June 9, 2013
Tale of Two Sons
The Oklahoma Conference Leader Bishop Hayes is returning home after a speaking engagement. When his plane arrives, there is a limousine there to transport him to his home in Oklahoma City. As he prepares to get into the limo, he stops and speaks to the driver. "You know," he says, "I am almost 50-years old and I have never driven a limousine. Would you mind if I drove it for a while?" The driver says, "No problem." Bishop Hayes gets into the driver's seat, and they head off down the highway. A short distance away sits a rookie state trooper operating his first speed trap. The long black limo goes by him doing 70 in a 55 mile-per-hour zone. The trooper pulls out, easily catches the limo, and gets out of his patrol car to begin the procedure. The young trooper walks up to the driver's door, and when the glass is rolled down, he is surprised to see who is driving. He immediately excuses himself, goes back to his car, and radio’s his dispatcher. He tells the supervisor, "I know we are supposed to enforce the law, but I also know that important people are sometimes given certain courtesies. I need to know what I should do because I have stopped a very important person." The supervisor asks, "Is it the Governor?" The young trooper says, "No, he's more important than that." The supervisor says, "Oh, so it's the President." The young trooper says, "No, he's even more important than that." The supervisor finally asks, "Well then, who is it?" The young trooper says, "I think it's Jesus, because he's got Bishop Hayes for a chauffeur!!!"
The world is full of important people, however in Bible times the most important person to a woman was the man of the house, whether he was a husband or son. To have a full understanding of these scriptures, it’s important to comprehend the roles of men and women in societies of the time. While nine-hundred years separated stories of two young men who were raised from the dead in First Kings and Luke, society had changed very little. For contextual reasons and not to bemoan women’s roles in the Bible stories and society of the times, we rarely see information about an “average” woman. We certainly know about queens, saints, prophetesses, leaders and prostitutes, yet for the most part, women were invisible.
There are only 188 named women in the Canonized Scripture. Such an imbalance would be offensive to most in modern society, yet there are some in Christianity who continue elements of separation or roles in keeping with societal norms of life two and three-thousand years ago. We have major religions with radicals practicing today that still proclaim women as property, and even kill them under the name of “honor.”
The Hebrew Bible, the Torah, with its on-face interpretation, has set the standard for women’s place in society, which in turn became the basis for both Judaism and Christianity, and in turn, in Western culture. Even legal status for women was shaped by these ancient cultures for millennia.
These understandings, or misunderstandings, were greatly influenced by mistranslations or lack of authentic translations of the ancient Hebrew language. For example, Adam is understood in the ancient Hebrew to mean, “Faculty of intellectual wisdom,” while Eve means, “emotional nature of love.” Focusing on Eve as the one who gave into temptation from the serpent, which forever sealed her place in society, overlooks the important role of human emotion and the ability to nurture love among mankind. So, while the male spirit, as understood by the ancient Hebrews, was intellect and wisdom dominant, women had the balancing power of the very nature of love as allowed and needed in human emotion. And, we know that woman was made as a partner and not to be subjected by men. Ephesians 5:25 then is quite correct when it reads, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved his church and gave himself for it.” Where are we in the decision making processes when we lean only on intellect and forget emotion? Or, how many decisions have been wrong that were made on emotion alone, forgetting intellect? Obviously, the balance and recognition of both is critical to a life of success and prosperity. This balance must not be only between marriage partners, but in each of us, whether male or female. God was and is right in the words he gave to Moses. Someday, God willing, humanity will come to fully understand and behave accordingly.
Edith Hamilton writes that the Bible is the only book up to the 20th Century, which looks at women as human beings, no better and no worse than men. She holds that Old Testament writers considered them just as impartially as they did men, free from prejudice and even from condescension. However, it cannot be said that society and culture of the Old Testament times were consistently favorable to women.
In the New Testament, Messiah understood the misalignment that dominated society and compensated for it by including women among his disciples. True, they are not named as among the twelve, but my opinion is that they were with the group of seventy. See Luke 10 and Apocryphal Gospels for details.
Dr. Frank Stagg writes that he finds no recorded instance where Jesus disgraces, belittles, reproaches or stereotypes a woman. The manner which Jesus treated women showed repeated liberation and affirmation of women.
Then, Paul comes along to give directives about women’s roles in the church. Some think Paul had personal prejudice, or that we see his writings through a post-Pauline era interpretation and translation. Given the difference, perhaps it’s best we go with Messiah’s words and actions.
It’s in this context of attitudes at the time that we see the reason why Elijah and the Christ were so up-front about making sure the two widows who lost their sons to death, had them once again. In essence, it’s what the neighbors would think, do or not do, that made these young men so important to their mothers.
Elijah’s story happened when God told him to go do something. “Arise,” God said, “Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” Zarephath translates to “refinement” and Zidon means “to catch”. In essence, Elijah was told to go to a place where he would catch provisions, then specifically Zarephath where those provisions would be refined, which is precisely what happened.
With confidence and upon first meeting, Elijah told the widow lady to bring him something to drink. When she turned to do what he asked, he called after her to add the instruction, “Bring me something to eat too.” It was at this point that Elijah realized he was not speaking to a woman of wealth, but a lady literally preparing to eat the last meal she and her son had, then die of starvation. In fact she told him just that. She was out gathering sticks to build a fire then mix the flour and oil to bake some bread, but Elijah, acting on instructions from God, told her to “go ahead, bake your bread, and bring the first piece to me, then you and your son eat.” To ease the woman’s mind, Elijah, speaking with God’s intellect told her, “your flour box won’t run out, and neither will your oil. Go bake the bread. You will have food until rains come and at that time, you will have plenty.” Of course, I’m paraphrasing. Was this widow a farmer who had fields to harvest? No. Widows were allowed to come to the fields after harvest to gather what was left, and a portion was not harvested intentionally.
Elijah stayed with the widow and her son a long time, long enough to know the young man, and was likely fond of him. As it would happen, the youth died of something—stopped breathing. After all this woman had done for Elijah, her son was dead, so she asked, “What have I done to you that my son would die?”
This scene upset Elijah, so he took the boy from her bosom and carried him upstairs to the son’s bedroom and began praying while pressing on his chest with his own body, which he did three times. Now, the boy is alive and breathing, so he took him downstairs, back to his mother, at which time she said, “Now, I know you are a prophet of God and the word of the Lord you speak is the truth.” This is the first indication that she ever questioned Elijah, but apparently, she had.
The story of Jesus raising a young man is found in Luke 7. The Master, disciples and a crowd went to Nain, a City about the same size as Capernaum, 8.7 miles south of Nazareth. An amazing thing about this little city was that many dwellings had walls made of wood, but history of where they got the wood is missing. This city is near Mt. Tabor, and is on the north side of a hill called “The Little Herman.” The other name is the Hill of Moreh. Nain was, and still is, an Arab community.
As Yeshua and followers approached, they saw a funeral procession coming from the city, presumably to bury a young man. The widow mother was in grief. All in the traveling party knew customs and didn’t need to state the obvious. There would now be no protection now for the widow by a husband or son. Jesus knew there was no relative to marry her, meaning she was in a very precarious place. Without this son being alive, she would live on the margins of society, dependent on charity, and in such a small town her life would be very difficult. She could not inherit property since only a male heir could legally own it. As they carried the body out of the city, she might as well keep going. Like the widow who helped Elijah believed, this lady would likely die of starvation.
The Master and Elijah knew that keeping the sons in their places meant not only life for the boys, but life for their mothers as well, and their social order would be restored. This amazing blessing for both widows meant more than happiness; it meant survival.
These miracles would change nothing for the stature of women at the time since the Romans, the occupying force, could have cared less. We know from both miracles that God cares about quality of life. For Yeshua, this was another act that fits the song lyrics, “He went about doing good.”
This miracle outside the gates of Nain must have been a surprise to Yeshua’s traveling party, much like we meet a funeral procession on the road today. We pull over and stop out of respect for the deceased-person’s family and the life that was lived. However, Messiah realized the deeper need, that respect was the minor part of this event. He saw the future for this widow, and such prospect was not pretty. This is where Yeshua had the choice of providing for the woman, or allowing customs of society to allow her a normal life by bringing this young man back from the dead. This one demonstration of His power solved a family problem, eliminated starvation, created a powerful witness to the community and showed the traveling party how to view a problem, create a solution and do something about it.
Without even entering the gates of Nain, the gospel of grace, love and truth were demonstrated but not preached. Had the Christ ignored this obvious problem, gone to the synagogue and preached a sermon, the “oh-well” response would have meant very little. Jesus was a master at seeing a need and filling it, which is the secret of success! Remember how, in Matthew 14, Jesus fed the 5,000 men and their families? The disciples were urging Yeshua to dismiss the crowd so they could go home to eat, but the Master knew they were hungry. After a quick inventory of available food, he said, “Bring it to me.” You know the rest of the story; everybody was fed and food was left over.
What intervention is needed in the situations that come our way? What does truth and love dictate that we do? The answer is in this story; A terrible storm had hit the east coast of Florida washing thousands of starfish onto the beach. A young girl was seen quickly picking up the starfish, one-by-one, and hurling them back into the water.
She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”
At first the girl seemed deflated; her spirit crushed, but after a few moments she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. She turned around, looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I saved that one.”*
As Christians who want to demonstrate the truth of Christ and love of God, we see and hear about so many needs in the world. The list is so long and numerous, like the thousands of washed-up starfish on the beach, that we feel overwhelmed and justify our feeling by reasoning, I can’t save them all so why do anything? How, then, do we decide who to help? Do what the Christ did! Do what Elijah did! The immediate and important need was right there in front of them, and that’s what they did something about.
What issue is right in front of you that needs your immediate action, or involvement by our [your] church? Is there brokenness in a family? Is there a catastrophe at a school or in another church in your town? Could there be a rumor that is ruining a reputation that you can stop? Is there a lonely senior citizen who is convinced the world has forgotten them? Is there a church struggling to keep their doors open? How about the relative of a friend who has lost everything to a natural disaster? Is there a foster family in need of a vacation or a night out? How many needs can we name? How many deserve our prayers and hands-on involvement?
It’s true, the secret of success for you, your family, your business, your life and your church is; find a need and fill it. Fill the need whether the solution comes from the church or from you, individually. John 15:13 makes it clear, “There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for the sake of his friends.” Is this an option? No. Verse 12 reads, “This is my commandment; that you love one another just as I have loved you.” Hmmm, do we read something into that commandment that we should love others only in our denomination, age group, club, profession, IQ range or economic status?
Remember, Nain was and still is an Arab community. How long had there been hostility between the Jews and Arabs? Refer all the way back to Genesis 16 and 21. Yeshua had a good reason to never set foot in Nain, much less bring someone from there back to life! So, what’s our excuse to avoid success? Our Code of Conduct dictates that we, the children of God, believers in faith, take action. What do you know to do? Be still, be quiet for just a moment and you will know.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.
©2013, J. Tilton
*ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com
