PASSIONATE FAITH

My warmest greetings and blessings from sunny Florida!

I’ve been having some ongoing discussions about faith and hope with a good friend of mine in France. We’ve been meeting on Zoom on a weekly basis for several years and usually challenge and motivate each other in all kinds of excellent ways. I love these meetings. After our discussion this week, I feel quite compelled to share a little of what we’ve been discussing with you. This particular conversation began last week with one verse in Matthew that uses a very singular Greek word.

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12 NKJV

Here is how that passage reads in The Passion translation

From the moment John stepped onto the scene until now, the realm of Heaven’s kingdom is bursting forth, and passionate people have taken hold of its power.

The Greek word Jesus used in this verse does not appear anywhere else in the New Testament. That fact alone immediately arrests my attention. It’s the Greek word biastés (bee-as-tace') and, in my opinion, the English word violent is perhaps not the ideal English translation for that word. Here is the actual definition.

“One who uses violence, or is impetuous; one who is forceful in eager pursuit.”

For me, The Passion translation makes more sense, but we’ll see if you agree with me. The other phrase in that passage to pay close attention to is “The Kingdom of Heaven”. That term (The Kingdom of God is used interchangeably) occurs about 100 times in the New Testament and I believe it needs to be pondered very carefully. After all, both John and Jesus often began their sermons with the phrase, repent because the Kingdom of God has finally arrived.

When pondering biastés, I immediately thought of one of Jesus’ miracles. Here is the narrative from Luke 8, but it’s also recorded in the other synoptic gospels too.

While Jesus was on his way to Jairus’ house, the people were crowding all around him. A woman was in the crowd who had been bleeding for twelve years, but no one was able to heal her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his coat, and instantly her bleeding stopped.

Then Jesus said, “Who touched me?”
When all the people said they had not touched him, Peter said,
“Master, the people are all around you and are pushing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone did touch me, because I felt power go out from me.”
When the woman saw she could not hide, she came forward, shaking, and fell down before Jesus. While all the people listened, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.
Jesus said to her, “Dear woman, you are made well because you believed. Go in peace.”

So, here is this woman who had been culturally “unclean” for twelve years. Imagine that for a moment. Put yourself in her shoes if you can. She was not actually allowed to be out in public and undoubtedly suffered a great deal of rejection, persecution and shame because of her condition. In spite of all the cultural pressure against her, she came out of her seclusion, forced her way through the pressing crowd that surrounded Jesus and literally seized her miracle by force. I think this is a great example of biastés. Nothing was going to stop this gal and I love it.

Of course, this idea made me think of the account of blind Bartimaeus, also recorded in all three synoptic gospels. Bartimaeus was doing his normal daily routine of roadside begging and heard that Jesus was walking by, so he started shouting out, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” In spite of the people around him rebuking him and telling him to be quiet, he shouted out even more. Bartimaeus refused to be silenced. That sounds a whole lot like biastés to me.

Compare these two accounts of passionate determination with the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. The man had been lame for 38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?"

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

This comparison gets me to my point.

The lame man at the pool certainly had plenty of hope. He also had plenty of patience, he’d been waiting there at the pool for years. Both of those characteristics are really great, but when the Son of God asked the man if he wanted to get well, the man’s response was really pitiful to me. There was absolutely no biastés in this man at that point. Of course, Jesus is ultimately loving and merciful and healed the man anyway.
When I start thinking about how many biblical stories there are (probably hundreds) of men and women who were absolutely passionate in their faith, it paints a very interesting picture of what hope, faith and then strong determination can look like.

Of course, the woman who was bleeding and Bartimaeus both had hope.
“I sure hope I get healed someday.”
They both allowed their hope to grow into faith, though.
“I believe that Jesus can heal me.”
Then, they both allowed their faith to grow into a strong determination that motivated both of them into very determined action. One might even call their actions violent.
The man at the pool also had hope.
“I hope someone feels sorry enough for me that they’ll help me into the pool.”
Years and years later, even when approached by Jesus himself, withering and fading hope was the only thing the man possessed.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when a desire is fulfilled, it is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12

Hope is a wonderful starting point, but it is a terrible destination. According to this verse in Proverbs, hope that is unrealized or deferred for too long actually makes your heart… sick. The lame man was also a sick man. His deferred hope had done that.

In my life I have met many people who were heartsick over deferred hope. People who almost always lacked any glimmer of biastés. This doesn’t just apply to physical healing either. This characteristic is primarily the passionate, determined pursuit of the Kingdom of God, which is clearly defined as Righteousness, Peace and Joy.

This next passage has to be one of the most chilling and even gut-wrenching (for me) examples of what violent and passionate determination can look like. It is hope that turned into faith that turned into a fiery flame of biastés that nothing could stop. I encourage you to read this passage out loud.

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” I Samuel 17: 45-47

David was only a kid. The entire Israelite army was terrified of Goliath and David only had a few rocks to fight with, but he also had a lion’s share of biastés. I really want that! How many giants of fear and resistance am I willing to face in my modern life? I’ll probably never have to face a nine foot giant who is trying to behead me, but we all constantly face innumerable pressures in our lives and we all really need to allow our faith to blossom into a strong determination that just can’t be stopped. If you have any questions, comments or want to talk further about this topic, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Blessings and LOVE
Russell Cederberg
www.rcederberg.com