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Chapter-a-Day

Life’s Chorus

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Life’s Chorus (CaD Matt 21) – Wayfarer

[The chief priests and Pharisees] looked for a way to arrest [Jesus], but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Matthew 21:15 (NIV)

In theatre, it’s called the Chorus.

Every major theatrical production has a Chorus. It’s where almost every actor begins their journey on stage. For me, it was the musical Mame my freshman year in high school. Craig got the lead as a sophomore because he was over six feet tall and the only dude in school who could naturally grow a full beard.

I was in the Chorus.

I was a minion switching costumes for each of the big production numbers. An anonymous party-goer at Mame’s New York City penthouse apartment in one scene, then suddenly a mint-julep sipping southern gentleman in a tux later in the show. A face in the crowd.

As I studied acting in college, I was taught the importance of doing a character study for any role I’m playing.

But what if I’m a member of the Chorus?

It’s a legitimate question. It’s a legitimate role.

In today’s chapter, the crowd plays a significant role.

The crowd welcomes Jesus to Jerusalem in a triumphant parade in which they shout His praises, wave palm branches, and spread their cloaks on the ground before His donkey.

The crowd has Jesus #trending. He’s who everyone is talking about. He’s all the buzz. So much so, in fact, that the religious leaders are indignant.

Later in the chapter, the indignant religious leaders try to trap Jesus in a debate. Jesus skirts His way out of the trap by leveraging his enemies’ fear of the crowd.

A third time (there’s that number three again) Matthew mentions Jesus’ enemies were so upset that they became determined to get rid of Him, but they were afraid of the crowd.

By the end of the week it will be a different scene in a different Act. The crowd will have switched costumes and will be calling on Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus.

It’s easy to be dismissive of the Chorus in any musical, but it has a significant role to play. In the same way, it’s easy to pretend the crowd doesn’t exist in life, but it plays a larger role than I care to admit.

The number of “likes” and “comments” I get on social media from the crowd.

The movies, shows, and songs that the crowd is buzzing about.

The fashions and styles everyone in the crowd is wearing.

The fickle winds of popular opinion being tweeted, chanted, and shouted by the crowd online and in the media.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself wrestling with my own relationship with and participation in the crowd of life. I can’t escape it anymore than Jesus could escape it. He rode His donkey through the crowd shouting His praises. He knew the crush of the crowd following Him wherever He went for three years. He will feel the sting of the crowd turning on Him in the end. There is a Chorus in life whether I choose to recognize it or not. Sometimes I’m a part of it. Sometimes I’m on the outside being influenced by it.

As I ponder, I’m reminded of an observation that John made about Jesus and the crowd of Jerusalem:

Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person. John 2:23-25 (NIV)

I might not be able to escape the Chorus in my life’s production, but I can certainly be mindful of the role it’s trying to play in my story. I can be discerning. I can choose not to take the role when it’s offered. I, like Jesus, can choose whether to entrust myself to it or not. The further I get on this earthly journey, the more I think it wise to do so.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

He Walked Away

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He Walked Away (CaD Matt 16) – Wayfarer

A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.
Matthew 16:4 (NIV)

Early in my life I worked for many years in Christian bookstores hawking Christian books, music, and decorative trinkets. Along the line, I had the opportunity to observe how the Christian publishing, recording, and marketing world worked. In those days, Colorado Springs, Colorado was the hotbed of Christian organizations. In recent years, Nashville has become the hub for the hottest Christian authors, podcasters, and recording artists. It is a business. I learned that there is a way the game is played. For a period of time I had a cheap seat from where I got to observe it.

Along my chapter-a-day journey over the years, I’ve learned that spiritual lessons are found in Jesus’ actions as well as His words.

In yesterday’s post, I noted that the “big dogs” from Jerusalem had been dispatched to check out Jesus. Jerusalem was the Colorado Springs or Nashville of Judaism in that day. Jerusalem was a “Who’s Who” of the powerful movers and shakers in the Jewish establishment. Jerusalem had the best teachers, like a famous dude named Gamaliel. In fact, among Gamaliel’s prize students is an up-and-coming young prospect named Saul of Tarsus. Saul is from a wealthy and prominent Greek family who are Roman citizens. Impressive. Jerusalem is where it’s at for anyone wanting to be anyone as a famous teacher in Judaism.

Jesus wasn’t there. Jesus chose to focus His ministry in rural areas around the Sea of Galilee. He only went to Jerusalem on pilgrimages during festivals. His disciples weren’t well-educated, wealthy, or impressive. But Jesus was making big waves in the backwaters of Galilee, so the powerful establishment had to send a scouting party to check Him out. Yesterday they criticized Jesus for not toeing the line of tradition. He called them hypocrites.

In today’s chapter, they purposefully “test” Jesus. After-all, the word that had reached Jerusalem was all about Jesus performing miracles, healing the sick, and raising the dead. They came for The Show. The corporate execs back at the Home Office expect a full report on whether this podunk preacher is the real deal. Do they fast-track Him for stardom and offer Him a contract? Is He a threat that needs to be dealt with? They have an establishment to run and it runs a certain way.

So, the scouts “test” Jesus and ask for a “sign.” They want to see a miracle. They want to know if the stories are true. They have reports to file. The moguls back at the Temple will demand an accounting.

Jesus simply refuses. He walks away.

Later in the chapter, Jesus asks His disciples what “everyone” is saying about Him. The boys report that some were saying He was John the Baptist risen from the dead (that was Herod’s view). Others said that He was Elijah returned to earth (Elijah had been taken up to heaven in a tornado, and Malachi famously prophesied his return someday). Notice that John the Baptist seemed to have more PR “cred” with the masses and the establishment than Jesus at this point. Jesus was still, in many ways, a complete unknown.

Jesus tells his rag-tag group of nobody disciples to be wary and critical of the big dogs from Jerusalem, their establishment, and the games they play for power, prestige, wealth, and influence. God’s ways are not their ways. They want a “show,” Jesus said, but the only show He’s going to give them is to spend three days in the grave (like Jonah in the belly of a fish) and then showing up very much alive.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself once again blown away by the contrast Jesus purposefully created by what He did, where He hung out, who He chose as His disciples, and the kingdom of religion of His day. He was anti-establishment. He consciously chose to ignore those who could hand Him popularity, fame, and a whole new market for His teaching and miraculous ministry tours. In yesterday’s chapter, when the Big Dogs showed up, Jesus took His disciples and went north, further away from Jerusalem to Tyre and Sidon, a non-Jewish region full of heathens where the Jews would never follow.

The further I get in my life journey, the more convinced I’ve become that God’s plans and purposes don’t look anything like what the world tells me I should be chasing after. Jesus’ response to the power brokers of His day was to ignore, walk away, and then remind His followers that being His disciple was not a path to riches and fame, but humility, suffering, and death.

Am I willing to follow Jesus as He simply ignores the world and walks away?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Celebrity

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Celebrity (CaD 1 Cor 3) – Wayfarer

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
1 Corinthians 3:5-6 (NIV)

When I was a young man, it was the age of mega churches and celebrity preachers. Size mattered, as well has having a preacher who could make it in the big leagues of television or publishing. It didn’t take me very long to observe that there was an entire industry built around them. Between conferences, videos, books, and guest appearances, there’s money to be made. I also observed in many instances that the higher certain individuals rose in celebrity, the harder they fell in messy, public ways.

There is something very human about the way we love celebrity. You can even see it behind the scenes in the Great Story. John the Baptist’s disciples start to feel the sting of John’s fading celebrity as the crowds start to migrate to Jesus. Jesus’ disciples start to argue over what positions they’ll occupy in what they assume will be Jesus’ earthly Kingdom. In the local gathering of Jesus’ followers in Corinth there was division based on loyalty to different leaders such as Paul, Peter, or a dynamic young preacher named Apollos.

Our local gathering of Jesus’ followers asked me to participate in trying something that was, in my experience, pretty unique. Over several years, I was asked to mentor and help individuals develop their preaching skills. not just church staff but also members who had demonstrated giftedness or calling. People were given opportunities, the messages in weekly worship were spread out among many individuals. It was a wonderful experience and I was privileged to be part of it.

In fact, there are many things that continue to be learned among our local gathering in which the multiple, diverse teacher paradigm generally continues. People began to appreciate different voices, perspectives, and communication styles. I as a listener discovered I had a responsibility to learn from whoever might be teaching any given week, not worry about who was teaching. It was amazing to watch how every teacher’s style resonated with different parts of the whole. All-in-all, I witnessed spiritual maturation taking place that was a complete contrast to the celebrity preacher paradigm I experienced in my youth and still witness in many places.

Paul is trying to make this very point with the fledgling believers in Corinth who are doing what we human beings do when we turn leaders into celebrities. Paul even tells the Corinthian believers directly that they are acting like silly human beings rather than spiritually mature disciples who understand that every leader, teacher, and preacher is an instrument that God uses to teach, develop, and grow us up. My spotlight should not be on the preacher I’m listening to, but on what God is doing in me to grow me up, mature me spiritually, and make me more spiritually fruitful each day. Or as Paul put it:

I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Chapter-a-Day

Of Motives and Outcomes

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So Herodias [King Herod’s wife] nursed a grudge against John [the Baptist] and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.

The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head.
Mark 6:19-20, 26-27 (NIV)

Along my life journey, I’ve been a part of a handful of regular gatherings of Jesus’ followers that drew large crowds, in a large part, because of the gifted teaching and/or charismatic personality of the leader. Looking back, I find each one of the experiences to have been a living parable of one form or another. Man, do I have some stories.

As I revisit every one of these experiences in my memory, I can quickly conjure the names and faces of individuals who were a regular part of the gatherings. These individuals were prominent members of their communities, leaders of commerce, local government officials, affluent, and influential. I observed over time that many of these individuals led lives that were unabashedly incongruent with Jesus’ teachings. I mention this, not in judgement, because I didn’t know them intimately nor did I know their stories. I was always glad they were interested enough to be there. I rarely, however, witnessed much, if any, change in these individual’s lives in response to what they heard.

This came to mind this morning as I read about King Herod Antipas and Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. John was a wildly popular preacher. Crowds regularly flocked to hear him preach in the wilderness and to be baptized. King Herod was intrigued and fascinated by the rogue, prophetic, wild man. He liked to hear the preacher. He even carried a deep level of respect for the man.

It’s important to know that Herod, along with his father (Herod the Great) were card-carrying members of the Jewish faith. This was, of course, politically expedient since they ruled over a constituency that was mostly Jewish. Herod, however, did not live like he gave two-bits about the Law of Moses and how God prescribed for His people to live. So, when Herod married his own brother’s wife, John loudly and publicly call him out on it. Herod found it expedient to arrest John to manage PR and control the narrative.

What’s fascinating about the story is that even with John in prison, Herod protected John, and even gave him audience. Mark describes that Herod respected that John was the real deal, a sincere and holy man of God.

Nevertheless, when Herod’s step-daughter performed a dance for him at a party full of the rich and influential brokers you’ll find at the center of any worldly center of power, John makes the mistake of offering her up-to half his kingdom as a reward for her amazing performance. At her mother’s suggestion, she chooses the head of John the Baptist, and he reluctantly delivers.

And this brings me back to those rich and influential local brokers I’ve observed gathering around talented and charismatic teachers along life’s road. One of the things that my observation taught me was to consider both motives and outcomes, first in myself, and then in others. Jesus Himself exemplified this. In John’s biography of Jesus, he records that Jesus refused to “entrust” Himself to the crowds that gathered to listen to Him because He knew their motives. Then when the crowds followed Jesus after He fed 5,000 with a couple of fish and five loaves, John records that Jesus called their motives into question and called them to set their sights on a different outcome:

Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free.

“Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.”
John 6:26-27 (MSG)

Herod may have respected John the Baptist. He may have recognized John as a man of God and protected him. The truth of the situation was, however, that Herod protected John only when it was expedient for him to do so. And when it came to Herod’s daily life, it was obvious that God’s message through John fell on a heart of stone just like Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed a few chapters ago. And, the evidence is that Herod never changed. Herod viewed John as an amusement, and a couple of years later he would treat Jesus the same way on the morning of His crucifixion, dressing the beaten and bloodied Jesus up in glittery robe and begging for Jesus to entertain him with a miracle.

In the quiet this morning, I come back to the only motives and outcomes I can control, and those are my own. What are my motives for going to church, being a disciple, and reading a chapter-a-day? What outcome does it have in my daily words, actions, and relationships? Along life’s road I’ve observed that crowds are fickle, fame is fleeting, what’s popular isn’t typically true, and people are generally attracted to all three like flies to feces. I’m reminded this morning as I head into another work week that Jesus said, “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Going Viral

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Going Viral (CaD Lk 4) – Wayfarer

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.
Luke 4:28 (NIV)

As I was driving home from a client meeting yesterday, the song Rockstar by Nickelback came on. I’ve always liked the song. It’s incredibly catchy. The song is about our common desire to be famous and live the life of a rockstar. In the music video, everyday people on the street lip sync the lyrics along with real life rockstars and celebrities. It got me thinking about fame.

I started blogging back in 2006. It’s been a fascinating journey. The whole things has evolved a lot over the years. I’ve become a better writer, I’ve honed my blog, a few years ago I started podcasting my posts for those who prefer listening to reading. In doing so, I found out there are a number of you who prefer listening! Thank you! I once played around with “monetizing,” which is how bloggers and podcasters start to turn the writing and broadcasting into making a living. Over the almost five years since I set up “monetization” I’ve made $14.07.

It has fascinating for me as I plug along on this journey to witness those who go viral and become “influencers” on social media. If you have thousands or millions of followers, advertisers will pay you a lot of money to “influence” your followers for them. For some, it happens in almost an instant. In 2019, a study revealed that 86% of young people in America want to grow up to be social media “influencers.”

Today’s chapter recounts the beginning days of Jesus’ ministry. He established the fishing town of Capernaum as his base of operations. Capernaum was fascinating because it was culturally diverse. There were a number Jewish synagogues, but it was also a hub of Greek culture in the region. Luke records that once He started teaching and healing, Jesus went viral:

“…news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in the synagogues and everyone praised him.”

“…they were amazed at his teaching…”

“All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.”

By the end of the chapter, Luke records that crowds of people were following Jesus wherever He went.

Amidst Jesus going viral, Luke reports that Jesus went to His own hometown of Nazareth and delivered the message in the synagogue. He tells them:

“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

The days of Elijah and Elisha that Jesus referenced were a time when the Hebrew people had turned their backs on God. The two people who Jesus referenced as being cared for and healed were non-Hebrew “Gentiles.” In delivering this message, Jesus is prophetically foreshadowing what He is going to do, and what is going to happen. He is going to bring God’s message of love, salvation and forgiveness to the Gentiles (whom the Hebrew people despised and treated as dirty and inferior), and His own people will kill Him for it. Sure enough, the riot Jesus sparked led to a mob trying to throw Him off a cliff.

In the quiet this morning, I meditated on Jesus going viral. When you’re publicly healing people and casting out demons, I would imagine you draw a pretty big crowd of followers. As I contemplated the crowds and Jesus’ popularity, I was reminded of the words of John, who was a primary source witness of those heady early days in Capernaum:

…many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.”

As I observe from the outside the experiences of influencers and viral bloggers and podcasters, it’s easy to see how silly things can get. Fame can be fleeting, especially in a world of cancel culture. Crowds are fickle. Even Jesus seemed to enter this “viral” stage of His ministry knowing that the same crowds gathering for his “Miracle” tour and putting Him at the top of every “trending” category known to man, will essentially be the same crowd screaming “Crucify Him” in a few years.

It’s fascinating that today’s chapter about Jesus going viral begins with the Evil One taking Jesus to a high place and showing him “in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus passed on the opportunity. I will follow.

My mousepad is Van Gogh’s “the sower.” Each morning, as I write these posts and record my podcast, it metaphorically reminds me of my compulsion to continue this chapter-a-day journey. Each post, every podcast, is a seed that I cast out there praying that it will land, take root, and bear fruit wherever God intends. That yield, whatever it might be, is priceless. It’s certainly worth more than $14.07.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Crowd

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The Crowd (CaD Mk 12) – Wayfarer

The large crowd listened to him with delight.
Mark12:37b (NIV)

I remember the first time I heard the delight of the crowd. I was twelve. It was what would be considered Middle School today, but then it was Junior High. I was running for the student government. I wrote a speech. I delivered it to the entire school assembled in the gymnasium. It delighted the crowd, and I confess: the crowd’s delight delighted me.

It was a really innocent moment as I look back on it and realize just how young I was. Who can look back on their coming-of-age years without both laughing and cringing? And of course, those same coming-of-age years is when I learned all the hard lessons of being “in” and/or “out” of different social groups. It did not take long for me to learn just how thin the line is between delighting the crowd and displeasing them.

The events of today’s chapter took place on Tuesday of the final week of Jesus’ earthly exile. It is the week of Passover, the biggest of the annual Jewish festivals and Jerusalem is swelling with crowds who have come to worship at the Temple. Mark established back in chapter three that the Chief Priests and religious power brokers began looking for an opportunity to kill Jesus. In chapter eight, Mark mentions it again.

As I read the chapter in the quiet, I found myself meditating on the role that “the crowd” plays in this escalating conflict between Jesus and the institutional religious leaders. Forty-eight hours before the events in today’s chapter, the crowd was cheering for Jesus as He entered the city on the back of a borrowed donkey. For two days, Jesus’ enemies have been publicly challenging Him with questions intended to trip Him. Instead, Jesus turns the tables on them time-and-time again.

The crowd is delighted.

Mark makes note that the institutional authorities are afraid of arresting Jesus because of the crowd.

The crowd is powerful on multiple levels. The crowd‘s delight is as potent and addictive as crack (“Look at all the “Likes”! Look at the page hits! OMG! I’m positively viral! I’m trending!”). The crowd can make you or break you.

The crowd is a fickle lover.

It’s easy for me to overlook it, but the crowd has been a constant player in Jesus’ story. Jesus has been with the crowd for three years. The crowd followed Him everywhere. The crowd pressed in on Him until He had to get into a boat and teach from out on the water. The crowd cheered when, multiple times, He sprung for an all-you-can-eat fish-sandwich buffet. The crowd quickly abandoned Him when He switched the menu and said that the real meal was His very own flesh-and-blood.

John noted…

…many people noticed the signs [Jesus] was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them. John 2:24-25 (MSG)

The crowd can be manipulated.

The crowd can be bought.

In about 48 hours, Jesus’ enemies will arrest Him at night out of sight of the crowd. They will quickly try him at daybreak while the crowd is still sleeping. A few hours later, the crowd will be screaming at the Roman Governor to nail Jesus to a cross.

In the quiet this morning, I can’t help but think about my own thoughts, feelings, and experiences with the crowd on this earthly journey. Along my life journey, I have regularly been in the various public spotlights even if it’s on a relatively small scale. I have had to navigate my own desires, emotions, reactions, responses, and experiences with the crowd. I’ve felt the crowd‘s delight, and I’ve know the crowd‘s displeasure.

As a follower of Jesus, I’ve learned that I can’t be a follower of the crowd. The paths are divergent. It’s too easy to showing up for the all-you-can-eat buffet of the nice sayings of Jesus that delight the crowd as they cut them out of context with a cultural exacto knife. Being a follower of Jesus means that while the crowds enjoy their fish sandwiches, Jesus beckons me to take up my cross and follow Him to an upper room where the menu is His flesh broken for me, His blood shed for me.

It is there that I see the crowd in Jesus’ context.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Fool Who Speaks Truth

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But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, “You must die!”
Jeremiah 26:8 (NIV)

There is a device Shakespeare used in his plays in which the fool, the jester, or the lowly are the individuals who see and speak the truth while the high and mighty continue to live in their deceits and delusions. Great story tellers often use this device. There’s the simple, small Shire-folk who bring about the downfall of the Lord of the Rings, or the eccentric Professor Trelawney who spouts foolishness 99.9% of the time but on at least two rare occasions actually speaks a prophetic word (that she doesn’t even know she uttered). I’m sure you can think of others.

Today’s chapter in the anthology of Jeremiah’s prophetic works goes back in time to the early years of his career. Jeremiah goes to the Temple court and proclaims that God will destroy Jerusalem if the people don’t change their ways. His message of warning and doom is not well received. The leaders of the Temple and other prophets seize Jer in an attempt to kill him. A trial ensues. Even the King and the army want Jeremiah dead, just as they’d extradited and executed a similar prophet named Uriah.

Elders of the community defend Jeremiah, stating that there is plenty of precedent of prophets who spoke unpopular words but were not put to death for their message. A couple of high-ranking officials come to Jeremiah’s defense, and his life is spared.

Along my life journey I have learned that great stories echo wisdom of the Great Story. When emotions are high and “the crowd” is in an uproar (especially when stirred by those in institutional authority) I often perk up my ears to listen for a still, small, contrarian voice amidst the din. Throughout the Great Story I find that God’s messengers are typically unpopular with the crowd. That’s why Jesus told His followers, “You’re blessed when people revile and rebuke you – when they speak all manner of slander against you.”

This morning in the quiet I’m reminded that Truth is rarely popular. Jesus said that the road to Life is a narrow, dusty footpath. It isn’t particularly well-marked and the trek is challenging for the relative few who are willing to embark on the journey. By contrast, the super highway the crowd follows is an easy commute (though one typically has to deal with traffic jams). And so, at the beginning of another day I find myself pondering which path I will choose today. Which role will I choose to play in the Great Story? Am I, like Jeremiah, willing to play the role of “the wise fool” who speaks Truth?

I guess my answer will be revealed in the choices I make today.

 

Chapter-a-Day

Attacking “The Jesus Problem”

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Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians…
That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question…
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him…
Matthew 22:15, 23, 34-35 (NIV)

Jesus made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the praises of the fickle crowd. He challenged the powerful bosses of institutional religion by creating a public disturbance amidst their religious racketeering. Jesus is on a mission. Matthew’s eye-witness account of these events does not reveal Jesus as a helpless victim of circumstance, but rather the One driving the action.

With each word and every action, Jesus is putting the powerful religious cartel into an increasingly difficult position. His popularity among the poor and marginalized has stirred public sentiment against the religious leaders. The small riot Jesus made among the money changers was not only an embarrassment and PR nightmare within the community of the Jewish commoners, but if Pilate gets wind that there’s unrest among the Jews he and the Roman occupational force might crack down hard on them, and that would be bad for business.

The Temple leadership have a good racket going. They are wealthy, and they have carved out a lucrative niche for themselves in their Temple business. Their powerful religious authority gives them an iron political grip over the Jewish people in Jerusalem and abroad. They may be living under Roman occupation, but under the Roman umbrella they are supreme rulers of their own small kingdom. From the perspective of the Temple’s religious leadership, this pesky would-be Messiah from Nazareth is bad for business. He’s listed as a “threat” in their SWOT analysis. “It’s not personal, Jesus,” you can imagine the High Priest muttering, “It’s strictly business.”

The end of yesterday’s chapter and the continuing events in today’s chapter reveal the initial strategy of the religious leaders to deal with “the Jesus problem.” These men were all well-educated lawyers and legal scholars who made an art form out of legal debate over the Law of Moses. They would leverage their expertise in legal minutiae to engage Jesus in very public debate in the Temple courts. Surely this uneducated yokel from the North country would give them a sound-byte they could tweet, print, and repeat endlessly to stem the tide of His popularity.

In today’s chapter, Matthew records wave after wave of envoys from the religious council testing Jesus with the hot political and religious topics of the day: Paying Roman taxes (politically heated issue), whether there is a resurrection (heated religious issue among factions within the temple), and which is the greatest commandment (hot religious debate among temple lawyers). Because these topics were as controversial in temple circles as abortion and gun control are in ours, whatever Jesus says can be used politically to ruin His approval ratings with one group or another.

But Jesus deftly responds to each question with answers His enemies did not expect. Then, after playing defense for several rounds of debate, Jesus turns the tables and goes on the offense. He tests the prestigious lawyers with a question of His own, and stumps them at their own game.

“No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

This morning I am thinking about the contrast between Jesus and the religious cartel who were threatened by Him. Jesus was a simple man of simple means born in a backwater town to poor, blue-collar parents. He was raised in a backwater region of the country. Jesus was not well connected, had no impressive education, and owned little more than the seamless tunic on His back (which was worth just enough that a couple of Roman guards would shoot craps over it). His political enemies, on the other hand, were upstanding religious people of elite pedigree, top-notch education, and shrewd business acumen. They would be hailed as hallmarks of success according to our contemporary culture’s criteria.

The uncomfortable question I ask myself in the quiet this morning is: Between Jesus and the religious leaders, who do I, and my life, most resemble? If I were standing in the temple courts listening to the debate between this poor teacher with His provocative views and the conservative, successful leaders of the traditional status quo, who would I be inclined to side with?

I confess that my honest answer is as uncomfortable as the question.

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Caucuses, Circuses, and the Crowd

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But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to [the crowd], because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.
John 2:24-25 (NRSV)

I must admit that Wendy and I are enjoying the blissful serenity of our evenings now that the Iowa Caucuses are over. For the past few months we have been accosted nightly by political ads, surveys and invitations to town hall meetings.  The media circus combined with the daily candidate rallies get a little old after a while.

It is, I admit, fascinating to watch the side-show which is our presidential election process. Candidates mug for the press and try to create media buzz. Depending on the poll of the hour, the candidates might flip on this issue and flop on that latest trending topic. Every one of them is looking for an edge to swing the crowds to their camp on caucus night.

Perhaps the fresh memory of such things are what caused the verses above to leap of the page at me this morning. John relates two distinct stories from the vast reservoir of stories he could have drawn upon. In the first story, Jesus is reluctant to perform a miracle doing so only at the passive aggressive insistence of His mother. In the second story, Jesus creates a scene at the temple which was sure to make headlines and create buzz. John is careful to note two things about this noteworthy event. First, he makes clear that Jesus’ motivation was sincere zealousness, born out of the corruption and racketeering Jesus witnessed in what was supposed to be a place of holiness. Second, Jesus was not trying to start a political movement or swing the crowd to caucus for Him. He didn’t trust the crowd.

This morning I am reminded of a few specific moments along my life journey. I have felt surges of popularity (albeit relatively small) and I have felt the sting of others turning their backs on me. The experiences are enough to teach me that trying to consistently win the approval of the crowd is a maddening, and largely vain, pursuit. Though, one simply needs to follow the travails of our presidential candidates for a few weeks to see the truth of it. I’m glad that Jesus was more interested in doing what was right than in doing what was popular with the crowd. That’s the example I continuously endeavor to follow.

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But with loud shouts [the crowd] insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. Luke 23:23 (NIV)

When I read this verse this morning, two other verses instantly popped into my head. The first was from just a few chapters ago, and from just a few days earlier in Jesus’ own life journey:

As [Jesus] went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

What a difference a week makes. At the beginning of the week crowds were hailing Jesus as the new king coming to Jerusalem. By the end of the week crowds were shouting for his death so insistently that Pilate was forced to go against his better judgement and have Jesus crucified.

Crowds are fickle. Ask any celebrity or politician (is there a difference?) who surfs the waves of popularity. One day the public adores you, but in a moment they will turn. And, it doesn’t even take being guilty of something. It only takes gossip, rumor, and innuendo to quickly turn the tide of public sentiment against you.

Which brings me to another observation John makes in his biography of Jesus:

During the time [Jesus] was in Jerusalem, those days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him. But Jesus didn’t entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out, knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn’t need any help in seeing right through them.

Jesus knew not to trust in His trending popularity. He knew that He was ultimately be rejected. He knew the prophecies. He realized from the beginning that the crowds would ultimately turn against Him. More often than not He was trying to escape the crowds get away by Himself or with His inner circle.

I find it fascinating that in all of His teaching Jesus never made any public plea for followers. There were no membership drives. No information cards in the back of the synagogue to fill out, and no mailing lists. The truth is that there is as much, in not more, evidence of Jesus discouraging those who asked to follow Him than the opposite.

What I’ve come to realize in my own experience is that being a follower of Jesus is not about fame, it’s about faith. It’s not about celebrity, it’s about service. It’s never about recognition, but about repentance. It’s never about being lauded, but about loving sacrificially as we’ve been sacrificially loved.