Those who have followed The Mint over the past several years are familiar with an annual assignment which we take very seriously. The assignment is to open the Bible as if we have never seen it before for the first 10 weeks of the year. The assignment is given each year by Bettie Mitchell, the Founder of Good Samaritan Ministries in Beaverton, where the classes are held.
Over the past four years, we have been fortunate to explore Hosea, Matthew, Isaiah, and John. This past February 19th and 26th we were privileged to assist in teaching the book of Deuteronomy, a book of staggering importance.
Below is a clip from the class on the 19th:
You can see the entire teaching at the following link:
If you are interested in teaching on Deuteronomy, you can access our notes, with the introduction and conclusion from James Michener’s The Source, at the following link:
You will quickly notice two things if you take time to watch the video of the teaching and look over the slides. First, you will notice that there are only three slides for what will be four hours of teaching. Second, the pace of speaking may seem slow.
We assure you that you are not imagining things. There are indeed very few slides and our pace is purposefully slow. On the internet, where one is accustomed to information coming at a rapid fire rate, it will feel slow.
The reason is the following: If one is to allow the Word of the Living God to teach them, it must come out of one’s mouth, travel around the room, and be heard back into one’s own ear to assure that it has been heard and understood by all. Only then, when it has been heard and understood by all, can it bring the people in the room together, as they were some 3,500 years ago at Kadesh Barnea, listening to Moses give his bittersweet farewell address to a people who were about to become a nation for the very first time.
It is a nation that has withstood the test of time and distance ever since that moment, and has spread from the Promised Land throughout the world, and yet remains one: Israel.
Regardless of one’s faith or ancestry, Deuteronomy is important, for it holds the key to a number of mysteries. As Bettie Mitchell put it:
In the cities there is confusion, in the wilderness, there is something different, something to be learned. In the wilderness, the question is not about human relationships, it is about God
It is Christmas, God Created a Child – A Christmas Poem inspired by a revelation given to Bettie Mitchell regarding why God saved humankind in the most unusual manner that we celebrate during Christmas.
It is Christmas, God Created a Child
It is Christmas,
a babe in a manger lay,
Why has He come?
The reason of the mystery revealed.
“Adoration of the Shepherds” by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622
In the beginning,
God created them, man, then woman,
What would they do?
He walked with them in the garden.
Their betrayal,
broke His heart, and He sent them away,
with a gift of clothing,
the first sacrifice, but not the last.
God left them,
He pondered what went wrong,
and how to make it right again.
He watched them from afar, as a nervous parent.
He watched,
as they conceived and bore children,
outside of the garden,
the results were disastrous, murder, betrayal
He sent a flood,
to destroy them all, to wipe the earth clean,
for the earth was innocent,
He wrestled with the implications, and saw Noah.
He would allow them to live,
Abraham confirmed what he saw in Noah,
Humankind still loved Him,
Yet they were so evil, how could He come close?
Then it came to Him,
Like a muse from below, for in the beginning,
In the garden,
They were perfect, they were His, and they were adults.
He would create a child,
not cursed, as those outside of the garden,
but perfect,
As Adam and Eve were, in the beginning
He inhaled,
and breathed life into the darkness,
it was perfect,
They must see how to live, from cradle to grave, our perfect union
The perfect end,
The only way to blot out, the transgression in the garden,
The year is fast escaping us as we continue our series on the the seven signs that Jesus performed which are related in the Gospel of John. If you have just now joined us, we recommend reading:
After relating the healing of the paralytic at Bethesda, John, who had a knack for such things, relates word for word what Jesus said to religious leaders as they rebuked him for healing the paralytic on the Sabbath. What is ironic about this rebuke, and all of the other instances where Jesus is accused of breaking the Jewish Sabbath, is that Jesus did not perform work in the sense that you and I may think of work.
For instance, he simply told the paralytic to get up, take his mat, and walk. To the Pharisees who observed this, they quickly saw that Jesus’ speech had caused something to “generate,” in this case, the paralytic’s ability to walk. In this strict sense, nearly any biological activity undertaken to sustain life would throw one into conflict with the fourth commandment.
As John’s careful choice not to name the specific feast which Jesus is intending implies, Jesus’ specific order to the man to pick up his mat and walk was done in direct challenge of what many rabbis of the day saw at the top of the list of Sabbath violations: Carrying something outside of one’s home.
The Hebrew words used in the Bible when the Sabbath decrees are given which are translated as “work”, kol-m’law khaw, mean “all and any kind of creative ‘generative’ endeavor, changes to the environment or any object.” Given this strict definition, it could be said that taking food or drink could lead to a change in the environment.
Given the impossibility of compliance, the Pharisees and other Jewish sects had taken to interpreting the Sabbath restrictions in a way that suited what they deemed necessary to maintain their particular lifestyle. What they were objecting to, then, was the way Jesus chose to observe the Sabbath.
It is the same today.
For any who struggle with how to obey the fourth commandment, Jesus gave the following advice in Mark 2:27, which is the final word on the subject: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
At this stage in Jesus’ earthly ministry, John began to see what Jesus meant when he declared earlier, in Chapter 2:19 “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” For Jesus had come not to destroy the Jewish nation, but their misguided form of worship, of which the Sabbath observance had become a prime example.
As most agreed that everything Jesus did was good, those who opposed Him had to cling onto when He was doing it in order to prove that He was a traitor and working to subvert the Jewish nation. Yet Jesus did not intend to destroy the Jewish nation, nor to save it in its present form, rather, he came that we might know that YHWH loves us, and that His forgiveness is unconditional.
This was to prove exceedingly important when the Romans finally decimated Jerusalem in 70 CE.
Hailing back to Isaiah’s time, some 600 years earlier, the Jewish people had been nearly decimated. The Temple that Solomon had built had been destroyed and along with it, the central focus of the worship of YHWH. This blow would have meant the end of both a religious system and the ultimate loss of the national identity of those who worshiped YHWH. Had it not been for the rich Jewish oral tradition, the writings of Isaiah which were carried into Babylon, and rise of the synagogue system in the exile, the Jewish nation would not have survived.
Instead, the Jews quickly adapted to what amounted to, “the sudden disappearance of this avenue (the Temple) of communing with God,” which was a “tragedy of awesome dimensions,” (quotation of Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991) and came out of it stronger as a nation. Judaism took on a new dimension and flourished in the Babylonian exile with prophets such as Ezekiel building upon the understanding that YHWH desired mercy and not sacrifice.
600 years later, with a new Temple funded by Herod, the Jews were falling again down the slippery slope of sacrifice and confining YHWH to the trappings of a building.
Feeding the 5000
After the healing at Bethesda, we are told that Jesus again returned to the Galilee and this time went to the other side of the sea of Galilee. However, as we observed earlier, Jesus had attracted quite a following in Jerusalem. John observes that a great multitude” had followed him because of the healings that He had performed.
While many had been healed, Jesus seemed to be more concerned that people not sin rather than that they eat the the right foods and stay healthy. He did not even seem that concerned with their safety or how they spent their money. His focus was on avoiding sin, yet he seemed to know that people would have trouble doing this.
From a glance at all four the Gospels, it would appear that Jesus passed much time in the Galilee teaching on the mountains surrounding this picturesque sea. It is during this time that He preached the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ longest recorded discourse in which He laid out the central tenets of discipleship. This life changing discourse can be found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7, and must be read and understood by all humanity.
During this time, Jesus receives news that John the Baptist has been killed. This must have shaken Jesus, not because it surprised him, but because He knew that his time was short, and that the scriptures must soon be fulfilled.
In preparation, Jesus withdrew by boat to a solitary place near Bethsaida to seek YHWH. He knew that it was time to go deeper.
Predictably, many people followed him to this solitary place near Bethsaida. Those who followed had come not only to hear Jesus, but in many cases they were there hoping to be healed of a physical ailment, and His hasty withdrawal gave them, too, a sense of urgency. They hurried after him and many did not bother to make adequate preparations for the journey.
Again, it must be understood that curing physical ailments was not Jesus’ primary intention. His intention was to draw people to himself that they might be drawn away from sin. This is what took place at Bethsaida.
Jesus Feeding the 5000 by an unknown artist
It is during this time of deep teaching that Jesus brings out what at the time was his most divisive teaching, one so profound and challenging that it caused a great deal of his disciples to turn back in dismay.
As the multitudes approached Him, Jesus chose to approach this teaching via the fourth sign recorded by John in Chapter 6:5-14:
1 After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A great multitude followed him, because they saw his signs which he did on those who were sick. 3 Jesus went up into the mountain, and he sat there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Jesus therefore lifting up his eyes, and seeing that a great multitude was coming to him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, that these may eat?” 6 This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that everyone of them may receive a little.”
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these among so many?”
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in that place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 Jesus took the loaves; and having given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down; likewise also of the fish as much as they desired. 12 When they were filled, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the broken pieces which are left over, that nothing be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with broken pieces from the five barley loaves, which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 When therefore the people saw the sign which Jesus did, they said, “This is truly the prophet who comes into the world.” 15 Jesus therefore, perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force, to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
On the surface, the feeding of the 5000 is a miraculous answer to a grave logistical problem caused by the crowds haste to be near Jesus. Yet it had such a great impact that it is recorded in all four gospels. However, Jesus did not intend this miracle to be the focal point of the lesson, He wanted to teach His disciples, the 5000, and all who woul listen the following lesson:
That He is the bread of life.
They didn’t get it, and they tried to make Him King by force. Jesus withdrew again to the Mountain alone to be near to YHWH.
The lesson was so important that it would require a second sign and a challenge, one that would force his disciples to become the first ones to cross the watershed mark of human history.
They had to decide, then and there, who Jesus was to them. Was He a madman, a witch doctor, or the Son of the Living God?
Today we continue our series on the Seven Signs of John with the second sign, Jesus’ healing of the official’s son. First, we must pause to remember the eternal lesson from the first sign, the changing of water into wine that the wedding in Cana of Galilee: “Do what he says,” for miracles are born out of obedience.
And now, the second sign.
The Journey
Jesus had just returned from Jerusalem, where he had educated Nicodemus on the mechanics of spiritual rebirth at the Passover feat. On his journey home, Jesus had done something that deeply troubled the Jewish religious establishment of the day, He had taken the more direct and mountainous route home to the Galilee by passing directly through the territory known as Samaria.
This was shocking, because the religious amongst the Jews in those days who resided in Jerusalem went to great pains to avoid setting foot in Samaria, which they saw as the epicenter of paganism and worse, a misguided worship of the One True God, YHWH.
For this reason, when travelling from Jerusalem to the Galilee, they would cross over to the east bank of the Jordan river and go north until they had passed by the Samaritan territory, at which point they crossed back over to the west bank and reached Scythopolis, where they would continue their journey into the Galilee. This religious quirk added up to 40 miles, or in those days what would have been a hard two days journey, to what was already a three to four day ordeal.
The religious take the long road, as Jesus shows us the straight and narrow
However Jesus not only took the more direct route, he encountered a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and engaged her in conversation, an utterly shocking breach of protocol that caused even His disciples to question what he was doing. We can only imagine that Jesus did not shake the dust off of His feet after reaching the Galilee, the custom of the religious Jews who were forced to tend to unavoidable business in Samaria, and therefore were forced to “defile” themselves by setting foot on Samaritan soil.
Blind Faith via Shock Therapy
Jesus was returning to the Galilee from Judea, where, as mentioned above, he had attended the Passover and, while there, began to turn the Jewish religious system on its head. In fact, so many people believed in Jesus as the Messiah as a result of His teachings during the Passover that his disciples were baptizing even more people than John the Baptist, who the Jewish religious leaders had previously seen as their main rival.
As a result of this, the Pharisees, a sect of the Jews who believed in the resurrection of the dead, were planning to come after Jesus, hastening His flight back to the Galilee.
After passing through Samaria en route to an imagined quiet retreat into the Galilee, Jesus found that a great number of people in the Galilee had witnessed the signs he had done during the Passover for they, too, were there. His reputation has preceded Him, and peace was to prove elusive for the rest of His days on earth.
Under these circumstances, Jesus returned to Cana as a type of rock star.
While in Cana, Jesus was approached by a certain nobleman who asks Jesus for a favor that would become known as the second sign which is related in John 4:43-54:
43 After the two days he went out from there and went into Galilee. 44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast. 46 Jesus came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him, and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”
49 The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. 51 As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” 52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” 53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. 54 This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.
Now the nobleman’s son was lying on his deathbed in Capernaum, a town on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, and he encountered Jesus in Cana. Under the circumstances, we can assume that the nobleman made the 20 mile journey inland specifically to make this appeal to Jesus. The nobleman would likely have have been prepared to offer his life savings to Jesus if he would come to Capernaum and heal his son. In Jesus he saw his only hope of saving his son, and he was doing what any loving father would have done under the circumstances.
In this delicate state of mind, the nobleman was about to be shocked, for he was about to learn the difference between hope and faith. For hope, while poetic, leaves room for doubt. Faith is the opposite of doubt.
For this reason, instead of lovingly agreeing to accompany the man to Capernaum, He rebukes him, “unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.” The man, still in a state of shock, as were Jesus disciples, makes a last ditch effort, now with a bit indignation, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus then shocks the man, who has moved from hope to indignation, into faith as He replies “Go your way. Your son lives.” In this moment, through Jesus’ words, the nobleman understood that, if he believed that Jesus had the power to heal his son, it would follow that Jesus could do it without having to be physically present. The nobleman understood, at this moment, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Jesus was Lord.
The nobleman then knew Jesus in the same way the centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 knew that Jesus was Lord, through the operation of blind faith. The difference between the nobleman and the centurion was that Jesus offered to come to the centurion’s house, which was perhaps not coincidentally also in Capernaum, and left it to the centurion to profess his blind faith which was operating to heal his servant. The nobleman had no such faith to profess, until Jesus shocked him into it.
Where the nobleman needed his blind faith to be awakened, the centurion needed only ask Jesus and it would be done.
May it be said that in Capernaum, the Lord showed us that blind faith is enough. When faith and obedience are operating together, there is no limit to what can happen.
The Gospel of John is unique in that it contains a plethora of dialogue attributed to Jesus, the Son of God, which are generally set apart in Biblical texts by using a red font. It is rivaled only by the Gospel of Matthew in this respect.
Today, we will begin to explore the material in the Gospel of John that we are to teach. The seven miracles of Jesus that John chose to include in His Gospel. The miracles are important, for John wrote the Gospel near the end of his long life, sometime between the years 90 and 100 CE (He is presumed to have died in 100 CE at 94 years of age), almost 70 years after Jesus had walked the earth.
John witnessed many miracles performed by Jesus, as he was with him throughout his earthly ministry, beginning with his (Jesus’) baptism by John the Baptist. John witnessed so many miracles that he saw fit to state in his Gospel,
“20:30 Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; 20:31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”
So why were these seven signs chosen by John, who perhaps knew Jesus better than anyone while He was walking the earth? It is the aim of this study to answer this question.
What are the seven signs?
The logical place to start, then, would be to identify the seven signs. According to most Biblical scholars, yours truly included, the seven signs refer to the following miracles which John chose to relate:
From a quick glance at the list, we can see that three of the miracles involve various types of physical healing, two of them involve providing for material needs, and one is a supernatural physical feat.
The final miracle, the resurrection of Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, must stand alone, as it is the astounding and meaningful miracle that has ever been recorded. It is astounding not only for what took place, but for the fierce reaction which it brought from the religious authorities.
For with this Miracle, Jesus provided an irrefutable proof that He is the Son of God, and it was for this miracle that the religious authorities resolved to kill Him.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. As with any great journey, we must begin with the first step.
Changing water into wine: The first sign
Shortly after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he called his first disciples, Andrew and John (the author). What is interesting is that Andrew and John actually followed Jesus on John the Baptist’s declarations. As such, they were not called, rather, they recognized who Jesus was, the long-awaited Messiah, and went after him.
Andrew then went and found his brother, Simon (who Jesus promptly renamed Cephas, or Peter). The next day, Jesus was determined to go out into Galilee, where he found Phillip, who then went out and found Nathanael.
At this point, we understand that Jesus had five men whom are called his disciples, yet the only one who he personally sought out was Phillip.
This is important, because it shows that, while Jesus did get up and pursue someone, four of his first five disciples started following him because others saw Jesus and recognized him as the son of God. Let us not diminish the task that Christians have been given in fulfilling the great commission!
Our teacher, Bettie Mitchell of Good Samaritan Ministries is fond of illustrating this by showing us that while we are looking up to God, crying out for Him to “DO SOMETHING!” God is shouting back down at us “DO SOMETHING!”
It is a profound truth that God does not want subjects, He wants partners!
It is not surprising, then, that Jesus almost never performed a miracle without requiring an action or actions which require the individual to exercise faith. In fact, in most of the signs, Jesus performs the miracles not as a helicopter parent who is making sure that everything is perfect for everyone, rather, he performs the miracles reluctantly, not because he does not desire a positive outcome, but because he is training those who desire and see in him the possibility of a miracle to walk in faith and courage.
Our first example, then, is when Jesus changes water to wine, a miracle that Jesus openly declares that he does not want to perform:
2:1 The third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. 2:2 Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the marriage. 2:3 When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.”
2:4 Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come.”
2:5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” 2:6 Now there were six water pots of stone set there after the Jews’ way of purifying, containing two or three metretes apiece. 2:7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” They filled them up to the brim. 2:8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the ruler of the feast.” So they took it. 2:9 When the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and didn’t know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom, 2:10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the guests have drunk freely, then that which is worse. You have kept the good wine until now!” 2:11 This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Apart from Jesus’ reluctance to intervene and the faith it must have required on the part of the servants to take the water, which had been poured in what today may be been referred to as a kitchen sink or a wash basin, and present it to the master of the feast as wine, there is one other curiosity in this narrative which deserves further consideration.
The first sign of Jesus, turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, has a harrowing parallel to Joseph saving many by providing for grain during the famine in the Near East, circa 1708 BCE Painting “Joseph and His Brethren Welcomed by Pharaoh”, watercolor by James Tissot 1836-1902
This curiosity consists of the exact words that Mary uses to instruct the servants to listen to Jesus. While at first they seem trivial, “Whatever he says to you, do it,” we find in them both a simple requirement for the reception of a miracle, as well as an intricate link with the miraculous survival of the Jewish race some 1700 years earlier from a famine in Canaan:
For the words, “What he says to you, do,” are found not only in John 2:5 above, but also in Genesis 41:55. In Genesis, they are spoken under much different circumstances…or are they?
The phrase that Mary invokes parallel the instructions that Pharaoh gave to all of the Egyptians when they began to cry out to him for grain during the famine in the Near East. “Go to Joseph, What he says to you, do.”
As we cry out for a miracle, we would do well to pause, listen, and “Do what he says,” for miracles are born out of obedience.
Its that time of year, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Time to deck the halls, stir the eggnog, and trim the tree. The Christmas season is a special time of year where time honored traditions surround us.
One of those traditions is conveniently located down the road in Helvetia: The Helvetia Christmas Tree Farm’s Enchanted Evening.
Like its summertime counterpart, The Oregon Lavender Festival, the Enchanted Evening takes place at the farm of Don and Nancy Miller located at 12814 NW Bishop Road in Hillsboro.
The Enchanted Evening is a wonderful family event which rings in the season with joy, singing, and hobby trains. The festive atmosphere makes it easy for one to focus on finding what is often the first and most important component of the holiday decor: The Tree.
Its that time of year, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Time to deck the halls, stir the eggnog, and trim the tree. The Christmas season is a special time of year where time honored traditions surround us.
One of those traditions is conveniently located down the road in Helvetia: The Helvetia Christmas Tree Farm’s Enchanted Evening.
Like its summertime counterpart, The Oregon Lavender Festival, the Enchanted Evening takes place at the farm of Don and Nancy Miller located at 12814 NW Bishop Road in Hillsboro.
The Enchanted Evening is a wonderful family event which rings in the season with joy, singing, and hobby trains. The festive atmosphere makes it easy for one to focus on finding what is often the first and most important component of the holiday decor: The Tree.
As many can attest, a well chosen tree can turn the holiday season from just another year among many into a Christmas to remember.
With fields full of Nobles and Grands the Helvetia Christmas Tree Farm is bound to have a tree that will look great in your living room. If cutting the tree is not up your alley, the staff will provide as much assistance as necessary.
Once your tree is shaken, baled, and firmly tied to the roof of the car, you can warm up with some hot cocoa and take a stroll through the gift shop, where all of the proceeds go to benefit children in Africa and the Ukraine.
The Helvetia Christmas Tree Farm’s Enchanted Evening, a local tradition with an international impact.
Jesus Feeding the 5000 by an unknown artist
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