Forty Years Later
Stories
Contents
“Forty Years Later” by David O. Bales
“Signs Or Wisdom Still Allow Discussion” by David O. Bales
“The Guidance of the Law” by Peter Andrew Smith
Forty Years Later
by David O. Bales
John 2:13-22
Semphthenus, to my most esteemed elder sister, Alis, many greetings:
I pray for your health before all the gods, these gods that have guided Rome’s legions to total victory. As I am sure that you learned when Vespasian’s forces arrived in Alexandria, Jerusalem has fallen with the greatest of slaughters. When someone reads this to you—I cannot remember the name of your next-door neighbor’s daughter who can read—prepare for a shock.
The battering rams did their jobs admirably well and our legions performed with their usual patience, intelligence, skill and bravery. Smoke smudges Jerusalem’s knoll from a hundred sites that Judeans once inhabited. Every street is stained with blood. Legionaries are whipping and clubbing the newly enslaved to carry away the loot and to dismantle the city’s walls and buildings. Stronger captives have already been carted away to entertain our cities with gladiator contests and the rest to slave markets throughout the empire.
I have remained with Titus after Vespasian’s absence. I have not labored excessively, I’ve done little traveling, mostly reading the philosophers, reclining, and awaiting the conclusion of hostilities. Seldom has the Roman army entertained an elderly guest for so long or so well. For your sake, I am sure, I have been treated with all deference by our beloved patron Vespasian and by his benevolent and able son Titus. They have balanced their gracious treatment toward me against their justifiable violence upon our enemies. Through it all, the gods have been merciful, allowing me to return to Judea after all these decades.
With this report I confirm that I have kept my oath, whether it has anything to do with your Judean god is not mine to decide. I consider myself before the gods as having fully completed the provisions of my pledge to you. My hope is that at your great age you gain some peace even if I do not.
I will attempt to repeat in order a full account of what brought me here: As a young man, by fortune of our family’s long connections with Rome’s nobles, I was stationed briefly in Jerusalem as a military tribune. As planned, my one year’s duty completed the least possible service. I returned to Rome from true military service in order to exercise my military skills managing communication with the empire’s widely dispersed legions.
While stationed in Jerusalem that spring, preparing defense against whatever might sprout from the Jewish fanatics at that time of year, their spring commemoration of Passover, I kept my men in the Antonia fortress always aware of the goings-on in the Jewish temple. The fortress was situated on the northwest corner of the temple precincts and my troops irritated the Jews by peering down from its towers into the temple courts and sometimes bawling like the cattle awaiting slaughter or hectoring the workers constantly repairing the structure. They would receive curses and oaths in reply. Some of the soldiers’ antics were officially protested, and I was compelled to prevent it when it could lead to the city’s rebellion. As it turns out, the entire nation’s rebellion was postponed only to be concluded these forty years later with Rome’s bloody revenge.
While the priests were scuttling around their precious temple, preparing for the Passover’s great slaughter and the flaying of thousands of sheep, the incident occurred which so interested you. When you heard that the Jewish revolt had begun, you sent me along with the army under oath to return to where it happened. Your views are strange to me; however, I am loyal to our family. And what else does an old bachelor do who has only known the empire’s service?
That spring we were more keen to our duty because the Prefect Pilate had arrived from Caesarea to monitor other reasons Judeans might gather than for the slaying of lambs by the thousands. I was leaning over Antonia’s tower balustrade when commotion arose at the temple’s eastern gate. This was why we were stationed there. Any rowdy action in the temple was the sign that we must act. The Judeans could burst into revolt over the tiniest perceived slight. I shouted the rest of the cohort to alert, gathered two dozen soldiers, ran out, and dashed around to the east gate. We met cattle and sheep—and their owners following—still stampeding out of the gate. We almost had to swim through them in order to enter.
We found tables upside down and strewn across the eastern court—and some pretty frightened merchants still picking up coins and watching nervously for who might attack them next. The perpetrator, your Jesus, had exited quickly to the west. This appeared to be a lightning-fast action and we missed it. Witnesses were interviewed and their stories agreed that, when he entered the temple precincts, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables. He made a whip of cords and drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
When people confronted him, demanding why he thought he could do this with impunity, he answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
That approximates, I hope, what I told you when I returned from Judea forty years ago. Therefore, I have now gazed upon the pile of charred stones where the temple stood. I found no reason to hike over the rubble to stand near Antonia’s foundation. I picked my way up the temple’s eastern steps, negotiating through a field of tumbled walls to the spot where the eastern gate had opened upon the temple courts. I have fulfilled my pledge. I stood where your Jesus performed his bout of religious rage. At your behest I have gazed over the debris and recalled his words about the temple’s destruction. You believe in him. I do not. And yet, standing amid the destruction of an entire nation, I was overcome with an eerie feeling.
Preaching point: A connection between Jesus’ “temple cleansing” and what came later of the temple?
* * *
Signs Or Wisdom Still Allow Discussion
by David O. Bales
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
For the month that Lucian had been in Corinth he’d never seen Pantaenus smile. The giant beard of Pantaenus surrounded a face of constant solemnity approaching disdain. Now Pantaenus rubbed his temples again and his nostrils flared that his disagreement with Lucian was approaching the limit of acceptable.
Valentinius, however, suggested more than once that the three men should end the discussion and pray. Nevertheless, contrary to Pantaenus, Valentinius continued to listen intently to Lucian, fingering his goatee and saying, “yes, a little … sometimes … one could look at it that way.” Contrary to Pantaenus, Valentinius didn’t flinch when Lucian stated, “Paul’s simply wrong here. I can’t understand why you don’t see it. Paul’s helpful, obviously. I realize he’s dear to the gathering—I hear that from most everyone. But affection for him doesn’t guarantee he’s correct in every point he makes or in how he explains it.”
Pantaenus spoke slower, some of the anger gone from his voice, “No one in our Corinthian gathering claims Paul’s perfect. He nurtured our faith and at times confronted our sin. He could soothe our spirits or annoy us. But we knew he loved us.”
Pantaenus opened his mouth to speak further but Lucian cut in, “Here, why does he write about Jews and Greeks? We’re all Romans. You said he’s a Roman citizen. There’s only a handful of Greeks in the neighborhood. Couple of Jews in the gathering. It’s like he’s writing to somebody else. And even at that, he’s not accurate. In Antioch, we had lots of Jews and they were concerned with wisdom, always quoting their proverbs, rattling off their little moral sayings. And the Greeks I knew? They were searching everywhere for miracles and omens, a portent rippling in every stream or strangely formed cloud. This is evidence of my own eyes. Yet Paul splits non-believers into two categories that don’t fit and few of those people are even here.”
Pantaenus and Valentinius were stumped. They hadn’t considered Paul’s letter from such a perspective. Not that Lucian was completely right, but he was right enough that they could see he missed the thrust of Paul’s message. The bearded Pantaenus and the goateed Valentinius had never encountered another Christian so intent on analyzing everything. Until Lucian joined their assembly, having arrived with a trading group from Antioch the month before, Pantaenus and Valentinius were the only members of their group who could read. After the worship gathering, the three had sat for three hours reading and discussing Paul’s letter unrolled on their table.
Lucian had been considerate during worship and didn’t mention his disagreements in front of the new believers. Now, however, with Paul’s letter stretched across the table before them, Lucian had narrowed his attention to Paul’s mention of Jews, signs, Greeks and wisdom.
Valentinius cleared his throat. He realized that he couldn’t end their disagreements merely by suggesting they pray but only by carefully attending to Lucian’s question. “I think Paul’s describing all people who turn to something else for salvation other than Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s as though Paul reaches around the mass of those who want to come to God any way other than through Jesus’ suffering and he names them Jews or Greeks. He’s Jewish by birth. He studied with Greeks. But he just strings unbelievers into a line, stretching out opposite ends of how other people want to think of God. Some way out here,” he gestured to the left, “he designates as Jews, meaning those, Jewish or not, who—most familiarly in Jesus’ ministry—want confirmation by a miracle.” He gestured to the right, “And out here he places the ones who want philosophy to reason their way to God, as in other cities he’s encountered in some Greeks. The words he pastes on them aren’t exact, but either way,” he crossed his arms back and forth across his body, “neither approach accepts the weak, suffering manner that God has come to us in Christ.”
Lucian leaned back from the table. He’d been tracing a finger across Paul’s letter, noting the matters he thought were most important, or that he wanted to discuss more, or the ones he disagreed with. Now he explained himself further. “I heard about Paul and Barnabas in Antioch. There they were colleagues with other prophets and teachers. Here, when somebody gets a word from Paul, they latch onto it as though his views are the only ones.”
Pantaenus was now thoroughly calmed, even the hint of a smile. Lucian’s explanation had helped him see why Lucian was so free to criticize Paul. “We are,” he said, his long beard shaking with each word, “way out at the edge of Christ’s influence on earth. The Holy Spirit is spreading Christ’s living presence, but we’re still near the frontier of the faith. If it helps you to understand our deference to Paul, remember, he’s nearly all we’ve got. We don’t have a giant cadre of prophets and teachers like Antioch—a few, yes. Apollos has helped some and sometimes Peter’s mentioned. But, until others show up, you must realize why we cling to Paul. If we seem always to lean towards his perspective, he brought us Christ. As foolish as it seemed. As weak as it appeared. You might say that as Christ came in the flesh, his good news came also in Paul’s flesh. Through his message, Christ changed our lives.”
“That’s what Paul’s letter teaches,” Valentinius said. “We can chatter about some of his unusual emphases in the faith or his rhetorical flourishes while he mocks rhetoric, but the center of his life and message is the powerful living Christ among us. I think if he were here, he’d say the same thing, though I’m sure he’d have his own terms to explain it. We’ll write to him with more questions. You can add your own. How’s that?”
The two Corinthian natives sat silently looking intently to Lucian. Lucian smiled and nodded to their two interestingly bearded faces. Their willingness to listen to him and to answer his questions, even when he disagreed, had explained as much as the reasons they offered. “You’ve both helped a lot. If there’s more that’s unclear to me, I’ll add to the next letter. Thank you.” He extended his arms to them. “I appreciate your effort to mull over these things. The living Christ is the center, his power changing our lives. As Valentinius suggested a few hours ago, I’d very much like to unite with you in prayer.”
The three remained in prayer for an hour, praying for one another, for believers in their gathering, and for Paul, trusting in the living presence of Christ to change minds and hearts.
Preaching point: The power of God active in Christian lives.
* * *
The Guidance of the Law
by Peter Andrew Smith
Exodus 20:1-17
Roy turned the page of his Bible and sighed.
“What’s the matter, Roy?” Len asked from the other side of the residence room. “Usually when you read the Bible you’re so quiet and focused that I forget you’re here.”
“I know.” Roy held up the Bible. “When I first got this Bible I was so excited.”
“I remember. You would spend every spare moment reading and we’d have the greatest discussions afterward.”
“I miss those days.” Roy put the Bible back down on the desk. “Now the more I read, the more confused I get.”
Len turned in his chair. “Confused?”
“Yeah. I mean when I went to chapel and discovered Jesus, it was like the world suddenly came alive.” Roy smiled wistfully. “I read the Bible and discovered the depths of God’s grace and mercy and love for me. Those days were so wonderful.”
Len sat back in his chair. “So what’s changed?”
“I know that Jesus said that I’m supposed to love God and love my neighbor.” Roy frowned. “Honestly though, I’m struggling to see that commandment in everything else.”
“What part of the Bible are you reading now?”
“Exodus. I mean I get that God saves the people and we’ve talked about the plagues and getting them to the promised land but when I read through all the things that Moses taught, I’m having trouble seeing where the commandments to love like Jesus is found.”
Len tilted his head. “You do know Jesus is a couple of thousand years after Moses, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I get all that but Pastor Luke said in church that both testaments fit together and that they are all the word of God for our lives even if some of it does reflect a different culture and time in history.”
Len rubbed his chin. “Turn to Exodus 20 and read through most of the chapter.”
Roy flipped a few pages and took a few moments to look at the verses. “Hey, that’s the TenCommandments.”
“Exactly. What are they?”
Roy put his fingers on the page. “They are a list of a lot of things we’re not supposed to do.”
“Don’t forget that some of them are things we are supposed to do like honor our parents and keep the sabbath.”
Roy looked at the page again. “Sure, but I’m not seeing how this has anything to do with the greatest commandment though.”
“Read through the first four commandments. What do they talk about?”
“Hmm. They are about God and how we should act toward God.”
“Exactly. Now look at the next six. Are they about God as well?”
“No,” Roy shook his head. “They’re about the people around us. Hey, they are about our relationship with our neighbor!”
“They are. Do you see the connection yet?”
“I can see the Ten Commandments are about our relationship with God and our relationship with our neighbor but I don’t see much more than that. I mean love is about how we feel, isn’t it?” Roy rubbed his chin. “What am I missing?”
Len thought for a moment. “Do you remember when you were having problems with Tom?”
Roy nodded. “Yeah, I found it hard to forgive him for what he did. When I talked about it with Pastor Luke, he told me to pray and then to treat Tom with courtesy even if I really felt angry with him.”
“How do you feel about Tom now?”
“I’m not burning mad every time I see him. I don’t think we’ll ever be friends, but he’s okay.” Roy looked back at the Bible and then at Len. “Are you saying that we love people by the way we treat them?”
“Of course, but more than that the way we act in our lives shows that we love them. When we worship only God, when we don’t serve idols, when we are careful with our words and when we take a sabbath and time under God’s care, then we are doing things which show and lead us to love God.”
Roy put his finger on the page of the Bible. “So, when we honor our parents, don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t break our marriage vows, don’t lie, and don’t covet, we are loving our neighbors?”
“I certainly think so. The commandments show us the line we shouldn’t cross just like Pastor Luke told you that you couldn’t treat Tom badly no matter how you felt about him.”
“Which is why when I treated him with courtesy, I started to forgive him and that was loving my neighbor!” Roy sat up in his chair. “That makes sense to me.”
“Me too.” Len said as he turned back to his laptop.
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 7, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“Forty Years Later” by David O. Bales
“Signs Or Wisdom Still Allow Discussion” by David O. Bales
“The Guidance of the Law” by Peter Andrew Smith
Forty Years Later
by David O. Bales
John 2:13-22
Semphthenus, to my most esteemed elder sister, Alis, many greetings:
I pray for your health before all the gods, these gods that have guided Rome’s legions to total victory. As I am sure that you learned when Vespasian’s forces arrived in Alexandria, Jerusalem has fallen with the greatest of slaughters. When someone reads this to you—I cannot remember the name of your next-door neighbor’s daughter who can read—prepare for a shock.
The battering rams did their jobs admirably well and our legions performed with their usual patience, intelligence, skill and bravery. Smoke smudges Jerusalem’s knoll from a hundred sites that Judeans once inhabited. Every street is stained with blood. Legionaries are whipping and clubbing the newly enslaved to carry away the loot and to dismantle the city’s walls and buildings. Stronger captives have already been carted away to entertain our cities with gladiator contests and the rest to slave markets throughout the empire.
I have remained with Titus after Vespasian’s absence. I have not labored excessively, I’ve done little traveling, mostly reading the philosophers, reclining, and awaiting the conclusion of hostilities. Seldom has the Roman army entertained an elderly guest for so long or so well. For your sake, I am sure, I have been treated with all deference by our beloved patron Vespasian and by his benevolent and able son Titus. They have balanced their gracious treatment toward me against their justifiable violence upon our enemies. Through it all, the gods have been merciful, allowing me to return to Judea after all these decades.
With this report I confirm that I have kept my oath, whether it has anything to do with your Judean god is not mine to decide. I consider myself before the gods as having fully completed the provisions of my pledge to you. My hope is that at your great age you gain some peace even if I do not.
I will attempt to repeat in order a full account of what brought me here: As a young man, by fortune of our family’s long connections with Rome’s nobles, I was stationed briefly in Jerusalem as a military tribune. As planned, my one year’s duty completed the least possible service. I returned to Rome from true military service in order to exercise my military skills managing communication with the empire’s widely dispersed legions.
While stationed in Jerusalem that spring, preparing defense against whatever might sprout from the Jewish fanatics at that time of year, their spring commemoration of Passover, I kept my men in the Antonia fortress always aware of the goings-on in the Jewish temple. The fortress was situated on the northwest corner of the temple precincts and my troops irritated the Jews by peering down from its towers into the temple courts and sometimes bawling like the cattle awaiting slaughter or hectoring the workers constantly repairing the structure. They would receive curses and oaths in reply. Some of the soldiers’ antics were officially protested, and I was compelled to prevent it when it could lead to the city’s rebellion. As it turns out, the entire nation’s rebellion was postponed only to be concluded these forty years later with Rome’s bloody revenge.
While the priests were scuttling around their precious temple, preparing for the Passover’s great slaughter and the flaying of thousands of sheep, the incident occurred which so interested you. When you heard that the Jewish revolt had begun, you sent me along with the army under oath to return to where it happened. Your views are strange to me; however, I am loyal to our family. And what else does an old bachelor do who has only known the empire’s service?
That spring we were more keen to our duty because the Prefect Pilate had arrived from Caesarea to monitor other reasons Judeans might gather than for the slaying of lambs by the thousands. I was leaning over Antonia’s tower balustrade when commotion arose at the temple’s eastern gate. This was why we were stationed there. Any rowdy action in the temple was the sign that we must act. The Judeans could burst into revolt over the tiniest perceived slight. I shouted the rest of the cohort to alert, gathered two dozen soldiers, ran out, and dashed around to the east gate. We met cattle and sheep—and their owners following—still stampeding out of the gate. We almost had to swim through them in order to enter.
We found tables upside down and strewn across the eastern court—and some pretty frightened merchants still picking up coins and watching nervously for who might attack them next. The perpetrator, your Jesus, had exited quickly to the west. This appeared to be a lightning-fast action and we missed it. Witnesses were interviewed and their stories agreed that, when he entered the temple precincts, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables. He made a whip of cords and drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
When people confronted him, demanding why he thought he could do this with impunity, he answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
That approximates, I hope, what I told you when I returned from Judea forty years ago. Therefore, I have now gazed upon the pile of charred stones where the temple stood. I found no reason to hike over the rubble to stand near Antonia’s foundation. I picked my way up the temple’s eastern steps, negotiating through a field of tumbled walls to the spot where the eastern gate had opened upon the temple courts. I have fulfilled my pledge. I stood where your Jesus performed his bout of religious rage. At your behest I have gazed over the debris and recalled his words about the temple’s destruction. You believe in him. I do not. And yet, standing amid the destruction of an entire nation, I was overcome with an eerie feeling.
Preaching point: A connection between Jesus’ “temple cleansing” and what came later of the temple?
* * *
Signs Or Wisdom Still Allow Discussion
by David O. Bales
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
For the month that Lucian had been in Corinth he’d never seen Pantaenus smile. The giant beard of Pantaenus surrounded a face of constant solemnity approaching disdain. Now Pantaenus rubbed his temples again and his nostrils flared that his disagreement with Lucian was approaching the limit of acceptable.
Valentinius, however, suggested more than once that the three men should end the discussion and pray. Nevertheless, contrary to Pantaenus, Valentinius continued to listen intently to Lucian, fingering his goatee and saying, “yes, a little … sometimes … one could look at it that way.” Contrary to Pantaenus, Valentinius didn’t flinch when Lucian stated, “Paul’s simply wrong here. I can’t understand why you don’t see it. Paul’s helpful, obviously. I realize he’s dear to the gathering—I hear that from most everyone. But affection for him doesn’t guarantee he’s correct in every point he makes or in how he explains it.”
Pantaenus spoke slower, some of the anger gone from his voice, “No one in our Corinthian gathering claims Paul’s perfect. He nurtured our faith and at times confronted our sin. He could soothe our spirits or annoy us. But we knew he loved us.”
Pantaenus opened his mouth to speak further but Lucian cut in, “Here, why does he write about Jews and Greeks? We’re all Romans. You said he’s a Roman citizen. There’s only a handful of Greeks in the neighborhood. Couple of Jews in the gathering. It’s like he’s writing to somebody else. And even at that, he’s not accurate. In Antioch, we had lots of Jews and they were concerned with wisdom, always quoting their proverbs, rattling off their little moral sayings. And the Greeks I knew? They were searching everywhere for miracles and omens, a portent rippling in every stream or strangely formed cloud. This is evidence of my own eyes. Yet Paul splits non-believers into two categories that don’t fit and few of those people are even here.”
Pantaenus and Valentinius were stumped. They hadn’t considered Paul’s letter from such a perspective. Not that Lucian was completely right, but he was right enough that they could see he missed the thrust of Paul’s message. The bearded Pantaenus and the goateed Valentinius had never encountered another Christian so intent on analyzing everything. Until Lucian joined their assembly, having arrived with a trading group from Antioch the month before, Pantaenus and Valentinius were the only members of their group who could read. After the worship gathering, the three had sat for three hours reading and discussing Paul’s letter unrolled on their table.
Lucian had been considerate during worship and didn’t mention his disagreements in front of the new believers. Now, however, with Paul’s letter stretched across the table before them, Lucian had narrowed his attention to Paul’s mention of Jews, signs, Greeks and wisdom.
Valentinius cleared his throat. He realized that he couldn’t end their disagreements merely by suggesting they pray but only by carefully attending to Lucian’s question. “I think Paul’s describing all people who turn to something else for salvation other than Jesus’ death and resurrection. It’s as though Paul reaches around the mass of those who want to come to God any way other than through Jesus’ suffering and he names them Jews or Greeks. He’s Jewish by birth. He studied with Greeks. But he just strings unbelievers into a line, stretching out opposite ends of how other people want to think of God. Some way out here,” he gestured to the left, “he designates as Jews, meaning those, Jewish or not, who—most familiarly in Jesus’ ministry—want confirmation by a miracle.” He gestured to the right, “And out here he places the ones who want philosophy to reason their way to God, as in other cities he’s encountered in some Greeks. The words he pastes on them aren’t exact, but either way,” he crossed his arms back and forth across his body, “neither approach accepts the weak, suffering manner that God has come to us in Christ.”
Lucian leaned back from the table. He’d been tracing a finger across Paul’s letter, noting the matters he thought were most important, or that he wanted to discuss more, or the ones he disagreed with. Now he explained himself further. “I heard about Paul and Barnabas in Antioch. There they were colleagues with other prophets and teachers. Here, when somebody gets a word from Paul, they latch onto it as though his views are the only ones.”
Pantaenus was now thoroughly calmed, even the hint of a smile. Lucian’s explanation had helped him see why Lucian was so free to criticize Paul. “We are,” he said, his long beard shaking with each word, “way out at the edge of Christ’s influence on earth. The Holy Spirit is spreading Christ’s living presence, but we’re still near the frontier of the faith. If it helps you to understand our deference to Paul, remember, he’s nearly all we’ve got. We don’t have a giant cadre of prophets and teachers like Antioch—a few, yes. Apollos has helped some and sometimes Peter’s mentioned. But, until others show up, you must realize why we cling to Paul. If we seem always to lean towards his perspective, he brought us Christ. As foolish as it seemed. As weak as it appeared. You might say that as Christ came in the flesh, his good news came also in Paul’s flesh. Through his message, Christ changed our lives.”
“That’s what Paul’s letter teaches,” Valentinius said. “We can chatter about some of his unusual emphases in the faith or his rhetorical flourishes while he mocks rhetoric, but the center of his life and message is the powerful living Christ among us. I think if he were here, he’d say the same thing, though I’m sure he’d have his own terms to explain it. We’ll write to him with more questions. You can add your own. How’s that?”
The two Corinthian natives sat silently looking intently to Lucian. Lucian smiled and nodded to their two interestingly bearded faces. Their willingness to listen to him and to answer his questions, even when he disagreed, had explained as much as the reasons they offered. “You’ve both helped a lot. If there’s more that’s unclear to me, I’ll add to the next letter. Thank you.” He extended his arms to them. “I appreciate your effort to mull over these things. The living Christ is the center, his power changing our lives. As Valentinius suggested a few hours ago, I’d very much like to unite with you in prayer.”
The three remained in prayer for an hour, praying for one another, for believers in their gathering, and for Paul, trusting in the living presence of Christ to change minds and hearts.
Preaching point: The power of God active in Christian lives.
* * *
The Guidance of the Law
by Peter Andrew Smith
Exodus 20:1-17
Roy turned the page of his Bible and sighed.
“What’s the matter, Roy?” Len asked from the other side of the residence room. “Usually when you read the Bible you’re so quiet and focused that I forget you’re here.”
“I know.” Roy held up the Bible. “When I first got this Bible I was so excited.”
“I remember. You would spend every spare moment reading and we’d have the greatest discussions afterward.”
“I miss those days.” Roy put the Bible back down on the desk. “Now the more I read, the more confused I get.”
Len turned in his chair. “Confused?”
“Yeah. I mean when I went to chapel and discovered Jesus, it was like the world suddenly came alive.” Roy smiled wistfully. “I read the Bible and discovered the depths of God’s grace and mercy and love for me. Those days were so wonderful.”
Len sat back in his chair. “So what’s changed?”
“I know that Jesus said that I’m supposed to love God and love my neighbor.” Roy frowned. “Honestly though, I’m struggling to see that commandment in everything else.”
“What part of the Bible are you reading now?”
“Exodus. I mean I get that God saves the people and we’ve talked about the plagues and getting them to the promised land but when I read through all the things that Moses taught, I’m having trouble seeing where the commandments to love like Jesus is found.”
Len tilted his head. “You do know Jesus is a couple of thousand years after Moses, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I get all that but Pastor Luke said in church that both testaments fit together and that they are all the word of God for our lives even if some of it does reflect a different culture and time in history.”
Len rubbed his chin. “Turn to Exodus 20 and read through most of the chapter.”
Roy flipped a few pages and took a few moments to look at the verses. “Hey, that’s the TenCommandments.”
“Exactly. What are they?”
Roy put his fingers on the page. “They are a list of a lot of things we’re not supposed to do.”
“Don’t forget that some of them are things we are supposed to do like honor our parents and keep the sabbath.”
Roy looked at the page again. “Sure, but I’m not seeing how this has anything to do with the greatest commandment though.”
“Read through the first four commandments. What do they talk about?”
“Hmm. They are about God and how we should act toward God.”
“Exactly. Now look at the next six. Are they about God as well?”
“No,” Roy shook his head. “They’re about the people around us. Hey, they are about our relationship with our neighbor!”
“They are. Do you see the connection yet?”
“I can see the Ten Commandments are about our relationship with God and our relationship with our neighbor but I don’t see much more than that. I mean love is about how we feel, isn’t it?” Roy rubbed his chin. “What am I missing?”
Len thought for a moment. “Do you remember when you were having problems with Tom?”
Roy nodded. “Yeah, I found it hard to forgive him for what he did. When I talked about it with Pastor Luke, he told me to pray and then to treat Tom with courtesy even if I really felt angry with him.”
“How do you feel about Tom now?”
“I’m not burning mad every time I see him. I don’t think we’ll ever be friends, but he’s okay.” Roy looked back at the Bible and then at Len. “Are you saying that we love people by the way we treat them?”
“Of course, but more than that the way we act in our lives shows that we love them. When we worship only God, when we don’t serve idols, when we are careful with our words and when we take a sabbath and time under God’s care, then we are doing things which show and lead us to love God.”
Roy put his finger on the page of the Bible. “So, when we honor our parents, don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t break our marriage vows, don’t lie, and don’t covet, we are loving our neighbors?”
“I certainly think so. The commandments show us the line we shouldn’t cross just like Pastor Luke told you that you couldn’t treat Tom badly no matter how you felt about him.”
“Which is why when I treated him with courtesy, I started to forgive him and that was loving my neighbor!” Roy sat up in his chair. “That makes sense to me.”
“Me too.” Len said as he turned back to his laptop.
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StoryShare, March 7, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
