Predestined to Drama The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love
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- Christianity
When I was a child and had the flu, I’d lie on the couch and watch the only thing on daytime TV, daytime drama: “These Are the Days of Our Lives.” If I wasn’t sick, it would make me sick. Lots of talking and so much emotion; it was nauseating.
But I would be OK if I could just hang on until 4:30, for at 4:30 Star Trek came on. I now realize that it too was drama, but it was drama in space! And it had Mr. Spock. For Mr. Spock, logic was unemotional, and emotion was illogical.
In the Bible, “logic” is actually an easy word, or concept, to find. The Greek word “Logos” is translated as “logic,” “reason,” or “word.” “Emotion” is a harder word, or concept, to find, although folks in the Bible definitely have what we would call “emotions.” Yet there is one word group that comes fairly close to our concept of emotion and that would be the verb, “pascho,” and the accompanying nouns, “pathos” and “pathema.” They’re usually translated as passion or suffering.
In classical Greek, they refer to things that affect us and are not easily controlled—like a cross, or an “emotion.” Hence, we are confused by the English word “passion;” we’re saved by Christ’s “passion,” and yet wary of evil “passions.”
Well for us, drama certainly appears to be a problem. Listen to our prayers: “Lord may everything go according to plan—no drama please.” And yet Paul prays, “That I may know him . . . and share in his ‘pathema,’ his suffering, his drama, his passion.” We like passion plays but not actual passion!
Perhaps the most passionate of all stories in the Old Testament is the story of Joseph. Hopefully, it’s familiar to you. At the age of seventeen, he dreams that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow down to him. He has eleven brothers: one younger and ten older and very jealous of Joseph. They throw him in a pit, sell him as a slave, and fake his death for their father.
Twenty-some years later, Joseph has gone from a life of slavery and abuse to a position of power as Pharaoh’s second in command over the Empire of Egypt. During a famine, his older brothers come to him attempting to buy grain. He recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him—quite a drama and this is just the beginning of all the “weeping.” Genesis 43: “ he turned from them and wept... [Joseph’s] compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there.” After a series of extremely dramatic trials, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. Genesis 45 “And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it... Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.”
After an extremely emotional and weepy reunion with his father and an insanely emotional funeral several years later, the brothers worry that Joseph may pay them back for all the evil that they had done to him. And so, they throw themselves before Joseph (just as in the dream) and they beg forgiveness for their sin. Genesis 50: “Joseph wept when they spoke before him... But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you.”
How did the dream come true? How did Joseph become such a beautiful vessel of Mercy? How did he come to look so very much like Jesus?
1. He must’ve had some faith in the dream.
2. And so he hoped; he knew that whatever evil might plan, it could only be part of God’s plan.
3. He wept... and wept and wept; he forgave.
Western Christians have turned forgiveness into a small thing regarding God’s response to our sin. In Scripture it’s not a small thing, but literally everything. In the New Testament the word “fo
When I was a child and had the flu, I’d lie on the couch and watch the only thing on daytime TV, daytime drama: “These Are the Days of Our Lives.” If I wasn’t sick, it would make me sick. Lots of talking and so much emotion; it was nauseating.
But I would be OK if I could just hang on until 4:30, for at 4:30 Star Trek came on. I now realize that it too was drama, but it was drama in space! And it had Mr. Spock. For Mr. Spock, logic was unemotional, and emotion was illogical.
In the Bible, “logic” is actually an easy word, or concept, to find. The Greek word “Logos” is translated as “logic,” “reason,” or “word.” “Emotion” is a harder word, or concept, to find, although folks in the Bible definitely have what we would call “emotions.” Yet there is one word group that comes fairly close to our concept of emotion and that would be the verb, “pascho,” and the accompanying nouns, “pathos” and “pathema.” They’re usually translated as passion or suffering.
In classical Greek, they refer to things that affect us and are not easily controlled—like a cross, or an “emotion.” Hence, we are confused by the English word “passion;” we’re saved by Christ’s “passion,” and yet wary of evil “passions.”
Well for us, drama certainly appears to be a problem. Listen to our prayers: “Lord may everything go according to plan—no drama please.” And yet Paul prays, “That I may know him . . . and share in his ‘pathema,’ his suffering, his drama, his passion.” We like passion plays but not actual passion!
Perhaps the most passionate of all stories in the Old Testament is the story of Joseph. Hopefully, it’s familiar to you. At the age of seventeen, he dreams that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow down to him. He has eleven brothers: one younger and ten older and very jealous of Joseph. They throw him in a pit, sell him as a slave, and fake his death for their father.
Twenty-some years later, Joseph has gone from a life of slavery and abuse to a position of power as Pharaoh’s second in command over the Empire of Egypt. During a famine, his older brothers come to him attempting to buy grain. He recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him—quite a drama and this is just the beginning of all the “weeping.” Genesis 43: “ he turned from them and wept... [Joseph’s] compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there.” After a series of extremely dramatic trials, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. Genesis 45 “And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it... Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.”
After an extremely emotional and weepy reunion with his father and an insanely emotional funeral several years later, the brothers worry that Joseph may pay them back for all the evil that they had done to him. And so, they throw themselves before Joseph (just as in the dream) and they beg forgiveness for their sin. Genesis 50: “Joseph wept when they spoke before him... But Joseph said to them, ‘Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you.”
How did the dream come true? How did Joseph become such a beautiful vessel of Mercy? How did he come to look so very much like Jesus?
1. He must’ve had some faith in the dream.
2. And so he hoped; he knew that whatever evil might plan, it could only be part of God’s plan.
3. He wept... and wept and wept; he forgave.
Western Christians have turned forgiveness into a small thing regarding God’s response to our sin. In Scripture it’s not a small thing, but literally everything. In the New Testament the word “fo