Author Archives: reveds

Unknown's avatar

About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

What, will these hands ne’er be clean?

Posted on by
Reply

I had the privilege to serve as the timer for the regional High School One-Act competition yesterday, and was treated to an excellent one-act adaptation of Macbeth, told as a cautionary tale to children. It was delightful, entertaining, and best of all – brief.

Those who are familiar with the Shakespeare know the story: in a quest for power, prompted by the deceptive witches, egged on by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the crown for himself. The rest of the play shows how their guilt is their undoing, as Macbeth and his wife descend into madness and cover their guilt will more murder and treachery.

Notably, Lady Macbeth, plagued by her guilty conscience, begins sleepwalking, rubbing her hands as if washing them, certain that the blood of Duncan was on her hands for all to see. No amount of water would cleanse her of her guilt, but still she cries:

Out, damned spot! out, I say!–One: two: why,
then, ’tis time to do’t.–Hell is murky!–Fie, my
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?–Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him…
What, will these hands ne’er be clean?–No more o’
that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with
this starting…
Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh!
(Macbeth Act 5, Scene 1)

While we’re familiar with the scene, and have probably quoted it when trying to get the spaghetti stain out of the white shirt, there really is a greater spiritual truth at play here.

In the account of the crucifixion of Jesus in Matthew 27, Pilate brings Jesus before the people, finding no guilt in Him worthy of death. He wants nothing to do with Jesus, but the masses demand his death, willing even to trade Jesus for the murderous Barabbas.

In a chilling scene, Pilate washes his hands of the whole affair, while the people respond, “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). Consumed with a lust for death, the people call down a curse upon themselves.

And the curse is fulfilled. All who reject Jesus as the Son of God who died for their sins bear the guilt of his death. His blood is on the hands of all who do not believe as a sign of their guilt on the day of judgment.

When preaching in the Temple on Pentecost, and later in Solomon’s Portico, Peter comes back to this curse that was upon the people: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men…” (Acts 2:23), and “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life…” (Acts 3:14). There’s no indication that the same people who were in the Temple crying for Jesus’ death at the Passover were the same people in the Temple at Pentecost, or Solomon’s Portico later. But Peter is saying that all who do not repent and believe in Jesus have his blood-guilt upon their hands.

Indeed, John writes, “whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:18-19).

We’re like Lady Macbeth; though not there to do the evil deed, our hands are covered with blood. No amount of washing will remove the stain. No perfume will hide the scent of death. So how can we be clean?

Interestingly, we come clean only through the blood of Jesus. 1 John says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:7–9). Like the blood of the Passover Lamb, we are covered in the blood of Christ to spare us from God’s judgment and wrath (Ex 12:23). Like the priest of the Old Testament, we are anointed, set apart, as God’s holy people by the blood of the lamb (Ex 29:21).

One way or another, we will have blood upon us. Either we will have the blood of Christ on our hands in the guilt of our faithless rejection of Him as our Lord and Savior, or we will be washed in the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.

If only the Bard could have directed Lady Macbeth to the Word of God. Perhaps she could have sung a new verse:

What can wash away my sin? 
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
What can make me whole again? 
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
O precious is the flow 
that makes me white as snow; 
no other fount I know; 
nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

SDG

A Charge to Elders Everywhere

Posted on by
Reply

While attending to my normal Wednesday duties here in the office this morning, I had the broadcast of the Presidential Inauguration playing in the background. I am always struck by the simplicity of the presidential oath of office; to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Biden is now the 46th President to be sworn in under this oath, and while each President enters the office with his own agenda for the presidency, each has the same oath, to defend the constitution of the United States of America.

By God’s providence, I happened to be in the midst of my daily Bible reading at the time of the inauguration. Today’s reading had me in Acts 20, Paul’s farewell address to the Ephesians. Much like the oath of office, Paul gives a charge to those who would serve as Elders (overseers) of the Church.

“Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

Few passages of Scripture serve such a charge to those who have been called by God to minister to His Church as this in Acts 20. The Apostle Paul, setting his sights to Jerusalem, knowing that there he would be arrested and afflicted (20:22), bids farewell to the Christians in Ephesus. He reminds them of his ministry there, how he labored among them to preach and declare the whole counsel of God (20:27), testifying to the gospel of the grace of God (20:24).

Once gone, Paul knew that the Church would face great obstacles. He knew that fierce wolves, false teachers, would come into the flock to deceive and destroy them. He even said that some would rise up from among them, twisting and corrupting their teaching in order to lead disciples away from faithful obedience to Jesus. Knowing such days were coming, how did Paul charge the elders?

  1. They were to pay careful attention to themselves and to the flock. The word here for “attention” means to consider carefully, to examine. Those who are called to oversee the flock must be on guard, carefully watching over them, as a shepherd would. A shepherd keeps watch, making sure that predators don’t get in among the fold, that the sheep don’t stray and fall into danger, and that the flock is well fed. This is the care of the shepherd, the spiritual oversight of the elder. To ensure that the wolves don’t come in to tear the Church apart, that false teaching doesn’t lead them astray, and that the people are continually fed the nourishing words of life.
    But what’s notable here is that the shepherd must carefully examine himself first, before caring for the flock. The shepherd must be fed by the whole counsel, protected by the gospel of God’s grace, lest he become one of the ravenous wolves himself. “Pay careful attention to yourself and to the flock,” Paul says, because if the shepherd is led astray, the sheep have no hope.
  2. Secondly, Paul reminds the elders that is was the Holy Spirit who made them to be overseers. The office of an overseer in the Church is first and foremost an office of Spiritual Care, and those who are called to serve are to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and must rest in the Spirit’s continual provision for ministry. This is not a worldly office, where having the right degree, the necessary personality and skill sets, will bring success. It is, rather, the Spirit who equips and qualifies Elders for their service, and their service will thus be marked by spiritual qualities: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5: . The role of the elder, while one of authority, is ministerial and declarative, that is, any authority we have is in the proclamation of the gospel and calling others to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We begin the ministry of the elder in the call of the Spirit, and we never advance beyond our need for the Holy Spirit’s continued guidance and provision.
  3. Finally, Paul reminds the elders that they are serving God’s Church, obtained with the precious blood of Christ Jesus our Savior. The Church the overseer serves is not his Church. The pastor may stay 3 years or 30, but it is not his Church. The elder may be been born and raised in the Church, invested hours of service and generous contributions, but the Church is still God’s Church. The Church, the flock, God’s people were purchased with the blood of Christ, who died upon the cross to atone for their sins and to save them from the wrath they deserved under God’s righteous judgment. They have been set apart as His people, His particular possession (Ex 19:5; 1 Pet 2:9), as the bride who is awaiting the bridegroom (Eph 5:27). The overseers do not have ownership of the Church, but are to serve as stewards, caretakers, awaiting the arrival of the groom.

Many Churches, like the one I serve, have elections for their new officers at the beginning of the year. As the President is sworn into office, pledging to protect and defend the constitution of our nation, let us pray that God would grant the President the grace and strength to execute the calling of his office. May we also pray that God would continue to raise up elders who will faithfully and carefully tend to themselves and to God’s Church, led by the Spirit to declare the whole counsel of God through the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ.

SDG