Recently, to justify my unforgiving spirit, I reasoned the following:
"What was done to me was hurtful."
"It has happened repeatedly. It's becoming a cycle."
"I won't forgive you any more just because you say a simple, 'I'm sorry.'"
"I need more than that."
I even thought of the "preacher story" of the lying post. Everytime the child told a lie, the dad drove a nail into a fencepost out back of the house. When he asked forgiveness Dad pulled a nail. But the wound, the hole remained. Forgiveness doesn't fix everything.
Then my hardness of heart is exposed by the Holy Spirit whispering the words of the Lord to Peter, "70 times 7 times..." He leads me to the truth of my part in this frustrating cycle. Matthew records Peter asking Jesus how many times he must forgive someone who wrongs him. Jesus replies 70 times 7 times. Luke records Jesus saying if a person sins against us 7 times in one day and turns to us asking forgiveness, we are to forgive them each time.
I don't get to keep a tally sheet. I don't get to assess sincerity. I don't get to set a timer or deadline. I don't get to ask for more than that.
The sameness of the offence, the mutliple times, frequency of repeated hurt does not alter my requirement to forgive. To with hold forgiveness is not an option. The simple, "sorry..." is enough.
I do need more, however. More grace, more mercy, more of God's life in me. The One who calls me to be this forgiving, to live without lists, to function free of grudges is the One who has forgiven so much more in me, zeroes out my account and allows me to live free. So I ask Him to forgive my unforgiveness and as He does, grace and forgiveness flow through me and it washes away that small thing I was trying to hold over someone else. He extracted no price, He paid it for me.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Raised With Christ
He is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Alleluia!
So begins the season of resurrection. Jesus died. Jesus is alive again.
Paul says Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification. Sin, the deadly infection permiating and poisoning every aspect of our being and behavior was destroyed on the cross. Sin itself, not sinners -- individually or collectively -- was condemned in Jesus body. The power of sin was broken. We are free to live.
The resurrection justifies us. It is "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned. The record is cleared.I can now walk in newness of life. I can be fresh.
Paul further says that at our baptism we are united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. This Resurrection Sunday, I was privileged to preach then practice this truth. Four young people from Faith Community Church entered a watery grave with Jesus and rose to new life in Him.
Hallelujah! He lives and we live in Him!
Alleluia!
So begins the season of resurrection. Jesus died. Jesus is alive again.
Paul says Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification. Sin, the deadly infection permiating and poisoning every aspect of our being and behavior was destroyed on the cross. Sin itself, not sinners -- individually or collectively -- was condemned in Jesus body. The power of sin was broken. We are free to live.
The resurrection justifies us. It is "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned. The record is cleared.I can now walk in newness of life. I can be fresh.
Paul further says that at our baptism we are united with Jesus in His death and resurrection. This Resurrection Sunday, I was privileged to preach then practice this truth. Four young people from Faith Community Church entered a watery grave with Jesus and rose to new life in Him.
Hallelujah! He lives and we live in Him!
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...39
Last day of Lent. The journey ends. Jesus exits the wilderness.
Luke 4 records that Jesus then returned to His hometown of Nazareth and delares, "...no prophet is accepted in his hometown." He then looks at some examples from the life of Elijah, the oft connected one. Many Israeli widows lived in destitution during Elijah's ministry, but Elijah was sent [by God] to the Sidonite widow at Zarephath. There were many unhealed lepers in Israel during this same time, but only Naaman a Syrian was cleansed.
His hometown people become so furious they try to throw Him off a cliff.
As I leave the wilderness and Lent behind, I must realize this spiritually intense time, like all time, must come to an end. What God has affirmed during these days will be directly attacked by the enemy most likely through those close to me. Father-God declared Him accepted, but the hometown crowd rejected Him. Father-God declared Him well-pleasing, those in hometown crowd are unpleased to the point of anger. Father-God declares Him beloved, the hometown crowd questions His paternity.
God leads us into these places in order to buttress us for the coming challenge. God leads us out of these places in order to do His work in His world. Without the preparation, we implode. Unless we act, the preparation implodes.We must be people of withdrawal and advance, people of contemplation and activity.
Why only one widow ministered to? God's leading. Why only one leper cleansed? God's plan. Outsiders become insiders by the sheer mercy of God. We cannot claim it, only receive it. And the wilderness teaches us to wait.
Finally, this moment in the synagogue of Nazareth teaches that Jesus in the power of the Spirit carries out the Word of the Father and the outsiders can come in.
Luke 4 records that Jesus then returned to His hometown of Nazareth and delares, "...no prophet is accepted in his hometown." He then looks at some examples from the life of Elijah, the oft connected one. Many Israeli widows lived in destitution during Elijah's ministry, but Elijah was sent [by God] to the Sidonite widow at Zarephath. There were many unhealed lepers in Israel during this same time, but only Naaman a Syrian was cleansed.
His hometown people become so furious they try to throw Him off a cliff.
As I leave the wilderness and Lent behind, I must realize this spiritually intense time, like all time, must come to an end. What God has affirmed during these days will be directly attacked by the enemy most likely through those close to me. Father-God declared Him accepted, but the hometown crowd rejected Him. Father-God declared Him well-pleasing, those in hometown crowd are unpleased to the point of anger. Father-God declares Him beloved, the hometown crowd questions His paternity.
God leads us into these places in order to buttress us for the coming challenge. God leads us out of these places in order to do His work in His world. Without the preparation, we implode. Unless we act, the preparation implodes.We must be people of withdrawal and advance, people of contemplation and activity.
Why only one widow ministered to? God's leading. Why only one leper cleansed? God's plan. Outsiders become insiders by the sheer mercy of God. We cannot claim it, only receive it. And the wilderness teaches us to wait.
Finally, this moment in the synagogue of Nazareth teaches that Jesus in the power of the Spirit carries out the Word of the Father and the outsiders can come in.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...38
Jesus fasted forty days. Those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers fast, too. Bearing His name implies imitating His behaviors as well as trusting to His mercy and grace.
Jesus literally went without food during His forty days. Two other men are recorded practicing total abstinence from food: Moses and Elijah.The work of God in establishing the Law, the Prophets and the New Covenant all proceed from a season of intense fasting. Fasting proves a prerequisite for these major new stages in His-Story (Bob Black-ism.)
When the first church began, it too was preceeded by a season of intense prayer. The first followers held up in the upper room prayerfully waiting the Gift, the Holy Spirit. The miraculous response of 3000 to the Gospel that day grows out of that season.
I am challenged today to think about my prayer life. How intense? How specific? How integrated? Do I just say words or do I lay everything aside in pursuit of an answer from God? Are my prayers ineffectual and powerless due to so little intentionality and fervor?
The very Son of God did not begin His life's work without FIRST being lead by the Spirit to seek the Father's will and power. To my shame, I see too many sermon series planned and preached and prayed for later. I see too often I set in motion activity and then pray for blessing.
Lord, forgive my lack of prayer priority, my weak work, my lukewarm lack of intensity.
Jesus literally went without food during His forty days. Two other men are recorded practicing total abstinence from food: Moses and Elijah.The work of God in establishing the Law, the Prophets and the New Covenant all proceed from a season of intense fasting. Fasting proves a prerequisite for these major new stages in His-Story (Bob Black-ism.)
When the first church began, it too was preceeded by a season of intense prayer. The first followers held up in the upper room prayerfully waiting the Gift, the Holy Spirit. The miraculous response of 3000 to the Gospel that day grows out of that season.
I am challenged today to think about my prayer life. How intense? How specific? How integrated? Do I just say words or do I lay everything aside in pursuit of an answer from God? Are my prayers ineffectual and powerless due to so little intentionality and fervor?
The very Son of God did not begin His life's work without FIRST being lead by the Spirit to seek the Father's will and power. To my shame, I see too many sermon series planned and preached and prayed for later. I see too often I set in motion activity and then pray for blessing.
Lord, forgive my lack of prayer priority, my weak work, my lukewarm lack of intensity.
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...37
Jesus, filled and lead by the Spirit, spent forty days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. Even if Satan intended to lead Jesus the Son of Man to sidetrack into sin, Jesus the Son of God could not be tempted by evil. This experience proved in practical terms the declaration by the Father concerning Jesus. Jesus passes the testing.
How did Jesus repel the advances of the devil? By quoting Scripture. He passed His testing by being well-versed and totally dependent on the Word of God. He carried out His confession and "live[d]...on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 8.3 quoted in Matthew 4.4 NIV.)
At each suggestion of Satan, Jesus confesses an appropriate passage. Rather than believe a lie, Jesus trusts to the Truth of God's Word. Like Mary in the Magnificat Jesus has fully integrated the Scriptures and they flow out naturally and fittingly to the situation at hand. He has hidden the "word in [His] heart" (Psalm 119.11 NIV.)
Paul, a first-generation follower of Jesus, teaches us of the importance of the Word in our struggle against the devil. In Ephesians 6.17 he refers to the Word as "the sword of the Spirit." Of all the armor of God discussed in this letter, only the sword provides offensive weaponry. The rest protects passively. The writer of Hebrews* also uses the analogy of a sword to describe the effectiveness of the Word. "For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword..." (Hebrews 4.12 NIV.)
We who claim to be Christ-followers must be people of The Book. We must commit to reading it. So very few have read it cover to cover. We must commit to memorizing it. Hiding it in our hearts stores up the truth for the day of testing. We must have so integrated our thinking (meditation) and living (application) to the Scripture that when under pressure, it oozes out of us. Certainly the Jesus we follow did so and it showed in the wilderness.
*The unknown writer could have been Paul, Apollos, Priscillla or anyone. This is the only book in all of Sacred Scripture to which I apply the phrase "the writer of." Most often that phrase connotes a textual/historic critisism view of Scripture that undermines its inerrant and infallible, fully God-breathed nature by asserting the authorship, and thus authority, of the document is questionable.
How did Jesus repel the advances of the devil? By quoting Scripture. He passed His testing by being well-versed and totally dependent on the Word of God. He carried out His confession and "live[d]...on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Deuteronomy 8.3 quoted in Matthew 4.4 NIV.)
At each suggestion of Satan, Jesus confesses an appropriate passage. Rather than believe a lie, Jesus trusts to the Truth of God's Word. Like Mary in the Magnificat Jesus has fully integrated the Scriptures and they flow out naturally and fittingly to the situation at hand. He has hidden the "word in [His] heart" (Psalm 119.11 NIV.)
Paul, a first-generation follower of Jesus, teaches us of the importance of the Word in our struggle against the devil. In Ephesians 6.17 he refers to the Word as "the sword of the Spirit." Of all the armor of God discussed in this letter, only the sword provides offensive weaponry. The rest protects passively. The writer of Hebrews* also uses the analogy of a sword to describe the effectiveness of the Word. "For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword..." (Hebrews 4.12 NIV.)
We who claim to be Christ-followers must be people of The Book. We must commit to reading it. So very few have read it cover to cover. We must commit to memorizing it. Hiding it in our hearts stores up the truth for the day of testing. We must have so integrated our thinking (meditation) and living (application) to the Scripture that when under pressure, it oozes out of us. Certainly the Jesus we follow did so and it showed in the wilderness.
*The unknown writer could have been Paul, Apollos, Priscillla or anyone. This is the only book in all of Sacred Scripture to which I apply the phrase "the writer of." Most often that phrase connotes a textual/historic critisism view of Scripture that undermines its inerrant and infallible, fully God-breathed nature by asserting the authorship, and thus authority, of the document is questionable.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...36
We have been looking for other Biblical narratives that involve forty days. We looked at Noah and the flood story, which Jesus links to His second coming, where it rained for forty days and nights. We looked at Elijah's forty days of fasting/journey through the wilderness to reconnect with God. Jesus will meet with Elijah when He is transfigured and the Father will pronounce again, "This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased" as He just has at the baptism. We looked at Jonah/Nineveh waiting forty days for God's mercy to hold off judgement. Jesus links Himself closely with Jonah.
Today we unpack Jesus appearing to His followers for forty days after His resurrection (Acts 1.3 NIV.)
Luke says that He appeared for forty days "after He suffered." This forty days is preceeded by the trial, punishment, crucifixion and death of Jesus. His forty days in the wilderness were also days of suffering. Hunger, loneliness, trial met Jesus. "Man of sorrows! what a name for the Son of God, Who came ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior!"
Luke also says, "He presented Himself to [the apostles He had chosen]." People did not recognize the Risen Jesus. He had to "present Himself" to them before they indentified Him. Mary at the tomb mistook Him for the caretaker. Cleopas and his companion "were kept from recognizing Him..." (Luke 24.16 NIV.) But then again, people did not see Him for Who He was during His life and ministry either. It takes a revelation to open our eyes to Who He is. Thank God Jesus steps through the vail so we can. "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord...I want to see You high and lifted up, shining in the light
The chosen apostles saw Him over these forty days. Jesus invested Himself in relatively few. The masses never held His heart, though they often benefited from His compassion. In all the resurrection appearances we find Jesus still pouring Himself into His followers. He showed them how He fulfilled the Scripture. He dealt with lingering failures, doubts and sin. He prepared them for their future leadership in His Church.
Luke says Jesus "...gave many convincing proofs that He was alive..." Jesus could be touched, He could eat, He had fresh wounds from His crucifixion, He was alive in deed. Spending forty days allowed His followers to process the reality of His coming back to life. This extended period of time, and the various circumstances for the appearances strengthened their confidence that they were not hallucinating or dreaming.
Luke finally says that Jesus, "...spoke about the kingdom of God..." The beachhead had been established, the new creation launched, the renewed world order begun.
Two forty day periods book-end the ministry of Jesus Christ. The beginning foreshadows the end. The end fulfills the promise of the beginning. These forty days are bound together.
Preaching the Gospel always requires connection to the beginning and the end. We must never leave Jesus hanging on the cross without a mention of the empty tomb. We cannot declare victory without mentioning the struggle. Jesus fulfills so much of what was anticipated before His life, death and resurrection. That event begins so much that will be fulfilled at the Consumation Coronation. Hopefully we are beginning to see that the Good News events cannot be understood in isolation from each other. Like a tapestry, the Trinity has been weaving Salvation's history out of diverse threats that converge only in the person and ministry of Jesus.
Today we unpack Jesus appearing to His followers for forty days after His resurrection (Acts 1.3 NIV.)
Luke says that He appeared for forty days "after He suffered." This forty days is preceeded by the trial, punishment, crucifixion and death of Jesus. His forty days in the wilderness were also days of suffering. Hunger, loneliness, trial met Jesus. "Man of sorrows! what a name for the Son of God, Who came ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior!"
Luke also says, "He presented Himself to [the apostles He had chosen]." People did not recognize the Risen Jesus. He had to "present Himself" to them before they indentified Him. Mary at the tomb mistook Him for the caretaker. Cleopas and his companion "were kept from recognizing Him..." (Luke 24.16 NIV.) But then again, people did not see Him for Who He was during His life and ministry either. It takes a revelation to open our eyes to Who He is. Thank God Jesus steps through the vail so we can. "Open the eyes of my heart, Lord...I want to see You high and lifted up, shining in the light
The chosen apostles saw Him over these forty days. Jesus invested Himself in relatively few. The masses never held His heart, though they often benefited from His compassion. In all the resurrection appearances we find Jesus still pouring Himself into His followers. He showed them how He fulfilled the Scripture. He dealt with lingering failures, doubts and sin. He prepared them for their future leadership in His Church.
Luke says Jesus "...gave many convincing proofs that He was alive..." Jesus could be touched, He could eat, He had fresh wounds from His crucifixion, He was alive in deed. Spending forty days allowed His followers to process the reality of His coming back to life. This extended period of time, and the various circumstances for the appearances strengthened their confidence that they were not hallucinating or dreaming.
Luke finally says that Jesus, "...spoke about the kingdom of God..." The beachhead had been established, the new creation launched, the renewed world order begun.
Two forty day periods book-end the ministry of Jesus Christ. The beginning foreshadows the end. The end fulfills the promise of the beginning. These forty days are bound together.
Preaching the Gospel always requires connection to the beginning and the end. We must never leave Jesus hanging on the cross without a mention of the empty tomb. We cannot declare victory without mentioning the struggle. Jesus fulfills so much of what was anticipated before His life, death and resurrection. That event begins so much that will be fulfilled at the Consumation Coronation. Hopefully we are beginning to see that the Good News events cannot be understood in isolation from each other. Like a tapestry, the Trinity has been weaving Salvation's history out of diverse threats that converge only in the person and ministry of Jesus.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...35
The Spirit of God lead Jesus into the wilderness. While there He fasts forty days. We have been looking at other pericopes in which forty days are involved. Today we look at a group that received revelation that God was going to judge them at the end of forty days. In response they fasted as a sign of repentance. They were the people of Nineveh to whom Jonah reluctantly preached.
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time (Jonah 3 NIV. )He was to warn the inhabitants of Nineveh in forty days their city would be overthrown as a judgement on their cruelty and wickedness from God Almighty. The capital city of Assyria, Nineveh indeed housed the leadership of a barbaric, powerful army known for its enslavement, mistreatment and torture of defeated peoples. Jonah literally ran from this assignment because he knew God's mercy would be offered to the hated enemy of his beloved Israel.
When they heard the clear message of doom, they believed God and declared a fast. They stopped normal commerce and living. They sat in sackcloth, the Mediterranian symbol for sorrow, repented and called out for mercy. From the king to the streetcleaner, from the young to the old, human to animal every living thing fasted and hoped God would not allow the overthrow to be carried out.
The text of Jonah 3 does not express, but does imply, that the fast continued until the fortieth day, the day of judgement, passed uneventful. Jonah, we are told, delivers the message then sets up a make-shift camp east of the city and waits to see what would happen. East of the city, perhaps so he could see the overthrow by the first beams of the rising sun on the fortieth morning. When the day of doom broke bright, clear, cloudless and overthrow-less, Jonah saw God's mercy and he wept. He had so hoped for the overthrow.
Jesus Himself pointed to a connection with Jonah. First, Jesus said Jonah's three-day experience in the fish serves as a forshadowing of His three-day experience in the tomb. He would come out of what seemed a certain end just as Jonah had (Matthew 12.40 NIV.)
Secondly Jesus said the people of Nineveh, who heard the warning of God and repented, would stand in stark, condemning contrast to the listeners in Jesus day. They would not repent in response to God's warning through Jesus (Matthew 12.41 NIV.) Knowing God's revelation dims in comparison to acting according to what we know of God's revelation. Action not assent honors the God who give us fair warning.
Jesus said in Luke 11:30, "For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will be the Son of Man to this generation." Jonah served the Ninevites as a sign of mercy in the face of deserved judgement. He signalled God's willingness to forgive and avert destruction. He was a sign of God's nature in relation to humanity's broken nature. He was a second chance calling others to their second chance. In all this Jonah was a reluctant revelator and a disappointed observer of Divine mercy. Jesus actively, longingly sought to show the mercy of God and to reconcile us to the Father. He wept over a city, Jerusalem, because they did not heed the call of God to repent and enter the mercy provided.
Like the Ninevites, we fast and wait for the mercy of God. Rather than a deadline for doom, our forty days move us to the "line that's been drawn through the ages...on Golgotha's hill" (Gather, "It Is Finished.) We await Jesus condemning sin in His body on the cross and the release of overwhelming grace and mercy. May our forty days be filled with grateful anticipation because in Jesus we find something greater than Jonah (Matthew 12.41 NIV.)
The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time (Jonah 3 NIV. )He was to warn the inhabitants of Nineveh in forty days their city would be overthrown as a judgement on their cruelty and wickedness from God Almighty. The capital city of Assyria, Nineveh indeed housed the leadership of a barbaric, powerful army known for its enslavement, mistreatment and torture of defeated peoples. Jonah literally ran from this assignment because he knew God's mercy would be offered to the hated enemy of his beloved Israel.
When they heard the clear message of doom, they believed God and declared a fast. They stopped normal commerce and living. They sat in sackcloth, the Mediterranian symbol for sorrow, repented and called out for mercy. From the king to the streetcleaner, from the young to the old, human to animal every living thing fasted and hoped God would not allow the overthrow to be carried out.
The text of Jonah 3 does not express, but does imply, that the fast continued until the fortieth day, the day of judgement, passed uneventful. Jonah, we are told, delivers the message then sets up a make-shift camp east of the city and waits to see what would happen. East of the city, perhaps so he could see the overthrow by the first beams of the rising sun on the fortieth morning. When the day of doom broke bright, clear, cloudless and overthrow-less, Jonah saw God's mercy and he wept. He had so hoped for the overthrow.
Jesus Himself pointed to a connection with Jonah. First, Jesus said Jonah's three-day experience in the fish serves as a forshadowing of His three-day experience in the tomb. He would come out of what seemed a certain end just as Jonah had (Matthew 12.40 NIV.)
Secondly Jesus said the people of Nineveh, who heard the warning of God and repented, would stand in stark, condemning contrast to the listeners in Jesus day. They would not repent in response to God's warning through Jesus (Matthew 12.41 NIV.) Knowing God's revelation dims in comparison to acting according to what we know of God's revelation. Action not assent honors the God who give us fair warning.
Jesus said in Luke 11:30, "For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will be the Son of Man to this generation." Jonah served the Ninevites as a sign of mercy in the face of deserved judgement. He signalled God's willingness to forgive and avert destruction. He was a sign of God's nature in relation to humanity's broken nature. He was a second chance calling others to their second chance. In all this Jonah was a reluctant revelator and a disappointed observer of Divine mercy. Jesus actively, longingly sought to show the mercy of God and to reconcile us to the Father. He wept over a city, Jerusalem, because they did not heed the call of God to repent and enter the mercy provided.
Like the Ninevites, we fast and wait for the mercy of God. Rather than a deadline for doom, our forty days move us to the "line that's been drawn through the ages...on Golgotha's hill" (Gather, "It Is Finished.) We await Jesus condemning sin in His body on the cross and the release of overwhelming grace and mercy. May our forty days be filled with grateful anticipation because in Jesus we find something greater than Jonah (Matthew 12.41 NIV.)
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...34
Another interesting 40 day experience involves a wilderness, some bread, a journey and fasting. We find it in 1 Kings 19. In Chapter 18, Elijah has prayed and the Living God answered by raining fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice. He prayed a second time and the Living God ended a three-year drought by sending a turrential downpour. But upon learning of the defeat of Baal, the god she worshipped, Queen Jezebel has literally swore out a death warrant for the prophet.
Elijah runs for his life. He travels a day into the wilderness to hide. Sitting under a broom bush, he prays again to the God who answered him so miraculously twice before. But this time he prays that God will let him die. Rather irrational to pray to die while running for your life. Perhaps Elijah preferred to die at the hand of the benevolent Lord as opposed to the hand of the malevolent Lady. Maybe he hoped for euthanasia -- a good, quick death -- rather than an excruciating, torturous one.
In his depression, Elijah lay down and slept. Suddenly he was awakened by a stranger. The smell of fresh-baked bread filled his nostrils. The stranger, an angel, told him to eat and drink some fresh water. After this meal Elijah slumps back down into a dreamless sleep.
"Get up and eat!" the angel commands again. He feeds on more bread and water. Elijah now travels 40 days and nights on the strength of that angelic way-bread. With no further meals, He arrives at the place to which God told him to go. There in a cave at the end of his journey, he met with God.
Elijah ran through the wilderness to hide from the powers of a kingdom of this world. Jesus walked through the wilderness to confront the splendor and authority of all the kingdoms of this world. Elijah received special provision for his 40 day journey. Jesus faced His forty days without miraculous way-bread. Elijah went to the wilderness near the end of his ministry. Jesus went to the wilderness near the beginning of His ministry. An angel served Elijah before his fasting. Angels served Jesus after His fasting. Elijah met God in the wilderness. Jesus met the devil.
Elijah tried God's mercy with his request to die. Jesus refused to but the Lord His God to the test. Elijah looked for special acts of God while endangered. Jesus declined God's specific promise of help in the face of danger. Later Jesus would suffer an excruciating (literally - on-a-cross, crux) death rather than seek escape.
Elijah in the wilderness sat down in despair. He had no trusting faith left. He assumed the work of God ended with him. Jesus in the wilderness walked on in trust. He relied on the Word to sustain Him. He knew the work of God began with Him.
The ministry of both Elijah and Jesus were affirmed in the forty days in the wilderness. They both had more work to do for the Lord. Elijah had a ministry anointing a new king and a new prophet to accomplish before his translation in a heavenly chariot. Jesus had an anointed ministry of prophet and priest and king to accomplish before his ascension to His heavenly throne.
Jesus transforms our wilderness from despair to hope. He renews our call to serve in the name of the Lord. He provisions us so that we, too, may reach our God-appointed end.
Elijah runs for his life. He travels a day into the wilderness to hide. Sitting under a broom bush, he prays again to the God who answered him so miraculously twice before. But this time he prays that God will let him die. Rather irrational to pray to die while running for your life. Perhaps Elijah preferred to die at the hand of the benevolent Lord as opposed to the hand of the malevolent Lady. Maybe he hoped for euthanasia -- a good, quick death -- rather than an excruciating, torturous one.
In his depression, Elijah lay down and slept. Suddenly he was awakened by a stranger. The smell of fresh-baked bread filled his nostrils. The stranger, an angel, told him to eat and drink some fresh water. After this meal Elijah slumps back down into a dreamless sleep.
"Get up and eat!" the angel commands again. He feeds on more bread and water. Elijah now travels 40 days and nights on the strength of that angelic way-bread. With no further meals, He arrives at the place to which God told him to go. There in a cave at the end of his journey, he met with God.
Elijah ran through the wilderness to hide from the powers of a kingdom of this world. Jesus walked through the wilderness to confront the splendor and authority of all the kingdoms of this world. Elijah received special provision for his 40 day journey. Jesus faced His forty days without miraculous way-bread. Elijah went to the wilderness near the end of his ministry. Jesus went to the wilderness near the beginning of His ministry. An angel served Elijah before his fasting. Angels served Jesus after His fasting. Elijah met God in the wilderness. Jesus met the devil.
Elijah tried God's mercy with his request to die. Jesus refused to but the Lord His God to the test. Elijah looked for special acts of God while endangered. Jesus declined God's specific promise of help in the face of danger. Later Jesus would suffer an excruciating (literally - on-a-cross, crux) death rather than seek escape.
Elijah in the wilderness sat down in despair. He had no trusting faith left. He assumed the work of God ended with him. Jesus in the wilderness walked on in trust. He relied on the Word to sustain Him. He knew the work of God began with Him.
The ministry of both Elijah and Jesus were affirmed in the forty days in the wilderness. They both had more work to do for the Lord. Elijah had a ministry anointing a new king and a new prophet to accomplish before his translation in a heavenly chariot. Jesus had an anointed ministry of prophet and priest and king to accomplish before his ascension to His heavenly throne.
Jesus transforms our wilderness from despair to hope. He renews our call to serve in the name of the Lord. He provisions us so that we, too, may reach our God-appointed end.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...33
We have been looking at Bible events that happened or took place over a 40 day period. These lend insight into the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert. We have already seen the tight parallel between Jesus 40 days in the wilderness and the 40 year wandering of Israel. Now the antecedent event, the 40 days exploration of the Land of Promise will be unpacked.
God said, "Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years -- one for each of the forty days you explored the land -- you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you" (Numbers 14.33-34 NIV.) So the very important parallel of the wilderness wandering has a strong tie to the 40 days exploration.
The spies were to assess the land and its people. Their exploration would help the Israeli people become familiar with both the blessings and the barriers to possessing the Promise of God. This was not to ascertain whether they could possess it, but rather how to proceed. God's sure word had established that the land WOULD be theirs.
They found both the blessings and barriers. Grape clusters so large that two men struggled to carry them back grew there. The rich soil produced amazing crops. They described the land as one "flowing with milk and honey."
They also found fortified cities. They observed strong people living there. They reported seeing oversized warriors in large communities all over the place.
Ten of the twelve also added commentary to their observations. They insisted their long-awaited homeland could not be possessed. God's promise would not actualize. They then spread this report and commentary beyond the leadership who asked then to serve. They started telling everyone the dream had ended.
Two spies, one from Judah and one from Ephraim* offered a dessenting report. They acknowledged the barriers existed, but continued to place possession of the land in the hand of God who had promised it to them. With God all things were possible.
In His forty days, Jesus anticipates the promise that the Messiah would "save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1.21 NIV.) He, in effect, sizes up the barrier of temptation and the tempter who brought it. The words of Luthers Ein Feste Burg beaufully and powerfully describe the situation here.
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe.
His power and art are great and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be loosing.
Were not the Right Man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He:
Lord Sabbaoth, His name, from age to age the same.
And He must win the battle.
As Joshua and Caleb, Jesus does not adjudicate the possiblility of the promise fulfilled. He just familiarizes Himself in experiencial knowledge with the barriers. The blessing of the Promise can be seen as a weak and weary Jesus emerges from the wild COMPLETELY VICTORIOUS over Satan and his exploits.
Hebrews, which I believe to be an unsigned manuscript of a First Church sermon/teaching (but that's a whole other post,) says Jesus actualizes the fulness of God's Promise. He does what Joshua (unfortunately translated Jesus in KJV) could not. He gives us rest from the struggle that comes only with the achievement of victory (Hebrews 4 NIV.)
As with the spies, Jesus time in the wilderness did not accomplish the possession, just anticipated and prepared for the possession. Jesus would have to pass through more than the Jordan and the wilderness to free us from our sin. He would have to pass through the cross and the tomb. And because He did we can now have through the application of the Spirit, what the Father promised long ago!
*Joseph and Jesus compared.
God said, "Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years -- one for each of the forty days you explored the land -- you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you" (Numbers 14.33-34 NIV.) So the very important parallel of the wilderness wandering has a strong tie to the 40 days exploration.
The spies were to assess the land and its people. Their exploration would help the Israeli people become familiar with both the blessings and the barriers to possessing the Promise of God. This was not to ascertain whether they could possess it, but rather how to proceed. God's sure word had established that the land WOULD be theirs.
They found both the blessings and barriers. Grape clusters so large that two men struggled to carry them back grew there. The rich soil produced amazing crops. They described the land as one "flowing with milk and honey."
They also found fortified cities. They observed strong people living there. They reported seeing oversized warriors in large communities all over the place.
Ten of the twelve also added commentary to their observations. They insisted their long-awaited homeland could not be possessed. God's promise would not actualize. They then spread this report and commentary beyond the leadership who asked then to serve. They started telling everyone the dream had ended.
Two spies, one from Judah and one from Ephraim* offered a dessenting report. They acknowledged the barriers existed, but continued to place possession of the land in the hand of God who had promised it to them. With God all things were possible.
In His forty days, Jesus anticipates the promise that the Messiah would "save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1.21 NIV.) He, in effect, sizes up the barrier of temptation and the tempter who brought it. The words of Luthers Ein Feste Burg beaufully and powerfully describe the situation here.
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe.
His power and art are great and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be loosing.
Were not the Right Man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is He:
Lord Sabbaoth, His name, from age to age the same.
And He must win the battle.
As Joshua and Caleb, Jesus does not adjudicate the possiblility of the promise fulfilled. He just familiarizes Himself in experiencial knowledge with the barriers. The blessing of the Promise can be seen as a weak and weary Jesus emerges from the wild COMPLETELY VICTORIOUS over Satan and his exploits.
Hebrews, which I believe to be an unsigned manuscript of a First Church sermon/teaching (but that's a whole other post,) says Jesus actualizes the fulness of God's Promise. He does what Joshua (unfortunately translated Jesus in KJV) could not. He gives us rest from the struggle that comes only with the achievement of victory (Hebrews 4 NIV.)
As with the spies, Jesus time in the wilderness did not accomplish the possession, just anticipated and prepared for the possession. Jesus would have to pass through more than the Jordan and the wilderness to free us from our sin. He would have to pass through the cross and the tomb. And because He did we can now have through the application of the Spirit, what the Father promised long ago!
*Joseph and Jesus compared.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Follow Me -- Into Service
Sensing there must be something more than the decision-dimension to the Kingdom of God, Faith Community Church has returned to the Gospel of Jesus Christ to find out what HE called people to. We have found Him calling, "Come, follow me."
This Sunday series in Lent unpacks what it might mean to be the people of God calling others to do just that, follow Jesus. It becomes obvious that Jesus doesn't usually say more than "follow," but the time/space context does flesh out the intent.
A rich, young man comes to Jesus seeking advise about right living and eternal destiny. He has a lot going for him. He is young. Rather than wait til life and its various pursuits have passed, he comes to remember his Creator in the days of his youth. He will serve God with all his youthful vitality and for length of days.
This young man is rich. He has provisions to do much more than a poor man could in service to Jesus. He has benefitted from the best while growing. He is blessed.
His moral quest makes him a seeker. Seekers find what they seek much more frequently than non-seekers. He has concern for spiritual things, realizing there is more than a merely physical existance.
But Jesus says he lacks one thing. "Go sell all you have and give it to the poor, then, come and follow me."
Moral correctness and financial provision fall short. To follow Jesus for this young man meant letting go of control of his life from this point forward. Selling his possessions, seeing what was his as not his any longer, would be a first step. And as the old axiom says, "Watch that first step, it's a doozie!" Selling his things, like a burnt offering, releases them into God's hand -- it cannot be recovered. Holding everything as stewards for God who really owns all does not impact us. Like Denethor in LOTR, we begin to act as lord rather than leige. But when told to sell it all, burn it all up on the brazen altar, then the issue of ownership arises and our resistance to His rule becomes exposed.
Keeping the "love your neighbor" side of the Decalogue is not enough. Right living goes well beyond rule keeping. The Lord now calls the young man to give the proceeds of his estate sale to the poor. Following Jesus for this young man meant living for the benefit of others from this point forward. This life of sacrifice continues the act of sacrifice in the call to sell. The young man, like Father Damien, would no longer refer to those in need as you but as we. Giving the proceeds to the poor would be the start of sacrificial living.
Jesus lived a life of surrender and sacrifice. He lived for the benefit of others. We, like this rich, young man, must decide if Jesus is really Lord and if others are really loved. Following means these two are true.
This Sunday series in Lent unpacks what it might mean to be the people of God calling others to do just that, follow Jesus. It becomes obvious that Jesus doesn't usually say more than "follow," but the time/space context does flesh out the intent.
A rich, young man comes to Jesus seeking advise about right living and eternal destiny. He has a lot going for him. He is young. Rather than wait til life and its various pursuits have passed, he comes to remember his Creator in the days of his youth. He will serve God with all his youthful vitality and for length of days.
This young man is rich. He has provisions to do much more than a poor man could in service to Jesus. He has benefitted from the best while growing. He is blessed.
His moral quest makes him a seeker. Seekers find what they seek much more frequently than non-seekers. He has concern for spiritual things, realizing there is more than a merely physical existance.
But Jesus says he lacks one thing. "Go sell all you have and give it to the poor, then, come and follow me."
Moral correctness and financial provision fall short. To follow Jesus for this young man meant letting go of control of his life from this point forward. Selling his possessions, seeing what was his as not his any longer, would be a first step. And as the old axiom says, "Watch that first step, it's a doozie!" Selling his things, like a burnt offering, releases them into God's hand -- it cannot be recovered. Holding everything as stewards for God who really owns all does not impact us. Like Denethor in LOTR, we begin to act as lord rather than leige. But when told to sell it all, burn it all up on the brazen altar, then the issue of ownership arises and our resistance to His rule becomes exposed.
Keeping the "love your neighbor" side of the Decalogue is not enough. Right living goes well beyond rule keeping. The Lord now calls the young man to give the proceeds of his estate sale to the poor. Following Jesus for this young man meant living for the benefit of others from this point forward. This life of sacrifice continues the act of sacrifice in the call to sell. The young man, like Father Damien, would no longer refer to those in need as you but as we. Giving the proceeds to the poor would be the start of sacrificial living.
Jesus lived a life of surrender and sacrifice. He lived for the benefit of others. We, like this rich, young man, must decide if Jesus is really Lord and if others are really loved. Following means these two are true.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...32
We began yesterday looking at the 40 day and night length of the wilderness experience of Jesus and other places in Scripture where things happened for the same duration. We looked at the 40 days and nights of flood-causing rain Noah experienced. Today we look at Moses' 40 days and nights on the Mountain with God.
In Deuteronomy 9, Moses recalls his experience on the mountain of revelation. He states that he ate nothing for those days, like Jesus. God gave him revelation of how to order and supply the worship of Israel. God also gave the 10 Simple Rules for Living known classically as the Decalogue.
God used these 40 days and nights without food to bring humanity closer to Him in behavior reflected in the 10 Commandments. This way of living comes closer to His moral perfection than unrestrained, lawless living. God also uses the place and practices of worship to act out the way to Himself. Substitutionary death, washing, prayer, confession, and the Tabernacle layout with many barriers show forth what we need to come near again to the God we rebelled against. In precept and practice God invites us to fellowship.
Jesus in the wilderness also goes 40 days and nights without food. He is alone with the Father, just as Moses was alone with God. He shows more clearly what God is like. He lives out moral perfection in human experience. One "greater than Moses" had come.
Thank God for the Way and not just a way, back to Him!
In Deuteronomy 9, Moses recalls his experience on the mountain of revelation. He states that he ate nothing for those days, like Jesus. God gave him revelation of how to order and supply the worship of Israel. God also gave the 10 Simple Rules for Living known classically as the Decalogue.
God used these 40 days and nights without food to bring humanity closer to Him in behavior reflected in the 10 Commandments. This way of living comes closer to His moral perfection than unrestrained, lawless living. God also uses the place and practices of worship to act out the way to Himself. Substitutionary death, washing, prayer, confession, and the Tabernacle layout with many barriers show forth what we need to come near again to the God we rebelled against. In precept and practice God invites us to fellowship.
Jesus in the wilderness also goes 40 days and nights without food. He is alone with the Father, just as Moses was alone with God. He shows more clearly what God is like. He lives out moral perfection in human experience. One "greater than Moses" had come.
Thank God for the Way and not just a way, back to Him!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...31
The 40 days in the wilderness tie into allusions from many moments in the history of God's interaction with humanity. Joseph's 40 years in Egypt, Israel's 40 years in the wilderness, the 3-fold temptation of our First Parents, the 3-fold love of the world, the 3-fold declaration of God the Father at the Jordan all connect with aspects of Jesus experience in the Jordanian wilderness. Each brings nuance and insight into the days there.
Today we look at the 40 days and nights. Another reference came to mind for me as a Sunday School child. It rained 40 days and nights to flood the earth and to float Noah's Ark.
Noah and his family had prepared an ark of gopher wood at the behest of God. They had provisioned it with food. God had called the animals in groups of sevens and twos. Then God shut door to the ark. It rained for 40 days and nights.God washed the world of the violence and evil practices of humanity.
They heard God say it was time to enter the ark. God shut the door isolating those inside from those without. Here like in the wilderness, God actively participates in the 40 days. Jesus and Noah were directed by God to enter these days. They were both isolated for God's purpose.
Both were with wild animals. In both cases, Jesus and Noah had to trust God the Father to tame them while they were together. The enmity that resulted from the rebellion of the Garden was suspended or reversed during the 40 days.
The forty days for Noah signalled God's judgement on human violence and sin. The forty days for Jesus affirm God's judgement of Him as accepted, loved and pleasing. God's right judgement impact both 40-day events.
Noah emerges after the 40 days of rain (plus about a year of flood-floating) as the new Parent for Humanity. All people find their ancestory through him. The flood condemned the old order of things (Hebrews 11.7 NIV,) cleared it away and ushered in a new beginning. The rainbow symbolized God's promise never to produce a universal flood. The rain itself gave rise to the sign of God's faithfulness.
Jesus "...condemned sin in the flesh..." (Romans 8.3 NIV.) What the Deluge could not totally wash away and the Decalogue could not totally restrain, Jesus condemned and totally overcame. Jesus' cross symbolized the breaking of sin's dominion. The instrument of that judgement gave rise to the sign of God's faithfulness.
Noah's 40 days of judgement point us longingly toward a better judgement. God wishes to remove the sin that taints His once-perfect creation. He must condemn this distructive element wherever it is found, even in the very fiber of His highest creation -- human beings. As a fair judge He cannot overlook what is destroying us and our world just because He loves us. Just because He loves us He must end sin. Christ's 40 days tell us our longed-for deliverance was near, even at the door.
Thank you Jesus! You not only rescue us from the consequences of sin, You deliver us from the power and domination of sin. "There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!!!!!"
Jesus would later say the days of Noah typify the days of the Son of Man. The coming of Jesus will involve judgement and restoration. Again God will purge His creation from the polution of sin and violence. Fire, not water, serves as the active agent for the second purge.
Today we look at the 40 days and nights. Another reference came to mind for me as a Sunday School child. It rained 40 days and nights to flood the earth and to float Noah's Ark.
Noah and his family had prepared an ark of gopher wood at the behest of God. They had provisioned it with food. God had called the animals in groups of sevens and twos. Then God shut door to the ark. It rained for 40 days and nights.God washed the world of the violence and evil practices of humanity.
They heard God say it was time to enter the ark. God shut the door isolating those inside from those without. Here like in the wilderness, God actively participates in the 40 days. Jesus and Noah were directed by God to enter these days. They were both isolated for God's purpose.
Both were with wild animals. In both cases, Jesus and Noah had to trust God the Father to tame them while they were together. The enmity that resulted from the rebellion of the Garden was suspended or reversed during the 40 days.
The forty days for Noah signalled God's judgement on human violence and sin. The forty days for Jesus affirm God's judgement of Him as accepted, loved and pleasing. God's right judgement impact both 40-day events.
Noah emerges after the 40 days of rain (plus about a year of flood-floating) as the new Parent for Humanity. All people find their ancestory through him. The flood condemned the old order of things (Hebrews 11.7 NIV,) cleared it away and ushered in a new beginning. The rainbow symbolized God's promise never to produce a universal flood. The rain itself gave rise to the sign of God's faithfulness.
Jesus "...condemned sin in the flesh..." (Romans 8.3 NIV.) What the Deluge could not totally wash away and the Decalogue could not totally restrain, Jesus condemned and totally overcame. Jesus' cross symbolized the breaking of sin's dominion. The instrument of that judgement gave rise to the sign of God's faithfulness.
Noah's 40 days of judgement point us longingly toward a better judgement. God wishes to remove the sin that taints His once-perfect creation. He must condemn this distructive element wherever it is found, even in the very fiber of His highest creation -- human beings. As a fair judge He cannot overlook what is destroying us and our world just because He loves us. Just because He loves us He must end sin. Christ's 40 days tell us our longed-for deliverance was near, even at the door.
Thank you Jesus! You not only rescue us from the consequences of sin, You deliver us from the power and domination of sin. "There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!!!!!"
Jesus would later say the days of Noah typify the days of the Son of Man. The coming of Jesus will involve judgement and restoration. Again God will purge His creation from the polution of sin and violence. Fire, not water, serves as the active agent for the second purge.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...30
I made reference to Joseph a few blogs ago. In many ways his 40 years in Egypt bring additional meaning to the 40 days and nights of Jesus in the wilderness. Let's unpack the parallels.
First, God declared, through a series of dreams, who He knew Joseph to be. He would lead and his older brothers would follow. They would bow down to him. Even his parents would acknowlege his supremacy. God the Father declared, at the Jordan, who He knew Jesus to be. These declarations came before the practical proof but must have been in both their minds as they faced trials.
Second, adding up the date references in Genesis 37-50 we find Joseph lived in Egypt 39-40 years in slavery, prison and in preparation for the famine that eventually reunites him with his family. These were mostly years of extreme hardship. His slavery immersed him in a strange culture and language. He faced temptation to despair and toward sexual immorality. Hardship came to him due to sibling rivalry, betrayal, sexual harassment, false accusations, being forgotten and human cruelty. Jesus' suffering in the forty-day wilderness have been discussed exhaustively in this series.
Third, Joseph's slavery began when his brothers exchanged his freedom for 20 shekels of silver. Flags should go up as the whole story of reconciliation with his family involves silver. His brothers bring silver to buy grain. Perhaps the same silver once traded for Joseph's life. Joseph in turn refuses to accept the silver, replacing it in their grain sacks twice. How this should have stirred their consciences. The silver, blood money, was not used. Jesus, we know, was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver -- silver that Judas did not use and later used by the priests to buy a paupers' graveyard.
Forth, Joseph fathered two sons while in Egypt. Manessah, the older, and Ephraim the younger both recieved blessing and adoption from Jacob as sons. While in the ceremony, though, Jacob reverses the order by blessing Ephraim first. Ephraim means "twice fruitful" and Joseph choose this name because "God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." God emphasized the fruitfulness of suffering in this act. Jesus, also, found His wilderness time fruitful as He would next call key followers to His service. Suffering can produce good things and good impacts.
Joseph did the heavy lifting in his suffering that would provide easy access to life-sustaining food for his family. His path to leadership created relationships with persons of power that released homes and lands in which they could live. They all received the dividends of Joseph's investment of time, trial and tenacity. Their once discarded brother became their desperately needed benefactor. Jesus did the heavy lifting for us on the cross and in the tomb. His relationship to the Father released the power of the Holy Spirit into our living. We receive from Him blessing upon blessing.
Joseph described his 40 year experience of suffering to his brothers when he said, "You intended it to harm me, God intended it for good...the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50.20 NIV.) This teaches us something about the interaction between temptation and testing for Jesus in the Wilderness. Satan intended to tempt Jesus to sin, to sidetrack to fail. God intended it as part of His saving act accomplished through Jesus. The wilderness was not just about Jesus, it was about all of us.
God also wants us to know that though someone else, even the Devil, intends us harm, He intends to use our life experiences -- even suffering -- to bring good. "God works all things for good..." The good God brings overwhelms the bad intended, both in intensity and scope. "Where sin did abound, grace overwhelms!" Our momentary and light afflictions may bring blessing and good to many, many people as well as to ourselves.
The wilderness experience of Jesus calls us to follow Him into the grander scheme of the Kingdom of God. He lived for more than Himself. He lived for Father-God's glory and our good. We need to approach even suffering as an opportunity to glorify God and benefit others. This thing is much bigger than me just getting through my trial, my tough times. Leading in part means going through great adversity so that others might not have to go through it or at least have to go through it alone.
Finally, the wilderness of Jesus and the Egypt of Joseph teach us that preparations precede productivity. We want the crown, but avoid the cross. We want the wisdom, but stay clear of the experience. We want fruit, but cringe at the pruning. We want the prize, but chafe at the process. Without the struggle there is no victory. Without the training, there is no trophy. Without discipline, there is no freedom.
First, God declared, through a series of dreams, who He knew Joseph to be. He would lead and his older brothers would follow. They would bow down to him. Even his parents would acknowlege his supremacy. God the Father declared, at the Jordan, who He knew Jesus to be. These declarations came before the practical proof but must have been in both their minds as they faced trials.
Second, adding up the date references in Genesis 37-50 we find Joseph lived in Egypt 39-40 years in slavery, prison and in preparation for the famine that eventually reunites him with his family. These were mostly years of extreme hardship. His slavery immersed him in a strange culture and language. He faced temptation to despair and toward sexual immorality. Hardship came to him due to sibling rivalry, betrayal, sexual harassment, false accusations, being forgotten and human cruelty. Jesus' suffering in the forty-day wilderness have been discussed exhaustively in this series.
Third, Joseph's slavery began when his brothers exchanged his freedom for 20 shekels of silver. Flags should go up as the whole story of reconciliation with his family involves silver. His brothers bring silver to buy grain. Perhaps the same silver once traded for Joseph's life. Joseph in turn refuses to accept the silver, replacing it in their grain sacks twice. How this should have stirred their consciences. The silver, blood money, was not used. Jesus, we know, was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver -- silver that Judas did not use and later used by the priests to buy a paupers' graveyard.
Forth, Joseph fathered two sons while in Egypt. Manessah, the older, and Ephraim the younger both recieved blessing and adoption from Jacob as sons. While in the ceremony, though, Jacob reverses the order by blessing Ephraim first. Ephraim means "twice fruitful" and Joseph choose this name because "God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering." God emphasized the fruitfulness of suffering in this act. Jesus, also, found His wilderness time fruitful as He would next call key followers to His service. Suffering can produce good things and good impacts.
Joseph did the heavy lifting in his suffering that would provide easy access to life-sustaining food for his family. His path to leadership created relationships with persons of power that released homes and lands in which they could live. They all received the dividends of Joseph's investment of time, trial and tenacity. Their once discarded brother became their desperately needed benefactor. Jesus did the heavy lifting for us on the cross and in the tomb. His relationship to the Father released the power of the Holy Spirit into our living. We receive from Him blessing upon blessing.
Joseph described his 40 year experience of suffering to his brothers when he said, "You intended it to harm me, God intended it for good...the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50.20 NIV.) This teaches us something about the interaction between temptation and testing for Jesus in the Wilderness. Satan intended to tempt Jesus to sin, to sidetrack to fail. God intended it as part of His saving act accomplished through Jesus. The wilderness was not just about Jesus, it was about all of us.
God also wants us to know that though someone else, even the Devil, intends us harm, He intends to use our life experiences -- even suffering -- to bring good. "God works all things for good..." The good God brings overwhelms the bad intended, both in intensity and scope. "Where sin did abound, grace overwhelms!" Our momentary and light afflictions may bring blessing and good to many, many people as well as to ourselves.
The wilderness experience of Jesus calls us to follow Him into the grander scheme of the Kingdom of God. He lived for more than Himself. He lived for Father-God's glory and our good. We need to approach even suffering as an opportunity to glorify God and benefit others. This thing is much bigger than me just getting through my trial, my tough times. Leading in part means going through great adversity so that others might not have to go through it or at least have to go through it alone.
Finally, the wilderness of Jesus and the Egypt of Joseph teach us that preparations precede productivity. We want the crown, but avoid the cross. We want the wisdom, but stay clear of the experience. We want fruit, but cringe at the pruning. We want the prize, but chafe at the process. Without the struggle there is no victory. Without the training, there is no trophy. Without discipline, there is no freedom.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...29
Jesus faced testing in the wilderness. Mark and Luke suggest the testing lasted 40 days and nights. They both use the present participle form of the verb which indicates continuous action. The verbal also indicates the action of testing was "being done" to Jesus. Jesus endured continuous pressure, propositions and testing from a source outside Himself.
Very few humans could honestly say they were tempted to do anything for 40 continuous days. Our tempting/testing lasts for a much shorter duration. And our effort to resist and remain faithful seems momentous and drains us of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual energy. Our momentary trials cannot compare to this intense, long-lasting trial of Jesus. How weak we truly are!
Matthew alone implies that Jesus fasted 40 days and nights and THEN came the tempter and the test. This provides a warning as well. Testing and temptation can come when we are weak and where we have weakened ourselves. For instance, Scripture tells husbands and wives "not to deprive each other [of marital relations] except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you..." (1 Corinthians 7.5-6 NIV.)
While Jesus clearly commands, and Scripture provides examples of the practice, fasting from food can easily lead to a temptation to satisfy our hunger at the expense of our vow to God. Going without proper sleep might make us susceptable to a temptation to act out easily-angered.
Luke adds an powerful reminder to us at the conclusion of the 40 days. "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left [Jesus] until an opportune time" (Luke 4.13 NIV.) These days did not form the only temptation of Jesus. The devil watched and waited for an "opportune" time -- times of weakness, weariness along the way to Jerusalem's cross/tomb. He would tempt Jesus through the cry of the crowds and the voice of His closest followers. Jesus confirmed in His conduct the confession of the Father. But this was not the end-all temptation.
So, too, with us. We may endure this season of testing. We may resist temptatin and through Jesus remain faithful. But other times await. We cannot let down our guard.
Very few humans could honestly say they were tempted to do anything for 40 continuous days. Our tempting/testing lasts for a much shorter duration. And our effort to resist and remain faithful seems momentous and drains us of emotional, physical, mental and spiritual energy. Our momentary trials cannot compare to this intense, long-lasting trial of Jesus. How weak we truly are!
Matthew alone implies that Jesus fasted 40 days and nights and THEN came the tempter and the test. This provides a warning as well. Testing and temptation can come when we are weak and where we have weakened ourselves. For instance, Scripture tells husbands and wives "not to deprive each other [of marital relations] except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer.Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you..." (1 Corinthians 7.5-6 NIV.)
While Jesus clearly commands, and Scripture provides examples of the practice, fasting from food can easily lead to a temptation to satisfy our hunger at the expense of our vow to God. Going without proper sleep might make us susceptable to a temptation to act out easily-angered.
Luke adds an powerful reminder to us at the conclusion of the 40 days. "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left [Jesus] until an opportune time" (Luke 4.13 NIV.) These days did not form the only temptation of Jesus. The devil watched and waited for an "opportune" time -- times of weakness, weariness along the way to Jerusalem's cross/tomb. He would tempt Jesus through the cry of the crowds and the voice of His closest followers. Jesus confirmed in His conduct the confession of the Father. But this was not the end-all temptation.
So, too, with us. We may endure this season of testing. We may resist temptatin and through Jesus remain faithful. But other times await. We cannot let down our guard.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...28
We have examined whether Jesus's experience in the wilderness involved temptation to sin or testing to prove His character. From the detailed teaching in James 1 and the principles from mutliple narratives, we concluded that this time tested Jesus to demonstrate in practical terms Who He is. God the Father had already stated His confident asssessment of Jesus as God the Son -- the Accepted-Beloved-Pleasing. The Spirit affirmed this assessment with His anointing presence.
That Jesus endured this testing effects us in several ways. The author of Hebrews [whole other post, ;)] points out "Because He suffered when He was tempted [tested], He is able to help those who are being tempted [tested]" (Hebrews 2.18 NIV.) He suffered the hunger, the pressure, the testing circumstances. Being made fully human, like His brothers, He comprehends the casualties caused by testing. He can now dispense mercy and faithfulness to us. He understands the fullest potency of temptation as He alone outlasted the tempter. He knows what it takes to make it through victorious. HE OFFERS US HIS HELP TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION.
"...we do not have a high priest who is unable to emphathize with our weaknesses, but was tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet He did not sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4.15-16 NIV.) He endured temptation and remained true. He alone knows the full potential of humanity in the face of temptation. We only know the limit of our breaking point. He alone can appropriate grace and mercy so that we do not have to cave in to the pressure. HE OFFERS GRACE AND MERCY TO THE TEMPTED.
What a compassionate, merciful, understanding Jesus! His wilderness days open up to us days of victory. His suffering eases ours. His faithfulness props up our faithlessness. He walked the wilderness alone so that we could travel temptation in tandum with Him. And with Him, we have freedom from sin! Bless His name!
That Jesus endured this testing effects us in several ways. The author of Hebrews [whole other post, ;)] points out "Because He suffered when He was tempted [tested], He is able to help those who are being tempted [tested]" (Hebrews 2.18 NIV.) He suffered the hunger, the pressure, the testing circumstances. Being made fully human, like His brothers, He comprehends the casualties caused by testing. He can now dispense mercy and faithfulness to us. He understands the fullest potency of temptation as He alone outlasted the tempter. He knows what it takes to make it through victorious. HE OFFERS US HIS HELP TO OVERCOME TEMPTATION.
"...we do not have a high priest who is unable to emphathize with our weaknesses, but was tempted in every way, just as we are -- yet He did not sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4.15-16 NIV.) He endured temptation and remained true. He alone knows the full potential of humanity in the face of temptation. We only know the limit of our breaking point. He alone can appropriate grace and mercy so that we do not have to cave in to the pressure. HE OFFERS GRACE AND MERCY TO THE TEMPTED.
What a compassionate, merciful, understanding Jesus! His wilderness days open up to us days of victory. His suffering eases ours. His faithfulness props up our faithlessness. He walked the wilderness alone so that we could travel temptation in tandum with Him. And with Him, we have freedom from sin! Bless His name!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...27
We are exploring whether Jesus faced temptation or trial in the wilderness. We are going to deal with the significance, if any, of either. Something very difficult and important happened to the Lord during and immediately following the 40 days and nights.
Using the Rule of Faith -- that Scripture, as Truth, is non-contradictory -- we looked at a clear teaching passage on temptation found in James Chapter One to clarify our understanding of the wilderness. Three key truths about temptation emerge: 1. God cannot be tempted by evil. 2. God does not tempt anyone with evil. 3. Our own evil desires lead us into temptation. So Jesus, fully Divine, could not be tempted by evil. Being the new Adam, conceived directly in the womb of a virgin by the overshadowing power of the Spirit, He had no "bent to sinning" not inheriting original sin. Jesus had no inner brokenness that would be enticed. He was not tempted in the same sense that we are.
Let's look at other narratives. Abraham was tested by God when God told him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering. God does not tempt anyone with evil. God was testing Abraham's trusting obedience. Abraham passed the test and God stopped the sacrifice.
Satan accused Job's faith and integrity. God trusted Job and granted the Accuser permission to test Job through adversity, trials and sickness. At each increasing level of challenge, God affirmed Job's integrity. Job passed the test and God restored to him all the Accuser had taken.
God states in several passage that He allows evil, pagan empires to harrass or harm Israel as judgement on bad behaviors. God does not design or delight in the afflicting nation, but grants permission for the eventual renewal of His nation, Israel. He sets boundaries of intinsity and duration for the time of trial.
In these passages, God actively supports the person being proven through testing. God grants permission to one who wishes to deceive or destroy and sets boundaries for the trial. These adversities are within the scope of God's sovereign will and reign.
Peter encourages us "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief from all kinds of trials. These come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even if refined by fire--may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1.6-7.) Again, God allows difficulty as a proving ground for our character. He stamps His approval on us by the trials He allows. He expresses His trust in us.
If we return to James 1.2-3 once again we discover we should, "count it pure joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perserverance." Here again we find a clear teaching that God allows difficulties not as temptation to evil, but as testing our our character. He indends it for good, no matter what the actual trial intends. (Recall Joseph's statement to his sold-him-into-slavery brothers.)
So in the wilderness Jesus faces testing. His Father has full confidence in His Son. The devil has permission to present the scenarios. He vainly hopes to sidetrack the Son into evil. The Spirit supports the Son who makes the Father-pleasing choice every time. Jesus emerges from the wilderness fully accredited in actual space/time testing. He has demonstrated, in part, why the Father declared Him "...My Son, whom I love. With Him I am well-pleased!"
We need to allow this time in the wilderness to encourage our hearts. When we face hardship, sickness, mis-understanding, betrayal, financial reversal or out-and-out temptation to sin, God has pre-approved the situation based on what He, in absolute perfect omniscience, knows He can get us through. I certainly feel more like Tevye, "I know. I know. We are Your chosen people. But once in a while, can't you choose someone else?" than Peter and James who counted trials and problems as God-authenticating-me pure joy.
Using the Rule of Faith -- that Scripture, as Truth, is non-contradictory -- we looked at a clear teaching passage on temptation found in James Chapter One to clarify our understanding of the wilderness. Three key truths about temptation emerge: 1. God cannot be tempted by evil. 2. God does not tempt anyone with evil. 3. Our own evil desires lead us into temptation. So Jesus, fully Divine, could not be tempted by evil. Being the new Adam, conceived directly in the womb of a virgin by the overshadowing power of the Spirit, He had no "bent to sinning" not inheriting original sin. Jesus had no inner brokenness that would be enticed. He was not tempted in the same sense that we are.
Let's look at other narratives. Abraham was tested by God when God told him to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt offering. God does not tempt anyone with evil. God was testing Abraham's trusting obedience. Abraham passed the test and God stopped the sacrifice.
Satan accused Job's faith and integrity. God trusted Job and granted the Accuser permission to test Job through adversity, trials and sickness. At each increasing level of challenge, God affirmed Job's integrity. Job passed the test and God restored to him all the Accuser had taken.
God states in several passage that He allows evil, pagan empires to harrass or harm Israel as judgement on bad behaviors. God does not design or delight in the afflicting nation, but grants permission for the eventual renewal of His nation, Israel. He sets boundaries of intinsity and duration for the time of trial.
In these passages, God actively supports the person being proven through testing. God grants permission to one who wishes to deceive or destroy and sets boundaries for the trial. These adversities are within the scope of God's sovereign will and reign.
Peter encourages us "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief from all kinds of trials. These come so that the proven genuineness of your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even if refined by fire--may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Peter 1.6-7.) Again, God allows difficulty as a proving ground for our character. He stamps His approval on us by the trials He allows. He expresses His trust in us.
If we return to James 1.2-3 once again we discover we should, "count it pure joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perserverance." Here again we find a clear teaching that God allows difficulties not as temptation to evil, but as testing our our character. He indends it for good, no matter what the actual trial intends. (Recall Joseph's statement to his sold-him-into-slavery brothers.)
So in the wilderness Jesus faces testing. His Father has full confidence in His Son. The devil has permission to present the scenarios. He vainly hopes to sidetrack the Son into evil. The Spirit supports the Son who makes the Father-pleasing choice every time. Jesus emerges from the wilderness fully accredited in actual space/time testing. He has demonstrated, in part, why the Father declared Him "...My Son, whom I love. With Him I am well-pleased!"
We need to allow this time in the wilderness to encourage our hearts. When we face hardship, sickness, mis-understanding, betrayal, financial reversal or out-and-out temptation to sin, God has pre-approved the situation based on what He, in absolute perfect omniscience, knows He can get us through. I certainly feel more like Tevye, "I know. I know. We are Your chosen people. But once in a while, can't you choose someone else?" than Peter and James who counted trials and problems as God-authenticating-me pure joy.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Follow Me -- The Call of Jesus
"Come, make a decision for Christ."
I grew up in that tradition. My Baptist friends called you forward for one decision. My Wesleyan/Holiness church called you forward for two. But we all called for decision. We had serious doubts about the orthodoxy and orthopraxy of churches without altar calls.
The ministry of decision-based churches forms from a three-fold mission. First came evangelism or calling people to decision. Then came discipleship. Then came service -- to God and man. In reality, discipleship only served to produce more evangelizers to call people to decide. Service only counted if it lead to more decisions. Behind all our talk our mininstry was one-dimensional -- decision making.
Then we as decision-based believers wondered at the great falling away from the faith. We wrung our hands at the all-too-appearant lack of passion in the pews. We lamented the lack of committment from our members. We bemoaned the lack of holy "peculiarity" between God's people and pagan society. Why?
In an effort to stave off this crisis of Christlikeness, we strategically decided to add a new dimension to our ministry: DICIPLESHIP. We planned discipleship groups, discipleship classes, discipleship studies and discipleship emphases. Discipleship became the mantra of my denomination -- "Making more and better disciples!" Still the crisis continued.
I began looking at the teaching of Jesus again. He produced disciples capable of evangelizing, leading and building the kingdom in just three years. He lost only one to falling away. His followers had passion to carry them to and through martyrdom. These men and women distinguished themselves from their pagan culture by love, service and moral excellence.
Then I noticed a pattern. Patterns are God's way of speaking to someone as slow in understanding as I. JESUS CALLED PEOPLE TO FOLLOW HIM. He did it beside roads, at well heads, near rivers, in the marketplace, in places of sickness, poverty and want. Jesus simply, without qualification, called to people, "Come, follow me."
This Lent Faith Community Church unpacks this simple, church-culture changing call of Christ. We look at passages in which Jesus makes this call and at the results of such a call. Look for more posts to come,
I grew up in that tradition. My Baptist friends called you forward for one decision. My Wesleyan/Holiness church called you forward for two. But we all called for decision. We had serious doubts about the orthodoxy and orthopraxy of churches without altar calls.
The ministry of decision-based churches forms from a three-fold mission. First came evangelism or calling people to decision. Then came discipleship. Then came service -- to God and man. In reality, discipleship only served to produce more evangelizers to call people to decide. Service only counted if it lead to more decisions. Behind all our talk our mininstry was one-dimensional -- decision making.
Then we as decision-based believers wondered at the great falling away from the faith. We wrung our hands at the all-too-appearant lack of passion in the pews. We lamented the lack of committment from our members. We bemoaned the lack of holy "peculiarity" between God's people and pagan society. Why?
In an effort to stave off this crisis of Christlikeness, we strategically decided to add a new dimension to our ministry: DICIPLESHIP. We planned discipleship groups, discipleship classes, discipleship studies and discipleship emphases. Discipleship became the mantra of my denomination -- "Making more and better disciples!" Still the crisis continued.
I began looking at the teaching of Jesus again. He produced disciples capable of evangelizing, leading and building the kingdom in just three years. He lost only one to falling away. His followers had passion to carry them to and through martyrdom. These men and women distinguished themselves from their pagan culture by love, service and moral excellence.
Then I noticed a pattern. Patterns are God's way of speaking to someone as slow in understanding as I. JESUS CALLED PEOPLE TO FOLLOW HIM. He did it beside roads, at well heads, near rivers, in the marketplace, in places of sickness, poverty and want. Jesus simply, without qualification, called to people, "Come, follow me."
This Lent Faith Community Church unpacks this simple, church-culture changing call of Christ. We look at passages in which Jesus makes this call and at the results of such a call. Look for more posts to come,
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...25
Now at this point in the Lenten journey, we need to address an issue relating to Jesus in the Wilderness. Was Jesus tempted or tested? Could this question be more than word-play? What does it matter, if at all?
First, the Word says in Matthew 4.1 "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." There is a footnote attached to the word tempted. Mark 1.13, "...and he was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by the devil." Again the NIV notes multiple possible meanings for the word tempted. Luke 4.2 "...he was tempted by the devil..." with footnote.
The word is πειραζόμενος to tempt, try, test to see value or worth. to prove. In the Synoptics, it is a participle indicating continuous action. So the texts of the Wilderness experience allow for an understanding of both testing and tempting happening to Jesus.
Now let's look a clear teaching passage on God and temptation. James Chapter 1 teaches, When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
James ays God cannot be tempted. He cannot be lead astray from His will. As living perfection, God does not have flaw, weakness or gaps. No place can be found to exploit by the tempter. No desire exists to have or be more, as God -- in the Blessed Trinity -- has and is all He can be. Being the Truth, he cannot be other than He is.
James also says that God does not tempt anyone. Temptation stems from individual, internal desire. In Wesleyan terms, our "bent to sinning" pulls us toward sins that EASILY entangle us. The brokenness of our whole selves lends itself to temptation.
Jesus is God. As God He cannot be tempted. All-Knowing, He cannot be lead astray as He knows every path and its ending, every suggestion and its motive. All-Powerful, He can resist any pull. Holy, Pure and Good, He cannot do wrong. As Perfection, He lacks nothing so desires nothing more. Temptation as it comes to us, did not come to the Son-God.
Jesus, while God, is God-in-flesh. As the new Adam, created by the Word of God as the Spirit overshadowed a virgin, Mary, Jesus has not the fallen nature. He inherited no "bent-to-sinning." No imperfection pulled at Him. Unbroken, no internal desire distracted Him.
We seem to have found that in the sense that we are tempted, fallen and broken and sin-prown as we are, Jesus was not tempted. Later we will explore "testing" as what may have happened to the Son of God in the Wilderness.
First, the Word says in Matthew 4.1 "Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." There is a footnote attached to the word tempted. Mark 1.13, "...and he was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by the devil." Again the NIV notes multiple possible meanings for the word tempted. Luke 4.2 "...he was tempted by the devil..." with footnote.
The word is πειραζόμενος to tempt, try, test to see value or worth. to prove. In the Synoptics, it is a participle indicating continuous action. So the texts of the Wilderness experience allow for an understanding of both testing and tempting happening to Jesus.
Now let's look a clear teaching passage on God and temptation. James Chapter 1 teaches, When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
James ays God cannot be tempted. He cannot be lead astray from His will. As living perfection, God does not have flaw, weakness or gaps. No place can be found to exploit by the tempter. No desire exists to have or be more, as God -- in the Blessed Trinity -- has and is all He can be. Being the Truth, he cannot be other than He is.
James also says that God does not tempt anyone. Temptation stems from individual, internal desire. In Wesleyan terms, our "bent to sinning" pulls us toward sins that EASILY entangle us. The brokenness of our whole selves lends itself to temptation.
Jesus is God. As God He cannot be tempted. All-Knowing, He cannot be lead astray as He knows every path and its ending, every suggestion and its motive. All-Powerful, He can resist any pull. Holy, Pure and Good, He cannot do wrong. As Perfection, He lacks nothing so desires nothing more. Temptation as it comes to us, did not come to the Son-God.
Jesus, while God, is God-in-flesh. As the new Adam, created by the Word of God as the Spirit overshadowed a virgin, Mary, Jesus has not the fallen nature. He inherited no "bent-to-sinning." No imperfection pulled at Him. Unbroken, no internal desire distracted Him.
We seem to have found that in the sense that we are tempted, fallen and broken and sin-prown as we are, Jesus was not tempted. Later we will explore "testing" as what may have happened to the Son of God in the Wilderness.
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...25
Today I quote a prayer attributed to St. Patrick. It fits the dangers of the Wilderness through which I journey with the Lord.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Lord, Throughout These Forty Days...24
Jesus alone in the wilderness determines how He will live out the role of Messiah. The Spirit has just descended on Him at the Jordan baptism. He is the Anointed One. Satan has tempted Him to alleviate some of the suffering caused by sin in making stones into bread. The tempter teases out a scenario in which Jesus could reclaim Adam's abdicated authority...if He acknowledged Satan's authority to grant it.
Now comes a temptation to live as Messiah, the Marvelous.
Taking Him up to the highest point of the Temple, Satan reminds Jesus that the Word of God declares special care and protection on the Anointed One. The promise included angels holding up the Anointed One so that His foot would not strike a stone. The devil dared Jesus to jump and let those angels hold Him up from injury instead of crashing into the courtyard.
What a scene that would have been! A man comes hurtling out of the sky from the high point of the Temple. Some in the court of women would see Him falling and scream. Mothers would shield their children's eyes to avoid the carnage on the pavement. A crowd of men in the outer court would run to the landing sight. But instead of a dead man lying broken and mangled, they would find the Anointed One standing there completely unharmed. His clothes would hardly be rumpled or dusty, His hair hardly out of place.
This, this would start the work of Messiah off with a bang! The word of the miraculous Temple Diver would spread like wild-fire. No one would doubt His power and anointing then. God's people from all over the Mediterranian world would flock to Him. How easy it would have been to raise a liberating army to drive the Romans out of the Holy Land, just as the Maccabees had done with the Greeks. This would bring the kingdom of God and and give His people freedom.
Jesus responds, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
I have often wondered at the frustrated, disapproving comments of Jesus in response to demands for a "sign" to prove His authority. Jesus calls sign-seekers perverse, wicked and adulterous. He refused to provide any sign upon demand. In the narative of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus even teaches that people who won't believe based on Scripture will not "be convinced even if someone raises from the dead." (Luke 16.31) Marvels and wonders do not convince. Jesus does not employ this tactic.
Whenever Jesus did activate His power and authority to work miracles, He often commands the beneficiaries to keep it secret. He instructs cleansed lepers to tell only those who need to know -- the priests who must declare then clean and fit to return to society. He never does one miracle to impress or show off.
Jesus will renew the world. He will re-establish the rule of God in the world. He would do this through a new people of God. But He would not draw men to Him the way Satan suggests. He would draw all humanity to Himself by being lifted on Calvary's cross. In place of a marvelous display of a man unbroken and uninjured by a fall, He will demonstrate His power in the mangled and broken man on a cross. The empty tomb would serve as the rallying point for the subjects of this King and the reign of God's Messiah.
Now comes a temptation to live as Messiah, the Marvelous.
Taking Him up to the highest point of the Temple, Satan reminds Jesus that the Word of God declares special care and protection on the Anointed One. The promise included angels holding up the Anointed One so that His foot would not strike a stone. The devil dared Jesus to jump and let those angels hold Him up from injury instead of crashing into the courtyard.
What a scene that would have been! A man comes hurtling out of the sky from the high point of the Temple. Some in the court of women would see Him falling and scream. Mothers would shield their children's eyes to avoid the carnage on the pavement. A crowd of men in the outer court would run to the landing sight. But instead of a dead man lying broken and mangled, they would find the Anointed One standing there completely unharmed. His clothes would hardly be rumpled or dusty, His hair hardly out of place.
This, this would start the work of Messiah off with a bang! The word of the miraculous Temple Diver would spread like wild-fire. No one would doubt His power and anointing then. God's people from all over the Mediterranian world would flock to Him. How easy it would have been to raise a liberating army to drive the Romans out of the Holy Land, just as the Maccabees had done with the Greeks. This would bring the kingdom of God and and give His people freedom.
Jesus responds, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
I have often wondered at the frustrated, disapproving comments of Jesus in response to demands for a "sign" to prove His authority. Jesus calls sign-seekers perverse, wicked and adulterous. He refused to provide any sign upon demand. In the narative of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus even teaches that people who won't believe based on Scripture will not "be convinced even if someone raises from the dead." (Luke 16.31) Marvels and wonders do not convince. Jesus does not employ this tactic.
Whenever Jesus did activate His power and authority to work miracles, He often commands the beneficiaries to keep it secret. He instructs cleansed lepers to tell only those who need to know -- the priests who must declare then clean and fit to return to society. He never does one miracle to impress or show off.
Jesus will renew the world. He will re-establish the rule of God in the world. He would do this through a new people of God. But He would not draw men to Him the way Satan suggests. He would draw all humanity to Himself by being lifted on Calvary's cross. In place of a marvelous display of a man unbroken and uninjured by a fall, He will demonstrate His power in the mangled and broken man on a cross. The empty tomb would serve as the rallying point for the subjects of this King and the reign of God's Messiah.
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