Gospel Notes

King of Fools

March 31, 2007 – 8:06 pm | by Mark Cornford

April 1st - April Fool’s Day - a fitting day to be telling the story of Palm Sunday - of Jesus entry into Jerusalem.

Here is a King - who rides on a borrowed donkey, cheered into the power centre of Israel and Judaism but a motley collection of fisherman, women, children, tax collectors, publicans, prostitutes, ex-lepers, ex-demoniacs, samaritans and cripples. What a joke - what a fool!

Here is a King of Fools - but one who is not afraid to upset people. Here is a King of Fools who comes into Jerusalem on a donkey - from the Mount of Olives the place where the Messiah was supposed to come from (Zech 14:4) and riding a donkey - as the Messiah would do (Zech 9:9-10), whose disciples acclaim him with the words of a Psalm (Ps 118:26) adding the word ‘King!’ instead if ‘he’. Here is a King whose procession also mocks those of the conquerors and Ceasers

“Then all the Jews together greeted Alexander with one voice and surrounded him . . . [then] he gave his hand to the high priest and, with the Jews running beside him, entered the city. Then he went up to the temple where he sacrificed to God under the direction of the high priest” (Josephus)
Here is a King of Fools who has just told a parable about a greedy blood thirsty King who went away - telling the story of Herod’s rise to power in response to those who were anticipating the immediate coming of the Kingdom of God.

Here is a King of Fools who through the telling of the parable, his staged entrance into Jerusalem taking on attributes of both the Messiah and a conquering Ceaser mocks the rich and powerful of his day - no wonder the Pharisees take offence!

But here is a King whose coming would be acclaimed by the very stones if people did not shout it.

Here is a King who turned out to be the cornerstone that the builders rejected (Ps 118:22)

Here is a King who in his mockery of the powerful showed who he was King for - not for them!

Here was a King who rejoiced in being the King of Fools - the King of the poor, the helpless, the outcast, those who no-one else would be King for.

Here was a King who came to seek out and to save the lost.

Here is a King for those who gladly call themselves fools for his sake and his kingdom’s.

Will you also be his fool?

Bear fruit worthy of repentance!

March 21, 2007 – 12:36 pm | by Mark Cornford

There once was a Christian Businessman, wealthy, well liked, respected and full of integrity.

One day he heard that Bishop Tutu was coming to town. As he had influence he was able to organise a meeting with the Bishop.

‘Bishop’, he said, ‘I seek to be a good Christian and dedicate my life to the LORD, but I find that my Spirit is at unease, What do you think I need to do’.

The Bishop looked at him, liked him and said ‘there i sone more thing you need to do, sell your business and come with me to Africa and use your money in service of the poor’.

The businessman thought long and hard about this, but refused for he had worked hard to build his business.

And that day there was sorrow in heaven.

Elsewhere Bono was stopping off on the Gold Coast. There there was a man who owned a poker machine business and was ruputed to have links to the underworld. When he heard Bono was in town he wanted to see him for had heard about his work for the poor of the world. However when he was at the airport, the body guards kept him at a distance, so he jumped up and down , ran around in circles and tried to catch Bono’s attention by yelling ‘Love your work!’. When Bono saw him, he went over to him and said ‘mate, tonight I am coming to your place - so get all your friends and let’s have a party!’

At the party the man stood up and said ‘Tonight I will give half of everything I own to the poor, and if I have cheated people I will pay them back 4 times’.

And there was rejoicing in heaven, for Jesus came to seek out and save the lost.

Based on Luke 18:18-25 (Rich Ruler) & Luke 19:1-10 (Zacchaeus)

The story of Zacchaeus is told to us in Sunday school as a nice story about a man who no-one liked but Jesus found.

How is it that we continue to strip the Gospel of Jesus of any of its substance and meaning, and domesticate it so that no-one can take offense at it?

This story of Zacchaeus which follows close on the heals of the Rich Ruler is no nice story, but one that would have rocked the worldview of any pious Jew, and I would say rocks the world of us western Christians. These two stories are meant to be read together, and together they give us a view of what Luke saw that following Jesus really meant - particularly for the wealthy.

We know that Luke was particularly interested in what the Gospel of Jesus had to say about wealth, for there are more stories and teaching on wealth, money, mammon than in any other Gospel. Luke gives us the much forgotten about blessings and woes - blessed are the poor, woe to you rich! How we prefer Matthew’s version!

These two stories leave us in no doubt that Luke considered that what we do with our money is linked to our salvation!

I can hear now all the howls of protest - salvation is about faith not works. True but people who say this often emasculate what faith is and reduce it down to some nice vague feeling of trust in Jesus. Faith is trust, is belief - but to be real trust & belief must come with obedience. How can we say we trust and believe Jesus and then refuse to obey him?

These stories of two very different rich men show what Luke saw Jesus was teaching about discipleship and wealth.

First, just to highlight how scandalous these stories really are, let us look a brief comparison between them.

Ruler	Zacchaeus
Social elite	oucast
wealth is ok	wealth is ill-gotten
comes to Jesus	is unable to come to Jesus
comes seeking spiritual knowledge	just wants to see Jesus
comes respectably	makes a fool of himself
keeps commandments	breaks commandments
Questions Jesus	Jesus invites himself to dinner
Asked to give up money	Voluntarily gives up money
Refuses to follow Jesus	Finds salvation
Goes away sad	Rejoices

The Ruler would have been considered by Jewish society the model Jew - kept commandments, was a good person and his wealth showed that God had bestowed favour upon him.

While Zacchaeus is a comical character - short, a hated tax collector, someone not afraid to run and climb a tree (very undignified for Jewish man - only children run and climb trees). Zacchaeus was not only hated, but out of the bounds of good religious society. In those days, the way taxing worked is that Rome decided how much it wanted from a region (independent of how much the region actually made), and sold that tax contract to the chief tax collector. So the tax collector paid in advance the amount of tax due from a region. He would then sub-contract out amounts to other tax collectors. Obviously the aim of the tax collectors was to make a profit, so they would collect more than the amount required by Rome (this was legal and expected). What made tax collectors particularly hated, was not so much that they collected tax - but that they did it for the Romans, the hated invaders. This made them the worst sort of collaborators. Not only did thet collaborate with Rome, but they then made a profit out of taxes (of course many tax collectors abused the system and the expense of the Jews).

In both cases, Luke presents their response to Jesus - one refues Jesus call, the other doesn’t even need Jesus to tell him what to do! The strength of the difference between them is highlighted by Jesus pronouncement ‘TODAY, salvation has come to this house. Nowhere else in the Gospel (or any of the other Gospels) is this repeated where Jesus that salvation has come HERE and NOW to a person.

So what is the difference between them?

Ok first lets make sure we are clear what is NOT said. The Gospel story does NOT say

‘Zacchaeus trusted Jesus in his heart’

‘ The Rich man didn’t trust Jesus in his heart’

or ‘Zacchaeus believed in Jesus’ etc … etc …

Now of course it looks obvious that Zacchaeus DID respond our of some sense of belief and trust to Jesus, while the rruler doesn’t. But the point is that according to the story THE ONLY WAY TO TELL THE STATE OF THEIR FAITH WAS BY WHAT THEY DID WITH THEIR MONEY!

Bear fruit worthy of repentance (John the Baptist) Lk 3:8

The issue here is that Luke understands that there can be no repentance without the fruit of that repentance - that is a change in life

For wealthy people, Luke shows us that one of the singularly most important criteria is what we do with our wealth - NOT our attitude to it. Will our wealth be put in the service of God’s kingdom (Good News to the poor)? or will it remain OUR wealth and God just gets his bit - usually 10%.

There is no doubt that Luke understood, that to be a disciople of Jesus means putting EVERYTHING at Jesus dispoal. Including all our money. And that to follow the command of Jesus is to neccessarily put our wealth into service for the poor.

One last thing to finish.

If you are in a western country - then you are wealthy - no matter how much you have. You are richer than 90% of the world.

So the story of these two rich men is for us.

Which rich man will we be?

Who will put their wealth in service of the poor?

And how may will choose to ignore Jesus command to follow.

Get Behind Me Satan!

September 9, 2006 – 10:38 pm | by Mark Cornford

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”a 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” 34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel,a will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words b in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Mark 8:27-38 NRSV

Jesus Christ
are you the son of God?
i want to know
you ask that i believe
not one day goes by
that i don’t compromise your love
for the cold love of the world
it’s killing me through my own evil pride
not one day goes by
that i don’t know that i’m dying

I’m Dying (VAST - off self titled album - fantatstic album!)

Who are you Jesus?

The standard evangelical reply which comes from CS Lewis (I think…) is that there are only three alternatives

Liar
Lunatic
Lord

However this does not hold up today with many people suscribing to conspiracy theories (such as the Da Vinci Code) that there is a massive cover up and that Jesus never really claimed to be the Messiah but that everyone else made it up, or it is some secret code etc …

I am not really interested in this question - if you want to beileve that the whole New Testament is a cover-up and that Jesus really married Mary Magdalene and lived happily ever after then good on you. Jesus is no more or less than any other historical spiritual guru and what he says is not to be taken too seriously as in the famous words of Mr Smith, he is ‘only human’ (Matrix - as if you had to ask …)

What interests me is what happens even if you say Jesus is Messiah (or LORD) …

Here we have Peter saying Jesus is the Messiah, which should get him the thumbs up, right?

WRONG!

What the passage above politely writes as ‘And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him’ is the same command to silence that Jesus yells at the demons when ever they call him ‘holy One of God’!

Man, how hard is this Jesus guy to please? Even when Peter gets it right he is subjected to language that Jesus reserves for demons. If I was Peter I would be quoting the famous phrase from a red-headed ex-MP ‘Please explain!’.

The question is not really whether Jesus is liar, lunatic or LORD, but what sort of LORD is he?

Peter wants a Messiah who will return Israel to the glory days, who will kick the Romans butt and bring forth a golden age for God’s people.

Sound familiar?

Ever heard preachers decrying the sad state of our world and country, where God and his church is no longer top dog, where gays, muslims, greenies and atheists are running our schools and governments? Where our world is on the slippery slope of sin etc …

Now don’t get me wrong, I agree that our world is on the highway to hell - but the question is - what are the real causes and what do we do about it?

Too many Christians see the problem as a rampant secular society and all the moral issues that that raises and that the solution is a world where God and his church is returned to the rightful place of power and our country becomes a ‘Christian’ country run by Christian people (hence the evangelical - vote for Christians as MPs and the rise of Family First).

Sounds Good.

… except this is the exact same sort of thing that Peter wanted and he got told to shut it!

It seems that Jesus isn’t quite on board with the whole power thing.

Becasue that what Peter was all about in this statement - POWER - we want to be on the winning side and by God we want to show those heathen Romans who the boss is!

So how does Jesus reply?

He tells them that the Messiah is the opposite of power - must be rejected, suffer and die - don’t sound to good. And then will ‘rise again’ …

Peter, for one doesn’t like having his power fantasy bubble burst so he takes Jesus aside to rebuke him - and the words are the same once again as what Jesus used to rebuke the demons … what a nerve … you can guess that Peter is in for a hiding and boy does he cop it - now he is SATAN!!! The numo uno disciple and rock on whom Jesus will build his church is none other than SATAN!!! ok - he wasn’t meaning he is actually satan, but that his words were of satan, but still, you get the drift - this is a pretty big slap in the face for Peter!

So far then we have this order of conversation
Peter: Jesus is Messiah
Jesus silences Peter
Jesus is the Son of Man who must suffer
Peter silences Jesus
Jesus silences Peter
Jesus: Peter is satan!

A bit of a war of words here! But this is the point, the war is not about about whether Jesus IS the Messiah, but about WHAT SORT of Messiah he is.

Peter wants power

This is what he gets:

Jesus calls the crowds to him (this was no private teaching) and tells them
you want to call me LORD (follow me)? then

DENY yourself
TAKE UP your place in Guatanomo Bay (todays equivalent of take up your cross)
FOLLOW ME

hmmm . first one is hard - but maybe I could handle that, the third one I get, but that second one … what the hell is he on about?

To call Jesus LORD is to give up every thought we have of comfortable, respectable, nice quiet lives. Instead we are to think of ourselves as the people who the rest of the world forgets about. The people who are despised in the newspapers and opinion polls, the people who our own government refuses to recognise as having rights - they are no longer ‘citizens’ but ‘grey’ people existing in some limbo.

Not really a good advertisment for followers. But this is what Jesus INSISTS that it means to call him LORD.

That it will cost you EVERYTHING.

But …

It is the way of life -the ONLY way of life. Everything else is a fraud.

Now this is the point of the whole thing.

What sort of LORD are you following?

One who offers you power, comfort, respectability, the knowledge you are on the winning team?
Well you better get behind Jesus satan, ‘cos that ‘aint what the man is offering!

He is offering LIFE, but it will cost you everything.

Are your prepared for this journey? Are you ready to travel the road of following Jesus knowing that you are PROMISED suffering? Knowing that you are PROMISED that it will not neccessarily go the way that you want - that it will take you down a narrow road that will COST you?

But that on the way you will find out the meaning of what it truly means to live and be alive and know that your life will last beyond your own mortal body? To not fear death and power because you know that the one you follow has risen, will come again and on that day will vindicate you or give you what your soul and spirit has always longed for?

This is not about being a good member of a church, this is about will you follow Jesus in every aspect of your life.

Unfortunately you won’t neccessarily learn what this means by attending church most sundays.

This is partly why this blog exists - to try and work/live out what it means to follow Jesus - the real Jesus - not the Jesus that Peter wanted.

But Peter ended up getting it - so much so that eventually he died being crucified for his faith in Jesus - upside down at his request - because Peter said that he wasn’t worthy to die in the same way as his LORD. He did give it all up. He did lose his life for his LORD - do I think he regretted it? … No way.

It is hard for us in the western world to belive that anything could be worth risking money and our egos/respectability for (let alone our lives!).

I in no way claim to be a radical disciple who has given everything up - the best I can claim is to being a disciple somewhere between Peter rebuking Jesus and Peter getting crucified upside down - but closer to the Peter rebuking Jesus. This writing is as much a challenge to me. I write it not because I have ‘made it’ in my discipleship, but because I am ‘on the way’ and everyday Jesus challenges me to follow him. When I read passages like above this is what Jesus says to me, and then I pass it on.

All I know is that Jesus is the only one worth following - he is the MESSIAH (and not just a very naughty boy …), he is the only one who gives me life, and as he give me life, I seek to give that life to him the best I can. That challenges me everyday, but I know that Jesus is with me every step of the way.

What LORD are you following?

TWO RESOURCES for seeking to live the way of Jesus We Can be - living the beatitudes

http://wecan.be/

http://www.incommunion.org/articles/issue-30/living-the-beatitudes