Other people groups in the area oppose the rebuilding of
Jerusalem and the temple. They send word
to the king that these people, the Jews, were allowed to come back and rebuild
but it was a mistake for the king to have allowed it. Their argument is that the Jewish people have
always been rebellious and if they are permitted to rebuild the city they will
return to their rebellious ways and have their independence from Persia. The king is sympathetic to these concerns
after consulting the history of the region and orders the work to be
ceased. There is always opposition to
the kingdom of God. When we take the demands of the Lord seriously, we are a
problem for the world because we don’t go along with morals and ethics that
society concocts and approves. When we
immerse ourselves in worldly politics and life so completely that we are
indistinguishable from the world, we lose our witness. We should be a threat to the established
order but that threat is tempered by love, not by the threat of warfare.
“…on the day of judgment people will give account for every
careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your
words you will be condemned.” Jesus has said that they are evil and from the heart
of evil they speak. What they have just
spoken is that He drives out demons by the power of the demonic. Justification is by faith isn’t it? How can Jesus then say that by our words we
will be justified? Our words tell of our
faith. What we truly believe is
evidenced by our lives, not just our thoughts or a recitation of the
creeds. If we truly believe the
alternative story of the world, the Biblical story, we cannot help but be shaped
by it, as Paul says, transformed by it from the people we were before we believed
it into something quite different. Their
next gambit is to ask for a sign but Jesus refuses it although He has already
given many signs. Jesus continues to
offend the Jewish sensibilities by offering two groups who would condemn them
at the day of judgment, both from the Gentiles who believed.
Paul makes the demands of the Gospel clear to Philemon. The man’s bondservant has run away and come
to Paul. Paul says he has enough
boldness to command Philemon to receive his servant back but Paul also believes
that Philemon will do what is right in the Lord. Paul is willing to pay whatever cost there
has been to the owner but lays a bit of guilt on at the same time. His appeal is clearly based in the forgiveness
of sins in Christ Jesus. As Philemon has
been forgiven, so should he forgive Onesimus and receive him back as a brother
in the Lord. He is not to treat the man
as a runaway slave would be treated but as a brother in Jesus. What the Gospel means to us is transformation
of everything. Philemon has a duty to
the Lord that transcends all else. “Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” calls us out of
our “rights” and into an obligation.
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