Feb
21
Because Jesus prayed–not what I will…
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And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” And he came and found them sleeping… [Mark 14:32-37]
This scene is not comfortable. Jesus is not cool here. The God-man, glorious in power, who commands the wind and waves, who can heal diseases, who has walked steadfastly to his Jerusalem date with death, lies on the ground in Gethsemane, and he is weak and overwhelmed, trembling and crushed with anguish at what lies ahead. He wants out, pleading with God to let this hour pass from him.
Let me say again how remarkable it is that Jesus prayed. There is no greater indicator of his humanity—or as Principal Donald Macleod puts it, ‘his own dependentness,’ than this. Christ the God-man simply couldn’t handle the situation that was unfolding before him. The darkness gathering around him and over him made him ‘fall apart’ emotionally. Again Principal Macleod:
“I think we must drive it and ram it home to the depths of our own consciousness that dependentness is not the sign of sinfulness. It is in fact a sign of createdness; it is a sign of humanness. It’s a reminder to us that if Jesus felt that he couldn’t bear his load, or climb the mountain, or cross the river, or overcome the temptation except in the strong crying and tears which he offered to God then how before God can we hope to go through life day by day and say to God, ‘Father, it’s OK. We can handle it.’? We have to come before God in this crushing sense of our own sheer weakness, because when Christ is praying he is saying in the most eloquent fashion possible, ‘There is no way that in my naked and unaided humanness I can carry this load; nor finish this work, nor bear this burden, nor emerge from this trial.’ That is why we have a praying Christ. He is the incarnation of the living power of God. He is the enfleshment of all the ability of God’s grace, and yet he is praying.”
Good theology reminds us that this scene is, in a critical sense, unique. Jesus is hauling a load that I cannot haul. He was becoming sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He was forsaken that we might be welcomed. We are not called to “do” Gethsemane and Calvary. However, Jesus does call us to deny elf, take up a cross and follow him. And thus we know something of the collision of our will and God’s. Most of us have faced circumstances which have made us cry out, ‘Lord, what are doing to me? Don’t you know what’s happening to me? Why do I have to go through this experience? Haven’t I always loved you and served you? Where is your comforting presence? Is this how you treat your friends, your children? This makes no sense!’ If you haven’t, then let me comfort you by saying that you will.
Martin Luther would say things like this: “I am too busy not to pray.” I have always admired that, but found myself imitating it far too little. But this scene helps get in on that belief about prayer. It suggests to me that regardless of my office as a pastor, regardless of my gifts, knowledge and experience, there is no situation I face in which I can claim spiritual independence or competence. Every load is too heavy, every obligation too great, every temptation too powerful and every privilege too tempting. Here is Christ—holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, filled above measure with the Holy Spirit, beloved of his Father, with every right to claim independent confidence—and here is Christ laid out on the ground, broken and crying to God.
When I pray, I usually do so out of habit or because I see it as a helping resource in times of testing or conflict. But why was Jesus praying here? For Jesus, prayer ends up being the battle itself. Have you ever noticed that once the Judas-led mob of officials arrive to arrest him, Jesus is ‘cool’ again–he is strong and courageous again? Once the writhing, tears and loud cries of Gethsemane had realigned him with the Father’s will, there was no turning back. He sweat great drops of blood not in the praetorium before Pilate, not before Caiaphas, not on the road to Golgotha, but in Gethsemane. There he ‘offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death’ (Hebrews 5:7). Haddon Robinson observes something about Gethsemane that I had never considered:
Had I been there and witnessed that struggle, I would have worried about the future. ‘If he is so broken up when all he is doing is praying,’ I might have said, ‘what will he do when he faces a real crisis? Why can’t he approach this ordeal with calm confidence of his three sleeping friends?’ Yet, when the rest came, Jesus walked to the cross with courage, and his three friends fell apart and fell away. [quoted in Philip Yancey, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?, p.86]
Did Jesus embrace the mission? Absolutely (after all, he was in on the drafting of the plan at its beginning!). Had Jesus speak repeatedly and plainly to his disciples about the mission? Indeed he did. But how painful and unappealing it appeared, how extreme it felt to him that night in Gethsemane. And so he prayed and is praying for us now. Prayer is humbling ourselves to talk openly and candidly to our great sympathetic high priest, who himself writhed on the ground and said to his God and Father, Yet not what I will, but what you will.
Feb
11
A Savior not satisfied
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He shall see the labor of his soul, and be satisfied. [Isaiah 53:11].
The first sermon I ever preached was on Isaiah 53, and I think I have destroyed all recordings. Ever since, I have been captivated by that statement in v.11. Isaiah portrays Messiah as stricken, smitten and afflicted, led as a lamb to be butchered. BUT, he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. His suffering was not purposeless and ineffectual. There is no need to pity Jesus the Suffering Servant. There is a joy set before him–the joy of bearing and removing the sin of his people and making intercession for them. He did what he set out to do. He cried from the cross, ‘It is finished!’ He fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law.
But Isaiah speaks of the satisfaction as future, not past or present. In a sense, Jesus is not yet satisfied. We will sing this coming Lord’s Day in public worship, ‘Jesus who died shall be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one.’ God is at work. Redemption accomplished is not yet fully applied. The full number of the elect has not yet come in. There are others whom Jesus wants to put in our pews as worshipers. I am thankful that I am not what I once was, but I am just as thankful that it has not yet been revealed what I shall be either!
Today I found a similar meditation on Paul Tripp’s blog, and think it’s worth sharing with you…
The One on whom we wait is a dissatisfied Messiah. He will not relent, he will not quit, he will not rest until every promise he has made been fully delivered. He will not turn from his work until every one of his children has been totally transformed. He will continue to fight until the last enemy is under his feet. He will reign until his kingdom has fully come. As long as sin exists, he will shower us with forgiving, empowering, and delivering grace. He will defend us against attack and attack the enemy on our behalf. He will be faithful to convict, rebuke, encourage, and comfort. He will continue to open the warehouse of his wisdom and unfold for us the glorious mysteries of his truth. He will stand with us through the darkness and the light. He will guide us on a path we could never have discovered or would never have been wise enough to choose. He will supply for us every good thing that we need to be what he’s called us to be and to do what he’s called us to do in the place where he’s put us. And he will not rest from his work until every last microbe of sin has been completely eradicated from every heart of each of his children!
Jan
2
Wield wisdom wisely
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Think about the non-biblical proverb, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” What is that proverb telling us? If you take it as an ironclad law, then you will conclude that the secret to health, wealth and wisdom is good sleep habits. But surely there is more to it than that–and of course, there is!
Think about a Thanksgiving dinner being prepared, and the main cook says, “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” what does she mean? She means, “Get out of my way and out of my kitchen so I can cook this meal properly.”
However, after the meal, she looks at everyone and says, “Many hands make light work.” She is saying that now is the appropriate time for everyone to get busy clearing the table, washing, drying and putting up the dishes and pots and pans. Before the meal, all that involvement was a hindrance; but now, after the meal, all that involvement is a help.
One more interesting example is in 26:4-5, where we find two statements that seem to be contradictions: Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Well, which is it? In Every Thought Captive, Dr. Richard Pratt applies to these two verses to the task of defending the Christian faith by saying that sometimes we must reject the philosophical underpinnings of unbelievers in order to confront them with the claims of Christianity. At other times, we should deal with them as though their false beliefs were true in order to point out the absurdity in their thinking.
Both proverbs are true if understood according to their intention and according to the situation. Proverbs are not ironclad laws. Their validity and applicability depends on the right time and the right circumstance. In fact, that is a basic component of true wisdom. In order to read, interpret and apply Proverbs to everyday living, we ought to keep in mind the importance of doing the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reasons–or as the poetry of Proverbs expresses it, To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is! [Proverbs 15:23]
A wise person knows the right time and the right situation and the right approach and the right reasons to do something. The writer of Ecclesiastes expresses this right thing/right time/right way/right reasons thinking in these famous words: To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die…[Ecclesiastes 3:1-8].
Proverbs are not magical words. If you just memorize them and apply them in a wooden or mechanical way, you will not necessarily find good things happening around you:
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools…
Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence.
Like a lame man’s legs, which hang useless, is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Like one who binds the stone in the sling is one who gives honor to a fool.
Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Like an archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. [26:3, 6-11, emphasis mine]
God is telling us that it takes wisdom to apply wisdom properly. The fool applies a proverb with no regard to how fit it might or might not be for a situation—like a paralyzed leg, thorn bush brandished by a drunkard, hurting the one who wields it as well as the one on the business end of the blow. If we are to wield wisdom wisely, we must 1) understand the text; 2) understand people, and 3) understand the situation.
Dec
5
Proverbs: urban lions
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The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!’
As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.
~Proverbs 26:13-16
Proverbs’ depiction of the sluggard contains a vivid illustration of the deceitfulness of sin and its operations in the human heart. Twice in Proverbs we hear the sluggard claiming that there is a lion in the streets. Why would he do that? He is creating imaginary circumstances to justify neglecting his work. He shifts the discussion from the sin of laziness to the danger of lions. No one will condone his staying home because he is lazy. But they might sympathize with him and agree with his decision to stay home if there is real danger in the streets. So, to hide his laziness and justify himself, he deflects attention away from laziness (truth) to lions (an illusion).
Do you see the broader insight into the human heart Scripture is giving us? The heart can exploit the mind to justify what the heart wants. We are not always willing to deal with things as they really are. We are not neutral when it comes to understanding our situation. On the contrary, we feel powerful desires and pressing fears, and then our mind can bend reality to justify the desires and fears and seek fulfillment or find relief.
The sluggard desires to stay at home and avoid work. Instead of dealing with his evil desire, he uses his mind to create unreal circumstances to justify his desire. He may even believe the excuses he has fabricated. [Remember George Costanza's advice to Jerry: "It's not a lie if you believe it."] The deceitfulness of sin can actually make us mentally deranged!
Understanding this truth makes Proverbs 26:16 come alive: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer.” The self-deception makes the sluggard resistant to any truth that exposes his sin. When seven wise men confront him and say, “There is no bloodthirsty urban lion in the street. We walked here safely. We’ve searched the neighborhood. You are not in danger of becoming a lion’s lunch,” the sluggard still will not get out of bed. Their testimony won’t change his mind. He knows better. He insists that the hungry urban lion is out there. Otherwise his laziness is exposed for what it is. Truth gets flushed down the toilet of self-justification.
No one is immune to this. It goes far beyond the matter of work ethic. Walking in the darkness of evil makes us hostile to the light of truth–and in the process our mind concocts and spits out “spin”–half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions and lies - anything to protect the our evil desires from exposure and reproof.
The longer I serve as a pastor, the more I see this at work in people with addictions, people who harbor bitterness, people whose marriages are crumbling–in other words, sinners who need help. And, at the same time, it makes me cry out to God to deliver me from my delusions as well. I must reckon with God’s grace and truth as I really am and in the situation I am really facing–that is, without the urban lions.
Thanks are in order to John Piper for being the catalyst for these insights.
Oct
5
The Word did everything
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A gem from Martin Luther appeared yesterday on the excellent blog The Shepherd’s Scrapbook.
“I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philipp and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”
There is great irony here, as I sit in my study to finish some necessary, albeit unfinished, tasks on my day off. And it gives me some ideas for the rest of the day…
Oct
3
I’ve read my Bible today–now what?
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I want people to read the Bible. I encourage our congregation to adopt a plan to read through it each year and provide model for doing so. BUT I must also urge others and myself not to read a few chapters and walk away, having fulfilled a dry duty.
Making the blog rounds these days are a set of seven questions from Dr. T. David Gordon–questions to assist you in meditating on the Word of God and making it more profitable in your life. At the end I will provide an additional question:
1. What does this passage of scripture reveal about God for which he is to be adored or praised?
2. What does this passage of scripture reveal about God for which he is to be thanked?
3. What does this passage reveal about my duty to love God?
4. What does this passage reveal about my duty to love my neighbor?
5. What does this passage reveal about my duty to love a brother or sister in Christ?
6. Does this passage expose my sin, so that there is something specific for which I need to repent, in thought, word, or deed?
7. Does this passage expose my sin, so that there is something specific for which I must be watchful, lest I sin in thought, word, or deed?
AND, let me add one more:
8. How does this passage help me see and savor the Lord Jesus Christ?