Individualism is everywhere in our society, even among Christians. Yet, individualism is counter to the Kingdom. It is safe to say that individualism is the anti-Kingdom.

The parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Matthew 16:19-31) is a story about a rich man who is living in luxury and has a gate built so that he can keep others out. A beggar stayed outside his gate and every day begged for the scraps of food that fell on the floor under the rich man’s table. Jesus goes on tell his listeners that Lazarus died and was carried by angels to Abraham’s side. (Abraham’s side is a figure of speech that means he was at Gan-Eden (the garden of Eden or Paradise). The rich man died and went to Sh’ol, the place of the dead, which was called Hades in Greek. Between the rich man and Lazarus is a great divide, which represents the gate that, while living, Lazarus put up to keep others away from him and his property. The rich man’s torment was the eternal separation from the paradise of God and fellowship of God’s people.

A very interesting message in the story is that the rich man, even in his death, still considered Lazarus to be beneath him, which is why he told Abraham to send Lazarus, like a servant, to bring him water and to send a message to his family. The rich man separated himself socially from the poor man. Jesus calls us to be one with every child of God. In Jesus we are all to be one as he and the Father are one. Some may be richer than others, smarter than others, even prettier than others, but we are never to be separate from others. The people of God are to be a community, not divided by gates and social walls or prejudice of any kind. To be divided is to be outside the Kingdom of God. When Jesus gave the commission to go and make disciples throughout the world (Matthew 28), Jesus was teaching his disciples that the Kingdom of God is a matter of unity.

An interesting fact about the Messianic Jews is that they will often shy away from using the word Trinity, and prefer to use the word “Triunity” of God. I admit that this is merely a matter of semantics. However, by using the word “unity” when speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they are able to point out that, as always, God is one. Like the “Triunity,” God’s children are to be one as well.

Forever learning,
Johnny

© 2007 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved

There are passages in the Bible which may lead us to assume that Jesus was uneducated. However, a thorough knowledge of the educational system in Galilee, along with a clearer understanding concerning the cultural prejudices in Jesus’ day, may help us to see where the New Testament reveals Jesus’ scholarship.

When we read passages like John 1:46 along with Acts 2:7, which question anything good coming out of Galilee and then points out that the disciples are all from Galilee, it’s possible that these statements reflect the kinds of biases that exist in many communities where loyalty to a location brings out competitive ridicule against those in another location. We do this today between High schools, football teams, colleges, cities. One officer told me that when he drives through Auburn, Alabama, he washes his car at the first car wash he comes to after leaving the city, because he doesn’t want any Auburn dust on his car.

The Judeans probably thought of themselves as sophisticated and cultured, while they looked upon the Galileans as uneducated bumpkins. The irony in this is that it was actually Galilee that had more exposure to other cultures, while Judea’s geographical location was more shielded from the outside world. Galilee had many urbanized communities and Judea was largely made up of a rural environment.It doesn’t help us remove our beliefs about Jesus lack of education when we read such passages as John 7:15 which reports of some Jews who were amazed at the teaching of Jesus, considering that he hadn’t studied. However, the importance and quality of education in Galilee was held at a much higher standard than Judea. The Bible only reveals Jesus’ life at birth, at the age of twelve at the Temple, and finally upon his active ministry around the age of 30. According to ancient rabbinic teachings and writings, the education and life of a Jewish boy in a society like Galilee would have been clearly set until the age of 30 for someone possessing the education and anointing to become a sage, like Jesus.

In Jewish antiquity there is a passage that teaches what a Jewish child will do beginning at age 5 when he will be ready to study the written Torah, at age 10 he will study the Oral Torah, at thirteen he will be ready for his bar mitzvah, at fifteen he will study legal knowledge, at eighteen he will be married, at age twenty he will pursue a vocation, and at thirty he is ready to enter full vigor (my paraphrase of Avot 5:21 from the Mishnah).

Even today, biblical education is still more important than going to the synagogue. And this is not because school is more important than worship, but because Jews do not separate education of the Torah from worship. They believe them to be inseparable. In fact, they believe that studying the Word of God is among the highest forms of worship.

Jesus would have spent many days studying and memorizing the written and oral teachings of God and the sages. As we are told by Luke, after Jesus had been discovered by his parents at the Temple, “Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

Again, it is very likely that the assumption of the Jews in John 7 was based on local discrimination, rather than a statement of fact.

Forever learning,

Johnny

© 2007 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved

I took my daughter to the cemetery near our house recentely, and we walked through the green grass, looking at all of the grave markers. I have always been intrigued by graveyards. I love to read the names and the years of their births and deaths, and try to imagine what their lives must have been like when they were alive.

I am especially curious when I read dates that reflect their births as being before the end of American slavery and their deaths being after slavery. How strange of a life they must have lived with all of the changes in such a time as the existance and abolition of humans owning humans. Disgusting sin!

As Ella and I walked through the graveyard, I would point out the grave markers of infants and tell her, “Here is where a little baby was buried. The baby died.” She really couldn’t understand exactly what I was saying, because she is not even three-years-old. But she did a very strange thing.

Every time I showed her a grave marker of an infant, she would sit on the grave marker, pull up a hand full of grass, pull the grass cupped in her hands toward her chest and cuddle it, while saying, “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay.”

I swear, it took every bit of control I had to keep from crying.

I think females are the most amazing creatures that God has placed on the earth, no matter what their age.

Forever experiencing God through my children,
Johnny

© 2007 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
All Rights Reserved