Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, special ones.

I think I’m losing it. I don’t remember ever sleeping in till 7:07am following a normal bedtime. But I did this morning. So Becki is in the house fixing lunch. Not really. However, in view of the lateness of the hour, we talked about the possibility of doing our little exercise walk/jog this evening rather than this morning. We plan to drive to some point nearby so we can do our thing without the dogs. We’ll see.

The infection on my noggin following that surgical removal seems improved, so maybe I can get on with life a little closer to normal. But I wonder if such an infection on the top of one’s head can have any infecting affect on one’s thinking. Is that what’s wrong with me?

Signs and sawing are on the agenda today. I need to figure out the order of urgency and get on with it. Then there’s grass cutting and gardening to do. Incidentally, I learned a good lesson again last night while cutting grass with my nice little Stihl FS 110 trimmer: DO NOT RUN THAT MACHINE WITH YOUR MOUTH OPEN. KEEP IT TIGHTLY CLOSED. You can’t be sure what kind of stuff you’re flinging around. You can’t avoid chopping up some bugs, caterpillars, slugs, snakes, and dog poop.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Let’s take a moment to take this situation apart. Notice that in verse 15 it says, “He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.” That’s nice. Jesus is getting a positive 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 to murder Him. Wow! What a difference! What in the world happened? What did Jesus say to detonate such a bomb and launch such a riot? As I read it again I observe that He was only relating some well-known stories contained in their own sacred writings. Trying 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. That, of course, moves things into a danger zone. 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 this to the tune of “Amazing Grace.”): “I deserve God’s love and prosperity. He sure is lucky to have ME!”—rather than the correct way, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”