18 March 2010
Psalm 69; Exod. 1:6-22; 1 Cor. 12:12-26; Mark 8:27-9:1

The story continues. The people remained in the land of Egypt and prospered and flourished and grew into a number large enough to cause the Egyptians to fear them. The way to control the Israelites was to force them to labor for the king. It seems the opposite of shrewd to deal with the people harshly if the objective was to keep them from ever joining forces with Egypt’s enemies. Wouldn’t it tend to make people bitter enough to revolt? This same strategy was tried later in Israel’s history by one of its own kings, Solomon’s son Rehoboam, to consolidate his power over the people and it didn’t work well then either. The story of the midwives poses an ethical dilemma. The midwives seemingly lie to the king about the birthing practices they employ, telling him that the Hebrew women deliver without the need of a midwife so that they are unable to carry out his command to kill or abort the children as they are being delivered. The dilemma is over the issue of lying, can it be an absolute prohibition or do we choose to obey a higher command. Jesus has to deal with similar dilemmas in His ministry, typically to do with Sabbath regulations and healing miracles. There are some duties that are higher than others and the preservation of life would surely come higher than one’s duty to speak truth to a wicked king and do his bidding.

Peter gets it right and then immediately gets it terribly wrong. He sees Jesus as Messiah but believes Jesus doesn’t understand the concept of Messiah well enough. When Jesus begins to speak of His death, Peter rebukes Him. Peter wants the kind of Messiah that was offered to Jesus those forty days in the wilderness when He was tempted by satan. The kind of Messiah that does tricks and receives exaltation of the earthly variety is Peter’s idea, but Jesus always keeps the cross in mind and tells the disciples that they must always keep the possibility of their own cross in mind as they follow Him. Being His disciple is never once promised to be easy. He has shown us the way of the cross as the way to glory.

The body of Christ is a wonderful metaphor and a difficult reality. We all want to be the most important part of the body and yet we all need one another for the body to function well. I have a friend who lost a toe and adjusting to the loss of that one toe required a fair amount of physical therapy as it affected his balance. We need Paul’s perspective on the body and our roles within that body if we are to truly function as the Lord intends. It begins with being comfortable in your own gifts and talents, being thankful for the grace of serving Him at all. None of us deserve a place in the kingdom, it is all grace. If we could be content in that truth we could begin to live into the joy of serving.

I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
This will please the LORD more than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.
When the humble see it they will be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive.