The third element in N.T. Wright’s perfect storm metaphor, which he puts forth in his book, Simply Jesus, is “the strange, unpredictable, and highly dangerous divine element.” Amid the joyful and hopeful shouts of Hosanna, truly, it was a God-moment, but the people of God didn’t quite understand! This was Jesus’ second entry into the city in three days, and the pilgrims, who didn’t know him during his first entry (Matthew 21:10), came out of the city to meet their Messiah and bring him into Jerusalem (Mark 11:12-19; John 12:12-19), completing what we commonly refer to as Jesus’ Triumphant Entry.
Once again, Jesus’ disciples laid their cloaks before him, while the pilgrims of the city cut down palm branches and laid them before him as he rode his donkey into the city. This whole affair recalls the entry of Simon Maccabees into Jerusalem over a century earlier, when he cleansed the Temple and cast out the king of Syria (cp. 1Maccabees 13:51). So, for a second time, Jesus cast out the businessmen, who were selling animals in the Temple (Mark 11:15-16), and Messianic hopes soared, while the pilgrims of the Diaspora expressed a desire to see Jesus (John 12:20-22).
Yet, when Jesus heard that the Jews of the Diaspora wished to see him, he spoke of his death and the glory it would bring to God (John 12:23-24). He went on to say, the prince of this world would presently be cast out, and through Jesus’ death, he would draw all men to himself (John 12:31-33). What a statement! When the Jews of the Diaspora heard it, they wondered, what kind of Messiah could this be? How could Messiah’s death lead his people from victory to victory? Indeed, they were told, the true Messiah couldn’t die (John 12:34). What a statement! What a disappointment!
Jesus warned them that they needed to believe in the light, while the light was with them, but they wouldn’t listen, so when evening had come, he left the city and hid himself (John 12:36). Would they repent and believe? No! Unfortunately, that didn’t occur. On the next day, when Jesus returned to the city for the third time in four days, he saw the people didn’t come out of the city to greet their Messiah, so he wept (Luke 19:41). He had come into the city during this Passover season, while a God-moment, the people didn’t recognize the times. This was their moment too, but now it would be hidden from their eyes (Luke 19:42).
Throughout his public ministry, Jesus had been showing his people what their God looked like (John 1:18). He embodied the “rescuing, redeeming love of God,” whom the Jews thought they knew (John 8:41), but didn’t (John 5:37). Thus, the divine hurricane swept into Jerusalem and met the cruel western cold front of Rome together with the overheated high-pressure system of Jewish national aspirations. God had returned, but not in the thunderous display of a burning Mount Sinai, nor in the destructive force that brought Egypt to its knees. Instead, his return was as a different wind, cloaked in the soft but wondrous voice of Jesus (John 7:46), the Son of God (Matthew 27:54l; Luke 22:70; John 10:36).
Long ago, we’re told that Elijah was disappointed, when what he expected didn’t occur (1Kings 19:1-3). He fled to a cave in a mountain, and the Lord spoke to him, telling him to stand. As the Lord passed by before him, there was a terrible windstorm that broke through the mountain, causing a landslide, but the Lord wasn’t in the windstorm. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but neither was the Lord in it! Soon afterward, there came a great bolt of lightning, but the Lord wasn’t there either. Finally, there came a gentle whisper, and in the whisper, Elijah found God (1Kings 19:9-13).
Men are frightened of the windstorms of life, the earthquakes and the great lightning bolts. Although they are powerful, men will run, even if they know God is in them (cp. Exodus 20:18-19). Nevertheless, if the Lord is in the gentle whisper, folks will draw near to hear and listen (cp. Luke 19:48; 21:38). This was the difference that Jesus made, as he, the divine element of the perfect storm, entered Jerusalem during that Passover season, meeting head on with the western cold front of Rome and the overheated high-pressure system of Jewish national ambitions. The whisper that was Jesus was the wind of God, a hurricane, yes, but unlike the other two violent systems already in the city, Jesus had come to fulfill not to condemn, to heal not to wound, to save, not to destroy.
The God of Israel wasn’t a god one could tame or trick into helping men fulfill their desires, like the pagans thought to do in their worship. The God of Israel was free to do as he pleased. His thoughts aren’t our thoughts, nor are our ways his (Isaiah 55:8). Jesus entered Jerusalem during that fateful Passover season on God’s terms. He is neither the detached God of the Epicureans or of modern Deists, nor is he the easily pacified god of those, his children, who live detached from him (Micah 6:6-7). The God of Israel had come to his people; he was near them; he came as one of them, clothed in flesh (John 1:1, 14), but they didn’t know him (John 1:10). He did many miracles that revealed who he was (John 12:37), but they rejected him (John 12:34; cp. 1:11). In doing so, the unpredictable and dangerous low-pressure system, vis-à-vis the divine hurricane, would come in judgment, not only of Israel’s enemies, but also of Jerusalem itself in AD 70 (cp. Daniel 9:26), after 40 years of warning his people to repent.
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4 responses to “The Wind of God!”
Eddie,
I’m still trying to form a general opinion of the Purpose of your Work?
The purpose of the Level of Detail in your Work? So, I used to listen to
the Old Guy that read and taught the Bible, Verse by Verse, and would
spend a bit of time on each and every one, I guess that was just what he
did… He believed the Bible should be taught at that level and in that
manner, and who would I be to question this guy’s approach [ Arnold,
methinks ], methinks not.
The guy was always on TV late at night, was pretty interesting, and
reminded me a lot of your own writings. As things progressed in my own
life I began to realize that his hidden motive [ not always so hidden ]
was to use the detailed calculations as a sort of I-Ching, in an attempt
to predict the exact and precise meanings, each and every one, of the
Book of Revelations; an effort that we are told by the same Bible that
we should pretty much just ignore; pay attention to the Seasons, not the
details, the Forests not the trees and never the leaves. This seems
tantamount to attempting to build a brand new Tower of Babel; not
totally wrong, but also not right. IMHO.
Eddie, methinks you are running down the same rabbit hole, as fast as
you can, and you should just be relaxing because you’re already Home,
long time ago, and it’s simply a question of how many more you’re able
to help along the Roadway to Shambala…
God bless you Eddie, for all you do, I hope and pray I hear many more of
your very thoughtful ideas…
-Samm Robert Hynes
Samm, greetings and thank you for your kind thoughts. I’m just reading my Bible and writing down my thoughts. When I come across a skeptic, I word my thoughts in an effort to also reply to that. What do I think I’m doing? Just reading my Bible and being grateful for what I sense the Spirit saying to me, nothing more than that.
Lord bless you, my friend.
Hey Eddie, that was a perfect answer, much more so than I was expecting,
no doubt. So, from my perspective, you sound very much like Arnold
Murray [ I think I got that name right ], may he rest in peace right now
he knows he does.
And, his focus wasn’t really on end times, unless, of course, he was
working on those verses, perhaps sounding, at times, like myriads of
those teachers that do super-size-over-emphasize those themes, but he
really did not…
You also remember my opinions on end times, so I really don’t believe in
focusing hardly any energy on prediction, it’s simply way too expensive
of a research about something we already know nothing about, according
to the same Bible we’re now discussing. You clearly lean in a different
direction regarding AD 101…
Would you agree that If we consider the Bible as a master index of all
of humanities libraries combined, both public and secret ones, then we
really can see that we have, in fact, extended God’s word, in spite of
being commanded not too; little devils that we all are, we just did it
anyways, tower of babelling our way back to Heaven, as best we can? We
call our kids little devils when they swear in Sunday school, right?
Western calendars are All based on the AD clock. Even pure atheists cry
Jesus’s name in vain, don’t they? God Damn those …, all the time?
It’s not just the micro errors introduced into the Old Testament, by the
Jews over the thousands, despite the errors introduced by the sons of
Ishmael over the hundreds, or the many more errors introduced by the New
Testament disciples, prophets, scribes, heretics, and saints, over the
decades. Ambiguity is the name of the game, IMHO.
Within this detailed context, our modern Bible, with it’s thousands of
various and yet precise interpretations, is nothing more than our
combined recorded memory of whatever the heck it really was that God
really said, back in the hood, back in the day, when my Father told me
what his Father said, …
Scattered and diversified as it all has become, God said God loves Us
and He has a Son, named Jesus, who is Great, but not quite as Good as
His Father. However, sinless as the Lamb He was, He paid the price His
Father demanded for saving the World, He made, from the sins that Satan
made…
This is why I consider the Rolling Stones song, likely written, at least
partially, by the devil’s hand, Sympathy for the Devil, to be one of the
most important extensions of Biblical themes, today. More important than
many many other books and videos and fakabuuk and whatever, specifically
written to explain The Bible. Not sure if Mick really had any idea what
he was doing; but he did write that song, methinks…
Best Regards,
-Samm Siamm Sometimes
Greetings Samm, and thanks for reading my studies, and especially for your willingness to comment.
??? I have no idea what you mean here.
Once again, Samm, you lost me. I don’t know what you mean.
If you’re saying we have an ambiguous text that is undependable, then I don’t agree. This is a hymn sung by the skeptics, and they are grossly out of tune.
Once again, I don’t agree that the text we have is filled with errors.
If the text is full of errors, you don’t know that God loves you. As for Jesus not being as “good” as the Father, once again, how do you know if the text is corrupt? As for Satan, there is no such being. Salvation concerns the sins of men.
Sorry for not understanding some of your comment, but I don’t wish to guess at something and comment on a guess. If you want to clarify, I’d be glad to offer my opinion. Lord bless, and thanks for your interest in my studies.