Saturday, July 16, 2016

Zacchaeus


There are some theories that he was not actually short and crowd was conspiring to block him out because of his low stature socially, or that he was already an honest saved man who had heard the preaching of John the Baptist, but these are both unverifiable and irrelevant. The point is that Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector at Jericho. As such, he would have been very rich, but considered corrupt, a thief, and a traitor by his own people for giving the Jews’ tax money to the Romans. The crowd was shocked when Jesus talked to him, much less went to his house and ate with him.

The story of Zacchaeus is only mentioned in Luke, but it is clear why when one understands why Luke wrote his Gospel. Luke was a Greek doctor and the only non-Jewish New Testament writer. Luke was a companion of Paul, so much of the book of acts is written from firsthand knowledge, but the Gospel of Luke was written based on first hand testimony of others. His writing of Luke and Acts as 2 volumes is written in the style of and has many parallels with Greek historians. His writing is the salvation history of Jews and gentiles alike.  He emphasizes Jesus forgiving tax collectors and sinners as well as ministering to the poor, outcasts, etc… He focuses on Jesus as savior of the lost through forgiveness and mercy to sinners. It’s all about Christ’s sacrifice for us who don’t deserve it.  This is exemplified in Luke 19:10, where he states, “For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”


Why is it mentioned that it was a sycamore-fig tree? The word for the tree in Greek is sukomorea and was known for bearing much fruit and being an important part of the local economy. They symbology of trees bearing fruit can be found here.The word for how Zacchaeus was described as an extortioner is sukophantes (from which the word sycophant comes from). That word literally means fig shower, after sellers in the market who cheated. Therefore, these two words create a play on words. Also, paradoxically, the name Zacchaeus means “pure or righteous.” Therefore, a man named “righteous”, who was considered a sycophant climbed into a sycamore-fig tree, which bore much fruit, to look at the righteous one who bore much fruit and would hang on a tree for us sick with sin to look up at.


What happened to Zacchaeus after that meeting? A Zacchaeus is mentioned by Clement of Rome (Clementine Homilies iii.63) as having been a companion of Peter and appointed bishop of Caesarea. The “Apostolic Constitutions” claim this is the same man. Later Clement of Alexandria states the Zacchaeus was Matthias, who took the place of Judas after Jesus’ ascension. Early church legends often equate people mentioned in the Bible and continuing in professional church work, but the other option is that he just remained a tax collector and served God through his vocation.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Jesus the Carpenter



Why was Jesus a carpenter and why does the Bible specify that is what he did? Some say that there is no reason that he was a carpenter, other than Joseph, his step father was and trades were generally passed down because sons helped their father in his trade. Others say it simply showed that he worked and was not a peasant or a king; or that he approves of hard work and serving God in your vocation, no matter what it is.

The Greek word translated carpenter, in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3 is tektōn (τέκτων) (from which comes the English word “Technology). Tektōn can mean:

  1. A worker in wood, a carpenter, or builder
  2. Any craftsman, or workman
  3. A planner or plotter (or author)
Some people would prefer to translate it in an even more generic term, such as “craftsman”. The specific type of craftsman is most likely carpenter, due to the definition, but also according to early church tradition. Justine Martyr, about 100 years after Jesus’ death, in his “Dialogue with Trypho” described Jesus as a carpenter making ploughs and yokes for local farmers, “by which he taught he symbols of righteousness and an active life.” The word carpenter itself is a very generic term basically just mean working with wood and there many kinds of related jobs. Some do administrative work, some build buildings, or tools, or do fine detailed work. He could have possibly built boats, as fishing was a local industry (some of his disciples were fishermen). It is unclear specifically what Jesus did while working. However, in a way, Jesus used the wooden cross to build a bridge for us.
 

Some hypothesize that he was more like a stonemason builder, since that was the common building material of the time and the word tektōn was sometimes used in that way at that time. They site that Christ is stone the builders rejected (Mark 12:10), Christ is the rock (1 Cor. 10:4, 9:33), the Wise man built his house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24), etc… However, God is also described as a “Prince of Peace, Wonderful Councilor, King of Kings, Great Physician, the Good Shepherd, etc. Obviously Jesus could not have had all of these professions. Some generic structure builders at the time worked with both wood and stone as well. One thing to remember is that if the Bible does not specify something, then it is not important for our salvation, so we don’t really need to know the answer.

Whatever specific job he did, craftsman and builders make and mold things out of natural elements, just as man was created out of the dust of the ground through Jesus (John 1:3). In Jeremiah 18, the pre-incarnate Jesus (link) came to Jeremiah and told him God the Father is a potter, who molds us like clay through him. This imagery is used throughout Isaiah (29:16, 51:25, 45:9, 64:8) as well as in the New Testament in Romans 9:21. Carpenters and craftsman also fix things that are broken, just as Jesus fixed broken humanity.

Monday, July 4, 2016

God's Will (references)



Last Post I showed a diagram of God's Will and how everything comes in pairs. This post, I am showing my references, both to Bible verses and previous posts discussing the topics.

God's two types of will
Declarative [Genesis 1]
Prescriptive [Exodus 20]

Hidden [Deuteronomy 29:29a]
Revealed [Deuteronomy 29:29b]

Two kinds of revelation
General [Jeremiah 33:25]
Specific (Scripture Alone) [1 Tim. 3:16, Hebrews 1:1-2]

Two kinds of general revelation
Knowledge of God and some about Him [Psalm 19:1-4]

Law [1 Tim. 1:8]
Gospel [John 3:16]

Love God [Mark 12:30]
Love your neighbor [Mark 12:31]

Negative (Informed by general revelation)
Positive (Informs outcomes of subjective justification)

Two Negative Uses of the Law (God's Alien Work)
Curb (Informed by Natural Law) (1st use of the law) [Romans 1:28-32, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10]
Mirror(Informed by knowledge of God) (2nd use of the law) [1 John 1:8, John 3:20]

Two kinds of sin
Original [1 Cor. 2:14]
Specific [Galatians 5:19-21]

Two Positives of the Law
Ruler (3rd use of the law) [Psalms 1:1,2; 119:1,35,47,70,97]
Earned Righteousness (Merit) of God in Jesus only. Jesus is the law fulfilled [Hebrews 7:26-27]

Grace (Getting what we don’t deserve) (God's Proper Work)  [2 Corinthians 12:8-9]

Objective (through universal atonement from God’s grace and Jesus earned righteousness) [Colossians 1:21-22, Hebrews 10:10]
Subjective (applied individually, through the Holy Spirit) [Philippians 1:29, Titus 3:5-7]

Two Outcomes of Justification
Righteousness [Romans 3:21-22; 10:3]
Sanctification [2 Timothy 2:21]

Vertical, Imputed [Romans 3:10-11, 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 1:30]
Horizontal, Incipient (Informed by the 3rd use of the law) [Galatians 5:22-24]

Two kinds of Sanctification
Wide sense, being set apart as holy [Ephesians 5:25-27; Hebrews 10:10,14; Hebrews 13:12]

Word [Romans 10:17]
Sacraments [convention]

Two Sacraments with physical elements
Baptism [1 Peter 3:21]
Lord’s Supper [Matthew 26:28]