Making the Good Confession

You are the Christ: this is a remarkable statement to make of someone.  Whichever form of “Anointed” is used—Christ (Greek) or Messiah (Hebrew)—what would cause belief that another person is the one of whom all your holy writings have spoken and in whom all your hopes have been placed to deliver a people and make all things right?  What kind of faith is required?  From where does that faith come?

Consider some of what describes the Anointed One of Israel and what he would be.

• He is born but existed before his birth (Mic 5:2)
• He is human but is called God (Is 9:6)
• He is born of a woman (Is 7:14) but is God’s Son (Ps 2:7)
• He is David’s son but is greater than David (Ps 110:1)
• He is nobody special to look at (Is 53:2) but is the Great Prophet (De 18:18-19), teaching faithfully (Is 11:1-4) and healing many (Is 35:5-6)
• He will die (Is 53:7-9) and that childless yet see his seed live and flourish (Ps 16:10; Is 53:10)

When we read of Jesus in the New Testament, there is no question that this carpenter from Galilee was and is the Anointed of God, however what would convince someone during His time on earth?

A preponderant, or at least evident, aspect of Jesus’ time on earth was His prophetic work.  He went out teaching the need of repentance (Mt 4:17), corrected misunderstandings of the Law and obfuscations built up by the Jewish rulers (Mt 5:21-48), and proclaimed the good news of God’s kingdom accompanied by healing of diseases (Mt 4:23; 9:35) as evidence to His message and claims.  A great many abandoned the Lord because of the difficulty in His teaching, but when Jesus ask the twelve if they wished, Peter responded, Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  (Jn 6:68)  Peter and the Twelve understood the authoritative nature of Jesus’ teaching in His earthly itinerant work, understanding that He was the source of revelation and truth.

Under the umbrella of Divine promise is another facet that was not immediately evident but was a latent understanding of the Scriptures—the final resurrection.  This theological point is made evident in an early work of the Old Testament.

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.  (Job 19:25-27)

This clear testimony shows that from the first days of mankind those who believed on the promises of God looked forward to a day after death, when they would be rejoined to their bodies and once again be complete.  This idea is carried through Israel’s history and is mentioned in the time of the exile.

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
    and the earth will give birth to the dead.  (Is 26:19)

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.  (Da 12:2)

Where this was true of the faithful Israelite, it was most certainly true of Messiah.

Yet it was the will of the Lᴏʀᴅ to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for sin,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lᴏʀᴅ shall prosper in his hand.  (Ps 53:10)

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  (Ps 16:10-11)

The promise of the final resurrection and victory of Messiah was alive and well in New Testament Israel and led Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus, to make that great confession of faith:

Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.  (Jn 11:27)

Yes, this eldest sibling, who is typically regarded as overly concerned with earthly matters to sit at the Master’s feet like her supposedly more spiritually-minded sister, confesses who the Lord is at the tomb of her brother Lazarus.  She knew that Jesus had the power and authority of Messiah to heal her brother and keep him from dying.  She understood the promises of God to raise Lazarus on the last day.  What she does not quite understand is that Jesus is the resurrection and life incarnate?  He is the One who will raise the dead to life on the final day, and can do so now in calling Lazarus from the tomb.

Much is made of Peter’s confession (Mt 16:16), especially since he had previously made the same confession previously in different terms:

And we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.  (John 6:69)

And rightly so because of the looming work the Twelve would do.  Yet I find remarkable that Peter and the others had the benefit of intense instruction, while Martha would only be able to piece things together in ad hoc situations.  She was spiritually astute, putting the pieces together and recognizing Jesus’ office without the benefit of regular, personal interaction.

As amazing as Martha’s perception and Peter’s understanding might be, we today are no less well-off spiritually.  Though the centuries remove us from the immediate impact of what the Lord accomplished in making the Father known, we have more revelation than the early disciples first had.  Dare I say that they could be envious of the further revelation we were given through the continuing work of the Holy Spirit.  Because of this Peter could write years after the Ascension:

Though you have not seen him, you love him.  Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  (1 Pet 1:8-9)

Those believers receiving the epistle never had the opportunity to walk with and hear Jesus, but they were no less blessed than the Twelve, and we even more so having the full revelation of God, and yet with all this knowledge made known to us, we still receive the understanding of Christ in the same manner as all believers: flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Mt 16:17).  May we continue to walk by faith in what He revealed and hold fast to what has so richly been given.

You Still Don't Get It, Do You?

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.  And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”  And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.  (Mr 8:14-16)

By now you have seen any number of memes, such as the one at right, expressing disbelief, exasperation, or frustration over what people say and do with the information they have.  The applicability in the above scenario should not elude any wondering just how clueless the disciples were about Jesus’ mission and teaching.  The Lord was trying to teach these men a lesson to avoid what the Pharisees were hustling.  Rather than being a random teaching session, Jesus wants to drive home a point.

And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread?  Do you not yet perceive or understand?  Are your hearts hardened?  Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?  And do you not remember?  (Mr 8:17-18)

Admittedly, Jesus withheld much from the twelve, but they were so focused on what was happening at the moment that they had missed important spiritual truths he was imparting.  What was the back story?  There were two occasions when large crowds had been listening to Jesus for an extended period of time, and no sufficient food source was readily available.

When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”  They said to him, “Twelve.”  “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”  And they said to him, “Seven.”  (Mr 8:19-20)

Jesus took the twelve through two separate occasions when He had supplied abundantly for all.  Their fixation on the lack of bread in the boat should not have been a concern.

And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”  (Mr 8:21)

Ouch!  That hurt.  Jesus repeats the question, probably causing the twelve to consider crawling under a rock out of utter embarrassment.  But this was not the main point they should have gotten out of their time with the Lord.  Mark, in his gospel, builds parallel passages that help us see what the disciples did not at the time.

Feeding of multitude	5,000 (6:31–56)	4,000 (8:1–10)
Confrontation with opponents	Pharisees and scribes (7:1–13)	Pharisees and Herod (8:11–13)
Disciples misunderstand	Defilement (7:14–23)	Leaven (8:14–21)
Healing	Syrophoenician woman’s daughter near Tyre (7:24–30) Deaf man in the region of the Decapolis (7:31–37)	Blind man in Bethsaida (8:22–26)

Mark offers a reason for their misunderstanding: For they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened (Mr 6:52)—a striking description because it is used for the Pharisees (Mr 10:5).  The active opponents and proponents both suffered from the same malady, which could only be corrected by Divine involvement: spiritual healing was required.  The healings at the end of the parallel passages act as pointers to what Jesus would do in the apostles: remove what is causing the problem, open the ear to hear, open the eye to see.  The narration moves toward the pinnacle in which the disciples finally voice their recognition of who Jesus is (Mr 8:27-30) and see more proofs (Mr 9:2-13).  It would be nice to stop here and breath a sigh of relief, but there is more.  They understand, though imperfectly.  They take it all in, though colored by personal and Judaic interpretations of Messiah’s purpose and work.  More training will be necessary.  Much like the above-mentioned blind man, Jesus will need to work more to make their “sight” perfectly clear, and what He Himself could not do while He walked this earth, the Holy Spirit has undertaken to complete the work.

We are not any different today.  All are hardhearted toward Jesus and need His work for us to understand.  We are dead in sin, which blinds our eyes and deafens our ears to the gospel.  A mighty work is required to bring us from darkness to light.  We believe that His death was for us, and He gives us the life and understanding that we sorely lack.  We look forward to a completion of our Lord’s saving work—when He comes in power and glory to make all things new, putting away death, hell, and the devil.  In resurrection bodies we will see Him as He is and know as we are known.  Until that day, let us look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (He 12:1-2).

Overwhelmed

Picture yourself with a new role, position, responsibility, etc. with your mentor suddenly no longer available to give help for the tasks ahead. What do you do? Where do you turn for help? Solomon had such a situation that is recounted in 1 Kings 3. His father had died, and now he was king of all Israel.

5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, "Ask what I shall give you."

So maybe you are asking yourself, "Why doesn't God do this for me? I could use it right now." Let's look at this more. God did not just present himself to Solomon on a whim. First, there was the matter of a promise given to David to establish his son on the throne with a promise to have a father-son relationship and establish his throne (2 Samuel 7). Next, Solomon had a heart for the YHWH's things which he showed by following in his statutes. Last, Solomon demonstrated his wholeheartedness by extravagant worship.

As dedicated as Solomon desired to be, he had faults: he formed marriage alliances like his father; and he worshiped at the high places like the people did, because a permanent place for the ark of the covenant had not been built (3:1-4). In other words, perfection is not required for God to interact in your life. Willingness to obey is.

But back to the initial question: why doesn't God present himself and ask that question? Because he already did more than once. For example:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Matt 7:7-8)

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24)

There is no reason to seek some metaphysical reality or spiritualization of existence. The Lord Jesus Christ, second person of the Trinity, has unequivocally guaranteed both an audience and a response.

6 And Solomon said, "You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?"

Solomon responded by recounting YHWH's goodness to his father as a result of his obedience. He also knows that the only reason for his position is God's faithfulness to the covenant mention above. And here Solomon is feeling completely unqualified, having as it were the capacity of a small child. The task is so enormous and the consequences so great in regards to the people that Solomon asks for the one thing--an understanding mind.

How are you similarly stressed? With what are you wrestling? Each person goes through a period of doubt and seeming incapacitation. You were placed there for a purpose. If God is sovereign (and he is), then you, Christian brother or sister, are experiencing what is designed to work good in you. The questions will certainly arise and the lessons be painful, but make no mistake about the ultimate goal that "for those who love God all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28).

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 And God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. 14 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days."

YWHW was pleased with Solomon's choice and gave him the request and more. Again, God gives freely to his children.

15 And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

After being granted his request, Solomon turned from the high place and worshiped before the ark. This was the place of God's choosing. He was honored by obedience. After bringing petitions before the throne of heaven, the only proper response we have is to follow him more correctly.