The personal blog of Anderson T. Graves II. Education, Religion, Politics, Family, and TRUTH------ but not necessarily the truth you want to hear.
I still love ya' though.
Has anyone ever asked you a question right after you’d given them the
answer to the question they just asked?
Why do they do that? Why does the
church do that? In John 14, 3 disciples
ask Jesus a set of questions which tested the Lord’s patience, but their questions
and the Lord’s answers reveal important principles for Christians then and now.
We continue our sermonic journey through the book of John with a
message titled: YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;
executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership
development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
You know how bad it feels after you learn that someone you trusted has
done you wrong? Well, Jesus understood
the truth in people’s hearts before they spoke.
So imagine how the Lord felt knowing that the person smiling at His
table was going to betray, deny, and abandon Him. That’s what Jesus dealt with at the Last
Supper, and that’s what the church is called to deal with.
The title of the sermon is: WHEN YOU KNOW THEY ARE GOING TO DO
YOU WRONG.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;
executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership
development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;
executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership
development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that
Christians ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather is a
sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death; insomuch that, to such as rightly,
worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a
partaking of the body of Christ; and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of
the blood of Christ.
Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of bread and wine in the
Supper of our Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the
plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath
given occasion to many superstitions.
The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper,
only after a heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the body of
Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is faith.
The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's
ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, or worshiped.
In John
chapter 6, Jesus was being stalked by a crowd of fans, and followed by a
handful of disciples. They followed Him
from one side of the sea/lake to the other.
And when they
found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him [all innocent-like],
“Rabbi, when did You come here?” (John 6: 25)
Jesus was
like, “You know good and doggone well the only reason you’re following me is because yesterday I gave 5,000 of you free
food.” (John 6: 26, slightly paraphrased)
Then, almost
as if to purposely mess with the dinner-stalkers’ heads, Jesus launched into a lecture
on redemptive theology, the thesis of which could be summarized by the
following suggestion:
“Eat Me!”
Jesus said to
them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you have no life in you.Whoever eats My flesh and drinks
My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My
flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and
drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I
live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. (John
6: 53-57)
“Eat Me.”
The Jews
therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His
flesh to eat?” (John 6: 52)
Christians
have been having the same argument since Jesus went back to Heaven. In the sacrament of Communion (also known as
the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist), we receive bread and wine and call it
receiving the body and blood of Christ.
But what does that mean?
How can this
Man give us His flesh to eat?”
Jesus
explained it to His disciples like this:
It is the
Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you
are spirit, and they are life. (John 6: 63)
Get it, now?
Spirit and
life.
Jesus’ words (His
lecture about body and blood) were ALIVE.
The concept was real. He wanted to be taken literally.
At the same
time, the whole speech was spiritual.
It’s hard for
us to see a concept as both literal and spiritual.
When we speak
of a concept that truly exists we say use the word literally. But when we talk
about spiritual concepts we say that they are NOT to taken “literally,” which
is like saying that spiritual things don’t exist.
Which crazy
for Christians who worship God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy SPIRIT.
Jesus said, “God
is Spirit.” (John 4: 24).
The words
that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
We receive
the body and blood of Christ in a way that is LITERALLY SPIRITUAL.
In Communion,
Jesus literally offers us His spiritual body and blood; but He does not, in any
way, give us his physical skin and bodily fluids.
Remember that
Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper as the fulfillment of Passover (Luke 22:
15-20). The point of the original
Passover was not the mutton that the Hebrews ate during the 10th
plague (Exodus 12). The point was that God used a literal angelic spirit to
literally change Israel’s status from slave to free!
In the same
way, the body and blood of the Lamb of God in the sacrament of Communion is
about changing us not changing the chemical composition of the Communion bread.
The elements
of Communion are meant to transform us not for us to transform the elements of
Communion.
Our
participation in the Lord’s Supper is a kind of collective prayer. We remember Jesus’ death and resurrection
until His coming again. We recall His
suffering for the sake of our salvation.
In our liturgical responses, we tell God that we are still and again
wholly committed to His plan.
You don’t
change the bread. The bread changes you.
Or rather,
Jesus changes you.
I am the
bread of life. (John 6: 48)
The physical
elements, though holy via consecration, are not little physical pieces of
Jesus. The elements are not little
Jesus-es to be adored or worshipped or treated as talismans to ward off bad
luck.
Physically
they are still just baked flour and aged grape juice.
Spiritually
though, they are literally something so special that treating the sacrament
lightly was the reason many Corinthians Christians were sick, weak, or dead (1
Corinthians 11: 30).
The brea and
wine are not transubstantiated, but by faith they are transformative.
Not physical
but spiritual.
Not material
but absolutely literal.
Not to be
worshipped but to be taken seriously.
That may be a
hard saying, but it is what Jesus literally said.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson
T. Graves II is pastor of Miles
Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of
the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director
of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human
Development (NIHD).
I recently saw and shared a Christian spoken word performance by artist Jackie Hill Perry. In the Bible-centered performance, the born-again Christian uses an ugly racial slur---- repeatedly. That made me think about Jesus.
In
Matthew chapter 15, Jesus used a racial slur. My Savior uttered an ugly ethnic epithet, and I couldn’t understand why.
Mark 7 confirms the same incident.
It happened in the region around Tyre and Sidon.
Jesus’
people had gotten on His last nerve. The
Jews in Galiliee, the Hellenized people in Decapolis on the far side of the Sea
of Galilee, the Jewish Pharisees and the Sadducees: they had all doubted Him, while demanding signs and blessings. They'd misconstrued His mission, and asked Him dumb questions. (Yes. There is such a thing.) Even His disciples seemed infected with the
spirit of stupid.
The
disciples had tried to get Jesus to modify His message to more politically
palatable language.
Then
His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were
offended when they heard this saying?” (Matthew 15: 12)
Despite Jesus’ constant tutoring and personal
example, the Twelve held onto the same mentalities and mental blocks everybody else
in their culture seemed to have; until Jesus asked Peter and them, “Are ya’ll
stupid, too?”(Mark
7: 18, Anderson’s paraphrase)
Jesus needed a break and the disciples needed some
serious retraining. So, Jesus went out from there and departed to the region
of Tyre and Sidon. (Matthew 15:21)
Tyre
and Sidon are pagan cities on the Mediterranean coast, just northwest of
Israeli territory. Mark 7: 24 says that He entered a
house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.
A
Canaanite woman native to that pagan area heard Jesus was hiding out in town. She found out where He was staying, fell at his feet and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son
of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” (Matthew 15: 22)
Jesus
ignored her,and the disciples, who were
probably irritated that she had interrupted their leadership retreat,
urged Jesus to get rid of this doggone lady because she was getting on
their nerves. (Matthew 15:23) And that’s when Jesus used some very “non-inclusive language.”
But He answered and said, “I
was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15: 24)
So
if Jesus ONLY came for Israel, that means that He’s not going to even talk to
this non-Jewish woman, right? And
then, as if there had been any doubt about Jesus’ attitude toward her and
people like her, Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it
is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little
dogs.” (Mark 7:27)
The
D-word was the 1st century Jewish equivalent of the N-word. It was a slur Jews used for Gentiles and other non-Jewish peoples.
In contemporary language, Jesus said,
“I help My people before I help niggas.”
To
which the mother of the spiritually and mentally oppressed child replied,
“Whatever I am, Jesus, only You can help me!”
And she answered and said to
Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the
children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7: 28)
And
now I’m confused.
Because
I want to say that the ugly word Jesus used wasn’t as ugly as it sounded. I want to say he meant it as a term of
endearment, you know the way ya’ll say it to each it other. But that’s garbage. It didn’t work that way then and it doesn’t
work that way now.
That’s
the interpretation we want so we can feel better about the times our hate
overflows our hearts and spills over the edge of our lips.
Peter
didn’t profess the inclusion of Gentiles in the gospel by saying, “Can anyone
forbid water, that these dogs should
not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47)
The
word Jesus used WAS a racial epithet.
You know a tree by its fruit. As
Jesus Himself had said to the disciples before taking this retreat to Typre and
Sidon, “It’s what comes out that defiles”(Mark
7: 18-23)
In
light of this word, what fruit had Jesus produced toward non-Jews?
In
the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus held up non-Jews as the epitome of
godly grace and mercy.
To
minister to the woman at the well, Jesus deliberately went into non-Jewish
Samaria to and developed rapport with the most troubled in those neighborhoods.
Jesus
spent time in the Hellenised Decapolis
healing the sick and casting out demons.
Jesus
healed the servant of a Roman centurion and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I
have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Matthew 8: 10)
Alongside
all the times Jesus rebuked the Jews and their leaders, Jesus said that many
Gentiles and non-Jews would join Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of
heaven while many Jews, aka “sons of the kingdom,” would be left out. (Matthew
8: 11, 12)
But that’s not hate.
That’s not discrimination. That’s
not what you expect from a Jewish rabbi who used that Word.
Maybe Jesus was selectively hateful. He just didn’t like the Tyre and Sidon folks. Some people love and accept everybody----
except “those people.” It’s time to be
honest about how Jesus treated “those people” in Tyre and Sidon.
When people from Tyre a Sidon came to Jesus in Luke
6:17, 18, Jesus healed their diseases and cast out their demons.
When
Jesus was around Jews like Himself and He talked about those people, Jesus said
that if those people in Tyre and Sidon
had been given equal opportunity to witness His works, the Tyre and Sidonese
would have done a 100% better than the Jews.
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to
you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say to you, it will be
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.(Matthew 11: 20-22)
All of that is clearly evidence that Jesus DIDN’T HATE
non-Jews. Jesus wasn’t racist. Jesus saw, loved, healed, delivered, and applauded
genuine faith to all people, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, and
background.
And, after using the D-word in His conversation with the
Canaanite woman, Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your
faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that
very hour! (Matthew 15:28)
That’s not crumbs.
That’s healing. That’s not a leftovers that accidentally fall off the table.That’s a big, warm, fluffy oversized loaf of demon-casting-out
deliverance.
Jesus said that it wasn’t right to give THE CHILDREN’S bread
to the D-words. And Jesus always did what was right.
Tyre, Sidon, Samaria, Decapolis on the far side of the Sea
of Galiliee and some of the other places
where Jesus travelled and ministered where not considered part of Jewish
territory. Some had long been in the hands
of other nations. Some had broken away
from the unified Jewish state under David and Solomon. Some regions like Tyre and Sidon were never
conquered during the Israelite invasion of Palestine way back under Joshua.
But, all of those lands,
including Tyre and Sidon were inside the boundaries of Israel that God had
marked for His people Israel. (Genesis
49:13; Joshua
13: 6; Joshua 19: 24-29).
The ethnic majority Jews didn’t
think so. The ethnic minority Gentiles
didn’t think so. The ethnicity of political
power, the Romans, didn’t think so; but as far as God was concerned, they were
all Israel!
All of them were His
children!
That’s why Jesus healed the
Canaanite woman’s daughter. She wasn’t a
dog. She was a child of God.
Jesus confronted her with the
word they called her. Jesus used the
word they called themselves (Don’t think that’s something Black people just
made up in America.) Jesus used that
ugly racial epithet and his beautiful Divine power in the same conversation so that
she, and the watching disciples, and you and I would understand.
Despite what they call you, despite
what we call ourselves, you’re not a dog, you’re not a nigger, or a nigga, you’re not a
whatever the current epithet is.
You are a child of God.
Don’t let history or current
event convince you otherwise. Take your
seat at your Father’s table.
And enjoy. Here is the spoken word performance that inspired this post.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director
of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development
for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
