Dialog

I love Apostle John stories. It seems reasonable that he was the last apostle to die and the only one to die of natural causes. He is firmly associated with Ephesus, and if he lived so long, it is possible there were many stories about John circulating. One of those stories is repeated in the apocryphal “Acts of John” (third century?)

In this tale, John comes to Ephesus only to find “Lycomedes the praetor of the Ephesians, a man of large substance,” and his wife Cleopatra have died. Lycomedes killed himself to argue with the gods. “Why is my beautiful wife dying?” By the time John arrives, they have both died. The apostle raises them from the dead, and they are overwhelmed with gratitude. Lycomedes has his friend, a painter, secretly make a portrait of the apostle, and Lycomedes turns the picture into a shrine in his bed-chamber.

Lycomedes spends so much time in the bedroom that the Apostle John becomes suspicious. John “went into the bed-chamber and saw the portrait of an old man crowned with garlands and lamps and altars set before it. And he called him and said: ‘Lycomedes, what is the meaning of this portrait? Can it be one of your gods that is painted here? I think you are still living in a heathen fashion.”

Lycomedes denies it. “My only God is he who raised me from death with my wife.” He goes on to ask, “Isn’t it proper for me to have a portrait of the man I love as a father and crown as my good guide?”

John doesn’t believe the picture is of him, so Lycomedes called for a mirror so the apostle could see himself and the portrait together.

“He saw himself in the mirror, looked earnestly at the portrait, and then he said: ‘As the Lord Jesus Christ lives, the portrait is like me: yet not like me. Child, it is like my fleshly image. But if this painter desires to draw me in a portrait, he will be at a loss. He will need more than his limited paints, boards, and plaster. He needs more than just the outline of my face. He needs more than all the things that are seen with the eye.’”

The old apostle smiled and looked at Lycomedes. “You can be a better artist than that painter! You have all the colors the Lord has given you through me. The Lord painted all of us for himself. Jesus knows all the shapes and postures of our bodies and even the appearance of our souls. Here are the colors you should use: faith in God, knowledge, godly fear, friendship, communion, humility, kindness, brotherly love, purity, simplicity, tranquility, fearlessness, sobriety, and the whole collection of colors that painted the likeness of your soul. A godly portrait using God’s paint lifts those parts of your soul that were cast down and brings down those that were puffed up. His paints tend your bruises and heal your wounds. God’s portrait combs your hair, washes your face, brightens your eyes, and even purges your belly. In a word, Lycomedes, this new portrait using God’s paints will present you to our Lord Jesus Christ undaunted, whole, and firm – a mingling of such colors of your soul that is beautiful beyond imagination.”

Then John eyed the silly shrine Lycomedes made and said, “But this you have done now is childish and imperfect. You have drawn a dead likeness of the dead.”

 
Not everyone who heard Jesus understood what he was saying. The lawyers, Sadducees, and many Pharisees didn’t understand; otherwise, they wouldn’t have crucified Jesus (Acts 13:27). I wonder how many people who ate from the multiplied loaves and fishes thought they understood Jesus but missed the point? The book of John is especially full of examples of this sort of thing.
 
When Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” Nicodemus missed the point. When Jesus told the crowd, “I am the living bread,” they grumbled because they misunderstood: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” (John 6:52).
 
We need to pay attention because it is so easy to misunderstand, think about it!

1. We can misunderstand because we don’t have all the information. (This is especially true when evaluating so-called discrepancies in the Bible!)
2. We can misunderstand because we have the wrong information. (“I thought there were three wise men at the birth of Jesus.”)
3. We can misunderstand because we make decisions based on our past. (“That’s what I’ve always been taught.”)
4. We can misunderstand because we are afraid to disagree with the crowd. (“Yet at the same time, many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees, they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God,” John 12:42, 43).
5. We can misunderstand because we don’t want to understand. (“Don’t confuse me with the facts.” See Acts 26:28 and think about King Agrippa’s reaction to Paul.) 

What should we do? Let’s follow the example of the noble Bereans who “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Remember: The Scriptures are full of surprises!

It was an amazing scene. The banks of the Jordan River across from Jericho will remind you of a jungle. It’s lush and green and thick with growth. Here the river spreads out into a slow-moving stream, and pilgrims cross from the land of the Gentiles into Judea on their way to Jerusalem.

This is probably where John and his disciples were baptizing, and on this day, Jesus of Nazareth came to be immersed. We read in Matthew’s Gospel:

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Focus on those words, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” So what had Jesus done to please God? At this moment, Jesus hadn’t performed a single miracle. He hadn’t healed anyone or given a single sermon that we know of. Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross or been resurrected. As far as anyone could tell, Jesus was just the son of Joseph and a carpenter from an obscure village called Nazareth.

God’s love isn’t dependent upon our great accomplishments. We don’t need to earn it or prove our love. His love isn’t conditional. “For God so loved the world” – that includes all of us, great and small. What matters then is our response. God loves you! What will you do now?

This is the week I dread most each year. I set it aside for my yearly “tune-up.” Monday are labs and a visit to the ophthalmologist. Tuesday is a root canal. Wednesday is my annual top to bottom physical. (No pun intended) Thursday is the hearing doctor. Growing older isn’t for wimps! (Did I mention the root canal and upcoming eye surgery?)

On the other hand, this body isn’t designed to last forever. The Apostle Paul promised:

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (1 Corinthians 15:50 – 52).

But this will be the second time we’ve been changed. Paul also told the Romans:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1 – 2; See also 2 Corinthians 3:18).

The word Paul used that is translated “transformed” in English is metamorphoo (μεταμορφόω). Our word “metamorphosis” comes from it. It describes a change that comes from the inside out. Just like you don’t make butterflies by pinning paper wings on worms, we must be “transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

Our word is used to describe the change that came over Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration:

And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light (Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2).

Interestingly, this verb is always in the passive tense in the New Testament. It cannot be something we do for ourselves. It is a blessing God bestows on us. Now think of the humble caterpillar. I wonder when the caterpillar spins his cocoon, does he believe it is the end? Does he feel he spinning himself a silken coffin?

If you’re about to lose heart – if you look in the mirror and see only wrinkles – look for a butterfly “for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Jesus, Mark 7:21 – 23).

Jesus says, the things that defile us come from within (Mark 7:21). Then he gives an extensive list of these evil things. “Envy” is included in verse 22, but literally, Jesus is warning us of the “evil eye.” (See KJV, ASV, D-R, ERV, and the Geneva Bible.) Most of the modern English Bibles simply say “envy,” but the “evil eye” is more than that.

The Greek Jesus uses for “evil eye” is ophthalmos poneros (ὀφθαλμὸς πονηρός – our words “ophthalmology” and “porn” come directly from them.) Jesus warned, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away” (Matthew 5:29)! An eye that causes you to sin is certainly an “evil eye,” but to understand this phrase, we need to study poneros.

There are many different Greek words translated “evil” in English. Kakos and poneros describe just two varieties of evil. A kakos person is the opposite of a “good” or “beautiful” person. On the other hand, a poneros person delights in causing evil, perverseness, and making trouble for his neighbor. Proverbs 4:16 says, 

“For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; 

      they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.”

The old bishop, R.C. Trench writes: 

The [kakos person] may be content to perish in his own corruption, but the [poneros person] is not content unless he is corrupting others as well.^[1]

Watch out! A person with an “evil eye” is looking for trouble – not just for himself, but especially for others. Evil!

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^[1] Trench, R. C. (1880). In Synonyms of the New Testament (9th ed., improved., p. 316). Macmillan and Co.

Over the holidays, I’ve been transferring our old family photos, slides, and movies to digital so they can be preserved and shared. The fifty-year-old slides slowly change color, the pictures fade, and the movies become brittle. It’s a lot of work to copy each one (there are thousands) and lovingly restore them.
 
Why bother? Because memories are powerful! Jesus told the Ephesian Christians, “I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:3 – 4). So what did the Lord advise them to do? “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first” (v. 5).
 
I’ve noticed two dangers in relationships. First, we grow tired of one another. The “same ol’ same ol’” gets old. There is a real need to “spice things up.” Second, sometimes we take each other for granted, which leads us to take liberties. Do we leave our clothes on the floor or our dishes on the TV tray, knowing someone else will pick up after us? It’s time to remember.
 
When couples come to me for counseling, I will often ask them to bring their wedding album with them. We stop and look at the pictures and remember how things used to be. Remembering is powerful!
 
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it!” (George Santayana-1905). In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill changed the quote slightly when he said (paraphrased), “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
 
Take time today to remember.

Growing up listening to old-school preachers, I thought “sin” was a two-syllable word. I saw these larger-than-life figures with swept-back hair, fire in their eyes, pointing their fingers, and with bits of spittle in the corners of their mouths, shouting with their southern accents: “Si-in!”

Calvin Coolidge was a man of few words. One Sunday, his sick wife had to stay home while Calvin went to church. So she asked him, “Calvin, what did the preacher talk about?”

He answered, “Sin.”

Not satisfied with his abbreviated answer, she asked again, “What did he say about it?”

Calvin merely replied, “He was against it.”

I haven’t heard many sermons about sin lately, but perhaps that is because I have to listen to myself preach. It’s January, and I am planning my sermon series for the coming year. I want to emphasize the Gospel: Jesus saves! But I’m afraid most people would wonder: “Saves from what?” Sin and death, of course, but sin isn’t a topic you hear discussed in daily life. You might hear someone talk about the “sin tax” (taxes on tobacco and alcohol) or “sinfully rich desserts,” but, sadly, people don’t discuss the moral concept of sin.

Sin is all around us – in public and in private – but the discussion has been reframed as “character flaws,” “failures,” and “peccadillos.” It’s no wonder concepts such as “honor,” “character,” and “respect” have also fallen on hard times.

I believe it is time to start talking about sin – however, you pronounce it – again.

 Jesus and the Pharisees disagreed over the interpretation of the Law of Moses. The Pharisees attempted to protect the Law by surrounding it with their traditions. It was like Grandma telling me, “Don’t go near the water till you learn to swim.” In other words, Grandma’s law is “Don’t drown.” The tradition protecting her law is “Don’t go near the water!”

Now let’s look at an example from the Law of Moses. The Fourth Commandment reads, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” The Pharisees protected the Sabbath with a plethora of traditions. (Many of them seem silly to us, but I respect their devotion to holiness.)

If we were good Pharisees, we would stroke our long beards and ask, “What does it mean to keep the Sabbath Day holy?”

“That means ‘Do no work’ (Exodus 20:10).”

Our Pharisee – and the Pharisees were very good at asking questions – would respond, “Yes, but what is ‘work’?”

Here is an example of their reasoning: “Tying knots is work, so you cannot tie a knot on the Sabbath.” That answer didn’t settle it, of course. After dutifully stroking their beards once more, they would ask: “Yes, but what is a ‘knot’?” Finally, they concluded if you could tie it with one hand, it’s not a knot. Their arguments went on and on. You are allowed to eat an egg laid on the Sabbath (the chicken violated the Sabbath), but only if you killed the chicken first! You can draw water from a well on the Sabbath, but only if the bucket is already attached to the rope. (Remember, you can’t tie a knot on the Sabbath.) However, modesty demands women to wear undergarments, which require tying knots. Thus it is permissible to tie a knot in women’s underwear. And so, in a pinch, you may tie a girdle to the bucket and then tie the girdle to the rope, and draw your water without violating the Sabbath commandment!

Did Jesus agree with them? After all, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Likewise, the most troubling passage is Matthew 23:1 – 3.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

At first glance, it appears Jesus is telling his disciples to observe the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees. It seems like his criticism is pointed at the difference between what they say and what they do. They’re not practicing what they preach. But if that’s the case, how can we reconcile Jesus’ condemnations of their teachings and traditions elsewhere? For example, listen to what Jesus says about the Pharisees’ ritualistic tradition of handwashing:

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God (Matthew 15:1 – 6. See 12:1 – 14; 15:3 – 9; and 19:3 – 9 for more examples).

How do we reconcile Jesus telling his disciples to listen to the Pharisees while sitting in Moses’ Seat and the Lord’s teaching against the Pharisees’ traditions? The Pharisees sitting in Moses’ Seat is not the same as the pope speaking ex cathedra! In the days before the printing press, Bibles were scarce. I believe Jesus is talking about listening to the scribes and Pharisees who had access to the rare copies of the Scriptures. In effect, Jesus is saying, “Listen to the Pharisees as they read the Scriptures, but don’t follow their hypocritical interpretations.”

While Satan tempted Jesus (Luke 4; Matthew 4), the devil quoted Scripture after Scripture. Jesus didn’t disagree with the quotations. He disagreed with the interpretations. Likewise, I may not agree with a teacher or a preacher. He may be a scoundrel, but I will honor the Word of God no matter who is reading it – or where they are sitting.

When Judas came to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, leading the mob to arrest Jesus, the Lord says, “Friend, do what you came to do” (Matthew 26:50). That’s the English translation, but it’s not quite right. “Friend” has always struck me as an odd choice of address for the man who was betraying Jesus, although I’m sure Jesus never stopped loving Judas.

The usual Greek word translated “friend” in English is philos like Philadelphia, the “city of friends.” Instead, Jesus calls Judas etairos (ἑταῖρος), “comrade.” This is a polite word. According to the lexicon, it is used “As a general form of address to someone whose name one does not know.” Matthew often uses it; for example, the expression is used by the master as he addresses the workers in the field:

But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ (Matthew 20:13 – 15)

And again, it is used by the king to the man who dared attend his son’s wedding improperly dressed:

But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:11 – 12).

Jesus didn’t call Judas his “friend,” “brother,” or even a “disciple.” He didn’t even call Judas by name. But, on the other hand, Jesus didn’t call him a “traitor” or curse Judas either.

Let’s pause for a moment and ask, “Why did Judas betray Jesus?” Was Judas simply an evil man, or did he do it for money? Some say Judas was trying to help Jesus begin the revolution. Surely Judas, who had seen Jesus raise the dead and walk on water, didn’t believe the mob would be able to arrest the Lord!

The answer may be found in a textual variant of an ancient papyrus copy of Luke 23:32. The usual reading is, “Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him.” However, P75, one of the Bodmer Papyri, substitutes our word hetairoi (ἑταῖροι) “comrade” for heteros (ἕτερος) “others.” According to this ancient variant, we might translate verse 32, “Two political partisans, who were terrorists, were led away to be put to death with him.”

William Barclay suggested that the last four apostles, who included “Simon the Zealot” and Judas Iscariot, were revolutionaries before they became apostles. Zealots were revolutionaries, and Barclay believes “Iscariot” is derived from “Sicarii,” a group of Zealot assassins.

With this understanding, is it possible Jesus looked into the eyes of Judas, shook his head, and called him “comrade,” implying Judas had returned to his revolutionary ways? [1]

Christians are empowered to change the world, but not as revolutionaries. We are salt, light, and leaven. Our light drives out darkness. Our salt flavors the world, and our leaven brings about fundamental changes in the stuff of life. Will Jesus call us “brothers and sisters” or just “comrade”?

  [1] “P75 may well imply political partisans” See Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). In A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 398). University of Chicago Press for a fuller discussion.

Mornings are hard enough without stepping on the bathroom scales. Bleary-eyed and buck naked, I dutifully weigh myself before stepping into the shower. The digital verdict is either a cause for rejoicing or re-doubling my efforts to eat healthily. Either way, it becomes the basis for my breakfast choices – steel-cut oats or a nice seafood omelet.

Later, while sipping my coffee, I read an article about “Le Grand K” – the former international standard of weight for the kilogram.

For more than a century, the kilogram (kg) — the fundamental unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI) — was defined as exactly equal to the mass of a small polished cylinder, cast in 1879 of platinum and iridium.

Kept in a triple-locked vault on the outskirts of Paris, the platinum-iridium cylinder was officially called the International Prototype of the Kilogram (IPK). It even had a nickname: Le Grand K (The Big K). The accuracy of every measurement of mass or weight worldwide, whether in pounds and ounces or milligrams and metric tons, depended on how closely the reference masses used in those measurements could be linked to the mass of the IPK.[1]

Imagine, even the dreaded scale in my bathroom was calibrated through a chain of comparisons to The Big K in France, but scientists discovered a problem. Over the years, the standard has lost weight! No one was sure how it happened.

Over the past century, the trend for most sister copies [of Le Grand K] has been to gain mass relative to the original by varying amounts, although these amounts are unimaginably tiny. On average, the gain is around 50 micrograms (millionths of a gram) over 100 years. It’s possible, of course, that the original was losing mass relative to its copies or that it’s a combination of both. Either way, it’s no great cause for concern for most of us, as the change in mass is roughly the weight of a fly’s wing. [2]

But think what that means! “I can’t trust those scales!” I cried. Jan, who always seems to be one step ahead of me, replied. “John, Le Grand K, no longer defines the kilogram.” So she turned her laptop around and continued reading:

Rather than rely on a platinum cylinder in a bell jar in Paris, eggheads in the world of measurements decided to anchor the future kilogram to Planck’s constant. This is a fixed quantity tied in with E=MC2 and quantum theory, specifying the amount of energy carried by a single particle of light, or photon. And that’s just the most extremely simplified version.

Then I guess I’ll have to trust my scales and learn to enjoy oatmeal for breakfast, but it does point out how important standards are. Jim L. Wilson writes:

Even the best human measurements fall short, but it is not so with God’s Word. It is an unchanging standard. [3]

Amen! Now pass the jelly for my toast. I’m in the mood to celebrate.

[1] https://www.nist.gov/si-redefinition/kilogram

[2] https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/le-grand-k

[3] Wilson, J. L., & Russell, R. (2015). The Changing Standard of Le Grand K.