Paulson Post

Jesus' question in Mark 10:51 "What do you want me to do for you?" is baffling. Jesus knows everything, moreover the man who is crying to him is obviously blind and needs healing. Why then this question; Jesus cannot be that dumb! The blind beggar in Jericho (Mark 10:46-52) was engaged in something demeaning. His name is mentioned in the Bible as Bartimaeus, which means son of honor. Though "a son of honor" he was doing the most dishonorable profession of begging in the city of Jericho. When Jesus met him he was begging. His style of begging (like all beggars do) is to catch people's attention by crying loud "have mercy on me" so that they can throw a coin in to his bowl. He did the same thing when Jesus passed by in the company of a large crowd. This time he did not just cry "have mercy on me" but was more specific because his plea was aimed at Jesus and not the crowd. He cries, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" However...

Tolerance is allowing different viewpoints to exist and thrive without causing them any harm. It comes from respect and love for the different views. Tolerance is possible even if the opposite point of view may hurt our views and may threaten the existence of ours. Often times we mistake accommodation for tolerance ignoring the subtle difference between the two. Accommodating is an outcome of tolerance but need not always be. Usually we can accommodate what we can put up with but it is difficult to accommodate anything that is not congenial. The other day while watching the National Geographic channel I came across a leopard and a young gazelle. The gazelle was just born and has just been able to stand on its feet. The leopard had it between its front legs; the young gazelle looked fearless, the leopard was unconcerned and was looking elsewhere as if he was not interested in the tender prey. It presented the picture of the peace that prophet Isaiah had prophesied about whe...

She was young, beautiful, and healthy and she had a loving husband. The car accident changed all that. She was in hospital for many months fighting for her life. She survived finally but as an invalid, paralysed waste down and limited to her wheelchair. That was the end of her marriage too as her husband walked away from her life. The marriage covenant that they made to stick to each other "until death part us" was broken. It was a test of her husband's faithfulness to the marriage promise. Marriage is most evidently the area where faithfulness is tested. Relationship outside marriage where faithfulness is divided is common these days. However, faithfulness is indivisible, it is exclusive, whether it is faithfulness in marriage or in any other areas. If we search for a perfect example of faithfulness we will arrive at the biblical image of God as the faithful God. In the Bible, God is given as the model of faithfulness. God's faithfulness is what we are ...

One of the remarkable features of the Judeo-Christian religions including Islam is the ban on idols. The Jewish scriptures prohibit the making of idols and the worship of any objects representing God. Biblical Christianity has continued the same tradition. Islam standing in the same religious traditions has the same emphasis. However, this never banned art from these religions. Christian church has a great tradition of promoting sculpture and painting. Islamic art is also rich. Nevertheless, some Christian churches have gone quite far from its original ethos of an iconoclastic religion to the veneration of the cross and praying before the images of saints. Those who use idols or images in worship argue that these help in focussing their thoughts on God. The argument is that the worship is not offered to the idols but to the deity represented by the idols. Biblical Christianity, however, advocate a spirituality that does not require crutches. Their object of worship is Jesus...

"Love your neighbour as yourself" has been a great teaching that no pious Jew ever questioned. However, the range of its meaning was certainly in doubt. That is why a lawyer once stood up in one of the teaching sessions of Jesus and asked, "Who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:29). The story that Jesus told him was to illustrate the meaning of neighbor. He told him the story that we now call the Story of the Good Samaritan. There was a man who was attacked by the robbers who left him on the road that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho to die. All sorts of people passed by this man but no one except a Samaritan helped him and saved his life. The priest and the Levite who passed him by without lending him any help were closer to him in every way. They were from the same race (Jews) and belonged to the same religion (Judaism) and most probably lived somewhere around that area. However, as far as Jews are concerned the Samaritan was an outcast and foreigner. He must have liv...

Down through the centuries the followers of Christ have set examples of being kind through their service to humanity all over the world. Numerous hospitals, orphanages, schools and colleges in places where there was no health care and proper education are examples of kindness that is integral to the followers of Christ. Kindness is love in action. In 1 Corinthians 13:4 Saint Paul wrote, " Love is patient and is kind...." If Christian love is a coin, then patience and kindness are the two sides of that coin. A coin cannot exist unless it has two sides! This also means that the real kindness proceeds from the real love. What type of love would produce kindness? First of all, there is contemplative love, where love is a feeling. This love, seeks and cherishes all that is lovable. Human beings has the tremendous capacity to love anything even animals of different kinds. Humans are the only creatures who keep pets! It does not move beyond the thoughts or feelings of love to...

The life of and life in modern Christian churches, with all the dissensions, hatred and disunity is certainly shameful. That is not what Christians are called to, they are called to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit is the natural outcome of a Spirit-led life. It is characterisctic of a Spirit-filled life. The foremost of this is love (Gal 5:22). Though Paul listed love in Galatians 5:22 he best exposits it in his first correspondence to the church in Corinth. Love is the hallmark of Christ-disciples: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Three redherrings of true love are spirituality, charity and self-sacrifice" (John 13:35). However, Christians tend to wear different masks that look like love which Paul criticizes very caustically in the great poem on love in 1 Corinthians 13. First of these masks is false spirituality. Christians who fail to love each other as Christ loved them tend to wear a mask of ...