Mysterious Ways: The Life That He Lived

John Lindeck

Description

When we read the stories about Jesus in the Bible, we hear about what Jesus did to help the people he met. He befriended them, he taught them, he healed them and he saved them from embarrassment. They are wonderful stories but what about the people themselves? Where were they coming from? What did they do with the rest of their lives? For example, what happened to the woman caught in adultery who, in the biblical account, we leave sitting alone with no money, no home, no family and no friends. Did Jesus really leave her in this position, which would have been a sort of living death?
Looking at what Jesus did from the perspective of the people he met gives a different idea of what it was like to meet him. It showed more clearly his love and care for those he met and the way in which he shared the poverty of the people he met. More often than not, it was a life-changing experience.
The stories are mostly told in the first-person so that the characters can say what they really felt. The stories have been used in the author’s own church for bible study and as dramatic readings. They have been used in schools and colleges as study material. They have also been used just as good reading material.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 10 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528990011
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

M ysterious W ays: T he L ife T hat H e L ived
John Lindeck
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-12-10
Mysterious Ways: The Life That He Lived About the Author Dedication Copyright Information© Acknowledgement Introduction Birth Mary Joseph Elizabeth The Innkeeper The Three Wise Men Life Mary Mary’s Mother John, the Baptist Andrew The Life That We Lived Andrew The Things Jesus Did Martha Mary Magdalene The Centurion in Galilee The Samaritan Woman The Leper The Woman with a Haemorrhage Legion The Woman caught in Adultery The Man Born Blind The Rich Young Man Zacchaeus Appendix Mary’s Boy Child A Nativity Play for the Less Young 1. Mary and Joseph 2. The Angel Comes 3. Mary Tells Her Parents 4. Mary Visits Elizabeth and Zechariah 5. Mary Returns to Nazareth and Tells Joseph 6. The Journey to Bethlehem and the Birth 7. The Shepherds 8. The Visit to the Temple 9. The Wise Men 10. The Flight to Egypt 11. Reflections Sources Birth Life
About the Author
John Lindeck, a chartered accountant, worked throughout his career as a manager in multi-national companies. He has been married for over sixty years and has three children and four grandchildren. His hobbies include studying history, reading and following current events, crosswords and Sudoku, watching sports, swimming, travel (going to see places is very different from being there on business) and visiting historical sites and galleries. Behind all this activity, there has been a steadily growing faith in Jesus Christ as his saviour and lord. There have been many problems at work and at home but God has always been there.
Dedication
To Diane and our children, Jeremy, Judy and Jackie, for their patience and their constant encouragement, my love and thanks. Diane, in particular, has put up with me shutting myself away for long periods and with my bad temper when I couldn’t get things as I wanted them.
Copyright Information ©
Copyright © John Lindeck (2020)
The right of John Lindeck to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The story, experiences, and words are author’s alone.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528990004 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528990011 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgement
Many people have assisted me by reading and commenting on this book or parts of it. Among those who come to mind are Barbara Bateman, Angela and Ian Beer, Penny Brookman, David Gegg, John Jackson, David James, John Mash, Nansi Parker, David Price, David Streater, John Taylor, Mike Vockins, John Woodger and Rob Hemmings from the Malvern Writers’ Circle. Valerie Houghton and Christine Bainton read the whole script to pick up the inconsistencies, spelling and grammatical errors which I had perpetrated. I am most grateful to them all.
Introduction
Christianity is about change. People encounter Jesus and their lives and personalities are altered, sometimes temporarily, sometimes forever. In the four gospels, we read about several individuals who met Jesus. Most came to hear the stories Jesus told and see the wonderful things he could do. Some have their physical or mental needs met. For a very few it was, literally, a matter of life or death. None would ever forget Jesus or his teaching.
In our church today, because we cannot actually see Jesus, our concentration is sometimes on the person who meets him. This book is an attempt to see what happened to some of the men and women Jesus met when he was on earth. Some had happy futures, others not. Some are major characters and some are bit players. In a way, the latter are more fun because there is greater scope for imagination.
What we read about these meetings is a snapshot of a moment. In many cases, we have no idea what happened before and we are left to guess what happened after. The writers of the gospels never met most of the characters about whom they wrote except on the occasions when these people saw Jesus. In this book I have attempted to show what led them to meet the Saviour and what difference it made. The gospel writers select and set down what they have been told because it helps to create the picture they want. They did not need to describe the feelings of those they were writing about. They do not need to describe the feelings of those involved.
I have used the first person in telling the stories in this book as this allows the characters to express their own thoughts and motivations and, in my view, helps to make the stories more understandable. What I found astonishing was that these people were all true to themselves. Each one had a strong and valid reason for behaving in the way they did. I found this greatly reassuring.
These stories are told as illustrations of Jesus’s ministry and explain what the disciples (and us) learn about him from the events described. The effect on the person with whom He was interacting is largely ignored. The Woman caught in Adultery is a good example. The last we read of her is when Jesus told her to change her way of life. Would she have been left alive but homeless, without money or clothes or any means of support, looking forward to a fate almost worse than being stoned? I don’t think so. Jesus was and still is extremely protective of the welfare of anyone he meets.
In the mid-twentieth century when I was young, the church’s emphasis was on conversion. Once people had been converted, they were all right; their eternal future was assured. As a result of not nurturing these new converts, many of them gave up their faith. Today, thankfully, there is more focus on the continuing spiritual journey of the convert and how a person can be helped. Perhaps we have now gone too far in looking at the changes in people’s lives rather than the cause of the change.
Throughout this book I want readers to understand what it was like to know Jesus, to be a member of his family or to meet him as he travelled around, mainly in Galilee. Several things quickly become clear from these studies.
Mary was a woman like the rest of us. She had feelings and regrets. She felt the same pain and the same joy. If she was not like us, the idea of Jesus as a normal human goes out of the window and the whole basis of the gospel (he became man and dwelt among us) is changed.
Jesus was human. He got hurt, he grew tired, he was let down, he laughed and he loved and was loved. We have no idea what happened in the fifteen or so years when Jesus lived as a grown-up in his local community in Nazareth. Did he have girlfriends? Did he take a leading role in the synagogue? We don’t know the answer to these or many other questions, but if he didn’t go through the same joys and problems as the rest of us, he wasn’t fully human and the whole gospel is meaningless. It is only because he was like us yet without blemish that his sacrifice was acceptable. He chose to live as a pauper and die as a criminal.
It was not easy to keep Jesus safe until the appointed time of his death. From his conception, through his early childhood and then during his ministry as an itinerant teacher/healer, his life was under constant threat and God had to take special measures to protect him.
A new perspective on the gospel emerges. Things which might otherwise be missed are thrown into a high profile. Maybe this will help readers to see and understand the story more clearly. What is obvious is that the people alive in New Testament times were not that different from us in their reaction to what was happening around them. You will certainly recognise likenesses to people you know today in many of them.
The extent of Jesus’s care for the people he met was extraordinary. If he saw a need, Jesus’s instinct was to meet it, often without any obvious request from the person he was helping. He saw what needed to be done and he did it. He spent his time with the ordinary people and he would do anything he possibly could to make their lives easier. No-one was turned away. We tend to imagine Jesus in monochrome – one dimensional. We see him as an icon, not a flesh and blood figure but he was vibrant and fun to be with. He loved to laugh and was often reduced to tears. Do you think that as he watched the boy at Nain struggling to get out of his coffin, Jesus kept a straight face? Did he not share the joy of the friends of the paralysed boy who they had lowered through the roof? I love the times when, as with the ‘crookback woman’, he helped because of his overflowing love and without being asked. He saw a desperate need and he took pity. Why does the modern church spend so much time considering what it should do and debating matters of principle rather than getting alongside people as Jesus taught?
I have doubts about the traditional version of the Christmas story. Joseph was returning to the village where his family lived and were highly respected as the descendants of the royal family of David. If there really was no room with any of his relatives in the village, Mary could have gone on to her cousin, Elizabeth who lived nearby. There is certainly no mention of an innkeeper or an inn in the gospels – only that Jesus was laid in a manger. A small and insignificant farming village of, possibly, 500 people, would have no need for a residential hotel. The idea of a Premier Inn or Travel Lodge in the middle of Bethlehem High Street seems odd. In his book ‘Jesus through Middle Easte