Delicious Irony

Well, Rocky and I just got back from a romp in the woods and the song "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" popped into my head. After a little searching on YouTube, I found this video--starring Hugh Jackman (the "Wolverine") as Curly. He's got quite a voice. Enjoy!




Here's the question and answer from yesterday:
From what nation did Ezra come? What did the king grant to him and why? (Ezra 7)
Ezra 7:6 this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him.

And here's the question of the day:
What is Simon’s reaction when, at Jesus’ command, they lower their nets and they caught such a large number of fish their nets began to break? (Luke 5)

And here's the reflection of the day:
A commentator, named R. Alan Culpepper, points out a little thread which runs through Luke 5. It's a quiet little thread that in the end packs a big punch. That thread is irony (Culpepper, NIB Commentary, Luke). Irony is one of the literary devices I appreciate most because it takes a clever author to use irony effectively.

The charge the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were trying to establish against Jesus was "blasphemy." Now, according to www.dictionary.com, blasphemy is an "impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things." They were trying to acccuse Jesus of saying disrespectful and irreverant things about God because he was running around doing the things they assumed only God could do. So, in their minds, Jesus was "blaspheming" God because he was putting himself on the same level as God, particularly when it came to forgiving sins.

What Jesus did was unheard of. It was outrageous. And, in the minds of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, it needed to be stopped.

The irony thread bursts through the plot beginning at verse 18. Some men arrive carrying a paralytic on a mat. Unable to get through the door of the house where Jesus was, they climbed up to the roof and lowered him down through the ceiling. Jesus proclaims the man forgiven of his sins--probably not exactly what the paralytic was expecting.

Let me pause here and ask: who was the audience in this scene? Verse 17 says, "One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and from Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there." So it's the very people accusing Jesus of blasphemy who are watching this unfold in front of them. Keep that in mind.

Jesus takes a moment to address the concerns the Pharisees and teachers of the law had. He doesn't relieve them of their concern however; if anything, he increases it. They think to themselves "The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speak blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (verse 21) He identifies himself as the "Son of Man" who has authority to forgive sins. Then he tells the paralytic to stand up and walk.

So, here's the irony in verse 26, "Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, 'We have seen remarkable things today.'"

Did you catch that? "EVERYONE was amazed and gave praise to God." Everyone--even the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were amazed and gave praise to God!

They were trying to accuse Jesus of disparaging or denying God's glory; yet what Jesus did, by their own admission, glorified God! The charge of blasphemy is dismissed because it has been proven false by those seeking to prove it. Isn't that delicious irony?

What's more, the real blasphemy in this story is identified as the resistance to Jesus' ministry. The real blasphemers were the ones trying to point the finger at Jesus.

I hope that you're starting to pick up on some of these little threads as we continue the "Year of the Bible." There is so much depth to God's Word that we can only scratch the surface. But hopefully, as we continue to study it, we will begin to understand the "deep things of God" (1 Cor 2:10).