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You actually didn't have to wait for the Fourth of July to have fireworks at our house. You just had to be one of my sons declining an assignment with certain explosive words, "Nah, that's woman's work!" Oh, now my wife and daughter are nowhere near being women's libbers, but they had a real problem with that idea that there are certain jobs that a man is above. Actually, I have a problem with that idea. Actually, I think God has a problem with it.
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from John chapter 13. I'll begin reading at verse 2. We're going to read an episode from the life of the most secure man who ever lived; a man who had nothing to prove - the ultimate man, Jesus Christ. "The evening meal was being served," scripture says, "and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist."
Now, here is the most complete man that ever lived, and He is demonstrating His sense of manhood and identity in a very graphic way, in a surprising way. He knows who He is. He's coming from God; He's going to God. He's got it together, and He demonstrates that as it says in verse 5, "He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him."
The only Son of God is not too good to do the lowliest job in the house. Well, the real man is man enough to choose to be a servant; to pitch in on the dirty work; to be as manly doing the laundry as he is lifting some heavy furniture; to be as macho changing a diaper as he is changing spark plugs.
Not too long ago there was an interesting comment from the wife of a friend of mine who had just come back from a great tour of speaking...kind of the conquistador, you know, and they loved him where he was. He came in and he wanted to tell all his war stories of how much they loved him, and his wife said, "Honey, you know you always come home like a spoiled king." Huh... and you know what? He had to admit, she was right. "I want the world to revolve around me."
Well, I'll tell you there's nothing very manly about coming home like a spoiled king. It's small; it's selfish. Jesus was just coming off Palm Sunday with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in His ears, and yet He went and washed the disciples' feet. How many of us men make our wives feel totally insignificant by implying that what she does all day long is too unimportant for us to touch?
See, the sign of a real man is that he makes a woman feel important. And he does that when he arrives in her world like the Cavalry arriving just in time. He demonstrates his manhood when he serves his wife. Not because he's a wimp, but because he's secure and strong enough to love her in the ways that really mean something.
You demonstrate your dignity, not by how many people do things for you, but how many people you do things for. That's manhood! Jesus, the ultimate model of manhood - a muscular carpenter - can be a foot washer. The mighty Son of God can be a servant. That's the kind of real man that a woman loves to love.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: Yours for Life or call 1-888-966-7325. "A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft
The massive Rembrandt measures over eight and a half feet tall and six and a half feet wide, compelling viewers with a larger than life scene. "The Return of the Prodigal Son" hangs on the walls of the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum depicting Christian mercy, according to one curator, as if it were Rembrandt's last "spiritual testament to the world." Fittingly, it is one of the last paintings the artist ever completed and remains one of his most loved works.
The painting portrays the reunion of the wayward son and the waiting father as told in the Gospel of Luke. The elderly father is shown leaning in an embrace of his kneeling son in ragged shoes and torn clothes. With his back toward us, the son faces the father, his head bowed in regret. Clearly, it is the father Rembrandt wants us most to see. The aged man reaches out with both hands, his eyes on the son, his entire body inclining toward him.
It is understandable that viewers have spent hours looking at this solemn reflection of mercy and homecoming. The artist slows unstill minds to a scene where the parable's characters are powerfully still. The kneeling son leans silently toward the father; the father calmly and tenderly leans toward the son. All is at rest. But in fact, this is far from the scene Jesus portrays in the parable itself.
The parable of the prodigal son is a long way from restful, and the father within it is anything but solemn and docile in his embrace of the wayward son. In the story Jesus tells, while the son was "still a long way off," the father saw him and "was filled with compassion for him" (Luke 15:20). This father was literally moved by his compassion. The Greek word conveys an inward movement of concern and mercy, but this man was also clearly moved outwardly. The text is full of dramatic action. The father runs to the son, embraces him (literally, "falls upon his neck"), and kisses him. Unlike the depiction of Rembrandt, Jesus describes a scene far more abrupt and shocking. It is not the son who we find kneeling in this picture, but the father. The characters are not at rest but in radical motion. The father who runs to his wayward son runs without any assurance of repentance; he runs without any promise that the son is even home to stay.
There is a line in Jewish tradition that would likely have entered the minds of the first hearers of this parable. According to ancient thought, the manner of a man's walk "shows what he is."(1) Dignified men in this ancient culture simply did not run. In order to do so, long robes would have had to be lifted up, exposing the legs, which was inherently shameful. And yet, this father runs to the son who blatantly disrespected him, and hurriedly embraces the one who once disowned him. This man's "walk" shows a substance that is nothing less than staggering. All measures of decorum, all levels of expectation, all rules of honor and shame are simply shattered by this father's love. It would no doubt have been a disruptive picture for the audience who first heard the parable; it remains a disruptive picture today.
The portrait Jesus offers of the Father is one of action and immediacy. The image of any father running to meet the child who had made a mess of her life is compelling. But that it was so outlandish in this ancient context makes this depiction of his love all the more stirring. It brings to the forefront an image of God as one who is willing to embrace shame on our account. It brings to mind the image of a Son who endured the cross, scorning its shame, that we would not grow weary and lose heart.
God is moving toward us with a walk that thoroughly counters any thought of a distant and absent Father and boldly confronts any move away from Him. In his radical approach of our hearts, the Father reveals who He is. However far we wander, the God who laments even one lost soul is waiting and ready for our return. More than this, He is the Father who runs to close the distance.
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) Arland Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2000), 78.
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You actually didn't have to wait for the Fourth of July to have fireworks at our house. You just had to be one of my sons declining an assignment with certain explosive words, "Nah, that's woman's work!" Oh, now my wife and daughter are nowhere near being women's libbers, but they had a real problem with that idea that there are certain jobs that a man is above. Actually, I have a problem with that idea. Actually, I think God has a problem with it.
ReplyDeleteOur word for today from the Word of God comes from John chapter 13. I'll begin reading at verse 2. We're going to read an episode from the life of the most secure man who ever lived; a man who had nothing to prove - the ultimate man, Jesus Christ. "The evening meal was being served," scripture says, "and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist."
Now, here is the most complete man that ever lived, and He is demonstrating His sense of manhood and identity in a very graphic way, in a surprising way. He knows who He is. He's coming from God; He's going to God. He's got it together, and He demonstrates that as it says in verse 5, "He poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him."
The only Son of God is not too good to do the lowliest job in the house. Well, the real man is man enough to choose to be a servant; to pitch in on the dirty work; to be as manly doing the laundry as he is lifting some heavy furniture; to be as macho changing a diaper as he is changing spark plugs.
Not too long ago there was an interesting comment from the wife of a friend of mine who had just come back from a great tour of speaking...kind of the conquistador, you know, and they loved him where he was. He came in and he wanted to tell all his war stories of how much they loved him, and his wife said, "Honey, you know you always come home like a spoiled king." Huh... and you know what? He had to admit, she was right. "I want the world to revolve around me."
Well, I'll tell you there's nothing very manly about coming home like a spoiled king. It's small; it's selfish. Jesus was just coming off Palm Sunday with the cheers of the crowd still ringing in His ears, and yet He went and washed the disciples' feet. How many of us men make our wives feel totally insignificant by implying that what she does all day long is too unimportant for us to touch?
See, the sign of a real man is that he makes a woman feel important. And he does that when he arrives in her world like the Cavalry arriving just in time. He demonstrates his manhood when he serves his wife. Not because he's a wimp, but because he's secure and strong enough to love her in the ways that really mean something.
You demonstrate your dignity, not by how many people do things for you, but how many people you do things for. That's manhood! Jesus, the ultimate model of manhood - a muscular carpenter - can be a foot washer. The mighty Son of God can be a servant. That's the kind of real man that a woman loves to love.
To find out how you can begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please visit: Yours for Life or call 1-888-966-7325.
"A Word With You" by Ron Hutchcraft
The Father Who Runs
ReplyDeleteThe massive Rembrandt measures over eight and a half feet tall and six and a half feet wide, compelling viewers with a larger than life scene. "The Return of the Prodigal Son" hangs on the walls of the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum depicting Christian mercy, according to one curator, as if it were Rembrandt's last "spiritual testament to the world." Fittingly, it is one of the last paintings the artist ever completed and remains one of his most loved works.
The painting portrays the reunion of the wayward son and the waiting father as told in the Gospel of Luke. The elderly father is shown leaning in an embrace of his kneeling son in ragged shoes and torn clothes. With his back toward us, the son faces the father, his head bowed in regret. Clearly, it is the father Rembrandt wants us most to see. The aged man reaches out with both hands, his eyes on the son, his entire body inclining toward him.
It is understandable that viewers have spent
hours looking at this solemn reflection of mercy and homecoming. The artist slows unstill minds to a scene where the parable's characters are powerfully still. The kneeling son leans silently toward the father; the father calmly and tenderly leans toward the son. All is at rest. But in fact, this is far from the scene Jesus portrays in the parable itself.
The parable of the prodigal son is a long way from restful, and the father within it is anything but solemn and docile in his embrace of the wayward son. In the story Jesus tells, while the son was "still a long way off," the father saw him and "was filled with compassion for him" (Luke 15:20). This father was literally moved by his compassion. The Greek word conveys an inward movement of concern and mercy, but this man was also clearly moved outwardly. The text is full of dramatic action. The father runs to the son, embraces him (literally, "falls upon his neck"), and kisses him. Unlike the depiction of Rembrandt,
Jesus describes a scene far more abrupt and shocking. It is not the son who we find kneeling in this picture, but the father. The characters are not at rest but in radical motion. The father who runs to his wayward son runs without any assurance of repentance; he runs without any promise that the son is even home to stay.
(Continued Below!)
(Continued From Previous Post!)
ReplyDeleteThere is a line in Jewish tradition that would likely have entered the minds of the first hearers of this parable. According to ancient thought, the manner of a man's walk "shows what he is."(1) Dignified men in this ancient culture simply did not run. In order to do so, long robes would have had to be lifted up, exposing the legs, which was inherently shameful. And yet, this father runs to the son who blatantly disrespected him, and hurriedly embraces the one who once disowned him. This man's "walk" shows a substance that is nothing less than staggering. All measures of decorum, all levels of expectation, all rules of honor and shame are simply
shattered by this father's love. It would no doubt have been a disruptive picture for the audience who first heard the parable; it remains a disruptive picture today.
The portrait Jesus offers of the Father is one of action and immediacy. The image of any father running to meet the child who had made a mess of her life is compelling. But that it was so outlandish in this ancient context makes this depiction of his love all the more stirring. It brings to the forefront an image of God as one who is willing to embrace shame on our account. It brings to mind the image of a Son who endured the cross, scorning its shame, that we would not grow weary and lose heart.
God is moving toward us with a walk that thoroughly counters any thought of a distant and absent Father and boldly confronts any move away from Him. In his radical approach of our hearts, the Father reveals who He is. However far we wander, the God who laments even one lost soul is waiting and ready for our
return. More than this, He is the Father who runs to close the distance.
Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
(1) Arland Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 2000), 78.