All You Need is Love

The title of this post reflects a popular song by the Beatles, but it also reflects the key component that was intended to fuel the Church: love. Somewhere along the line Christians have fallen into the trap that all we need is right and wrong. But believe it or not, the purpose of the Bible is not to teach morality; it's purpose is to teach love.

The problem comes from such passages as Matthew 5 where, after a long string of apparent do's and don'ts, Jesus says, "be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect," or other passages which seem to explicitly tell us to be holy as God is holy. These passages have confused a lot of people through the years. Some have wanted to just throw them out of the bible or downplay them saying Jesus was exaggerating for dramatic effect. Others have taken these passages literally, pointing to them and saying, "see, we need to do good. Good works are important." I think there has just been a gross misunderstanding of these passages.

The Matthew 5 passage uses the Greek term teleios which literally means, "complete" or "finished." It does not mean perfect. Jesus wants us to be complete. In order to be complete, or to work towards the proper end (purpose) for which we were created (which is how this passage should be translated), we must love one another. Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to love God and love one another. Jesus said that his followers will be known by their love. Jesus said that we need to love our enemies. Our proper end is love, and the admonitions that preceded Jesus' command to "be perfect" describe how this kind of radical love works.

The passages that ask us to be holy have the very same purpose. Western culture has taught us that holiness means to follow the rules perfectly. The less we follow the rules, the less holy we are. But this is not what holiness was in the Bible. Holiness was love. Holiness was having a proper relationship with God in love that spilled out into your love for your fellow human being. When Jesus told us to be holy, he was telling us to have a deep, loving relationship with God, and to let that spill over into our relationships with one another.

I do not know where churches got the idea that Christians were to be the moral police and that being a Christian was about doing right and abstaining from wrong. If a person's focus is on sin, they will fall into sin. If a person's focus is on love, it is amazing what good they will do. The focus of the gospel time and time again was on love. The example Jesus gives us in his interactions with such people as the lady caught in adultery, or the Samaritan woman at the well, or the woman who bled for twelve straight years, or the Centurion, or a thousand other people is the example of love. The fact that Jesus showed love to everyone he came across and made them feel welcome and accepted should wake us up to the way the Church should be today.

While listening to Dr. Tony Campolo, a sociologist and Christian social activist, he told a story that really touched me. You can find the video imbedded below and I encourage you to watch it. He tells a story of being down in Hawaii and going for breakfast at 3:00 in the morning. While at this restaurant some prostitutes came in and sat beside him. One said to the other that tomorrow will be her birthday. The other one gave her some grief about it, and the birthday girl, Agnes, revealed that in her 39 years of life, she has never had a birthday party. So Tony planned a birthday party for her at 3:30 the next morning in the restaurant. Over thirty prostitutes showed up and they threw her her very first birthday party. She was so touched she couldn't even describe it. Tony ended up leading the prostitutes in prayer, to the shock of everyone there. When asked what kind of church Tony belonged to, he responded, "the kind of church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning." That is the kind of church I want to belong to. Not the kind that would say, "you shouldn't do that, prostitutes are bad people." If whores are worthy enough for my Lord, Jesus Christ to eat with, then certainly I am wrong to exclude them from my dinner table. In my Bible, Jesus teaches us to bring love to those who are unloved and to throw celebrations for those who don't feel they have anything to celebrate.

Jesus never taught that the church should be the moral police. Jesus never taught that we need to focus on doing right and avoiding wrong. Jesus reprimanded those who did such things and taught them that the law was about love, justice, and mercy, not rule (Matthew 23). Jesus taught that we are supposed to love on another. And that is what I am trying to practice. And that is what I think the Church should practice too.
Blessings,
-Brandon

Parable of the Unforgiving Servant: A Reinterpretation

I had a good response from my contemporary interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan, and so I thought the need for this kind of biblical study was enough that occasionally I would write up a modern interpretation of the original text. Understand that as I do this, my intention is not to replace the original message or to somehow say that my translation is superior. Instead, my intent is to take a passage that uses illustrations that will no longer make sense to most readers (as they are very tied to their cultural setting) and modernize them so that perhaps we can have a better understanding of what Jesus is asking us in these parables to do today. With that said, let's now look at my modernized translation of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant which can be found in Matthew 18:21-35.

The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a lender who wanted to settle accounts with his borrowers. He brought in a man who still owed $200,000 on his home, even though his home was not even worth that amount any longer. Due to the recent decline in the economy, this man lost his job and was currently making slightly less than $20,000 a year at the only job he could find. He was behind on his payments and was facing foreclosure if he didn't pay $40,000 by next month. The lender called this man in and was told by this man that he didn't even have $4000 to give the lender. The lender, furious, called for the immediate foreclosure of this man's house and told him that if he didn't come up with the money in the next two weeks, he would take this man to court and seize all of his assets. The man immediately fell on the ground and begged, crying for a little more time, promising to pay the debt. The lender, having compassion on this man, forgave his entire debt and allowed the man to own the home outright.

This man left the lender feeling incredible relief and joy at having been forgiven such an incredible debt that would have been impossible for him to pay off in his own lifetime. This man also had a renter staying at his home who had been living there for the last two years and never missed a monthly rent payment until two months ago, right after he had lost his job. This man went directly to his renter and demanded that he pay him the two months rent. The renter pleaded with this man, asking for a couple more days to come up with the money. But the man immediately evicted his renter, called the creditors to seize the rent from his accounts, and got a restraining order so the renter could not come into the house to get his property.

When the man's forgiving lender found this out, he immediately called the man into his office. "I forgave you an impossible debt to repay," he exclaimed, "and yet you cannot even forgive a small debt? You will regret this." He immediately reissued the debt, tripling the interest rate and doubled the amount the man owed by next month. The lender also froze all of the man's assets until the debt could be fully repaid.

Jesus finishes up the parable by saying, "My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” This parable teaches us that the debt (the sin) each of us are forgiven by Jesus, is greater than anyone of us can repay in a lifetime of effort. Nothing we can ever do can ever repay the debt we have incurred due to our sin. That is why Jesus died on the cross, providing the forgiveness of our debt. Therefore, it is wrong for us to be unforgiving of the sin of others. We should be forgiving of the sins of others because no sin anyone has committed is ever as great as the sin we are forgiven in our own lives. This should make us pause and think about what we are doing when we are judging another person of their sins. We are saying that since their minuscule sin should not be forgiven, then neither should our great sin. But since God is willing to forgive us of our own sin, we should be willing to forgive others of their sins.

Finally, this parable also teaches us that we are misinformed regarding the sin of others. Often we exaggerate the extent of others' sins, making them greater than they really are. Either that or we make something a sin that is not really a sin. For these reasons also, we need to be forgiving of the sins of others. Otherwise we risk losing the incredible forgiveness we are offered from Jesus. What you consider a sin, may not be considered so bad by God. So if you are met with someone who does drugs or drinks to excess, if you meet a homosexual or someone who has had an abortion, if you meet an illegal immigrant or someone who is covered in tattoos, treat them as Jesus has treated you, with the utmost of compassion, love, and forgiveness. That is what Jesus did.
Blessings,
-Brandon

The Good Samaritan: A Reinterpretation

In Luke 10:25-37 Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan in response to the question "Lord, who is our neighbor?" Jesus had just told the crowd that the second greatest commandment was to "love your neighbor as yourself." Whether the Scribe who asked Jesus who his neighbor was, was trying to trip Jesus up, or if he genuinely wanted to hear Jesus' answer, I cannot say. The text says the original intent of the Scribe was to "test" Jesus and that the follow-up question was to justify his original question, so we cannot truly say why he asked; but it will become evident that he needed to know. Unfortunately, Jesus uses an illustration that is better suited for biblical times than our own. This may explain why so many Christians seem to forget who their neighbor is today. That is why I am giving an updated version of this wonderful parable, instead of simply explaining the parable, in hopes that whoever may come across it, may gain some valuable insight into and a fresh perspective from these classic words of Jesus. Enjoy!

A Christian man was taking the subway in New York, going from Brooklyn up to Queens late one night, when he was jumped by a group of muggers. He was beaten very badly, beyond recognition as a matter of fact, and was barely breathing. The muggers grabbed everything and left him for dead.

Not far from where this man was left, bleeding and bruised, a Catholic priest was leaving his rectory. It had been a long day. He made no less than four visitations that day, providing the sacrament of the sick to some shut-ins, and providing counseling to a couple that was contemplating divorce. He was tired and had one last visit he had to make before he could end his day. As he passed the beaten man, he contemplated stopping for help, but knew he just did not have the energy in him, and he had to get to his visit. "Mustn't keep people waiting" he thought to himself as he day dreamed about the comfortable bed he hoped to get to soon.

At the same time as the priest had crossed this man's path, a Baptist preacher was leaving a death visit where he had helped a family cope as their loved one passed away. For him also it had been a long day. Between board meetings and sermon preparation, he barely had time to gather his thoughts. Not to mention his time spent counseling a young drug addict, and writing up a short article for the local paper about why gay marriage should not be allowed in America. He too saw this fellow brother in Christ laying near death, but decided not to stop because God would bring by someone to help soon. After all, he had done plenty that day and needed to think about himself at this point. "Whatever happened" he thought, "it must have been for a reason."

Not long after the preacher passed by the young, dying man, two men who were on their honeymoon (having just been married in Massachusetts) were approaching the young man. These two men, raised Christian but currently agnostic, had quite the day themselves. As they ate breakfast they attracted quite a few dirty looks and few slurs from some of the patrons at the restaurant. They were threatened as they walked down the street holding hands that day and nearly escaped with their lives. The very man who was beaten and bruised was involved in a protest that same evening that these men walked by, and it was this man's spit that landed on the two gay men. But this couple looked on this man with compassion as they saw him clinging to life. They thought about his own family who must be wondering where he is. They thought about this man's emotions and the terror that must have been running through him as he lay close to death all alone in the subway tunnel. So they lifted this man up and took him to the nearest emergency room. They paid for all of his medical bills and stayed with him until they were sure he could speak for himself and oversee his own care. The gay couple never asked for anything and, when the man was well enough to take care of himself, they went off into anonymity.

You see, what makes this story so remarkable, and what makes it still so relevant for us and necessary for us to learn, is that the hero of the story, our neighbor, is always the person/people we typically most hate. It is this person we are told to love, and this is the second greatest commandment, right behind the command to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." Any group can be placed in the role of the Good Samaritan: Muslims, Abortion Doctors, Illegal Immigrants, etc. But the story does not end there. Many people miss the very end of the parable where Jesus says, "now go and do likewise." The only thing Jesus could be referring to is to be like the Good Samaritan. So we are to view those we tend to hate the most as those who are willing to help out when no one else will. But we are also to help out everyone, even those we consider our worst enemies, just as the Good Samaritan helped out the man beaten along the roadside. In other words, our examples for doing rightly, are the very people we often consider to be the worst sinners. Isn't it amazing how Jesus turns our traditional morality on its head? It is my prayer and my desire for us no longer to consider others our enemies, but to remember when we start to feel that way, that these people are in fact our greatest examples, and those neighbors to which we are supposed to love so deeply. That is what Jesus did.
Blessings,
-Brandon

Jesus' Top Ten Miracles

10. The Ear of the Man in Jesus' Arrest Party (Luke 22:45-54)
In this story, when Jesus was approached by Judas and the rest of the arrest party, one of Jesus' followers (some accounts say Peter) cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest who was in the arrest party. Jesus scolded the man who cut off the ear and healed the man's ear though many would consider him to be Jesus' enemy. Even though this man was with those arresting Jesus and probably disagreed with Jesus' teachings and actions, Jesus still felt compelled not to support the swordsman's actions, but instead to help out his enemy.

9. Blind Bartimaeus (Luke 18:35-43)
In this story, Jesus and his followers were travelling in Jericho when blind Bartimaeus was by the roadside and heard Jesus walking by. When he called out for Jesus' help, the crowd rebuked him treating him as unworthy. Of course Jesus came over and healed the man. This story is remarkable on two accounts. First off, though Jesus' followers (you might say the early Church) rebuked the man, possibly calling him a sinner and ridiculing him for his infirmity (back then it was thought that physicial ailments were caused by sin and well deserved; see #8 below) Jesus saw fit to heal this man, having compassion on him, and did not ask any questions or ask for any commitments from the man. Secondly, the man's name being Bartimaeus (translated son of Timaeus) indicates that this man was Roman or Greek. He was therefore a Gentile who worshiped pagan gods, and yet Jesus healed him anyway, without any hesitation or question.

Anthony Weiner and Jesus: The Biblical Response

When big events occur in our time, I often wonder how Jesus would have responded. When I see church leaders on TV proclaiming the message to repent, I wonder what Jesus would say to them today. When athletes outspokenly thank God for their superstar performance, I wonder what Jesus might have to say to them. And when politicians are caught in a scandal and our leaders fall, I wonder if Jesus would be condemning of them or merciful.

Just about everyone in the United States is familiar with the scandal surrounding New York representative Anthony Weiner. Today he admitted having sent lewd photographs of himself to a young woman over twitter, one of many it turns out he has sent over the previous few years. In the weeks since the tweet was made (publicly instead of privately like he had intended) he lied to several media outlets, claiming his twitter account had been hacked and that he had not sent the tweet.