Missed Christmas

Matthew 2:1 NIV

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

What Should You Expect of People?

I was substitute teaching in a sixth grade class and one of the students walked past me after recess and I could tell she was quite upset.  In fact, nearly everyone in the class noticed it.  I pulled her aside and asked what was wrong.  At first, she wouldn’t say, but then a tear or two trickled down her cheek and she told me what happened.  She was playing in a four-square game and some of the kids told her she had gotten out.  She told them she wasn’t, and they made fun of her and yelled for her to leave the square and go to the end of the line.  Humiliated and feeling wronged, she just quit the game and waited for recess to end.  I didn’t have any wise counsel for the child, now suggestions.  Because I was not there, I could not even be certain her side of the story was accurate or not.  What I did know was that the student was a bit heart-broken and I had no real strategy for consoling her.

It of course makes no sense for children to get upset while playing a game intended to be fun but there are many times when what is done isn’t reasonable.  The problem we face is that we do not live in a reasonable world.  We see examples of this time and again.  My son was recently in a car accident and his car was totaled when a car and a pickup truck collided on the freeway and the truck spun out and hit my son’s car, sending his car into a guard rail.  Now, the insurance companies for both drivers are refusing to pay for the damages to my son’s car because each driver claims the other was at fault.  This of course is not reasonable because now lawyers will have to be paid to help settle this.  Elvis Pressley was well-known for taking a gun and blasting TV sets when he didn’t like the show he was watching.  The shoe company Puma was formed because the two brothers who created the Adidas company had a violent falling out and one brother, Rudolf, left Adidas and formed Puma.  For twenty-seven years, the two brothers battled over market share and did not talk to each other the rest of their lives.  This is not reasonable.  The cofounding brothers of Kellogg cereals became so angry with each other that they sued each other for more than a decade and did not talk to each other for thirty-three years.  The world is not reasonable and much of what happens in your home and mine isn’t either.  We do things that don’t make sense even though we know better.

When the shepherds Christmas Eve saw the angels up in the sky singing praise to God, they immediately, as soon as the angels left them, ran off to follow the instruction to go find the newborn baby Jesus lying in a manger.  Like me and you would have been, they were amazed at the sight of the prophesied Messiah born in their town and it catapulted them to action.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. (Luke 2:17-18 NIV) It is most interesting in this account what is not said here.  No mention is made of anyone else going to see Jesus.  There was no parade of worshippers heading down to the stable to see the King of Kings.  Everyone that heard the shepherds’ story was amazed, but it does not seem that anyone followed the example of the shepherds and went to see the baby “lying in a manger”.  It was not that big of a deal for them to leave their homes, quit making dinner, stop doing their chores to make it out to the place where Jesus and Mary and Joseph rested.

Now the other Gospel writer who talks about the baby Jesus, Matthew, also makes it clear that no one made any sort of fuss about seeing the Lord Jesus.  In fact, it seems that the birth of Jesus went completely unnoticed by the world at large.  When the Magi from the east came to see the King of the Jews because they had been led to Israel by the great star, no one in Jerusalem, which is only a few miles from Bethlehem, knew anything about the miracle of Jesus.  King Herod, who was paranoid about any threat to his rule immediately became alarmed when the Magi came to him wondering where the newborn King of the Jews was to be found.  After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."  When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. (Matthew 2:1-3 NIV)

Herod quickly called for the Bible scholars of Jerusalem to come and tell him what the Scriptures had to say about the birth of the Messiah.  "In Bethlehem in Judea," they replied, "for this is what the prophet has written: "'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.'" (Matthew 2:5-6 NIV)  What is astounding about this record of the birth of Jesus and the events surrounding it is that even after Herod and all those in court found out what the Bible said was the location of where the Messiah would be born, not one of them went themselves to see Him.  Not a single scholar bothered to hike down with the Magi and go see what might have happened.  Despite the star, despite the account of the shepherds, despite the coming of the Magi, not a solitary soul explored the possibility that the long awaited and anticipated Messiah was actually in their midst.

We have expectations of others and set standards that we think they should reach and they all too often fail us.  They don’t love us like we think they ought, they aren’t honest with us, they don’t work very hard or put the effort into their endeavors we hoped they would.  Friends and family members do mean things, are selfish and get easily offended, they aren’t faithful, they sin in ugly ways and embarrass us.  I have good Christian friends who are sad because of what their children are doing.  Some have cried when they told me about the awful choices their sons and daughters are making.  The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote, If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; (Ecclesiastes 5:8 NIV) We should never be surprised when someone we love falls into an immoral lifestyle, a politician lies to us or a close friend stops talking to us.  This is a broken world and every person we know is corrupted by sin and damaged by it.  Christian people have old habits of sinning that have not yet been turned around and many are emotionally and psychologically damaged by sin and its destructive force.  Should anything evil in this world surprise us?

Each of us need Christ to take away our sin.  We need His perfect life worked into us so that we can be thoroughly transformed and made Christian.  When salvation is typically described, it almost always is spoken of as getting to heaven.  Salvation is much more than that.  It is Christ becoming a part of you and working out of you all the sin and making you perfect in every way.  That is why all people on this planet need Christ as Savior.   Sin cannot be removed from them any other way.

The Great Revelation

Luke 2:15 NIV

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

My earliest memory of Christmas was when final proof came that Santa Claus was real.  I was perhaps four or five years old and Christmas Eve, I heard a loud banging around on the porch, a boisterous, “ho, ho, ho” and a firm knock on the door.  My mom urged me to open the door and go out on the porch and I found the most beautiful tricycle in the world sitting there.  I shouted with glee, jumped up and down and gazed in wonder at what Santa had left for me.  The joy of Christmas was gloriously physical, encompassing, radiating.  Of course, my take on Christmas is much more sophisticated now and so is yours but, I wonder if that makes us better.

Christmas was not always Christian, at least in regard to the time of the year we celebrate it.  We know that it was first a pagan holiday, a time of drinking and carousing.  Yet, it did not immediately “clean up its act” even after the Christian community took it over and made Christmas a time of celebrating the birth of Jesus.  There was much about the reveling that made it a fearful time for good families who avoided the drunken mobs running the streets during Christmas.  It really was not until the Protestant Christians of Germany embraced Christmas fully as a time of honoring the Christ child that Christmas took on its holiness and wonder.

The night Jesus was actually born a great split in the cosmos occurred as the supernatural met the natural in a spectacular display.  Rarely do we see the supernatural beings of God’s universe; they remain almost entirely hidden from us.  Abraham came upon them.  Elisha did too, along with Samson’s parents and Jacob.  They are generally spotted only in dreams if at all.  Of the many billions who have come and gone, only a handful have ever seen God’s angels and knew they had.  However, that one night, whose date has been forgotten by the world, a small cadre of shepherds were stunned by their sudden appearance.

Only Luke records the moment.  The other Gospel writers and apostles failed to mention it when they wrote their parts of the Bible.  There was nothing notable about the night to warn the shepherds of what was coming as far as we know.  No meteor showers, lunar eclipses or bright Christmas stars paved the way.  It just happened without warning; a split second the shepherds were tired and bored and maybe even hungry and the next, the heavens exploded before them.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. (Luke 2:8-9 NIV) A single angel was enough to throw the shepherds into panic.  We certainly must not skirt quickly past the included note that the “glory of the Lord shone around them”, but, it was the solitary angel that shook them violently.  This consideration should not be taken lightly.  When the supernatural crashes down upon the natural, there is shock and amazement.  The senses are almost always dazzled and overwhelmed.  The spiritual core of humanity cannot take in the supernatural casually.  A violent eruption occurs within that shakes the ground of those who come upon it.

We know that the presence of the angel did not bring this to a conclusion though.  More of the night exploded with wonder as the shepherds took in the glory of God.  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (Luke 2:13-14 NIV) Imagine the spectacle of it and how shook they all must have been by what they witnessed.  Not a single shepherd could have been unmoved.  Before the sky filled with supernatural though, the first angel announced happily to the shepherds, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." (Luke 2:10-12 NIV)

How would you have responded to this declaration?  What would you have done if you heard this strangely electrifying news?  Would you have continued to stay with your sheep that night?  Would you have kept watching your show or checking Facebook?  Would you have worked on your dinner or gone through your emails or maybe even headed off to bed?  Not everyone who comes upon the supernatural is transformed by it.  Plenty, like the Israelites who gave little thought to the God who revealed Himself to them in a cloud with lightning and great glory, simply go on with the day as if nothing much happened.  Such was not the case though with these shepherds!  When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about." So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. (Luke 2:15-16 NIV)

When God reveals Himself to you, it is a supernatural event.  No one comes to Christ without the Spirit of God intervening.  It is not an intellectual exercise, not a logical conclusion, this matter of being born again.  This is always a work of the supernatural Presence of God who makes it clear that you must come to Christ for salvation.  It never is just you and your mind making this connection.  Always God must be there for you to trust Him, want Him.  Any other religious or political or intellectual consideration can spring from just you but not this.  Jesus must enter your mind if you are to ever become actually Christian, truly a new creation in Christ.  The conclusion of the text is one of the most heartwarming accounts found anywhere in literature.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.  But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (Luke 2:17-20 NIV)

When the supernatural meets you; when God invades your heart, you are stirred with either resentment toward Him or devotion to Him.  Satan and the Israelites who rebelled against God each did so because the glory of the Lord was frustrating to them and felt like a hindrance to what they wanted.  For the shepherds, it was the beginning of eternal life, the start of joy.  What does God do for you?  Does He stir up resentment and disappointment?  Do you get aggravated by what He expects of you or are you thrilled by His love for you, captivated by His presence in you?  Have you the pleasure of the shepherds in you; joyful that He is there with you?  You can quickly tell who has your heart, the devil or supernatural Jesus.  If it bugs you that Christ seems to expect so much of you, wants more out of you than you are willing to give, then Satan is more your friend than you might be willing to admit.  But, if there are no boundaries to how far you will go to glorify and bring honor to Jesus, then you are close to where the shepherds were, to where Jacob was and where Mary was as she sat with the crucified Christ in the tomb.  What sort of reaction does the presence of God here stir in your heart as you come before Him now?  Are you with the shepherds in this, full of joy at what the Lord has done in you or are you a bit cranky that He expects too much of you?

The Sin Factor

The miracle of the Cross is not sublime!  There is a mistaken teaching that has been passed around for hundreds of years that when Jesus Christ was crucified, he magically erased our sins, blotted them out as it were like divine suds.  That is not the case at all.  He bore our sins; took them into His own body and they putrefied within Him, sucked the life out of Him, and each one added to His misery.  Why is the Church so reluctant to see sin as the monstrosity it is?  Each sin we commit today adds to the shame and horror of the crucifixion Jesus endured two thousand years ago.  Only God could do this; bear sins committed tomorrow and not just the ones of yesterday.  As we sin and sin unthinkingly, we strike Jesus ourselves with the whip, drive the stake deeper in through his feet, take the rod and break it more ferociously upon his back and sides.  The sins of today are not nothing; they pry out of Christ's body more blood and break His heart even worse.  We may be free of real guilt but that does not mean Christ is.  He bears them all, the sins of yesterday as well as the ones of today and at some point, won't we just stop it?  Won't we fiercely reject the notion that we can sin freely and easily, and it doesn't matter?  John the Apostle says we don't have to keep sinning willy-nilly; we can put an end to it...not because we are evolving into righteousness, but because the Holy Spirit lives in us and empowers righteousness.  We are such fundamentalists when it comes to getting our garbage sorted among the various recycling options, but do we give the same care to the very sin that brought this mess upon us?  Pray with ferocious determination that God would keep you from temptation.  The Christian who comprehends the horror of sins will begin to loath the points where they invade the soul.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

Good

Luke 18:19 NIV

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good — except God alone.”

What Is Really Good?

Can I be blamed for thinking that California is one of the best places on Earth to live?  Of course there is much that is wrong with the state but nearly all of its problems can be pinned on the values and actions of those who live there.  There is something to be said though of a region that has both Yosemite and Muir Woods, the beaches of San Diego and the San Francisco Bay.  California certainly isn’t perfect but there are some aspects of it that approach perfection.  I was driving with a friend through Mississippi and he introduced me to the woods there, pointing out how lovely the forests were.  It was about like when I went with a classmate to visit his family living in Southwest Missouri and he commented on the beauty of the Ozark Mountains.  Now I am not one to denigrate another person’s “pride and joy”  but I had difficulty complimenting the skinny pine trees of Mississippi after hiking through redwood groves in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  And I must say that there are mountains and then there are MOUNTAINS.  Who am I to tell someone what to like and not like.  Perhaps New York pizza really is better than Chicago style and Japanese cars are better than Russian ones.  Yet am I correct in telling you that you would be happier living in the San Francisco Bay Area than you would be  staying in Amsterdam or Beijing, or Branson, Missouri?  We have a right to our opinions…and every one of us has them!

Goodness has the feeling of being just another aspect of opinion.  If you say you’re good, does that mean you are?  Serial killers and pedophiles and vandals who tag sidewalks may say they are good and really believe they are but is it true?  Probably even Stalin’s mom saw something good in him and Hitler was respected and honored by quite a few people.  It is funny though how easy it is for us to see the good in ourselves and not see it in others.  We use a sort of sliding scale when we evaluate people…whether it is ourselves or others.  Part of the reason we can see good in “bad” people is that there still is in each of us the hint of the good God put in us when he made us.  It may not be developed goodness or disciplined goodness we see, it might only be strand of what was left in us when the Lord put us together but it is there and we fool ourselves into thinking that is who we are rather than the hint of the good of God Himself. 

The account of James and John thinking they were good because they wanted fire to come down from heaven and burn up a poor Samaritan village because the people had the audacity to not want to pay to feed and house Jesus and His disciples is too true to human nature ever to have been fabricated.  As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.  And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.  When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?"   But Jesus turned and rebuked them,  and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51-55 NIV)  I am sure, and probably you are too, that James and John thought they meant well, thought their hearts were in the right place but clearly Jesus saw things differently.  It was not good that fueled their anger at the Samaritans although if you had asked them before Jesus rebuked them, they probably would have seen themselves as good people.  You and I can’t judge them.  We might just as well have said exactly what James and John did if we were there.  This though is the problem with the strand of good we all have and make much of.  All too many of us think we are so good that we don’t need God…don’t need Him to significantly change us, don’t need Him to remake us.

I can’t imagine Jesus was very happy with one of the discussions the disciples had when He was gone.  If it were not for the fact that it was so very telling of the human condition, we might get a good laugh at it.  Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.  Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.  But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. (Luke 22:24-26 NIV)  Now if we just think a bit about this whole argument, there is a critical observation we must make.  At no point do the disciples consider what part God must play in their lives for them to be good!  It is all about them and their abilities, their morality, their skills, their religion.  God is not even needed.  Did they have to be saved?  Was there any hint in them that salvation was required?  It is fascinating, this strange reluctance to see ourselves, to really look at who we are without God.  We have that strand of good in us to keep us content but the truth of who we are eventually hits us.  We need a Savior.

Consider the sad case of Joseph and his brothers.  Joseph’s brothers were fed up with Joseph.  They had enough of Joseph being the favorite of their father, enough of his proud strutting about with his fancy coat and enough of the dreams he claimed to have had that according to Joseph foretold that they all, even their mothers and father would bow before Joseph one day as if he were some sort of king.  The boys decided to fix Joseph and with their dad not around, sold him into slavery.  So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe — the richly ornamented robe he was wearing — and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.  As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.  Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?  Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.  So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. (Genesis 37:23-28 NIV)

Evil like that is tough to comprehend.  How could anyone do such a thing and yet it was done.  Each one of those brothers thought he was a better person than Joseph.  Each believed Joseph was arrogant, selfish and self-righteous.  You don’t sell your brother into slavery if you haven’t decided he is pretty bad.  Here is the irony of this.  Each brother felt like he was good, a decent soul because that strand of good was in him, and yet…At least two of them became murderers, one slept with his father’s common-law wife and one sought out prostitutes after his wife died.  We don’t know about the rest…they were at least bad enough to sell their own brother into slavery.  Here is what we see in all of us.  Each brother thought he was the good one…at least better than his brother was and each brother thought his brother was worse than he was, more evil and needing to be fixed.

There is a passage in Isaiah that does not receive the attention it deserves.  It has a profound message describing what God is going to do with us.  He will save us, that is true…or we should say He does save us.  The prophecy was made eight hundred years before Jesus brought us our salvation though and it says something quite important about what that salvation will do for us.  A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 40:3-5 NIV)  You and I are that desert.  You are the one God will Himself make right so that you are a fit place for Him to live.  The good you think is good will be made perfect.  No strand of self-righteousness will be left to it for God Himself in Christ will make it truly good.  The evil in you will be leveled, and torn out and the glory of the LORD will be revealed in you.  Everyone will see it…that you are perfect, lovely in every way.  God will walk in you and make His home in you and nothing, not the worst of your sins, not the ugliest of evil that could ever be found in you will be there anymore.  There will be no corrupted goodness, no pretend morality or broken love or fractured peace.  Only goodness, real goodness that perfect God can make of you.  He has spoken.  And once again God will say of you.  “You are very good.”

Reality in Love

1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV

Love is patient, love is kind.

What Is The “Look of Love”?

Recently I was working in a classroom that I had been in a number of times before.  They were invited to visit another class at the school to see the exhibits the students of that class had made of different aspects of ancient civilization.  For example, one student made a model of the Parthenon, another a terracotta soldier of ancient China; others exhibited papier Mache maps of Rome or the pyramids of Giza.  Each student had an exhibit to share and explain and they were all exited to make their presentations to the kids of our class.  Before I brought our kids in the classroom though, I poked my head in to check and see if they were ready for us.  About three months before I had worked in that same class as a substitute teacher one day and as soon as I looked into room, several kids shouted, “It’s Mr. Walkup!”  Immediately the class started cheering.  Embarrassed, I ducked back out and returned to the class I was bringing to see them.  I was not prepared for that sort of reception and I think the teacher in the class was a little taken aback by their reaction to seeing me.  I had only been with them one day and it was shocking that they remembered my name and I was overwhelmed by their response.  That same day, I was talking with someone and that person told me I’m not very nice and that others are intimidated by me.  Once again I was stunned and left speechless.  I cannot say that I have ever encountered a day quite like that one where I faced such a wide swing of the pendulum and it was difficult knowing just how to process the feedback I received in just the span of six hours or so.

There is something to be said for honest if brutal evaluations.  Sometimes it isn’t pleasant hearing what others really think of us and it can happen that we are wildly surprised to find out just how loved and respected we are.   It cuts both ways.  We are loved and we sin.  We may not like what God has to say about us but He is honest in His evaluation of us.  The Bible insists that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, He means it. (See Romans 3: 23) It is worth noting that when the great man of faith Isaiah met God for the first time, he was not prepared for what he saw in himself.  "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."  (Isaiah 6:5 NIV)  Was this an aberration or how it really is when God comes upon us?  Whether it was Moses or David or the Apostle Paul, we have this same sort of experience; the realization that what is within is terribly ugly and corrupted.  It may have taken the witnessing of a miracle by Jesus to get the Apostle Peter’s attention but nonetheless Peter also upon figuring out who Jesus actually was awakened to his own sinfulness.  When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8 NIV)  Paul the Apostle expresses the thoughts of all who have ever met God personally.  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.  (Romans 7:18-19 NIV)  There is a freeing discovery when we come to Christ our Savior that we are thoroughly riddled with sin and on our own can’t get out from under it.

You cannot fully appreciate just what kindness God has shown you to die for your salvation unless you meet Him.  Until you do, forgiveness of sin is only a casual determination of God to brush off what petty mistakes you have made.  “Ah, that’s good dude.”  But that is not how it is with us or with Christ.  God did not die on the Cross because we have just “blown it” a few times.  He did so because our sin is thoroughly wicked and completely ingrained in us; it took the violence of crucifixion to remove it all from us.  When we think of what Jesus had to endure to take out of us our sin, it cannot be fully realized without really meeting Jesus.  It is like trying to describe the skill needed to play professional hockey without seeing it firsthand or being told how smart a mathematician is if one has never tried to solve even a simple algebra equation.    When Jesus comes to us in the way He does, we come to grips with how kind He is to die for our salvation.  The Bible, in its magnificently understated way, gives us a hint of it.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8 NIV)

Let us for a moment do some theological math.  Or perhaps it would be better stated that we are going to think about this matter of God’s love using the logic of the Bible to shape our conclusion.  In discussing love, the Bible says that, “Love is patient, love is kind.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4 NIV)  The verb that is translated “patient” describes putting up with a lot or continually not letting upsetting matters trouble you.  Kind is a great way of translating this second quality of love, that love is constantly doing what is compassionate.  One way to look at the entire passage on love and in particular these two characteristics is to replace “love” with God.  The Bible tells us that in the equation, God is love or God equals love.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8 NIV)  But then we also see this point repeated later in the same chapter.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  (1 John 4:16 NIV)  It is not a stretch to make1 Corinthians 13 and in particular verse 4 all about God.  God is patient.  He does not let our constant sinning upset Him.  God is kind.  He deals with us gently like a loving mother or father would a reckless and misbehaving young child.

Let’s look at one example from the Gospels to get an idea of just what sort of person God is.  In John 8, Jesus addressed a crowd that had gathered to worship and discuss the Scriptures at the Temple.  Some of them accused Jesus of being demon possessed.  They tried to insult Jesus by calling Him a “Samaritan” which in their minds was about as bad a slam as it got.  Finally, they became so enraged with Him that they in a mad rush grabbed stones off the ground to kill Jesus.  Our Lord’s response was perfectly aligned with patience and kindness.   Rather than call ten thousand angels to decimate the entire crowd, He quietly slipped away.  At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (John 8:59 NIV)  The patience of God at this moment was astounding.  Do you remember the fire coming down upon Sodom or the plague of the firstborn on the Egyptians.  In an instant Christ could have wrecked everyone there but He didn’t.  He quietly faded into the background.  How many of us, if we had the absolute power our Lord did at that moment would have been so kind.  Consider just how painful it is for Jesus to watch us sin, be lazy and uninspired, disregard His commands and priorities, pay no attention to Him as He waits for us to do what is right.  How much does God put up with you and me?  Are we not ten times worse than those Israelites who were blinded by Satan and trapped by the Devil’s plot?  We know who He is and we still ignore Him!

Some may have thought I was too hard on Abraham recently with my critique of his faith.  Take a look at one incident that tells us a great deal about Abraham’s patience and kindness.  Genesis 13 provides a synopsis of just how Abraham’s mind worked.  His brother’s son Lot had traveled with him from Haran to Canaan and settled with him there.  Abraham had become extremely wealthy and acquired vast amounts of livestock and gold.  It seems apparent that he shared his good fortune with Lot.  Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. (Genesis 13:5 NIV)  One would think that Lot would be grateful for what his uncle had done for him and do everything he could to stand behind him but such was not the case.  But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.  And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot.  (Genesis 13:6-7 NIV)  This conflict between Abraham’s employees and Lot’s became so bad that the only solution seemed to be to go their separate ways.  So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.  Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left." (Genesis 13:8-9 NIV)  It is critical to note that it was not just the employees who were arguing, Lot was quarreling with Abraham.  How was this possible?  How could Lot have had one single word of disagreement with his benefactor?  All he owned was due to Abraham and his generosity and kindness!  Is it conceivable that Lot would have for even a moment let his staff fight with Abraham’s workers?  Would not someone who had been so blessed by another have done all he could to have supported and stood loyally for that one’s cause?  Lot did not and it seems there was not an ounce of gratitude in Lot for all Abraham had done for him.  Selfishly he stood his ground and demanded that Abraham give him his way.  Finally Abraham could not take the tension between them any longer and rather than force Lot out, he gave him the option of where to settle.  He did not demand his right to the best land.  He simply in kindness and patience made peace with his nephew and gave to him whatever he wanted.

Jesus put it this way.  "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'   But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:38-42 NIV)  This is perhaps the most elegant and practical teaching on patience and kindness you will find in any book ever written.  What if, with God and all His power and goodness living in you, you take one of these commands and look for an opportunity this week to practice it.  God will give you the opportunity if you are willing to be His disciple.  Many would not take up this challenge, but perhaps you will.

In Just A Few Hours

Luke 24:1 NIV

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.

What Could Happen In A Few Hours?

When our son was four years old, I decided as the good father that I was, that it was time to take the training wheels off his bike.  This is of course a rite of passage for most of the world’s population, as important as promoting into middle school and going out on the first date.  Now I am certain that if Mary Jo was home at the time, I might not have gotten past getting the first training wheel off our son’s bike but she wasn’t and so like all good fathers who love their children I took charge of helping our son spread his wings and fly, We went out to the back of a nearby middle school where there was an acre of asphalt and basketball courts.  I got our boy up on his little bike, steadied him as he established his balance with his feet on the pedals and hands on the handlebars, said a brief prayer and then pushed him off into the adult world.  I cheered him on as he wobbled away from me, furiously trying to maintain his equilibrium, veering left, then to the right, but steadily moving forward.  There were perhaps sixteen large metal poles holding the basketball rims and backboards in place spread out over at least an acre of land.  Not one of them was shrouded in mist; none of them were hidden behind sheets, painted with special colors that camouflaged them.  Each was like the Eiffel tower standing boldly by itself, far from its matching partner, a giant mountain of metal and immovability and yet as my little boy pushed off with the enthusiasm of Christopher Columbus looking for the passageway to the Orient, he somehow not only did not avoid the basketball pole, like a bee drawn to a flower, he pedaled straight at one.  Silently he crashed into the basketball pole and there he lay crumpled on the ground.  Like a good dad, I ran to him, checked for any major structural damage to his body and comforted my son in the same way any true father would.  “Son”, I said.  “You did great!  Do you want to try again?”  He got up, dusted himself off, climbed on his bike and with a push from me, off he went again.

Now here is where I was dumfounded and could not grasp what I saw.  Why did my son, with perfectly good eyesight not notice the giant metal poles out in the middle of the wide open spaces?  How did he miss the danger before him and why didn’t he do anything to avoid running into one of them?  Yet I must admit this to you.  I also have run into my fair share of basketball poles and did nothing to avoid them.  I have failed and because of pride or an unwillingness to look at the facts have ruined parts of my life.  I have made bad decisions, thought I knew what I was doing and was wrong.  I have hurt others by what I have said, made others suffer for my mistakes and plenty of times blamed someone else for my failures.  Are you immune to failure or have you had your fair share of losses?  Have you sinned?  Do you know when you are wrong or are you like me, you tend to cover up your mistakes or ignore them?  How bad is bad when it comes to you, how seriously should you take your sins, your moral mistakes, your rebellious acts against God?  What should you make of your failures, your shortcomings, the difficulties you cause others and yourself?  Let us look at Easter and how what Jesus did two thousand years ago impacts your life.

When it comes to what we have done wrong, our own sin, we have a giant blind spot.  We make too little of it and do not realize just how destructive our sins are, the potency of their evil. The Bible has this to say about your mistakes and moral failures.   Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16-17 NIV) We see our violations of God’s law as silly little misdemeanors that were not intended to harm anyone.  Everything from a little lie we tell to a short adventure into porn, we laugh away as no big deal.  And yet God clearly does not see what we call shortcomings as insignificant at all.  What it took for Him to eradicate sin from His people is a clear indication of just how really horrific our sinning is and the devastating effect it has on the universe.

Look closely at what Jesus had to suffer to get rid of your sin.  Can you see the flesh being ripped from Him as the whip tears at His back, across His chest, along His legs?  Do you hear the beating His face took as he was pummeled by the guards?  Have you noticed the blood dripping down His face from the crown of one inch thorns shredding His scalp and forehead?  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. ohn 19:1-3 NIV) What about the force of the nails driven into His feet and wrists, the writhing pain He suffered as He hung on the Cross hour after hour, the ridicule He suffered as strangers laughed at His naked body hung up for all to see?  What did it cost God to take those insignificant, trivial, unnoticeable sins out of you and make you free of them?  Do those sins really seem like nothing?  Are they as unimportant as you have pretended for Christ Himself to be tortured like that, beaten like that, and ripped apart like that?  It took just a few hours for God to take our sins from us but the cost of that transaction was unbearable pain for God Himself.

I think there is one more aspect to Easter we would do well to consider.  Not only are your sins horrific and devastating for you and others, this matter of what you should think of your troubles and failures must be considered.  So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. (Matthew 28:8-9 NIV)  Ponder for a moment what sort of shock Mary Magdalene, Peter, John, Thomas and the others must have felt when they saw Jesus alive after they had watched Him shattered by pain and die.  Is there any sort of comparison we can make to it?  He was dead; everyone at the foot of the Cross, from the soldiers to the disciples to the women who watched Him be crucified, knew He was dead.  The body was a wreckage of death.  Can you picture how wide their eyes were, how violently their heart beat in their chests, how numb they were to all other sounds, all other movements, all other smells when they looked upon Jesus alive and knew beyond doubt He really was alive?  What thoughts of previous failure went through their heads, what disappointments and trials of life did they consider as they gazed upon His wondrous resurrected body?  Did any memory or plan stand in the way of just seeing Him, staring at Him, being mesmerized by Him?  Did they fuss about what they would have for dinner, complain about the back pain they suffered, get irritated by the long wait they endured as Jesus remained dead?  No sight could have been more spellbinding, no event more entrancing than just this one matter, Jesus standing before them raised from death and fully and magnificently alive before them.  Ponder this for a moment; that what we see with the disciples is just a hint at the emotions you will encounter when you too take your place among the saints who see Jesus standing before them the first time.  You too will soon enough, like the disciples be gripped by the most stupendous joy a person could ever possess and it is not that far off.

Have you ever noticed the connection the Scripture makes between the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus?  Over and over the Bible points out that it was on the third day after He died that Jesus was raised from the dead.  When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.  They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief. (Matthew 17:22-23 NIV)   .  God gave a number to it, a very specific number to connect the two parts of the salvation equation.  Crucifixion plus resurrection after three days equals salvation.  It is not four days and it isn’t two days either.  It is the third day that everything comes together for God’s people.  No crucifixion and there isn’t the removal of Sin from us.  Without resurrection there isn’t any life to our holiness.  They must be joined as one and they cannot be separated for your eternal life to begin—crucifixion and resurrection.  The two are joined into one outcome on a particular day and no other day, the third day.  The third day…it is where all our hope rests; where your hope rests.

Keep this in mind when you think about your life right now.  Our LORD does not initiate a crucifixion without a resurrection in mind.  Yes, you have troubles, you do have hardships.  You may wonder why He lets them happen.  Why this sadness, this frustration, this failure?  I cannot say why you have faced what you have and perhaps you cannot either.  I do not know how it will all work out for you, how this trial you face will go.  It is hard maybe for you to see how your dreams can still come to pass; how your suffering can be removed, but you must see this, look squarely at this.  You have not come to the end of the matter; it is only the first day, maybe the second but it is not yet day three.  For you it is Friday or maybe Saturday.  The dread of things is still upon the wind, the troubles you face are still in the air.  Death is before you, troubles and heartache and pain and discouragement have still remained and it seems late in the game, too late for anything much to change, for any good to come of this but it is the second day.  You have not yet reached the third day.  It is Saturday, perhaps even Saturday evening but remember, God does not initiate a crucifixion without a resurrection.  Sunday will come; it is nearly here in fact. Yes, you wonder like Job with all his troubles why it is so tough, so hard.  Like Jesus’ mother, His disciples, His friends, you don’t know why Friday has to be so bad and why there is so much pain and defeat on Friday. That is because you have first day thoughts, first day emotions, first day worries, first day fears; it is still the night for a universe awaiting the dawn.  Friday has come and Saturday stands for now, but there is one more day left and then everything will change for you. There is hope in Friday, hope in Saturday because...Sunday is on its way.  All death will come to life.  All troubles shall be cast aside with the dawn of the third day.  And you will see that day!

The Way of Peace

John 14:27 NIV

 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Happy?

Anxiety seems to be on the rise as is depression.  One in twelve Americans struggle with depression and forty percent of Americans say they are experiencing more anxiety than they did last year.  Is there anything in particular that drives up your blood pressure?  What gives you a tension headache or causes you to lose sleep?  Has your temper caused you problems or discouragement zapped your strength?  What takes away your peace?    When you lose it, how do you get it back?  There are so many opportunities for you to become frustrated and discouraged and angry and even worried that it is no wonder so many struggle with maintaining their tranquility.  Perhaps you would like a bit more quiet in your soul…a little more peace.  Let’s talk about it!

Most of the time the way peace is reestablished is by a change in circumstances.  The bill gets paid.  A new job makes life better.  A divorce ends the fighting.  The prognosis improves.  If it is only a shift in the situation or the environment that changes your mood, then the quality of peace is haphazard and chaotic.  It comes and goes with the roll of the dice.  There is no depth to the peace, no staying power that withstands tough times.  The Bible has much to say about peace and plenty of examples of peace experienced during trying times.

Few would say that they are at peace when suffering, fewer still would be calm and undisturbed when dying while in great pain and yet it is possible.  As the early church leader Stephen, one of the first twelve deacons in the Christian community was being executed through stoning, he was not like most people.  He prayed without showing any signs of bitterness or anger.  While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:59-60 NIV)  Of course this is not normal: Stephen’s reaction and perhaps we would add that it is not natural.  Yet it happened.  A human being with a human body and brain was able to pray for God to show his attackers mercy without any indication he was angry, bitter or despondent.   Without further comment, let us just admit that under terrifying and horrific circumstances, a human being can maintain peace within.

A second example of this same response to a terrible crisis is found in one of the books of the Bible written before the time of Christ.  Daniel, the ancient man of God, was ordered like everyone else in the Persian Empire to pray to no one other than the emperor or face execution.  Because he was faithful to the Lord and unwilling to renounce his loyalty to Him, Daniel continued to openly pray to the Lord.  Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.  (Daniel 6:10 NIV)  Again, such adamant loyalty to God at the risk of death is not normal and yet that is still how Daniel responded.   And so judgement was rendered against Daniel.  So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions' den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!"  A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed.  (Daniel 6:16-18 NIV) There is no record of Daniel pleading for mercy or demanding a lawyer or weeping in turmoil.  He simply accepted the sentence and peacefully waited to be killed.  Of course that did not happen and it was certainly a miracle that saved Daniel. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions' den.  When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?"  Daniel answered, "O king, live forever!  My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight.  Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king." (Daniel 6:19-22 NIV)

If for a moment you can just look past the supernatural aspect of Daniel’s rescue, consider carefully the peace Daniel possessed in the midst of a terrifying crisis.  Not only did he calmly keep praying to the Lord when the threat was so great but he also faced his execution without a hint of worry or complaint.  That may be even more supernatural than the angel protecting Daniel from the lions.  Such great internal strength is rarely found among people, not even God’s people and yet there it was.  Peace!  Once more in the Old Testament is an account worth examining if we are to see what sort of peace you can have.

The prophet Elisha had a group of apprentices who he was training to be missionaries in Israel.  They set about building a dormitory to house them all, cutting down trees for the construction.  However, the project had its difficulties.  As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. "Oh, my lord," he cried out, "it was borrowed!"  The man of God asked, "Where did it fall?"   When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float.  "Lift it out," he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it. (2 Kings 6:5-7 NIV)  Once more, this predicament was solved through the supernatural intervention of God but before the remedy came, Elisha was unperturbed by the crisis the apprentice encountered.  Rather than panic or fret, Elisha calmly assessed the situation and knew what to do.  That sort of reaction is not strange or unknown in normal human circumstances.  There are plenty of people who stay calm when crises hit because they are skilled at problem solving.  What is telling is that Elisha is identified as a “man of God” which means something here.  As a man of God Elisha lived in peace when his friend fell apart.  There is a “man of God” sort of peace that we need to consider when it comes to anxiety and depression.

Let us consider the peace Mary the mother of Jesus had when she found herself facing a financial crisis.  She was with her son at a wedding and it would seem that she was close to the groom, perhaps a relative or a close family friend.  She discovered that the groom had run out of wine for the guests and this was horrifying for the family.  It would have been a source of humiliation for years in the small town if some solution could not be found.  Mary turned to Jesus and told Him the problem.   His reaction may have made sense to Mary but it is hard to understand now.  Literally it was, “What to you and to me?”  What does that mean?  It is not clear at all but Mary’s response is quite clear.  She told the servants of the groom, "Do whatever he tells you." (John 2:5 NIV)  There is in this a casual indifference on the part of Mary to the wine crisis.  It was now in Jesus’ hands and she could calmly move to other business.  There is a strange, supernatural tranquility that comes over the person who decides a matter is now God’s problem and lets it stay with Him.  It is not reasonable to many; it is almost irrational and yet that is what happens to us when we give our troubles to God and trust Him with them.  God’s peace takes over our personality and with a calmness we cannot generate ourselves, our Lord of peace gives us His own serenity and stills our agitated thoughts. 

When Jesus died on the cross, a transaction occurred which completely alters the relationship between us and mental health.  By taking our sins into His own body, our Lord becomes free to work His own perfect life into ours.  It is not reasonable nor logical either that God would do this or that He does do it.  It is as the Bible puts it, a “mystery”. …the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.  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. (Colossians 1:26-27 NIV)  The incredible enigma is of Christ a part of you changes all the rules for personal peace.  Christ is a part of you which means that every piece of His personality is worked into you.  This includes His joy.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:11 NIV)  We also gain His hope.  Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. (Psalm 62:5 NIV)  And now, as we see, we also have the peace Christ has.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. (John 14:27 NIV)

The same peace Jesus had when the storm raged as He sat in the boat, that He had when His friend ran out of wine at the wedding, the same peace Jesus had as He was being taken off to be crucified is available to us!  How do we access it?  We pray!  Lord I need your peace.  I cannot get through this on my own.  My God, give me your peace.  I am stressed and worried.  Give me your peace!  It is there for you at any moment.  You don’t have to be fearful or worried or distressed.  The very peace of Christ has been given to you.  You just need to let it work in you.  You will notice a trigger for your anger or fear or worry.  It could be a bill, a health issue, a concern for one of your children, something your husband or wife is doing.  You have experience with these triggers.  They always get you but they don’t have to now.  You start to feel that old destructive emotion building in you:  fear, anger, despair, worry.  Give up immediately.  Admit you are not able to stop what is rising in you.  Pray.  Lord Jesus, I need your peace now.  The authority of Christ over the universe is right then in your favor.  His power demands that calm come over you.  You must trust Him though and that may take you some time.  You are so used to getting mad or worried, used to flailing about and trying to find a solution and so for a while you may have to suffer from depression or stress or anger that hurts you and others but give yourself time to get used to having Christ in you.  As soon as you cry out to God for His peace, He will give it to you.  Right then and there!  Go ahead.  Make use of the precious gift of peace Christ died to make your own.  Pray for peace in you.