From time to time we have examined scripture with the perspective of 3 P’s. They are paradigm, paradox, and parable. This is one of those times.
We find plenty of paradigms in the Bible. The paradigm puts us in the believing is seeing mode. We experience this in struggling with God’s thoughts and God’s ways and not always being able to understand what’s going on in our world; but being able to see the world and life through the mind of Christ. We read the Old Testament and sometimes we read truths that transcend translation and centuries and cut to our core. Sometimes we read the Old Testament and just don’t get it.
We find plenty of paradox in the Bible. We see the truth within the truth. We see the prophecy within the prophecy. We see paradox where the world sees dichotomy. After everything that the disciples had been through together, only a few hours before Jesus was to be killed, these men ask Jesus to see the Father. His reply was that they had seen the Father. He was in the Father and the Father in him; likewise, those few men were in Christ and Christ in them. Modern society wants something clean cut. We like the trinity to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s easier to explain the 3 than the 3 in 1. Our secular vision sees dichotomy. The eyes to see that came from God permit us to see truth in paradox.
And we find plenty of parables in the Bible. Jesus used many parables to relate something of his Father’s Kingdom—which only he had known—with something that most would understand. He would explain one by placing the other in parallel. The parables of Jesus were most often stories, but parables are alive and well today in many forms. Most preachers use parables and parallels. They deliver God’s word and try to relate it to something that people already understand.
Paradigm, paradox, parable—what happened to Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so?
Don’t worry, it didn’t go anywhere, but there are some parts of the Bible where we need to see beyond the immediate scripture. The Bible takes us on a journey. It is a journey of God’s people and it is a journey of God’s relationship with his people. As of late, we are included in that journey and that relationship which is forged again and again with every new life.
That journey goes through Noah and Abraham and Moses. It goes through the prophets. It goes through disobedience and captivity. It all leads us to Christ, or so it should. But for some the Old Testament—this wonderful story of a journey—entraps people who have been liberated. They become subservient to a law not intended for this age.
But is not God’s law eternal?
Did Jesus not say that he did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it?
Didn’t he say that he would not do away with even one pen stroke of the law?
Then we read Paul and it seems like we have some dichotomy between Paul and Jesus. It seems like we have to choose between the two, but perhaps it is not an either-or choice.
Perhaps there is some paradox. Perhaps there are parallels to help us understand.
Consider the journey of the Law of Moses. What was there before?
In some cases there may have been some form of local law and justice, but mostly there was just power. If you were king, you made the rules. If your family was stronger than the next clan, you might take what you wanted.
And if someone injured one of your family members, you would pay them back and then some. If someone cut off your brother’s arm, you might just go cut off an arm and a leg. If they retaliated and killed your uncle, you might just respond by killing an aunt, uncle, and a goat and 2 chickens. Retaliation that fell short of extermination resulted in escalation. You either wiped them all out or the exchange of hurt and damage continued.
But God’s law—the Law of Moses—said if you were injured, you must be compensated or permitted to return a like injury. So we come to an eye for an eye, not as some brutalistic code, but as an improvement to the existing way of life.
And then came Jesus. Jesus reminded the people of what the Law of Moses said. He reminded them of an eye for an eye, and then said, “But I tell you not to resist an evil person.” He went on to say go the extra mile and even to love our enemies. He continued to tell those in his hearing and to tell us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus is bringing us to completeness.
At various times in my life, I wrote my autobiography as a school assignment. I’m sure that my first one went something like this:
I was born.
I discovered the secret of life—baseball.
Life is good.
The end.
In high school, I had to write my biography once again. I titled it, A Lesson in Geography. I was sure that I would be the only high school student to win a Pulitzer Prize, but in hindsight, it was a pretty boring story the way I wrote it. Each paragraph began with, “And then we moved to…”
It was a good thing that I didn’t have to write one for college. It probably would have been about how long I could hold a pool table at any one bar, and titled: Drinking beer and shooting pool on a dollar a night.
But when I entered the ministry, before any formal coursework began, I had to write and submit my spiritual autobiography. It was from a totally different perspective than any of the others. This was the same life that I was talking about. None of those previous self told stories had to be deleted, but this was an entirely different story.
This story brought me to the present day, at least the present day about 5 years ago. It was the complete story, at least to that point. The other stories had led me to this point, but they became dwarfed in the story of my relationship with God through Christ.
And so Paul leads us to what Billy Graham liked to call, the greatest story ever told. It is the story of Jesus Christ and more specifically, it is the story of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
But it is a story to which so many are blinded.
Moses wore a veil so his people would not see the glory of God fading from his face. When Moses came into God’s presence, his face shone. As time went on, the glow faded. He veiled his face.
And the glory of the Old Testament was fading. It was not evil. It was not wrong. It just was not the most glorious part of the story any more. It did not take us to completion—to perfection.
The story takes us to perfection? Yes.
God makes people.
People make a mess.
God rebaselines with Noah and family.
People make a mess.
God chooses a people with Abraham.
People make a mess.
God delivers his people from slavery and gives them divine law.
People make a mess.
God delivers his people to a land promised to them.
People make a mess.
God send prophets.
People make a mess.
God comes in the flesh with good news.
People are blind to the extent of God’s love.
God—in the person we know as Jesus—takes the sin of the world upon himself and is punished for our sins.
People are blind to the extent of God’s love.
Apostles take the good news of life in Jesus Christ to the world.
People are blind to the extent of God’s love.
But some come to Christ.
Some are not blinded by the god of this age.
Some have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Some have experienced the depth and breadth of a loving God.
Some now walk with God’s own Spirit by our side every day.
Some have found completeness in Christ.
We may still be making a mess but we are complete in Christ.
We may still fall short of the Law of Moses but we are complete in Christ.
Sin may still place trials in our lives and even tarnish our lives, but we are made pure in Christ.
The law is not bad.
It is not evil.
It is simply incomplete without Christ, and with Christ the glory of the old way fades.
The glory of the old way fades.
And there was and is glory in that old way.
There is divinity in that law.
There is divine purpose in the law.
And yes, there was even love in that law, but not the completeness that we know in Christ Jesus. The law could not give us the agape love—the unconditional love—that we know in Christ Jesus.
The law called people out of the brutality and depravity of humankind. It was a big step for God’s people.
But the glory that we know in Christ Jesus surpasses the glory of the law.
We have moved from compliant people seeking to follow the rules to Spirit filled ministers that shine God’s light in the darkness.
Let’s consider a parallel.
In the Old Testament, God commanded that we love him with everything we have—heart, mind, body, soul, spirit, strength. He also commanded us to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.
But with Christ we are given a new command. Christ tells us to love one another as he loved us.
Well, that sounds sort of like the old commands, right?
Not exactly.
We are to love God in every case. He loves us with an everlasting love. We are to respond with love. We know more love than any other people of any other age. We live in grace—love and forgiveness that we never deserved and could never earn.
Then we get to loving each other. The old standard was to love your neighbor as much as you loved yourself. That’s where the bar was set. You wouldn’t go hungry for a night or let your family go hungry for a night, and so, you wouldn’t let your neighbor go hungry for the night.
If your neighbor’s lawnmower was broken, you might just cut his grass for a week. If he had a flat tire, you might just help him change it.
It all sort of tied in with the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. It sounds like sound counsel. So what is different in what Jesus commanded us to do?
Jesus said, as he loved us, we were supposed to love each other.
Jesus loved in absolute obedience to the Father.
Jesus loved us unconditionally, just as his Father did.
Jesus loved us so much that he died for that love.
Jesus raised the bar. The old mark was to love others as much as you loved yourself. The new mark was to love unconditionally. The new mark was to forfeit our very lives in the name of love.
Jesus explained it another way. He told us that if we clung to loving ourselves, we lost our life; but if we gave up living for ourselves, then we would finally find life.
The Old Testament had too much compromise in it.
God compromised, really?
Not on his holiness or righteousness or anything that makes him God. He just gave his people milk instead of meat.
He let them have some personal satisfaction when they were wronged—an eye for an eye.
He let them divorce their wives. Why? Their hearts had been hardened.
He only set the bar at loving each other as much as we loved ourselves.
The people were not yet ready to love unconditionally. They were not at that point in their journey.
Then God came in the flesh as Jesus Christ, and he tells us:
· Now we are ready
· Now we are to love without condition
· Now we can see the glory of God that outshines the glory of God’s law
· Now we are to be shaped in the image of Jesus
· Now we are ready to walk with the Spirit
· Now we are ready to live in Liberty
· Now we are to shine as God’s light in the darkness
And there is plenty of darkness to go around, so we all need to shine our lights. There are so many left in blindness; we need to guide people to the light.
We don’t lead people to a set of rules. We lead them to Christ.
We don’t tell them that they first have to follow the law, and then we will tell them about Jesus.
We live in liberty that we can know only through Christ, and it is Christ that we preach.
Here is one of those fringe benefits that goes with living in the glory of God. We can read the Old Testament and know what will enrich us today. We don’t get hung up on not breeding different types of cattle or not making clothing out of different materials. We do get it when God says, “Don’t go making yourselves other gods.” We see what happens when societies neglect this whole honor your father and mother business.
The glory of God that we know in Christ outshines all of the law, but living in liberty, we can be enriched by both the Old and New Testaments—having access to treasures both old and new—and knowing that ultimately we live within the one covenant of grace.
Our faces are not veiled. God’s glory that we know in Christ gives us eyes to see and ears to hear.
The light that shines in the darkness brings us to the Truth, and that Truth is Jesus Christ.
Jesus brings us to completeness, to fullness, to perfection, and yet we know there is more to come. We need to come to grips with the age in which we live. This is the age of completeness in Christ. This is the age where we know God and the glory of God in Christ. This is the age where we have the liberty to live from the inside out because the glory of God lives within us. Christ lives within us. God’s own Spirit lives within us.
Paul said if the Old Covenant was glorious—and this is the rhetorical if—for it truly was glorious; then how much more glory do we know in the New Covenant.
What is the greatest commandment in the law? When asked this by a Pharisee, Jesus replied:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus said that this is the greatest commandment in the law, but he gave us another command greater than the law. It is the law of love, that we love one another as Christ loved us.
Even the greatest commandment in the law cannot compare to this. We have been commanded to love beyond the law. How much more hope should we have than any other generation?
And with such hope, we too must speak boldly of the truth and liberty and love and life that we know in Christ Jesus alone.
Our faces are unveiled.
God’s word is unveiled.
We have been given eyes to see and ears to hear.
The whole story thus far has been unveiled to us and it points to and leads us to life in Christ; and we are to shine that same light into the darkness in this age.
We began with a brief discussion of three terms: Paradigm, Paradox, and Parable. Consider where we are in the story of God’s people using those terms.
Paradigm: We live in liberty when we see the whole of God’s word through the mind of Christ and his surpassing glory.
Paradox: It is not either-or: Paul or Jesus, Old or New Testament, law or love; it is the one covenant of grace that God has been bringing us to all along.
Parable: If I re-wrote my autobiography today, it would be different than the one I wrote 5 years ago or 35 years ago, but it would still be my life’s journey up to this point. So too, has the story of God’s people changed over the centuries. The story that his people write today is one of love not law. It is one of forgiveness, grace, and perfection in Christ Jesus.
So let us live in the glory—the surpassing glory—of the New Covenant and in the light of Christ’s Gospel for that is where God has seen fit to place us.
Thanks be to God!
Amen.
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