The Frindge of His Garment

Touching the Tassels of Jesus “the fringe of his garment” Mark 5:27 and 6:56 in light of Numbers 15:38-40.
"Speak to the peole of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garment througout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my comandments and be holy to your God. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God."

The prayer tassel is a call so that people would remember the Sinai covenant stipulations so that they might do them by remaining dependent upon God in prayer for the sustenance of their lives, living in the holiness of obedience. We pray because we realize our absolute need for Him flowing out of our desire to live lives in dependence upon him alone. Our dependence upon God expressed in prayer manifests itself in our obedience to the commandments. For the commandments are, after all, the promises of God's sufficiency in disguise.

Holy obedience is really just dependency upon the sufficiency of God. Why are we commanded to not steal? Because God promices to sustain our every need. We don’t need to steal to find sustenance any longer. God will provide it. The commandment not to steal is the implicit promise that God will provide for our needs.

Prayer expresses our dependence upon God, and the ultimate expression of our dependence upon God manifests itself in the prayer for forgiveness. For the core of the dependent heart is a repentant heart—a heart desperate for forgiveness. In 1 Kings 8, Solomon prays over and over again that every time people come to the temple and to the Holy of Holies and there pray, he prays that the Lord would forgive their sins. This forgiveness, which manifests itself on the mercy seat in the Temple on the Holy of Holies, covers their disobedience to the Law. Therefore every time people look at their prayer tassels, and remember the commandments of the Lord, they ought to realize their disobedience, realize their need for forgiveness, and therefore renew their dependence upon God through the renewal of their own heart by means of the forgiveness of their sins; so that now being restored to God’s presence by virtue of their forgiveness they might indeed keep the commandments of God, which originates in a changed heart. So we are to look at these tassels and remember the commandments of the Lord and so to do them, not following after our own heart and our own eyes which we are inclined to go after wantonly, but instead remembering the Lord our God who delivered us our of the Land of Egypt (1st Exodus) and who delivered us from the sinfulness of our own hearts by removing our hearts of stone and replacing them with hearts of flesh through the Spirit which has come upon us because of what Jesus has done (2nd Exodus). When the crowd grasps for Jesus’ tassels, he remembers the commandments of God, which at their heart is love manifesting itself in obedience.

Jesus manifests the heart of the law in the administration of mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and sacrifice to the woman, to the crows, and to us. For when wegrasp at Jesus’ tassels, he remembers the Law of God and maintains obedience to the Law by manifesting the Law as it is meant to be lived: in love. This then stands in direct contrast to the Pharisees who "follow" the ritual and purity laws contrived by men in the very next section in Mark (7:1ff). For in contrast to the Pharisees, where does true purity come from? A changed heart! A heart that seeks obedience to the Lord originating in a forgiven heart. Jesus is the one who overcomes impurity by the forgiveness of sins that leads to the renewal of repentance and obedience in his followers. This is true purity in contrast to the ritual purity that the scribes and Pharisees were attempting to push on people. A changed heart expresses itself in obedience to God, not men. Obedience is being, not doing.

So where does the ultimate healing from God come from as we see from Jesus response to the woman with the flow of blood or the crowds of Gennesaret? It comes from the forgiveness of sins unto a changed life originating in the compassion of Jesus. Our ultimate healing is found in the Mercy of God, flowing out of love, which Jesus remembers when people seek to touch the fringe of his garment, the tassels on his cloak.

Two-days in Maine

So I've decided that I really love Maine. The people there are generally as kind as they are in MN or WI. It has both beautiful mountains and great ocean views, sandy and rocky beaches, lighthouses and brewpubs. If that's not enough, it borders on Canada, and anything that borders Canada can't be ALL bad. Well, with the exception of North Dakota. (Is that even a state anymore? or has it been demoted back to territory status? p.s. can a state loose its state-ness?)

I digress. Not only is the scenery beautiful, but the seafood is great AND cheap. Where else can you get a 1.5lb lobster for $10, or a pound of haddock for $4.99?

AND, you can still purchase 17 acres of lakefront undeveloped property for $37,000.

Anybody want to float me a loan?

Candlewax and Creativeness

I remember when I was very little, how in my old church back home in little Rush City we had in the front of the church an “eternal candle” (or whatever its technical name was). Day and night it burned. I remember how when one day the candle was growing dim and had burned almost all the way down, one of the elders brought me with him to take care of the candle. We carefully took the jar-encased candle out from its red-glass covering—all while the candle still burned. I was instructed that this candle represents the fire of faith brought by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, commemorating the eternal reign of Jesus the Lord who rose from the dead and sent us the Holy Spirit, and that the fire must not go out. We carefully transferred the flame from the old candle to a new candle in a new glass jar by means of a wooden wick. The fire did not go out.

You can imagine then my disappointment when I returned home one day from college to find that what once was a candle was now an electric light, plugged into the wall. From the church’s perspective was less expensive, more convenient, and less to worry about. All fine reasons for the switch.

But still…. There was just something not quite right about the whole business.

I know there is no inherent salvific value in a candle. I know that the candle did not in some mystical way keep the Holy Spirit in that small church. I know the candle was “just a symbol.” I know that the symbol was messy with melted wax that had to get cleaned out every so often. But that symbol still left the impression it was designed for, and the meaning behind the fire was not lost upon that four-year-old boy. To this day, I remember that moment whenever I light a white pillar candle.

This is perhaps the greatest weakness of the modern evangelical church: we do not have many, nor do we really know how to make symbols. We have got to get better at symbol making instead of being better product producers. Symbols often give meaning whereas production mostly gives entertainment. Any worship style or ministry setting can fall into either context any day of the week. We can be symbol generators or executive producers from coffee counsel to contemporary praise. We must get back to meaning making.

My beloved ministry partners across the globe, ask yourself this question every day: are we giving meaning or entertainment in what we do and who we are?
What simple, approachable symbols can we commit to generate for those whom we connect with every day?

Commentary on 2 Corinthians 4:13-15

I have only published the commentary section of my paper. Nitty-gritty technical analysis I have left out due to the fact that the greek work won't make any sense on blogger.

My Translation (with logical connectors added):
(13)This is to say that because we have the same Spirit which produces faith in accordance with what has been written, namely, "I believed. Therefore I spoke." We also believe. Therefore we also speak, (14) because we know that He who raised the Lord Jesus, this same one will raise us with Jesus. Furthermore, he will present us with you. (15) For all things are for your sake, so that grace might proliferate thanksgiving to the glory of God, because grace increased through many people.

My Commentary:
13 Immediately we are met with a multiplicity of possibilities in this verse. The primary questions we have to answer are
(1) is the de. here conjunctive or disjunctive;
(2) what kind of genitive is th/j pi,stewj;
(3) is this any old spirit of faith, or is this the Spirit;
(4) what is it exactly that the spirit of faith is the same as;
(5) how does this all tie into Psalm 116:10 (LXX) which Paul quotes; and lastly
(6) how does all of this support Paul’s believing and speaking?

First, de. clearly looks back to verses 7-12. However, contrary to Harris[1] it seems that de. is not adversative in nature, but rather seems to carry the argument of 7-12 forward giving the partially realized, future basis of hope. Given that the main point of 7-12 is found in verse 7, that the surpassing power might be of God, he further clarifies how that surpassing power is now, and will ultimately be manifested (13-15).[2]

Second, as we began to narrow it down above, "spirit of faith" seems to be a Genitive of Product, “the same Spirit which produces faith.” God’s repeated deliverance amidst hardships and sufferings is part and parcel the way in which God is working out sanctification in Paul’s life (1:9-11; 2:14-16a; 4:7-12). In Paul’s context, transformation through hardships is the process that produces faith, bringing about the changed life (5:14-15) of present hope for the future resurrection (4:14).

The next three questions from above are all intimately related. Some commentators argue that "spirit" is merely a disposition of faith, not the actual substance of faith itself. In the same cognitive agreement or emotional affection that the Psalmist believed in God for his deliverance, so too Paul believes in God.[3] Others see here a reference to the Holy Spirit.[4]

We can start to sort this out when we look at with whom Paul’s “spirit of faith” is the same as. First, both Harris and Barnet understand "same" to be referring to the Psalmist of 116:10. “David, the writer of the Psalm, had been critically ill, but God delivered him from death and to this he bears testimony.”[5] As the Psalmist believed God in his circumstances, so too did Paul. Thus Paul has the same “spirit of faith” by association. Paul draws upon Scripture as a proof text for his believing and speaking in these circumstances of deliverance from hardships and sufferings. Nevertheless, it is simply the disposition between the Psalmist and Paul that remains the same. Fee makes the argument that it is the same Holy Spirit that inspired the Psalmist’s faith in God, and likewise instills faith in Paul; therefore they can both authoritatively proclaim the same message of their faith.[6]

I wonder, though, if there is not a third option. Could it be possible that this “same” spirit of faith is the same Spirit who is Jesus, the LORD back in 3:18? If this is the case, we can connect this verse not just to the quoted Psalm, but string it to the whole of the argument from 2:14 up to 4:18 for sure, if not all the way to 7:1. It is this same Spirit that is life to some and death to others (2:16). It is the same Spirit that gives Paul the authority to use and pronounce the word of God authoritatively (2:17; 3:6; 4:2,5, etc.). This same spirit of faith then is Paul’s (and our) participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus (4:7-12) both in the present perseverance through sufferings, and in the ultimate hope, the final resurrection (4:14 below). What is more, this would then add tremendous depth to why Paul would quote this particular Psalm. He is most right[7] to quote the first line of the Psalm that quickly continues, “I am greatly afflicted; I said in my alarm, ‘All mankind are liars.’ What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD; I will pay his vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. (Psalm 116:10b-14) The situation of the Psalmist in 116:11 fits right into his situation in Corinth against the “liars,” also known as the “peddlers of God’s word” (2:17; 4:2). Additionally, Paul’s knowledge of the mercy he continually receives (4:8-12) results in his believing (116:10a cf. 4:13e), and generates the appropriate response of gratitude, his speaking (116:10a cf. 4:13f) the hope of the Gospel (116:13-14 cf. 4:14), so as to increase the sacrifice of thanksgiving (116:17 cf. 4:15).

Paul sees the author in Psalm 116:10ff going through the same reality of faith in the LORD as Paul himself has in the Spirit of the LORD, which is the production of faith. Believing in faith carries with it realities (sufferings) that he can identify with in Psalm 116:10ff. This same Spirit which produces faith (and all that this entails) in accordance with the scriptures, drives him to continue speaking the hope which we live in now in anticipation for the future, so that grace might cause to proliferate thanksgiving to the glory of God. This then is the main point of the passage: Because of the circumstances of faith, because we know now our common future hope in Jesus, and because grace proliferates thanksgiving of many to the Glory of God, Paul therefore speaks (13f).

14 Paul speaks, specifically, because he knows (eivdo,tej) that the hope of our future resurrection (14c) is tied to our being raised with Christ in the past (14b), which is being experienced in the present (13aef). This is the first ground for which Paul speaks.[8] Because we know that he (God) raised the Lord Jesus the past, “he will also raise us with Jesus.” Jesus is the agent of our present and future resurrection because we have been, we are, and we will be tied to God’s resurrecting Jesus in the past. BDAG goes so far as to say “to the personal object accusative of the verb in the active ("us" in this case), "with" adds other persons who are undergoing the same experience” and then glosses “at the same time with, just as.”[9] This little big word, "with," carries with it enormous theological consequences. We know that Jesus already rose from the grave in the real-time past (14ab). If Jesus has been raised in the past, how can he be raised in the future? The same exact way that we have died with him in the past, yet are experiencing the beginnings of the present reality of resurrected life in the present. Just has we have died and rose with him in the past, just as we daily die to ourselves and rise with him in the present, so too when our bodies finally do fail in this age, we will be raised with him in the age to come.[10] Jesus really is then the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.

Our present experience of the past resurrection of Christ is a theme brought to bare back in 2 Corinthians 3:18 where “we find eschatological transformation being described as presently taking place,”[11] just as it sits in front of us at 5:17. This same concept is splattered throughout 2 Corinthians, especially in the immediate context of verses 7-12 (especially 10-12), as well as shortly hereafter in 5:14-15. The hope of our future resurrection is tied to our being raised with Christ in the past while also being experienced in the present. “The life we live in Christ is truly an anticipation of eschatological life; in a certain but real way it is already resurrection life.”[12] We find the same theological argument found in Colossians 2:12 “buried with him in baptism,[13] in which you were also raised (completed action!) with him through faith in the working of God who raised him (completed action!) from the dead.” In short, we have experienced and continue to experience the resurrection in part by means of our new creation in the present (2 Cor 5:17), just as we will fully and finally be raised in the fullness of glory and be presented to him at the consummation of all things (future tenses[14] on evgei,raj and parasth,sei).[15]

This furthers our exegesis of 4:13 that "spirit of faith" is a Genitive of Product, and that it is the same Spirit which produces faith, and that Spirit is none other than Jesus (3:18) who has gone before us through death unto life, so that we too might go from death to life. For in the life of faith we in a very real way have already begun to experience the resurrection of Jesus when his Spirit changes our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. We are moved from inanimate to animate. That those who believe have already participated in both the death and resurrection of Jesus is not a foreign concept to 2 Corinthians. See especially Ephesians 2:5-6, Romans 6:1-11, Colossians 2:12, 3:1 etc. Participation in resurrection life now is only the beginning of hope. While our resurrection life has already begun—in that Jesus has already been raised (real time) and us with him by the transforming of our hearts now—our resurrection is consummated when our broken bodies are finally raised imperishable (transformed, cf. 1 Corinthians 15) and we are presented together to Jesus as a spotless bride to be in the presence of God forever at the end of all things.[16]

15 For (ga.r) all these things (ta. pa,nta) are for your sake (diV u`ma/j). The ga.r marks of the second reason block for why Paul speaks. But what are all these things (ta. pa,nta) that are for the sake of the Corinthians? It seems from the context of the letter thus far we can narrow down all these things into two broad concepts, both of which he summarized in two words in verse 13, pisteu,omen and lalou/men, believing and speaking.[17]

• pisteu,omen: Paul’s sufferings have lead to his perseverance because of his confidence in God who has been faithful in the past to and through Jesus, and therefore is trustworthy for His promises for the future (i.e. Paul’s life of faith (chpts. 1-4:12) in the same Spirit which produces faith, Jesus. i.e. Paul’s believing 13e!).
• lalou/men: his ministry of the Gospel so as to be an agent of present and future reconciliation (4:17-7:1) between God and the world (i.e. Paul’s speaking! 13f!).

What is more, all of these things are for the benefit of the Corinthians, and by consequence, all who will come to know the Lord by means of them. Philip Hughes captures the essence of this half-verse beautifully, “Just as Christ’s coming and sufferings were for our sakes, so he who lives and labours for Jesus’ sake by that very fact lives and labours also for the sake of mankind…the true follower of Christ is Christ-centered and for Jesus’ sake, and after His example, gladly spends himself and is spent for the sake of his fellow men.”[18]

All of these things are for the sake of the Corinthians so that (i[na) grace might cause to proliferate thanksgiving to the glory of God, because (adv. part.) grace increased through many people. This grammar is tough. David Garland cleanly presents the four possible translation options in his summary of Thrall’s work (The Second Epistle to the Corinthians 1:345-46):
(1) “So that grace, having increased, may cause thanksgiving through the agency of more and more people to abound to the glory of God.”
(2) “So that grace, having increased, may, on account of the thanksgiving of the more and more people, abound to the glory of God.”
(3) “So that grace, having increased the thanksgiving through the agency of more and more people, may abound to the glory of God.”
(4) “So that grace, having increased through the agency of more and more people, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”

The forth option seems best for a few reasons. First, the syntax style follows very closely to verse 14, with one additional preposition added in 14: subject (o`) modifying phrase (evgei,raj to.n ku,rion VIhsou/n) object (h`ma/j) prepositional phrase (su.n VIhsou/) verb (evgerei/). Here in 4:15 we have a very similar construction less the prepositional phrase, and an adverbial participle verses a substantival participle: subject (h` ca,rij) modifying phrase (pleona,sasa dia. tw/n pleio,nwn) object (th.n euvcaristi,an) verb (perisseu,sh). Given that both the participle or the verb can be either transitive or intransitive, and given that they are synonyms, though it is not a sure thing, word order seems to be the best indicator here for placing objects and prepositional phrases.

All of Paul’s apostolic, gospel ministry (believing and speaking) is so that grace might cause the proliferation of thanksgiving to the glory of God. Not that he or we add to God’s glory, but that God’s glory is experienced, embraced and cultivated among more and more people, because more are coming to faith in the Lord. More and more people are seeing their lives transformed in their dying and rising with Christ in the present, so that when there physical bodies die, they too will be raised with him and presented to God Almighty. This is the message of hope that we bring to people. We as ministers of the Gospel are fellow agents whom the Spirit uses to cultivate the spreading of the Glory of God to more and more people. The content of Grace has not been changed, nor has the outcome (rising with Jesus right now and at the End) changed as a result of Paul’s ministry and ours. Only the volume of fellow thanks-givers has changed. The ministry of the Gospel is as much a natural response out of our own thanksgiving as it is a compulsion of the living out of faith. Increasing the volume of grace through the many who can and will come to know the Lord is the reason why Paul, it is the reason why we, preach the imperishable truth of the Gospel. Our aim is to be agents of God’s usage for the furtherance of his Glory. For this reason, and for the final hope which we taste now and will consume in the end, may we believe and speak in the same spirit which produces faith, just as Paul has.

[1] Murray J Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, (NIGTC; Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2005), 351.
[2] See Appendix D.
[3] So Harris as well as David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, (NAC; Broadman: Nashville, XXXX), 245.
[4] Fee, 323-324; Paul Barnett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, (NICNT: Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1997), 240; and C.K. Barrett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, (BNTC; Hendrickson: Peabody, 1973), 142.
[5] Barnet, 241.
[6] Fee, 323.
[7] Completely against Roy A Harrisville, “Paul and the Psalms: A Formal Study,” WW 5 (1985), 168-179.
[8] Barnett, 242.
[9] BDAG, 961-962. My emphasis.
[10] Contra Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, “Faith and Resurrection in 2 Cor 4:13-14,” RB 95 (1988), 543-550, who sees Paul’s anticipation of his arrival in Corinth, given all the sufferings he has been through, as a living metaphor for ‘resurrection.’
[11] L. J. Kreitzer, “Resurrection,” The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 805-812.
[12] Jan Lambrecht, “The Eschatological Outlook in 2 Corinthians 4.7-15,” To Tell the Mystery: Essays on New Testament Eschatology in Honor of Robert H Gundry, edited by Thomas E. Schmidt and Moises Silva, (JSNTSS 100: Sheffield Academic: Sheffield, 1994), 122-139.
[13] Which of course means our dying with him and being raised with him. Romans 6:1-11.
[14] Joseph Plevnik, “The Destination of the Apostle and of the Faithful: Second Corinthians 4:13b-14 and First Thessalonians 4:14,” CBQ 62 (2000), 83-95.
[15] See also (2 Cor 4:17).
[16] See Richard N Longenecker, “Is There Development in Paul’s Resurrection Thought?” in Life in the Face of Death: The Resurrection Message of the New Testament, ed. by Richard N Longenecker, (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1998), 171-202.
[17] Barnett, 244; Harris, 356;
[18] Philip Edggumbe Hughes, Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians, (NICNT; Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1967), 151-152.

The Unnatural.

I keep thinking I am here to see her. I keep thinking that along with all the old friends, she will just appear. But then it hits me again. There will never be another appearance. We are gathering together to say goodbye one last time. There will never be another hello.

This is one of the strongest apologetics for Christianity. Everything in my...in our being... screams that she will not be not here any longer. Everything in me screams that she will be standing there to greet us as we greet her. Everything in my screams that this is not right. She SHOULD be saying hello. She should NOT be laid in the ground. This is not the way things are supposed to be... cannot be the way that they are. This screams to me that there must be another way--the right way.

Yet the joy of her music will never again be heard as long as we count the day today. The concert of her laughter will never give another joy again. This is not the way things are supposed to be.

Maranatha, Lord Jesus. Until then, goodbye Jenny.