Q

In the parable Jesus tells about day laborers working in a vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), the God character doesn’t seem to come across as the good guy.

Sure, he is generous enough to pay the folks who worked a short day the same as he paid the folks who worked a long day. But he set up the payment scenario in a way guaranteed to irritate people who had worked the long day. They got paid last, after watching the short-hour workers get paid a full day’s salary.

What do you think is the reason Jesus created this story? Pick a point you think Jesus was trying to make, or create a guess of your own.

• God is in charge and he can do what he wants.
• God is generous.
• People who are saved at the end of their life will get the full reward of heaven, like those who were believers all their life.
• “Many people who were last and least in this world will be first and foremost in the world to come” (19:30).

A

Some Bible experts say Jesus may have created this parable to help answer Peter’s question, “What’s going to happen to us?” (19:27). The short answer Jesus gave appears in 19:30, “Many people who were last and least in this world will be first and foremost in the world to come.”

There is a seniority system going on here on earth. People who work longer and harder out in the field get more respect than people who don’t or can’t work those long hours. Same in an office setting. We reward people for the longevity on the job, unless we retire them early because they’re making too much money. Newbies on the job haven’t earned much respect yet. In a religious setting, we honor the longtime Christians and hold them up as models to help us see what we need to become.

Jesus seems to be saying the Kingdom of Heaven is nothing like any of this. People will be judged by Someone who truly knows them and will reward them accordingly.

When I was a seminary student I attended a church that was also attended by several of the top leaders of the denomination. Sometimes, people would step forward to be prayed for if they were facing some difficult situation or illness. When the denominational leaders were in town, they would join the church ministers and place their hands on those people and pray for them.

I don’t want to diminish the respect I had for the denominational leaders, but when my family and I faced hard times, the people I wanted to join me in prayer were my family and friends—the people who knew me best and loved me most. None of those people were famous, rich enough to fly first-class, or corporate leaders in the boardroom. They were teachers, secretaries, machinists, and stay-at-home moms.

Those folks couldn’t compete in a nationwide status contest. They would have been losers. But as far as I was concerned, they were the winners and the most important people in my life.

Others would call them last and least. I called them first and most.

Adapted from Leader’s Guide & Atlas for Matthew
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Q

Paul serves up a big plate of predestination in Ephesians 1, or so it seems to many Christians.

Paul says “God chose us. Even before he created the world, he decided that we should be his children” (1:4).

Who do you think Paul was talking about?

• People destined by God to become Christians?
• Or all people everywhere, whom God invited into his family?

A

There’s a debate regarding how much free will human beings actually have when it’s compared to God’s sovereign power over people.

Many Christians follow in the theological tradition of Anglican preacher John Wesley (1703-1791, United Kingdom), insisting that God chooses everyone for salvation but that not everyone accepts the invitation. Churches that emphasize this kind of free will include the United Methodist Church, Salvation Army, Church of the Nazarene, and the Wesleyan Church.

Other Christians follow in the theological tradition of French theologian and pastor John Calvin (1509-1564). He argued that God himself decides who will be saved and who will not be saved. Churches that teach this understanding include many Baptists, Presbyterians, and many nondenominational congregations.

Reprinted from Leader’s Guide & Atlas for Ephesians
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Q

LIFE APPLICATION. Here’s one main teaching of Christianity that doesn’t seem to make much sense to people outside the faith: “Our sins are a capital offense, but God sent Jesus to take our punishment. Jesus bled and died for the sins we committed” (Romans 3:25 Casual English Bible). How would you explain why Jesus had to die and how on earth his sacrifice saves us from getting punished for our sins?

A

That’s a tall order for most Christians. Many would simply say they take it on faith, which doesn’t help make a case for Christianity. Taking it on faith might come across as, “That’s what I’ve been told all my life, so I believe it and I don’t think much about it.”

The problem is that when we think about it, it’s still hard to figure out. That’s because God doesn’t often answer our why questions. Instead, he tells us how it is, instead of why it is.

The Bible teaches that sin separates us from God; it creates a barrier. That gets made clear after Adam and Eve eat forbidden fruit. “God banished them from the Garden of Eden” (Genesis 3:23 NLT). The point gets made over and over through the history of the Jewish people, especially in the book of Judges. There, the people sin. God sends punishment, usually raiders. The people repent. God saves the people from whatever is hurting them. That cycle gets repeated throughout the book. Sin and God don’t get along.

God set up a sacrificial system, allowing people to sacrifice animals to express their sorrow for sin. “Life is in the blood, and I have given you the blood of animals to sacrifice in place of your own” (Leviticus 17:11 CEV).

We can only guess why God chose animal sacrifice. Perhaps because it was common among other religions and familiar to the Jews; it would have made sense to them because it fit into their culture. In addition, it expresses the seriousness of sin. A creature had to die because of sin. Human senses registered the seriousness in several ways: the squealing sound of the creature dying, the feel of the blood, the sight of the creature cut up and displayed on the altar, the smell of burning meat.

It’s also tough to explain why God didn’t come up with a plan of salvation that didn’t involve his Son getting crucified. Maybe one reason is that the Jews wouldn’t have understood any other means of forgiveness because they had been offering sacrifices for about 2,000 years. On the other hand, Jews prohibited human sacrifice: “Don’t sacrifice your son or daughter” (Deuteronomy 18:10 CEV).

Yet Jesus voluntarily sacrificed himself for others. People understand it when someone gives up their life to protect another. A father lies on top of a child, to protect the child from a shooter. A soldier falls on a grenade. For many Christians, why Jesus had to go through this may remain a mystery. But why he did it is clearly taught: “The greatest way to show love for friends is to die for them” (John 15:13 CEV).

Here’s one of many ways of looking at it. Sin created a gap between people and God. Jesus bridged the gap. God invites everyone to cross the gap and join him in his kingdom. Some people have faith in the Bridge, so they cross the gap. They find themselves welcomed into God’s world.

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Q

What happened to most people who got crucified in Roman times?

1. If they got lucky, a friend sweet-talked someone into freeing them.
2. They got a proper burial.
3. They got thrown into a mass grave or nearby pit.
4. Crows, dogs, and wild critters recycled their protein.
5. A wild bear ate them.
6. Witches pulled off the nails and cut off hunks of flesh for casting spells.
7. Physicians used the nails to cure someone’s pain in the neck and the ropes to treat a fever.

A

All of that happened from time to time.

I’ve been surprised at the wide variety of ways Romans crucified people and what they did with the corpses.

First-century historian Josephus said he talked Roman General Titus into freeing a couple of his friends who had been crucified. In spite of medical help, one died. One lived.

Some corpses got buried. An archaeologist found the bones of one crucified man with a nail still in the heel bone. The victim had been buried properly, in a tomb.

Witches and physicians each used some pretty strange ingredients to take care of business. A first-century natural history writer named Pliny the Elder writes about both. Just google “Pliny, witches, nails.”

Ignore the pictures of fingernails that pop up on your screen. Fingernail clippings were for malaria.

So was menstrual blood, soaked into black wool and worn in a silver bracelet.

If you get a chance, spend some time with Pliny’s Natural History, which is free to read online. It’ll make you happy to be living today, in spite of the high anxiety most everyone seems to be feeling because of [go ahead and fill in the blank if it’ll help you].

Peace to you.

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VIDEOS:
What Romans said about crucifixion
Crucifixion Q: Did the body of Jesus rot on the cross?

Q

Paul wrote as though he believed Jesus was coming back any minute. He said he expected that the people in Thessalonica, like himself, would be relieved of their troubles “when Jesus returns from heaven, with his entourage of mighty angels” (2 Thessalonians 1:7). Didn’t happen. Jesus did not come back, as far as we can tell from reading ancient Christian writings. Christians continued to suffer. Paul was executed, beheaded according to some reports. Did Paul get it wrong?

A

Many Christian scholars would answer yes, Paul got it wrong. They say that Paul’s earliest writings, such as the letters of 1, 2 Thessalonians, reveal that he expected Jesus to come back before Paul died (see 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17). They also say that later in his life, he came to believe that he might not live long enough to see the Second Coming. In a letter he wrote about a decade later, he wrote from prison saying he was ready to die: “As far as I’m concerned, if I live, I live for Christ. If I die, I win the jackpot. Here’s my dilemma. If I live, I get to keep on working and helping grow the church. But honestly, I don’t know which I want more. I’m pulled both ways. I want to leave and be with Christ” (Philippians 1:21-23).

Reprinted from Leader’s Guide & Atlas for 1, 2 Thessalonians.

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