Psalm 49: 20 NIV
A man who has riches
without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
What Do You Possess?
Last week I was in a high school class and I asked
the students what particular strengths they possessed. One mentioned that he was good at connecting
with people, that he had the ability to look them in the eye and pay attention
to them. The rest of the class was
either dumbfounded by the question or too shy to answer. One young man, who I had gotten to know a bit
had a strong speaking voice and I told him I saw that in him. Several students gave examples of how his
powerful voice would benefit him. I asked
another young man what a strength of his was and he could not give me an
answer. He could not think of a single
talent or skill set that he possessed that was of any value. In fact, he insisted that he was not good at
anything. Now I realize that the setting
might have made it difficult for him to admit what he saw as something good
about himself but it struck me what a tragedy it was for a person to have
nothing to claim as a personal strength.
Perhaps there are many others who cannot come up with personal qualities
that would benefit themselves or others.
Is it possible that you too really don’t know who
you are, don’t know what lies within you that could be considered great or even
spectacular. What really are the
strengths you possess? Recently it was
mentioned just how broken we are in places we aren’t even aware exists. We don’t know the depths at which sin has
damaged us. Our heart is so vast and
unexplored by us that we cannot really know what destruction our heart has
incurred. Yet there is another side to
this discussion that must be considered and that is what sort of power we
possess in Christ. Are we certain we
know what has been given us by God and the value of what we have?
Psalm 49: 20 declares the great loss there is to us
if we possess riches that we don’t know we have. A
man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish. There is a witlessness to us when we are not
aware of what great possessions are ours.
It is like we are as dumb as an ox if we have never noticed the wealth
we own. Consider the immensity of the claim
found in Colossians 1: 27. To them God has chosen to make known among
the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the
hope of glory. (NIV) The
implication is that when Christ becomes a part of us, joined to us as a “new
creation”, there are great riches abiding within us and it must be acknowledged
that the vast majority of Christians have no idea what those riches are. Is it possible that we live in nearly
complete ignorance of what runs deep within us?
One of the most fascinating aspects to the
relationship between Christ and the Father is the approach the Father took to
the treatment Jesus received at the hands of those who despised Him. It was
always the same. Not everyone thought
Jesus was a great man sent by God. Many
thought He was either a lunatic or possessed by demons. Then
Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples
were not even able to eat. When his
family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said,
"He is out of his mind." And
the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is
possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons."
(Mark 3:20-22 NIV) How did the Father
respond to this unfair criticism? He did
not do anything. He let their hurtful
comments go unaddressed. The Father simply
let our Lord absorb them without shielding Him from the blows.
At Jesus’ most vulnerable point when it seemed like
the entire world turned on Him, the Father refused to defend Christ. Without a bit of evidence to convict Him, the
religious leaders tried their best to come up with some way of having Jesus put
to death but the Father did not send a single person Christ’s way to help
Him. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false
evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false
witnesses came forward. (Matthew 26:59 NIV) When Christ faced the terrors of Roman
brutality, the Father left Him alone. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him
flogged. The soldiers twisted together a
crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying,
"Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. (John
19:1-3 NIV) To the very end, the Father
did nothing to ease our Lord’s suffering or humiliation. Then
the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole
company of soldiers around him. They
stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns
and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front
of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and
struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the
robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
(Matthew 27:27-31 NIV)
How can we account for the Father’s total neglect of
the Son in His horrific trials? What did He have to gain by His response to the
Son? Whatever supernatural signs the
Father did to support His Son’s work were never associated with His suffering
or humiliations. The Son was left, if we
can be so almost heretical sounding in this, without the resources of the
Father to help Him with all He suffered.
He was in a sense “on His own.” The
great force of our Lord’s own personality faced the worst that Satan and the
World could throw at Him and yet without a hint of bitterness, self-pity or
lust for revenge, He endured it all. The
Father offered nothing supernatural at all to the Son for His endurance; He
left it up to the power of the perfect Son of Man’s own will to love without
hatred and persevere without quitting.
This must be processed thoroughly. Jesus had within Himself the power to love
the most hateful sinner, endure the most demeaning criticism without having to despise
the critic or try to defend Himself against the unfair charges. He was able to face any seeming defeat without
becoming at all discouraged. Whatever else
we might contemplate regarding everything Jesus suffered to bring an end to Sin
in the World, we must also consider just how much strength was contained within
the scope of His personality to face it fully without hatred or despair! It all reached a crescendo when He cried out
from the Cross, "Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34 NIV)
If we simply take a step back from the primary work
of Christ in bringing salvation to humanity on the cross, there is a secondary
effect that we must see. Think about the
immensity of this statement regarding the state of mind of our Savior just
before He was crucified. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and
perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
(Hebrews 12:2 NIV) Our Lord, by what He suffered and how He responded to His
suffering, revealed what is possible within the human personality when it is
joined to that of Christ. If you have
been born again, you have Christ in you and all He has within Himself to face
any difficulty or trial, you also possess by Him being a part of you. The problem, and this is a most troubling
problem, is that you most likely don’t even realize what our Lord places within
you when He joins Himself to you. It
takes a great crisis, a tremendous force of evil for you to see what it is you
have in Christ.
When the Apostles faced the greatest trial of their
lives, the arrest and crucifixion of Christ, they failed miserably. They were cowardly, self-pitying and without
faith. How could they ever know just
what power they held within themselves with Christ a part of them if all they
had to assess it was how they acted during the last days of His life. God gave them an opportunity to discover it
in a way most of us would try our best to avoid. After they had been boldly preaching about
Christ, the Jewish priest and leaders of the Jewish religious community rounded
up the Apostles. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered
them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the
Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace
for the Name. Day after day, in the
temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and
proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42 NIV)
How would they have responded to this horrid beating before Christ and His
courage and joy had become a part of them?
Most likely in the same they did to Christ being arrested. They would have felt sorry for themselves and
quit preaching. Not now though, not with
Jesus and all His strength and courage and love a part of them. Instead, they were happy the Lord found them
worthy to be humiliated because they lived with Christ.
What we must face squarely is this supernatural
strength of character to peacefully find joy and the ability to forgive even when
faced with brutal, beastly treatment.
The effect of this supernatural response to terrible circumstances may
not be immediately seen but that does not mean it will not work eventually in
the hearts of those without Christ who witness it firsthand. Without the sheer weight of the cruelty faced
by Christ it might never have been known just how much power was contained in
the heart of Christ. Anything less than
this great show of force could have been disregarded because it was no more
miraculous than the work of a Gandhi or Socrates. This response of Jesus and then of the Apostles
to terrible difficulties and brutal treatment was as wondrous a miracle for
those present as the parting of the Red Sea for it showed just what a real
person has inside when Christ is living within.
There are monumental trials Christian people face and they are sometimes
horrific and God does not deny just how terrifying and difficult they are. But our Lord lets Satan initiate them for
this one purpose. In them the power of
God is revealed in its full glory. Those
who could never forgive true evil, who could never love hateful people, who
could not on their own be courageous in such circumstances are courageous and
joyful because of Christ within and that is seen for what it is; a true miracle
of God. You cannot know the full extent
of God’s power in you until you face overwhelming circumstances. You will not know just how great the love of Christ
is within you if you never encounter someone you cannot love on your own. Who would have known what our Lord could do
if He never was crucified and your friends and family might not know just how
great and wonderful Christ in you is if you do not encounter a hardship only
Christ in you can overcome and in that hardship have supernatural joy in the
midst of it!
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