What Happen To Jesus On Saturday?

As evening falls (the Jewish day begins at sunset), Jesus’ corpse is removed from the cross and laid in a fresh-cut tomb

Today, in the Christian tradition, is “Holy Saturday.” The Christian liturgy says that Holy Saturday falls between Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified and buried in a tomb and and Easter Sunday, when Jesus was seen, resurrected.
Matthew 27:57-61
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
Mark 15:42-47
And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died. And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.
Luke 23:50-56
Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
John 19:38-42
After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

A guard is set to watch over the tomb of Jesus to prevent His corpse from being stolen

Matthew 23:62-66
The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

Christian creeds even state that during this time Jesus “descended into hell” before “rising again.”
The church’s oldest creed is the Apostles Creed. It affirms the basic tenets of the faith. However, the creed is not without controversy. By far, the most controversial phrase in the Apostle’s Creed refers to Jesus when it reads, “He descended into Hell.” Theologically, the expression is an attempt to explain passages such as 1 Peter 3:18-22, ” For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” 1Peter 4:6, “For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”

And Ephesians 4:8-10, “Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)” Chronologically, the expression is an attempt to explain where Jesus was and what he was doing on the Saturday before Easter.

“He descended into Hell” is the term for this controversial doctrine. While the world held its breath, waiting for the resurrection, Jesus visited the dead and rescued the righteous who had died long before he was born. I find it attractive that Jesus on that ” Holy Saturday” was reaching for those who never had a chance to “reach out and touch Him.”

The amazing grace of God is wider than any church altar or baptistery, even wider than our own imagination.
Amen
TBCN

2012 Predictions

BLESSED NEW YEAR
2012 Predictions

“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near,
A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations. Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like warhorses they run. As with the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Before them peoples are in anguish; all faces grow pale. Like warriors they charge; like soldiers they scale the wall. They march each on his way; they do not swerve from their paths. They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted. They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, and they enter through the windows like a thief. The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The LORD utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome; who can endure it? “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him.”Joel 2:1-14.

Be prepared to see the following: Economic Confusion, More Drastic Weather Changes and Earthquakes (Ohio & Japan already started the year off) Persecution of Christians and Jews, Homelessness, More Gang Warfare, Number One Problem -Hate Crimes, More Riots and Demonstrations, Famine, Epidemics, and War.

“These are all the Beginning of sorrows…” Look for the riders of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse (Revelation 6:1-8) and the Tribulation period. Keep your eyes set on Israel, Iran, and Syria in the coming months and the rise of the Antichrist and the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, A Peace Treaty, and Palestinian Statehood.

What not to look for: Mayan 2012 end of the age, but there will be a strange signs in the Heavens and Cosmic events happening.

In the Political realm Obama will be reelected and the two candidates will be Obama and Romney, with possibility of Ron Paul and Donald Trump running third party candidacies. Civil war on the continent with marshal law and civil rights curtailed through Executive orders of the President. Possibly canceling elections for a season.

TBCN

Judgment Begins on the Coasts

God’s judgments have always begun at the “entrance gates” of nations, cities, and empires: “A cry of alarm will begin at the Fish Gate…” (Zephaniah 1:10 LB).

This is representative of the seaports, harbors, and centers of influx. It is significant that the most of all the Old Testament prophets warned of judgment beginning at the coasts, Zephaniah warned the Philistine cities: “…woe to you …living on the coast. The Lord will destroy you… The coast land will become a pasture…” (Zephaniah 2:5,6 LB).

Jeremiah, another prophet, warned nations that God’s Judgments begin as whirlwinds on the coasts of their lands, then spreading from one end to the other: “Thus saith the LORD O hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. “ (Jeremiah 25:32 KJV).

Now, the East Coast has seen the effects of Hurricane Irene, is the West Coast next? Scientists have warned of impending disaster. Yet, “And as it was in the days of Noah So shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage,until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-29).

Even though there are thousands of God-fearing Christians who refuse to partake in the sins of our nation, many are not expecting or believing judgment is upon our nation. Many are turning a deaf ear to these warnings. Sadly, many will be rudely awakened in a moment of time.

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of sons of mankind is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11 KJV).

TBCN

A Decade of Disaster

Can intelligent mankind with rational minds accept the idea of an angry God pouring out wrath upon the earth because of sin and corruption? As we sit in front of our television sets and watch the news coverage of disastrous earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes claim the lives of thousands, will we ask will there be a return to normalcy? Or do we pass over all the present drastic weather changes as being nothing more than a cycle that the world is going through? After all, scientists can point out disasters two or three hundred years ago that are as tragic as anything we see today.

Have we passed to point of no return? Almost every weather forecaster has added to his or her vocabulary words like unbelievable, record-breaking, strange, fantastic, unpredictable, unreasonable, unexpected, and unusual. Honest ones everywhere have a growing feeling that somebody, somewhere, is tinkering with nature. And, though most people expect normal conditions to return soon, others like me are fully convinced that we have seen only the beginning of unpredictable, strange weather and coming disasters. “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Matthew 24:8

When will all these things happen? Not simultaneously. The vials of the wrath of God will pour upon the earth as He orchestrates His supernatural hand. The Holy Spirit is saying; “Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.” Hebrews 12:26

Natural Disasters Prevalent in 2011

The year 2011 began with a flood in Australia so vast it turned an area almost twice as large as Texas into a disaster zone.

The first half of 2011 saw thousands of lives lost to natural disasters and made it the most expensive on record in terms of property damage.

In January, earthquakes hit Argentina, Chile, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Tonga. In February, they hit Burma, the Pacific Islands and the big one, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The quake struck at midday. Buildings were toppled. Scores were buried under rubble and 181 died. Survivors who crawled from collapsed office buildings were stunned.

One woman who appeared dazed, said of her office building, “It just came down. Like, right down.”

Japan’s Quake

The monster earthquake of 2011 in Japan was like something out of a science fiction movie. From 20 miles under the surface of the Pacific, the quake created a wall of water 130 feet high that traveled six miles inland, causing cars and boats to bob like toys.

It was a quake so powerful it moved the island of Honshu eight feet. More than 15,000 people died and nearly 5,000 are still missing.

Then in a terrible twist, after the quake knocked out power at the Fukushima nuclear plant, the tsunami washed out its backup generators, the last line of defense against overheating. It would be the world’s first triple meltdown, spreading radiation over a wide area.

It was the worst disaster to afflict Japan since World War II.

U.S. Tornado Outbreak

The world was still in shock when the southern and eastern United States experienced the worst rash of tornadoes in recorded weather history. The 2011 “Super Outbreak” included four EF-5 tornadoes, and led to almost 350 deaths and more than $6 billion in insured losses.

Then just weeks later on a Sunday afternoon in May, a mile-wide multiple vortex EF-5 tornado plowed through Joplin, Mo., obliterating parts of the city, killing 159 people and causing an estimated $2 billion in insured losses.

The insurance industry was left reeling. Americans were in shock.

Vinson Synan, author of 19 books and the dean emeritus at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., says the unprecedented string of calamities is forcing many Americans to ask, ‘Why?’

“It’s a sobering thing, for even natural man to face up to natural disasters that don’t make any sense at all. And to hit randomly in the world, and may hit you,” Synan said. “And the question, in the back of their minds — ‘What does this mean?'”

“So I think it brings people to question the ultimate end of everything,” he explained.

And unfortunately, the world’s worst disasters could still be ahead, like a category five hurricane making a direct hit on a large American city.

Disaster Scenarios Studied

Experts have studied other disaster scenarios that many Americans do not know about.

For example, geologists have warned that heavy rains on Mount Rainer in Washington State could cause a deadly 40-mile mudslide moving at 60 mph, filled with rocks and trees.

Some fear the collapse of the giant volcanic mountain Cumbre Vieja in the Canary Islands could send an 80-foot high tsunami slamming into the east coast of the United States at 600 mph.

And along the Mississippi, a catastrophic quake at the giant new Madrid fault would cause utter devastation to America’s heartland, changing the course of the mighty Mississippi, and causing the ground to roll like the ocean, as it did in 1811 and 1812.

Many Americans might think they live in one of the safest periods in world history. But do they? Why have so many natural disasters struck the planet this year, and what does it mean?

“It brings people to question the ultimate end of everything. Even the natural man who doesn’t even know God, is saying ‘Something bad is happening,’ ‘It’s getting worse and worse,'” Synan told CBN News.

Consider what God spoke through Ezekiel: “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, … For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live.” Ezekiel 18:31-32

“I’ve sent you prophet after prophet, watchman after watchman. You’ve been warned again and again. Yet still you won’t open your eyes to your wicked ways. Now I’ve stricken you in hopes of saving you. I want to heal your land, to destroy your enemies, to bring you back into my blessing. But you don’t have eyes to see it.”

TBCN

The Beggars Are a Sign

Let me share with you what I believe God has shown me about His judgments on America — judgments that have already begun. Recently, while deep in prayer, these words rang over and over in my spirit: “The beggars are a sign! The beggars are a sign!”

I thought of the more than 60,000 homeless people, many of them beggars, roaming the streets. If you stop your car at an intersection in New York City, beggars swarm around the car, blocking the road with signs, wiping your windshield with filthy rags and begging for small change. Many are becoming increasingly belligerent, menacing and violent.

Thousands of these beggars are just kids — teenagers who sleep in abandoned cars and trucks and dilapidated, rat-infested buildings. They are lost in a drug-crazed world of crack and AIDS. Many sell their bodies for a fix, offering sexual favors for as little as 25 cents!

When you look into their eyes and sunken faces, you see a picture of hell. Some long for death, in order to escape their prison of drugs. Others are dying already, consumed with AIDS, chlamydia, tuberculosis, pneumonia and all kinds of cancer.

Poverty alone hasn’t driven them to the streets — it has also been the work of a demonic spirit!

This city and all its agencies are dumbfounded. “What is going on?” they’re asking. “Why this sudden appearance of an army of hopeless beggars in the last two years?”

During this judgment brought upon Israel, Isaiah cried, “Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets [intersections], as a wild bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God” (Isaiah 51:20).

This is a divine rebuke — a witness of the full fury of God. The young are lying in the streets as a visible sign that cannot be ignored! During the most prosperous time in American history — a period of our lowest unemployment — an army of homeless beggars has arisen. How true it is that “righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

Before I go any further about the fact that these beggars are a sign of judgment, let me show you from Scripture how anxious God is to get His warnings across to us.

To be continued…

About David Wilkerson
David Wilkerson is the Founding Pastor of Times Square Church in New York City. He was called to New York in 1958 to minister to gang members and drug addicts, as told in the best-selling book, The Cross and the Switchblade.
In 1987, David Wilkerson returned to “the crossroads of the world” to establish Times Square Church. Since then, he has faithfully led this congregation, delivering powerful biblical messages that encourage righteous living and complete reliance on God.
David Wilkerson has a strong burden to encourage and strengthen pastors throughout the world. Since 1999, he has been travelling around the globe holding conferences for Christian ministers.

World Challenge
David Wilkerson

Glenn Beck God’s Prophet or Not?

Glen Beck is not a Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitefield or Charles Finney. What the Tea Party and Glenn Beck fail to realize is that American is under God’s Judgment and no “Restoring Honor Rally” is going to bring repentance and revival back to American.  The solution to our present status in America (if not the World) is not going to be resolved by the Democrats, Republicans, Independents or Tea Party Candidates.  The simple yet agonizing decision is to repent and acknowledge our sinful ways. Our backsliding condition (“The backslidden in heart shall be filled with his own ways…”) says we need to seek the Face of God, through Jesus Christ our Savior. America needs to put on sack cloth and ashes, fast and pray for the Heavens to Reign and pour out of His Spirit a rival that will shack our timbers and rattle our bones until the Heavens let loose the out poring of God’s Spirit so that we will all fall on our knees and seek His ways. (“Break up the fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon us…”)

–>Most of our Protestant Denominations have gone astray and are preaching bad is good and good is bad. (“In those days there was no leader in the land; everyone did what was right in his own eyes…”)  Few want to declare Sin what it is and what it has done to American. If you’re a member of one of those false teaching Denominations it is time to come out from among them and  “be ye separate.”  (Have we forgotten that is what the Pilgrims did and the Puritans followed.)  Can you image St. Paul the Apostle being a part of any of those corrupt demoralizing churches who pretend to honor Godliness and at the same time ordaining and blessing same-sex marriage?  The height of hypocrisy has risen to new levels to condone such practices and proclaim that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob extends His approval of such teaching. “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.” 

–>Some are concerned whether our President is a Christian or Muslim.  Jesus said;  “by their fruits you shall know them.”  I don’t see Obama bringing back or preaching revival either. And for that matter or fact neither did Ronald Reagan, George Bush or Born Again Carter.  When will the Church wake up to the fact that “My Kingdom is not of this World” It’s not Democrat or Republican or some new wave of the Tea Party future. It’s not Capitalism, Communism, Socialism or New World Order. No, His Kingdom is much more than the entire World has to offer.  The Lord’s Government of His rule is upon His shoulders and not on Congress, The Supreme Court or any Political Party. His government is never-ending and is not seeking votes to be elected again and again.  His government has no special interest parties and no rainbow coalition for civil rights. The slogans of his government (Jesus first) are written on the pages of Sacred Scripture for all to read. And for those who can’t listen to the Good News of the Gospel.  Jesus is Lord and King of Kings and He is coming back to proclaim his Lordship and established His Kingdom here on Earth.

–>But before He does God has poured out a Spirit of judgment on the Land, the Gulf Oil spill (is not happenstance) the earth quakes, floods, volcanic ash, forest fires and economic wows are all warning signs before His return. “For the Lord does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.”   

Tampa Bay Christian Network
Paul Pierce

The Kingdom Coming Part 4

“He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives; And recovering of sight to the blind; To set at liberty those who are oppressed, To proclaim the acceptable of Jahweh (The Lord).”  Isaih 61:1,2

Luke does not begin with a capsule statement of what Jesus began to preach, Matthew and Mark do. Then both report that Jesus’ inital message was in the same words as were used by John the Baptist (and latter by the discipels) “The Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the good news (gospel).”  The langauage , “kingdom,”  “evangel,” is chosen from the political realm. This would seem to be most out of place if Jesus’ whole point had been different than John’s and that He was not interested in this real. Accept it hardly needs to be argued that “kingdom” is a political term. The common Bible reader is less aware that “gospel” as well means not just any old welcome report but the kind of publicly important proclamation that is worth sending with a runner and holding a celebration when it is received.

The passage from Isaiah 61 which Jesus turns upon himself is not only a messianic one; it is one which states the messianic expectaion in the most expressly social terms. “The acceptable year of the Lord,”  in Isaiah 61 referred to some particular event either at the end of the age or in the immediate future of the Babylonian captives (or both). But for rabbinic Judaism and thus for the listeners of Jesus it most likely meant neither of these but rather the “Jubilee Year.”  The time when the inequities accumulated through the years are to be crossed off and all God’s people will begin again at the same point. The expectation is the coming of the “Sabbath Year” (Leviticus 25).  A time when at the end of fifty-year term a sweeping economic realignment and redistributing of property and forgiveness of debt was to happen all at once. The concept of Jesus’ coming kingdom is the prophetic understanding of the jubilee year. The place of Leviticus 25 in the Bible kept alive the vision of an age when economic life would start over from scratch. And the testimony of Isaiah 61 by Jesus demonstrates its fruitfulness as a vision of the “Kingdom of God is at hand.” 

Therefore, one must conclude that in the ordinary sense of his words Jesus, like Mary and like John, was announcing the imminent age of a new regime whose marks would be that the rich would give to the poor, the captives would be freed, and mankind would have a new mentality (revival) if they believed in the gospel, the good news!  To be continued…

THE KINGDOM COMING Part 3

“Thou art my beloved Son; With Thee I am well pleased” (Psalm 2:7)

 

 

Thou art my Son is the summons to a task. Jesus is commissioned to be, in history, in Palestine the messianic son and servant, the bearer of the Gospel and promise of God. This mission is then further defined by the testing into which Jesus moves immediately.

 

The tempter laid before Jesus all the options of being king. Now the temptation is to put His omnipotence to improper use. Luke reports the testing begins with the economic option. It has often been reported that this reading had to deal with the attraction of this temptation as purely personal and carnal. Jesus was hungry; would He by miracle abuse His omnipotence selfishly to feed Himself? The option here is the pangs of hungry or His providing a banquet for His followers latter in the story as demonstrated in the feeding of the Five Thousand. Feed the crowds and you shall be king (Luke 9).

 

The second temptation according to Like is the one widely recognized as socio-political in character. Now the tempter simply goes on to the political nature of the promised reward, “All the kingdoms of the world: all this authority and their glory”; I will give thee; for this has been delivered unto me; if thou therefore will worship me.”  The discerning of Jesus of such idolatrous political power is repugnant to Jesus and his mission for it is written: “Thou shall worship the LORD thy God and Him only will thou serve.”   Get behind Me, Satan!  Certainly the story means that secular power is not to be acquired at the price of worship of Satan. The offer is not rejected because secular power is altogether inept for the mission of Jesus. Rather the use of secular power is hostile to His mission. Jesus never debated whether Satan had the power to give the kingdoms or not. As the Apostle Paul said: Satan is the god of this world often forgotten by the Church and those who desire to change the political kingdoms of this world. Jesus has given all power and authority to the Church after Calvary but for proclaiming the good news of the Gospel. The Kingdom of God is coming to earth with Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

 

The third temptation takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple. “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down…” The pinnacle (pterygion) was the highest point of the Temple overlooking the Kidron valley, a sheer drop of 450 feet.  Being thrown down from the temple wall into the Kidron valley, followed by stoning if necessary, to bring about death for the prescribed penalty of blasphemy. The testing would then mean that Jesus was tempted to see himself as taking on himself the penalty for his claims to divine authority, yet being miraculously saved from the consequences. Would Jesus perform a mere acrobatic marvel as accreditation for His status as a worker of wonders? No, this would have been the kind of sign, which He consistently refused to give to the curious, and the dubious. From this vantage point a priest watched for the breaking of each new day and the appearance of the Messiah. Jesus answered his tempter; “Thou shall not tempt the LORD THY GOD.”      To be continued….

The Kingdom Coming Part 2

The Kingdom Coming Part 2

 

 

We saw in our last discussion that the message Jesus brought differed from the expectations of John. But the difference was not that John’s hopes were socio-political and the fulfillment Jesus brought was spiritual. If the difference had been of that character, Luke would have had to begin his story differently.

 

John the Baptist had a pronounced political character, and to some extend Jesus took up his succession. The instruction John gave his hearers called for an immediate sharing of consumption (Luke 3:11). The only categories of listeners indicated by Luke in addition to the multitudes (Matthew names Pharisees and Sadducees) are the socio-political slanted publicans (Luke 3:12 and soldiers Luke 3:14).  According to Josephus, John the Baptist was imprisoned because Herod Antipas fear that John might foment an insurrection. Luke’s account of John’s offense speaks not only of Herodias, his brother’s wife, but also of all the evil things Herod had done, which might well involve some substantial political critique. Herod’s putting away his first wife and taking in her place Herodias was itself a public political issue, as it brought on a war with the first wife’s father, Aretas IV of Nabatea (sounds reminiscent of the Tudors). Even if John’s judgment upon remarriage was motivated first by his rejection of divorce and adultery, his imprisonment had a political symbolic meaning as did Herod’s choice of Machaerus, the fortress on the Nabatean border, as the place of John’s imprisonment and execution. Jesus answered the emissaries of John is suggestive of His first Nazareth sermon.

 

When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, `Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another? And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight.  Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that [the] blind see, [the] lame walk, [the] lepers are cleansed, [the] deaf hear, [the] dead are raised, [the] poor have the gospel preached to them.   “And blessed is [he] who is not offended because of Me.”  Luke 7:20-24

 

 “The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to [the] poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to [the] captives And recovery of sight to [the] blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19

 

 The reports of his ministry leads Herod too look upon Jesus as possible successor to John the Baptist.  To be continued…

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