What will the terms be?

Politicians are wrangling in Washington over what the terms of a "stimulus" bill should be.  What terms should be given banks in order to receive billions?  We are told CEOs will have to live up to strict terms regarding their future compensation laid down by the president.  Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, essentially told Republicans they had little to say about terms when she flaunted, "We won the election."  In other words, you lost, too bad for you.  We set the terms.

The language of terms is a feature of the law.

On the one hand, generous terms are welcomed as they were by defeated Confederate soldiers given parole and their private horses after Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant.  "This will have a very happy effect on my army," Lee said.  

Harsh terms, however, are common in history.  The Treaty of Versailles ending W.W.I had terms intended to further weaken a Germany already trounced.  In the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, the Soviet Union took for itself a large portion of Finland with very harsh provisions.  Today, any terms for peace between Israel and the Palestinians won't even be discussed until other terms simply governing talks are met.

In his hometown of Nazareth, the locals were willing to be generous with Jesus as long as he was on a leash and would come to terms.  It is said, "all spoke well of him."  They acknowledged his local roots, "Is not this Joseph's son?"  But there were terms.

If Jesus thinks he can stand up among his immediate neighbors and claim to be the Anointed One of God, with the gifts of good news to the poor, release for the captives, sight for the blind, liberty for the oppressed, and the reality of God setting all things right through his coming, he must consent to certain terms before they will accept such authority.

He must deliver here in Nazareth some of the "pork" so far given out too much in Capernaum.  He must earn acknowledgement and concessions.  They demanded miracles.  He must make good on their terms.  And if Jesus is going to presume to teach to them, to call for repentance, and to offer even non-Jews (detested Gentile Sidonians and Syrians) the favor they believed God reserved only for Jews, they were prepared to be harsh.

They only thought within the framework of law according to conditions:

       1.  We set the terms.  You dance to our tune.

       2.  Stay in your place.  Remember you are the carpenter's son until we say otherwise.

3.  And get yourself right first, Jesus.  Heal yourself, bud.  Get in line with our thinking before you expect us ever to grant you the last word.

But Jesus would not accept these terms, not because they were to his disadvantage, or even because they were to the detriment of Nazareth itself.  It is because Jesus didn't come to negotiate terms.  He didn't come to parley with the Jews but to give gifts.  He didnt come to adjudicate terms but to proclaim peace all around.

Jesus didn't come as just another expounder of the prophetic Word but as the authentic and authoritative fulfillment of that Word.  He is Himself sight for the blind, emancipation for the captive, righteousness for the sinner, pardon for the reprobate, good for the good-for-nothing, and resurrection for the dead.

He comes without terms and gives without condition.  Jesus sets no stipulations on God's grace and mercy.  He comes for Gentiles as well as Jews.  He doesn't heal according to categories or constituencies.  He doesn't favor parties.  He doesn't use the Law as a script to decide who will be fortunate and who will remain wretched.

God supplied the widow of Zarephath and healed Naaman, the Syrian, both undeserving foreigners.  What does that teach you?  That the language of the Law is never God's final Word. 

Laying down terms we cannot carry out is not God's way of ministry or His means of granting life.  Neither would He submit to the shallow discounted terms set out there in Nazareth.  How easy that would have been.  How cheap and painless just to perform some miracles, stroke their partisan pride, and shelve God's aim of blessing all.

Instead Jesus experienced the precursor of what would ultimately befall him.  In the wrath and resolve to kill him, the town rose up and drove Jesus to the brow of a hill, an antecedent of Golgatha, to execute their terms.

Jesus failed them.

But He would not fail the unconditional, "no-terms-stipulated" grace of God which ultimately cost him his life so that you and I may stand before God and be received in unqualified love and complete clemency.

So, what will the terms be for us to be forgiven and enter eternal life?

There are none in Christ. 

This is more than God offering generous terms.  He gives you Himself.