by R. Herbert | Apr 18, 2014 | The Life of Jesus
Most of us know what it feels like to finally accomplish something we have worked toward for a long time: a goal, a dream, a project to which we have dedicated time and energy. Even with small scale things it can be a triumphant feeling. The larger the accomplishment, the greater the triumph, thankfulness and deep happiness that come with accomplished goals.
This ties to the spring season of the year in which we celebrate the supreme sacrifice of the Son of God on behalf of humanity. That had surely been a project a long time in the planning, and it had been the thirty-five or more patient years of the physical life of Jesus (see our last blog post) in the actual making: growing, building, preparing, working toward the eventual goal of the sacrifice itself.
Meditating on the sacrificial death of Christ is a somber and heart-wrenching thing – as it doubtless should be – but I cannot help but believe that even as he perished in excruciating pain, there was for the Son of God a feeling of triumph and thankfulness at the very end. He had done it – successfully accomplished the very reason for his human life – something that would touch all other human lives throughout all time. We know that, leading up to that moment, because of the human sin he had taken upon himself, he was cut off from the very One who had brought him thus far, as is seen in his almost final words “Why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34 – and see Psalm 22:1). But he had to have known that he and the Father had succeeded.
It is in that way I believe the very last words of Jesus – three small words, in English translation, spoken directly before he died – were the most triumphant words spoken to that point in history: “It is finished!” (John 19:30). To that point in time no single event had accomplished so much good or incorporated such a victory. Those had to have been the three most triumphant words ever spoken – until just a few days later, when they were replaced by three yet more triumphant words: “He has risen” (Matthew 28:6).
by R. Herbert | Apr 17, 2014 | The Life of Jesus
This is one of those questions where many Christians believe they know the answer, but may not. Most people who know the Bible will answer that Christ died around the age of 33 or 33 and a half. But careful reading of the Gospel accounts shows this to be unlikely. The facts are very nicely summarized in an article by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor published in
Christianity Today this week – as this brief extract shows:
“The common assertion seems reasonable that if Jesus “began his ministry” when he “was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23) and engaged in a three-year ministry … then he was 33 years old at the time of his death. However, virtually no scholar believes Jesus was actually 33 when he died. Jesus was born before Herod the Great issued the decree to execute “all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under” (Matt. 2:16, ESV) and before Herod died in the spring of 4 B.C. If Jesus was born in the fall of 5 or 6 B.C., and if we remember that we don’t count the “0” between B.C. and A.D., then Jesus would have been 37 or 38 years old when he died in the spring of A.D. 33 (as we believe is most likely). Even if Jesus died in the year A.D. 30 (the only serious alternative date), he would have been 34 or 35, not 33 years old.”
As the
Christianity Today article points out, no major doctrine is affected by this common misconception, but it is something that is better to understand in speaking of Jesus’ life and in telling the story to others. You can read the
CT article
here.
by R. Herbert | Apr 13, 2014 | Gratitude
Are we really aware of the abundance that many enjoy in the developed world today – compared not only to less fortunate areas, but also compared to the past? A fascinating but little publicized study conducted at Cornell University a few years ago throws light on the growing abundance which many of us may take for granted.
In a careful study published as “The Largest Last Supper: Depictions of Food Portions and Plate Size Increased over the Millennium” in 2010, researchers Brian and Craig Wansink analyzed the amount of food depicted in 52 paintings of “The Last Supper” produced over the last millennium. Each painting was analyzed in order to ascertain the content of the meals depicted and changes which occurred over time in the kinds of food and the size of portions in the paintings. Cleverly, the sizes of the loaves of bread, the main food dishes, and the plates were all compared to the average size of the heads shown in the paintings in order to gain a benchmark reference. A computerized CAD-CAM program was used to allow selected parts of the paintings to be scanned, then rotated in order to get accurate size comparisons to calculate the food portion sizes with more precision.
As the researchers suspected, the number and size of the food portions in these paintings increased dramatically with time. From AD 1000 to the present, the amount of food depicted in the paintings increased 69.2%, and the size of the depicted plates increased 65.5%. This is certainly not a matter of chance, the researchers say. There is no question that the amount of food available to people in much of the Western world has grown dramatically over the hundreds of years covered by this study, and this is reflected in artistic representations. What was first shown as a simple meal has grown in artistic interpretations to more recent depictions of the Last Supper which suggest almost feast-like proportions compared to earlier paintings.
Today, many of us enjoy much greater abundance than our ancestors, as well as those less fortunate than us in other parts of today’s world. Representations of the Last Supper can remind us that we have much to be thankful for physically, as well as spiritually.
by R. Herbert | Apr 10, 2014 | Giving
Osawa – Image from SmileTrain Website
The cleft repair charity
Smile Train recently announced its greatest “smilestone” to date – the one millionth cleft repair surgery completed by its partner surgeons.
Founded in 1999, Smile Train has grown to be the world’s largest cleft charity and has made great inroads repairing cleft palates and cleft lips in countries where these untreated disfigurements cause lifetimes of psychological pain and physical suffering. Children with clefts often cannot speak or eat properly, and their physical plight is compounded by the fact that they are often not allowed to attend school and they are ostracized, even by members of their own families.
Smile Train pioneered the training of doctors to perform the relatively fast 45 minute surgery to provide free, safe treatment for poor patients with cleft lip and/or palate. Organized in such a way that overhead expenses are largely paid by Smile Train’s board members, the charity is able to claim that virtually all donated funds go to repairing clefts for individuals who would never normally receive such help.
The charity’s one millionth patient, six year old Osawa Owiti from a remote village in Tanzania, had already experienced years of psychological and physical hardship, and his mother was also subject to the stigma, being unjustly blamed for her child’s cleft. But Osawa is now recovered from his surgery and happily enjoying the new life he has been given.
Smile Train – and all cleft repair groups – are to be thanked for the work they are doing. Considering the extent of the cleft problem throughout the world, it is something for which we can be truly grateful that this particularly debilitating cause of suffering is being so aggressively fought. You can read more about Osawa Owiti and the work of the Smile Train
here. It is a worthwhile work for which we can pray, and one which deserves continued support.
by R. Herbert | Apr 6, 2014 | History & the Bible
Scripture in Focus: Genesis 15: 9-21
In Genesis 15:9-21 we find the story of God sealing his covenant with Abram (before he became Abraham) by means of animal sacrifices. In response to Abram’s request for a sign that God would fulfill his promise (vs. 8), God instructed him to take various animals and sacrifice them in a particular manner. After killing the animals, Abram divided them into halves, placing them on the ground in such a way that someone could walk between the halves of the carcasses. The narrative then states: “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram …” (Genesis 15:17-18).
Many biblical commentaries suggest that this event was symbolic of such things as the “furnace of affliction” Israel would suffer in Egypt, but there is no reason to make such a symbolic connection, especially one so stretched. The real meaning of this event can be clearly seen from what is known of ancient Near Eastern land grant treaties (a type of “suzerain-vassal treaty” in which an agreement is made between two unequal parties, one of higher status and one of lower status, in which land is granted to the ruler of lower status on condition of faithfulness to the higher king). In this type of ritual, sacrificed animals were divided in half and in some cases the participants to the treaty walked between the halves of the animals as a way to seal the agreement made by the participants. This legal procedure of the world in which Abram lived is clearly central to understanding the story of Genesis 15. Perhaps Abram walked between the animal halves when he arranged them on the ground, but it is clear that God did – represented by the burning torch which “passed between the pieces.”
Another, much later (c. 590 BC), but clearly parallel biblical example of this ritual in the time of Zedekiah involves an animal being killed, cut into two pieces, and then individuals passing between the divided pieces (Jeremiah 34:8–22 and note vss. 15, 19).
The Hebrew Bible speaks of covenants not as being “made” but as being “cut” (Hebrew karat ), and the ancient sacrificial covenant animal cutting practice explains that usage.
Recent Comments