The Great Physician and the Healing of Man's Infirmities

Table Talks, Synoptic Gospels 5

More on the Mission and Work of Jesus

The Great Physician and the Healing of Man’s Infirmities

 (Matt. 8:17 & 9:1–13)

Matthew 8:17 has another reference to the suffering servant:  “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our diseases” (Is. 53:4). At first we are startled because the words are applied to the healing of the sick and casting out of demons. But in Isaiah the application is clearly to spiritual infirmities, from which we are “healed.”

But sin is the ultimate source of all suffering and grief in the world. When sin entered the world, a host of evils came with it, pain, suffering, death (Gen. 3). We live in a cursed world, a world in rebellion against its Creator. God could not curse man and leave him in a perfect world. So the whole world was affected by the sin of Adam (cf. Rom. 8:18–25). But when Jesus dealt with sin by dying on the cross, he dealt with these consequences of sin. None will be found in the new world (Rev. 21–22). “God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more” (21:4).

To be sure, Jesus did not immediately sweep away all pain and suffering. But perhaps the application of Isaiah 53:4 to the healings of Jesus is intended to say that these healings were a token of what was ultimately to be in that new world because he “bare our sins in his body upon the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24).

Matthew’s initial summary of the ministry of Jesus mentions two activities:  (1) Teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and (2) healing all kinds of disease and sickness (Matt. 4:23). As we have seen (Matt. 8:16–17), Isaiah’s description of the vicarious suffering of Jehovah’s servant is applied to this healing activity. But when we come to Matthew 9:2 Jesus points out another, in fact the main purpose for his coming—i. e., to deal with the problem of sin. A man with paralysis was brought to Jesus on his palat. But remarkably, instead of immediately healing him, Jesus spoke to the ultimate problem behind all such ailments: “Child,” he tells the man, “be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven.” At that point an undercurrent of criticism began: “This man is blaspheming,” thought certain scribes (v. 3), reasoning that only God could forgive sins (Mark 2:7). The point they were missing (Matt. 9:6–8) is that God can give a man authority to forgive sins. Jesus first asks them to consider whether it was easier to say: “Thy sins are forgiven; or to say: Arise, and walk” (v. 5). Not do, but say! Surely it would be easier to say a person’s sins were forgiven. Who could know whether it was true? But to tell a paralyzed man: “Arise, and walk” would be much more easily detected if he could not do it. So Jesus would be discredited.

Jesus points out a relation between the two: “But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins (then he says to the man who was sick of palsy), Arise, and take up your bed, and go to your house” (v. 6). When the man complied, the crowds “were afraid, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (vv. 7–8). The ability to heal this ailment in the visible world was the proof of his ability to heal spiritual diseases that were invisible.

Then when Jesus called the tax collector, Matthew (called Levi in Mark) this man held a banquet in his house, evidently to introduce his friends to Jesus. But it gave Pharisees reason for another complaint (Matt. 9:9–13; Mark 2:13–18)—namely, that Jesus was eating and drinking with disreputable people, tax collectors and sinners. The complaint gave Jesus occasion for further explaining his mission. “When Jesus heard it, he said to them, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Jesus was not joining with sinners in sin, but was like a physician who goes among the sick to heal, while being careful to avoid contagion himself.

According to Matthew 9:13, Jesus recommended that his critics needed to study Hosea 6:6. God says: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,” and then explained: “for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” If his critics did not understand Hosea 6:6 they would never be able to understand the mission or ministry of Jesus.

The angel had told Joseph that Jesus would “save his people from their sins.” Now two separate incidents confirm this explanation of his mission. When we eat the bread and drink the cup, we remember that he did this work by dying on the cross.

Messiah on Trial

Table Talks, Synoptic Gospels 4

Messiah on Trial

The synoptic gospels record that a great trial immediately followed Jesus’ baptism. Mark’s record (1:12–13) is brief; Matthew 4:1–4 and Luke 4:1–13 much fuller.  But all agree that terrible spiritual trial followed the moment of spiritual exaltation. Even a formal link is established by two of Satan’s proposals.  “If you are the Son of God” recalls heaven’s acknowledgment of Jesus shortly before:  “You are my Son.”  The temptations recur in one form or another at various points in Jesus’ ministry. But the narrative of the temptation is not just a dramatization by the authors of trials occurring through Jesus’ ministry. It is an actual occurrence that took place immediately following Jesus’ baptism.

The account is more than a model for dealing with temptation. We can profit from it in that way. But that is not the main purpose of the temptation. Jesus’ trials are not temptations common to mankind, but trials of the Messiah. They present an alternative to the idea of the Messiah summarized in the two Old Testament prophecies cited by the Father’s voice out of heaven. It is an alternative found in the nation Israel as Jesus begins his ministry.

Jesus went into the wilderness under the influence of the Holy Spirit to be tempted of the devil. It was under divine influence that Jesus fasted and grew hungry. The proposal to turn stones into bread was a temptation to abandon God in order to save himself, a temptation to make a break with God and to act independently.

But life depends on God—not just bread; and Jesus commits himself to trust God and to eat when God orders food (Deut. 8:3).

The next temptation arises from Jesus’ answer. So Jesus will depend upon the word of God for life? Well, we shall soon see whether God’s word can be depended upon. Jesus is challenged to endanger himself for no other reason than that God had given his word that he would protect the righteous man. Thus he could soon see whether God’s word would sustain him. It was a trial of God’s word, playing upon Jesus’ trust in that word.  But Jesus saw that the experiment would not show trust in God, but the opposite, a trial of God. He would not treat God’s word as something yet to be proved. He trusted it, and would not insult God in  that way.

The third temptation seems to offer what the Messiah would rightfully have, and what Jesus came to get, authority over all the world (cf. esp. Luke 4:5–8). Had not Jehovah promised his Messiah the nations for his inheritance? (cf. Psalm 2:8). It was an effort to turn Jesus aside from the way of the cross. The devil suggests that he could have the crown without the cross. Jesus could have authority over all the kingdoms of the world simply by acknowledging the devil as his overlord.

But the words quoted at the baptism, “You are my son,” were followed by others:  “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance” (Psalm 2:8). Furthermore, the other quotation (Isaiah 42:1), “my beloved in whom I am well pleased,” was from one of Isaiah’s great passages about Jehovah’s servant who was to be exalted, but at the cost of suffering and death (Isaiah 52:13–53:12).

Jesus refuses. The quotation (Deut. 6:13) sends the adversary away with words indicating he would not give Satan the homage that belongs only to God. He would not be Satan’s messiah. He would get his crown from God, even if it meant the cross.

Satan left, but only “for a season” (Luke 4:13). He would return. A materialistic people tries to make him a king (John 6:15). His own brothers urge him:  “Manifest yourself to the world” (John 7:4). His leading disciple tries to turn him from the cross (Matt. 16:21–23). Even on the cross he is taunted:  “Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe on him” (Matt. 27:42).

But the records of the temptation show that the cross was not the tragic end of some other failed mission, but itself the mission of Jesus as he understood it from the beginning. He knew the options that lay before him and made his choice at the outset. He kept to the path of the cross despite a terrible spiritual ordeal, and rejected Satan’s compromises and the false concept of the kingdom Satan had planted in the nation. He saw himself as Jehovah’s servant portrayed in Isaiah, and he knew that his destiny was the cross.  He understood it from the beginning, and would not be turned from it. Not by anything Satan could offer.

A Voice Out of Heaven (Matt. 3:16–17)

Table Talks, Synoptic Gospels 3

A Voice Out of Heaven

Matthew 3:16–17

After Jesus’ explanation, John permitted him to be baptized. Two extraordinary happenings followed.  “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and Look! The heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him; and Look! A voice out of the heavens, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16–17).

The particle “Lo,” or more literally:  “Look!” appears twice, in each case drawing attention to something remarkable.  First, Jesus was Jehovah’s anointed king (cf. Ps. 2:2 & Acts 4:25–28), and as Peter would later explain it, “God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:38). The descent of the Spirit upon Jesus, John would later testify, was the divinely prearranged sign by which he would recognize Jesus as the Messiah, God’s anointed one. So John explains in John 1:32–34, concluding: “And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The second happening to which attention is directed by the word “Look!” is a voice speaking “out of the heavens.” This voice identifies Jesus as the Christ (= Messiah), God’s anointed one, and it does so in the terms of two Old Testament passages.

According to the accounts in the other synoptic gospels, Jesus was directly addressed by the voice from heaven:  “You are my beloved Son” (Mark 1:10f; Luke 3:21f).  Matthew reports the words as addressed to a third party or group. The report is interpretative, indicating the significance for anyone hearing or reading the words. But the actual words spoken are reported by Mark and Luke, which makes it all the more evident that the Father is using the words of Psalm 2:7 in which Jehovah’s anointed king is addressed as his Son:  “You are my son.”  Thus the voice out of the heavens identifies Jesus as Jehovah’s anointed king, whose kingdom was to be divinely established, despite the efforts of world rulers to prevent it and to overthrow the divine government.

The other clause, “in whom I am well pleased,” also alludes to the Old Testament, Isaiah 42:1ff, which is quoted in Matthew 12:18–21. This text is the first of the series of “servant” passages in Isaiah.  In it Jehovah addresses his servant as “My beloved in whom my soul is well pleased,” going on to say: “I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles” (as quoted in Matt. 12). The word “beloved” derives from Isaiah 42, and the words from heaven should read as in the ASV margin: “This is my Son; my beloved in whom I am well pleased,” rather than as the text has it.

So now we see that Jesus is not only identified with the anointed king of Psalm 2, but also with the servant of Jehovah in Isaiah. Already in Isaiah 42 Jehovah’s servant is described as one who will have to persevere through great difficulty in order to accomplish his mission. The idea of difficulty and suffering connected with this figure will be further developed in Isaiah 49:1–7 & 50:4–11, but especially in 52:13–53:12.  In this climactic passage the sufferings of Jehovah’s servant are described as being not due to his own sins, but as vicarious and substitutionary. He suffers and even dies for the sins of others. But after receiving the death stroke he emerges in triumph, sees his descendants, prolongs his days, and with the divine purpose prospering in his hand; by his knowledge he makes many righteous and he bears their sins.

After Jesus’ baptism, therefore, the Father in heaven speaks, identifying Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), but in the special terms of two Old Testament passages, indicating the understanding of the Messiah that is being communicated.

The words are addressed to Jesus and indicate the way in which his mission was understood from the outset. Other passages will develop the idea further, but we see how very early Jesus began to identify his mission with that of the suffering servant in Isaiah. So again we see that his death is not to be understood as a defeat or the final outcome of a failed mission. It was his mission. As Jehovah’s servant, whose sufferings were portrayed by Isaiah so many centuries in advance, he would sacrifice himself in our place, bearing our sins so that we might be righteous.

Table Talks: The Baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3)

Table Talks, Synoptic Gospels 2

The Baptism of Jesus

Matthew 3

Jesus was “about thirty years of age” (cf. Luke 3:23) when he came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. John himself saw this event as extraordinary.  In fact it represented a commitment already at this beginning of his public ministry to take the road to the cross.  John’s hesitation to baptize Jesus will be understood if we consider the purpose of his baptism.

It was a baptism for sinners, “the baptism of repentance for remission of sins.” People “were baptized of him ..., confessing their sins” (Mark 1:4f; cf. Matt. 3:5f; Luke 3:3).

John tried to restrain Jesus.  He said, “I have need to be baptized of you, and do you come to me?” (Matt. 3:14). It would have seemed natural if Jesus had come to assist John in baptizing others. But it was surprising to see this sinless person identify himself with sinners and ask to be baptized.  He thereby expressed recognition of his role as a bearer of sins, understanding that he must be “reckoned with transgressors” and fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy about Jehovah’s suffering servant who was to be “numbered with the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12; Luke 22:37).

“Permit me now,” Jesus said, “for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15). The explanation likely alludes to Isaiah’s prophecy and his own role as the servant of Jehovah who would suffer and die not for his own sins but for the sins of his people. Jehovah had explained in advance:  “By the knowledge of himself (or: by his knowledge) shall my righteous servant justify many,” or as the margin puts it, “make many righteous” (Is. 53:11).  The explanation continues: “and he shall bear their iniquities.”

Jesus understood his mission from the beginning in terms of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Baptism was not for him as for others. It was the first step toward a death in which he would bear the sins of mankind and make it possible for them to be righteous.

The cross was not a defeat, the end of a failed ministry. It was the fulfillment of a divine purpose entertained in the mind of Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry.

Table Talks: Matthew 1:21

Table Talks on the Synoptic Gospels 1

Jesus Christ, the Great Liberator

Matthew 1:21

The Old Testament leaves us with a certain emptiness. We wonder:  What next? Something more surely needs to be said.

Promises to Abraham:  “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3), and:  “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18), remain unfulfilled.

So also of God’s promise to David that his kingdom would be established for ever; that it would not be taken from the house of David as it was from Saul (2 Sam. 7:11–16).  But David’s throne was cast down and a psalmist wondered how long such conditions would last (Psalm 89).  The prophets reassured believers that God had not forgotten his promise (Isaiah 9:6–7; 55:3–4). But the Old Testament closes with the throne vacant and promises unfulfilled.

But the first New Testament book proclaims the fulfillment of Old Testament hope. Matthew 1:1 identifies Jesus Christ as “the son of David, the son of Abraham,” and the first page of the New Testament establishes the heir both to the covenant with David and the promise to Abraham (Matt. 1:1–17).

But if Jews expected a king like David to reign on an earthly throne and lead an army against the Roman overlord, Matthew would quickly disillusion them. Early on, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, explaining that he must not fear to take his betrothed and pregnant bride Mary. She had not been unfaithful to him, but had conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. “And she shall bring forth a son; and you shall call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20–21).

Jesus is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament name Joshua, meaning “Jehovah is salvation.” But the angel’s explanation puts the reader on notice that the liberation to be accomplished was not political, but spiritual.  “He shall save his people from their sins.”  Bondage to Rome was not their problem. It was nothing compared to the bondage to sin. And the deliverance to be accomplished by their Savior was not a liberation from Rome, but from sin. It could not be accomplished by an army, but required the death of the Savior.

Faith Without Works (James 2:14–26)

Faith Without Works

James 2:14–26

L. A. Mott (lamottjax@comcast.net

or www.thinkingthrough.com

Through most of 2011 I have been reading and refining a manuscript on James. It took me a while to realize that James 2:26 does not just repeat verse 14. I will return to this point at the end.

James is not answering or even complementing Paul. He wrote earlier, when the church was mostly if not altogether Jewish, and before the influx of Gentiles became the occasion of Paul’s controversy with Judaizers over justification by works of law. James deals with the same problem addressed by Jesus, the failure to apply profession to life (e. g. Matt. 7:21–23, 23:1–4, and Luke 6:46). James first addressed the problem in Chapter One. He returns to it in James 2:14–26.

Consider the power that is felt when we study verses in context rather than treating them as isolated statements.

Issue Raised (14)

The question raised is:  What is the use of a faith that does not have the works that faith would seem to call for? In particular:  Can that faith save him? Faith in the question is preceded by the definite article. So the question is not whether there is a faith that can save him, but whether the particular faith described here can save.

Faith Without Works Powerless to Save (15–17)

James’ first response is a hypothetical illustration of something that is entirely useless, wishing a needy person well, but without doing anything to supply his need. Such behavior is useless. And so it is with faith that is not matched by appropriate behavior. It cannot save. It is dead, and so entirely without power. Verse 26 returns to the thought and illuminates the meaning of “dead,” as if to say: I meant what I said.

The Existence of Faith Not Demonstrable Without Works (18)

Commentaries have introduced unnecessary difficulty by debating the identity of the two persons. James’ point is: The man who claims to have faith, but who does not manifest the behavior consistent with what he believes cannot even prove he has faith. He is vulnerable to a challenge from anyone who demands that he prove his claim.  He cannot. He appears like someone who makes empty claims without substance.

The Faith of Demons (19)

James is willing to credit the man’s claim.  You have faith. Great! But if faith does not affect the way one lives his life, it is no more than the faith of demons. It certainly has no power to save.

Works Necessary to Justification as Proved by the Case of Abraham (20–24)

“But wilt thou know?” James asks. Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? If so, James can help him, and does so by pointing to the example of Abraham. He clearly was justified by works, as Genesis 22 proves (esp. vv. 12 and 15–18). His was a faith that cooperated with works, and so was rendered complete by works, “lacking in nothing” (1:4). Without the obedience faith  would have been missing something, incomplete. The conclusion is plain to see:  “You see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith” (24). 

In fact, even without Genesis 22, the context of Genesis 15:6 proves that Abraham’s faith required action. Abraham certainly would not have descendants like the stars, or even one, without taking action.

Rahab Also Justified by Works (25–26)

After adding the confirming example of Rahab, James concludes the argument the way it began (v. 17), but with an additional clause that leaves no room for doubt about the meaning of “dead.” Faith without works is like a body without the spirit. Dead means dead!

Christianity Without Bonds

“We Are Of Christ”

So said Paul, when false teachers had moved into Corinth to challenge his credentials.  Paul challenged the Corinthian disciples to consider the obvious facts:  “Look at the things that are before your face.  If any man trusteth to himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also are we” (2 Cor. 10:7).  There was more to be said concerning Paul’s authority as an apostle (v. 8).  But Paul was one of the ministers through whom the Corinthians had believed (1 Cor. 3:5).  He knew what a Christian was.  So they could certainly start with that.  “We are of Christ.”

That is not the only time Paul spoke of Christians as those who are “of Christ” (Gal. 3:29), “they that are of Christ Jesus” (Gal. 5:29; cf. 1 Cor. 15:23).

Even in New Testament times people tended to stray from this singleminded commitment to Christ, and to exalt human beings beyond what was due.  At Corinth some said, “I am of Paul”; others, “I of Apollos”; and still others, “I belong to Cephas (= Peter)”; and “I of Christ” (1 Cor. 1:10–13).

“Is Christ divided?” Paul demanded.  They certainly were making it to appear so.  So the implied negative was a rebuke of the whole situation.  Then he had two questions for those who said, “I am of Paul”:  First, “was Paul crucified for you?” and second, “Were ye baptized into the name of Paul?”

The answer, of course, was “No” to both questions; and Paul’s logic is:  Then you have no right to belong to Paul.  It was Christ Jesus who was crucified for them, paying the price to purchase them (1 Cor. 6:19–20; 7:23); and they had been baptized into the name of Christ (cf. Acts 8:16; 19:5).  They belonged to Christ and to no other.

“We are of Christ,” says Paul.  And so we say today.  Christ Jesus was crucified for us, and we have been baptized into the name of Christ.  So we belong to Christ.  We have no sectarian loyalties or denominational affiliations.  We are of Christ, and consider that that is enough to be.  It tells it all.

Jesus wanted his apostles to “make disciples” of the nations (Matt. 28:18–20).  And that is all they did.  Acts 11:26 tells us that “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”  Christians!  The word has the same formation as the word Herodian, which identified those who belonged to Herod; they were adherents of Herod.  Christians are people who belong to Christ.

We are disciples (pupils, students, adherents) of Christ, as a people who sit at the feet of the Teacher, learn from him and remain in his word, confident that in his word alone we “shall know the truth” (John 8:31); who endeavor to follow him and to breathe his spirit (John 13:12–15, 34–35); to honor him before everything else and before every human loyalty (Luke 14:22–35).

Even today, men continue to exalt men, human doctrines and human systems.  But we are of Christ.  And we think that is enough to say.  It explains everything about us.  We are determined to maintain the loyalty to Christ before everything else.  We are not of Luther, or Calvin or Wesley.  We have no religious loyalty to any mere man.  Nor are we committed to any sectarian system or denominational organization.  We are of Christ.

That explains everything about us.  It explains why we tell people exactly what Jesus instructed his apostles to tell them about salvation (Acts 2:38; 22:16).  It explains the stand we make on baptism, who is to be baptized (Acts 2:41; 8:12) and how (Rom. 6:3–4).  It explains the way we worship, the life and discipline we advocate, the way the church is organized, our understanding of the church’s mission.  We belong to Christ as the members of a body belong to their head (Rom. 12:3–5; 1 Cor. 6:15; 12:12; Eph. 1:22–23; 5:22–24).  It is not the place of the body to take matters into its own hands, but rather, to be subject to its head.  The head gives direction.  The body listens and then yields to the direction received from its head.

Paul had made his arguments before King Agrippa, and could see that the king was moved.  But the proud king responds with a brush-off.  His words are best translated:  “In little you are making me a Christian.”  Fat chance of making him a member of this sect that was everywhere spoken against (cf. Acts 28:22).  But if the king was taking Paul’s message lightly, Paul himself was as earnest as could be.  He responds to the king:  “I would to God that both in little and in great, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except these bonds” (Acts 26:27–29).  A Christian!  Yes, that is exactly what Paul was trying to make of Agrippa and of all the rest.  He wanted them to become such as he was, “except these bonds.”

A Christian!  But without the bonds.  I know Paul was a prisoner and was speaking of bonds in the most literal sense.  But it strikes me that many people today are trying to be Christians, but with chains that restrict them in their effort to follow Christ.  The bonds of sectarian and denominational loyalties.  The bonds of human doctrinal systems.  Bonds forged by human desire.  Bonds that keep them from being completely free Christians, free to “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev. 14:4).

Christianity without the bonds!  If that thought touches a chord in your heart, as it does in ours, perhaps you may be ready to visit with one of our folk about how to be a Christian without the bonds.