"I once was blind..."

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him... Luke 24:30-31

Do you ever fail to see what’s right in front of your nose? I'm afraid I do. I read a newspaper article once about someone I slightly knew - and who had actually been mentioned to me only a few days before! - but I completely failed to see the connection. I wasn't expecting to read about this person in the paper, so when he appeared there it simply didn't dawn on me that it was the same man. Once it was pointed out to me I thought, "How could I have been so stupid, so blind! How could I have failed to see ?"

It's the afternoon of Easter Day. Two people are walking sadly from Jerusalem to Emmaus, roughly seven miles away. One of them is called Cleopas, so it's quite possible that the other is his wife Mary. They are completely confused by the events of the last few hours. They are disciples of Jesus, and have seen him crucified on Friday. They have sat through that wretched, bleak, utterly miserable Saturday. Now they are heading, presumably home, to Emmaus. But before setting out they have been puzzled by rumours: Jesus, it is said, is alive again! For some reason they don't have time to check the facts. But they mull it over as they walk.

They are joined by a stranger. It is Jesus himself - but they don't recognise him. Perhaps it's getting dark (no street lights, remember). Perhaps his face is partly cloaked. Most likely their numbed minds just can't process what is right before their eyes; Jesus is dead, after all.

He explains what has been going on. But still they don't "get it". They persuade this stranger to share a meal with them at their home. And then... something happens. He takes it on himself to break the bread, the most ordinary action you could imagine - and suddenly they understand. They know him from the way he does it. The scales fall from their eyes. They see.

It's rather like Mary Magdalene that same morning. She finds the tomb open and empty. She assumes the body has been stolen. She becomes aware of a man standing near her. He asks why she is so upset. She thinks he is a gardener, and asks him where the body is. He speaks just a single word - her name: "Mary". And suddenly she too... sees. "Teacher!" she cries out.

It is the greatest moment of your life when your eyes are opened and you see Jesus yourself for who he truly is: the risen Son of God. Nothing can ever be the same again. Has that yet happened to you? 

Now here’s something we need to grapple with, something a little puzzling: that moment of seeing, of revelation, is both a gift and a command. It’s a gift, because it is something that happens to us, perhaps right out of the blue. But it’s also a command, because we are commanded to believe, to have faith.

To be honest, I don't quite know how to marry those two things together; they seem contradictory. But experience shows that it is so. We mustn't use the fact that our eyes haven't yet been opened as an excuse, a cop-out. God calls us to see - but then if he calls us to see, surely we needn't doubt that he will make it happen, as long as our hearts are humble and open?

Can you think of another couple in the Bible of whom it is said that "their eyes were opened"? Sadly, in this case it was to see their downfall: "they knew that were naked", and so they took steps to cover their shame. Yes, Adam and Eve, right at the beginning (Genesis 3:7).

The first creation goes horribly wrong. Adam and Eve see the catastrophe that has overtaken them. But now, on Easter Day, Cleopas and Mary see the miracle of the risen Christ. God is giving birth to the new creation, a creation of which we are all invited to be a part. 

Are you yet part of this wonderful new creation? Have your eyes yet been opened?

Lord Jesus Christ, please open my eyes. Please help me to see. Amen.

The time is - now!

In the seventh year Jehoiada showed his strength. 2 Chronicles 23:1

They say that however well you know the Bible there is always something new to be found in it. For me this little sentence is a case in point. Not, I have to admit, that the books of Chronicles are ones I know particularly well; but still, the statement that Jehoiada showed his strength struck me forcibly not long ago.

What is going on here? We are in a truly grim period in the history of God’s people. Briefly, Athaliah, the mother of the murdered king Ahaziah, has seized the throne for herself. In order to do this she has killed any other possible contenders to the throne (including, we must assume, some of her own grandchildren). She hangs on to the throne for six years; but she doesn’t realise that in spite of her massacres she has in fact missed one of the royal princes, Joash. When just a baby, Joash was hidden away by Jehosheba, wife of Jehoiada the priest. He is now seven.

And this is the point at which Jehoiada “shows his strength”, and sets about the business of removing Athaliah and putting Joash on the throne. I picture him sitting up straight one day as the realisation dawns on him that the time has come to act. Six years is a long time to wait to see justice done. The rest of chapter 23 shows how effective his action was.

One simple point stands out for me. 

In all our lives there are times we need to stir ourselves urgently into concerted action. Perhaps we have been drifting along, ignoring a bad situation and vaguely hoping it will go away. Perhaps our marriage has stagnated. Perhaps our church has slipped into complacency. Perhaps a glaring need for social action refuses to be brushed under the carpet any more. Whatever, you become aware that responsibility for this is not somebody else’s but yours; if you don’t take action, nobody else will.

Reasons not to act are many and varied... I’m too busy. I’m too old. I’m too young. I don’t have what it takes. My health isn’t too good. It’s so-and-so’s responsibility. To all of which God is saying: “Rubbish! Roll your sleeves up and get on with it. You, and no-one else, are the man/woman for this hour.”

I am interested to see how the various Bible translations render this verse. The version I have quoted is the New International. The Good News Bible says that Jehoiada “decided it was time to take action”, the Contemporary English Version that he “knew that something had to be done”, The Message that he “decided to make his move”, the New Revised Standard Version that he “took courage”. 

Well, take your pick!

But let’s not miss the vital point: inaction, neutrality, laissez-faire, procrastination, passivity, live and let live - call it what you like - simply isn’t an option. We can condemn ourselves as much by the things we don’t do as by those we do do. The old cliché is true: evil flourishes when good people do nothing.

I’m not suggesting, of course, that any of us should jump hastily into unconsidered action; that will do more harm than good. The fact is that the normal Christian life is often fairly routine, even humdrum, and that’s not necessarily wrong. So we need to be sure that what we have in mind to do is right, that it is indeed the will of God. Think hard. Pray deeply. Search your heart. Take advice.

But if it is God's will - well, what are we waiting for?

Father, I’m not by nature an activist. I really don’t like the idea of rocking the boat! But if there is a situation that needs to be grasped and changed, give me the courage to do just that, whatever the cost might be. Amen.

Thinking about marriage?

... a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife... Genesis 2:24

So they are no longer two, but one... Matthew 19: 6

Marriage should be honoured by all... Hebrews 11:4

It took me a little by surprise at first. He was a young Romanian who had been worshipping with us, along with his fiancée, for two or three years. “We’ve decided to get married, and we wondered if we could have the wedding here, and if you would be happy to conduct it.” No problem there, of course - my privilege. But then the next bit: “We were wondering if we could have the ceremony on a Sunday morning as part of the usual service.”

Ah. This was, as the Americans say, “something else”.

Financial considerations were only partly behind the idea: true, the couple had little money, and this was certainly an inexpensive way of going about things. But much more than that, they were very much part of our community, and given that most of their family would not be able to travel from Romania, they felt it would be good to get married among their church family here, plus of course as many of their compatriots as possible who lived in Britain.

Well, my initial hesitation soon evaporated, not least after a chat with the leadership of the church. Why not! It would be a great witness for Christian marriage (not to mention that I would have a tailor-made children’s talk - I mean, what better visual aid could you want than a real wedding?).

So we went ahead. And it was indeed one of the happiest and most inspiring services I can remember. Yes, we had to make a few adjustments to the usual format: the bride, in her special dress, came in as per tradition; there was a meaty sermon on the joys and responsibilities of marriage; and the legal parts had to be fitted in, of course.  

But it was a great event: refreshing, unpretentious, joyful, challenging, somehow wonderfully authentic. People went away buzzing. Those who had turned up unaware of what was going on were at first bemused, then delighted. (Oh, and it turned out too that there was a nearby hotel run by Romanian friends who happily hosted the reception as a gift.)

It all left me with one very big question running in my mind: why can’t this be the norm? Or something like it, anyway. You don’t need me to remind you of the huge amounts of money - many, many thousands of pounds - routinely spent on weddings in this country. There are times it all seems not just vulgarly extravagant, but verging on the obscene. Of course the day should be special. Of course there’s a place for dressing up. Of course some significant expense needs to be gone into. But isn’t it massively out of proportion? - a lot of stress and worry for nearly everyone concerned, and often a very flat feeling at the end?

The Bible lays a great stress on marriage - a gift of God to the human race. But the emphasis is always on the marriage, never on the wedding. Isn’t this significant? The historians can tell us a bit about how weddings were conducted in the ancient world, in both Jewish and Gentile circles; but the Bible tells us next to nothing. This suggests, surely, that at bottom it just doesn’t matter. So why do we make so much of it?

Isn’t it ironic that the more marriage is devalued in our society ("who cares about a bit of paper?"), the more focus there is on the public display? And isn’t it sad to hear young people who have started to live together explaining that they “can’t afford to get married”? Many of us will know couples, now elderly, who got married on a shoe-string as the second world war approached; they didn’t know if they would ever be able to do so otherwise. I doubt if their joy and sense of occasion was any less.

Perhaps it’s time that we who follow Jesus made it our business to set a new trend for our society?

God our Father, thank you for the wonderful gift of marriage. Help those of us who are married to delight in it, as husbands and wives, and may your blessing be upon our homes and families. Help us too to show our cynical and materialistic world its true value. Amen.

Little man - big impact

When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. 2 Chronicles 15:8

I suspect that, since you are reading this Bible-based blog, you will probably have heard of various Bible characters - Old Testament figures such as Abraham and Moses, Elijah and Isaiah, David and Solomon, and New Testament ones like Mary, Peter, Paul and Stephen. But I wonder if the name of Azariah son of Oded means anything to you?

To be honest, Bible figures don’t come much more obscure than him. He pops up out of nowhere, appears for just eight verses (there are about 31,000 in the whole Bible), and then disappears into the mists of time. We know his father’s name - Oded - but that’s just about all. To add insult to injury, he is one of no less than twenty-five (!) Azariahs in the Old Testament.

But I like him. He has been like a friend to me for many years. So I want to introduce him to you, in case you have never met him before. (It won’t take you long to read 2 Chronicles 15 to get the full story.) In essence, he was a prophet who spoke to Asa King of Judah when Asa was returning from victory in battle. 

Broadly, he gives Asa a threefold message. First, there is a challenge and warning (verse 2): God is with you, Asa, if you are with him - but make sure you stay close to him or it will be the worse for you! Second, there is a potted history lesson (verses 3-6): learn from the past, Asa, because even though God loves you, he is not to be trifled with! And third, there is a word of encouragement (verse 7): Asa, the future’s bright if you are wholehearted in your loyalty to God!

There are two main reasons I like Azariah son of Oded.

First, he shows great courage. Prophets who dared to confront kings could come to a sticky end, and often did. But see how bold Azariah is in addressing Asa: “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Jerusalem...” There’s no mincing of words there, is there? The Spirit of God was in his heart, and the word of God was on his lips - and that’s a pretty powerful combination. It gave him a stature that impressed even the king.

God needs people like that today, in a world where so many are indifferent to him at best and hostile to him at worst: men and women of stature and authority, not because they hold any particular position in life, but because of their Christlike courage and sheer presence. Is that you? Is it me? In our workplaces? In our neighbourhoods? The message is simple: get seriously into the Bible, and be filled daily with the Holy Spirit. The spiritual stature will follow. 

And let’s never forget the many thousands of such people around the world today who haven't had such a favourable response as Azariah got from Asa, and who are stuck in prisons, or made to suffer in other ways (take a look at Hebrews 13:3). They need our daily prayers, so don't let's fail them.

Second, I like Azariah because his obscurity doesn’t limit his usefulness. He reminds me that even “little” people can have a big impact. It’s not too much to say that Azariah changed the course of history. Even though Asa was at heart a good king, there was still a lot needing to be done. And after the encounter with Azariah - well, didn’t he just get on and do it!

He initiated what I can only call a spiritual spring-clean (verse 8). In fact, he brought about a revival in the nation of Judah. This is beautifully summed up in verse 12: the whole nation “entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul.” Granted, later on the nation slipped back into their bad old ways, and even Asa, sadly, lost his way. But that wasn’t Azariah’s fault. 

Azariah did what God called him to do, and he did it without fear or favour. What more can be asked of anyone? I hope the same can be said of us. So I invite you to reflect on the ministry of this little-known man; may he be an inspiration to you, as he has been to me.

Father, thank you for the big, well-known figures we meet in your word, and the inspiration they are to us. Most of all, thank you for our Lord Jesus. But thank you too for the little-known people, people like Azariah son of Oded. Please give me the courage to witness boldly for you, confident that my efforts will not be in vain. Amen.