Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

There is a little sprinkle of rain out there. But it hasn’t decided yet to really rain. There was no moisture in the air when Becki and I did our little walk/jog routine. Back home I did up a great fruit salad again—pineapple, banana, papaya, and strawberries. It’s huge. Want some? Come on by.

I did a little search in our storage and located the boxes of my daily journals. I opened one and I was on the island of Malaita to participate in a church conference near Auki along with Norried Chaisson. Another opening found me on a motorbike with Darrell Beebe…running in to Honiara to play a few rounds of tennis at the Guadalcanal Club. Another opening found me on the island of Ambae in the Vanuatu group to do some Bible teaching in a little village. Ambae, incidentally, was the same island that inspired James Michner’s imagination for “Bali Hai” in TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC. On the morning of that day’s entry, we caught a beautiful 30-pound wahoo that fed our whole group for that day. Oh, the memories!

Becki has called me to breakfast. Our primary intercom system is our cell phones. Be blessed.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Let’s take a moment to examine this situation. Notice that in verse 15 it says, “He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.” That’s nice. Jesus is getting a response equivalent to a standing ovation. Notice verse 22: “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.” Things are looking great. Jesus is on a roll with His approval ratings soaring high. But just 6 verses later it’s like a bomb goes off. It says, “All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.” They proceeded with an attempt to throw Him over a cliff. Wow! What a difference! What in the world happened? What did Jesus say to detonate such a bomb and launch a riot? As I read it again, He was only relating some well-known stories contained in their own sacred writings. As I try to figure it out, it seems clear that it was Jesus’ application of those stories that fueled this dramatic turn in public sentiment. He connected some dots in those story pictures that formed pictures they had not seen before. In so doing He was rebuking their attitudes of national arrogance. He was meddling with their popular notions of superiority and spiritual pride—and they didn’t like it one bit! Their mindset had firmly established that they, the Jews, had special exclusive rights to God—that God liked them more than anyone else, and that they were better than anyone else.

I know—this is an often-repeated message. But it is of such importance that it deserves repetition. So let’s hear the warning one more time with this spin: Beware of any such notion of entitlement superiority in yourself. Avoid the subtle temptation to sing “Amazing Grace” something like this (Try singing it to the tune of “Amazing Grace.”): “I deserve God’s love and prosperity. He sure is lucky to have ME!”—rather than the right way, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”