Funny Jesus 2 #T

In the Gospel of Matthew chapter sixteen we see Jesus asking his disciples "Whom do you say I am?" and Cephas answered, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God."

Jesus replied, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."

This, I think, is an example of Christ's sensitivity to the occasion to fun and the occasion to seriousness, for John 1:42 tells us Jesus had given Simon the nickname Petros, or Rocky.  This may well have been Jesus's playful way of telling Simon that He sees right through him, that he knows he is unstable, that is, not exactly a rock when confronted with difficult situations.

Yet here in a serious moment we hear Christ address Cephas as Simon Barjona, that is, Simon Son of Jona, a complete and formal designation of his identity.

Later in the passage we find that when Peter chastises Jesus for his foretelling of his own death, Jesus says, "Get thee behind me, Satan."  Here, in fine sarcasm, Jesus rebukes Peter, calling him Satan, not in a literal sense, but metaphorically pointing out that to deny the ultimate sacrifice He was to make is a ploy of Satan, and one that Satan uses to this day.

Jesus was witty, funny, and used biting humor to make his points.  Above all things he was sensitive to the moment and appropriate to the occasion, always loving and forgiving to those who accept his love and forgiveness.

Given what I believe about Jesus the Christ it would be impossible for me to think that he had no sense of humor, for while I believe he was fully God, I also believe he was fully human, and a human who was endowed with a sense of humor.  Humorless people do not relate well to others, for they lack a sense of nuance in personal interchanges.  More, I suspect such people may lean toward sociopathy.  I am not a psychologist.

Saturday Extra

Out and about Friday afternoon, vanilla behind the wheel!  How sweet it is, this thing we take for granted until we can't do it.  We are both happy that I am now allowed to drive.  I was privileged to sit in the car while BBBH tended to a couple of errands.  This is what I saw along a back alley in Hometown.

No, they were not happy to be together.

Zoo on a Mountain

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo opened its gates to the public in 1926, thanks to Spencer Penrose.  The zoo has cared for its creatures and provided educational opportunities to the people of the Pikes Peak area for ninety years.  The zoo is on 140 acres on the side of Cheyenne Mountain of which forty acres is occupied by the zoo itself.  It is laid out in such a way that one hikes up the side of the mountain as he observes the creatures in their individual habitats, then continuing onward, turns down again toward the exit. 


Now a memory from the mid-40s when I was perhaps 11 or 12 years of age.  We lived no more than twelve miles from the zoo so it was an easy day-excursion.  My Aunt Bill and three of her children, then in their teens, were visiting us from Kansas, that magical Land of Oz.  On this day Mom, having prepared sack lunches for the gang, and Dad having insured sufficient gas for the outing, crammed the gang into the car, and off to the adventure!

The details of the day have naturally been largely lost in the mists of time, but a vivid episode imprinted itself upon my memory such that virtually every step for a few hundred yards, every word spoken as we made those steps, are still in my mind.  We had probably eaten our lunches in a rest area midway through the trek.  We no doubt oohed and aahed over the antics of the gibbons and monkeys, admired the plumage and overall beauty of the creatures in the aviary, were satisfyingly repulsed by the creatures that creep and crawl on the earth without benefit of external appendages.  Now we had made the turn, headed down hill, the enclosures for the beasts over the wall to our left as we descended.

We were almost within sight of the parking lot, but for a remaining turn in the road, when we came to a display representative of an African veldt which was populated with animals indigenous to that far-distant part of the world.  This included a few spotted hyenas, one of which seemed as curious about us as we were interested in it.  Here Cousin Ward said, "Make him laugh, Uncle Delbert."

Now my father was noted for his uproarious laughter when he was in a jovial mood.  Dad liked the idea and burst forth with his trademark roar, which did indeed resemble the call of the hyena.  "Now, Delbert, you ornery thing," my mother said as she headed on down the hill, insisting that the rest of us come along.  Ward and Dad stayed with the canids.  As we were rounding the last curve we could hear from behind not only Dad's laughter, but a response from the hyena.  What an uproar when its companions started barking as well.  Father's laughter turned from teasing to genuine out-and-out hilarity, the cacophony increased as the other inhabitants of the zoo joined in-- the screaming of the monkeys, the squawking of the macaws, the roar of the lion, and by the time the elephant trumpeting began Dad and his nephew had caught up with the women and children.  We all hastened to the car, somehow again fitting eight people into a vehicle designed to transport five, six at most, and departed the premises.

Image: Wikipedia

Ten- word Wednesday 3

Remember the game we played?
 No, not "spin the bottle."

Revisiting John in the Wilderness

I really do on occasion entertain myself by reading a few of the posts of the past. Sometimes they amuse me and once in a while I bring one forward for your perusal. This one is a rerun from 2013. Oh, neither of the principals has changed his mind since the story was first told. 

 Louie, my brother in Christ, has been a friend for the past decade.  We enjoy discussing various facets of life.  We do not always agree, but we disagree in a most agreeable way.

A few evenings past, Louie and I touched on the ministry of John the Baptist in the wilderness.  In Matthew 3:4, we read of John, "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey."  

I remarked that though the provision may have been monotonous, it was no doubt plentiful.  "Imagine," I said, "eating grasshoppers and robbing bees of their honey.  Quite nutritious, nevertheless."

When he recovered his equanimity, Louie said, "No, no. He never ate grasshoppers.  I heard a preacher who had visited the Holy Land many times explain that the "locusts" were the pods from the locust tree which is plentiful in the area."

"No doubt there are such trees, but he ate grasshoppers."  (See how agreeably we disagree!)  Well, we left the conversation with neither of us convinced that the other was right.*

Now I have eaten a few grasshoppers in my day, and I am told they are quite nutritious.  Also, I have read the Book of Leviticus (that's heavy sledding), and I found among the dietary rules this from Leviticus 11:22 "Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind."  And thus it is that I am quite certain that as we are told John ate locusts, John ate locusts.

A few days ago while walking the dog I observed a row of black locust trees.  I plucked some leaves and pods therefrom (see above picture).  I sent the picture along with the following to my friend:

Dear Brother Louie,

This afternoon I was in the parking lot at Aldi with the dog whilst JoAnn was inside shopping.  As I was walking around, I spotted a row of black locust trees along the west side of the lot, so I walked over and plucked a couple of leaves and some pods.  Come on over; bring the wild honey.  We’ll have a feast!

A bit of study shows that the locust tree of America is native only to the western hemisphere, but it has been widely spread by transplanting throughout the world.  It is believed that it was named “locust” by early Jesuit missionaries who mistakenly thought it to be the tree that “fed” John in the wilderness.   In reality, the “locust tree” of the Bible is  the carob, also called St.John’s bread, and its pods are edible and commonly eaten by mammals of the region.  John may have eaten them with his honey.  And I still think he ate grasshoppers as well.

Blessings, and bon appetit!

David

Ultimately, the point is God provided sustenance for John in the wilderness, and He provides for us as well!

*Louie holds his opinion still.  And I hold mine.

Phone Store

 

The only part of this I truly understand is that when dealing with a cell-phone service provider you are going to be disappointed at the very best.  First on the pricing of the plan then sooner or later on some other issue.

My daughter told me this story:

I went to the phone store to upgrade to a new phone.  The contract offered an upgrade after three years of service.  I had the plan for four years and the phone was behaving erratically, so I took it in for an exchange.

The clerk poked a few computer keys, brought up my account and said, "I'm sorry, but you have already used your free upgrade."

"Say what?  I most certainly have not!"

" Yes, ma'am. It shows right here that you came in six months ago and got a new charger cord for the phone.  That's an upgrade."

The clerk was advised in no uncertain terms that I would be switching to another provider.  When I got in the car along with my twelve year-old grandson who was with me I noticed as I was snapping my seat belt that the boy was silently staring straight ahead.  I started the car, turned to him and said, "What's the matter?"

"Turn off the car, Grandma."  I am Nana, never Grandma, so I knew this was serious.  I turned the key, turned toward him and said, "What?"

"I don't want you to drive while you are mad."

I said, "Do you think I was rude back there?"

"A little bit."

I have heard or read many, many accounts detailing numerous ways in which the customer has been taken in the process of upgrading including the instances in which the "upgrade" lost them some features they had before; but of course, they could be added on for an additional cost.  

People wonder why the elders say things like "Oh, for the good old days."
 

Funny Jesus #T

Much has been written about the humor of Jesus Christ, perhaps most notably the book by D. Elton Trueblood entitled The Humor of Christ.  I have been reading the Gospel According to John this month.  Most of the examples of Jesus's playfulness, his sarcasm, his use of irony, require a bit of background and understanding of the historical and social milieu of Christ's time here on Earth.

In the first chapter of John we see a striking example of Christ's humor.

 ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶ Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” ⁴⁹ Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the  Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” ⁵⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”   

Come and See

Here we see Philip telling Nathanael that Jesus of Nazareth is He of whom Moses wrote and Nathanael responds sneeringly "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"  This would not be an unexpected response, for Nazareth was considered to be nothing more than a mere backwater, insignificant in the societal scheme of things.  (Is this akin to the denizens of our coasts referring to our area as "fly-over country"?)

Yet Jesus took no umbrage but rather said to Nathanael "I see that you are a true Israelite in whom there is no guile." (You are a man who does not dissimulate, who speaks his mind.)  This tells the new acquaintance that Christ has no resentment toward him, but more it tells him that Jesus was acquainted with him before Nathanael knew him.  Pretty convincing and all in good humor.

Then Jesus tells Nathanael as He is telling us all, " Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

We may pursue this topic further at another time.  Meanwhile, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."  --Philippians 4:8 (ASV)

227 Years of Self-rule

March 4, 1789  the first Congress of the United States meets in New York City, puts constitution into effect, receives proposed  Bill of Rights.

I'll save you doing the math: that was 227 years ago. 

We've come a long way, Baby.  The question is:  Are we headed in the right direction?

We've grown, we've seen many advances in technologies, many changes in the social fabric; we've engaged in many conflicts.  Old Glory has fifty stars and she still flies.  The question is: How long will she continue to wave?

We are given to "progress," to compulsions, and to deliberations, to argument, and even, alas, to outrage and insults:  The question is: Are these  the values by which we really want to live?

One could hope that the momentum of descent into  a morass, a quagmire, could be slowed, could be stopped before it is too late.  And the question is:  If that original set of congressmen of 1789, in their powdered wigs and frilled shirts could see us today, would they see the extension of the body and the nation as they envisioned it, or would they see an asylum run by the inmates?

The prayer is: God help the denizens of the USA.