Jesus & The Finger Of God (part 1)

But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has already overtaken you. – Luke 11:20  (NET)

The “finger of God” is something that makes several appearances in Scripture.  It is yet another one of those things that links together the writings of the New Testament with the Hebrew Scriptures that serve as its foundation and basis for any and all understanding.  The Gospels contain two references to the “finger of God.”  The first is the one found in Luke, as seen above, with the other to be found in the Gospel of John. 

Though in John one cannot actually locate the phrase “finger of God,” the reader is led to understand that the finger of Jesus is the finger of the Creator God because John, in his creation-and-new-creation-story tinged narrative of the ministry of Jesus begins with an overt declaration of the divinity of Jesus, with this proclamation rooted in an understanding of the implications of both Messiah and Resurrection.  The finger of God can be seen when Jesus stoops to write in the dirt during the scene in which He is presented with the woman that was said to have been taken in the very act of adultery. 

Here it is necessary to acknowledge that some of the earliest and best manuscripts of John do not contain this story of the woman taken in adultery, and therefore do not contain the story that has Jesus writing on the ground with His finger.  In fact, some manuscripts place the story at the end of the twenty-first chapter of Luke, thus interestingly putting both “finger of God” references in the same Gospel, which makes a great deal of sense.

When Jesus speaks about the finger of God in Luke, He hits upon a key theme of His mission, which is the proclamation of the presence of the kingdom of God on earth.  He offers His statement in response to the accusation that “By the power of Beelzebul, the ruler of demons, He casts out demons” (11:15).  After speaking of His own casting out of demons by the finger of His God, He goes on to say “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his possessions are safe.  But when a stronger man attacks and conquers him, he takes away the first man’s armor on which the man relied and divides up his plunder” (11:21-22). 

Clearly then, this is designed to resonate with Jesus’ hearers.  Because Jesus speaks within a culture with a shared history, He is building on a foundation from which His hearers can fully understand Him and derive maximum meaning.  So rather than attempt to interpret and spiritualize the words of Jesus and treating His words as a free-floating aphorism subject to any number of flights of interpretive fancy, it is possible to gather up the appearances of the “finger of God” that are to be found in Israel’s defining historical narrative so as to put oneself in position to grasp what is being communicated.

Corinth's Communion (part 25)

At the same time, one should not hear these words about love first as that which is to be achieved as an individual.  Rather, they are first to be heard within the context of the community that is to be defined by love.  As they are heard and understood communally, especially in relation to the kingdom of the Creator God, they are then put in practice on an individual basis by those who desire to participate in this community.  

When Paul writes about love being patient and kind in this letter, the reader knows that patience and kindness were not being exercised towards all in this church in a uniform way, but based on constructs of honor and shame.  Thus when Paul tells them that love does not brag, is not puffed up, is not rude, self serving, easily angered or resentful, it is possible to confidently assert that there was a great deal of bragging, puffery, rudeness, self-service, anger, and resentment at work in this church.  This was presumably being put on display through direct actions, while the separating and dividing actions that were part and parcel of the meals and therefore the life of the church were probably engendering anger and resentment from those on the receiving end of the hurtful and deleterious behavior that truly had no place amongst those called to represent the kingdom of heaven come to earth. 

In a similar vein, Paul insists that love “is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth” (13:6).  While this phrase, as others, can certainly make an independent stand, and it can be agreed upon that it is inappropriate to be glad about injustice while also concurring that the truth is something in which all should rejoice, this, like everything else in this letter (and in the whole of the collected works of Scripture), demands to be first understood within its editorial context before pulling it out as an isolated aphorism by which to construct dogma and make dogmatic assertions. 

If Paul is instructing this group of people that love is not glad about injustice, then it can be presumed that there was a certain gladness about injustice being exercised by this congregation.  It is probably not the case that Paul is here thinking about injustices being perpetrated outside the church (though that can be a proper extension once one rightly consider this statement in context and learns what it means for the church as a body), but rather that the injustice that is being perpetrated inside the church.  This would occur as the rampant injustices of the world outside the church infiltrates that which is to function as the living, breathing, present body of the Christ. 

Considering the fact that Paul would not mention it if it was not an issue, those injustices were likely being found on display at the church meal that is supposed to be evocative of the Passover and its liberation of the people of the Creator God, of the messianic banquet and the liberating rule of that God in the world, and especially at the Lord’s Supper portion of the meal that was to serve as the very explicit reminder that the rule of the Creator God of Israel is currently taking place through the Lordship of Jesus.  It was to be understood, with that understanding displayed by the way that believers treated each other, that those that come to the Lord’s Supper to take the bread and the cup, are agreeing to submit to that Lordship and to participate in the advance of that kingdom. 

That kingdom has as its mission statement (though these would have been circulating in oral form at the time of the writing of the letter to Corinth) words such as “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19), along with words like “For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I was naked and you gave Me clothing, I was sick and you took care of Me, I was in prison and you visited Me…  I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me” (Matthew 25:35-36,40b). 

Everyone Who Calls (part 1)

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. – Romans 10:13  (NET)

A great hope for the believer.  A great comfort to those that previously stood outside of covenant with the Creator God.  It is certainly an oft-quoted statement, but regularly and almost exclusively set forth with a complete lack of context.  Regularly, and certainly without any type of malicious intent (one would hope), this verse is lifted from its setting here in the tenth chapter of Romans and made to serve duty as part of a statement regarding nothing more than a personal salvation, with the concept therein expressed presented as something of a free-floating aphorism. 

It is a duty for which the statement is ill-equipped, especially when one is made to consider that the personal salvation with which it is always associated is a salvation of the soul, so as to enable a believer to “go to heaven” when he or she passes from this life.  Unfortunately, such a presentation and way of viewing the saving that is associated with calling on the name of the Lord, falls well short of the message of the Gospel (Jesus is Lord).  So while these words do represent a great hope, putting them in their proper context serves to make the hope even greater, as it demonstrates the covenant faithfulness of the Creator God.

Throughout chapters nine and ten of Romans, the Apostle Paul spills a fair amount of ink in writing about his national brethren, the Jews.  This ongoing dissertation concerning the Jews provides the context for verse thirteen of chapter ten, as well as what comes before and after.  After outlining Israel’s rejection of the Gospel message (Jesus is the crucified and resurrected Messiah of Israel and Lord of all creation) in the ninth chapter, Paul begins the tenth chapter (though, of course, Paul had no conception of chapter and verse in the composition of his letters to believers) by writing, “Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God on behalf of my fellow Israelites is for their salvation” (10:1).  It was well understood that, until the messiah came---until the covenant God of Israel personally acted within history to deliver His people from oppression and exile---that Israel was still under their God’s curse, while continuing to live and labor and experience the exile that began with the Babylonian conquest of Judah in 586 B.C. 

The coming of messiah, their acknowledgment of their God’s faithful fulfillment of His promise in the sending of that messiah (or perhaps coming to His people and returning to His Temple in the person of the messiah), along and their submission to the claims of that messiah and his lordship, would signal Israel’s salvation.  This did not mean that members of the nation of Israel could now go to heaven when they died, and this way of thinking would be quite foreign to a member of the covenant people.   What Israel’s salvation signaled was that Israel would be delivered from the curse of separation from their God, with their long exile from fellowship with Him brought to an end, and their subjection to foreign powers discontinued.  That is an extraordinarily large part of what it would mean for Israel to be saved. 

To the words of the first verse, Paul adds, “For I can testify that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not in line with the truth” (10:2).  What was the truth?  In Paul’s estimation, the truth was that the Creator God had sent His Messiah, that being Jesus, to His people, but that He had been rejected.  By rejecting Jesus, it was surmised that they also rejected the model for the inauguration of the kingdom of God that Jesus had presented to them, and which was now being espoused by those that continued to look to Him as Messiah, who believed Him to be and now worshiped Him as the incarnation of the Creator God, and who were convinced that the long-awaited kingdom of God had been inaugurated and brought to bear on earth via His death and Resurrection.  Contrary to this, many in Israel believed that the kingdom of God---the kingdom of heaven---would have to be ushered in through the overthrow of those who oppressed them, that being the Romans.  They were zealous for this.  As Paul insists, this zeal was not in line with the truth.