A Word in Time

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Do you agree that this story is written from someone who looked at the world many years on and sought to find the beginnings of the darker place which that world has become? Why do you think that Jesus’ teaching on his coming suffering and death were so difficult for his disciples to accept? The Lord’s response to the offerings clearly raises a sense of injustice in Cain who feels he has been badly treated. In a rather over the top response Cain kills his brother, and the idyll would seem to be over. Cain is challenged by the Lord to explain what has happened and he has no real answer, and finds himself alienated from all that he has known, as a child in that beautiful garden of Eden, and as a first-born son of his loving, proud parents. He also finds himself marked and sent out to wander in the wider world. The land he had so proudly tilled is now barren, and he feels separated not only from the Lord, but from all that he has known. The darkness which is to become familiar in the years and ages to come, has begun.

We all need to be cared for and looked after and part of that is being encouraged. The writer to the Hebrews knew this and emphasises God’s care and calls on readers to encourage one another daily to keep the faith. The book of Hebrews is believed to have been written prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70AD, so this is one of the later books of the New Testament writings and its focus is upon an ageing Church that was beginning to lose its enthusiasm for what was still a fledgling Christian movement.He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name. (vs 8-9) Three measures of flour are about 16 five-pound (2.2kg) bags. The woman in her kitchen mixes the flour with water in a tub, adds just a little bit of yeast, she kneads it, and she sets it aside and this little bit of yeast will transform the flour into enough dough to bake enough bread to feed 100 people. The same seems to be true of today’s story. The palm branches waved by the crowd are associated with the nationalism of an earlier era of Israel’s history, and an armed Jewish revolt against an occupying power by the Maccabean dynasty: in 141 BC, palm branches were carried in a procession into Jerusalem for Simon Maccabee, who was briefly triumphant against the occupiers. Whether it was the disciples at the Last Supper who worried what the next few days and weeks would hold for them, or the later persecuted followers of Christ, they could take comfort in the knowledge that what they were to experience was because they had been specifically “chosen out of the world” ( v. 19) by Christ. Also, they wouldn’t be left alone, for “the Advocate comes who I will send you from the Father” ( v. 26). Moreover, Jesus had experienced this hatred first ( v. 18), so those who followed had the example of someone who had travelled the road ahead of them. Jesus gradually opens the eyes of his followers to a greater understanding of truth about his mission and purpose. Those of us who know how the story unfolds will realise that even the Crucifixion is not a final statement, but leads into a new chapter that emerges from the Resurrection and the unleashing of the Spirit of God in the world.

So where is the authority for speaking of ‘love’ in this way? It is in the Jewish law itself, at Leviticus 19.18, "Love your neighbour as yourself" (cited in verse 9). And in much of this chapter in Romans there are further practical outworkings of this grand theme. The account of Christ’s actions and subsequent exultation, and the way belief and action are linked, form the core of the early chapters of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. The demands to live in a certain way are a necessary obligation laid upon all Christians. We can claim to be ‘in Christ’ because of what Christ has done and not because of any action of our own. So, according to Paul, our faith and subsequent behaviour is the result of what Christ has done for us, not the cause of it. The American Christian band, Casting Crowns, have a lyric that runs:Today we return to the feeding of the multitude and the discussion about it, which forms the remainder of the chapter and the remainder of our week’s studies. Key concepts today are the origin and the qualities of the bread of heaven. In today’s passage we move out of the idyllic scenes in the Garden of Eden to a world which will increasingly become more complicated. We read of Adam and Eve beginning their family and the birth of their two sons: Cain followed by Abel. It's good news one would think. They grew to be men and took on the tasks of tilling the ground and looking after the sheep. All seems to be well, and we read ( vs 3-4) that both bring offerings to the Lord from the work they had been undertaking.