Jesus Prayed to Obey

What Did Jesus Do?

Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.
Mark 14.36

When a prayer begins, “Abba, Father…”it’s somehow different from one that might begin, “LORD God of Hosts…” Oh, he’s the same One who is prayed to, but there’s something different suggested about the relationship to God of one who prays to “Abba” and one who prays to the “LORD God.” For Abba is the Aramaic equivalent of “Daddy.” There is an affectionate intimacy to such a prayer.

Jesus loved life, and he certainly was not eager for his to end. The thought of death was offensive to him, it wasn’t at all part of the Father’s plan. Sin and the Fall, the result of Satan’s cunning and human ambition and disobedience, had caused death to despoil God’s creation. And now death wanted to claim the Son of God as its greatest victim.

Surely there must be some other way to defeat Satan, bring an end to sin, and destroy death? The Lord knew that nothing was impossible for his Father. Perhaps there was some other means of satisfying the debt for the sins of the world than shedding the blood of the Son? It was unbearably bitter for Jesus even to think about having to drink that cup of suffering.

But there was one thing the Son delighted in even more than life itself, and that was to do the will of his Father. Obedience and death was infinitely more pleasant a prospect for Jesus to contemplate than disobedience and life. Coupled with his delight in obeying the Father was the Son’s knowledge of the Father’s love, and his trust in the Father’s every word. The Son’s obedience was neither grim resignation to his fate, nor slavish submission to a cold and cruel master, rather it was the outgrowth of his love for, and trust in, Abba, the Father, and as such the ultimate expression of filial piety. Jesus well knew that “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1Samuel 15.22), but for him to sacrifice was to obey. And to disobey Abba whose love he had known for eternity was unthinkable.

And so the Son did not endlessly and shamelessly beg the Father; neither did he demand the Father spare him. In the end, for his prayer, as with all of his life, obedience was the bottom line for Jesus. What about us? What is the “bottom line” of our relationship with God? It will likely be quite different from that of Jesus if we only know our Creator as “LORD God” and not as “Abba.” But if the one we pray to is “Abba, Father” to pray is to be committed to obey. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

If You Don't Like the Diploma, Go to Another School

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father and of the holy angels.
Mark 8.38

Jesus had a word of warning for those who are ashamed of him in this world. But some students at a college that was founded by Christians as a Christian institution of higher learning over 140 years ago have a problem with Jesus being referenced to on their diploma.

If you attend college at Chapel Hill, you will expect when you graduate that your diploma will make reference to North Carolina. Attend out at Berkley and you won’t be surprised when your diploma mentions California. Go to college in South Bend and the Leprechauns in the corners of your diploma shouldn’t shock you (Just kidding.).

So why is it now, that students who attend Trinity University in Texas, a college founded by Presbyterians in 1869, are demanding that the term “In The Year of Our Lord” be removed from the date of their diploma being awarded? At least in 1869 Presbyterians were Christian (I have to admit that I wonder about them nowadays), and the school has apparently never actually formally renounced its founding faith. Yet some Trinity students will now be embarrassed, if not ashamed, to display in their home or office a diploma that makes the “Year of Our Lord” reference to Jesus.

It doesn’t surprise me that a spokeswoman for the unhappy students is the president of something called the “Trinity Diversity Connection” and a Muslim. But it sets me to wondering, if, for some reason, I was to study in, say, Damascus or Teheran, and graduate from an Islamic college, would I be offended by a diploma that made reference to Allah? No, I would be surprised if I did not find some reference to the faith that set the course of the institution represented in some way on the diploma.

Of course, there is a good chance, given that it is Presbyterians we are talking about, that Trinity University of Texas maintains very few vestiges of its Christian heritage. And, if now essentially a secular institution governed by a secular board, than the folks at Trinity should have the decency to change their name and come right out and publicly disavow and forsake their roots. But, if Trinity University of Texas still describes itself, in anyway more than by acknowledging as part of its past, as Christian, than the students who don’t like “The Year of Our Lord” on their diplomas have two choices. They can transfer and graduate from another college, or they can go out and buy a Sharpie and strike out whatever they don’t like on the diploma.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Prayed Passionately

What Did Jesus Do?

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Luke 22.44

I have prayed with some passion. And I have prayed with some power. Shame has marked my prayers of confession. Laughter has enlivened some of my prayers of joy. Tears have dampened my prayers of grief and sorrow. And a “!” has punctuated some of my very brief prayers, as in “God, help me!” But I have never yet prayed such a desperate prayer out of the deep anguish of my soul that I have sweated blood.

But after the Lord had concluded his last supper with his disciples, when Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives to pray, he carried the burden of the full knowledge of what was soon to transpire: Betrayal…Arrest…Denial…Beating…Scourging… Mocking…Crucifixion…Death. That is a crushing weight to deal with, and we can hardly begin to imagine how desperately one would pray at such a time. Anyone but an extreme masochist would plead and search for a way out, and Jesus, though he would not flee from pain, surely did not seek it.

The Lord so exhausted himself in this hour of desperate prayer that his Father sent an angel from heaven to succor him and give him strength. (22.43) I don’t know about you, but it encourages me to know that God does not merely listen to us pray, but sends us aid in our prayers, not only angelic, but the Holy Spirit himself. (Romans 8.26) Even with the added strength supplied by the angel the Lord so emptied himself in his prayer that it was as if his very life was pouring out of him. All too soon would the scourge and the nail make his precious blood to flow, but here it was by his own unimaginably strenuous prayers.

Christ’s passion is perhaps nowhere more evident than here, in his hour of desperate prayer. Now, I’ve seen lots of people get passionate about global warming. Many people get worked up over politics. I confess to getting somewhat carried away myself with the March Madness that comes around this time each year. There is no shortage of causes and crusades to enflame our emotions. But when it comes to prayer, how many of us pray with passion, with, if you’ll excuse the expression, gut-wrenching, sweat-producing, strength-sapping, leave it all on the court passion? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Shared The Kingdom

What Did Jesus Do?

Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
Mark 10.29-30

The speculative greed of the stock market, which so dramatically affects our economy, is driven by the desire to profit from the buying and selling of shares. It’s little more than the trading of paper that in itself is worthless—the value has to do with how much someone believes it is worth. When confidence is high, people want to buy, prices rise on demand, and profit is gained. When confidence is low, people want to sell, prices drop as a consequence, and profits are lost. Great swings up and down happen regularly, with the result that profits on paper are gained and lost at alarming rates. And far too great an influence is felt on the economy. At least, that’s how I see it.

Swindlers, playing upon the desire of many to get rich easily and painlessly, have been known to sell shares with false claims of security, and lying promises of performance. Lives have been destroyed when the worthlessness of the paper the stocks are printed on is revealed in a market crash. Business and commercial empires rise and fall, creating and sweeping away immense wealth, and no few hopes and dreams as well.

Jesus was anything but a swindler. What the Lord had to offer the world were “shares” in the kingdom of God, and they came with an ironclad promise of both gain and everlasting security. Some no doubt passed on the opportunity because it sounded to them too good to be true. Others, like the rich young man in Mark 10.17-22, were unwilling to invest the great material riches they already had in hand for the chance to secure a future beyond the horizon of this life. Others, like Peter and the rest of the disciples, though many of them had little to begin with, had responded to the invitation of Jesus by risking everything to follow Christ, although in fact it was no risk at all; not that it wouldn’t be difficult, painful, and costly.

It would be all that, and more, Jesus had said as much: with gain would come persecutions. But this was nothing less than Jesus himself would experience, and for those willing to invest all in what Jesus offered, he was prepared to share fully in all that his Father’s kingdom had to offer.

For those who had left homes behind, many a home would make them welcome. If family had been sacrificed for the sake of Christ and the gospel, it would be replaced by countless brothers and sisters and mothers (Though no fathers, there is only one Father in the kingdom!), the family of all God’s children. Those who had parted with lands would share in the expansion of the kingdom of God into all lands. Jesus, shared it all, and promised eternal life as well, something no one else has ever honestly been able to offer, no matter what they may sell shares in. But Jesus did not merely trade in promises, he delivered the goods. The hungry were fed. The blind were made to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk. Many in bondage were set free. The dead were raised. And, perhaps most valuable of all, Jesus shared the truth about his Father, the most precious commodity of the kingdom, freely and fully with all who would receive it.

True, there were, and are, persecutions. But nothing of any real value comes without a cost. And the reality is, our share in the kingdom of God was bought and paid for on the cross. Fully “vested” as we are, eternally secure and possessing imperishable kingdom riches, what are we doing with our “shares?” Are we actively seeking to share, to give to others, all which we have received of the Father’s kingdom? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

The (IN) Good Hands People

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…
Isaiah 49.16

With no disrespect to a certain insurance company that likes to suggest we are safe and secure when we put ourselves in their hands, their hands are simply not big enough. But God’s hands, now those are hands big enough to hold all of creation.

Yet, as immense and strong as the hands of God may be, holding the vastness of the cosmos, countless stars, numberless solar systems, myriad galaxies, they are gentle hands, a shepherd’s hands, The Shepherd’s hands, hands that hold securely every sheep in his flock. That insurance company has turned down claims, and refused coverage, but the hands of God, once they lay hold of us, never let go.

I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost…
John 17.12

Of those whom you gave me I have not lost one.
John 18.9

So, while that insurance company can still advertise itself as “The Good Hands People” it is far better for us to know that we are “The In Good Hands People!”

As tender as the hands of God are, they are, as I said, strong. They are also rough and scarred. Some of the scars are self-inflicted, if you will. God himself engraved the names of his people on his palms so that we should know that he will never forget us. “As unbelievable as it sounds,” God said, “a woman is more likely to forget her nursing infant than I am to ever forget you.” (Isaiah 49.15, paraphrase)

But our names are not the only scars on God’s hands, there are also brutal marks of two nails which pinned the Lord to the cross. I know, it was Jesus, the Son of God, who was crucified, not the Father. But, given that the Father and the Son are one, I will not be at all surprised to see the Father’s hands bearing the same marks as the Son’s. Father and Son both sacrificed for our sakes, though only the Son died on the cross. And Father and Son alike hold us secure. Could there be better hands to be in?

Today is observed by many as Palm Sunday, marking the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. As we wave our palms and shout our “Hosannas” we might also be mindful of the palms that were scarred for us, compelling us, perhaps, to shout all the louder, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Dared Humbly

What Did Jesus Do?

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
Matthew 23.13,15,23,25,29

The self-righteous, the falsely-pious, and the hypocritically-holy are among the most dangerous denizens of any body of believers, mostly because believing in themselves has superseded believing in God. It takes, if you will excuse a mild vulgarity, guts, to confront one of these. To call them out en masse requires almost super-human bravery. It would also help if one were a bit out of one’s mind. Perhaps that is why in ancient Israel, before Jesus, only the occasional prophet had ever spoken out against the manipulating ministers who had appropriated the Mosaic covenant faith to suit their agenda. Everyone knew that the prophets were all a little crazy.

Among things not needed in such a confrontation are: any amount of arrogance, opportunism, or payback. The prophets were never seeking any personal advantage in delivering God’s verdict on Israel’s faithless shepherds. And Jesus certainly was not trying to seize the place of religious authority from those who held on to it so tightly when he pronounced the seven woes of Matthew 23. There was no need to make a grab for authority when the Father had already given all authority into your hands.

The problem over the last two millennia, and now into the third, is that very few of us who seek to follow Christ can resist the urge to get a hold of enough authority to tell others what to believe, and how to believe, and, to borrow a biblical expression, to smite them when we feel they need it. This is a problem because when we do this all of us inevitably find ourselves in the midst of the crowd on whom the Lord pronounced the woes of Matthew 23. And, unfortunately, our typical response is not to repent of our hypocrisy, but rather to become more hypocritical by announcing some more woes upon someone we don’t get along with.

If you believe I am painting too severe a portrait of much of the Body of Christ, explain to me the never ending squabbles and un-civil wars of congregations, the inter and intra denominational battles, the pulpits policed and cyclically emptied by the descendants of the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites, who now occupy many a pew.

You see, when daring to pronounce woes, one must begin with addressing them to the audience in the mirror. Of course, Jesus didn’t need to do this, but the Lord is the only one who never needed to remove a beam from his eye to see all the specks in ours. But, for those who have the greatest courage, the courage to confront themselves first, there is the opportunity to learn the great lesson of humility. Without humility I am afraid we are condemned to pronounce woes that bounce immediately back on ourselves. When we have humbled the man or woman in the mirror, well only then is God exalted when woes are pronounced but only when we’ve humbled ourselves. To dare with humility, that is the trick. And that, my friends, is what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Cared--Enouth to Offer "tough Love"

What Did Jesus Do?

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said…
Mark 10.21

…the truth, as hard as it was for him (The rich young ruler) to hear it. And even harder for the rich young ruler to do it. For the agape love of Jesus for the rich young man did not permit the Lord to let the man off the hook; the man’s love for money and material wealth stood squarely in the way of his entering the kingdom, and Jesus told him straight. Jesus put it plainly, saying in so many words, that arms that refused to lay down worldly riches could never receive heavenly ones. It’s still a tough thing for those who have believed the world’s lies that, “you can have it ALL!” to hear.

When we say “Christ IS All!” we are not diminishing the role of the Father and the Holy Spirit, but suggesting that if any of us wants to work out some kind of “Jesus and ______” (Fill in the blank with whatever you refuse to give up for the Lord). “Can’t I have Jesus and my adulterous affair?” “Can’t I have Jesus and intentionally cheat a little on my taxes?” “Can’t I have Jesus and hate Arabs, blacks, Jews, liberals, conservatives, or anyone else that I can’t stand?” Nope. Sorry, there are not any “Jesus and _______” deals for anyone.

Of course, there are all kinds of “have it all” promises made every day. “You can be an All-American and never have to go to class.” “You can eat the outrageously sized portions in our restaurant’s ads and still be as skinny as the people in our commercials.” “You can smoke our cigarettes and ignore the health risks; drink our booze and never worry about what it’s doing to your liver; look at our pornography all day and never have it corrupt your soul.” And don’t think that there are not lots of folks today who, like that rich young ruler who came to Jesus, can claim they have observed God’s commandments in every respect, with the one exception of their “and ______”, and imagine that’s good enough to get into heaven.

Thankfully, Jesus has not stopped tough loving sinners like us. He still won’t allow any of us to get away with negotiating some kind of compromise with whatever it is that gets between us and the Father. Sadly, people still turn their back on the loving Savior, and walk away from the kingdom, preferring to cling to the one thing their heart delights in more than God. The one true hope for all of us, because none of us is really strong enough to master our besetting sin, is that what is impossible for us is God’s bread and butter.

When we are faced with how to love a family member or friend into the kingdom of God, we have to care enough, and be strong enough, to resist any urge to let them get away with Jesus and ________, offering them the tough love of God’s agape. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

First, Let's Reform Ourselves

(Note: The first draft of this piece appeared in my blog on September 3, 2009. It seemed timely to take another look at it now in light of the passage and signing of the Health Care Reform Bill.)
What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus Obeyed

Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple…Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1Corinthians 3.16-17; 6.19-20

Jesus clearly understood what Paul would later write to the Corinthians about, that the body is a temple of God. Of course, Christ’s opponents completely misunderstood the Lord when he spoke of destroying the temple of his body, and in three days it would be resurrected. The Jerusalem Council thought Jesus was speaking about the building Herod had spent forty-six constructing. (See John 2.18-22) While we don’t have details about the Lord’s lifestyle, it is clear from the Gospels that he spent a lot of time outdoors, practiced fasting (Sometimes to the extreme!), and walked everywhere he went (With the exception of his entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday). The fact that Jesus endured a scourging so severe and survived long enough to die on the cross suggests remarkable fitness and strength. All the evidence points to Jesus being obedient in taking good care of his body, which he knew was God’s temple.

Now, we have all heard plenty in the last year, and been all but buried in news this week, about reforming health care in the United States. The issue has been solely focused on the reform of health care delivery. Unfortunately, the real problem is not the deliver of health care to Americans, it is the great demand for care by all of us unhealthy Americans, who largely have ourselves to blame for our poor health and lack of fitness. In short, most of us have been doing a very poor job obeying God and caring for the temple he has given each of us. All the attempts to reform health care delivery will ultimately end up in billions more being spent treating sick and injured Americans. It would be much cheaper, and incredibly more efficacious, if every American made a commitment to taking better care of ourselves. It’s not the system that needs to be reformed, it’s us! I won't insult your intelligence by pretending to have sufficient insight into the nation's health care delivery system to offer my suggestions on fixing it. But the best and most cost efficient way to deal with illness and injury is to do all you can to avoid them in the first place! This means that the real critical need is to reform Americans first, then to worry about reforming our health care systems.

Americans' increasing life-spans belie the fact of America's growing lack of fitness. Super-sized portions of fast-food combined with sedentary life-styles adds up to a lot of needless illness that costs everyone too much to treat. Any medical person will tell you that primary prevention is by far the "best medicine." But every day millions of Americans do, not to put too fine a point on it, dumb things that invite all manner of acute and chronic illnesses and injuries.

Here's one example that we all see pretty much every day: the driver in the vehicle in the lane next to us with a cigarette in one hand, a cell phone in the other, and the steering wheel in...well it's being juggled. An accident waiting to happen, chronic, and likely terminal illness, being sown in the lungs and heart! Like I said, dumb.
Then there's the parade of young school-children coming in to my wife's school nurse offices on a daily schedule because of their asthma and diabetes. Hmm, the fact that as infants and toddlers these kids were a few feet, often literally inches, from a constant stream of tobacco smoke couldn't have something to do with their asthma, could it? The poor diet, obesity, and all but total lack of exercise don't contribute to the diabetes, does it? Multiply what my wife sees each week by all the school nurse offices across the county and, well, as I said, the problem we need to fix is health care demand more than health care delivery. It's our brokenness that should be more of a concern to the nation than the health care industry.

I don't mean to pick on my wife, and I don't need to. Working at a Scout camp last summer I saw plenty of boys, one-fifth my age, whom I could run circles around. And I'm not the most active guy on the block. But when I can take a pretty easy 5-mile hike and leave a bunch of 11-12 year-olds in the dust, something’s wrong, and reforming health care delivery won't fix it. And it's not just the boys in Scouting who are out of shape. Scout leaders like to say, "Scouting rounds a boy out." Well, judging by the belt-lines of no few leaders, Scouting rounds adults out a bit too much! And it was, to put it plainly, revolting, to visit the leaders' arbor and choke on all the cigarette smoke there; so much for a Scout's promise to keep himself, "physically strong." If they keep on smoking those leaders won’t be physically strong, they’ll be physical wrecks, and it didn't do me any good to be around their "exhaust."

All this is not to say that health care delivery couldn't and shouldn't be improved. But I, for one, would much prefer all the concern to be directed where it could do the most immediate good. If we all improved our health, health care would be a lot less on our minds. From the perspective of faith, believing what St. Paul said about our bodies being God's temple (1Corinthians 3.16-17; 6.19-20), tells me that all the abuse and neglect of Americans' bodies is an affront to God, and an outright act of disobedience. Not that Congress will ever concern itself with honoring God as an incentive to encourage Americans to reform our lives, rather than waiting for our leaders to reform a system that isn't the real problem.

Again, the real need is not to reform the system of health care delivery, but rather to reform ourselves and so reduce the demand for health care, and start glorifying God in our body. America, let’s start taking better care of God’s temple. That’s what Jesus did!

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

What Else, But An Anachronism?

It has been commonplace in much of our society, even fashionable in certain circles, to derisively dismiss Christian faith as an anachronism, ill suited, and out of place and out of touch with the times. I admit that for years I took offense at the suggestion that Christianity just didn’t “fit” the modern world. But this morning I had what I believe a revelation.

In truth, I now believe Christianity is, and in fact has always been, an anachronism. How can something that is timeless ever really “fit” any particular time? Indeed, since the Christian faith is redemptive, is not one of its purposes to redeem the times, to expose and transform what is broken and corrupt and false in any given age, and bring it into conformity with that which alone is whole and pure and true yesterday, today, and tomorrow? If the Christian faith does not transcend the times, refusing to be made to “fit” or suit an era, a culture, a people, a government, I do not believe it can truly be the faith that is revealed in Scripture. So, as of this morning, I have determined that the more anachronistic and quixotic I can be, the more faithful I shall be.

What was perhaps most compelling about Jesus was that he refused to “fit” any of the conceptions or expectations of anybody, to the point of making it impossible for the world of his day to tolerate, much less embrace him. A Christ who suited the world would never have been sent to the cross. How then can one faithfully follow the Lord while being concerned with being “relevant,” “current,” “accommodating,” or “hip?” The last thing many churches today want to be perceived as is “Old School,” yet, in their desire to be a church for “today” they often disconnect themselves from the essential timelessness and potency of what, after all, is and forever will be, the “Old, old story.”

Much of my time is taken up as a volunteer with the Boy Scouts. Among some in the Scouting community I am lampooned as too “Old School” for today’s youth. But the thing is, what is truly worthwhile and essential about Scouting is its timeless ideals, the values expressed in the Scout Oath, Law, Motto, and Slogan. True, these values somehow seemed to better fit the late-Victorian era when Scouting was born, but that too is illusory. Part of what made Scouting so dynamic and compelling in its earliest days was how radically different the life it challenged its members to live was from the commonplace of the early Twentieth Century. William D. Boyce, the American businessman who brought Scouting to the United States, was not impressed by a boy who stepped out of the London fog to help him who was like all the other boys he had known, but one unlike any other youth Boyce had ever encountered, whose behavior was startlingly different, even out of place for that day and age.

Not unlike Christianity, Boy Scouts and Boy Scouting is often derisively dismissed as old fashioned and out of place in the Twenty-first Century. But to the extent that I am perceived as “Old School” and out of place, I believe, as with my faith, that I am being true to Scouting. In fact, I cringe whenever I hear about “Scouting for the 21st Century” because, like the church, it seems that the desire to be relevant and up to date often supersedes what should be a fundamental commitment to the timeless ideals of Scouting.

When I think of the Eagle Scout, the boy who has for the last one hundred years supposed to represent the epitome of Scouting, I don’t picture a youth who is just like all his peers, but rather one who is so radically committed to living out the ideals of Boy Scouting that he truly stands out, and who actually transcends the immense pressures to conform to and fit in with the times, but is instead a personality who compels others to look to him for leadership not because he fits in and does what is expected, but separates from and rises above the “norm” to always seek to do what is morally and ethically right. The timelessness of true morality forever guarantees that those who pursue it will always be anachronisms who don’t “fit” their times.

Faced with a choice as to what kind of Christian, and what kind Scout, I am to be, the choice seems quite clear—What else, but an anachronism?

S.D.G.

Jim Wilken
Swamp Fox District Commissioner
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Exercising Authority and Employing Power

What did Jesus Do?

Jesus Dared

And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons.
Mark 1.34

The Gospel of Mark notes the so-called “Messianic Secret” that Jesus sought to maintain in order that people not be distracted by wild enthusiasm and misinformed expectations of the Messiah, and be able to instead hear the Lord’s far more important teaching about the kingdom of God and the proclamation of the gospel. Keeping such a “secret” was all but impossible, as circumstances time and again compelled Jesus to exercise the sovereign authority over all things which he shared with his Father, and to employ the power given to him as the Son of God. As much as he knew how it would complicate his mission, Jesus dared to use his authority and power to touch and immediately transform the lives of the broken, strengthen the limbs of the lame, set free those in bondage, and lead the lost to salvation.

In fact, Jesus dared to employ his authority and exercise his power right up to the time of his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, where his touch restored the severed ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest. Immediately after that last daring act of compassion, the Lord submitted to the exigencies of the hour and “the power of darkness” and permitted events so to unfold as to not allow anything to prevent his death on the cross. (Luke 22.47-53)

When Pilate appealed to the same people in Jerusalem who just a few days earlier had enthusiastically received Jesus (See Mark 11.1-10), might the crowd’s disappointed Messianic expectations have contributed to their demand that Jesus be crucified? (See Mark 15.6-15) I don’t believe most of us appreciate how daring it was for Jesus to exercise his authority and employ his power during his earthly ministry, knowing that ultimately he would be constrained to set both aside in order to undergo the painful death that alone could atone for our sins.

The authority and power of Jesus has not deserted the world at all, of course, but has been given to believers, to his Body, the Church. And it may be the most difficult and challenging lesson of discipleship for us all to learn—to dare to exercise the authority given to us by the Lord and to employ the power imparted to us by the Holy Spirit in a manner that follows Christ’s example.

A good measure of the difficulty and challenge lies in our fallen nature, which tends to incline many of us to become arrogant and offensive when even a little authority and power is given to us. The remaining difficulty and challenge comes from our unwillingness to so trust God as to surrender all authority and power and submit ourselves to suffer for Christ’s sake. Knowing when to dare to act, and when to dare to surrender may be the zenith of our education as disciples of the Lord Jesus. It was the hardest lesson for Peter to learn, yet, after boldly preaching and ministering in Jesus’ name for many years, he would ultimately “stretch out his hands and be carried where he did not want to go.” (See John 21.15-19)

I must confess that I am far more likely to be timid when I should be daring, and bold to fight when I should dare to surrender. Will you and I accept the cost to dare, and, when the time comes, dare to surrender, trusting in the Father’s will? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Glorifying the Father

What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus Glorified The Father

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3.17

In the Gospel of John the existence of the entire material universe is credited to Jesus. (John 1.3) So it is that the very heavens, which “declare the glory of God,” do so because the Lord made them to do so. If you will, the Lord (the Son) glorifies the LORD (the Father), in and through all his works, and so, according to the Apostle Paul, should we.

Jesus said that he glorified the Father on earth by accomplishing all the work the Father had given to him. We also know, as cited in the above paragraph, the Son glorified the Father by the works he accomplished in the heavens. All that the Son did, in word or deed, was done unto the glory of the Father.

None of us will be doing any of God’s handiwork in the heavens, but we have the same opportunity on earth that Jesus did, not to save the world of course, but to accomplish all that the Father has given unto us to do. That is, if we have a mind to. If we hardly give the Father a thought most days, or if after a hurried “good morning” to God when we rise we go about our day mindful only of our business, then it is unlikely we will be getting much done to glorify God. Certainly, if we do no more than reserve an hour or so on Sundays for God, whatever we accomplish the rest of the week, little of it will likely glorify God.

But if we take each day that God gives us, and determine to give it back to him, if we direct our every word to be God honoring, if we our labors, whatever they may be, our intentionally done in the name of Jesus Christ, there is every reason to believe that much glory and thanks will accrue to God the Father.

How about trying it today? Whatever we do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus who did everything in the name of the LORD, giving thanks to God the Father. That’s what Jesus Did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Shared and Jesus Testified

What did Jesus Do?

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.
Matthew 13.33

I remember when I was young I used to be fascinated by what used to be called “travelogues.” Though it was fifty years ago now, I recall watching a program called “John Gunther’s High Road” which fascinated me with images and descriptions of kingdoms and lands that Gunther had visited, but I could only dream about. Ever since then learning about new places, studying maps, and occasionally getting to travel has always excited me. I guess you could say I owe much of this interest to John Gunther.

The Bible is certainly not a travelogue. But within it, particularly in the Gospel of Matthew, are what we could call “Tales of the Kingdom,” brief descriptions of the kingdom of God shared by someone who had firsthand knowledge of his subject—Jesus, the Son of God. Take Matthew 13.33, and the description of the kingdom as leaven. Until Jesus spoke these words I daresay few people, if any, would have ever thought of yeast when asked what they thought of the kingdom of God!

But people would have been familiar with the kingdoms of the world, in particular the rich and powerful kingdoms like Rome, which dominated and controlled so much land and so many peoples. What kingdom could ever be greater than or more pervasive than Rome, which spread from Hibernia and Britain, through Europe, controlled all the Mediterranean, and spread on through the Middle East?

The Lord inspired his listeners with a tale about a kingdom that, though as small and insignificant as a pinch of leaven, would so work in the world as to influence the entire world like no other kingdom, just as that leaven would affect three large measures of flour. Now, at the time Jesus spoke these words Rome would not have given them any note, much less been impressed by them or the speaker, even still less threatened by them. Yet, though Rome would execute Christ on a cross, less than three hundred years later, the leaven of the kingdom of God would so work as to convert a Roman emperor, Constantine, and transform the pagan empire into the first Christian kingdom. All because Jesus came to testify and to share his “travelogue,” his knowledge of the kingdom of God.

John Gunther’s stories of exotic far-off lands of this world fascinated me as a child, but much more than those travelogues, the words of Jesus, what he testified to and what he shared about the kingdom of God, planted in me a love for that kingdom which, though it is as they say, “out of this world,” has entered into and transformed this world,

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
Revelation 11.15

At a time when many kingdoms of the world still strive for ascendancy and domination, and when faiths such as Islam appear to grow and spread even while the influence of Christianity seems to be waning in many places where it once flourished, many people no doubt wonder about the kingdom of God. Like travelers who have visited foreign lands and returned with fascinating and powerful images able to convert and transform individuals and empires, we have the opportunity to tell our own “tales of the kingdom,” to testify and share with those who are lost and unsaved. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Nourished By Obedience

What Did Jesus Do?
Jesus Obeyed

My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work.
John 4.34

Most of us will never truly be desperately hungry, at least not for our next meal. Oh, all of us have plenty of appetites, often for things that are downright no good for us, but we hunger for them anyway. And a day hardly passes without a headline about someone undone by their desperate and totally self-indulging appetite for something. A famous golfer comes to mind. Most all of us have something we just cannot get enough of.

ESPN started feeding the sports junky’s cravings years ago, only to be succeeded by networks that cater to those with insatiable hunger for the NFL, or the NBA, or the NHL, or golf, or soccer, or any number of other sports. There are food networks, and shopping channels, and automotive channels all feeding their devotees 24/7. We are all familiar with the dangers of going overboard in feeding our appetites, be they for food, drink, clothes, cars, or even darker cravings. It just isn’t good for any of us to want, much less to have, too much of anything. But Jesus had an appetite we all could do with some more of.

Jesus, the Son of God, couldn’t get enough of the Father. More correctly, Jesus couldn’t do enough for the Father. The Lord literally fed on obedience, on doing the will of God the Father. Most of us grow hungry and weak from overwork. But Jesus was nourished by accomplishing the work of his Father’s kingdom. This is not to say that Jesus didn’t need food; the Lord was fully human, and his body needed the same fuel as ours do. But Christ’s spirit was so sustained by obeying God that he could truly say that he fed off of doing what the Father willed. There was for the Lord the same satisfaction in doing the work of his Father that we might find in a holiday feast.

Do we savor the Word of God more than a char-broiled steak? How does our craving for prayer match up to our craving for the next installment of American Idol? Which is stronger, our hunger to have things, or our hunger to help people? Do we have an appetite for obeying, or for doing our own thing? Do we rise in the morning with an emptiness that can only be filled by accomplishing something for God, and do we lie down at night only satisfied when we have done the will of the Father? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

It's All About God

What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus Testified:

It is written, “You shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from
the mouth of God”…
Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord
Your God to the test”
…For it is written…“You shall worship the Lord
your God and him only shall you serve.”
Matthew 4.4,7, 10

Contrary to the wisdom of that ever popular wedding reception song, The Hokey-Pokey, it isn’t all about putting you left foot in and out and turning yourself about. I certainly don’t wish to demean athletic competition, but it’s not about Olympic Games, Super Bowls, the World Series, or even March Madness. Please, Hollywood, don’t feel bad, but it’s not about the Oscars either. Neither is it all about being an Eagle Scout, valedictorian, or Summa Cum Laude graduate. And, Mr. Gates and Mr. Trump, it’s not about the money either. In the end, as deflating as it might be for our ego, it isn’t about us at all. What, then, is it all about? God.

Jesus, who certainly had more reason than anybody to make a big deal out of himself and what he did, was the most selfless man who ever lived. Just about everything he did he tried to keep a secret:

And Jesus sternly charged him…”See that you say nothing
to anyone…”
Mark 1.43-44

Rather, Jesus always pointed to God and to the kingdom of God. Jesus wasn’t interested in making a name for himself; of course he had no need to, he already had the name that is above all names. Jesus sought no honors or privileges for himself; he made himself nothing so that in the end the Father would be glorified. (Philippians 2.5-11) And, even when he was assaulted and sorely tempted by Satan, Jesus refused to let the confrontation be about himself, but rather tried to turn even the devil to the truth about God.

When Satan thought Jesus was just about starved to death, so that he would in desperation jump at the chance to change stoned into bread, the Lord told him it wasn’t about what the Son of God could do with his power, but what God does with his Word—give and sustain life. (Matthew 4.4)

When Satan believed that Jesus would not be able to resist an opportunity to demonstrate how much the Father loved him by sending angels to rescue him from a plunge off the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus told the Devil that God’s love was not to be tested, but trusted. (Matthew 4.7)

And finally, when Satan offered the Lord all the glory of all the nations of the world, if Jesus would but worship him, Jesus again demurred, noting that worship is reserved for God alone, glory is to be given to God alone, and all our service, our labor and our loyalty, is to be given to God alone. (Matthew 4.10)

Satan’s trouble was that he wanted everything to be about himself. The Devil thought that if he could get Jesus to perform even one selfish or disloyal act, he could derail the plans of God and begin to dismantle God’s kingdom and topple God from his throne. But Jesus consistently responded by letting Satan know that it is all about God, and not even the Son of God should ever lead anyone to think otherwise.

Sadly, the world and most of the people in it are pretty well convinced that what ever it’s all about, it’s not all about God. That’s why the world makes such a big deal about home runs and touchdowns, earnings records and record earnings, awards and trophies, beauty pageants and “American Idols,” they are all about us.

But Jesus came to show that it is all about God. At every opportunity, Jesus testified. Every deed of power he performed was part of the Lord’s testimony to the Father. Every parable he told, every lesson he taught was part of the Son’s testimony to the glory of the Father.

What will our lives be all about today? Will they be all about making a deal, getting an “A”, hitting a home run? None of these are bad in themselves, but if we fail to testify to God who gets glorified by our accomplishments, whose kingdom is advanced by our labor? Every new day arrives with almost endless opportunities for glorifying and serving God. Will we testify? That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Flood Insurance

Psalm 124

If it had not been the LORD who
was on our side—
let Israel now say—
if it had not been the LORD who was on
our side
when people rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us up
alive,
when their anger was kindled
against us;
then the flood would have swept us
away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
the raging waters.

Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!

Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.

Last night we rented 2012, a Hollywood look ahead at the not quite end of the world supposedly predicted by the ancient Mayan calendar, which has no more days to tear off after December 21—2012. The film, and I apologize if I am playing the role of spoiler for anyone who still plans to see it, takes about ten to fifteen minutes to set up its flimsy plot before all screenwriting and acting are, well, swept away by the computer generated cataclysm that begins, where else, in California.

As LA and the rest of the west coast becomes ocean bottom property, characters hop in planes to rise about the flood that is coming, and which will not relent until all but the tip of Mount Everest is awash in waters that come from who knows where because there were no forty days of rain, just a lot of solar pulses, and a neutrino driven rise in the temperature of the earth’s core, and subsequent destabilization of the earth’s crust, and more and more earth quakes, and “dogs and cats living together; mass hysteria!” (Actually, that line isn’t in the movie, it’s from Ghostbusters, I just had to throw it in because 2012 is just about as silly as that classic film from the 80s. Only Ghostbusters had better acting and was more believable.).

With no disrespect to the Mayans, may they rest in peace, if they were so good at telling the future how come they didn’t know that their world would come to an end long before 2012? Anyone seen a Mayan lately? No? That’s because they and their culture swept away long ago. Again, I mean no disrespect to the Mayans, I have reserved my contempt for Hollywood, which insists on playing upon the ignorance and fear of many people to reap small fortunes from the ever popular apocalyptic movie genre.

Well, here’s a word for anyone who might be losing sleep after watching 2012: it will never happen. So have a good night’s rest, and if you are making plans to attend the next Olympic Winter Games in 2014, go on ahead.

Now, I am not saying that the world couldn’t pass away before the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. All I am telling you is that there is zero chance that, if the end should come, that it will at all resemble the events depicted in 2012. For one thing, forget the deluge; God promised Noah, long before the Mayans were on the scene, that the world would never again pass away from a cataclysmic flood. (Genesis 9.11) So don’t worry about how to book passage on an ark like in 2012, it simply won’t be necessary. Not that it would do any good anyway. When the end does come, it will be God who orchestrates all that will happen. And it is God who will shield and deliver all who will be saved, lifting them above, as it were, “raging waters.”

The people of ancient Israel, who were well familiar with the story of the flood, knew well God’s covenant with Noah. They also were covenant partners with the LORD through pacts made with Abraham, Moses, and David. All of the covenant promises of God added up to, among other things, flood insurance. And, on the occasions each year when all Israel would head to Jerusalem to observe one of the appointed festivals of the LORD, one of the wonderful songs the people sang was a reminder that God himself would forever make sure that his people were never again swept away by flood. In particular, Psalm 124 celebrated God’s deliverance from the violent torrent of Israel’s enemies, who had time and again sought to swallow her up. God had delivered, Israel, as when a bird is freed from the snare of fowlers, more than once. And Israel had well placed confidence that it would always be so.

Each of the fifteen Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) recall, celebrate, and commend to all generations of believers, the perfect assurance of God’s faithfulness to his promises, the greatest of which is his promise to save those he has covenanted with. And, for all who have received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, the promises of God’s new and final covenant are binding. We need fear no 2012 cataclysm, or death in any other form, be it personal or global. For, rather than Israel’s or our being swallowed up and swept away, it has been death which has been “swallowed up in victory” (1Corinthians 16.34; see Isaiah 25.8).

So, if you have not yet seen 2012, don’t bother, unless you are looking for a laugh, filmmaking doesn’t get much sillier. Even more important, if you have not yet invited Jesus Christ to come into your life, and be the Ark that delivers you from all harm, may I suggest that today would be a great day to ask him into your heart? Then you will be insured against flood and fire, and all other damage, with eternal life through grace by faith in Jesus as your guarantee.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Prayed...Early...Often...Alone

What Did Jesus Do?

…he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Luke 5.16

A Roman centurion observed of Jesus that he was “a man under authority” (Matthew 8.9); recognizing that the Lord both exercised authority, and was accountable to authority. Jesus himself acknowledged that he operated under the authority of his Father and that the works he did were not his own works but God’s. (John 14.10) But his Father was in Heaven, how did Jesus keep in contact with his Father, and so continue to operate under his Father’s authority? He prayed.

If you don’t stay in touch with “headquarters” you will soon be guilty of acting on your own authority. Even Jesus, the Son of God, who said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28.18) scrupulously avoided acting independently, on his own authority. And so, Jesus prayed: early, often, and, often times, alone.

Pray Early

Does your day ever have a tendency to get away from you? I know mine does. There is just so much that always seems so pressing, that needs to be done. And many are the days when evening comes, and I know I have been busy for 8, 10, 12 hours, yet I can’t really account for having accomplished much. Either that, or my accomplishments amount to much of little consequence. I had a boss who used to warn us not to fall into the trap of “majoring in the minors,” expending time and energy on things that would not move the business forward very much. Jesus, who knew well that he had only so much time to work with, made sure he made good use of his days; after all, one needed to get all one’s work done while there was light. (John 9.4)

And so, Jesus was of the habit of rising very early, while it was still dark, that he might pray to the Father and receive guidance for the work that was to be accomplished that day. The Lord was not about to allow anyone to succeed in accusing him of acting on his own initiative for so much as one hour, let alone a whole day.

So, what do you think? Should we rise early enough to have time to go and talk with the Father each day before we undertake to begin our work? That’s what Jesus did.

Pray Often

Jesus did not confine his prayers to the Sabbath, much less to the synagogues. And his prayer early in the day did not bring his communication with the Father to a conclusion for 24 hours. Throughout the course of a day Jesus would lift up his eyes, look up to heaven, and hear from his Father.

What about our prayers? Are they reserved for an hour on Sunday morning? Are our prayers one and done, and then it’s on the run for the rest of our day? Or do we heed what the apostle Paul instructed the Thessalonians, and maintain an openness and readiness to, “pray without ceasing”? (1Thessalonians 5.17) It is not so much that we are to pray 24/7, but that we are ready and willing to pray 24/7. That’s what Jesus did.

Pray Alone

Prayer is high priority communication. Often it is privileged communication, in that what passes between the one who prays, and the One who is prayed to, is just between them. Distracted prayer is hardly prayer at all.

This is not to say that public prayer is wrong. Jesus prayed with the twelve, and with the five thousand. But in the Lord’s own personal prayer practice, private prayer predominated, and so the Gospels note Jesus removing himself to mountaintops and other desolate places to pray alone. (Matthew 14.23; Mark 1.35; Luke 5.16) And when he taught his disciples about prayer Jesus stressed the importance of solitude. (Matthew 6.6)

Do we have prayer “closets,” prayer gardens, or any other place, it need not be desolate or a mountaintop, to remove ourselves to and find some quiet peace alone with the Father? That’s what Jesus did.

Right, Responsibility, & Privilege

You know, it isn’t just anybody who is granted private audience with a king. A king grants that right only to those he will suffer to listen to, and those who have that right may approach the king boldly. And, when a king tells his subjects that he wants to hear from them regularly, it is their responsibility to report to the king often. Even more than a right and responsibility, the daughters and sons of a king have the even greater privilege of speaking intimately, not just to the king, but with their father.

For all who follow Jesus prayer is an irrevocable right, a solemn responsibility, and a great privilege. We should esteem prayer as such, and practice it early, often, and alone. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

The Hour, The Advent, The Need, The Call

What Did Jesus Do?
Jesus Testified.

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is
at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.
Mark 1.15

Most folks think Noah’s flood was about as cataclysmic a deluge as could ever be imagined. But destructive tides have risen and swept away countless millions of souls ever since the days of Noah. The danger of this flood may be greater now than at any other time in history. But I am not thinking of any deluge of water, but rather a rising sea of words in which all the world is awash.

Words are powerful. All too often the destructive and deadly power of words, especially words that are hateful and untrue, flow unchecked to sweep away livelihoods and lives, families and communities, nations and peoples. It should not be any wonder to us when we consider that from the very beginning Satan has employed the deadly power of lying words to ensnare and destroy man, and to assault and dishonor God.

When we think about the state of our so-called “Information Age” with its ever rising tide of cell phones, internet, 24/7 cable and satellite radio and television, it is enough for us to begin desperately searching for an ark to take shelter in. But the way to counteract the deadly threat of empty, lying, and destructive and deadly words is not silence. Rather it is the carefully chosen, divinely inspired, painstakingly preserved, and eternally gracious and true Word of God. Of all the many words we hear and read daily, the relatively few words contained in one book, the Bible, alone have the power to transform, to save, and to sustain.

In Jesus’ day the world was already quite full of deceitfully deadly words. Even those who had been given the Word of God had so mishandled it as to all but render it empty and powerless. But Jesus came into the world to testify. And testimony, if it is to be of any judicial value, requires words, words of truth. The thing that is so amazing, especially in our modern world that is all but submerged under seas of printed, broadcast, and cyber communications, is that so very few words of truth have all the power necessary to completely and radically restore all things.

Take the Gospel of Mark, and the first words the evangelist reported Jesus as saying when he began his public ministry. Fewer than twenty words provided all the testimony necessary to change lives, to change the world. All that was needed was that the words be heeded. The testimony of Jesus was sufficient then, and it is sufficient now, if we but receive it and respond to it.

In the eighteen words Jesus spoke in Mark 1.15 the Lord announced the Hour, proclaimed the Advent, declared the Need, and issued the Call. That’s quite a lot for so brief a statement, but it was and is all that is necessary.

The Hour

“The time is fulfilled…” Have you ever taken an exam and, before you had answered all the questions, heard those chilling words, “Time’s up! Put down your pencils”? I know I have experienced that sinking feeling that comes when you are convinced you have just been torpedoed by a test. When you are out of time there is no turning back the clock, “Pencils down!” time to meet your fate.

Fortunately for us all, the time that Jesus announced was the hour of deliverance, not destruction. At least it was the hour of deliverance for everyone who would be delivered. The world would have no more time to cast about for any other means of salvation, though it has tried. Decision time had come. The hour was arrived, the Savior had appeared. It was, as the saying goes, “Now or never.” Either people would receive Jesus in the hour of his revealing, or they would miss the boat, so to speak, and be swept away in the final cataclysm.

This is not to say that we are all two thousand years too late. Jesus’ hour is not over, there is time, though it slips away every second, to come to Christ. But anyone who thinks there is time to wait for someone or something other than Jesus that will be able to save them, has simply not heard what Jesus testified, “The time IS fulfilled.”

The Advent

“…the kingdom of God is at hand…” Advent means coming, arrival. Jesus testified that the kingdom of God had come; it had arrived in a manger in Bethlehem. And from that lodgment in Bethlehem the kingdom of God would expand its boundaries and grow to reach the ends of the earth and span all generations to the end of time.

Many other kingdoms have risen and fallen in the two millennia since the time of Christ. And many still would presume to challenge the reality and extant of the kingdom of God. But it remains that all other kingdoms are passing away, while the kingdom of God alone endures.

It is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Jesus testified that it had come. The question implied, and we all must choose how we will respond to it, is, “Don’t you want to be a part of the kingdom?”

The Need

“repent…” Jesus announced the Hour and proclaimed the Advent, he also declared the Need of the world and everyone in it—the need to repent. Repentance is a much misunderstood word, probably because it so out of fashion and little used nowadays. In a post-modern world of relativity an uncompromising and exacting word like “repent” seemingly is out of place. But it was the very word that communicated what people needed to do in the time of Jesus, and, regardless of how much more sophisticated and smart we imagine ourselves to be than our ancestors, the one thing we need has not changed.

We need to be transformed. We need to do a one hundred eighty degree about face. Our minds need to be completely renewed. We have to experience nothing less remarkable than what occurs when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Repentance is not mere apology or feeling sorry because we have been caught in the wrong. Repentance is the admission that, to borrow a term from Reformed-Calvinistic theology, we are totally depraved. There is no good thing in us. We need the Holy Spirit to come and fill us with the power of the living Christ. Nothing else will do, that is our need. No mere cosmetic surgery, but an extreme and complete makeover from the inside out. That is repentance.

The Call

“…believe in the gospel.” The Hour, the Advent, the Need. What else was necessary to make the testimony of Jesus complete? The Lord had to issue the Call. Hearing that the time had been fulfilled, that the righteous kingdom of God had come, and that absolute and total repentance was needed would have been chilling testimony for guilty sinners to hear. It would have been a pronouncement of doom. The natural, and in fact the recorded, response of many in the Gospels, was to throw up one’s hands in despair and desperately ask, “What can we do?” Fortunately, Jesus had the answer; he called everyone who heard his testimony to believe it.

Only by believing in the testimony of Christ can the words of doom to sinners become “good news” for those who would be saved. By believing the testimony of Jesus we are lifted out of the rising flood of deceiving and deadly words, and safely delivered to the Rock that will forever stand above the peril and destruction of the world.

Now, many witnessed the testimony of Jesus and believed him. Many more heard and saw, and did not believe, and turned away and rejected him. The many who believed were saved. The many more who did not believe were destroyed, and suffer still. The Call—“believe in the gospel,” the good news of Jesus Christ, and be saved.

Testifiers Wanted

Each and every generation since the time of Christ has needed testifiers, people who not only accept and receive the testimony of Jesus, but who will take it up and make it their testimony, regardless of the cost. None of us would be believers today if there had not been testifiers whose words of truth helped bring us into the kingdom of God. Each one of us who claims to be a disciple of Jesus has the choice each day to testify or not. Considering that the Hour has struck, the Advent of the kingdom of God has come, the Need is clear, and the Call has not changed, there is a great want of testifiers. Will you be one? Testifying. That’s what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

"S.D.G."

No, those are not the initials of “Sammy Davis Greenbaum.” They actually represent the signature of Johan Sebastian Bach, who signed each piece of sacred music that he composed, “S.D.G.”

Now, Bach did not write under an assumed pen-name. But he wanted everyone who heard and/or played his music to know very clearly who the music was written for, and who is honored every time it is played. S.D.G. stood for the Latin phrase, “Soli Deo Gloria,” “To God alone be glory!”

Now, sadly, though God himself is the creator of music, and created it for his glory and pleasure (And our pleasure too.), there’s a lot of music that does anything but. This is not to suggest that all secular music dishonors and displeases God. Music doesn’t have to be “sacred” to honor God. The chorus of birds in our yard every morning glorifies God, but has never been sung by a church choir or played on an organ. I believe well written popular music can glorify God along with sacred music.

Bach himself did not limit his signature S.D.G. to sacred pieces only, it can be found on the reverse side of the manuscript of the last fugue of the Well-Tempered Clavier Book I. John Butt has opined that this is just one example of Bach’s “musico-centric” view of the cosmos. (Butt, The Cambridge Companion to Bach, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 54-55) Butt explains the term as indicative of Bach’s understanding of music as both reflecting and embodying the ultimate reality of God and the Universe. S.D.G., not a bad signature for any artistic or literary expression intended to honor God.

With due homage to J.S.B. I believe I will use it myself.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Daring to Hope, Daring to Touch

What Did Jesus Do?

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him…
Mark 1.41

There are things that it is simply dangerous, sometimes even deadly, to come in contact with. There are things that can hurt us and kill us. “Don’t’ touch!” is one of the first lessons parents teach their young children. Some of us probably remember painful lessons from our toddler-hood when we found out why mom told us not to go near the stove, and never to touch it. There is a good chance that more than a few of us are likely to carry scars as reminders of times when we touched when we shouldn’t have. From avoiding the stove, to never petting a stray dog, to keeping away from strangers, no few lives have been saved by the lesson, “Do not touch!”

When we grow up we may learn other lessons about using potholders, putting on gloves and goggles, wearing masks, and handling such safety equipment as to be able to approach something dangerous with a barrier of protection to keep us from coming into direct contact with that which could harm us. Important lessons; lifesaving lessons. It can be costly to touch.

When Jesus was a boy I am sure he was taught about the danger of getting too near things that could hurt him. When he was little I am certain that Joseph and Mary would have taught Jesus about the danger of fire. And stray dogs were no doubt as much a danger back then as they are now, and Jesus would have been taught to stay away from them. Jesus would also have learned at an early age about avoiding someone who was “unclean,” specifically the pitiful creatures who were stricken with leprosy. “Give them a wide berth, Jesus. And whatever you do, never, ever touch a leper!” And Jesus would have undoubtedly grown up seeing how scrupulously everyone, including his own parents, stayed clear of lepers. In fact, the Lord would have surely observed that lepers were outcasts, forbidden to actually enter Nazareth; condemned to remove themselves to desolate places to live out their miserable and tragic existence beyond the boundary of human society.

Of course, the lepers were taught the same lessons. “You are unclean. You must stay away from all villages and towns, never entering in to the sphere of human society except for the company of other wretches like yourself. And never, ever touch anyone who is not a leper!”

But when you are the Son of God, and word gets around that you can exorcise demons, and remove fevers with the touch of your hand, and heal many diseases, well, you are going to attract all kinds of desperate people. Mark tells of one such man, a leper, who, daring to hope that Jesus was able to cure even his incurable condition, came to the Lord and begged him, if he would, to make him clean.

Now, Jesus had surely not forgotten all he had been taught about never touching a leper. Furthermore, as the Son of God he had sufficient authority and power to simply speak a word of healing, and the leper would have been cleansed without any need of touching him. But Mark tells us that, moved by pity, Jesus dared to stretch out his own hand, to cross any and all barriers, and touch the man who had dared to hope, and with a command, “Be clean!” the leprosy left the man instantly. That touch crossed a forbidden boundary to not only cleanse the man, but to restore him to human society.

Then an interesting role reversal occurred. Though Jesus directed the man to keep secret how he had come to be cured, the man nevertheless went about telling everybody what Jesus had done for him. And, for the first time in many years, the man did not have to shout at people from a distance, but was able to freely enter into the midst villages and throngs of people to share his good news with them. The outcast was an outcast no more. Daring to hope had restored the man to human society.

But Jesus, who had dared to touch an untouchable, was forced to avoid villages, and to skirt towns, and to keep to desolate places for the crush of people who now sought him had become overwhelming. Daring to touch had forced Jesus to distance himself from human society.

There are no few people today who exist on the margins, whose lives, for many reasons, place them, if not entirely out of bounds, at the very boundaries of human society. Economics, health, race and ethnicity, even age, can be reasons people are strictly segregated today, and, overtly or covertly, lessons are still taught and learned about who to avoid, and who not to touch.

But those who are desperate still today often continue to dare to hope. And their hope often rests with those of us who seek to follow Jesus, and who have a choice whether or not to feel pity and act compassionately, and dare to “stretch out our hand” and touch one who needs nothing so much as that contact to be restored to fuller participation in human society. The challenge is to dare to touch. That’s what Jesus did.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Vulernable Longing

What Did Jesus Do?

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…How often would I have
gathered your children together…and you would
not!
Matthew 23.37

Jesus cared. Not just for friends like Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary. Not just for Peter, James, and John and the other apostles. Jesus cared deeply for all of God’s people, even those who, like the city of Jerusalem, had violently rejected the prophets and other messengers God had sent to her. Even as the Lord lamented the fate that awaited Jerusalem and her people, he knew that he would be the next prophet she would kill. Of course, though Jerusalem believed she was merely ridding herself of a troubling and rabble rousing prophetic rabbi from Nazareth, it was the Son of God she hung on the cross. His compassion and love for Jerusalem and her children made Jesus so vulnerable as to willingly lay down his life for the very ones who sought his death.

Though, like a hen, Jesus had many times desired to safely gather in and protect Jerusalem and her children, it would take his “wings” being spread wide on the cross to make a way for the lost, not just of Jerusalem and all Israel, but throughout the whole world and through all generations, to come to him. No one present in Jerusalem could even begin to comprehend how much Jesus cared, how much God cared; that the Father would require the Son to lay down his life, and the Son would obediently and willingly do so, and for the very ones who rejected him.

The world still cannot, or will not, accept or grasp the truth of God’s great love in the person of Jesus Christ. But God’s love for the world has not diminished in two thousand years. Neither has Christ’s longing to gather to himself the children of God. The longing of the Father and the Son for the salvation of their people is as strong as ever. Jesus cared, and cares still, enough to sacrifice all for the love of those who love him not.

How far would we go, we who profess to follow Jesus, to care for someone who not only does not love us, but rejects us? How much would we be willing to sacrifice for those who would persecute us, and utter all kinds of evil against us falsely because of our faith? Would we lament over the fate of those who turn their back on God? Would we bless those who curse us? Would we comfort those who hurt us? Would we long so for another’s salvation that we would make ourselves vulnerable to their enmity and rejection? Would we care enough to go all the way, even to the cross, for “Jerusalem’s children?” That’s what Jesus did.


Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Caring Incarnate

What Did Jesus Do?

Let us go to Judea again
John 11.7

When we care we sometimes mail a card. Sometimes we send flowers. A lot of us fill and send off shoe boxes. When we have the financial resources we will put a check in the mail. Often we find someone to send instead of going ourselves. But, in the end, a lot of our caring is removed from the person or cause we seek to care for. Not so with Jesus, he was the incarnation of caring, caring, if you will, in the flesh. The Incarnation of Christ was itself a demonstration of how much the Father and the Son cared for the world, and it was caring up close and personal.

Christ’s decision to return to Judea was a costly one (11.8), but the Lord cared so much, so completely, that nothing could have restrained him from going at that point. And it was not for the sake of Lazarus alone that Jesus went once more to Judea, to Bethany, the home of Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary, and then on to Jerusalem.

The raising of Lazarus would reveal the glory of God to Martha and Mary, and to the Lord’s disciples, and in seeing Lazarus rise and walk out of the tomb they were witnesses that Jesus was who he said he was, “the resurrection and the life.” (11.25, 40, 42) With the crucifixion just days away, a far greater demonstration of the Father’s love, and how deeply the Son cared, would soon be given to the world.

But, for the time, those present at the home of Lazarus and Martha and Mary, would see how moved the Lord was by the grief of his friends, how indignant he was at the wailing of the mourners whose performance had something of the aspect of the perfunctory, and how agitated he was in anticipating the coming confrontation with death, first for the life of his friend Lazarus, then on the cross for us all. Thus we see the fully human Jesus touched by, and sharing in, the grief of all who mourn the death of a loved one, and at the same time we see the divine Son of God marshalling the power and strength of his spirit for the great final confrontation with sin and death. Jesus cared, and it would be his very own flesh and blood that would be sacrificed in the greatest act of caring the world will ever know.

What cost are we willing to pay for the sake of caring for others? What sacrifices are we willing to make that someone in need, someone hurting, or homeless, or hungry, might be comforted? To what degree are we willing to spend and be spent for the lost? Unless we are truly devoted to those we claim to care for, we will likely find that there are real, even greatly constraining, limits to our compassion. Just how far are we willing to go to follow the Lord’s example of caring? Jesus certainly did not hesitate to tell us that we must even be willing to take up our own cross if we would follow him.

Are we willing to go hungry in order that another may eat? Will we endure cold so that a brother or sister may be warmed? Sacrifice sleep so that someone else may rest? Risk our health to help another be healed? Surrender our riches to help another out of their poverty? Would we willingly, “go again to Judea,” to a place of certain personal danger and sacrifice, out of care and concern for the souls of others? That’s what Jesus did.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Caring Converted Into Action = Compassion

What Did Jesus Do?

…and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Mark 6.34

There is caring, and then there is compassion. We can care a great deal about the people of Haiti who are homeless, and without adequate clothing and food as a result of the terrible earthquake, but we lack compassion if we never convert our caring to action to relieve their suffering, and our caring amounts to little.

I would imagine that most of us care about such problems as illiteracy, but unless we actually commit ourselves to help address the issue, we shouldn’t be surprised, and have little room to complain, that the number of adults who cannot read or write continues to climb. Then there are the lost. Within a radius of a mile of wherever we are when we read this it is likely that there are dozens of people who have never received Jesus as their Savior and Lord. But without doing something to reach the lost it would be hard to make a case that we actually care very much that without Christ they are doomed to destruction and eternal suffering.

Jesus cared. And Christ’s caring was compassionate in that it constantly compelled him to act. I rather imagine that the eager compassion of the Son might have led him more than once to ask the Father, “Now, do I go down now to save them?” only to have God the Father say, “Not yet, Son. The time will come soon enough.” When the time came for his earthly ministry Jesus looked with compassionate eyes upon the sick and suffering, the lame and the lost, the poor and the perishing, and he cared enough to act.

There was the time Jesus had sought to provide for a little “R&R” for his apostles after he had sent them out two by two on a preaching and healing mission. (Mark 6.7-13) Crossing Galilee in a boat, Jesus and the twelve headed for a lonely place of solitude, only to discover as soon as they stepped out of the boat that the desperate crowds had observed their course across the water and run ahead of them to be waiting on the desolate shore! (Mark 6.30-33) Did Jesus have Peter and the others turnabout and shove off again? Not at all, he had compassion on the crowd that looked like nothing so much as a flock of sheep wandering in a wilderness without a shepherd.

Recognizing how hungry the people were, Jesus fed them, first spiritual food for their souls, then bread and fish for their bodies. He certainly would never have responded to the one need and ignored the other; his great compassion caused him to put his care for all the people into direct and concrete action.

It must be noted that all the cares of Jesus directly related to his concern for the kingdom of God, and his desire to help as many as he could find and follow the one path into the kingdom. Where does concern for the kingdom fit on our personal list of cares? And, we all need to be honest here, claiming concern for the kingdom of God and for the lost as a top priority, while doing little or nothing about it, reveals a definite lack of compassion. If we never convert caring to action it is necessary to ask just how much we really care. Pray. Donate. Volunteer. Go and make a difference in someone’s life. Caring that compels always produces acts of compassion. That’s what Jesus did.


Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

The Cure For That "Empty" Feeling? The Rock!

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear
beautiful…but within you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness.
Matthew 23.27-28


Have you ever gone up to an impressive bronze statue of a hero and tapped on it? All you hear is a hollow ring. That’s because, as much as the statue may look like a hero, it is just a statue, there’s nothing inside, nothing of the moral fiber, courage, and values that made the hero a hero. Unfortunately, statues are not the only things to “ring hollow.”

Many of you know I am involved in Boy Scouting, and some know that I even used to be a full-time Scouting professional. I have long embraced and promoted the ideals and values of the Boy Scouts of America. But I also know that just because someone wears the uniform of the Boy Scouts it doesn’t make them a good Scout. In fact, someone can advance all the way up to Eagle, earn a hundred and more merit badges, and look like a real humdinger of a Scout, and be far from the real deal. How? By never really committing to the core ideals and values of the Boy Scouts of America. Lip service is paid to the ideals. The Scout Oath and Law can be recited over and over, but if one never really seeks to make those ideals the foundation and framework for their life, they are no better than a hollow statue. And no hollow statue has every done a good turn, or made a difference to home, community, or nation. And, when someone makes it to the “top” of Scouting’s advancement ladder, and they are truly missing Scouting’s core ideals and values, well the whole program suffers.

Now, it is not just Scouts who somehow miss or reject the ideals, often it is Scouters (Adults involved in the programs of the BSA) who never really get it, or who have lost it along the way. Often the worst offenders are the “Red Jackets” (Think Pharisees of Scouting; kind of a self-appointed cadre of moralizing guardians, who try to protect their idea of Scouting). I heard recently of a couple of old Red Jackets who tore into a young leader because they didn’t approve of his pants! To them, parading around in the uniform, sporting all the badges and knots had become more important than living the ideals and values of the program. Those Red Jackets were fortunate I wasn’t there, because I would have suggested they learn what it means for a Scout to promise to be “friendly,” “courteous,” and “kind,” before they put their precious red jackets on again. Those Red Jackets disgraced the uniform they are so proud to put on, and they revealed a distressing “hollowness” of character, if you will.

This problem of hollowness is, I believe, a national issue, and not just a Boy Scout issue. You see, the United States was built from the inside out, so to speak. At the core and foundation of this nation were political, social, ethical and moral, economic, and yes, even religious/theological ideals and values. This core was so solid and strong that in a little more than a hundred years it built thirteen colonies into the greatest nation on earth. Now, a little more than another hundred years later, America “rings hollow,” our core, our ideals and values eroding away from the inside out, so that we may still try and look and act as if we were still the same United States of America, but we are not. I can’t even come up with words to describe what we are. But I am certain that, when enough of our nation’s core ideals and values have eroded from inside, there will be a terrible and utter collapse.

Of course it won’t be the first time a once great nation and people suffered thus. Take ancient Israel. Oh, tiny ancient Israel wasn’t great in terms of size or political or economic influence. But, for an all too tragically brief time, Israel took a back seat to no nation because Israel and its people were the chosen covenant partners of God. As such, Israel had an unprecedented core and foundation of ideals and values written by God himself; ideals and values which, if internalized and lived by Israel and its people, would have assured the ascendancy and security of the nation for ever, and which would have supplied an unimaginable blessing to the rest of the nations of the world. Sadly, Israel became a hollow nation under the control of the hollow leadership of kings, priests, and Pharisees who enjoyed being in positions of power and of putting on all the outward trappings of what they wanted others to believe was true Israel. But inside, they were hollow, they had uncircumcised hearts, and Jesus called them out (See Matthew 23.1-36). Ultimately they rejected not only the ideals and values God had covenanted to give them, they rejected God himself, putting God’s Son to death on a cross. And, some thirty years after the crucifixion, came the great and utter collapse of Israel.

Fortunately, that Son of God was the most “solid” human being who ever lived. The ideals and values of godly living, of God himself, and of God’s kingdom, were incarnate in Christ. Jesus didn’t just live to fulfill the law, he is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus didn’t just practice loving God and others, he is love. Jesus didn’t just teach truth, he is the truth. Jesus didn’t come to simply show us the way, he is the way. Jesus didn’t come to tell us about life, he is life, and he came to give us life.

Without an ethical-moral revival from the inside out, without a decided and intentional turning back to what made America, America, there is, I fear, no arresting the decline and ultimate collapse of this country. As for the Boy Scouts, well they could use a few less Red Jackets who have forgotten Scouting’s ideals and values, and a few more Scouters in blue jeans who are committed to teaching those ideals and values to today’s youth.

And finally, because it must be said, the Church in North America has had a decided and growing hollow ring for a long time now. I suspect this is no small contributing factor to the deepening hollowness of the nation. So the Church, too, needs to renew itself from the inside out. I am not talking about “new” anything as the answer for what ails the Church; her only hope is to restore Christ to the place that is his and his alone, at the very center of its life, and also at its head. You can’t get more solid than the Rock.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Defended His Father's House

Jesus Defended His Father’s House

And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple
John 2.15

At an early age Jesus had revealed his sense of calling into the family business. Oh, I am not talking about Joseph’s carpentry shop, I mean the work of Christ’s Father. You may recall the incident in Luke 2.41-51, when a precocious twelve year old Jesus first revealed his matchless knowledge of all things pertaining to the kingdom of God, the Lord declared at that time that he already knew his calling,

“I must be about my Father’s business.”
Luke 2.49

Years later, when he again came to his Father’s main place of business, the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus was absolutely outraged by what it had been turned into. During what was supposed to have been a season of spiritual renewal that drew from the deep history of God’s merciful deliverance of Israel from its bondage in Egypt Jesus instead walked in to the middle of a marketplace. And a disreputable market at that!

There was business being transacted in his Father’s house all right, but it wasn’t the family’s business at all, it was more like a business expo! There was so much buying and selling and trading going on that it made the courts of the temple more closely resemble the floor of the stock exchange than a house of prayer. And what most upset Jesus was that it was clear, that this was nothing extraordinary, “business as usual” in the temple had come to mean commerce and profiteering. As far as Jesus could tell, what was going on did not seem to trouble so much as one person there. This is not to say that all Israel approved of the temple “trade show,” but it had been quite a long time since the voice of any prophet had challenged what had become the system.

Well, as any good and devoted son would do, but perhaps as only the Son could do, Jesus dared to defend his Father’s house. And with singular violence, for there is no other place in the gospels where we find the Lord so, well, Rambo-like, Christ unleashed a storm of righteous fury, his disciples called it “zeal,” that wrecked the marketplace and drove out the tradesmen who had set up shop in the temple.

As I mentioned above, it wasn’t as if all Israel felt that what was going on in the temple was right, it was simply that no one dared to defend God’s house against the worldly influences that had transformed it into one of the ancient world’s most successful commercial enterprises. But then, threatening the pocketbook is always risky business. And today the temptations to allow the work of the kingdom to be conducted like a business have not gone away; they might be stronger than ever.

And this is why we now see churches big and small, and no few denominational bodies, being run like businesses, with the bottom line measured in dollars and cents, rather than the saving of souls. The building up and preservation of endowments occupies a place of far greater importance than the building up of the Kingdom for many who are supposed to be leaders of God’s flock. Innovation and entrepreneurialism are esteemed by the Church, while zeal for God’s house is seen as quaint at best, and far more likely to be condemned as fundamentalist extremism.

Someone has observed of our modern culture, and the Church sadly is perhaps more acculturate than ever, that our culture “worships work, works at play, and plays at worship.” Clearly, Jesus would probably quickly look for some cords if he were to walk into the middle of no few modern day ministries in action. Like ancient Israel, it isn’t as if there are not Christians who know that something is wrong, who know that our Father’s houses have again been made into houses of trade. It’s just that very few of us would dare to defend the Father’s house against what has become the powerful and profitable status quo. But that’s what Jesus did.


Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4

Jesus Confronted Sin and Forgave

Jesus Confronted Sin and Forgave

Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone
John 8.7

There is a scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ which begins with a shot across a square looking at an angry mob advancing armed with stones. Then in the foreground a single sandaled foot stomps the dust, arresting the progress of the crowd. A finger writes in the dirt, and a trembling, bejeweled hand desperately reaches towards the foot of, well Gibson does not show us, but we know it is Jesus, and we know the hand belongs to the woman who had been caught in adultery, and the crowd armed with stones were the ones in John 8 who sought to test Jesus. (See John 8.1-11)

The mob had come, eager to confront and condemn the sin of the woman, and hoped that Jesus, who had begun to have an undeserved reputation as somehow being soft on sin and loose with the Law of Moses, would commit such a violation as to allow them to later accuse him. (8.6) the last thing they expected was for Jesus to confront sin, their sin. But that is what Jesus dared to do. At the same time the Lord also dared to forgive, not excuse, the sin of the woman. What did Jesus do? He dared to confront, and to forgive, sin. We don’t see much of that these days.

Rather than confront and forgive, we are more into “accuse and excuse.” There is no shortage of people, we might call them “Speck Inspectors” who are quick to accuse others of their sins, even the slightest ones. But such Inspectors typically overlook, want to avoid truly confronting the reality of sin’s pervasiveness, being particularly blind to the glaring reality of the beam they themselves bear. At the same time, it is fairly common practice for one who is caught in sin to seek to be excused, rather than to truly confess, repent, and be forgiven. And we have shown ourselves to be a readily excusing, if ultimately unforgiving, culture. It seems that most of us who profess to follow Jesus are quite unwilling to dare, as Jesus did, to confront the reality of sin’s pervasive presence in all our lives, starting with our own. The problem with excused sin is that it tends to hang around. Either the one excused persists in sin because it is fairly easy and cheap to make excuses and to be excused, or the one who excused the sin holds onto it so that they can always bring it up again against the excused.

But sin that has truly been confronted, and repented of and forgiven, well unlike excused sin which hangs around, stays in the record so to speak, truly forgiven sin is erased, gone, forgotten, expunged from the record. It takes daring to deal with sin so boldly, so completely, so finally. Before Jesus no one had ever dared to confront sin and forgive. Since the time of Christ, those who have dared have been far outstripped by those who are into accusing and excusing, rather than confronting and forgiving.

But you just cannot find any place in the Bible where God excused sin. Nor is there any biblical account of anyone who tried to make an excuse for their sin to God, or who sought to have their sin excused by God, ever succeeded. We do have many illustrations of sin confronted and forgiven.

Think of David being confronted by Nathan, and then confessing and repenting and being forgiven. (2Samuel 12) Think of Zacchaeus publicly confessing and repenting, and being forgiven on the spot by the Lord, who declared Zacchaeus a “son of Abraham” right then and there. (Luke 19) Think of the woman, pursued by those angry accusers ready to stone her to death. After Jesus had dared to confront them, the accusers vanished, , and Jesus himself refused to accuse and condemn, instead forgiving the woman, and charging her to leave her life of sin behind.

Accusing leads to condemnation, and at best, excusing. Daring to confront leads to repentance and forgiveness. That’s what Jesus did.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4

Jesus Shared the "Missing Link"

This is my body, which is given for you.
Luke 22.19
This is my blood…which is poured out for many.
Mark 14.24

We have already spoken of how Jesus came to share our humanity with us by setting aside his station with God the Father to become born one of us. (See 3/3/10 dE-votion) But Jesus did not come empty handed, so to speak. Christ brought something absolutely precious to share with us, something that had been lost which we in no ways could recover for ourselves.

You see, in the Fall a vital connection, a link if you will, between God and man had been broken and lost. With it had gone something that God had always intended to be part of being human—eternal life. For God had formed man, the one creature in all the material universe to bear the divine image, to be with him for eternity. Again, that part of who we were created to be, that essential link with God, had been lost.

But, as noted above, Jesus came not just to partake in our humanity, but to make it possible for us to share in his life, and through him obtain that which had been lost to us, Christ restored the missing link between God and man by himself becoming that very link. As Jesus himself said, he had come so that we

may have life and have it abundantly.
John 10.10

If you will permit me, how abundant can life be if it falls short of eternity? It would be life with something missing, something God had always intended to be part of what it is to be fully human.

In the supper the Lord shared with his apostles on the night before he was crucified Jesus shared with his followers, in a powerful spiritual reality, something that he would share with all of us in an awful physical reality on the cross, his perfect righteousness and his innocent life. Christ’s righteousness was symbolized in the bread, his body which he would obediently give up to God for our sakes on the cross, the complete and perfect fulfillment of his Father’s will. Christ’s innocent life was symbolized in the wine, his sinless blood which would be poured out on the cross as the one acceptable sacrifice for our sins. It is Christ’s righteousness and his life that reconnect us to God.

By giving us the meal as a sacrament, Christ made it possible for the most precious gift he shared wit us, the restoration of our relationship with God and eternal life, to be preserved and passed on to all succeeding generations. To contemplate in the meal the meaning of what Jesus did on the cross for us, in sharing with us, as fully as ever could be shared, his life, is to know the fullness of God’s agape, God’s selfless love. There is no more solemn, yet joyous, occasion in the life of believers than to be invited to celebrate this supper.

The question is, how do we do what Jesus did? Well, in his sharing with us Jesus held nothing back, he offered all of himself to us and for us. And I believe that as Christ lives in us, he would, through us, yet share himself to the utmost with others. This is to say that each of us have both the obligation and opportunity to so give and share of our lives in Christ that others may receive Jesus, and so be reconnected with God and have eternal life.

It may seem obvious, but we cannot share what we don’t have. This is to say that if we don’t have Jesus, if he has not entered in and taken possession of our heart, and filled us with the love of God, there is no way we can share any of him with another. Here is how I believe it works; if we are not filled up with Jesus we can’t share him; if we are filled up with him, we cannot not share him. So, if we haven’t been sharing Jesus with others it is a sure sign we ourselves are in need of being filled up with the Spirit. Once filled with Christ, we do not hold anything back from those who need what we have, we seek to share all we have and all of who we are with others. That’s what Jesus did.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
Psalm 37.4