11 February 2010
Psalm 146; Gen. 27:30-45; Rom. 12:9-21; John 8:21-32

The scene between Isaac and his favorite, Esau, is full of emotion. Isaac trembles violently when he realizes that he has been deceived, Esau cries out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and lifts up his voice and weeps in begging for his father’s blessing. There are parallels with the Cain and Abel story that are unmistakable and yet the tragedy of fratricide is averted. Rebekah’s fear of losing both her husband and her son in one day is actually realized though not in the manner she fears. It seems she never saw Jacob again, effectively losing him by sending him away in her fear. This, again, comes down to an issue of trusting the Lord to do as He has promised. Do we trust God to be able to do what He has promised or not? Jesus going to the cross is the ultimate act of trust, that the Father will be able to overcome death and the grave and that the plan will succeed in spite of appearances to the contrary.

Jesus speaks things to the crowd that they cannot understand because they are only thinking in categories that make sense to them. The renewing of the mind that Paul spoke of in yesterday’s lesson from Romans is required in order for us to understand and accept spiritual truths. For the second time He speaks of being lifted up as the key to knowledge and it is surely not possible that they could have understood this figure of speech, much less what it would mean when they saw Him indeed lifted up on the cross. To the disciples He tells the key to truth, remaining in His word. He speaks of this as the way to know the truth that will set them/us free. This truth is that this life isn’t all there is, there are truths we can see with our eyes and truths that relate to the unseen yet greater realities of God.

This passage from Romans tells us something of what it means to have been transformed by the renewing of the mind. Almost all of what Paul tells them to do is counter-cultural and at odds with what we think of as human nature. Pride, for instance, was seen as a virtue and humility was seen as ridiculous in this culture, so associating with the lowly, not claiming to be wiser than you are, and even loving one another were not cultural “goods.” His admonitions to be patient in affliction and not returning evil for evil work against our own nature, at least the fallen nature. Above all else, this call is to live as new people, living the life of Christ who most certainly associated with the lowly, loved others, was patient in affliction, persevering in prayer, and did not return evil for evil. All of these things speak of that other country for which we are living, our lives are meant to be lived for something other than what the world lives for in order that it may see that there is a better way of being human, a truer humanity.

Praise the LORD!Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.