke the word, the centurion's servant would be healed, because distance was no obstacle.

Luke 7:11-17
How many people did Jesus bring back to life after they had died?

ANSWER:  The New Testament records three such incidents.  There is the raising of the widow's son reported here; the raising of the ruler's daughter, reported in Matthew 9:18-25; and the raising of Lazarus, reported in John 11.  Since the Jews buried persons who died as quickly after their death as possible, the raising of Lazarus was the most impressive.  The ruler's daughter had just died, for she was still in her house.  The widow's son had died very recently, for the crowd was carrying his bier to the place of burial.  But Lazarus had been dead and buried for three days, proof positive of Christ's authority over humanity's greatest enemy, death.

Yet there was a basic difference between these resuscitations and Jesus' own resurrection.  Each of the three Jesus raised returned to normal biological death.  They were destined to die again.  When Jesus returned to life, a great transformation had taken place--He had a resurrected body not subject to the limitations imposed on normal human beings.  Thus, while the raising of these three people uniquely demonstrated the extent of Jesus' authority, He was "declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4).

And there you have our short mini Bible study.  Let me know if you'd like to have more of these on an occasional basis.

The person who wrote this column also could have said that none of the three people brought back to life by Jesus could, in themselves, have done this very thing.  Somewhere in the Gospel of John, it is recorded that Jesus said that "I have power to lay my life down, and I have power to take it up again." Maybe he/she might have thought about that distinctive difference, but didn't mention it.

And now may the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, as we travel in these last evil days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul