First century bad guys

It’s easy to dismiss the Pharisees as the bad guys of the first century, the religious hypocrites who were destroying God’s truth for their own gain.

Did you know the Pharisees were the ones who determined the final contents of the Hebrew Bible, which we call the Old Testament? After Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, only the Pharisees emerged somewhat intact. The Sadducees and Essenes were scattered but the Pharisees remained together. They met in 90 AD in Jamnia to canonize the Old Testament.

So the Pharisees are a mixed bag for us. Often we hear “Pharisee” and think “hypocrite.” They were often pretenders, men who seemed to hold the secrets of God’s Word. They postured as the experts on righteousness and God’s Word, furious when Jesus exposed their pretense while he showed his own greater wisdom and authority.

The Pharisees were fiercely separatists, refusing loyalty to Rome. You can imagine how popular that made them with the Jews. They were intensely loyal to God and absolutely dedicated to restoring Israel. They were drawn to the many debates with Jesus because of their zeal

Jesus deftly revealed that, although they shared knowledge with Jesus, they didn’t understand what they had learned. Their pride had blinded their eyes. Ultimately, it was those religious zealots who brought about Jesus’ death.

They thought they were experts on the law, but Jesus labeled them “whitewashed tombs,” which looked good on the outside but dead on the inside. Their zeal had drifted from the heart to the skin, there to impress others. They lost their first love.

I’ve wondered often what we would do with Pharisees today. Could we see past the fanaticism to discern their motivations? Would we follow their separatist zeal for the law? Their formulas and external motivation are a lot easier to follow than the way of brokenness and humility.

They tried to elevate themselves in their pride but, when they were whipped and exiled, God used them to preserve his Old Testament Word.

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Luke 23:34

Closing a door

The unthinkable impossibility happened in 70 AD when the Romans, tired of the Jews’ revolt, annihilated Jerusalem. Their impatience showed. They burned the city and utterly destroyed the temple. You can read more about that horrible siege at this link.

If we remember that this was the temple restored by Herod to grandeur, the fury of the Romans is even more startling. But they’d had it. The Jews had been rumbling ever since the Romans settled in Palestine. This was using a cannon to swat a fly, but the Romans angrily settled the uprising once and for all.

What did this mean for the early Christian church?

The early Christians wrestled with a question: could the new church go on without the temple? Now the temple was gone. There was no returning to it for Jewish festivals or sacrifices. Were they a Jewish sect or a new religion?

Jesus had explained to his followers some 40 years earlier that the destruction of the temple would usher in the age of the Gentile (Luke 21:24). The first Christians had struggled with the question of whether the non-Jew had first to become a Jew and then become a Christian.

Peter’s powerful words at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) underlined the message of Christianity: we are saved by grace, not by Jewish traditions.

The temple was the center of those Jewish traditions. You offered the Passover sacrifice at the temple. In fact, all the offerings came to the temple and now it was gone.

For Christians, 70 AD was a door closing. They finally understood they were not Jewish but something new: followers of Jesus. They had been taking the gospel out to non-Jews before 70 AD, but now there was no question. One didn’t have to meet certain criteria before coming to Jesus. One did not need to embrace Jewish traditions before following Jesus.

That’s good news today because we do not need to embrace any churchy traditions before following Jesus. We come freely and directly.

The temple is gone but the grace continues.

No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved

Acts 15:11

The Refiner's Fire

Persecution is that squeamish underbelly of our faith. Ever read Fox’s Book of Martyrs? I have a mixed response to that classic. On one hand, I am in awe of the courage of the martyrs. On the other hand, I am nervous that I might have to do the same.

Try to read Fox’s Book of Martyrs, though. It is an amazing account of faith under fire. In fact, the first century martyrs are one of the most powerful arguments for the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. These were largely eyewitnesses to Jesus’ death and resurrection. They were willing to die for what they saw.

Although the Jews of Jerusalem were pretty hard on the early Christians (they stoned Stephen and ran most of the believers out of Jerusalem), the Romans were worse when they finally began their harassments. Herod Agrippa I, who was a Roman governor in Jerusalem, found such great approval from the Jews when he had James killed that he went after Peter. The story of Peter’s miraculous escape is recorded in Acts 12.

But the Romans really got rocking and rolling when Nero decided to blame the Christians for the devastating fire in Rome in 64 AD. They made an easy scapegoat: they were a small group without much political power. That’s usually the pattern.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Nero came up with some disgusting ways to entertain the people as he cut down Christians. The believers were sometimes sewn into the skins of wild animals and then left with a pack of dogs. Some were coated with wax, killed, and then used to illuminate the emperor’s gardens.

Persecution was not just a first century game. The Romans intended to absolutely extinguish Christianity in the 4^th century, right before Constantine miraculously met Jesus and became a believer.

I mention this because of a recent news report. Persecution of Christians has become normal in many parts of the world, although it is seldom reported in the major media markets. In Turkey, Christian men were arrested and hideously murdered in mid-April. Here’s the link.

Believers facing persecution, whether in the first century or today, have to be absolutely convinced of what they see and believe. Persecution is the refiner’s fire.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." (Acts 7:59-60)

Celebrating Patrick

The Celts were perhaps the last group of people by 440 AD to hear about the life and death of Jesus Christ. When Patrick felt God calling him to Ireland, nearly all of Europe had been visited by missionaries. But not the Celts. Yet within 100 years of Patrick’s work in Ireland, the Celts were sending missionaries out to Europe.

Ironically, the monasteries of the Celts became the safe haven for many Christian documents. When barbarians rushed through Europe burning and pillaging, most copies of the Bible were destroyed. But the texts were kept safe in Ireland.

Patrick was Scottish and had been kidnapped by Celtic raiders at 16. He was a servant to a Celtic farmer for several years but escaped. In that time, his life was turned around. In his own words, he called himself “the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many….I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity to Ireland with many thousands of people – and deservedly so, because we turned away from God…” (From The Confession of St. Patrick)

Patrick’s life is an example of acting on God’s grace. Did you notice that Patrick was Scottish and his captors were Irish? Yet Patrick obeyed God’s call to return to Ireland and tell the people about God’s salvation.

Some of his accomplishments:

• Founded 365 churches, with schools attached
• Monasteries not isolated from world but involved in community.
• Monasteries were colleges for training young men.
• “Monks” transcribed Bible, cultivated sciences and instructed youth.
• Community/relationally evangelical.
• No printing press, no Roman roads, no finances, BUT calling from God.
• Mission teams sent out to Europe based on Patrick’s work in Ireland.

Patrick changed the face of Ireland – and Europe – because he reached out with God’s grace to the very people who had kidnapped and enslaved him.

Today’s St. Patrick’s day – when he died in 461 in Downpatrick, Ireland after a rich life serving God and loving God’s people. Patrick made a difference to the people of Ireland and further. Let’s celebrate his work – not with green beer and wild revelry – but by recognizing the grace that underlined his life and facing the One who is that Amazing Grace.

Some recommended resources if you'd like to know more about Patrick:

An online history at NewAdvent

F.F. Bruce The Spreading Flame

George Hunter III The Celtic Way of Evangelism

Proofreaders...

OK, OK, so I'm a history nerd. I'm with Isaac Newton on this one: If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.

History is not meant to be a dusty Trivial Pursuit game with just a collection of unrelated facts. It is meant to be used, to learn from, to analyze, to understand. History is the story of people - what motivates them, what scares them, what works for them.

If you'll check my links, you'll see a website for the Gutenburg project. Those folks are dedicated to digitally preserving old historical texts. You can read, for free, many texts no longer copyrighted. It's a great way (did I mention for free?) to dabble in the genius of the past.

Click here for The Gutenberg Project.

But if you're a English nerd (maybe I know a few. Well, maybe I am one...), there's an interesting challenge for you. You can get involved in this preservation. There is a group (and I am not making this up) called Distributed Proofreaders who voluntarily read old texts before they are converted into e-texts. They catch the mispellings and the scanner errors.