Stephen
Terry, Director
A Day
in the Ministry of Jesus
Commentary
for the July 13, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"Then
I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon
thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and
the living creatures and the elders." Revelation
5:11
When we look around us, we
wonder how our Earth, created to be an Eden, became so chaotic and sick with
evil. Disease stalks everyone from birth to the grave. We too often use drugs
and alcohol to self-medicate the physical and mental ailments that can make our
lives lives of bondage and depression. But there is no relief there, for those
self-medicating practices can lead us ever deeper into mental illness and
bondage that seems demonic in nature. It used to be that those so deeply
afflicted would be involuntarily detained in mental institutions, out of sight
of the public. But now, we see them on the street corners, shouting obscenities
into the wind, protesting the demons that beset them. Broken from reality, they
may even attack objects or people around them, believing them to be threatening
demons seeking to do them in if they do not act out to defend themselves. Spending
a shift with those that do intake for the jails in any large city can reveal how
deep and persistent this is in society. Picking up the broken pieces of humanity,
depending on the robustness of the social safety net, can often end up in the
laps of the custodians of incarceration. Beset by such an assault on decency,
it is a wonder more of these brave jailers do not end up being
pulled down into the same maelstrom they are trying to deliver others
from.
According to the Bible, humanity
went well beyond this point in the past and perished in a deluge, leaving only
a handful of survivors. Jesus cited this example as to how it would be once
again. (Matthew
24:36-38) People would be so preoccupied with
survival amid the chaos and the needs of their daily routines, they would lose the
ability to understand that the bondage of this life is not all there is. They would
succumb to the belief that there is no real freedom that awaits, and therefore,
they must grab all they can in this short life before someone else does. A new
home, a new car, a new boat, or anything newer than what they have becomes a
distraction that draws the attention away from reality to a constructed
existence based on the importance of possessing material things as opposed to
having a relationship with Jesus, and allowing that relationship to blossom
into compassion and empathy for the many suffering in this world. The struggle
to survive in this world is hard, but it is made harder by the hardness of
heart we have for one another. It is God's purpose to soften those hearts that
we might all find help in living our lives. (Ezekiel
36:26) However, it is the purpose of the adversary to benumb our senses to
prevent that. He is gifted at making things appear the opposite of what they
are, but failing that, he would lead us to become so besotted we cannot hear
God's voice speaking to our hearts. He would be happy to leave us all on a street
corner spewing gibberish into the air, broken and apparently beyond repair.
How did this happen? We are told
that there was war in heaven. Lucifer, adversary to God, revolted against
divine rule. (Revelation
12:7-17) A third of the angels came over to his side. It was not hard to deceive
those who followed Lucifer, for a lie was something new. Despite the vast
amount of time since then and so much experience with liars, too many of us
continue to excuse lying as immaterial to character. We do not occupy high enough
moral ground to be able to blame those angels who did not have our experiential
advantage. We cannot follow them into a pit and then wonder how we got there,
as though naively innocent.
When we calculate the number of
angels in the heavenly scene in our opening verse in Revelation, chapter 5, we come up with a figure of at least 104 million. If this in
any way represents the two thirds of the angels that remained loyal to God,
that would mean that at least fifty-two million fallen angels were cast to the
Earth. What have they been doing through the ages? The Bible gives us clues.
Jesus pointed out that all lying originated with Satan (John
8:44) Any deceit, however trivial, has its origin
there. It makes sense then that no fallen angel nor Lucifer would readily identify
themselves as such. The Bible tells us that Lucifer has the
ability to appear as an angel of light and his minions as ministers of
righteousness. (2
Corinthians 11:14-15) This provides even more reason that we should seek
God directly rather than trust apparent "ministers of righteousness" to be our
guides. We are told that if we seek God diligently, he will be found. (Deuteronomy
4:29) There are excuses that Lucifer would have us accept to avoid that
encounter between us and God. There is the problem of theodicy where he says
that a good God cannot exist if he allows such evil, deceitfully hiding his own
complicity in the evil that afflicts our world. If we were to take that to its
logical conclusion it is asking how can there be God if there is a devil? But
if the account of the rebellion in heaven is correct, how can there be a devil
to make that argument if there is no God? Lucifer cannot be a testimony that
God does not exist without being testimony that he does exist. Such is the
nature of a lie. Logic has little to do with it beyond serving the liar's self-interest.
Lucifer and his minions have had eons to deny that God exists or, failing that,
to impugn his character. But it seems contrary to that argument to impersonate
angels and ministers of something that does not exist.
Jesus could have come, died, and
been resurrected as a child, teenager, or young adult if his death and
resurrection were all that was necessary. Instead, before his death, he spent
three and a half years unveiling the true character of God. Lucifer, the cast
away, would have us believe that God does not care for his creation and would
hard heartedly cast us aside also. But Jesus told us that those who come to him
will not be cast out. (John
6:37) Lucifer points to the sick, the lame, the mentally ill as proof of
God's indifference, but Jesus heals the sick, the lame, the blind, and the
mentally ill as proof that God does care, proof of his compassionate and loving
character. (Matthew
4:23-24) (1
John 4:8) That he spent so much time tending to the spiritual, mental, and
physical wounds of humanity demonstrates that it wasn't enough to give people a
free ride to heaven through grace. It was to demonstrate that grace makes a difference
here and now. We are not left to suffer in the charnel house this world has
become. God cares for and loves us. Lucifer would chain us to his train of
captives. God would set us free.
An old story tells of a man who
was trapped on the roof of his house by a flood. He prayed that God would save
him. Soon a boat came by and offered to take him to safety. He replied that he
had prayed, and God was going to deliver him so "No, thanks." Later a helicopter
flew above the house, and someone rappelled down to the roof and offered to
take the man to safety. Again, he replied that he would stay there until God
delivered him, so "No, thanks." The helicopter left and eventually the man drowned,
and in the afterlife, he accused God of abandoning him. God replied, "I sent a
boat and a helicopter. Either one would have been enough to save you." The
point of this parable is that we often see what we want to see and not what is
possible to see. This is why one person can pray and come away believing that
God does not answer prayer while another may pray and in the very same
circumstances, can believe that God did answer their prayer. This is why when
people came to him asking for healing, Jesus often asked them if they believed he
could heal them. Recognizing the need for faith and their own lack, some would respond by asking him to help them overcome their
unbelief to find healing. (Mark
9:24) This is the essence of how Jesus lived his days of ministry. He did
not compel people to come to him, but when they did, they discovered the truth
about God's character. They found that despite all apparent evidence to the contrary,
it was still possible to be free. (John
8:36) The purpose of the gospels, including "Mark," is to reveal to us the
possibility of that freedom. Lucifer tells us it is possible to find happiness
through newer and better things that are available to all who have the money to
buy them. Jesus exposes that as a lie and tells us that life is not a
competition over buying things, but true happiness exists in having compassion and
love toward one another. Money and things perish over time, but love endures.