A Secret Out in the Open
Commentary
We live in an age where some people believe there are outlandish conspiracies and arcane secrets. In these scripture passages there are no secrets. It’s all out in the open. Even so, some people may not believe this is what the Bible says.
One of the consistent themes of scripture is that God loves the poor. It’s out there in plain sight. There are not two different kinds of people. The rich and powerful are not favored by God, nor are they a superior race of beings, yet the fact that Proverbs must state things too obvious for words -- God made everybody including the poor — means some people must believe it anyway.
James, the brother of Jesus, prefaces his discussion of the damage our words can do by warning others not to become teachers, but what he’s really saying is that the people who are already teaching Christianity give Christianity a bad name because they say rotten things about other people, rotten things those other people don’t deserve. We’re the problem. We, the Christians, are giving Christianity a bad name. Everyone else sees it. Do we get it?
But if the Bible is transparent, why does Jesus want to keep his words and works secret? What he really wants to do is keep something in the forefront that is far more important than his teachings, healing, prayer, and comfort. Yet this blunt fact is sometimes invisible because it’s staring us in the face -- the cross. Jesus was obedient, even to the cross, sharing our suffering, elevating us through his shame. Yes, his words are crucial, and his acts are wonderful, giving us a glimpse of the perfect new creation to come, but we are reconciled to God through the cross. Don’t lose sight of the obvious.
Proverbs 1:20-33
The Book of Proverbs requires a hands-on approach. We encounter the kernels of wisdom, one by one, bouncing out at us almost like popping popcorn, and it’s up to us to receive, evaluate, and use the proverbs, especially in concert with others. We understand proverbs best when we explore them together.
The proverbs we find in the Bible come from several sources and deal with matters high and low. The Hebrew word translated as “proverbs” refers to many kinds of sayings. The core of the book was put together in the time of King Solomon as a manual of instruction for civil servants, young men (and they were all men in those days) who had come to the royal court and wanted to be a part of the government.
All wisdom was traditionally attributed to Solomon, and it’s probably that the source of many of these proverbs is indeed the king known for his wisdom. However, there are differences in language, vocabulary, and cultural assumptions that make it clear that some of these proverbs have their origin in different centuries and some come from much different cultures.
Some of it was compiled during the reign of the great reformer, King Hezekiah. It was probably not put in its final form until after the return from the exile.
These sayings about rich and poor highlight a struggle that takes place in the real world, not in some distant spiritual realm. There’s also an assumption that we can make choices that mater.
Sometimes we think idolatry is limited to idols, but the idolatry of our economic, racial, ethnic, and national status can be just as sinful, for it creates boundaries between people that God never intended. We are different people, but we are one in God’s eyes.
James 3:1-12
This seems like a counter-intuitive passage. Why would we want to discourage from the pulpit anyone from becoming a teacher? This is not going to make us popular with the chair of the Christian Education Commission.
But after further and study I’m coming around to a different opinion about what’s going on here. In this passage James, the brother of Jesus, makes several comments about the extraordinary power of the tongue. In this era of social media, we know words that cannot be tested or vetted can do tremendous harm. But what do these warnings about the tongue have to do with a warning against becoming a teacher. I think James is not saying what can happen, but what has already happened. Self-appointed experts have done tremendous damage by teaching falsehoods. Not only, they’ve been doing this out in the open. In broad daylight. It’s no secret.
One way we can help our teachers in Christian education is to see that sound, biblically based curricula is chosen and provided that addresses the reality of rich and poor, the idolatry of nationalism and race, and the importance of living the good news of Jesus Christ rather than simple formulas that avoid contact with the real world. To simply say, all the churches use this other curriculum, and it costs less, are not good ways to support our teachers.
Mark 8:27-38
The secret is out. For much of the first eight chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has been telling those whose lives he’s changed to keep it a secret. This is sometimes referred to as the messianic secret. Some think this was a marketing strategy — tell people to keep it under their hats and it’ll spread like wildfire. Others suggest it’s a political strategy. All this talk about the kingdom of God could be considered subversive. Many believe — including me — that Jesus did not want people to talk about him and his ministry because their information was incomplete. If they talked about Jesus as a teacher, healer, wonder worker, leader, and storyteller, they weren’t telling the whole story. All of those attributes were true, but if you don’t know about the cross, you don’t really know about Jesus — or what it means to be a disciple.
After this exchange in this passage in Mark, Jesus no longer people to keep the good news under their hat.
When Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?,” they answer that others think he is one of the great figures of old, Elijah, one of the prophets, or the recently murdered John the Baptist. But when Jesus asks Peter specifically, “But who do you say that I am?” he gets the right answer. “You are the Messiah.” However, that could mean all kinds of things. So even here, for one last time, Jesus charges them to be silent, at least for the moment. He still has some explaining to do.
Jesus used the images of the suffering servant, found in passages scattered among chapters 49-53 of Isaiah, to describe a messiah whose suffering, death, and resurrection will mean vindication. And then when Peter rebukes him for talking like that, Jesus scolded Peter for being an adversary (the meaning of the term “Satan.”)
We’re coming to the key point of what is no longer a secret — the cross Jesus endured was undeserved. Jesus then talked about how his disciples, including us, must take up their own cross and follow him. Now typically we talk about our cross being our arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, or the other ways we suffer. But Jesus is suffering undeservedly because of the kingdom of God that he proclaims. And that’s what our cross really refers to — when we stand up for the outcasts, the refugees, those who are reviled because of their race, religion, and culture, their physical condition, their very being, and when we suffer because we have proclaimed that theirs is the kingdom and the powers that be hate us because we’re proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Why should we expect that it will be any different for us?
The word for life is psuke, from which we get the word psyche. One way to translate this is “our very being.” Losing friends, losing the esteem of relatives, losing standing in our community, because we dared to proclaim the kingdom of God, is like losing our life, because we lose the life we planned.
But the warning Jesus gives also includes the promise Jesus assures us will be ours, the whole package — suffering innocently, dying, and being raised. The secret is out. The cross is ours, the humiliation, the rejection — and the promise from Jesus: “…those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
The secret is out. No Christianity without the cross — and no glory, triumph, vindication without the cross either.
One of the consistent themes of scripture is that God loves the poor. It’s out there in plain sight. There are not two different kinds of people. The rich and powerful are not favored by God, nor are they a superior race of beings, yet the fact that Proverbs must state things too obvious for words -- God made everybody including the poor — means some people must believe it anyway.
James, the brother of Jesus, prefaces his discussion of the damage our words can do by warning others not to become teachers, but what he’s really saying is that the people who are already teaching Christianity give Christianity a bad name because they say rotten things about other people, rotten things those other people don’t deserve. We’re the problem. We, the Christians, are giving Christianity a bad name. Everyone else sees it. Do we get it?
But if the Bible is transparent, why does Jesus want to keep his words and works secret? What he really wants to do is keep something in the forefront that is far more important than his teachings, healing, prayer, and comfort. Yet this blunt fact is sometimes invisible because it’s staring us in the face -- the cross. Jesus was obedient, even to the cross, sharing our suffering, elevating us through his shame. Yes, his words are crucial, and his acts are wonderful, giving us a glimpse of the perfect new creation to come, but we are reconciled to God through the cross. Don’t lose sight of the obvious.
Proverbs 1:20-33
The Book of Proverbs requires a hands-on approach. We encounter the kernels of wisdom, one by one, bouncing out at us almost like popping popcorn, and it’s up to us to receive, evaluate, and use the proverbs, especially in concert with others. We understand proverbs best when we explore them together.
The proverbs we find in the Bible come from several sources and deal with matters high and low. The Hebrew word translated as “proverbs” refers to many kinds of sayings. The core of the book was put together in the time of King Solomon as a manual of instruction for civil servants, young men (and they were all men in those days) who had come to the royal court and wanted to be a part of the government.
All wisdom was traditionally attributed to Solomon, and it’s probably that the source of many of these proverbs is indeed the king known for his wisdom. However, there are differences in language, vocabulary, and cultural assumptions that make it clear that some of these proverbs have their origin in different centuries and some come from much different cultures.
Some of it was compiled during the reign of the great reformer, King Hezekiah. It was probably not put in its final form until after the return from the exile.
These sayings about rich and poor highlight a struggle that takes place in the real world, not in some distant spiritual realm. There’s also an assumption that we can make choices that mater.
Sometimes we think idolatry is limited to idols, but the idolatry of our economic, racial, ethnic, and national status can be just as sinful, for it creates boundaries between people that God never intended. We are different people, but we are one in God’s eyes.
James 3:1-12
This seems like a counter-intuitive passage. Why would we want to discourage from the pulpit anyone from becoming a teacher? This is not going to make us popular with the chair of the Christian Education Commission.
But after further and study I’m coming around to a different opinion about what’s going on here. In this passage James, the brother of Jesus, makes several comments about the extraordinary power of the tongue. In this era of social media, we know words that cannot be tested or vetted can do tremendous harm. But what do these warnings about the tongue have to do with a warning against becoming a teacher. I think James is not saying what can happen, but what has already happened. Self-appointed experts have done tremendous damage by teaching falsehoods. Not only, they’ve been doing this out in the open. In broad daylight. It’s no secret.
One way we can help our teachers in Christian education is to see that sound, biblically based curricula is chosen and provided that addresses the reality of rich and poor, the idolatry of nationalism and race, and the importance of living the good news of Jesus Christ rather than simple formulas that avoid contact with the real world. To simply say, all the churches use this other curriculum, and it costs less, are not good ways to support our teachers.
Mark 8:27-38
The secret is out. For much of the first eight chapters of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has been telling those whose lives he’s changed to keep it a secret. This is sometimes referred to as the messianic secret. Some think this was a marketing strategy — tell people to keep it under their hats and it’ll spread like wildfire. Others suggest it’s a political strategy. All this talk about the kingdom of God could be considered subversive. Many believe — including me — that Jesus did not want people to talk about him and his ministry because their information was incomplete. If they talked about Jesus as a teacher, healer, wonder worker, leader, and storyteller, they weren’t telling the whole story. All of those attributes were true, but if you don’t know about the cross, you don’t really know about Jesus — or what it means to be a disciple.
After this exchange in this passage in Mark, Jesus no longer people to keep the good news under their hat.
When Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?,” they answer that others think he is one of the great figures of old, Elijah, one of the prophets, or the recently murdered John the Baptist. But when Jesus asks Peter specifically, “But who do you say that I am?” he gets the right answer. “You are the Messiah.” However, that could mean all kinds of things. So even here, for one last time, Jesus charges them to be silent, at least for the moment. He still has some explaining to do.
Jesus used the images of the suffering servant, found in passages scattered among chapters 49-53 of Isaiah, to describe a messiah whose suffering, death, and resurrection will mean vindication. And then when Peter rebukes him for talking like that, Jesus scolded Peter for being an adversary (the meaning of the term “Satan.”)
We’re coming to the key point of what is no longer a secret — the cross Jesus endured was undeserved. Jesus then talked about how his disciples, including us, must take up their own cross and follow him. Now typically we talk about our cross being our arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, or the other ways we suffer. But Jesus is suffering undeservedly because of the kingdom of God that he proclaims. And that’s what our cross really refers to — when we stand up for the outcasts, the refugees, those who are reviled because of their race, religion, and culture, their physical condition, their very being, and when we suffer because we have proclaimed that theirs is the kingdom and the powers that be hate us because we’re proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Why should we expect that it will be any different for us?
The word for life is psuke, from which we get the word psyche. One way to translate this is “our very being.” Losing friends, losing the esteem of relatives, losing standing in our community, because we dared to proclaim the kingdom of God, is like losing our life, because we lose the life we planned.
But the warning Jesus gives also includes the promise Jesus assures us will be ours, the whole package — suffering innocently, dying, and being raised. The secret is out. The cross is ours, the humiliation, the rejection — and the promise from Jesus: “…those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
The secret is out. No Christianity without the cross — and no glory, triumph, vindication without the cross either.
