Revolution

The Gospels and Acts have been most intriguing studies, especially since I read two whole commentaries (whew!) on Luke and Acts in preparation for the SPM Bible Knowledge paper. My personal favourite is John, and I have had very fruitful and thought-provoking forays into its pages in the past. As for the book of Matthew, its teachings on the Kingdom of Heaven form the core of Dallas Willard's 'The Divine Conspiracy', which I have yet to finish.

No doubt, to study and write on them in depth, would take at the very least, an entire year. So, just this evening, I thought of taking a lighter approach that seeks to express what I believe is the connecting factor that binds the Gospels and Acts together, since there are already so many dividing factors and points of departure between the four Gospels, and often, the Acts are rarely read in direct connection with the Gospels (except in studies on the person and works of Luke).

Inspired by Brian McLaren, I too believe the story of the New Testement is one of Revolution. And here's my candid version of the parts played by the four Gospels and Acts:

The What (Matthew)

So what's this revolution all about? God's kingdom; no more, no less. Suddenly everything is turned upside down when Jesus arrives on the scene: prostitutes are treated better than priests, tax collectors and not teachers of the law dine with the Messiah, and we're taught to let others slap both our cheeks. What?!

Eugene Peterson sums it up quite well with the word 'fulfilled'. There's a threefold application of the word here. It fulfills the words of the prophets (the many quotes from the Old Testament in this book gave me the impression that Matthew was more learned than even the teachers of the law!).

It also fulfills the law, and, in the words of C.S. Lewis, makes us creatures that are able to obey the command 'be ye perfect'. And third, it fulfills God's purpose for righteousness, the kingdom righteousness, where our goodness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

(OK, confession here: there was a lot of Dallas Willard in those lines above. Really, I can't shake the influence 'The Divine COnspiracy' has on my perceptions of the Kingdom!)

Matthew was a collaborator with the Romans (a la Zacchaeus) before following Jesus. But he threw himself into a new kind of life, and that's what his Gospel is about: the kingdom of the heavens, something 'beyond this world, above this world', in the words of McLaren. Another phrase came to my mind (though it was originally used to describe God), and it's from the song 'God is God' by Steven Curtis Chapman: "before all that has been, beyond all that will pass."

The When (Mark)

Anyone who reads Mark will know that it's the shortest of the four Gospels (no 80-verse chapters here!), and by far, the most readable when one is pressed for time, or is preparing notes for a sermon whose audience has the patience of a fly.

The very brevity of this possibly 'first' Gospel (since it is believed Matthew and Luke drew material from Mark) seems to support C.S. Lewis' statement that the Gospels were written to edify believers, not make them. If the first Gospel is so short and has so little detail, surely it was not written for in-depth Bible study groups. I suppose it was more like a reminder of who Jesus was and the recent events that had taken place.

It's the kind of book that snaps you out of a lull, as though saying, "Hey, wake up! Look around you, the Kingdom is here and now, and you've finished the 16th chapter already! Get to it!" The frequent usage of the word 'immediately' stresses Mark's urgency, that the Good News of the Kingdom is not something we can sit around and procrastinate; instead, it's the ultimate reality here and NOW.

The more reading material we have, the more excuses we create for not doing God's work. "Oh wait, let me finish McLaren's 7th book first", "I need time to write a paper on C.S. Lewis", "Allow me to compare Ezekiel, Jeremiah and New Testament fulfillment of their prophecy before I go out and feed the hungry." And the list goes on. Mark was indeed brilliant to write a short account, just enough to spur the believers on, then bring them back to the reality of the moment.

Mark's Gospel stresses action; we see Jesus doing things, not just sitting about. One after another, Mark bombards us with the (almost) sheer hyperactivity of Jesus. Of course, it is but a condensed account of the 3-year-long ministry of Jesus, but the point is clear: he wants us to remember that the time to act is, truly, NOW.

The Who (Luke)

Michael Wilcock wrote that Luke's theme is 'The Saviour of the World', and there can be no denying that it is Luke who shows us the diversity of the people to whom Jesus ministered. He spares no one, be it Roman, leper, Pharisee, Jew, collaborator, prostitute, fisherman, or child. And the lengths to which he goes in describing the people is pretty amazing in comparison with the other Gospels.

He chronicles more varied encounters with the priests and religious leaders than the other writers, ranging from Sabbath healings to the final battles on the temple grounds. He also shows Jesus in action, healing (in every way) all sorts of outcast minority groups, such as women, Samaritans (it is, after all, Luke who includes the parable of the Good Samaritan), lepers, the blind, deaf and lame, and other kinds of 'junk'. In doing so, he displays the heart of heaven for what it truly stands for: love.

Even the opening chapters highlight various types of people, from the VIP-like town-based Zechariah, to the shy, country-grounded Mary. Luke goes through certain pains to protray Jesus as the human God, mentioning the various occasions during which he prayed. Indeed I believe it was his intention to show that the heart of heaven beats for man, so much so that it assumed the shell of a man in which to beat.

It comes across as no surprise, actually, since Luke himself was a Gentile. The kind of grace he experienced, he attempted to depict within his 24 chapters of the longest book in the New Testament. His message? People are priceless. They are of infinite worth to God, no matter who they are, or where they're from. (This sounds good on print, but in practice it's far less common than we'd like to think).

The Why (John)

Three words (OK, actually one phrase and two words) get lodged in the mind when you read through John's Gospel: 'I am', 'truth', and 'light'.

To me, they represent the reasons for the Kingdom. John, being the most philosophical, draws lessons from the other 'synoptic' Gospels (they'd been written by then), and, carefully selecting certain details (most unique to his Gospel) from the life of Christ, belabours points on the Kingdom basics that have escaped the pens of the other writers. For example, the relationship between Jesus and 'open' Pharisees, John sets out at length in his retelling of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus.

Sometimes I find John's Gospel the least believable, since the faith with which he assumes things to be true, is almost suspicious. For instance, he writes, "they knew it was the Messiah". These 'taken-for-granted' assumptions would immediately raise many skeptical questions, and yet, his Gospel remains my favourite, probably because it reflects the entire story of the Bible so far.

Someone once wrote that the Bible makes no point to prove the existence of God, and C.S. Lewis himself wrote of the pointlessness of such efforts, "as if God had nothing better to do than simply exist!" From the very first verse, the Bible takes God for granted, and focuses on what he did (and does) rather than laying out evidences that the atheists may believe. These very thoughts and currents flow through the Gospel of John (probably why he begins his Gospel with a reference to the beginning of Scripture).

So, what's the purpose of the revolution? First, 'I AM'. Because God is, he has never forgotten his plan and his creation. He is a jealous God, the only God, and rightly so, for he truly owns all of us. It is partly because of his very nature that he cannot bear to see the universe --his universe-- disintegrate just like that. (A smirking Satan isn't the happiest of thoughts).

And so we find that John records the many occasions on which Jesus called himself, albeit indirectly, the I AM, and shows us that it is into his very likeness that God will restore us someday.

Secondly, truth. So important was this point that John even recorded Pilate's question, "What is truth?" His yearning reflects the deepest cry of the human heart -- the quest for truth, for something real. Nothing hurts as much as lies (and I have been guilty of a great number of them), and anything else that distorts truth and reality, giving us a false reality that never satisfies.

That's why Jesus said, "This is real life" and that's why the most famous verse of the Bible reads "...that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life". Indeed, it feels so empty when people take 'eternal life' to mean merely 'life in heaven' or 'salvation from hell' etc. The true life is God's kind of life, here and now, living for what really counts.

Finally, light. If the book of John were made into a painting, it would make Monet's most sublimely lighted works seem pale in comparison. Here, he depicts the Messiah as the 'sun that overwhelms the candle's light', in the words of a writer. We're living in the darkness of our stubbornness and ignorance, and God barges in with a proclamation: there's light here for all!

The longest miracle recorded here is the one in which a man born blind is healed, and it serves as the best example of different types of blindness: the man had physical blindness, the disciples were blind to what God could do, the Pharisees were blind to what God had done. The light that John writes of, is one that pierces the darkness and reveals us; it is the purest form of judgement, to which we are all subject.

It all ends on a touching note, as the entire narrative explicitly returns to John's perspective. It's almost as though he's saying, "this is my take on the Jesus story". Although it is the 'deepest' of the four, it is also the most personal and candid.

The How (Acts)

Finally, now that the Gospels have shown us what the Kingdom is about, when it is to come, whom it is for and why it was planted, the narrative shifts to the burning question that remains: how is it to come?

Acts, noted for its famous 'hanging' ending, points the finger at the person(s) across the page. "Jesus Christ wants you!" is the theme of this recruitment book. Luke records the exploits of the early church: the ministry, the mission, the masses, the methods and the mistakes. (Quite an alliteration of M's!) And, of course, all of them culminate in the proclamation of the message of the Kingdom.

There were healing ministries, prayer ministries, teaching ministries and even feeding ministries! If it's something we need to be reminded of, it is that in conducting ministry, people matter most. McLaren may have a point when he says that the phrase 'entering the ministry', especially used by people training to become pastors or church leaders, makes no sense. After all, we are, each of us, involved in the ministry of God's people, for God's people (and that means everyone in the world). We must never allow the work of ministering, blind us to the recipients of, and fellow-workers in, our labours.

Then there was the mission. I suppose we would call it evangelism now, though back then it would seem the most natural thing to tell others about Christ and the Kingdom. Paul embodied this aspect most of all, but there was also Peter and Philip, notably, who brought the Gospel to the Gentiles, Samaritans, and a Jewish proselyte (what the Ethiopian Eunuch probably was).

The mission wasn't a war in which people were to be conquered. Again, McLaren is right in pointing out the 'violent' nature of our mission today: crusades, winning nations, conquering hearts, etc. Instead, it was (and should be) a radical movement that calls for a change of heart and attitude (and believe me, sometimes Christians need this more than others).

Now the masses are probably what makes Acts such an interesting study. Soo Tian wonders about the position of the Jews under the New Covenant, and that is only one of a myriad of population demographics represented in this book. Greeks, Romans, Zeus-worshippers, Zeno-followers, Jews, proselytes, Arabs, Persians -- you name it, Acts has got it. After all, during the incident of the outpouring of the Spirit, it is recorded that people from every corner of the then known world, were there.

The message that is sent across to us, is that the Kingdom is for all. Yes, ALL. They were prejudiced by national and racial boundaries then. Nowadays, globalization has eradicated quite a bit of that, but we still have personality boundaries. Many of us are still anti-women (read what Moby wrote of the evangelist Jerry Falwell), anti-homosexual, anti-Muslim; in short, we would be anti-Christ, for Christ was never anti- anybody, though he did lash out at those who made following God a chore and a matter of ritual not faith.

As for the methods used, many have sought to replicate the practices of the early church in our modern day settings, with varying degrees of success. Thankfully, so far none have sent their representatives to Cenchrea to get their hair cut after taking a vow. Still, many are inclined to follow the practices, such as those laid out in the letter from James to the Antiochians. We must remember that those were cultural conditions then; we must be relevant to today. Our language is different.

Finally, and this one means a lot to me, Acts is about the mistakes they made. I can't think of too many offhand, but there was that fight between Peter and Paul (not the two dicky birds, of course), the 'zealousness' of the circumcision Jews, and the stupidly miscalculated sailing off Crete that ended up in a shipwreck. We learn that it is OK to make mistakes because, not only do we learn from them, but God is also able to work with and through them.

After all, if mistakes were fatal, none of us would be here today. The church has quite a notorious history of human foibles, from the Crusades to the Inquisitions to the Witch Hunts to the support of slavery, and the list goes on. But just as God prevailed through centuries of weak people and various opposition, the Messiah did come; just read the first chapter of Matthew for proof -- God used every kind of people from faithful governors and evil kings to foreigners and prostitutes and swindlers.

And so, in the same way, God refines his church through the errors we make, and we are made stronger with each 'resurrection', for indeed we die each time, and are raised anew. Satan, so far, has been unable to catch up, and is foiled time and again. So what does the new millennium hold for us? It's quite a mystery, but from what I see of history, the future proves to be an adventure worth risking everything we've held on to.