In my last posting I worked out what it would mean for the whole Gospel of John to be about the Logos of God. I came to that by asking: what if the gospel identified Jesus with the Logos so that an important explanation could be made about the Logos? In that sense, it's as John was saying “To show an example of what is possible” the Logos became flesh in Jesus.
So when I read John from that perspective, I started to see that what was expressed with that strange Greek term “logos” was “the formless, eternal essence” that is the basis of Creation. That way Jesus stands out as the one who was able to shed any identifying with the ego by finding his identity with the formless, eternal essence.
So in the very first chapter, vss. 3-4 express the eternal creative power by showing that through the Logos all things came into being. Then came the great connection between Logos, life, and light by expressing that what was created through the power of Logos had life and this life was the light of all people.
The Gospel then goes on to show Jesus identifying with the formless eternal essence of the Logos. That identifying then becomes the main theme of the entire Gospel. The portrayal shows Jesus being so far beyond any ego-identity that when he speaks “I” in a spiritual sense, he means his identity as the Logos, the creative power of God -- the life-giving power -- the light-bestowing power. In my last posting when I listed the famous “I am …” and “I will …” statements, it became obvious how he identified more with the formless eternal creative essence (the Logos) than identify with the mere non-eternal form of “Jesus.” So those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but to the unlimited eternal essence.
Of course, this new realization changed my understanding of the statement that has caused a great deal of trouble over the centuries with Christianity’s relation with other religions. It seems to me that the trouble could be dealt with by seeing the statement from an open perspective rather than from an exclusivist perspective.
So we could understand that statement to mean “The formless, eternal essence is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the formless, eternal essence.” That way the statement from Jesus becomes a universal statement rather than the previously thought of exclusive statement. So it’s not as though Jesus claimed that people can come to the way, the truth, and the life only by dedication to the material form of Jesus Christ; but instead, he was calling people to do what he did and identify ourselves with the formless, eternal essence.
He was calling people to get beyond any identification with ego as a controlling function, and he was making it possible for people to find their identity through their connection with the formless, eternal essence within.
Next when we read in Chapters 14-17 also the verses where Jesus gives agape to the disciples, we see him commanding that they share agape with one another. This was his way of showing how the spiritual power of agape is a Helper in the process of identifying with the formless, eternal essence that each person finds as their connection with God. There he was showing that a main spiritual purpose to the Logo’s work through Jesus was to bring God’s spiritual power of agape to people, and he made sure that it was working in the lives of his disciples.
By accepting that all those quotes refer to Jesus finding his identity more with the unlimited eternal essence than with any materially limited ego-identity -- then those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but instead to the unlimited eternal essence. And I believe his will was for us to consider our identity with the formless, eternal essence, and not with any form of ego.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
A New Look at John 1:1-14
During the last year, most of these blog postings have been about leaving “agape” untranslated. Lately, I’ve been thinking about other words from the original Greek New Testament that cannot be translated because modern English is such a spiritually weak language. Another obvious word is “Logos” from John 1:1-14.
I’ve always been bothered by the question: why did the author of that Gospel begin with a poem about that very strange Greek word “Logos”? After seeking the answer for a few decades, I’ve started to think that a possible reason is he wanted to make the point that his whole Gospel was about the Logos.
I’ve never been satisfied by all the regular explanations, speculating that the Logos poem was a little prelude that was put there to identify Jesus with the Logos; then the rest of the gospel was about Jesus. So recently, I started wondering: what if it was the other way around? What if John identified Jesus with the Logos so that an important explanation could be made about the Logos?
I reread the poem from that perspective, understanding that the point was to say, “This whole Gospel is about the Logos.” What was expressed there was the formless, eternal essence that is the basis of Creation. And so how in the world could we ever expect such a meaning of “the Logos” to fit into the translation of our common, everyday English “word.” That means the translators make a terrible mistake when they strip all the meaning of spiritual power from the Logos when they translate it as “word.” Of course, all interpreters have assumed that what was meant was the “Word of God.” But nowhere is that stated in the Greek; instead, if we leave it untranslated, we get the great faith statement: “The Logos was God.”
The opening of the Gospel of John takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible. “In the beginning was the Logos; the Logos was in God’s presence, and the Logos was God.” (the Anchor Bible) Of course, that reminded me of the great agape statement in 1 John: “We have known and have believed the agape that God has for us. God is agape, and those who remain in agape remain in God and God remains in them.” (1 Jn 4:16 Common English Bible) Of course, the statement would never have been made: “Agape is God.” That would have changed the meaning. But in John 1:1 we do have the statement, though, “The Logos was God.”
(The New Revised Standard Version translated the opening of the Bible not as “In the beginning was God;” but instead, they found that the ancient Hebrew expressed that more like, “In the beginning when God created ….”)
Vss. 3-4 express the eternal creative power by showing that through the Logos all things came into being. Then came the great connection between Logos, life, and light by expressing that what Logos created had life and this life was the light of all people.
And then came the identifying of the eternal creative power, the Logos, with Jesus. But the identifying was done in such a way that we see how Jesus had his identity with the formless eternal essence of the Logos. That then becomes the main theme of the entire Gospel. So that when Jesus speaks “I” in a spiritual sense he means his identity as the Logos, the creative power of God -- the life-giving power -- the light-bestowing power. That is how Jesus, as the Logos, was able to empower people to become God’s children, “begotten not by blood, nor by carnal desire, nor by man’s desire, but by God.” (vss. 12-13 Common English Bible)
In the famous “I am …” and “I will …” statements, Jesus was displaying that he identified more with the formless eternal creative essence (the Logos) than identify with the mere non-eternal form of “Jesus.” The first example came right after he sent the money changers out of the temple -- then when the religious authorities challenged him, he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I with raise it up.” (Jn. 2:19) Obviously, he wasn’t saying that the physical body of Jesus would rebuild the physical temple in 3 days. Instead, he was demonstrating his identity with the eternal creative power. And as such he was proclaiming the New Creation of a New Form of Temple.
Next, was with the Samaritan woman at the well, to whom he said, “Whoever drinks from the water I will give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles into eternal life.” (4:14) So he was identifying with the eternal creative essence (in other words, the Logos), and as such the Logos would bring a spiritual ‘water’ that leads any person who identifies with it to eternal life.
Then when the disciples asked him why he didn’t eat, he told them, “I am fed by doing the will of the One who sent me and by completing his work.” (4:34) Again, at that place, he wasn’t referring to the material body of “Jesus” but the eternal essence he identified with.
When he was challenged about working on the sabbath, he replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.” (5:17) And then to show the spiritual depth of the identity he was expressing, he said, “I don’t seek my own will but the will of the One who sent me.” (5:30)
In the remaining, famous “I am …” statements, I think he was demonstrating his identity with the formless eternal creative essence, and not with the material form of Jesus. But when he used the words “my own” or “my own will,” then he meant the material form of Jesus. Here is the list. “I am the bread of life.” (6:35) “I am the light of the world.” (8:12) “You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world.” (8:23) “I haven’t come on my own; God sent me.” (8:42) “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (8:58) “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (10:9) “I am the good shepherd.” (10:11) “This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I may take it up again.” (10:17) “I give them eternal life. … I and the Father are one.” (10:28 & 30) “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (11:25-26) “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” (14:6-7) “The Father who dwells in me does his works. Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (14:10-11) “I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you.” (14:16-17)(14:19-20) “Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.” “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. … Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.” (15:1-5) “When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. … I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I am in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one.” (17:1-2, 21-23)
Thus we can see that he was identifying with the formless, eternal essence (and not with the form of Jesus) when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” So the “I” and the “me” referred to the Logos, not to Jesus. That’s why we should understand that statement to mean “The formless, eternal essence is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the formless, eternal essence.”
Chapters 14-17 also contain the verses about the giving of agape to the disciples and about his commanding that they share agape with one another. For example, he prayed, “I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your agape for me will be in them, and I will be in them.” (17:26) There he was showing that a main spiritual purpose to the Logo’s work through Jesus was to bring God’s spiritual power of agape to people, and he made sure that it was working in the lives of his disciples.
By accepting that all those quotes refer to Jesus finding his identity more with the unlimited eternal essence than with any materially limited ego-identity -- then those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but to the unlimited eternal essence. And I believe his will was for us to consider our identity with the formless, eternal essence, and not with any form of ego.
I’ve always been bothered by the question: why did the author of that Gospel begin with a poem about that very strange Greek word “Logos”? After seeking the answer for a few decades, I’ve started to think that a possible reason is he wanted to make the point that his whole Gospel was about the Logos.
I’ve never been satisfied by all the regular explanations, speculating that the Logos poem was a little prelude that was put there to identify Jesus with the Logos; then the rest of the gospel was about Jesus. So recently, I started wondering: what if it was the other way around? What if John identified Jesus with the Logos so that an important explanation could be made about the Logos?
I reread the poem from that perspective, understanding that the point was to say, “This whole Gospel is about the Logos.” What was expressed there was the formless, eternal essence that is the basis of Creation. And so how in the world could we ever expect such a meaning of “the Logos” to fit into the translation of our common, everyday English “word.” That means the translators make a terrible mistake when they strip all the meaning of spiritual power from the Logos when they translate it as “word.” Of course, all interpreters have assumed that what was meant was the “Word of God.” But nowhere is that stated in the Greek; instead, if we leave it untranslated, we get the great faith statement: “The Logos was God.”
The opening of the Gospel of John takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible. “In the beginning was the Logos; the Logos was in God’s presence, and the Logos was God.” (the Anchor Bible) Of course, that reminded me of the great agape statement in 1 John: “We have known and have believed the agape that God has for us. God is agape, and those who remain in agape remain in God and God remains in them.” (1 Jn 4:16 Common English Bible) Of course, the statement would never have been made: “Agape is God.” That would have changed the meaning. But in John 1:1 we do have the statement, though, “The Logos was God.”
(The New Revised Standard Version translated the opening of the Bible not as “In the beginning was God;” but instead, they found that the ancient Hebrew expressed that more like, “In the beginning when God created ….”)
Vss. 3-4 express the eternal creative power by showing that through the Logos all things came into being. Then came the great connection between Logos, life, and light by expressing that what Logos created had life and this life was the light of all people.
And then came the identifying of the eternal creative power, the Logos, with Jesus. But the identifying was done in such a way that we see how Jesus had his identity with the formless eternal essence of the Logos. That then becomes the main theme of the entire Gospel. So that when Jesus speaks “I” in a spiritual sense he means his identity as the Logos, the creative power of God -- the life-giving power -- the light-bestowing power. That is how Jesus, as the Logos, was able to empower people to become God’s children, “begotten not by blood, nor by carnal desire, nor by man’s desire, but by God.” (vss. 12-13 Common English Bible)
In the famous “I am …” and “I will …” statements, Jesus was displaying that he identified more with the formless eternal creative essence (the Logos) than identify with the mere non-eternal form of “Jesus.” The first example came right after he sent the money changers out of the temple -- then when the religious authorities challenged him, he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I with raise it up.” (Jn. 2:19) Obviously, he wasn’t saying that the physical body of Jesus would rebuild the physical temple in 3 days. Instead, he was demonstrating his identity with the eternal creative power. And as such he was proclaiming the New Creation of a New Form of Temple.
Next, was with the Samaritan woman at the well, to whom he said, “Whoever drinks from the water I will give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles into eternal life.” (4:14) So he was identifying with the eternal creative essence (in other words, the Logos), and as such the Logos would bring a spiritual ‘water’ that leads any person who identifies with it to eternal life.
Then when the disciples asked him why he didn’t eat, he told them, “I am fed by doing the will of the One who sent me and by completing his work.” (4:34) Again, at that place, he wasn’t referring to the material body of “Jesus” but the eternal essence he identified with.
When he was challenged about working on the sabbath, he replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.” (5:17) And then to show the spiritual depth of the identity he was expressing, he said, “I don’t seek my own will but the will of the One who sent me.” (5:30)
In the remaining, famous “I am …” statements, I think he was demonstrating his identity with the formless eternal creative essence, and not with the material form of Jesus. But when he used the words “my own” or “my own will,” then he meant the material form of Jesus. Here is the list. “I am the bread of life.” (6:35) “I am the light of the world.” (8:12) “You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world.” (8:23) “I haven’t come on my own; God sent me.” (8:42) “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (8:58) “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (10:9) “I am the good shepherd.” (10:11) “This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I may take it up again.” (10:17) “I give them eternal life. … I and the Father are one.” (10:28 & 30) “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (11:25-26) “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” (14:6-7) “The Father who dwells in me does his works. Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (14:10-11) “I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you.” (14:16-17)(14:19-20) “Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.” “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. … Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.” (15:1-5) “When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. … I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I am in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one.” (17:1-2, 21-23)
Thus we can see that he was identifying with the formless, eternal essence (and not with the form of Jesus) when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” So the “I” and the “me” referred to the Logos, not to Jesus. That’s why we should understand that statement to mean “The formless, eternal essence is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the formless, eternal essence.”
Chapters 14-17 also contain the verses about the giving of agape to the disciples and about his commanding that they share agape with one another. For example, he prayed, “I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your agape for me will be in them, and I will be in them.” (17:26) There he was showing that a main spiritual purpose to the Logo’s work through Jesus was to bring God’s spiritual power of agape to people, and he made sure that it was working in the lives of his disciples.
By accepting that all those quotes refer to Jesus finding his identity more with the unlimited eternal essence than with any materially limited ego-identity -- then those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but to the unlimited eternal essence. And I believe his will was for us to consider our identity with the formless, eternal essence, and not with any form of ego.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
A New Look at 1 Corinthians 13
About a year ago (1/22, 23, and 28) I posted a study of 1 Corinthians 13. Since then my work with agape power has led me to even deeper insights into the radical message that Paul gave there. After all, the purpose of that chapter is Paul’s explanation of the strange new spiritual gift he called “agape.” (The chapter could not be about what is commonly meant as love, because he did not use any of the Greek common words for “love.” And anyway, he had no reason to explain love.)
We remember that Paul had just finished, in chapter 12, a list of spiritual gifts. So then he warned his readers that what he was going to show them next was unusual -- by saying, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible, p. 474, 2008 Vol. 32) So what was this unusual religious innovation that he thought was so important he described it as a “more excellent way”?
Whenever approaching the shocking 13th chapt., I keep in mind Paul’s view of agape expressed in Rom. 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” That helps us understand why he began the 13th chapt. by showing that he considered “agape” to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts that anyone can receive. He was using a spiritual explanation in those unusual verses. (Because I quoted extensively in the Jan., 2010, postings, I won’t repeat those Biblical quotes. And I don’t need to repeat my carefully explained evidence for leaving “agape” untranslated.)
First, he explained that other spiritual gifts were nothing without agape. He even explained that charity is most effective when done through the power of agape. After those comparisons, that would have upset the Corinthians, Paul was ready to lay out the details showing what agape power could do. But in an even more unusual method, he didn’t start by talking about what the transforming power of agape can do to us. Instead, he talked directly about what agape itself is.
He started that description by pointing out that agape is patient and kind. WHAT? So whatever that strange spiritual power is, patience and kindness are of the very essence of what it is. He seems to be saying this: the way agape's spiritual power works in a person and between persons in a faith community, it is patient and kind. What does that mean?
The King James Version uses the expression “suffereth long” instead of “patient.” That adds a new depth of meaning for all those people who wrongly want religion to guard them against suffering. So agape is the spiritual power found in suffering. That’s why Paul said that agape “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (vss. 4-7) What an amazing spiritual power!
So we have to look to what spiritually is the foundation of patience and kindness. In Galatians, when Paul concluded, “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 Common English Bible) -- he was referring to what followers of Jesus Christ must do to 'crucify' the influence of any ego-identity.
Several verses later he said, “be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires." That’s when he gave the list: "The fruit of the Spirit is agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal. 16-23) Those “spiritual fruits” all go together. Of course, agape comes first, because its spiritual power opens us up to both God and to other people in such a way that what comes into our being is a profound sense of joyous well-being.
That deep spiritual sense allows us to accept other people in a life-affirming way that we become neither agitated with them nor attach any degree of importance to anything they may to do us. That's how we're able to live in a forgiving, merciful way. Even though we might think that is not humanly possible, with agape, all is possible.
Paul then explained more about agape when he then said that it helps us move beyond any ego-centric behavior. He seems to be saying that agape is our very witness that true spiritual power is on the side of patience, kindness, justice and truth -- and that it is against envy, conceit, judgementalness, self-righteousness, and all other results of ego-identity behavior.
Then he concluded that all the other spiritual gifts will eventually fail in their effectiveness, but agape will never fail. (vs. 8 Common English Bible) So, he then said he understood that we need agape in order to become fully mature in our spiritual development; otherwise, we remain childishly stunted in our growth in faith. And finally, even though we know that faith, hope, and agape abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agape.” (vs. 13) Greater that faith and hope?!
Those statements would have bothered Greeks when they were read in the First Century. Those words show a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. (So, again, we lose that shocking, new, powerful quality if we just translate “agape” with our English word “love.” But by leaving the word as Paul wanted it, we are better able to see what he was showing us.)
When we hear the way Paul explained agape in that chapter, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new faith discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God. Paul was telling his generation, and all generations since then, to expect that when we open ourselves to the power of agape, we will find it to be patient, kind, non-judgmental, and not ego-inflating.
That seems to mean to me that God will not force agape on us, so each of has to be completely willing to open our heart -- but also that agape will eternally be there for us. Even though agape is the most important power that God has for us, we have to freely accept the gift and use it or else it will mean nothing to us -- and our lives will amount to nothing until we are willing to work with that all-important spiritual power.
Later on, near the end of that epistle, Paul said, “Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. Everything should be done in agape.” (16:14 Common English Bible) That’s how he thought of the total influence of agape -- that we should use agape to do everything that we do in life.
It is that spiritual power of agape that brings to the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual power of patience itself; the spiritual strength of kindness; the wise rejoicing in the truth; and the basis of such a profound compassion that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
We remember that Paul had just finished, in chapter 12, a list of spiritual gifts. So then he warned his readers that what he was going to show them next was unusual -- by saying, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible, p. 474, 2008 Vol. 32) So what was this unusual religious innovation that he thought was so important he described it as a “more excellent way”?
Whenever approaching the shocking 13th chapt., I keep in mind Paul’s view of agape expressed in Rom. 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” That helps us understand why he began the 13th chapt. by showing that he considered “agape” to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts that anyone can receive. He was using a spiritual explanation in those unusual verses. (Because I quoted extensively in the Jan., 2010, postings, I won’t repeat those Biblical quotes. And I don’t need to repeat my carefully explained evidence for leaving “agape” untranslated.)
First, he explained that other spiritual gifts were nothing without agape. He even explained that charity is most effective when done through the power of agape. After those comparisons, that would have upset the Corinthians, Paul was ready to lay out the details showing what agape power could do. But in an even more unusual method, he didn’t start by talking about what the transforming power of agape can do to us. Instead, he talked directly about what agape itself is.
He started that description by pointing out that agape is patient and kind. WHAT? So whatever that strange spiritual power is, patience and kindness are of the very essence of what it is. He seems to be saying this: the way agape's spiritual power works in a person and between persons in a faith community, it is patient and kind. What does that mean?
The King James Version uses the expression “suffereth long” instead of “patient.” That adds a new depth of meaning for all those people who wrongly want religion to guard them against suffering. So agape is the spiritual power found in suffering. That’s why Paul said that agape “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (vss. 4-7) What an amazing spiritual power!
So we have to look to what spiritually is the foundation of patience and kindness. In Galatians, when Paul concluded, “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 Common English Bible) -- he was referring to what followers of Jesus Christ must do to 'crucify' the influence of any ego-identity.
Several verses later he said, “be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires." That’s when he gave the list: "The fruit of the Spirit is agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal. 16-23) Those “spiritual fruits” all go together. Of course, agape comes first, because its spiritual power opens us up to both God and to other people in such a way that what comes into our being is a profound sense of joyous well-being.
That deep spiritual sense allows us to accept other people in a life-affirming way that we become neither agitated with them nor attach any degree of importance to anything they may to do us. That's how we're able to live in a forgiving, merciful way. Even though we might think that is not humanly possible, with agape, all is possible.
Paul then explained more about agape when he then said that it helps us move beyond any ego-centric behavior. He seems to be saying that agape is our very witness that true spiritual power is on the side of patience, kindness, justice and truth -- and that it is against envy, conceit, judgementalness, self-righteousness, and all other results of ego-identity behavior.
Then he concluded that all the other spiritual gifts will eventually fail in their effectiveness, but agape will never fail. (vs. 8 Common English Bible) So, he then said he understood that we need agape in order to become fully mature in our spiritual development; otherwise, we remain childishly stunted in our growth in faith. And finally, even though we know that faith, hope, and agape abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agape.” (vs. 13) Greater that faith and hope?!
Those statements would have bothered Greeks when they were read in the First Century. Those words show a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. (So, again, we lose that shocking, new, powerful quality if we just translate “agape” with our English word “love.” But by leaving the word as Paul wanted it, we are better able to see what he was showing us.)
When we hear the way Paul explained agape in that chapter, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new faith discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God. Paul was telling his generation, and all generations since then, to expect that when we open ourselves to the power of agape, we will find it to be patient, kind, non-judgmental, and not ego-inflating.
That seems to mean to me that God will not force agape on us, so each of has to be completely willing to open our heart -- but also that agape will eternally be there for us. Even though agape is the most important power that God has for us, we have to freely accept the gift and use it or else it will mean nothing to us -- and our lives will amount to nothing until we are willing to work with that all-important spiritual power.
Later on, near the end of that epistle, Paul said, “Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. Everything should be done in agape.” (16:14 Common English Bible) That’s how he thought of the total influence of agape -- that we should use agape to do everything that we do in life.
It is that spiritual power of agape that brings to the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual power of patience itself; the spiritual strength of kindness; the wise rejoicing in the truth; and the basis of such a profound compassion that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Agape language and hope
Occasionally I continue checking blogs that mention agape. Recently I found a story from “Wit and Wisdom” May 6, 1998; quoted in onlinechristianforums.com/storytellers-stories/22661-speaking-agape. Here is a tightly edited version:
“In the early 1960s, Brother Andrew, from Holland, smuggled a load of Bibles in his VW across the Romanian border and past communist guards. He checked into a hotel and asked the hotel clerk where he might find a church. The clerk looked at him a little strangely and answered, ‘We don't have many of those you know. Besides you couldn't understand the language.’ ‘Didn't you know?’ Andrew replied, ‘Christians speak a kind of universal language.’ ‘Oh, what's that?’, asked the clerk. ‘It's called Agape.’
“When Andrew finally met with two members of a church, they sat staring at each other across the room until Andrew spotted a Romanian Bible, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a Dutch Bible. He turned to 1 Corinthians 16:20 and held the Bible out, pointing to the name of the book. They quickly found the same chapter and verse in their Romanian Bibles and read: ‘All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.’ These men spent half an hour conversing and sharing - just through the words of Scripture. They were so happy in this fellowship that crossed all cultural boundaries that they laughed until tears came to their eyes.’
“At the hotel, the clerk approached Andrew and remarked, ‘Say, I looked up 'agape' in the dictionary. There's no language by that name.’ Andrew replied, ‘I was speaking in it all afternoon.’”
That story is a good illustration of what can happen in a person’s life when the spiritual power of agape works to bring the influence of God’s Presence. Because this can happen anytime and any place, that’s why Jesus talked about the influence of God (formerly referred to by the antiquated translation the “Kingdom of God”) as a present reality and also as hope. During the last few years I have come to believe that spiritual agape is how God brings us awareness of divine Presence and holds out hope of even greater influence in our lives.
The connection between such present reality and hope is what Paul was reflecting when he wrote: “This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)
And it is that spiritual meaning that Paul brought to the Early Church, and that has been passed along thru all the intervening generations -- with the hope that agape would be re-discovered.
That hope has been realized during the last 100 years. During those lost centuries, when no one could remember what was the spiritual meaning behind that strange Greek word “agape,” the hope still lingered that someday the true meaning would be brought back to life. We are now living in those days of re-discovery. That's why it's so important to put into practice the excitement of that discovery.
“In the early 1960s, Brother Andrew, from Holland, smuggled a load of Bibles in his VW across the Romanian border and past communist guards. He checked into a hotel and asked the hotel clerk where he might find a church. The clerk looked at him a little strangely and answered, ‘We don't have many of those you know. Besides you couldn't understand the language.’ ‘Didn't you know?’ Andrew replied, ‘Christians speak a kind of universal language.’ ‘Oh, what's that?’, asked the clerk. ‘It's called Agape.’
“When Andrew finally met with two members of a church, they sat staring at each other across the room until Andrew spotted a Romanian Bible, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a Dutch Bible. He turned to 1 Corinthians 16:20 and held the Bible out, pointing to the name of the book. They quickly found the same chapter and verse in their Romanian Bibles and read: ‘All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.’ These men spent half an hour conversing and sharing - just through the words of Scripture. They were so happy in this fellowship that crossed all cultural boundaries that they laughed until tears came to their eyes.’
“At the hotel, the clerk approached Andrew and remarked, ‘Say, I looked up 'agape' in the dictionary. There's no language by that name.’ Andrew replied, ‘I was speaking in it all afternoon.’”
That story is a good illustration of what can happen in a person’s life when the spiritual power of agape works to bring the influence of God’s Presence. Because this can happen anytime and any place, that’s why Jesus talked about the influence of God (formerly referred to by the antiquated translation the “Kingdom of God”) as a present reality and also as hope. During the last few years I have come to believe that spiritual agape is how God brings us awareness of divine Presence and holds out hope of even greater influence in our lives.
The connection between such present reality and hope is what Paul was reflecting when he wrote: “This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)
And it is that spiritual meaning that Paul brought to the Early Church, and that has been passed along thru all the intervening generations -- with the hope that agape would be re-discovered.
That hope has been realized during the last 100 years. During those lost centuries, when no one could remember what was the spiritual meaning behind that strange Greek word “agape,” the hope still lingered that someday the true meaning would be brought back to life. We are now living in those days of re-discovery. That's why it's so important to put into practice the excitement of that discovery.
Monday, January 10, 2011
A Year trying to understand Agape
Today marks a year since I started these blog postings. It’s been an amazing period of spiritual discovery. I’ve prayed about Paul’s use of that strange word “agape.” I read a lot and discovered that I disagreed with almost everything I read. So I had to start all over again and combine a fresh reading of the Bible with meditation.
This year has been the conclusion of the last several years of deeply seeking God’s agape for my life. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised to find that the search opened my life to profound changes; including, deepening and expanding my perspective on the ancient meaning of love.
I started the year with the understanding that the reality that we try to express with the strange word ‘agape’ is so powerful, and yet so essential to a person’s growth in faith, that over the centuries people have tried many different words to translate it. But all such words have fallen very far short of its true spiritual meaning. I saw as one example that the normal English word ‘love’ is just not what is meant by ‘God’s Agape.’ The ancient Greek word "agape" was not the common word for love (and "caritas" was not the common Latin word for love), so it was a mistake to start translating "agape" with the common English word "love."
But I’ve started to see that such confusion of language came about because of the awareness that ‘agape’ refers to a spiritual experience of an intense, intimate way of relating; and that it brings a meaningful depth and concern to life. (Of course, modern English is such a spiritually weak language, that there is no English word that expresses the full spiritual meaning of 'agape.')
When I focused my Bible study on Romans and 1 Corinthians, I found a new appreciation of Paul’s spiritual discoveries. So I understood Paul was pointing to the spiritual awareness that by giving us agape, God opens the guarded heart through intense, intimate relating. For those who respond to that, they will have a spiritual experience that will allow them to sense something like acceptance, support, caring, and even affection that is more profound than is possible in any other way.
So of course, just imagine what kind of a walk with God over many years it took Paul to truly, deeply understand that what is not possible for a human is possible for God. Paul bore witness thru personal experiences that God makes it possible for us to be able to find the level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. Only God could make that possible. And agape is how God does it.
Summary of what I discovered about the Meaning of Agape:
‘God’s Agape’ names a spiritual power flowing into the center of our being.{retranslation of Rom. 5:5} ‘Agape’ is used to name a spiritual opening that comes to us when we fully accept our true connection with the deepest aspect of Life. God’s Agape is given to us as our access to the manifested divine Presence. So ‘Agape’ is the name of a form of spiritual energy that can help us, because it has a transformative quality that makes it possible to be kind, compassionate, and charitable with everyone and the rest of Creation.
Matthew records Jesus as saying “You shall [agapan] the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all our mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall [agapan] your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mt 22:36-40). What is alike in the two Great Commandments is the verb form of agape. So the same spiritual power is an active force between God and us while also between others and us. Agape is the spiritual flow that opens us to our connection with divine Presence AND empowers us to go out to other people in compassionate, caring, loving, accepting, respectful, joy-filled ways.
This year has been the conclusion of the last several years of deeply seeking God’s agape for my life. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised to find that the search opened my life to profound changes; including, deepening and expanding my perspective on the ancient meaning of love.
I started the year with the understanding that the reality that we try to express with the strange word ‘agape’ is so powerful, and yet so essential to a person’s growth in faith, that over the centuries people have tried many different words to translate it. But all such words have fallen very far short of its true spiritual meaning. I saw as one example that the normal English word ‘love’ is just not what is meant by ‘God’s Agape.’ The ancient Greek word "agape" was not the common word for love (and "caritas" was not the common Latin word for love), so it was a mistake to start translating "agape" with the common English word "love."
But I’ve started to see that such confusion of language came about because of the awareness that ‘agape’ refers to a spiritual experience of an intense, intimate way of relating; and that it brings a meaningful depth and concern to life. (Of course, modern English is such a spiritually weak language, that there is no English word that expresses the full spiritual meaning of 'agape.')
When I focused my Bible study on Romans and 1 Corinthians, I found a new appreciation of Paul’s spiritual discoveries. So I understood Paul was pointing to the spiritual awareness that by giving us agape, God opens the guarded heart through intense, intimate relating. For those who respond to that, they will have a spiritual experience that will allow them to sense something like acceptance, support, caring, and even affection that is more profound than is possible in any other way.
So of course, just imagine what kind of a walk with God over many years it took Paul to truly, deeply understand that what is not possible for a human is possible for God. Paul bore witness thru personal experiences that God makes it possible for us to be able to find the level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. Only God could make that possible. And agape is how God does it.
Summary of what I discovered about the Meaning of Agape:
‘God’s Agape’ names a spiritual power flowing into the center of our being.{retranslation of Rom. 5:5} ‘Agape’ is used to name a spiritual opening that comes to us when we fully accept our true connection with the deepest aspect of Life. God’s Agape is given to us as our access to the manifested divine Presence. So ‘Agape’ is the name of a form of spiritual energy that can help us, because it has a transformative quality that makes it possible to be kind, compassionate, and charitable with everyone and the rest of Creation.
Matthew records Jesus as saying “You shall [agapan] the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all our mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall [agapan] your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mt 22:36-40). What is alike in the two Great Commandments is the verb form of agape. So the same spiritual power is an active force between God and us while also between others and us. Agape is the spiritual flow that opens us to our connection with divine Presence AND empowers us to go out to other people in compassionate, caring, loving, accepting, respectful, joy-filled ways.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Agape and “the Kingdom of God” -- part 2
In my last posting I concluded that what Jesus said about “the Kingdom of God” just didn’t jive with the standard, popular messianic meaning of his time. I dealt with the realization that Jesus had a radically new interpretation that was a spiritual meaning.
In today’s language we would say that re-interpretation given by Jesus was so radical that it seems like he was ridiculing in order to change the desperate, misguided desire of most people of his time. When we consider how much he was trying to change even the hope people placed on their longing for a messiah, we can see why he ran into so much trouble. He was showing how wrong it was to expect God to come crashing into history with a messiah leading an army of fiery angels to quickly save the people from their oppressive enemies. In that sense it was like saying that God didn’t work that way.
The words and actions of Jesus showed a completely different understanding. He wasn't willing to pander to the frantic religious zealots of his day. (And so for the following 2,000 years, people should have followed his lead and dismissed similar desires when they were piled on Jesus' memory.)
So to gain perspective, I focused on the parable of the mustard seed, and put it beside Paul’s description of God’s agape in Rom. 5:5. That led me to see that Jesus was giving a very good description of the beginning of spiritual life for those people who are able to pay attention to the way God wakes us up. As Jesus said, “Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.” (Common English Bible) (Or “The Kingdom of God is within you.” (New International Version)(Luke 17:21-22) And as he said in the Beatitude: “Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8 Common English Bible)
And then I asked, what kind of “power” was Jesus talking about “arriving?” Obviously it could not have been the materialistic power that everyone else at that time expected, because that did not happen. But it is as Paul discovered -- in spiritual “agape.” Clearly, Jesus and Paul were talking about spiritual power. It is only from such an awareness that we can possibly make sense of the “kingdom parables.”
But most people at the time of Jesus used "the Kingdom of God" in political terms. So a better translation than the English expression “the Kingdom of God” would be found by using spiritual terms rather than political terms. This is especially true for Americans, because we have added to the long history of cultures the profound political insight that when societies were organized, the kingship model had not been good for the development of the human race. American history has been able to demonstrate to other nations that the spiritual development of the human race was messed up during the thousands of years when the kingship model was used to order societies. So since we Americans finally have been able to demonstrate the end of kings, emperors, princes, and all forms of royalty; then it makes no sense for us to use “kingdom” as a theological model.
That means it makes much better religious sense to speak of the influence of God’s Presence in people’s lives and society. So even though the expression would be a little too bulky, still a much better translation than “the Kingdom of God” would be something like “the spiritual influence of God’s Presence” (or maybe just “the influence of God”).
The influence of God’s Presence grows up from the depths of my heart to slowly, completely change my whole perspective on Life. Or as Paul so profoundly said, “the agape of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us.” (Rom. 5:5 Common English Bible)
In that sense, agape fits the description of a mustard seed. The metaphor would apply to the way God ‘plants’ agape in our hearts to open us up to the Holy Spirit as we slowly grow in our consciousness of God’s power in our relationships. Such growth could then be called “agape consciousness.”
That’s how we become aware of “the spiritual influence of God’s Presence.” So as we act on that influence in our relationships, feeling the power of patience, and experiencing the growth and power of kindness (1 Cor. 13:4), we truly realize that God's Presence is “among us” or “within us.” That is what Jesus was describing. That is what Jesus was making possible for people to have. And so that is what we need to open up to and allow to happen in our lives.
In today’s language we would say that re-interpretation given by Jesus was so radical that it seems like he was ridiculing in order to change the desperate, misguided desire of most people of his time. When we consider how much he was trying to change even the hope people placed on their longing for a messiah, we can see why he ran into so much trouble. He was showing how wrong it was to expect God to come crashing into history with a messiah leading an army of fiery angels to quickly save the people from their oppressive enemies. In that sense it was like saying that God didn’t work that way.
The words and actions of Jesus showed a completely different understanding. He wasn't willing to pander to the frantic religious zealots of his day. (And so for the following 2,000 years, people should have followed his lead and dismissed similar desires when they were piled on Jesus' memory.)
So to gain perspective, I focused on the parable of the mustard seed, and put it beside Paul’s description of God’s agape in Rom. 5:5. That led me to see that Jesus was giving a very good description of the beginning of spiritual life for those people who are able to pay attention to the way God wakes us up. As Jesus said, “Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.” (Common English Bible) (Or “The Kingdom of God is within you.” (New International Version)(Luke 17:21-22) And as he said in the Beatitude: “Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8 Common English Bible)
And then I asked, what kind of “power” was Jesus talking about “arriving?” Obviously it could not have been the materialistic power that everyone else at that time expected, because that did not happen. But it is as Paul discovered -- in spiritual “agape.” Clearly, Jesus and Paul were talking about spiritual power. It is only from such an awareness that we can possibly make sense of the “kingdom parables.”
But most people at the time of Jesus used "the Kingdom of God" in political terms. So a better translation than the English expression “the Kingdom of God” would be found by using spiritual terms rather than political terms. This is especially true for Americans, because we have added to the long history of cultures the profound political insight that when societies were organized, the kingship model had not been good for the development of the human race. American history has been able to demonstrate to other nations that the spiritual development of the human race was messed up during the thousands of years when the kingship model was used to order societies. So since we Americans finally have been able to demonstrate the end of kings, emperors, princes, and all forms of royalty; then it makes no sense for us to use “kingdom” as a theological model.
That means it makes much better religious sense to speak of the influence of God’s Presence in people’s lives and society. So even though the expression would be a little too bulky, still a much better translation than “the Kingdom of God” would be something like “the spiritual influence of God’s Presence” (or maybe just “the influence of God”).
The influence of God’s Presence grows up from the depths of my heart to slowly, completely change my whole perspective on Life. Or as Paul so profoundly said, “the agape of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us.” (Rom. 5:5 Common English Bible)
In that sense, agape fits the description of a mustard seed. The metaphor would apply to the way God ‘plants’ agape in our hearts to open us up to the Holy Spirit as we slowly grow in our consciousness of God’s power in our relationships. Such growth could then be called “agape consciousness.”
That’s how we become aware of “the spiritual influence of God’s Presence.” So as we act on that influence in our relationships, feeling the power of patience, and experiencing the growth and power of kindness (1 Cor. 13:4), we truly realize that God's Presence is “among us” or “within us.” That is what Jesus was describing. That is what Jesus was making possible for people to have. And so that is what we need to open up to and allow to happen in our lives.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Agape and “the Kingdom of God”
I’ve been thinking about other Biblical expressions that have caused as much translation confusion as ‘agape’ has. The expression that usually has gotten translated as “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven” has caused probably as much confusion over the centuries as any.
The major cause of confusion for us in the 21st Century is expressed with the question: how in the world could we in America find meaning in “the Kingdom of God?” To answer such a far-reaching question, the important point to tackle first is to try figuring out what Jesus meant when he used the expression. That task is not at all an easy, straight-forward one. Usually studies of “the kingdom of God” start with the messianic meaning, but that doesn’t help us deal with the meaning Jesus gave because most of the time what he said just didn’t jive with the standard messianic meaning.
The confusion with the messianic meaning starts with the popular belief about the long-hoped-for age when a messiah would be sent from God to free the Jewish people from all oppression from foreign powers. In the century after Christianity began, a man did come along who laid claim to be such a messiah. But of course, that only ended up provoking the Roman Empire to totally devastate the Holy Land, including destroying Jerusalem and the temple. Christians did not participate in that rebellion because by then they had figured out that Jesus did not talk about that popular messianic meaning.
Now, there is a sad reason behind that desperate desire felt by so many people in the century during which Jesus was preaching. We need to always remember that those were terrifying times of violence and oppression. So there was widespread longing for a messiah to put an end to such agonizing suffering. According to that longing, the expression “kingdom of God” meant the time when the New Age would begin, bringing an end to all the violence and oppression.
There are two reasons why I think Jesus couldn’t have meant that. The first is that never happened. Secondly, can anyone honestly see Jesus advocating a military meaning? So that’s not a good place to start studying what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of God.”
But if we start from a different point to look at the way Jesus used the expression, we get a different slant. For example, what happens if we start with the parables? Also we get a different slant if we start when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, and he said, “God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed; nor will people say, ‘Look here it is’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.” (Luke 17:21-22 Common English Bible) ALREADY! Or what could he have meant in the famous Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs”? (Mt. 5:10 Common English Bible) You see, he didn’t say that the kingdom “will be” theirs, but he said it “is” theirs.
Or what happens to the time schedule with the statement: “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom arrive in power.”? (Mk. 9:1 Common English Bible) Does that mean that the kingdom of God came into power 2,000 years ago? And if that is the actual meaning, then with what kind of “power” did the kingdom arrive? Obviously it could not have been the materialistic power that everyone else at that time expected, because that did not happen -- not only did Jesus not kick the Romans and the Greeks out of the Holy Land; but instead, the Roman army swept through the land, burning and destroying everything in their way, including Jerusalem and the Temple. So what was that power that Jesus spoke about? If not physical power (which clearly it was not), then what?
That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer for many years. Well, I think Paul was trying to find the answer to the same question. And I think he began to find that power -- in the experience of Spirit that he started calling “agape.” Clearly, Jesus and Paul were talking about spiritual power. It is only from such an awareness that we can possibly make sense of the “kingdom parables.”
So take the parable that everyone thinks is very understandable -- about the mustard seed. “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? … Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth, but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.” (Mk 4:30-32 Common English Bible) Okay, so what in the world did that mean? Years ago I thought it was a parable about starting a new religion, but I no longer think that Jesus wanted to start a new religion. Obviously, the image in that parable was not what most people wanted to hear about the great messianic age.
Most of the desperate, suffering people at the time of Jesus wanted God to come crashing into history with a messiah leading an army of fiery angels to quickly save them from their oppressive enemies. That’s what salvation meant to them! But they sure didn’t want a messiah who quietly, slowly, obscurely comes as a weak little baby, born out back in a stable, to a lowly carpenter’s wife from a little town of the northern region of their country. And they sure didn’t want someone who tries to compare the great kingdom of God to a lowly, little seed -- even though it may eventually (slowly) grow into a giant bush.
So if Jesus was bringing an entirely new understanding of the “kingdom of God,” then what did he mean? If we take his many comments about seeds and growing, along with the parable of leaven, and put them beside Paul’s description of God’s agape in Rom. 5:5; then we see a very good description of the spiritual life of those people who are able to pay attention to the way God wakes us up.
What do most people with a strong spiritual life say when they reflect back on the beginning of their faith journey? All of us respond with a description that sounds a lot like a seed being planted. And the influence of God’s Presence in our lives is like something that grows up from the depths of our being to slowly take over our whole perspective on Life -- and in that gradual process, completely change our whole perspective on Life.
That means that Jesus brought a spiritual understanding of the “kingdom of God.”
The major cause of confusion for us in the 21st Century is expressed with the question: how in the world could we in America find meaning in “the Kingdom of God?” To answer such a far-reaching question, the important point to tackle first is to try figuring out what Jesus meant when he used the expression. That task is not at all an easy, straight-forward one. Usually studies of “the kingdom of God” start with the messianic meaning, but that doesn’t help us deal with the meaning Jesus gave because most of the time what he said just didn’t jive with the standard messianic meaning.
The confusion with the messianic meaning starts with the popular belief about the long-hoped-for age when a messiah would be sent from God to free the Jewish people from all oppression from foreign powers. In the century after Christianity began, a man did come along who laid claim to be such a messiah. But of course, that only ended up provoking the Roman Empire to totally devastate the Holy Land, including destroying Jerusalem and the temple. Christians did not participate in that rebellion because by then they had figured out that Jesus did not talk about that popular messianic meaning.
Now, there is a sad reason behind that desperate desire felt by so many people in the century during which Jesus was preaching. We need to always remember that those were terrifying times of violence and oppression. So there was widespread longing for a messiah to put an end to such agonizing suffering. According to that longing, the expression “kingdom of God” meant the time when the New Age would begin, bringing an end to all the violence and oppression.
There are two reasons why I think Jesus couldn’t have meant that. The first is that never happened. Secondly, can anyone honestly see Jesus advocating a military meaning? So that’s not a good place to start studying what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of God.”
But if we start from a different point to look at the way Jesus used the expression, we get a different slant. For example, what happens if we start with the parables? Also we get a different slant if we start when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, and he said, “God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed; nor will people say, ‘Look here it is’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.” (Luke 17:21-22 Common English Bible) ALREADY! Or what could he have meant in the famous Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs”? (Mt. 5:10 Common English Bible) You see, he didn’t say that the kingdom “will be” theirs, but he said it “is” theirs.
Or what happens to the time schedule with the statement: “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom arrive in power.”? (Mk. 9:1 Common English Bible) Does that mean that the kingdom of God came into power 2,000 years ago? And if that is the actual meaning, then with what kind of “power” did the kingdom arrive? Obviously it could not have been the materialistic power that everyone else at that time expected, because that did not happen -- not only did Jesus not kick the Romans and the Greeks out of the Holy Land; but instead, the Roman army swept through the land, burning and destroying everything in their way, including Jerusalem and the Temple. So what was that power that Jesus spoke about? If not physical power (which clearly it was not), then what?
That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer for many years. Well, I think Paul was trying to find the answer to the same question. And I think he began to find that power -- in the experience of Spirit that he started calling “agape.” Clearly, Jesus and Paul were talking about spiritual power. It is only from such an awareness that we can possibly make sense of the “kingdom parables.”
So take the parable that everyone thinks is very understandable -- about the mustard seed. “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? … Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth, but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.” (Mk 4:30-32 Common English Bible) Okay, so what in the world did that mean? Years ago I thought it was a parable about starting a new religion, but I no longer think that Jesus wanted to start a new religion. Obviously, the image in that parable was not what most people wanted to hear about the great messianic age.
Most of the desperate, suffering people at the time of Jesus wanted God to come crashing into history with a messiah leading an army of fiery angels to quickly save them from their oppressive enemies. That’s what salvation meant to them! But they sure didn’t want a messiah who quietly, slowly, obscurely comes as a weak little baby, born out back in a stable, to a lowly carpenter’s wife from a little town of the northern region of their country. And they sure didn’t want someone who tries to compare the great kingdom of God to a lowly, little seed -- even though it may eventually (slowly) grow into a giant bush.
So if Jesus was bringing an entirely new understanding of the “kingdom of God,” then what did he mean? If we take his many comments about seeds and growing, along with the parable of leaven, and put them beside Paul’s description of God’s agape in Rom. 5:5; then we see a very good description of the spiritual life of those people who are able to pay attention to the way God wakes us up.
What do most people with a strong spiritual life say when they reflect back on the beginning of their faith journey? All of us respond with a description that sounds a lot like a seed being planted. And the influence of God’s Presence in our lives is like something that grows up from the depths of our being to slowly take over our whole perspective on Life -- and in that gradual process, completely change our whole perspective on Life.
That means that Jesus brought a spiritual understanding of the “kingdom of God.”
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