What does this mean? - an answer for those who ask about our faith

We are told (commanded) that we have an obligation to be well prepared to explain to others why we believe.

1 Peter 3:15

¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

In today's scripture reading of Exodus the question was asked: what does this mean?
This pertains to the religious festival of the Passover and the feast of the Unleavened Bread. The celebration of this festival in the Jewish tradition is in fact the very first law (exodus 13:9) ever given to the Jews as a chosen people. This is even before the Ten Commandments, after Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden of Eden? ( I did a word search of the word "law" to verify this). So when we obey God's commandment to celebrate this special event, we must be prepared to explain the reason for it:

I found the three "c" words in this portion of the scripture to help me remember:

Exodus 13:14-16
¹⁴ “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ ¹⁶ And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”

(1) Celebrate - with a mighty hand, The Lord brought us out of slavery...this is why I

(2) Consecrate - the first offspring of every womb... And to

(3) Commemorate - like a sign on your hand, and a symbol on your forehead

We are to celebrate God's salvation, even when we are going through rough times. We are to pray, as David did in Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me". We are to remember the bondage to sin we were in and the liberation from it through Jesus' work on the cross. That is why we give to God our very best. We are to set aside, before everything or everyone else, the best of our time, talent, and wealth.  And lastly to remember it by having regular disciplines of reading God's Word, praying, and having fellowship with others. 

The New Testament reading today also happened to touch on the word yeast. In Exodus the Israelites were told not to have any yeast in sight during the festival to remember the "haste" of their exodus. But here in Matthew it is about The yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Matthew 16:8-12
⁸ Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith,why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? ⁹ Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹⁰ Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? ¹¹ How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” ¹² Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Jesus when tempted by satan quoted from Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 8:3

³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

When we are tempted by our circumstances to take the easy way out, compromising everything we have learned from God, it is easy to follow superficial "letters of the law" to soothe our conscience. What Jesus want from us is the "circumcision of the heart", to remember the Great Exodus! Even the great miracles of crossing the Red Sea, or the manna from heaven, or the pillars of cloud by day and the pillars of fire by night, will be sign enough to help us through. But the sign of Jonah will...

The story of Peter in today's passage is reassuring in the way that God has chosen us, the people with lots of faults, to be his witnesses! Peter ("Simon son of Jonah" - this is after Jesus talking about the sign of Jonah; is that a coincidence?) was blessed by Jesus for his acknowledgement of Jesus as the Messiah:

Matthew 16:16-19
¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter,^[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^[c]will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^[d]bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^[e]loosed in heaven.”


Only to be rebuked by Jesus a few verses later:
²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Thank you Jesus for choosing me to tell your story when I am asked "What does this mean?"!

Asking for signs

When I was living in Montreal, I went through a period of time when I felt powerless and unsure about many things, the worst of which was the feeling that God was not there. In my prayers I pleaded that God would give me a sign, like speaking in tongue or any manifestation of His Spirit. He never gave me that. Instead, one evening a surprise visitor came, KW. He and his wife came to my Sunday School years ago when I was still in medical school. Being a very intelligent man and had been influenced by the writings of Bertrand Russell, he had many tough questions for me. I would never imagine that my Sunday School classes had given him any help to lead him to Christ. However, that evening he shared with me that he had become a Christian and had decided to pick up a Christian name - David! What a sign!

In this passage in Mathew 12:38-42, one may jump to the conclusion that one should never ask for a sign. But I think when one cries out to God, He is delighted to give him more than he asks!

The Sign of Jonah

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah,and now something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.

In this passage a sign is more like a proof, a miracle. We like God to prove Himself to us. Is He powerful enough to save us from our troubles? As if the work of His hands (creation all around us) is still not enough, we want more. In fact we want to see proof that will bring direct benefit to ourselves, like good health and wealth. Instead, He gave us the best we can ever ask for, Himself, through His beloved Son. He makes it possible for us to have a relationship with Him by sending His Son to die for us on the cross to pay for our sins. He was buried for three days as in Jonah's story ( which the Jews in His days were very familiar with). He then rose from His death!

What should I ask next time I walk through "the valley of the shadow of death" (Palms 23:4 RSV)? God has already answered my prayers. Remember Jonah's story!

Just as an aside, there are many "sin cities" mentioned in scripture: Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, and here the city of Nineveh. Jesus often reminds us that unrepentant hearts will be worse off in judgement days than what had happened to these cities. What a sobering thought!

What I should be thinking while riding on open country road

I subscribe to the Verse of the Day from Bible Gateway. I get a random bible verse(s) in my email each day. Most days, I don't spend a lot of time meditating on the words but this one from Psalm 118:5-6 caught my attention:

"When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD; he brought me into a spacious place. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"

I was particularly interested in the word "spacious" so I decided to look it up. I was thinking: isn't it enough to have the Lord's presence with me during my hard times? What would a spacious place add to my confidence that the Lord Almighty will rescue me from any enemy or harm?

I first googled "commentary on Psalm 118" and there were lots of help! I found the BibleStudyTools.com particularly helpful. So the literal translation of "he brought me into a spacious place"  is "Jah heard me in a wide place" and the commentary added: The answer was appropriate to the prayer, for he brought him out of his narrow and confined condition into a place of liberty where he could walk at large, free from obstruction and oppression. 

Another wonderful feature of the Bible Gateway is that by a click of a button, I can see parallel translations! My favorite translation along side the NIV translation is The Message. And Psalm 118:5-16 reads:

Pushed to the wall, I called to God;
    from the wide open spaces, he answered.
God’s now at my side and I’m not afraid;
    who would dare lay a hand on me?
God’s my strong champion;
    I flick off my enemies like flies.
Far better to take refuge in God
    than trust in people;
Far better to take refuge in God
    than trust in celebrities.
Hemmed in by barbarians,
    in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt;
Hemmed in and with no way out,
    in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt;
Like swarming bees, like wild prairie fire, they hemmed me in;
    in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt.
I was right on the cliff-edge, ready to fall,
    when God grabbed and held me.
God’s my strength, he’s also my song,
    and now he’s my salvation.
Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs
    in the camp of the saved?
        “The hand of God has turned the tide!
        The hand of God is raised in victory!
        The hand of God has turned the tide!”

I can imagine when David was hiding in a cave when Saul was trying to find him to take his life. Getting back out to an open and spacious place with the Lord by his side is answer to prayer indeed!

So next time I am out in open country on my bike, I will remember this verse. It should take away some of my anxious thoughts...

Meaning of healing

So this is one of my 2013 New Year resolutions. I will try to write at least one reflection from my daily scripture reading every week. Now that I have every Friday off, I would hope that I can commit to at least that!

This first one comes from my reading of Matthew 8:16-17:

Jesus Heals Many

¹⁴ When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
¹⁶ When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities    and bore our diseases.” (Isaiah 53:4)

It has stuck me that I had always assumed that the reference Isaiah 53:4 was referring to Jesus' death on the cross. I am sure that the prophet Isaiah definitely referred to that. But what Matthew is referring to here is the act of healing that Jesus did - that Jesus heals the sick by taking up their infirmities and bearing their diseases.

A little while ago I listened to someone sharing the meaning of the word "compassion" which is to "suffer with", from the root "com" and "passion". So this is what Jesus did. He identifies with those who suffer and by suffering with them he heals them.

So this is what I need to learn to do better in 2013 - to practice true compassion when I see patients. This is my calling. This is to live like Jesus.

Just as an aside, Jesus knows the power of the simple touch. Here he healed Peter's mother-in-law by touching her hand. Earlier in the same chapter (8:3) Jesus healed a man with leprosy also by touching him even though it was probably a taboo to touch a leprous in his days ( probably even now!). Jesus knows the science (of the mode of transmission of the mycobacterium) and he breaks conventional "wisdom". I must do the same!