Category: “Rethinking Religion” series

Sin’s Solution: Self or Savior?

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(Numbers 21:4-9)

One of life’s small joys is the satisfaction of being able to take something that is broken and fix it ourselves. Yes, it’s nice to save money not having to call a repair guy to come and fix it or take it in somewhere to have it looked at, but ultimately there is simply a satisfying sense of achievement in fixing something ourselves. It’s also easier than ever. You can find just about any video on Youtube to walk you through the process of fixing something. You can buy just about any specialty tool or replacement part for the job online and it will arrive on your doorstep faster than ever. 

Yet it’s for those same reasons, when we utilize all of those resources to tackle a fix-it-yourself project, following the steps in the video, replacing the part, and voila! – it’s still broken, that our frustration levels also rise higher than ever. To have all the resources available that we do and still not be able to successfully fix something is a tougher pill to swallow. At least in the past we could chalk it up to not having the right tool or part!

Why is fixing something that is broken such a challenge in the first place? Because we can get it wrong in multiple ways. We either misdiagnose the problem, and instead of fixing the part the needs fixing, we focus on a part that doesn’t. Or, assuming we do correctly identify the issue, we then misdiagnose the solution. We buy the wrong part or install it improperly. When either of these things happen, what are we left with? Something that’s still broken.

We know that there’s much that is broken in our world today. There’s no shortage of solutions offered to fix things and make them right. Moreover, we supposedly have access to far more resources than ever in the history of the world to fix things, yet here we are in a world that is still every bit as broken (and many would argue even more so!). How can so many solutions fail so miserably to fix everything? Well, sometimes it’s misdiagnosing the problem, and other times it’s misdiagnosing the solution. Just ask the Israelites how hard it was as they continued to wander there way out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land.

Israel identified what they thought was the problem and voiced their concern to God and his representative, Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (v.5). They were longing for the steady, stable food they had in Egypt… while seemingly forgetting the oppressive slavery that came along with it. That didn’t matter, though – the problem as they saw it was a lack of bread and water and a miserable menu. So they supposed the solution was simply to let God know the problem so he could fix it. And while they had the right idea in going to God, they came to him with the wrong problem to solve. And, as they would discover, when we bring the wrong problem to God, we may not like the solution he offers.

The problem had nothing to do with their eating and everything to do with their attitude. This is evident from what precedes their complaint. “But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses…” (v.4-5). Food was far from being the real problem; all the food did was expose the real issue: their impatience. And, when the problem is misdiagnosed, we’re unlikely to seek out the correct solution. Again, they had the right idea in looking to God for the solution, but they had the wrong attitude in their approach. They didn’t come before him in humility, but in insolence, brazenly speaking directly against God and Moses! This detail of the account is crucial to a proper understanding of the whole story. 

Because if we overlook this when we see how God responds, we could confuse the problem with the solution. “Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died” (v.6). If we fail to correctly pin the problem on the Israelites for their insolence, then God’s punishment could be perceived as the problem. We question how he could do such a thing. We wonder how God could have this kind of violence in his heart to want to harm his own people. How do we process these questions?

Remember, God’s response was not the problem; it was a part of the solution. Yes, that’s right – God sending venomous snakes was not the problem, but rather a part of the solution. If you find that hard to believe, don’t quit reading just yet. To help us better understand, let’s take an example from the world of how-not-to-parent-today that illustrates how the venomous snakes were actually part of God’s solution. 

Have you ever been in a public place when a child wasn’t getting his way and he was making it painfully obvious not just to mom, but to everyone within roughly a square mile? How the parent responds at that point is either going to be a part of the solution or the problem. When mom makes a deal to give the child what he wants (or something similar) as he stops whining, mom has now just become a part of the problem.

The mom’s behavior in those cases is not uncommon, because it deceptively feels as if she’s still in charge. After all, she is the one that proposed the offer. And, she very likely intends to follow through with it if her child stops whining. It feels to her like she successfully resolved the issue. But that is not at all what just happened. Instead, what just happened was that mom taught her child that whining was actually a productive method in getting his way. He simply has to act up and make a scene until mom promises something good if he’ll stop.

So mom thought she had provided a solution, but in reality she only contributed to the problem by reinforcing for her child that whining is an easy go-to to get his way. What she ought to have done instead was told her son that there would be consequences if he didn’t stop (i.e. no snack, an earlier bedtime, no screen time, etc.) and then – and here’s the only way this is ever going to work – she followed through with the consequence if her child continued to whine. 

Back to the wilderness. If God had dealt with his impatient people brazenly speaking against him by telling Moses, “I can’t handle their complaining anymore. Go ahead and give them juicy steak dinners, but only if they stop whining,” what do you suppose the Israelites would have realized? They would have concluded, “Hey, we just figured out how to turn God into our personal butler! Who needs a magic lamp and a genie – we have God! Turns out all we had to do all along was just complain loud enough and long enough!”

But God didn’t deal with them that way. Instead, he showed them that there were consequences to speaking out against him and sent venomous snakes.

And what was the result? It might surprise us! “The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us’” (v.7). Imagine that! They owned up to their sin and repented of it, turning back to the same God they had impatiently spoken against and basically said, “We were wrong! We’re sorry! Please help us!”

Do you know what that kind of message is to God? It’s music to his ears. There is nothing more pleasing to God than a humble, penitent heart that both owns up to its sin as the problem and turns to God for the solution.

The prophet Isaiah described God like this: “For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15). And God’s permanent promise is that when anyone approaches him with contrition, that is, sorrow over sin, he will always rescue and revive with his deliverance. 

Among the snake-bitten bodies of the dead, God chose to demonstrate both his desire and his ability to deliver. And he did it in a way that so uniquely solidified that he was the one providing the solution; he was the one saving. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live’” (v.8). A snake on a pole? The very same thing responsible for causing so much death was now going to be responsible for delivering from it? That makes no sense. Why would God choose such a method?

To make it abundantly clear that rescue and deliverance would only come through him. There are half a dozen methods that would have made much more sense than a snake on a pole: suck out the poison, drink some sort of antidote, apply some medicinal oil on it, amputate, etc. As extreme as any human solution might have been, it still would have made more sense than simply looking at a snake on a pole!

So by using something as far-fetched as a snake on a pole, God pretty clearly ruled out that any snake-bitten Israelite would be able to save himself. His solution made no logical, reasonable, scientific or medical sense whatsoever. But it was also the only solution that was going to work. “So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived” (v.9).

Do you get it yet? This whole account isn’t just about learning not to complain before God. It isn’t about snakes – venomous ones or a bronze one on a pole.

It’s about Jesus.

Did you see Jesus in the wilderness with the Israelites and the snakes? His own words recorded in John’s Gospel help us see where Jesus was all along. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (3:14-15).

As absurd as we might think it was for a bronze snake on a pole to heal people bitten by venomous snakes, how about the perfect, innocent Son of God nailed up to a cross to pay for all of mankind’s sin? Many today reject such a notion in favor of countless solutions under the sun that would seem to be much more logical or reasonable. But just like any logical or reasonable solution that could have been devised in the desert, none of them would have solved the problem. We cannot ever solve the problem of our sins ourselves. 

Only God delivers from sin, and only in one way. Only the blood of Jesus forgives. Only his sacrifice saves. Only his death delivers us from death.  

This whole account? It’s not about the snakes; it’s about sin… and most importantly God’s solution to sin, his Son, the Savior.

One of life’s small joys may certainly be the satisfaction of finding a solution to a problem and fixing it ourselves. But one of life’s great joys – the greatest, in fact! – is the satisfaction of knowing and believing that in Jesus Christ, God has already provided the only solution we need for the problem of our sin. We have that joy.

Do you know anyone who doesn’t? Let’s be a part of the solution to that problem by directing them to Jesus, their Savior.

The What & Why of Worship

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(John 2:13-22)

“We really need to get together.” “Yes, let’s get it on the calendar sometime.”  “Sounds great – see you soon!” How many times in the past several months have you had some form of that exchange with another person? And… how many times has that agreed upon get together actually happened? What determines if it does or doesn’t? If the same person brings it up repeatedly, is it more likely to happen because you can tell they’re really craving your company? Do you make the decision whether or not the exchange was just being polite, with no real intention of following through (although one could argue that leading another on isn’t all that polite). Or, if the person is a priority in your life, do you stop right then and there and get a date on the calendar?

What if you got a text message from God asking if you could get together with him? Would you politely respond with “Yes, let’s get it on the calendar sometime soon!” but then proceed to ghost him or fail to follow up? Or would you drop everything, whatever you were doing at the moment, and immediately schedule it? 

I have good news for you this morning – it’s already been scheduled on the calendar for you every Sunday morning at church. How convenient – you don’t even have to stress out about figuring when to fit it in – it’s already done for you!  

Rethinking Religion gives us the opportunity to evaluate our relationship with God as it is reflected in our worship. Now if you were to skip that evaluation and jump ahead to conclude that the answer is simply to go to church every Sunday, you’d be wrong… sort of.

Sort of? Wouldn’t going to church every Sunday be the ideal? Isn’t that what God is looking for? He’s still waiting for that perfect church with 100% perfect attendance from 100% of the members. Wouldn’t that accomplish the bottom line of what God really wants from each of us?

No. No, it wouldn’t. Remember that friend reaching out to get together? Let’s suppose you were able to make it work. You set up a coffee date and met at your favorite spot. You spent 60 minutes together catching up. The only problem? She had her laptop open and was scrolling on her phone the whole time you visited. Would you feel filled up, satisfied that you finally were able to get together and spend some time together? You know the answer.

Something similar can happen even with the Sunday morning “regulars” in attendance. We can show up without really showing up. For some of us, the habit of going to church every week may have already been instilled in us from childhood (if that’s you, thank your parents – it’s among one of the greatest things they could have done for you!). But as with anything that becomes habitual, church can also become so routine that can we fly through it disengaged as if we’re on autopilot.

Or, worship can become more about fulfilling a responsibility than finding refreshment. Or, we’re there more to keep tabs on everyone else who is or isn’t there than we are for ourselves. Or, we’re there to make sure that everyone behaves properly and things are carried out in an orderly fashion, focusing more on what’s going on externally with others than what’s going on internally in my own heart. So if regular attenders aren’t careful when it comes to worship, it’s very possible to show up without showing up. 

But that in no way leaves the absentees off the hook. It might be easy to bash all those regular attenders for being there for the wrong reasons, feeling as if that somehow justifies one’s absence. But what’s easier to fix – working on the motives of one who is already in the habit of being there regularly, or having to do that and having to break the bad habit of being absent? Those neglecting worship don’t need to point to the distractions of regular worshippers to justify their absence – they already offer more than enough sad excuses for not going to church as it is!

But you know what? We also need to acknowledge that there are understandable reasons one might have for not being in church.

It would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if his only experience anytime he has attended was to be scolded or shamed by the pastor or others for not being there more often! And it would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if rather than feeling warmly welcomed and at home, they received a cold reception and dagger stares for sitting in someone else’s spot. And it would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if the only message was that they never measure up enough for God. And it would be hard to blame someone for not going to church if her only recollection of church was a painful memory or family experience associated with it. And if worship is where God longs to dispense his grace to the guilty, why do we sometimes sprinkle our parting comments to others with more guilt after the service?

All of this is to say, when anyone walks through the doors of a church on a Sunday morning, they may appear to be empty-handed, but don’t ever underestimate the amount of emotional or spiritual baggage they could be carrying with them as they step inside. Be sensitive to that, and take a page out of Jesus’ “Lost” parables in Luke 15. Simply rejoice every time anyone walks through the doors.

Do you notice we haven’t even dug into the words and actions of Jesus yet? Are we ready to? What makes us ready? Are you going to continue reading hoping to find what someone else needs to hear about worship, or are you open to hearing God has to say to you about your worship? If so, let’s look at John.

Jesus had to deal with people being in church for the wrong reason. That was pretty clear from the interaction described in John 2. “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” (vss. 13-16).

Remember how Jesus as a boy was the Kevin McCallister of his family, only rather than his family leaving him at home, he was left behind at the temple, where he talked theology with the religious experts? How different that encounter at the temple must have been compared to what he experienced on the occasion recorded for us here! Instead of facilitating a conversational deep dive into spiritual truths and reflecting on God’s promises for his people, that sacred space had become a strip mall for small business to be conducted.  

It’s likely the vendors had become so good at deceiving themselves that they were convinced they were genuinely providing a necessary service to foreigners. After all, with so many out of town visitors coming for the Passover, they would need animals for their sacrifices, so they’d conveniently be able to purchase them right there in the temple courts. And if they needed to exchange their foreign currency to purchase those animals, the money changers were there ready to serve. So in their own minds, the sellers’ actions were completely justified.

But Jesus didn’t just see what was in their minds; he also saw their hearts. Jesus saw hearts that were seizing an opportunity to profit, to make a buck. And while there’s nothing sinful about working hard to make money, there was most definitely something wrong with using God’s house to do it. The matter of selling for profit in the same sacred space where God longs to dispense his blessings for free just wouldn’t fly. 

Here we have an example of what God doesn’t want in worship. So what does he want? We see it in the disciples’ application of the next verse, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (v.17). What drove Jesus’ actions that day? He had such a passion for his Father’s house that he couldn’t stand to see such a precious place so misused. His heart longed for God’s house.

That’s what God wants from you and me in worship: a heart that longs for his house. We can get so wrapped up in the details of worship that we overlook God’s real desire: he wants our hearts. When he has our hearts, everything else in our lives follows.

Think of a blossoming relationship between two people that is in its first stages. They can’t stop thinking about spending time with each other and everything revolves around that special someone. God wants us to think of him that way.

Now I realize that perspective may not appeal to some guys all that much, to talk about the heart and love and emotions, but can you question the masculinity of Jesus coming in and flipping tables upside down? And why? Because he was all-in when it came to passion and zeal. And to my fellow male Christians – husbands, fathers, leaders – honestly, we need more of that passion in Christianity. 

That doesn’t mean you need to show up and start tearing up the pews on a Sunday morning. But imagine if rather than a high-paying job, a fast car, or nice threads, a guy’s passion, zeal, and heart for God were his most admirable and attractive qualities. How influential could he be to other Christians witnessing how he puts his Savior first and holds him up as the greatest, most valuable treasure? 

But what if you don’t have that kind of zeal? Jesus has you covered!

That’s what makes Jesus so amazing as our Savior. He lived the holy life, filled with perfect passion, that we never could! That includes a holy zeal and passion for his Father’s house. The Father sees his Son’s zeal in you by faith. You don’t have to fake it. You don’t have to pretend it’s there – it is already there because of Jesus. His zeal was everything God required of us. We call that Jesus’ active obedience. He kept God’s law – event the Third Commandment to “Remember that Sabbath Day by keeping it holy” perfectly in your place. Let Jesus’ zeal fuel yours.

What else did Jesus do for you? Exactly as he promised in verse 19. “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’” John explains for us, his readers, that Jesus was not talking about the physical temple, as the Jewish crowd supposed. “But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken” (v.21-22).

Jesus predicted his death and resurrection. But he did more than predict those events; he fulfilled them. He did what none of those animals being sold in the courts could ever do. As the perfect Lamb they all foreshadowed, Jesus alone actually paid for sin with his life. All sin. Hearts absent from worship while bodies are present. Neglecting Word and worship altogether as optional or unimportant. All paid for in full and proven by his resurrection three days later, just as he had said. God accepted his payment for our woeful worship.

That brings us to the why of worship. Jesus is why. Jesus’ heart is not just for his Father’s house, but for you. You are why he was willing to allow his temple to be destroyed on the cross. You are why he was raised again in three days. His heart for you is why he longs to fill you with his presence and his promises in worship. His heart for you is why he invites you each week to come clean with your sins so he can send you off with a clean heart as you depart his house for all that your week holds. He knows the drain of living and surviving in a sin-infested world – remember he lived here, too! And so he longs to fill you with the grace necessary to overcome, to live with confidence and joy and purpose and meaning!

I could close by highlighting the many amazing blessings that come as a result of regular worship, but really there’s just one that matters. The rest all flow from that one: Jesus. Jesus is the reason we worship. Let Jesus be enough for you to take him up on his standing invitation to get together again soon.

Crosses: Burden or Blessing?

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(Mark 8:31-38)

As we continue our series, Rethinking Religion, in this post we give our attention to a topic that can be a deal breaker for people when it comes to Christianity. I’m not talking about how smug Christians can sometimes come across when our concern about being right overshadows our call to be loving. Neither am I referring to the perception that some of our beliefs are downright absurd.

No, what I’m referring to is the observation that in a number of ways, the believer’s life doesn’t really seem to be any different or better off than the non-believer’s. Therefore, if the casual observer notes no discernible difference, no greater appeal or attraction to the Christian and his way of life, then why bother? What’s the big deal?

Moreover, to many, the whole category of Christianity’s perceived requirements – the “have to’s” and the “musts,” arguably make it quite unappealing. Christians must live according to a strict set of rules. They have to go to church. Christians are supposed to give offerings. They are required to read their Bibles. You could add plenty more to the list, I’m sure.

While it isn’t the purpose of this post to address each and every one of these perceived requirements that may not make Christianity all that appealing, for the sake of brevity, I will simply respond that a Christian doesn’t have to do any of the those things mentioned, or anything else, for that matter. There are no requirements in the life of a Christian; he is free to live however he pleases.

But here’s the thing: a Christian wants to do these things. God’s grace and love have changed his heart, bringing it into alignment with God’s plan for how to live. Not perfectly, mind you – but changed hearts nevertheless now see as opportunities what used to be viewed as requirements.

There’s another observation some have of Christianity that doesn’t appear to be noteworthy or especially attractive. It doesn’t seem like the Christian has any special dispensation from God regarding suffering or hardship. So if a believer and a non-believer both have to struggle with traumas and tragedies like cancer and unemployment and divorce and sexual abuse and chronic pain and miscarriages and the list goes on, then why bother? If God is in the Christian corner, shouldn’t he guard and protect believers from such things? If he’s capable of doing so, which Christians claim to believe he is, then why doesn’t he do more to shield them from such things?

It’s this last question surrounding the matter of hardships that we’re giving our attention to in this post. Each of those hardships listed – and so many more – could be considered what we call a “cross.”

Although it often uses the term in a lighthearted manner, the secular world is familiar with that term, “cross.” She says, “This is my cross to bear,” referring to her love of chocolate and the need to show restraint whenever surrounded by copious amounts of chocolate that are available to her. He refers to his “cross” when being stuck living in Southern California with its beaches, sun, and near-perfect weather. 

However, when Christians use the term, there really isn’t anything lighthearted about it. The way Jesus used in in Mark 8 reflects this. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (v.34). 

The cross Jesus refers to in the life of a believer is a burden that tests or tries one’s faith. That burden is unique in the life of the Christian because of her faith in God. So even if a believer and a non-believer experience the exact same hardship, it affects the Christian differently. It is a cross.

For example, everyone would agree that cancer is awful all around, no matter who is experiencing it. But cancer doesn’t cause a non-believer to question or doubt God’s love in the face of suffering, because God isn’t a part of the equation for them. And while no one likes to struggle financially, such struggles don’t cause a non-believer to second-guess if God is really able to provide as he promised, because God isn’t a factor. So what makes a thing a unique cross for a Christian is the impact it has on one’s faith.

To help us properly understand the role of these crosses for the Christian, let me ask you a reflection question. Has anything of great worth to you or anything you truly value ever come without difficulty? Was anything that was really worth it easy for you? Now you might be able to fire off a short list of a few things that could qualify, but generally speaking, for a thing to be truly appreciated and valued, it probably involved hard work and adversity to get it. In fact, that hard work and sacrifice that was required are often why we value it.

Consider the gift of children. Even conceiving itself can be a hardship for many couples, let alone delivering a baby. When it comes to delivering a baby, I don’t know too many moms who would say that it was a piece of cake. The things we appreciate require hard work.

Like getting a college degree. Or getting – and staying – in shape. A great marriage isn’t easy. The list goes on, and we could share stories about the hard work and the struggle we’ve put in to get to enjoy many of the things in life we’d say are worth it.

So then, should it surprise us that following Jesus would be any different? Why should it shock us that he makes such a big ask of us to bear crosses – hardships – for a greater faith and deeper relationship with him? If virtually everything in life that we value or appreciate requires a great deal of sacrifice and struggle, surely we ought to expect the same when it comes to our greatest treasure, Jesus.

But we are surrounded by countless people who prefer the easier path of playing the victim and spending their lives complaining rather than putting in the hard work to achieve or acquire things they value or appreciate.

Sadly, Christians can be numbered among them. The result is that many of the things that should be crosses to bear for Christians are not, because of their refusal to pick those crosses up. There’s no cross when it comes to Sunday morning, because sleeping in and sports win over worship. There’s no cross to bear when it comes to lending my neighbor a hand, because I “don’t have the time” (or more accurately, refuse to make the time). There’s no cross to bear facing any ridicule or ribbing for being a Christian because nobody at work or the gym even knows I’m a Christian to begin with.

The Christian life is pretty easy when we don’t bother with those crosses Jesus called us to pick up… until we come to find out that neglecting those crosses brings with it its own set of struggles later on. Have you ever counted the cost of avoiding hard work or effort life in general? It often ends up costing more in the end, doesn’t it?

So it is with our crosses. When we avoid them, it often ends up costing us more in the end. Like maybe my marriage. Or my job. Or a friendship. Or my self-control that results in an addiction. So avoiding the hard crosses potentially leaves us much worse off than if we had picked them up and done the hard work in the first place. But just as hard things are worth it, so are crosses. 

In fact, the more we pick up the crosses Jesus allows in our lives, the more we see them for what they really are – not burdens, but blessings. But in order for us to see the blessings of our own crosses, we must first look to the greatest blessing that would ever come from a cross – the cross of Christ.

Jesus’ cross is hands down the greatest blessing. There alone do we find relief from the burden of our sin. For every cross we neglect, avoid, or ignore, Jesus’ cross forgives. For every time we blazed a path of our own making instead of following in his footsteps, Jesus’ cross forgives. For every time we pridefully presumed to know better than him, Jesus’ cross forgives. For every time chose wrong over right, Jesus’ cross forgives. And at Jesus’ cross we find not only forgiveness, but also freedom – freedom from guilt, from shame, from regret, from fear, and ultimately freedom from self.

Here’s how it works. The forgiveness that flows to me from Jesus’ cross leads me to look differently at my own crosses to bear. That’s because, to pick up a cross and bear it, carry it, I have to let go of something else. What, exactly? Self.

Jesus told the crowd, along with his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (v.34). Deny self. In our society today, you will not find a more radical ideology than that! To a culture that has cemented its celebration of self in how we identify – gender, sexual or political orientation, skin color, and an endless list of other labels, Jesus demands that we let go of it. Deny it. To a culture that says the real problem is everyone else failing to embrace me for who I am, Jesus says, “Wrong – who you are is the problem. Self is the problem.

You want something that is real, something that matters, not just for this short life, but for eternity? Then listen up.” “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (v.35-37). Insist on self and risk losing everything. Let go of self and gain everything in following Jesus. 

Then, when we aren’t so enamored with individualism and consumed with self, we can see what matters most. “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this…” (v.31-32). THIS is what it looks like to deny self and be free to serve others. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh Jesus, denied himself and suffered and died, not for self, but for you. For me. For everyone else. For the greater good. For eternity. For suffering to be temporary and for salvation to be forever. For limiting the number of occupants in hell. And for freeing us to put each other first. That’s what the gospel does. 

Who benefits when we are free of serving self? My neighbor. You may disagree with me, but that care for my neighbor, care for the greater good of the group over self, seems to me to be what is sorely lacking in our culture today.

One of the things I find so appealing about World War II history is the selflessness of that generation. I’m aware that movies and books covering that period may occasionally go over the top in glorifying the spirit of those times and the heroes who served them. Nevertheless, there was a very real awareness of the need to come together to serve the greater good of society over the individual, and if that hadn’t happened, the outcome could have been disastrous. 

I don’t know that it could be done today. Oh I don’t doubt there would be many armchair quarterbacks sharing their opinions of what should be done. I don’t doubt there would be many activists somehow imagining that their boycott or opposition or stand for this or that might be making a grand difference. But I do doubt that our self-absorbed, self-serving society would be able to come together for the greater good if it means sacrificing our individualism.

But Jesus can change that, because the cross he died on not only forgives us, but frees us from self and empowers and equips us to pick up our own crosses. When we pick up those crosses, others are blessed. We are blessed. And God is at his best through us.

Trials: Test or Trap?

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(Genesis 22:1-18)

Can you imagine? A father-to-be having to wait 25 years for his promised son to arrive, with each passing year casting compounding doubt on whether God would deliver? Then, the son is born, and the father-son bond is allowed to be firmly forged into and possibly well beyond the teenage years? Then suddenly, the loving God who gave him demands him back. And not just in any manner, mind you. Not by some humane means that would limit suffering, but in one of the most vicious manners still even to this day by which one ends the life of another: a violent stabbing with a knife! Can you imagine???

This account is really a good fit not only for the start of the season of Lent, with its emphasis on the ultimate perfect sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus, but also as the start of our seasonal series, Rethinking Religion. To anyone outside of Christianity, this is the sort of account that could so easily serve as justification for rejecting religion, particularly the Christian God and the shocking demand he makes of a father in these verses. What kind of a twisted, blood-thirsty God could ever not just condone – but go so far as to command – child sacrifice?

The window of understanding as to where God’s heart truly is in this encounter is revealed right away at the beginning. “Some time later God tested Abraham” (v.1). Before we explore the significance of testing, take note of Abraham’s response. After God called out to him, Abraham replied with “Here I am” (v.1). How different Abraham’s response was from the first time God called out to a man, Adam, after he sinned! There was no, “Here I am,” from Adam, but rather hiding and shame. At that time, the fallen sinner wanted nothing to do with a holy God.

What had changed? God’s gracious promise of deliverance through a Savior that would come had been passed along repeatedly to Abraham. His relationship with God was not one based on fear or terror or shame, which is why he stood ready to listen to what his good Lord had to say. He listened with ears that knew his good Lord’s gracious promises and good intentions for his life and his eternity. That confident faith in his good God might also explain why Abraham didn’t question or pushback on God’s gut-wrenching demand, but instead dutifully followed through with the wishes of his gracious Lord. 

Now back to the matter of testing, which is how this whole account is introduced. If we are to know God’s heart, we have to revisit his purpose for testing. We must not confuse a test with a trap. Though they may even appear to look identical externally, their purpose is entirely different. The purpose of a trap is to catch someone in the wrong. It does not have the target’s best interest in mind, but rather stems from a mind already made up that a wrongdoer needs to be caught, exposed, and punished. A trap is not an attempt to gather more information in order to determine guilt or culpability; it is a setup to catch the guilty person in the act.  

But a test is different. Really, ultimately, a test is for the benefit of the one taking or receiving it. As you look back on your education and consider all the quizzes and tests you spent countless hours studying for, they probably didn’t feel like they were for your benefit at the time, but they were. A test allows the taker to assess how well they are grasping the material. Some are better than others in achieving this purpose, but ultimately, the test shows you where you’re at.

When you are ready to get your driver’s license and get behind the wheel of the car, you don’t take a driver’s test for the instructor’s benefit, but for your own. If you don’t pass it the first time, the test reveals what you need to work on to become a capable driver. And while passing the test and getting your license provides all the other drivers on the road with peace of mind, the greatest benefit is for you to feel comfortable and confident behind the wheel. Tests are for your benefit.

So it was with God’s test of Abraham. The test wasn’t for God’s benefit, since nothing is hidden from him. God was not waffling in indecision about what he thought of Abraham. It wasn’t as if he just wasn’t sure what to make of him or somehow couldn’t get a good read on him. No, God’s omniscient eyes see the heart of every man and know exactly what is in each man’s heart. 

But man, on the other hand, does not. Oh, we often think we do, but we could not be more wrong. The prophet Jeremiah captured that frustration when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus taught the same striking truth: “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come…” (Mark 7:21). So we if we are deceived by our own hearts (which, by the way, is why the advice to “follow your heart” is some of the worst advice you could ever give or receive), how can we ever hope to accurately discover anything dangerous or sinister dwelling inside our hearts? How can we ever determine if we are genuinely growing in grace or remaining stagnant in our faith? The answer is through testing, which is for our good.   

We might wonder why Abraham needed to be tested. But the test itself often reveals the potential heart issue. When we look at what God was calling Abraham to do, it becomes quite clear to us. God knows the inclination of the human heart to worship people and places and possessions – created things – rather than the Creator who gives us those things. Therefore, he was well aware of the potential danger of Isaac, Abraham’s long-awaited gift of a son, becoming Abraham’s greatest treasure and number one priority.

Now to the ears of many, this makes God come across as an insecure deity who needs and feeds off of attention and significance – as if being primary importance in our lives is for his benefit. But God is not worried about himself. He is God regardless of what we think of him. Even if all refused to believe or trust in him, God would still be God. He doesn’t need our faith in him; but we do.

His desire to be number one in our hearts is for our sake, not his. Because he is well aware of another force at work against us, one not interested in using tests to bless us, but traps trip us up. Satan is constantly looking to spring his traps to distract us from what is most important in life: our salvation. 

And there is absolutely no trap that Satan considers off-limits when it comes to his goal of seeing us forfeit our salvation. Sure, he will use sin, dressing it up and making it desirable and pleasing to us so that we become so attached to it that we either cannot escape getting tangled up in it or are so entrenched in it that we believe ourselves to be beyond being forgiven and saved. 

But he is just as likely to trap us with good things – blessings from God, even, like family, children, jobs, belongings, etc. – so long as these good things fill our hearts so there is little room for God and his salvation to remain there. The evil one cares very little what it is in our heart that crowds out our love and devotion for God, as long as it serves to fracture our faith bit by bit until it is all but swept out of our hearts. Satan will delight in anything that takes root in our hearts, so long as it isn’t the grace and forgiveness of God through the gospel. 

But while the devil doesn’t care about our hearts, God does. Immensely. Intensely. How much does he care?

Can you imagine? A father-to-be having to wait not 25 years, but thousands of years for his promised son to arrive? Then, the son is born and the father-son bond is forged, with the father witnessing for the first time ever in history what it looks like for someone to finally live the holy life he created mankind to live. And the Father can’t hide his delight, verbally expressing his pride multiple times during his Son’s life! Then, the loving Father-God, with the full awareness of what the future held, a full awareness of the bitter rejection his Son would face, a full awareness of the soul-crushing suffering he would endure, knew he had to turn away from him and abandon him? And not just in any manner, mind you! Not by some humane means that would limit suffering, but rather one of the most excruciating methods of death ever devised: crucifixion! Can you imagine???

That’s how much he cares. He cares enough to allow – and even send – trials that test us and test our hearts. Not to trap us. Not to trip us up in the faith. But to gauge where our hearts are at, so that when we are lacking in faith, we can first of all realize it. But then even more importantly, we can run to the God who can strengthen it, who can forge it through testing into something stronger than we could have ever imagined it to be. Through his faithful forgiveness, he can purify our hearts, rid them of impurities, clean house, and dwell in us unopposed. He carries out this work repeatedly when we recall our baptism, when we receive his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, and when, after sweeping out the sin from our heart in confession, we hear the sweet music of absolution.   

Can you imagine? You don’t have to. God graciously provided Abraham with a substitute sacrifice in the place of Isaac. To Abraham he provided a ram. To us he provided the Redeemer, his own Son. The Substitute who sustains and strengthens us to endure trials and tests and see them for what they are, God’s ongoing work of drawing us ever closer to him and making us more sure of our salvation in him.