loaded questions and God's redemption jokes

so Jesus challenges his followers with a loaded question.

'what good will it be for a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul?' (matthew 16.26)

he challenges them to think bigger than

he challenges them to dream bolder than

he challenges them to love deeper than

anything they can possibly pull off on their own steam.

unfortunately, he has to die and resurrect himself before anybody actually gets it. he's not joking... or maybe he is. perhaps it's just that these humble followers have such an earthly perspective that a punchline with a heavenly accent fails to register. humour is so cultural- so subjective.

(some further thoughts on God's sense of humour and how we fail to recognize his best jokes can be found here )

whatever the case, years later, paul choses, instead, to lose his life for Christ’s sake (Matthew 10.39) and in so doing, find the realization of God’s purposes for the time he has left.

having been a both a roman citizen AND a jewish pharisee, ‘breathing murderous threats’ against the followers of Christ; having been actively involved in the persecution that ultimately drove Christianity out of its Neonatal ICU of Jerusalem and into the rest of the world (unwittingly spreading the Gospel far beyond the borders of anything that is manageable for temple authorities to suppress... another one of God's jokes) paul meets God face to face on the killing road and lets it all go.

so when, on his second missionary journey, he receives a vision from God, he acts upon it immediately, (acts 16.9-13) to Macedonia. because of its proximity to the sea as well as to one of the major roads to europe, philippi is a commercial centre of macedonia.

once in philippi, paul leads his group down to the river, for this is where praying takes place in towns that have too few Jewish households to erect a synagogue... makes sense: in many places in scripture, but most pointedly in accounts of israel's exodus and ultimate arrival in the promised land and in writings of the prophet ezekiel, the river is a rich symbol of the Holy Spirit as well as God’s cleansing, anointing and life-giving resource and hope.

paul, arriving in town, seeking to plant a church there, waits until the Sabbath and then seeks out the praying people where he knows they will be. his hans landa-type detective skills also serve him well as a church planter.

and God laughs

(NOTE: the comparisons between the apostle paul and fictional nazi colonel, hans landa are really quite strong: The Jew Hunter)