I often wonder about passages of the Bible that seem to be quite insignificant but which take up page space which means they must be important. So much is NOT included in the Bible so that what is included must be there.
Genesis 23 is one of these passages and I was thinking about death and that metaphorically it can relate to the end of a ministry - whether planned or forced upon us - something that I have mentioned previously. The end of a ministry can be seen as merely a paper exercise, something to be done but which is not particularly important. Imagine having worked in a foreign culture for 10 years and deciding to leave. Often, most effort is taken up with practical matters such as selling a house, arranging flights and finding a destination back at home. What we see in Abraham is someone who is insistent on doing it right. Not wanting a quick and easy burial for his much loved wife but wanting to do everything 'properly' perhaps a principle we forget because it is so simple and 'obvious'. We also see something else here though and that is an investment in the future, Abraham wanting this to be his family burial spot. We can say that this relates to setting a precedent that we will always wind up our ministries properly and that as we do, we are reminded of previous experiences (to learn from them) and be known as someone who can finish well.
I also love today's Matthew passage of the Roman Centurion, one of the few times that Jesus is "astonished". Here is a man who was not one of the Jewish "children" that Jesus has come to lead back to God but a Gentile and not only that but also a Roman "oppressor". Despite him being the bad guy however, his faith allows God to move powerfully through his life. He approaches Jesus with a run-of-the-mill request for healing for his servant (a Roman who cared about his servant that much?) and an amazing display not only of faith but of authority, something which the Jews seemed a lot more uncertain about. In most cases, Jesus' authority was continually questioned, both by the religious leaders who doubted it and the normal people who were always amazed by it. This Roman quite simply sees Jesus' authority and that seems to have produced the faith required for the healing. One of those healings where the person being healed was not even there!
I wonder if most of our problems with faith relate to lack of understanding about authority. God's authority in creation, Jesus' authority as he lived on the earth and his changed authority after being raised from the dead and more importantly OUR authority delegated in Christ which allows us to command healing and deliverance for people, something we are still much too afraid to exercise.
Personally I believe that authority is partly from office (so that a leader(s) of a church has some authority over the people in that church) but more importantly by the spiritual reputation we achieve by practising what Jesus commanded us. If we start by praying for a broken leg and it isn't healed, so we assume it doesn't work and we forget about it? Or do we pray for things we have faith for so that our faith grows and then we can pray for bigger things to the point where even the demons say, "Jesus I know and Paul I know" (Acts 19:15)?
No comments:
Post a Comment