Standing In

Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.  And the angel said to those who were standing before him, Remove the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.  -- Zechariah 3:3-4

This Joshua is the high priest in the time of Zerubbabel.  The prophet sees this scene in a vision that foreshadows the work of our Joshua which, as you know, is simply another form of the name “Jesus”.  Jesus as our great high priest was clothed in the filth of humanity’s iniquity and rebellion.  Because of His willingness to come down to us, to be shamed, humiliated, and put to death on our behalf, He was raised up, clothed in purity and perfection.    

Unlike the high priests of Aaron’s line, the Lord had no iniquity of His own to be taken away.  The sin that was removed was mine and yours. 

There are days that I wake up and think that I am broken beyond all hope.  I wonder if I can ever be anything except a miserable, pathetic excuse of a person who sometimes actually rejoices in evil.  My self is a corrupt, grubby beggar.  But between that soiled and sinful dead man stands the living Christ, clothed in spotless robes of righteousness, making intercession for me.  He is the one who is seen and accepted in my place. 

Numbers chapter 16 tells the story of a rebellion among God’s people led by Dathan, Abiram and Korah.  Those who thought they were righteous enough to stand before God challenged Moses and Aaron and brought their own censers to offer incense (prayers) before the Lord.  Korah was a Levite but not of Aaron’s line.  He was a son of Kohath and had duties relating to the tabernacle.  But he was not a priest.  The principals in the rebellion were swallowed up by the earth, and two hundred and fifty of their followers where struck down by the fire of God. 

The next day – and who thought this was a good idea? – the congregation was grumbling against Moses and Aaron.  They said to them, “You have killed the people of the Lord” (v.41).  Brilliant.  The cloud of the Presence descends and the Lord tells Moses and Aaron to step back because He has had just about enough for this week.  A plague falls upon the Israelites and people start dropping dead.  At the urging of Moses, Aaron took a censer and ran into the crowd.  And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped (Numbers 16:48).

So today, the High Priest stands between the Living God who is a consuming fire and the dead man. 

Opposing the Spirit of Babylon

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. --  1 Timothy 2:1-2

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.  You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. – Matthew 5:13-14

This world is a fallen place, corruptible and corrupting, sometimes glorious, sometimes vile.  It’s not my home, but it is where I am, as much as that often annoys me.  Jeremiah had some words for the exiles that I can understand: 

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:4-7).

No, this isn’t the New Jerusalem.  We are still in exile; we can’t go home yet.  We’re not really going to change the world, not the way the utopians and reformers think of changing it.  The Church – and by that I mean the mystical Body of Christ – is, though, an agent of God’s grace, an emissary offering light and life and hope to those dwelling in fear and darkness. 

I find it difficult to pray for any of the idiots in Washington or in Austin, OKC, Little Rock, Topeka, Jefferson City, Des Moines, Springfield, etc.  But they need prayer – they need it desperately, because they are idiots, for the most part.  They are people who seek or are drunk on power.  Their position is a way for them to validate their otherwise useless lives.  This is particularly evident in the case of the current resident of the White House and his posse, but they are not the first or the worst.  OK, maybe the worst I’ve seen – at least, the worst since Clinton.    

None of that releases me or any other Christian from the obligation to pray for them.  We don’t know all that goes on, and we don’t have to pray for them by name, but we do need to intercede on their behalf to the end that the citizens of this country and people around the world might live quiet lives of contentment and peace with dignity and godliness.  Our prayers are not likely to turn fools into wise men and wise women (Latina or otherwise); nor are we necessarily going to pray “our side” into office. 

Most of the people on our side have better things to do and are not drawn to getting involved in the travesty that is called “public service”.  There are, of course, those whom God calls to fill crucial positions at critical points in time.  We can usually recognize them, and we should certainly support and encourage them.  Regardless, however, of whether or not those in authority are our kind of people, we owe them, ourselves, our neighbors, and future generations the grace of our prayers on their behalf.    

We cannot take our responsibility lightly, for there is that which opposes us.  There is, as the Revelation depicts, a spirit of Babylon which would rule in suffering, chaos and blood.  We are opposed by “the rulers, … the authorities, … the cosmic powers over this present darkness, … the spiritual forces of evil”.  We cannot defeat this spirit with ballots or bullets.  That may be what it comes to at times, but the battle is already won or lost in the heavenlies. 

I’m not a prophet, and I do not know what is about to happen or where all that we are seeing is headed.  I know only what I am supposed to do:  put it all, all the officials, all the situations, all my fears into the hands of our Father through prayer.

No Particular Place To Go

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. -- Hebrews 9:24

I don’t have much time today.  Paul says we are ambassadors for Christ – someone sent on a mission into an alien environment.  He elsewhere depicts us as soldiers, standing our ground on a hostile field.  We are called by Peter, pilgrims and strangers, echoing Moses’ naming of his son, Gershom, saying, “I have been a stranger in a strange land.”  God invades and rules over the natural world through us.  The full extent of this mastery of the material is seen in Jesus whom the winds and seas had to obey. 

We understand how Christ was an invader in the Incarnation, but when He ascended, He became, in a way, an invader in the halls of heaven.  This may be the most overtly neo-platonic verse in the Bible – at least as far as I can recall right now.  You can read back in Exodus, when Moses was on the mountain, that he was shown the realities and, so far as was possible, outfitted the Tabernacle accordingly.

An aside:  the Tabernacle has long seemed to me to be “better” than the Temple as it better represents both Christ and us.  It was covered in skins, just as we are.  I am suspicious of the Temple as encouraging a strain of apostasy that remains today in a measure of inappropriate reverence for buildings.    Anyway.

The righteous dead went to a place called “paradise” or “Abraham’s bosom”.  It was a place of rest and ease, but it was not heaven.  Hades was a segregated gated community:  paradise on one side, gehenna on the other, kind of like Missouri and Illinois.  But when Christ descended into the realm of death, he “led captivity captive”:  But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.  Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.”  (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:7-10)

It sounds like Jesus broke the righteous dead out of their somewhat pleasant prison and took them with Him as He returned to heaven, where they (and we), apart from Him, had no place.  Jesus didn’t lie to the repentant thief on the cross.  He said, “This day, you will be with Me in paradise.”  He just didn’t add that it was only a weekend trip.  Then they loaded up the truck, and they moved to Beverly. 

Christ is now in heaven, in that reality which we think of as ideal, representing us, speaking and interceding on behalf of us.  That’s a good thing to know.  Moreover, I am not one who puts much credence in concepts like “soul sleep”.  Paul uses the euphemism “sleep” for the death of the physical body.  I don’t think that those who have died are no longer conscious – though I freely admit I could be wrong.  If I’m not, there’s no reason to think that those who are absent from the body and consequently present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8) are unaware of that which Christ is aware.  I believe that some of those who are now at home with the Lord could well be interceding on behalf of those who remain in their earthly bodies.   

That may not sound exactly earth-shattering, but it is pretty strong stuff for us Protestants.  I don't think anybody is praying to saints or Mary; they are asking the saints for agreement in praying to the Father.  "Pray for us sinners."  I don't see where that is much of a problem.  It would not surprise me to some day hear that an old Baptist preacher goes up every once in a while to remind the Lord to watch out for this old hillbilly.