Not the Daddy

Not the momma?

      In John the eighth chapter, we see Jesus talking with the "Jews" in Jerusalem. There is a very interesting theme that runs through this discourse, vv 30 - 59.  This theme can be summed up in one statement, "not the daddy."  Jesus and "the Jews" go toe to toe over who is their father.
      C. H. Dodd has remarked that Jewry of the first century had an almost if not complete sub-conscious understanding that since they were "Abraham's seed" that that alone would make them blessed (Brown p.360). They believed that all nations would be blessed through them  (Genesis 22:17-18).  Abraham had in himself the power to save. This idea can be seen in the story of Lazarus who was in the bosom of Father Abraham and the rich man prayed to Abe to "let Lazarus dip his finger in the water and come cool my tongue for I am tormented in the flame".  (Note to self: Once a person has been rich and spoiled by being waited on hand and foot, its a hard to break the habit, even in hell.) Anyway, they had internalized this idea that all Jews are blessed because Abraham was chosen of God and they were Abraham's sons. Jesus had to fight this same conditioning in Nicodemus (chapter 3- Born of the Spirit). He was not a spiritual man, but earthy. Here, these Jews thought the same way. Their right to righteousness cames through a natural blood line. But Abraham had received the blessing through acts of obedience (Hebrews 11:8).
       Paul attacked this same thinking in Galatians 3. "If you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed". Interestingly the Jews base their thinking on Genesis 22:17-18. Exegetically, Paul saw the word "seed" as being singular, sperma (LXX), ergo Christ. It is in Christ that all the nations shall be blessed. Christ is the true seed of Abraham, son of God. Christ obtained the blessing the same way as Abraham, through obedience to the Father (Genesis 22:18 and Heb. 5:7-8). And we obtain sonship through obedience too. There is no blood line of the righteous, not natural anyway. You can not be born a son of God or raised a son of God. Just as the Jews could not be born a son of Abraham or God. Like them we, in and of ourselves, alone, can become a son.  Who is the true Jew? Who is the true son? The one who does the will of the Father (John 5:30). {Hear more about this - Learn Obedience! }
       Even in extra-Biblical material we see this persuasion of the divine right of Jewry. In the philosophical discourse of the early church,  Dialogue with Trypho by apologist Justin Martyr we can see this same thinking. Trypho the Jew argued for Jewry's claim that the Jews as seeds of Abraham expected to receive the Kingdom of God, no matter what they did. It was promised to them (CXL 2; pg. 6:797). Yet in Matthew 3:7-10  John the Baptist claimed to the circumcision that God could raise up sons of Abraham from the stones on the ground.  And just as pointedly Jesus threatened the Hebrews that strangers would sit at the feasting table and the children could be thrown out (Matthew 8:11-12). And more to our point here, Jesus warned that you should "call no one your father, except your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 23:9).
      All these warnings, threatenings and pointed comments will lead us straight to the heart of this discourse. In the end the Jews called Jesus fatherless, a bastard.  Jesus countered that they are the sons of their lying father the devil. All in all it was an ugly name calling event; an event ending with the Jews wanting to stone Jesus as they had earlier in this chapter wanted to stone the adulterous woman.  Jesus miraculously slipped out from their midst going as he came to the feast, encrpto, in secret.
    What does this exchange mean to me? I remember a sitcom that had a brief stent about 20 years ago. It was about dinosaurs. It began with the baby dino sitting on the shoulders of the father dino with a milk bottle in the baby's hand. If I remember correctly the baby was hitting the daddy on the head with the bottle and saying "not the momma, not the momma".  I know it is "the momma" the baby is saying and not the daddy, okay. But in a strange way it reminds me of this scene. Jesus is hitting the Pharisees on the head and saying "not the daddy, not the daddy".

Sunday Morning - a picture to hang on a peg.

Sunday Morning by A.B. Durand

    I was raised in a Southern Baptist minister's family. My dad was a pastor, what we might now call a "senior pastor".  Sunday mornings as you might understand, were very important to my family. Mom would put on a vinyl of George Beverly Shea, Dad would be standing, shaving at the mirror, reciting his sermon and Steve and I would be hiding under the covers waiting until the last possible threat from our mom before getting up. No one was allowed to be emotional or loud on Sunday morning. Dad wanted a certain atmosphere so he would be ready for the "Sunday show". It was Sunday morning, after all, the Lord's Day.
     All my years growing up in our home we had a picture on our living room wall entitled, "Sunday Morning". It was a colonial era picture of a family walking out of their home going to church. The artist was A. B. Durand. After I married and I had a family of my own, I told my natural family I wanted this picture for myself. That was a mistake. Suddenly the value of that painting skyrocketed and everybody including some visiting ministers wanted that picture! It has since "disappeared" into the dark recesses of my family.
       Thinking about that picture made me decide that I would just get a copy and have it framed and be done with it. So I began, not knowing the painter's name, to google "Sunday Morning" and I clicked "image". How difficult could it be? Sunday morning as it turned out was a popular name for nearly everything imaginable.  Let's see there were; tranquil pastoral scenes, busy streets, gross looking breakfasts of eggs and bacon, alluring men and women, well I could go on but you take a look. The page looked like every thought I'd ever had of anything, except, you guessed it, A.B. Durand's idealized Sunday Morning.
         Sunday Mornings in our day has taken on different meaning from those days of Durand or even mother's tranquil mornings with George Beverly Shea. Sunday used to be the Lord's day! Whatever happened to that concept? Come to think of it,  it was probably Jesus' fault. Wasn't it Jesus who said "Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath"(Mark 2:27 KJV)? One look at that page and we can see what man did with the Sabbath. One in about every 10-12 pictures was a church or something family, everything else was snap shots of man's mind, cluttered and crazy. This was certainly man's Sabbath.
      The Sabbath may be made for man but wasn't man made to honor God? It made me question myself on how much am I honoring the Sabbath or the Lord's day or the Lord on any of His days. I know we do not celebrate Saturdays, but worship on Sunday. Somewhere, it seems, in the shuffle something got lost. If I find a copy of that picture I want to hang it prominently on our wall.  It should symbolize my placing the Lord first in my life. Like the peg, a nail driven into the wall prophesied by Isaiah as a hanger for what the Lord wants (The Peg in a Firm Place, This Week, Volume IX (1978)p 160). To be obedient to what He wants is what the picture now means to me. Sure, I probably have the freedom to do otherwise but the freedom I want is to do His will. I will count myself lucky if I am able to do his will with the time I have. Maybe I am still facing the day with Lord like I did those Sunday mornings hiding under the sheets. Maybe I 'll go get a vinyl, well a mp3, of GB Shea and start facing my day with more of an atmosphere for God, like the painting has been saying all along, "Step out, motion gently to your wife, show her the way down the road to the house of God. Hurry up that son of yours to get that shoe tied. Don't  be late. Get out there behind your father. He's been walking that way for a long time."
  Sunday Morning, an oil on canvas, by Asher Brown Durand.