Tag Archives: Jesus

The new tree of the knowledge of good and evil

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From last week’s message on Acts 17:16-34

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them. – Acts 17:16-34 (ESV)

Paul begins this episode provoked in spirit over the idolatry all around him. Indeed, Athens was so full of idols that they even had a catch-all altar to the “unknown god”, just in case they missed one.

It’s easy from our modern perch to ridicule the ancients for their idolatry, but if you think about it our generation is no different. The joy that explodes in social media over the release of a new phone OS, the way we fawn over our celebrities, the energy and time spent pursuing that ancient, unholy trinity of sex, money and power; all of this points to a society no more free of idolatry than Athens was, and probably even more idolatrous. We don’t bow before statues, but there are all sorts of things that get us out of bed in the morning that aren’t Jesus.

Paul takes the opportunity in a culture awash in idolatry to introduce them to the one true God. He is a God who has been unknown to his audience, for the most part, though they have been given clear communication of him from creation and have been feeling their way toward him all this time. Of course, when you are groping in the dark you will make mistakes, for our God doesn’t need or want all these man-made temples and sacrifices into which they had put so much energy. This is a God who is very near, and who created everything and everybody.

Paul then comes to the point.

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Jesus is the turning point of history. Jesus has come, has lived a perfect life, has suffered under God’s wrath for our sins, has died, and has been raised again. Jesus is the great decision of God to save his offspring, and about whom a great decision is called for in each one of us. Repent, or not. Trust in his great gift, or don’t. Reject our idols and worship the one true God, or continue swimming in a sea of idolatry. Breathe the free air, or drown.

When Paul speaks of the resurrection, some of his listeners begin mocking him. This is because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in the history of the world and is itself the hinge upon which history swings, but it is also a great scandal and offense to our natural minds, living as we do with the natural assumptions of karma and natural ignorance and misconceptions of holiness and unholiness. Into this ignorance Jesus steps, and in him the cross truly becomes the new tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because when we see him high and lifted up we finally see what holiness truly is, and can discard all our self-idolatry and our misnamed, false goodness. In the cross we also see what unholiness truly is, because of our own deep evil that put Jesus there. The cross is like looking in a mirror that shows us our true reflection. It isn’t pretty, in fact it’s horrifying, but Jesus is beautiful. When he is lifted high he will draw all men to himself.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

Jesus is alive! He has come to free us from idolatry and hopelessness and sin and bring us home to wholeness and holiness and him. Praise his name!

Talitha cumi

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From today’s reading of Matthew 8:14-34 and Mark 4-5

While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. – Mark 5:35-43 (ESV)

“. . . they laughed at him. But he put them all outside . . .” may be my favorite line from this narrative. It comes shortly on the heels of Jesus’ tender exhortation to a grieving father: “Do not fear, only believe.” Words to live by. To really live by.

Jesus has no time in this narrative for the pragmatists, the cynics, those who laugh (literally) in the Face of faith, hope and love. He puts them all outside.

The miracle of the raising of this little girl is not for show; indeed, Jesus allows only a very small audience for it and strictly charges them to tell no one afterwards. As with all of Jesus’ signs, there is both a near and far impact. The “near” is, of course, the joy-drenched raising of a beloved daughter, not to mention the effect this would have had on Jesus’ inner circle. Jesus gently called her back from death and she immediately responds to him. There is Jesus’ thoughtful request that she be fed. We are witnesses here to a wonderful and wondrous, gracious gift of life from Jesus to this family.

It prefigures the farther, wider impact of Jesus’ gracious gift of life to us. As the pragmatists thought that the little girl was too far gone, so were we. She was dead, after all. So were we.

No. After all the despair and destruction that the curse of death wreaks on us, there is Jesus to call us back. He calls us when we are dead in our trespasses and sins, enemies of God, pragmatically without hope or a future, with no way to rise to him. In a moment, from dead to immediately – I love Mark’s repeated use of that word throughout his gospel – alive, walking, being fed. This is what Jesus has done for those who are in Christ, for those who have heard his call.

Talitha cumi.

She came trembling

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From today’s reading of Matthew 13 and Luke 8

And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus’ feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.

As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” – Luke 8:41-48 (ESV)

I love this episode from the gospels. Jesus is on his way to heal Jairus’ twelve year old daughter who is at the point of death. This woman, twelve years into a physical malady that was not only debilitating but also rendered her permanently ceremonially unclean, touches the fringe of Jesus’ garment and is made well.

Jairus and the woman occupy very different stations in life, but both have come to the end of themselves. Jairus is on the brink of losing a daughter that he has treasured for twelve years. The woman has spent all her treasure trying to gain back the health that she has been denied for twelve years. Jairus is an important man, a ruler of the synagogue; the woman would have been considered quite unimportant in that culture, an untouchable, due to her discharge. But both are important to Jesus, and both receive the healing that only Jesus can give.

There is a sweetness to this narrative; Jesus not only heals the woman, but as he so often did for the untouchables and outcasts the he ministered to, he takes special care to publicly honor the one who has had dishonor heaped upon her for so long. Jesus could have allowed her to be healed when she touched him, and left it at that. It could have been their little secret. Instead, he calls her out; “Who was it that touched me?” As Peter points out, a lot of people have touched him; he is in a press of people. But only one touched him in faith for healing.

“Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” This trembling, timid, yet valiant woman has been touched by Jesus, and is blessed publicly by our gallant Savior, the one who lifts up the downcast and honors the desperate, timid faith of those on the outskirts of polite society and at the end of themselves.

Greater than Jonah

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From today’s reading of Matthew 12:22-50 and Luke 11

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. – Matthew 12:38-42 (ESV)

The Lord Jesus refused to do signs to gain position with the powers that be. He simply wouldn’t do it. The signs and wonders Jesus performed were for the good of those healed and set free, and for the glory of God. They were not for those well-integrated into the upper echelons of power and self-sufficiency, but for those who had come to the end of themselves and had no resources left but to call on the name of Jesus. While Jesus’ fame spread early in his ministry because of the signs, the signs weren’t the point; this is one reason why Jesus would often tell those healed and set free to not broadcast the event.

The signs weren’t the point. Jesus was, and is. That’s why in this passage he so fervently refuses the request of the scribes and Pharisees to do a carnival trick for them. They are only going to get one sign out of him: the sign of Jonah.

You probably are familiar with Jonah, that famously reluctant Old Testament prophet who sailed as far away from the Lord’s calling for him as was possible and still ended up fulfilling the mission of God after a three day come-to-Jesus meeting in the belly of a whale. Jesus here asserts that he is the greater, the better Jonah.

Here is the sign that the scribes and Pharisees will receive, the greatest sign in history: like Jonah, Jesus will spend three days in the heart of the earth, dead and buried.

But he will be there only three days! On the third day he will rise again, alive and glorified forever, our great Cornerstone, but the great rock of stumbling and offense to those who seek salvation in political power and their own righteousness. He will be exalted to the right hand of the Father and every knee will bow and tongue will confess that he is Lord!

How much greater is that sign than what they requested of him! It is the only sign an evil and adulterous generation will receive, and it is the only sign they really need. In Jesus death, burial and resurrection is everything needed to cleanse away the evil in our souls and replace it with Christ’s righteousness, and to take away the idolatry of our spiritually adulterous hearts and replace it with the faith, hope and love that are themselves gifts of the risen Savior.

It’s the greatest sign of the greatest and only Savior of the world!

As many of us often do, the scribes and Pharisees seriously undershot and under-asked when making their request of the Lord because they were seeking the thrill of a sign, rather than Jesus.

Rest for your souls

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From today’s reading of Matthew 11

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:25-30 (ESV)

“You will find rest for your souls.”

The rest Jesus speaks of is not a physical rest; many of us in the affluent West live lives of comparative physical luxury, rest, plenty and convenience that would be the envy of royalty in past ages. Unfortunately, the curse of our fallen nature and fallen cultures is one of spiritual, mental and emotional unrest. The entirety of human history is one of striving; a “striving after the wind” as the author of Ecclesiastes would say.

Jesus offers to us what we have always wanted. We don’t earn it through intellectual effort; in fact, the good news of this rest is hidden from the wise and understanding and revealed to those with the faith of a child. We don’t earn it through moral effort, that endless pursuit to fill our sash with the merit-badges of righteousness, to clean ourselves up to become presentable to God. We don’t earn it through physical effort, the self-denial and self-punishment that characterizes so much religious activity. We don’t earn it at all.

This is such good news. God has delivered all things to Jesus. Jesus is the answer to the deepest need and longing of our hearts; to be found once again in our long lost garden of fellowship with our Creator. Jesus is the revelation of God to us and he calls us to quit turning over the same unfruitful furrows and to submit to his lordship and learn from him. His yoke is easy and his burden is light.

We don’t earn it. We bring no qualifications. We’re not the “best and the brightest”. This good news of rest from Jesus flies in the face of all the human wisdom, philosophy and striving that we have been immersed in our whole lives. But it is the only way to finally become what we were created to be: fully known and fully loved children of God.

Come to Jesus. He will give you rest.

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” – 1 Corinthians 1:22-31 (ESV)

Born again

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From today’s reading of John 3:1-8

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:1-8

The first thing that might jar you about this episode is that Jesus ignores Nicodemus’ opening greeting and his, I believe sincere, gracious compliment and cuts directly to the chase. “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Born again!

There is a term some people use when attempting a positive change in their lives: “I’m turning over a new leaf”. But what Jesus is describing doesn’t sound like turning over a new leaf, does it? Leaves are small, and if you are a tree – let’s really immerse ourselves in the metaphor here – you have lots of them. It’s quite easy to turn a leaf over (and over, and over, and over again). I do it all the time.

Jesus isn’t talking about leaves. He’s not suggesting making a Big Change in your life, or having him come be a part of your life, or – as pastors used to say back when they thought reminding people of their day to day corporate jobs was a good idea (it wasn’t, btw) – “letting Jesus be CEO of your life”.

This isn’t like starting a new exercise program, or taking up ballroom dancing, or reading more, or taking a class, or doing any one of the thousand things we do to try and improve our lives.

No, we have to be born again. What on earth could this mean? I’ve personally been blessed to witness four births; They are four of the most important events in my life, right up there in the top seven if you include my wedding, my salvation, and, I suppose, my own physical birth. New birth is amazing. It’s messy; it involves so many firsts: first breaths, first cry, first sight in a bright new world. It’s painful and, for those observing it, it is terrifying and joyful and holy and exhilarating all at the same time.

One thing it’s not is a small, steady improvement in womb-life. No baby thinks “I think today I’ll turn over a new leaf and be born”.

This is new life Jesus is talking about. It’s not turning over a new leaf, it’s becoming a new leaf. I don’t know who first said it, but the following statement revolutionized my thinking: Jesus didn’t come to make bad men good, he came to make dead men alive.

We have to be born of water and the Spirit. What could this mean? There are many interpretations, but I believe Jesus is talking about being both cleansed and indwelt. When we come to Jesus we are washed with the water of forgiveness and with his righteousness that he graciously gives to us, and we are indwelt by his Holy Spirit. This is a new life, and only those living this life are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We were dead in our trespasses and sins and God has raised us to life. Isn’t that amazing?

This is a life controlled no longer by our sinful flesh but by the Spirit of God. This is an abundant life, full of surprises and the mystery of God’s will which is like a wind that may blow us only God knows where. As we wonder at and meditate and awe in this love that we have been given and are compelled to give away to others, this should never cease to blow us away.

This is living! Thanks be to God for his great mercy and grace and to our Lord Jesus Christ, our savior and hero.

Magnum Opus

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From today’s reading of Matthew 5-7

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:43-48

Is this not among the most difficult commands in Scripture?

Our God is perfect in both love and justice. We are made in his image, with the brokenness and cracks that come with our fall from grace. The perfect balance of Godly traits designed into us has been upset, and that is one reason, I believe, that we find justice more appealing than love.

We watch movies and read books looking for the satisfying ending when the hero has vanquished his enemies, brought them to justice, and rescued his woman. Most of us are very sensitive to injustice, and most especially when it has been perpetrated against us or ours. We are, or course, generally far more blind to injustice when we are the perpetrators of it.

Our love, on the other hand, is generally very selective. You can see this in the way we use the language. Almost by definition, the word “love” conveys preference. “I love tacos”, “I love you”, “I love my dog” – you could replace the word “love” in each of those statements with the word “choose” and they would convey nearly the same meaning, correct? As parents we try to teach our children to love well, and very fundamental to this skill is the ability to choose well. Choose good friends. choose good activities. “Make good choices”. This is all, for the most part, healthy, wise, and good.

Yet Jesus here says “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” He is basically challenging our DNA, isn’t he? Loving one’s enemies, when thought of in the context of love as preference, is impossible. Who prefers the company of their enemies?

I think there are answers to this riddle, some easy, some hard. The first step is realizing that the love that Jesus is talking about is a thousand miles away from our emotion-driven feelings of strong preference. It is intellectual, it is intentional, it is zealous, it is active. Its direction and focus are outward, rather than inward. And, though at first appearing to our darkened minds as foolish, it is wise. Have you ever devoted spiritual energy to praying for your enemy or physical energy to doing good for your enemy? It is energy well-spent, and after a time you may find that you no longer have an enemy.

All this being said, fundamentally the best answer to the seeming impossibility that Jesus is calling us to is this: the love he is here describing is the love of the Father toward us.

We don’t prefer the company of our enemies. Jesus, our Immanuel, intentionally and zealously sought to be with his enemies: us. We find praying for our enemies difficult. Jesus prayed for his enemies as the blood clotted in his whip-wounds and the nails shot agony through his body. We find that doing good to our enemies clashes with our sense of justice. Our Lord on the cross was God’s Magnum Opus, a symphony of perfect love and perfect justice, perfectly harmonized and with such power that the earth cracked open, veils were torn, and the dead were raised.

We are called here to love as the Father loves by the one who was and is the ultimate expression of the Father’s kind of love.

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen”

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From today’s reading of Matthew 12:1-21, Mark 3, and Luke 6

Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

– Matthew 12:15-21

Matthew here quotes from Isaiah’s great vision of Jesus in Isaiah 42:1-4. Isaiah’s prophetic utterance follows and contrasts with the Lord’s words about the futility of idols in the previous chapter which ends like this:

Behold, they are all a delusion;
their works are nothing;
their metal images are empty wind. – Isaiah 41:29

Is this not a message for the ages?

Behold, they [idols] are all a delusion, their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.

Then . .

Behold my Servant!

Our idols are indeed an illusion, but most of us spend far too much of our time chasing after them, these shiny, metallic distractions of empty wind.

Why? We have a designed-in longing for Jesus, but fall easily for the counterfeit, many times because the counterfeit is easy, compared to what we perceive is the cost of following the Lord. But Isaiah cries out here, behold Jesus!

He is the only one who brings the justice that we desperately long for. Idols offer distractions and false hopes. Jesus has promised, and will in truth, make everything new and make everything right.

Our world is full of the noise of our idols. Behold Jesus; he is not brash, doesn’t raise a ruckus and a spectacle in the streets, doesn’t shout-down his opponents. Yet he is the Final Word, and will one day silence the noise.

From the heavens you uttered judgment;
the earth feared and was still,
when God arose to establish judgment,
to save all the humble of the earth. Selah – Psalm 76:8-9

And if you are broken, wounded and burned out; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench. He is the great Healer, and he will heal you.

“Many followed him, and he healed them all”

Behold him, and hope in his name.

Missing joy

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From today’s reading of John 5

In today’s passage Jesus heals the invalid at the pool of Bethesda who, unlike the paralytic from my previous post, did not have a community around him to carry him to where healing was. The majority of the rest of the passage recounts Jesus’ interaction with religious leaders who should have been celebrating with joy over this healing but instead were upset that the healed man carried his mat on the Sabbath.

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? – John 5:44

This was Jesus’s statement to these joyless men toward the end of his discourse; a statement to men unable to see the life-changing miracle of healing that has just occurred.

Why were they unable to see?

Jesus words strike at the core of people-pleasers like myself. These men considered themselves, I am sure, to be both faithful in lifestyle and full of faith in conviction, yet Jesus unearths for them here both their unbelief and the true motivation of their actions. They lived to receive glory from men and that is what they chased after.

They were unable to see because they weren’t looking in the right direction.

Glory and affirmation from people is like a drug for people like me. If I am not careful to set my heart on the Lord alone, man-made glory and affirmation becomes the driving force of my life. “Gosh, I hope they like me” becomes the internal loop running through my mind, set on permanent repeat. It is Like-Me Meth, and it is deadly. Jesus reveals, over and over in the gospels, that many of those who opposed him did so because they cared only for the praise of men, rather than the glory of God and – did you catch it? – glory from God.

Glory from God! Can you imagine? What is this golden treasure Jesus speaks of?

The sin of people-pleasing, like almost all sins, is really just a twisting of something good. We were all designed to love our neighbor and love and glorify God, and even buried underneath the composting layers of fallenness and sin that desire can still be found. In my desperation to fulfill this designed-in calling I often morph it into a weak-water counterfeit. Instead of loving my neighbor and glorifying God, a drive to patronize and flatter my neighbor, to do good works before my neighbor, to impress my neighbor is born, so that they will glorify me. What’s worse, the concept of “my neighbor” becomes very selective. My “neighbor” becomes only those who are able to give me meaningful praise and glory.

[I originally wrote the paragraphs above using the more cowardly “we” and “our” language that is tempting to use when describing a sin that may just be peculiar to me. I re-wrote them using “I” and “me”. In re-reading them, it all sounds so sordid and wicked. Truth hurts.]

Jesus drives in the dagger. You aren’t seeking God. How can you even say you believe? You just missed joy, the miracle of a brother’s healing done right before your eyes, and you are refusing to see God, standing right in front of you. Not because you are unable to see, but because your eyes are focused only on yourself and on those who can feed your insatiable desire for your own glory. You do not seek the glory that comes from the only God.

The Lord waits for me to seek Him, because He has, and He is, everything I’ve ever really wanted. He is the only one worth giving glory to, and He will, in ways that may still be mysterious to me, miraculously grace-gift me by glorifying me forever. I will one day take up my mat and walk, fully healed, fully His.

In light of that glory, this never-ending seeking after the approval of men seems kind of silly, doesn’t it? What a colossal waste of time.

“They removed the roof”

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From today’s reading of Mark 2

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. – Mark 2:1-4

I recently heard a message on this passage from Erwin McManus of Mosaic church *. The part of the message that most impacted me was Erwin’s description of Biblical community, or “tribe”. Somewhere around the nine minute mark he makes the point that the strength of a tribe is not measured by the strength of those who are standing beside us, but rather by the weakness of those that the tribe refuses to leave behind.

Yes, yes, yes.

The example of these four friends of the paralytic is a powerful one. They were not willing to leave their friend behind so they could be free to go listen to Jesus without having to worry about him, his mat, ropes, roofs, etc. No, they were driven, out of their love for their friend and their healthy sense of what real community is, to do whatever it took to get their friend close to Jesus. There’s far more to this passage, and the verses following, than just that one truth. But that truth is what starts it all off. They removed part of the roof and lowered the brother down, right in the middle of Jesus’ teaching, because they knew that Jesus had what their friend needed.

Years ago I was listening to a young pastor cast vision for his flock, telling them where we were going as a community, what the go-forward themes and strategies would be, etc. In that message he exhorted the crowd in this way: “We’re going forward! If you can’t keep up, we’re going to leave you behind!” At the time, that statement bothered me, but not enough for me to work up the courage to confront the pastor.

Now when I think about it, I think it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.

It’s true, in man-made organizations often the individual is sacrificed for the good of the group. But God’s value system is different. God sent Jesus to minister to all and to call out to all, true, but he especially, on purpose, sent Jesus to the losers, the sinners, the low-lifes, the have-nots, the wrong-doers, the rejects, the drunkards, the swindlers, the diseased, the blind, the lame, the paralytics. These people, by definition, will slow down a movement, because they are already so far behind the cultural leaders and societal fast-trackers. They are not the best and brightest. But they are who Jesus was especially sent to: a lonely demon possessed man living among the tombs, a lonely tax collector, a zealous misfit with insurrection on his mind, uneducated fishermen, a woman of ill-repute.

These people don’t look good on the brochure. But Jesus went to them, loved them, gave them the choice seats at the banquet. When the one is lost, the ninety-nine must be left in the pasture so the one can be found.

When a friend is unable to walk, walls need to be climbed and roofs need to be removed. Whatever it takes, to get them close to Jesus.

* The message was released 8/17/2014 – it is called “Tribe: Carry” and it can be downloaded from the Mosaic podcasts page.