Lazarus: Whats In A Name?

Lazarus. In scripture there are two instances of the name “Lazarus” appearing, one is in the famous account of the man who was raised from the dead by Jesus, the other is a little lesser known and involves a parable that Jesus tells to illustrate a point and teach his followers about priorities. To the casual Bible student, this may seem a bit odd, that Jesus would include the name of his friend in one of his parables, but to understand why he did that, we need to understand the meaning of the name “Lazarus.”

Lazarus is, to cut the list of translations short, the Latin name for the Hebrew name Eleazar. It’s important that we note that, and we’ll come back to that in a bit.

First, please open your Bibles and read Luke 17:19-31. This is the account of the rich man who squandered his worldly assets on selfish things rather than going forward with the opportunities to minister to those around him in need. He is, in short, sentenced to Hell, where, across the great void, he sees the beggar Lazarus with Abraham in paradise. He begs for some relief from his torment from Abraham, asking first that Lazarus give him a drop of water to cool his tongue, then asks that Lazarus be sent to warn his surviving family not to follow in his footsteps to a similar fate. Abraham denies the first request, citing essentially that the man is reaping what he sowed, and the second request is denied because the opportunities for salvation are well known to his earthly family and they have the choice already laid before him.

What is interesting here is that, in Scripture, the beggar is given the name Lazarus, but the rich man is left nameless. Some traditions later give the man the name Dives, however, we’re focusing strictly on scripture which keeps the man nameless. It’s important that the rich man is nameless because he represents us; or at least the potential us, the person we could become if we choose poorly in matters of faith verses sin. It’s also important that the beggar is given the name Lazarus, or as we’ve just figured out, Eleazar.

The next account in scripture of the name is in Jesus’ friend Lazarus. Read John 11:1-43 to be brought up to speed on what was going on there. There is so much going on here that you really should take your time to piece it out. Jesus is requested by Mary and Martha to aide their sick brother, Jesus’ good friend Lazarus. Lazarus is a devout Jew living in the town of Bethany, which is just outside of Jerusalem. Its easy to see how Jesus would have come into contact with Lazarus throughout his life, since Jesus’ family made annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Lazarus would have been there around the same time and they very well could have gotten to know each other during these times. The text suggests that Jesus is closer to Lazarus than he is to most people he comes into contact with, likely the term we would use today would be “best friends”. I’m sure you have that one friend with whom you are closer than the rest; I know I’ve got one. Given that conjecture, we can see Jesus’ reaction to the grieving of his other friends, Mary and Martha, and how it would move him.

After Jesus raises Lazarus, there is celebration, but I want you to read John 12:1-19. Lazarus’ resurrection becomes a rallying point for the believers in Jesus. Healing the sick and blind and deaf is one thing, but to call the dead from their tomb is something that the people of that day really took notice of.

I want to spend just a bit here talking about that scene, where in Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb. The tomb in question would have been a rough cut cave, with a stone rolled in front of it. It would have been just long enough to fit a body, and maybe just high enough for a man between 5’2” or 5’4”, the average height in those days, to stand slightly stooped, and maybe four feet across. Not big at all, really. Some skeptics would say that Lazarus wasn’t dead when he was put into the tomb, that he just stayed in there waiting for Jesus to arrive to perpetuate the hoax of resurrection. The problem is that Lazarus’ body was prepared in the Jewish tradition, with tightly wrapped grave clothes covered in a thick layer of spices and perfumes. In four days, in a hot, small cave, this would have created a pretty distinctive shell around the body. Lazarus would have suffocated in the first day, and wouldn’t have survived four days entombed.

Others would argue that Lazarus’ resurrection was propaganda set forth by Jesus’ followers, yet in the text denotes that there were more than just Jesus’ friends and disciples there. There were those present who had not yet decided to follow Jesus, and the resurrection of Lazarus became the lightning rod for a new contingent of followers. The people of that day were not stupid. They would not have followed someone unless they absolutely believed in what they were doing. They would have questioned until they found nothing that could be questions, true validity to the identity of Jesus as the Christ.

So, remember what we were talking about earlier? What is in the name Lazarus, or from the Hebrew source Eleazar? Every name has a meaning. Take mine for example, “Michael”. It translates to “Who is like God?” Before you start with the jokes about how such a name might feed one’s ego, remember the question mark there. It’s a question posed to the world. “Who is like God?” The answer is “No one is like God.” Eleazar has a meaning to. It means “God’s assistance.”

The rich man in the parable was denied God’s assistance because he put more faith in his worldly status than he did in God in life. The account of Lazarus being raised shows that death does not subjugate God’s assistance, that through Christ, God’s assistance is brought back to us. It is a historical account that comes with a metaphor. Possibly it’s a little serendipity, possibly a bit of irony, but likely more an active decision on the part of the Almighty that young Jesus would be friends with a man named “God’s assistance”. The important thing is to know that if we seek it with a pure heart and unselfish motives, God’s assistance is always available to us.

Let us close in prayer:

Father in Heaven, we need your assistance. From sunrise to sunset and all the hours in between, we are besieged by the world. We face daily difficulties in finance, work, society, in the very sinfulness of our fallen world. Grant us the assistance to stay focused on you. Grant us the assistance to help bring others to you. Our world is shameful in your light, and we ask the assistance to bring glory to your name. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Michael Bauch

Marriage-This is Serious

The sacrament of marriage should not, cannot be taken lightly because of the huge effect it has on one’s lifestyle. Now there are many “marriage experts” out there, but this time around I wanted to expand on a part of a mini-series we did last year on the Life of Jesus. Now if you weren’t a member of the Mobile Ministry at that time and missed out on the mini-series, let me know and I will be more than happy to forward you that entire series.

Now when Jesus speaks about marriage, he does it in an interesting way. One of Jesus’ principle teaching methods is that he’s waiting for someone to ask the question and through that encounter bring new light on an old and vague concept. We join Jesus in region of Judea in Mark chapter 10 where the people came to be taught by him. Let’s pick up in verse 2:

“2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?””

Let me offer a little more background to that question. In that day there were essentially two schools of thought about divorce. One was that is was perfectly okay to toss aside one wife in favor of another, and the other was that in no way was it acceptable to divorce your wife no matter what your reasons. The Pharisees knew the popular opinion sided with option 1, while the traditional view was with option 2, and they sought to undermine Jesus’ popularity. Remember how this chapter starts off in verse 1b

“Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.”

People were hungry for his words and his wisdom. Somewhere deep inside them they know this was the living Word of God and since man’s separation for his creator in the Garden he has been desperately trying to find a way back. Here HEwas, in there midst and they somehow knew it. This undercut the authority of the Pharisees who were the end all-be all of the scriptural law. So it was a test, and a trap. They wanted him to say the unpopular thing and break the hearts of the people. If they could spin it right, they could turn him into another John the Baptist.

But Jesus responded in a way that threw the Pharisees off their game. Verse 3:

““What did Moses command you?” he replied.”

This was a direct hit to the Pharisees, because Moses wrote the law, the scripture they were suppose to be experts in. They asked a question of Jesus’ opinion on a topic and he said “What have you been reading? What does the law say?”

And they had no choice but to answer that question truthfully.

“4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

So let’s dig in, for just a moment, about what they were quoting.

Deuteronomy 24

“1 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,”

The rest of the chapter talks about the woman re-marrying and then getting divorced and how the first husband isn’t to take her back, then it goes into kidnapping, so we can justly end this quote at a comma because that is all we’re looking for right now.

So they quote scripture, and Jesus expands on that scripture

Mark 10:5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied.

It’s because we are inherently sinful creatures that God, through Moses wrote this provision in the law. But Jesus being God incarnate was able to express the creator’s view on divorce in a way the Pharisees probably weren’t expecting.

Mark 10:6-9 “6 But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Jesus is going back to an older scripture, one that cannot be debated

Genesis 1:27

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

Genesis 2:24

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

By answering the question of divorce, Jesus is in fact giving us a new insight on the sacrament of marriage. He is stating that when two people come together in marriage, they are becoming one, and that in order for that family to survive, they need to balance each other, protect each other, support one another. It isn’t about one half of the couple doing all the support and the other just along for the ride.

A lot of couples I see struggle to maintain their individuality and view their marriage as a slight against it. It is not. You merge your individuality into the couple. Remember that both husband and wife were once individuals and by coming together have chosen to become one individual. That doesn’t mean that you give up your hobbies or your interest. So long as they are not destructive to the marriage itself, there really isn’t anything wrong with them. But there is the qualifier, the marriage comes first. You are bonding together as one unit and you must take the time, energy, and effort to cement that bond before you can even acknowledge other interests. You cannot let other elements come between you. You cannot let your hobbies or interests or even your parents or siblings break you apart.

That’s another hard part to swallow, and it goes back to Genesis 2:24. That isn’t to say you leave mom and dad and your sisters and brothers behind in the dust, but you must acknowledge that tending to your own marriage comes before all others. No matter how close you were to your siblings and your parents prior to marriage, your devotion is now to that marriage first and foremost without question. If your sibling comes to you and says “Brother” or “Sister I’m in a tight spot, I need your help on this, but don’t tell your spouse, they won’t understand…” you must stop that line of talk right then and there.

I know it sounds like I’m hammering this in, but honestly I cannot emphasize it enough. God thinks so much of your union that it was the first institution put in creation. There was one man and one woman and the two became one. There wasn’t one man and a bunch of options. There wasn’t one woman and it was raining men. When the bond of marriage is created, it saddens the Lord to see it dissolved.

But what does Jesus think of divorce when it does come into existence. Look to Matthew 5:31-32:

31 “It has been said,‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

Harsh. Unpopular even, marriage was meant for forever. Today marriages fail, I think because it’s too easy to get out of them. It really is. Back then there were no “irreconcilable differences”. But then again, marriages weren’t entered into lightly. There was a lot of commitment behind the very talk of marriage, not just the sacrament itself. We live in a world today where marriages can be a few weeks long, where one trip into Las Vegas can unite two into one, and where divorce incites the response of “Gosh, that’s too bad.”

We’ve gotten too casual with our hearts and our bodies and that is where the problem is. We’ve become a culture that sees our spouses as roommates we have sex with, and as such never enter that bond that is suppose to be inseparable. One thing I would recommend to anyone who is talking about marriage is to take what is called a marriage focus. This is a test done with the deacon, elder, priest or pastor of your church. It affords you with a series of questions concerning your relationship with your prospective spouse. The test is sent off and the answers are compared, then you both go over it at the same time with the person administering the test and you are allowed an opportunity to discuss your answers and any areas that need to be addressed before entering the union. I went through it with my fiancé and frankly it was an incredibly informative experience.

The purpose of this is to ensure the union is built to last from the foundation up. When you get married through the church, you don’t do it lightly, or at least you shouldn’t. This isn’t a matter of “Hey, Padre, we got ourselves a marriage license, can you get us hitched?”

Now I was originally going to end this study here, but there is way too much to talk about on this and I feel I would be negligent in my purpose if I did not address them.

For one thing, let’s look at the purpose of marriage. This can be broken down into five distinct areas:

1) Marriage is for companionship. When God created the first human being, Adam, he saw that Adam was a solitary creature and that there was no suitable mate for him in the entire world, (Genesis 2) and so God created Eve. The first union between man and wife was for fellowship, companionship, and mutual help and comfort.

2) Another goal of marriage is to create a stable home in which children can grow and thrive. The best pairing is between two believers, as they will strengthen each other’s faith (2 Corinthians 6:14) and in turn they can produce godly offspring (Malachi 2:13-15). In the book of Malachi, God tells the Israelites that He will not accept their offerings because they have been unfaithful to the wives of their youth. This shows how much God cares about keeping marriages intact. He goes further, stating that He was seeking godly offspring. This indicates too many that the children of the home should be raised in a way that is in keeping with God’s Word which places a high value on the sanctity of marriage. A household with a broken marriage is a difficult place to instill the Word of God. Further, a home where in the parents are unbelievers or one is wishy-washy with their faith while the other struggles to stand firm also cannot foster a faith in God as the child will always be torn between these two elements.

3) In teaching God’s will, you learn about God’s will and so Christian parents who teach their children about God in turn learn about God. In practicing the faith, you come to a better understanding of God’s work in your life. Marriage, as we have established, is an embodiment of God’s will and as such by placing your marriage firmly in faith; you are in creating a structure that will withstand the worst the world has to offer.

4) Marriage also protects individuals from sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 7:2). The world we live in is full of selfish, sexual images, innuendo, and temptation. Even if one does not pursue sin through sex, it pursues them with a fevered desire. Marriage is the only place to express sexuality, and allows you to do so without opening yourself up to severe emotional, and in some cases physical harm caused by casual, non-commitment based sexual relationships. It is clear in Proverbs 18:22 that God wants us to be happy in marriage and through that promote a healthier society to produce holiness in our lives.

5) Marriage is a beautiful picture of the relationship between Christ and His church. The body of believers that make up the Church are collectively called the bride of Christ. As Bridgroom, Jesus gave his life for His bride “to make her holy, cleansing her (us) by washing with water through the word (Ephesians 5:25-26). His selfless act provides an example for all husbands. At the Second Coming of Christ, the church will be united with the Bridgroom, the official “wedding ceremony” will take place and, with it, the eternal union of Christ and His bride will be actualized (Revelation 19:7-9;21:1-2).

Common Law Marriage

If you aren’t familiar with this concept, let me give you a broad overview. Common law marriage occurs when a couple lives together and decides one day that they are married. There is no marriage license, no court, no church. They just come to that point as a couple where it’s easier to think of each other as husband and wife rather than live-in boyfriend and girlfriend.

This is not marriage, my friends. While it may be acceptable in some courts of law, and many law enforcement agencies have a code for such a relationship, it is certainly not a marriage. Marriage requires a commitment on the part of the couples. Common law marriage is a disservice to the sacrament itself, and it is greatly questionable whether or not God sees this as a union at all. I think when it comes to marriage, there needs to be God present in some way to approve the union. If a couple is thinking about considering each other common law marriage, I would recommend just going ahead and getting married in the by the state, and actually make the union official.

Which brings up another topic.

Legal Marriage Outside of the Church

I’ve attended one legal union, and frankly, I could feel that God was present and approving of the union. But is that considered a marriage? Let’s take a look at Romans 13:1-2 “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God ahs instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”

Even couples wanting to get married through the church must acquire a marriage license through the court. It is a requirement to submit to the legal authorities in order to consider you married. If a couple does not subscribe to a specific faith or church that is no cause for them not to get married. I do recommend those couples find an order of faith to connect with, but as far as their marriage is considered, it’s good.

Ultimately, the status of your marriage exists between the couple and God Himself, and therefore every union, civil or church sanctioned, should be prayed upon. Yet the problem with legal unions is that laws are made with loop-holes, as pointed out by Jesus in the earlier reading.

Pre-Nuptial Agreements

Are you kidding me?! Okay, I’ll be frank about this, a pre-nuptial agreement is a terrible idea. It is nothing more than an exit strategy, a plan for failure. A couple that forms a pre-nuptial has already planted the seed for their marriage to fail. If you look at your future spouse and think“I love them, but I’d like some insurance…” then I promise you, you will be calling up on that pre-nuptial agreement sooner than you realize. Christ, Himself, has already expressed the Father’s disapproval of divorce.

I’ve heard the arguments and all of them stand up as well as kite in a hurricane. All a pre-nuptial says is that from the onset you have doubt in your union, and that doubt will prevent you from making that bond of one flesh, and from there strife and failure will ensue. If you have that kind of doubt from the onset, seek counseling to remove that doubt, or dissolve the union before you make it official and save yourself the trouble.

Same-sex Marriages

Some may not like what I’m about to say, and please know that I do not intend to bruise feelings with this, but I am also not going to contradict Scripture for the sake of being popular. Jesus said in Mark 10: 6-7 “6 But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,”

While the Bible can be greatly and hotly debated on its opinion of homosexuality itself, it cannot be debated on its status on same-sex Marriages. There are some states and countries that acknowledge same-sex civil unions and that is between the people and the governments that oversee them, but you are not going to find a Biblical basis to support a same sex marriage. I cannot and will not say it is an abomination in God’s eyes. I will never go that far. I will say that God clearly through the Word does not acknowledge it as a marriage.

That is a heavy note to end on, but I think we can say that marriage is a very heavy topic and never to be taken lightly. So, with that, let us close in prayer.

Father in Heaven, as we enter into the New Year, we find ourselves facing new challenges, and some old and familiar ones. Your sacrament of marriage, while a blessing, can also be filled with challenges from the sinful world we live in. Father, we ask that You send the Holy Spirit to comfort us and inspire us as we move forward with the new life that lays ahead of us. We ask Your blessings be upon us this year and always. In Jesus’name we pray, Amen.

Evidence of Faith

Recently I was reading a book entitled “Scientific Facts in the Bible” by author Ray Comfort. In it he offered up some very insightful correlations between scripture and scientific discovery, where in one supports the other fairly substantially. This somewhat calls back to a letter I posted through Mobile Ministry discussing the relationship between scientific discovery and faith. The book itself covers various topics such as where science and scripture correlate what scientist hold faith in scripture, what historical figures believed in the Bible and so forth. It also offers archeological and historical support for the Bible, such as citing the work of the historian Flavius Josephus, whose writing greatly coincides with scriptural accounts.

It was here, in the chapter “The Bible’s Historical Accuracy” that I was struck in recollection of a conversation I had with my wife where in it was brought into debate whether or not scripture actually needed any outside support. I had made an argument for it, and she against it and in reading this chapter it occurred to me she’s right.

None of the supporting evidence matters. This greatly distraught me since much of the following ten sessions were going to cover how science supports the Bible. You can see the conundrum I found myself in. How can I profess on the significance of scientific support for scripture, when in fact, scripture stands on its own?

This is the one inscrutable fact: Scripture does not need anyone or anything to vouch for it. It is the Word of God, and therefore people of faith should hold it as an undeniable truth. You cannot find a better witness, better supporting evidence, than the Word and Will of the Creator of the Universe. Sitting it side by side with a history book will not increase your faith in Jesus. Staring at the universe through a telescope will not open your heart to God, only the Holy Spirit can.

It is in that mindset, in that vein, that we are going to embark on our new series, “Getting Back to God”.

First let me preface this series with one important fact: Scientific discoveries do matter. It’s the advent of scientific discoveries that allowed words to be transplanted from thin air onto stone tablets, for the advent of ink and the use of parchment, and from there to the printing presses which put the Word of God into your hands, and allow us to communicate this very study series electronically. I will never discredit the importance of scientific discovery. But scientific discovery does not affirm faith.

So, that said, what is faith? Faith, as defined in scripture, comes from Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” The dictionary defines it as “belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof.”

That is not to say that logical proof isn’t valuable. Take the personal journey of author and born again Christian Lee Strobel, an investigative journalist who quickly became the foremost voice for spiritual rebirth and the poster-boy for in depth research into matters of faith. He had been a life long atheist until his wife found God. He stated that he saw such a dramatic change in her attitude that he felt compelled to dig deeper into this “God thing” and find out what it is all about. Being an investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune, he needed to be convinced, so he followed the path of the Bible to the beginning and he found what seemed to him to be irrefutable proof of its origins. He had no choice but to believe, and he was looking for evidence to the contrary. His spiritual journey is an inspiration, but there is one key factor here that tends to be over looked by those seeking spiritual answers. He did not come to faith by understanding, but came to understanding by faith.

Let me put that into perspective: Lee Strobel had no discernable reason to look into scripture, it made no logical sense that he would ever want to. When he and his wife got married, they were both atheists. Then his wife was called by the Holy Spirit and she answered. Lee’s wife needed no outside prodding and when she found God, she didn’t need to understand the mysteries of faith, faith alone was enough. Now Lee had met Christians before and passed it off as some kind of naïve brainwashing, that they were just ignorant of how the world actually worked. It wasn’t until his own wife was called that he started to take a vested interest. It’s also important to note that his interests weren’t peaked immediately. It took years after his wife was converted before he actually took the time to look into faith, with him thinking it was just a phase and she’d be back to her old self soon enough. When she didn’t revert back, he started listening to her, and as his investigations took form, he found himself a believer, a process which again did not happen over night.

I don’t tell Lee’s story for inspiration, but for illustration, although you should find it inspiring if you yourself are struggling with faith. He’s a brilliant writer and I wholly recommend picking up anyone of his books, however you will find that all of his writings go back to one book; The Bible. What Mr. Strobel had done was looked through the eyes of logic and reason and found belief in something that defies both.

So what could have prompted the logical and reasonable, the discerning mind of Lee Strobel to seek answers from something which is founded on something so intangible as faith? What spurred him forward wasn’t curiosity, but love, something also as intangible and arguably illogical. He loved his wife. Many atheists would have called it quits right then and there, gotten a divorce citing spiritual rebirth as an irreconcilable difference. Mr. Strobel loved his wife so much that he put his own logic and reason on the line to understand her new out look on the world.

“Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love”. It is because of love that God the Father created us, that God the Son laid down his life for us, and that God the Holy Spirit guides us today. Love makes no sense in the world, and that is what makes it truly great, truly of God. We live in the world, but as faithful children of God we are not of the world, and what sets us apart from a world that abuses and devours itself is love, which pushes us to help and heal those that “natural selection” deem weak and unworthy. You can’t reason with love, you can’t out think it; you can’t put it under a microscope or read it in the stars. Love simply is, and when you come to know love, you understand faith.

Now it’s important to remember this is a Bible study, and two verses do not make a Bible study. With that, let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 8:5-13.

In this account, a centurion comes to Jesus and pleads for the healing of his own servant. Jesus agrees to go and see the servant, but the centurion states the complete truth of the matter in verse 8; “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” This has to be the most beautiful expressions of faith I’ve ever read. To understand that you have to look at the broad spectrum of the era. The centurion, as he states in the text, is a man of rank. He understands how the world around him works, and that, by the standards of his government, the emperor is appointed by the gods, making him something of a demi-god, or divine presence on earth. But for him to venerate Jesus in such a manner, basically placing him above the emperor isn’t just about acknowledging the authority of Christ on earth, he is placing that authority above all else, even the religion of the empire he serves. He doesn’t command Jesus, as he could any person living in Roman territory, but rather he humbly asks for favor.

It also says a lot about how the centurion saw his own servant, not as property, but as a human being he cares about. The centurion isn’t asking a mechanic to repair a piece of broken machinery; he is asking Christ to heal his friend.

Jesus is impressed. He points out how he hasn’t met Israelites with this kind of faith and understanding about Jesus’ role on earth. If anyone was supposed to understand, it should have been the children of Abraham. They are the ones who have studied the word all their lives, but they do not understand the word. The centurion has never had a reason to study the word, but his understanding is without compare.

So now it’s time for some self-reflection; this is something to do in your quiet times, when you can speak candidly to God about your faith. Are you one who understands more than you believe, or do you believe more than you understand?

I want to thank you for your time this month, and I look forward to sharing more with you again next month. God’s blessings, and walk with light.

Michael Bauch

Conversations with God

I want to address a very interesting topic that actually just came up. First, let me take you through the process of what goes into a Mobile Ministry. First, I get an idea. Then I try to build on that idea, mold concepts and find ways of fitting that idea into everyday life. Then I get another idea, and try to integrate that with the first idea. Then another comes along and like a builder with a set of bricks and few instructions, I try to build a house on the fly by putting half drawn schematics into one coherent structure. Then all that gets thrown out because the Holy Spirit literally slaps a topic so strong, so compelling that I have no choice but to address it directly. Now those previous ideas, they’ll get used eventually, whenever the timing is right, but for now, they are neatly stacked on a shelf in my work space at home. So what are we talking about today?

Conversations with God. This is arguably the hardest concept for the Christian mind, especially when we work and live in the world, and try to follow God’s edict that we are not to be “of” the world. In order to fulfill that, in order to fuel that, in order to support that, we need to have regular conversations with God. So why is that so hard? Because, that means relinquishing control. We like to believe that we are masters of our fate and our destiny and that we are in control. We are not. We never have been, nor shall we ever be. This can be very, very, very frustrating, because something in us tells us we should be calling the shots on life. We get down trodden because of “the man”,where in some vague force in the universe is trying to keep us down, keep us at odds with our fellow men, or even within our own homes, with our own families and children. Now a lot of people will tell you “That’s just in your head, don’t believe any of that nonsense.” But I have a shocking revelation for you, there is a force in the universe trying to keep you down, keep you separated from love and hope, from everything good that is, was, or ever shall be.

Now before I start getting emails and phone calls about conspiracy theories, let me reveal the identity of this nefarious force right now. It is sin. It’s the old Adam. It’s the devil himself. Yes, I called it out, the devil is alive and well, because he is of the world and is trying to keep you from salvation. The best way he can do this, is by playing on the old Adam that still exists like a cancer within you. Old Adam is selfish, is gluttonous, is narcissistic, is…just a jerk. Really, when you think about all those little dark moments you have, those flare ups of selfish desire, and you think “Wow, I’m kind of a jerk right now...” it’s the old Adam flaring up. And old Adam doesn’t like giving up control.

Sometime ago I heard a song that spoke of “half of (the singer’s) blood is Cain’s blood…” and the other half was Abel. But that’s not quite accurate. We are extremely complex creatures, with a propensity towards sin, but God has called us out on it and washed away that sin. That doesn’t mean we can’t revert, like addicts secretly fighting the urge for one last fix. That means we are in constant battle with ourselves, our inner core of sin that the devil keeps trying to cultivate into a flourishing black forest of hate and despair. And it’s in those moments of temptation, of selfishness, of self-pity, of sorrow, that we need to have a conversation with God. And sometimes, that is when that conversation can be the hardest to start.

I recently try to encourage a friend who was going through a difficult, emotional time in his life, and suggested talking to God about it, citing it as a way that I deal with some of the same problems. I walk and I talk to God. He advised he did not want to go down that road, or rather that I didn’t want to go down that road, but it’s when you don’t want to go down that road that you need to go down it. Why is it so difficult? Because in the end it is entirely about faith, about opening yourself up and saying “I’m done! I’ve got nothing left in me that can battle this! I need Your help, Lord because I cannot do it on my own.”

Now another accociate of mine, not related to the first individual, once said “Why should I go to God, like He’d understand.” Well, because he does understand. Jesus Christ, Son of God, one third of the Holy Trinity, walked this earth as a man. His presence on earth is part of historical record, and if ever you don’t think Jesus knows the pressure, the daunting nature of true responsibility or to love the ungrateful, I encouraged you to look at Matthew 26, 31-50. In fact, lets look at that now:

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

31 Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd,

and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’[a]

32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

33 Peter replied,“Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

34 “Truly I tell you,”Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

35 But Peter declared,“Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

Gethsemane

36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them,“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

Jesus Arrested

47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

50 Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.”[b]

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.

A lot of people have the wrong idea about Christians and Christianity. We get that having faith doesn’t make the world back away from your door. We understand that the world we live in has some very large, nigh insurmountable problems. But we have faith that God will see us through, one way or another. God does not grant wishes, but he hears you. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it is no, but more often than not, the answer is “wait for it, be patient, it will come when you are ready.” Answers from God, I have learned, don’t come when you demand them, they come when you are ready for them.

Be blessed, and walk with light.

Michael Bauch

Issue 5: Martin Luther

He’s been known by many titles over the years. Modern Apostle, founder of the reformation, preacher, revolutionary, gift from God…obstinate heretic…all, I suppose, have some element of truth to them. He certainly was obstinate. But its sufficient to say that his reputation does, in fact, precede him. You may have noticed the world “Lutheran” on the sign as you drove into our parking lot this morning. But the real question we’re first going to address today is just who is the Martin Luther fellow…

Sadly, a large quantity of the population have no idea who this man is, despite the fact that they enjoy the fruits of his labors. If you ask most people today who Martin Luther was, they’ll immediately talk about Martin Luther King Junior. While MLK was a great man, and I hold him in great respect and regard, he is not our focus today…maybe some other day.

Martin Luther was born to Hans and Margarethe Luther on November 10^th, 1483. Their family lived in Eisleben, Germany where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council, and his mother was described as a hard working woman. The family could be considered by today’s standards as middle class, with several children to look after. Hans had plans for Martin, the eldest son of the family, and decided his boy should be a lawyer.

He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg in 1497, where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life, and Eisenach in 1498. The three schools focused on the so-called "trivium": grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell.
In 1501, at the age of nineteen, he entered the University of Erfurt — which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse. The schedule called for waking at four every morning for what has been described as "a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises.” He received his master's degree in 1505.
In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in law school at the same university that year but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law represented uncertainty. Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel. He was deeply influenced by two tutors, Bartholomäus Arnoldi von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers and to test everything himself by experience. Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, which to Luther was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, and he thereafter developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over the latter's emphasis on reason. For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed, and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him.

He later attributed his decision to an event: on 2 July 1505, he was on horseback during a thunderstorm and a lightning bolt struck near him as he was returning to university after a trip home. Later telling his father he was terrified of death and divine judgment, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk!" He came to view his cry for help as a vow he could never break. He left law school, sold his books, and entered a closed Augustinian friary in Erfurt on 17 July 1505.

Luther dedicated himself to monastic life, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession.

Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailor and hangman of my poor soul."

Johann von Staupitz, his superior, concluded that Luther needed more work to distract him from excessive introspection and ordered him to pursue an academic career. In 1507, he was ordained to the priesthood, and in 1508 began teaching theology at the University of Wittenberg.^[23]He received a Bachelor's degree in Biblical studies on 9 March 1508, and another Bachelor's degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509.^[24]On 19 October 1512, he was awarded his Doctor of Theology and, on 21 October 1512, was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg, having been called to the position of Doctor in Bible.^[25]He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.

But still something was missing for Martin, something just didn’t quite click. In the times he went on pilgrimages he saw first hand the outward corruption in the Vatican, and started wondering just how deep it went. As he gained steam in his education and work as an instructor, he found discrepancies between that the Vatican said was law, and what the Scripture said was right.

Now, I’m going to take a second to say that this does NOT reflect the Catholic Church as it stands today. This is the ROMAN CATHOLIC church 500 some odd years ago.

One of the things Martin Luther takes issue with is termed the Sale of Indulgences. What does this mean?

Indulgences were a way of getting bail from Purgatory. They were never meant as a forgiveness of sins, but as a lessening of the punishment incurred by sins. I could go on about What the Bible actually says about Purgatory…but that’s a different Bible study. The short of it is…say your friend commits a sin, and then dies. As a Christian, and through confession, he is forgiven by God, but his sins still put him into Purgatory for a stint, kind of like jail. It’s not as bad as Hell, but its no where near as good as Heaven. You could perform good deeds in that person’s name and that would serve as bail to get your friend’s immortal soul out of Purgatory and into Heaven. As the practice progressed, it evolved into a money making method for the Church. You could actually buy your friend’s or family’s way out of Purgatory.

By the time Luther hit the scene, the practice of selling indulgences was in full swing. But Luther found there was no scriptural basis for this practice. A guy name Johann Tetzel was really pushing indulgences with a vengeance, and Luther decided it was time to push back.

Luther wrote up a list of 95 things he found wrong with the Catholic Church, specifically focusing on indulgences, and nailed them to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenburg. Admittedly this sounds pretty radical in of itself, nailing something to the door of a Church…but in fact this was actually a common practice of that day. The door to that church looked like a bulletin board in an office break room. Luther wasn’t necessarily calling out the Pope or anyone in specific in his writings, rather he was somewhat naïve about what was really going on. He thought Tetzel was up selling the indulgences for selfish reasons. In fact, Tetzel was working under the orders from the people Luther was trying to warn.

Soon enough, the 95 Thesis were translated from their original Latin into common German, and when that hit the printing press, it spread like wild fire. Within two weeks they were all over Germany. Within two months they were all over Europe and everyone was talking about them. The Roman Catholic Church suddenly had 95 problems to deal with.

To make matters worse for the Roman Catholic Church, the thesis were not Luther’s only written work. He was an accomplished theological author, having written several texts on religion, and was a household name throughout Germany. He was so well known because he spoke to the people in the people’s language and on their level. But the church started feeling the crunch, with the sale of indulgences plummeting and fractures starting to form when people actually started comparing doctrine to scripture.

Luther was soon enough called to Worms Germany to be put on trial for heresy. Originally the church wanted him on trial in Rome so he could be convicted quickly and silenced quietly, but Frederic III of Saxony worked a bit of political magic to have the trial in Germany instead. They spread out the work of Luther before him and asked him if he was the author of those books. He confessed he was. They then told him to recant, but he asked for time to consider the situation. They gave him one day. He came back with an answer that would shake the foundations of the church:

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”

-Martin Luther 1521

But what scripture was he talking about? What supported his argument? What does this mean?

Please pull out your Bibles, or visit: http://www.biblegateway.com/ and read the following scriptures:

Psalm 46 (it’s a short chapter and well worth it)

Isaiah 55:1-11

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Matthew 11:12-15

John 8:31-36

Revelation 14:6-7

If you are not familiar with the site I recommended, all you have to do is cut and paste the reading tag above into the search field and it will take you right there.

What we take from those readings is that Luther believed, and rightly so, that Salvation came through Christ alone, not through any man made element. He believed this so fervently that he risked his life and accepted ex-communication and a life as an outlaw in his homeland. The church wanted him dead, and they determined that no one would be found at fault if they ended Luther. But Luther still had his friends, one of which was Frederick III, who sheltered him during this time. And Luther wasn’t idle during his exile. Luther still wrote out against the church, realizing the greatest tool he had available was the written word. He also took up another task, one that would have a lasting affect on the world.

He made the Bible, the world of God itself, available to the people. Speak if you will of the Gutenberg Bible; that was printed in Latin and for the exclusive use of the church. When Christ was crucified, the temple curtain split, allowing man access to the Glory of God, and Luther was determined to bring it over the threshold of the church and into the hands of the people. What he did was remarkable in of itself. He obtained a copy of the Bible in the original Greek, compared it to the Latin Bible, and as he wrote it into German, he corrected the errors, the mistranslations, the misinterpretations of the Latin. As he did this, he went one step further.

Germany was divided in dialects. He combined them to form a common German language that everyone could understand.

Then he went even further. He saw the church was splintering apart and did what he could to salvage it. He wrote a new litany for the church, which closely resembled the Catholic originals so that it wasn’t a complete culture shock-you can only push the mind so far- then he wrote two more books. The Large Catechism was printed for the clergy so they had a clearer understanding of the Sacraments of Faith, and a Small Catechism brought that understanding into the homes of the people so children could be taught the meanings of their faith.

I want you to take a moment and reflect on your own life. If you are like every human being on the planet, you’ve probably felt overwhelmed in your life. You probably hear about folks like Martin Luther and think “There is no way I could ever do that.” You probably look at your own world, your own little sphere, and feel sometimes you are just too small to do anything.

You want to talk about feeling small, look up a copy of the 95 Thesis. It is less than twenty pages once you get past the introduction. Take a look:

http://www.conradaskland.com/blog/2008/11/martin-luthers-95-theses-in-latin-and-english/.

It’s so very small and yet look at the great things it caused to happen.

What does this mean?

It means that no matter how little you feel, God believes in you. That no matter how meek, small, mild mannered, and unassuming you may think you are, when you stand up for what is right, what is good, what is just, God is behind you and even the tiniest mustard seed can move a mountain. Will it be easy? No. Will you be around to see the end results? Maybe and maybe not. Will you completely understand your role in God’s plan? In all likelihood, probably not. But if you hold fast to your beliefs and are justified by Scripture and by God, no earthly force can ever truly take you down. Martin Luther began life as a man, and he left this world as a symbol, as a battle cry for the freedom to believe and learn and study and grow in faith.

Now that I’ve painted such a glowing picture of Luther, let me remind you that he was…a man. In his later years he was frustrated, besieged by illness and angered by the inflexibility of other faiths. He was just as human as you or I, but his legacy lives on. We take from him exactly what we should; the fire and passion and intelligence, and we leave behind the frustration and anger. I’ve given you a very brief biography of the man, a historical snapshot if you will, but I encourage you to research him further on your own. If you do, don’t judge him too harshly. You may find in the end you are more like Martin Luther than you ever knew.

That’s what it means.

Issue 4: Jacob

 We’ve got quite a bit of ground to cover so lets get started, shall we? As we continue our series of Walking with Heroes of Faith, we come to Jacob, whose story is covered in Genesis chapters 25-50.

If you will recall, last week when we talked about Isaac, we mentioned that he was the father of twin boys, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the first born, quickly followed by Jacob who, according to scripture, came out clutching his brother’s heel. In fact, this informs his name, since by these standards Jacob means “supplanter” or “grabber”, which as we’ll find out become a very descriptive name for young Jacob.

Jacob trades for Esau’s birthright-Genesis 25:27-34

The notion that the birthright of the eldest born son was the most significant isn’t limited to just Biblical times, however it is prevalent here, and becomes a major portion of the story. As the boys grew up, Esau became Isaac’s favored son, while Rebekah took a particular shine to Jacob. Esau was known as the hunter, the go getter, essentially the jock in the family. I imagine these qualities informed why Isaac was taken with Esau; they made Esau look like the natural candidate to take charge of the family after he’d passed on, the natural leader to inherit God’s promise of a might nation. Jacob, he was something of a home body, never found far from the homestead.

One day when Esau returned from a hunting trip, he was famished. Jacob is there, and offers a trade; the stew he was cooking for Esau’s birthright. Esau accepts right away, which really shows how little he thought of his birthright. Let’s look at some aspects of this part of the story:

1) Did Esau really trade his birthright for a bowl of soup?
In all likelihood, Esau didn’t take the offer seriously. It is entirely possible that he considered it a joke. However, the fact that he was willing to joke about something as significant as his birthright shows he had a rather careless attitude about it.
2) What does this say about Jacob?
Jacob shows us very early on that he’s a thinker. He may not have believed the barter for soup to be serious, but he quite likely used it as a test to see how serious about his birthright Esau actually was.

Jacob supplants his brother-Genesis 27:1-40

Several years later, Isaac believes he’s dying. His eyesight is fading and he feels its time to give the blessing of the first born. Remember, though that his wife Rebekah favors Jacob over Esau; she wants to see him succeed over his brother. It could be that she remembers God promise before they were born that the “older shall serve the younger” (25:23). However, like Abraham and Sarah so many years earlier, she isn’t willing to wait and see how God intends that promise to play out. Rather she decides to make things happen in her time, not God’s. We all know how well this usually works out.

So she hatches a plan. Esau leaves on a hunting trip in order to obtain the meat for Isaac’s favored meal. Meanwhile, Rebekah and Jacob slaughter a goat and Rebekah prepares the meat as Isaac’s favored meal and has Jacob, pretending to be Esau, present it to him. Isaac is understandably confused, asking why the hunting trip took so little time, but he’s convinced by the meal. Then he’s questioning whether or not this is in fact Esau. A thing to remember is that Jacob and Esau are fraternal twins, in that they were born together but don’t actually look alike and may only vaguely sound alike. In fact, Esau is considerably hairier than Jacob. Make of that what you will, but Isaac’s suspicions are raised enough that he asks for proof, to feel the arms of his son. Rebekah planned ahead though, laying goat skins over Jacob’s arms so that Isaac is fooled into believing this is his hairy son.

3) Is it reasonable to think that Esau was so hairy that a goat skin is a convincing substitute?
Having working with the hands and arms of a variety of people over the last year or so, I think this is completely plausible. I am not exaggerating when I say that there are some people out there that are in fact that hairy. Regardless of you belief in the validity of this story, I can tell you that this aspect is completely within the realm of possibility.
4) Isn’t it a false blessing when Isaac bestows the blessing meant for Esau on Jacob?
One could reasonably assume that Isaac’s blessing would still fall on Esau despite it being Jacob present, but that’s where we look at the dialog of the story: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field, that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of heaven’s dew, and of earth’s richness-an abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you be blessed.” (27: 27-29)
At no point in the blessing does he call his son by name, rather laying his hands directly on his son and speaking the words. That’s the significance here, which means the blessing is completely applied to Jacob, regardless of who Isaac thought he was.

And it’s right about here that Esau walks in on the whole situation and quickly realizes what has happened. By gaining the blessing, Jacob seals the deal on the birthright as well, regardless of whether or not Esau was serious about the original deal. But its time for Jacob to pack up and get out of Dodge, as it were, because Esau is mad, and Rebekah is fearful that he’ll kill Jacob.

Jacob returns home a wealthy man-Genesis 31-32

While Jacob is away from home, he meets with his uncle Laban, and works for him for seven years. In that time he becomes fantastically wealthy. He starts his trip home after some twenty years away, now with four wives and twelve sons. We’ll get into that next week.

On his return he questions God’s promise of protection on his journey. He is afraid that Esau is still holding a grudge, and sends 550 animals ahead of his family as a peace offering. A masterful stroke of strategy, but also tells of his lack of faith.

The night before Jacob is to meet with his brother, he is involved in one of the most unique encounters in all of scripture. He finds himself in a night long wrestling match with an, at first, unidentified individual of supernatural strength and endurance. But Jacob is stubborn in a fight, not willing to let go, even after this stranger merely touches his hip and dislocates the joint. He says to Jacob “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” Jacob responds “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asks for Jacob’s name, and then says “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

Here we find another instance of renaming. God has done this before, with Abraham and Sarah, and will do it again later in scripture. The purpose of the renaming is a means of cutting away the mortal trappings. It shows that he is no longer under the strict authority of men, not even his father and mother who gave him that name, but now under the direct authority of God alone. He has been reborn through God’s word and with that new birth comes a new name.

Jacob meets with his brother and they make peace, and become a family once again.

What we learn from our walk with Jacob is that once again you don’t have to be perfect to be a hero of faith. Jacob shows us that the ends don’t justify the means and that if we allow God to do his work and stop trying to speed things up through our own actions, our blessings will be greater and more fulfilling. Yes, Jacob was blessed, but at what cost? He lost over twenty years with his family and his mother had passed on before her favored son came home. Not it’s not actually a bad thing to be a gung ho go getter when you are the leader, however it shouldn’t come at the cost of your principles or of your family. Jacob stands as a hero of faith because he reminds us that impatience and manipulation may get you want you want, but at a great cost, and that even through that cost, God will still do great things.

Let us close in prayer;

Father God, we come to you humbly asking for the patience and wisdom to enjoy your blessings as you send them to us, and not to try and force your hand. Often we find ourselves wrestling with Your will, and with those around us, and often we can feel overwhelmed. Give us the strength to endure and open our minds to see that we should not wrestle against Your will, but rather trust in You and be guided by Your Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a blessed week and walk with light.

Michael Bauch