Tag: easter

Dealing with Doubt

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(John 20:19-31)

Doubt is a universal struggle. We all deal with it at different times in life under different circumstances. When it comes to dealing with doubt, what have you found to be most helpful to address it?

Does it help when others provide this insightful advice: “You just have to believe.”? How about this: “Stop doubting.”? Or this one, which combines them both: “Stop doubting and believe.”? 

You might recognize that last one from John 20. Those are the words of Jesus himself.

Under the circumstances, I imagine they were pretty powerful. Thomas hadn’t been with the other disciples that first Easter Sunday when Jesus appeared to them to offer proof of his resurrection from the dead. This time, however, Thomas was present as Jesus appeared to them, providing concrete evidence to back up his words, “Stop doubting and believe.” It’s much easier to stop doubting and believe when the evidence is staring you in the face and speaking the very words to you!

But do those words carry the same weight if it’s not Jesus speaking them to you in person? They don’t, which is why telling someone who is struggling with doubt to just “stop doubting” might be about the least effective advice there is. And right up there with it is “just believe more.”

That kind of advice is not only ineffective but also a bit of an insult. It goes without saying that the person struggling with doubt knows full well that the desired outcome would be to doubt less and believe more. Yet the whole reason they’re struggling is because they can’t!

Unless we expect Jesus to show up on our doorstep and help us address our doubts in the way that he did Thomas, how do we manage them? How do we overcome them? How do we eliminate them? 

Let’s start with an essential first step: realizing that you won’t ever eliminate them. That just won’t happen. We often beat ourselves up because we think we can completely eliminate our doubts.

But no human being, no matter how strong a believer she is, no matter how self-confident he is, will ever get to the point of completely eliminating doubts from life. Once we realize that is not the goal, because it is not achievable, then we can actually make some progress. And the best verse in this whole section to help us address doubt is found at the very end in verse thirty-one. 

Before we get to that though, let’s recap the details of this account, singling out the highlights. Think of how busy Easter Sunday morning is as you consider everything that goes on at church that morning. But no matter how much effort is put into the worship and music and brunch and egg hunt and clean up, it’s nothing compared to how busy Jesus was on that first Easter Sunday.

He had one Resurrection gig after another scheduled throughout the day, appearing here, there, and everywhere, finally presenting himself to the distressed disciples who were fearfully hunkered down behind locked doors. As they were still trying to piece together the various stories and appearances and the implications of it all, Jesus himself appeared in their presence.

But Jesus was there to provide more than just his presence; he provided them with peace. And with that peace he sent them out, equipping them with the gift of the Holy Spirit to pass along that peace to others through what we call the Use of the Keys, that calling every Christian has in Jesus’ name to forgive the sins of the repentant or to withhold forgiveness from the impenitent.

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven’” (v.21-23). 

There was a lot going on there! Jesus’ presence. The promise of Jesus’ peace. The tall order of being sent by Jesus. Receiving the Holy Spirit. Forgiving sins. It wasn’t just a lot to do… it was a lot to doubt.

Doubting has come naturally to mankind ever since Satan first introduced it in the Garden with his “Did God really say?” So when Jesus showed up and then basically laid out his marching orders for believers to carry out until he returns on the last day, there was more than enough to doubt. Especially for a group that had deserted and denied Jesus in his moment of greatest need!

“Are we really at peace, after our shameful behavior?” Are you seriously sending this group?” “Do we really have the Holy Spirit – where is the proof?” “You’re counting on us to be able to forgive others’ sins when we’re guilty of more sins ourselves than we could ever count?”

There was so much room for doubt! And to make matters worse for Thomas, he wasn’t even there! In hindsight, we shouldn’t be so shocked that he ever doubted; it would have been more shocking if he had believed all of it without any doubt whatsoever! 

But Jesus is patient. And not just with those we might reasonably expect him to be patient (those we might think of as having earned it because they are pretty strong, spiritually speaking). No, Jesus is patient with everyone who doubts. Even the Thomases.  

Notice that Jesus didn’t come to take Thomas to task (just as he didn’t scold Mary at the tomb on Easter). He didn’t show up a week later to embarrass Thomas, but to encourage him; to strengthen him.

Too often we view Jesus as the drill sergeant who is most interested in shaping us up. Behave! Obey! Get it right! Don’t mess up again! That wasn’t Jesus’ message to Thomas, though.

“Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’” (v.29).

With these words, Jesus was not only reassuring Thomas, but also sharing a powerful truth that all of the disciples would need to hear and bear in mind as they began to carry out the mission he was sending them on. They were dealing with spiritual matters, with matters of faith, with things unseen which are the Holy Spirit’s work.

Jesus was telling them the Word he was sending them with was powerful enough to create faith and belief even in those who would never lay physical eyes on the resurrected Jesus. So Jesus wasn’t just showing patience with Thomas, but really all of the disciples. 

That same Jesus is every bit as patient with you. Your doubt doesn’t disqualify you from Christ’s Kingdom. In fact, since there is nothing that can qualify you for Christ’s Kingdom, then it stands to reason that nothing can disqualify you. Jesus doesn’t welcome us into his kingdom based on some scale of how weighty our faith is or rule us out of his kingdom based on the degree of doubt we drum up.

He welcomes us into his kingdom despite our doubts. He welcomes us to dispel our doubts as he strengthens our faith. He welcomes us by his grace, through his Spirit, on account of his work. His. His. His. And that is why his kingdom is yours. 

With full confidence in his grace, so clearly displayed on Good Friday’s cross and evidenced again via the vacant tomb on Easter Sunday, our place in Christ’s Kingdom is secured. Through our faith in his saving work, it is ours. And as those who belong, we long to believe with a faith that grows even firmer, a faith that is so strongly rooted in the soil of Christ’s saving work that it leaves less room for weeds of doubt to pop up. For those craving that kind of conviction and confidence of faith, let’s finally dig into verse 31.

“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (v.31). In addition to the resurrection account covered in the verses from John 20, John’s Gospel had previously spent 19 chapters recording many of the words and works of Jesus that aren’t covered in the other Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (referred to as the synoptic Gospels, as they cover many of the same accounts). Now, as he concludes his Gospel, he explains his intent behind all of it: so that you may believe and have life. Believe and live. 

If we are serious about wanting to manage our doubts and overcome them as they arise, then here it is again. Exactly what Jesus directed Thomas to do: stop doubting and believe.

What is different this time around? Remember, we don’t have Jesus himself speaking the words to us right in front of us as Thomas did. But we have something that Jesus guarantees is every bit as powerful: His Word, the Bible – powerful because his Word is nothing more than his words recorded for us. 

See how John wrote it? “These are written that you may believe… and that by believing you may have life in his name” (v.31). Written. Believe. Written. Believe. See any connection there? It’s all right in the Bible. Literally. There isn’t some secret passage to uncover that will serve as a silver bullet.

If that’s been your approach to Scripture, then you’ve been misled or doing it wrong. The Bible isn’t a textbook for finding the answer to pass the test. It is life. It is faith-fortifying. It is doubt-destroying. It is belief-building. 

But not merely by being written. It has to be read. By God’s grace, you’re familiar enough with it for faith in Jesus to have been formed. But God doesn’t shift gears and point us to some other method for growing our faith that is different from how he brought us to faith. It’s the same thing.

The written Word. When read. When studied. When pondered. When personalized. When lived and breathed. When loved. When we become more and more wrapped up in this written Word, the Holy Spirit sees to it that faith flourishes.

And where faith is flourishing, Satan isn’t as inclined to sow his seeds of doubt, for he knows they are less likely to take root. Instead, he will reinforce the doubts of those already clouded in unbelief and focus his attention on believers who are too busy for the Word and preoccupied with the world. And who can blame him?!? His rate of success is much higher where faith is fizzling, and faith is fizzling where the written Word is not read. 

So will this Easter turn out the same as previous ones? Same service, give or take? Same nice brunch? Same nice meal with the family? Same baskets and eggs and candy? Same doubts?

Or will it be different? Will you read the Word that has been written so that, like Thomas, you may stop doubting and believe? 

Hope Restored

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(Luke 24:13-35)

When is the last time you were disappointed that something didn’t turn out the way you had hoped? Was it something you initiated or coordinated, an event or small get-together that took a good amount of planning and purchasing to pull off, but for one reason or another, it fell short? Was it something that didn’t involve you at all in terms of planning, but was something you were looking forward to attending or participating in and it just missed the mark?

We can also experience a sense of hopelessness in other areas of life. How do you know when you’ve lost hope, when your situation seems hopeless? A recent devotion pointed to the word “never” as an indicator. When “never” makes its way into our thinking and speaking in one area of life or another, that’s when we’ve lost hope. “I’m never going to … get a job / get better / get married / get out of debt / change / etc.” When we use the word never, it’s an expression of a loss of hope in being able to see how things will change for the better. 

How we got to that point of losing hope (two reasons will be explored in this post) matters less than what we do once we’re there. Where do we go from that point? How is hope restored? Let Jesus shows us as he restores hope to two hopeless disciples on the first Easter. 

Jesus joined the two disciples as they were heading toward a village outside of Jerusalem called Emmaus. Though Jesus kept them from initially recognizing him, he wasn’t kept from recognizing something about them: they had lost hope. They were discussing all the things that had just happened in Jerusalem, and when Jesus asked for more clarification, “They stood still, their faces downcast.” (v.17). They were visibly dejected and downhearted!

They explained why. “Jesus of Nazareth… was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (v.19-21). While they didn’t use the word “never,” they might as well have! The natural conclusion they had drawn was that Jesus could never redeem them now. They had hoped he was going to be the one to redeem Israel, but since he had been sentenced to death and crucified, that was obviously never going to happen. That was their thinking. They had lost hope. They were at a dead end. They couldn’t see how a dead Jesus could redeem Israel. 

Somewhat ironic, isn’t it, given that it was by his death that he did just that – redeemed Israel, and all people? “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole’” (Galatians 3:13). The same event they presumed had kept Jesus from being able to redeem was the very act by which he carried out redemption. Jesus’ death was the payment he offered up to buy back – to redeem – souls otherwise condemned to hell because of sin.

The source of their hopelessness then – Jesus’ death – should in fact have been their source of hope! “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Nevertheless, rather than being filled with hope, their hearts were emptied of it.

The thinking of the Emmaus disciples illustrates two of the reasons we often lose hope. The first happens when we start with the wrong expectation on our end. Why were the disciples so disappointed? Why so let down? Why so hopeless? Because they started with a faulty expectation! Their expectation for redemption and God’s promise of deliverance was too narrow-focused and worldly.

Jewish history emphasized and celebrated how God had delivered – redeemed – his people from the earthly oppression of a worldly leader when God delivered the Israelites from Pharaoh’s slavery in Egypt. The remembrance of that event was so woven into their culture that their expectation came to be a similar deliverance from earthly oppression. They anticipated Jesus would be the modern-day Moses who would deliver them from Roman rule. Of course the Emmaus disciples would be hopelessly disappointed if that was the expectation they had of why Jesus had come! They started with the wrong expectation.

Isn’t that often the cause of our own hopelessness? We start off with the wrong expectation. For example, when we begin with the expectation that God’s greatest concern in our lives is our happiness, then we are disappointed when God allows something on our plate that doesn’t make us happy at all. Or, we end up sidestepping Scripture in pursuit of personal happiness. But your happiness isn’t God’s greatest concern in this life; your holiness is, which is why he sent Jesus to secure it.

Another wrong expectation that we can hold is the expectation that God grants believers special dispensation from suffering or hardship in life. As believers, we expect that God must give us a pass on such things. When life unravels then, we feel hopelessly let down by God. But it was our faulty expectation that was the cause. 

The second reason we often lose hope? We give up because of too low an expectation on God’s end. The two disciples made a point of explaining two things: 1) it had been three days since Jesus had died, and 2) multiple visitors had confirmed that there was no body in the tomb.

To us in the present day, who have the full benefit of all of the revelation of Scripture, three days and no body are simply more proof of the Resurrection. But to the disciples, as we can sense from the tone of their words, these realities didn’t make them more optimistic, but instead deflated them even more. We can interpret their reference to three days as an expectation that surely if God was going to do something, it would have happened within that timeframe, but as each day passed, it only became more hopeless.

And no body in the tomb? Well, without anyone actually laying eyes on Jesus, there was still no reason (outside of Scripture and a fully-grasping faith along with it!) to equate an empty tomb with a risen and alive Jesus. Instead of providing more clarity, it just added to the confusion and hopelessness. The disciples were ready to give up because of too low an expectation on God’s end. 

Again, we can relate. While there’s a good reason your financial advisor will remind you that past performance of an investment is no guarantee of future results, we do not need the same caution when it comes to God’s promises. In other words, we don’t have any reason to conclude that simply because God chose not to act in one way in the past, he will do the same in the future.

“The last time a loved one battled cancer, I prayed persistently that God would heal them. Since he didn’t, why should I pray for the same thing this time around?” “We have a record of all of God’s divine interventions in the Bible, but since he doesn’t seem to intervene that way in the lives of believers today, why bother expecting that he will?” Even though our faith may acknowledge that God can do this or that, our faith doesn’t take the next step in bold confidence that God will do this or that. So we give up because of too low an expectation on God’s end.  

Now what does God do for those without hope? Whether hopelessness stems from starting with the wrong expectation on our end or because we give up due to too low an expectation on God’s end, God has the same solution. He does for us exactly what he did to the hopeless disciples heading to Emmaus: he comes right alongside us in the midst of our hopelessness.

He does not wait for us to generate some internal hope first, to work in ourselves some semblance of optimism or positive thinking. No, he walks right up alongside us in the midst of our hopelessness to restore our hope.

Here’s what I love about Jesus’ encounter with the disciples. When all was said and done, as they reflected on the direct divine intervention they had with Jesus, what was it that stood out most? “They said to each other, ‘Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?’” (v. 32). Their hearts were burning not just at being in Jesus’ presence, but in his “explaining the Scriptures” to them! That’s what fired them up! That was what churned a passion inside of them! It was a deeper understanding of the Word, as explained to them personally by the Word himself, Jesus!

The disciples eventually realized they were walking along the road with and in the presence of the risen Jesus! Jesus himself walked and talked with them, and they even ate a meal together with him, but what stood out most about their time with him was how much clearer he made the Bible for them! 

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you? We have the exact same Scriptures – and even more Scriptures than they had – accessible to us in more ways than anyone could ever have imagined it. Yet, when is the last time you’d describe your use of any of these opportunities to be in the Word as your heart burning within you? Has it been a while? Has it been… ever? What’s the deal? What’s wrong with us? What are we missing? Why are we consistently convincing ourselves that something else is a more valuable use of our time than being in the Word so that he can restore our hope through it?

After all, didn’t it seem like the Emmaus disciples’ hope was restored after Jesus opened the Scriptures to them? Luke tells us they got up and returned “at once” (v.33) to tell the others about their experience. They didn’t call it a night and decide to tell them in the morning. They couldn’t wait! Why? Their hope was restored.

Why shouldn’t you think God will do the same for you through his Word? The Bible is where the whole foundation of hope is laid out for us, one that is based on the assurance that our sins have been paid for and forgiven. We give Jesus every reason to address us as he did the Emmaus disciples: “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! (v.25).

But instead, he calls us heirs, children, chosen, treasured, beloved, saints, etc.! In the Bible, he lays out promise after promise that is about far more than just the heaven stuff waiting for us one day, but for the hopeless stuff we face on a daily basis in the meantime. When the world rips away our hope, the Word restores it. Jesus’ resurrection restores it. Hope isn’t dead because Jesus isn’t! “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-4). Our hope in Jesus is very much alive because Jesus is very much alive!

The Conquering King Lives! (Easter)

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(John 20:1-18)

It should not have come to this. From a human perspective, Jesus did nothing wrong. He deserved none of what he received last week. Knowing his enemies were plotting his demise, he should have at least been able to trust and count on his own disciples.

Yet it was one of his own disciples that set in motion the tragic events that unfolded on Thursday and Friday of the week he died! Well, at least he might be able to depend on his most assertive disciple to rally a small group to attempt a small-scale rescue… but instead even that disciple denied him.

Then, when standing trial before the religious leaders, someone ought to have stood up and pointed out the obvious corruption and unfairness with which Jesus was being treated. More than anyone else, they were supposed to be the moral compass of society. And then Pilate – of all people the one with the most power to put an end to the injustice being carried out, which he himself attested to – caved and catered to the crowds to crucify Jesus! None of it should have happened.

What is on your plate in life right now that should not have happened the way it did? I can imagine there are all sorts of responses to that question swimming around in your heads right now…

Whatever it is, why do you suppose it played out that way? What caused it? In some cases we are on the receiving end of tragedy or trauma that is completely outside of our control. Sometimes that can be completely accidental; other times completely intentional. Evil or wickedness took place and it was carried out against us. A natural disaster. A negligent driver. A malicious criminal. Such things are outside of our control, but can directly impact us, leaving us reeling unexpectedly from something that should never have happened to us.

Other times things happened that should not have… because of a role that we played. Perhaps a direct result of our own actions – or lack of action. Suddenly the spouse I saw myself spending the rest of my life with has become public enemy number one. And, as much as I might try to plead innocence – to myself even if no one else will listen! – I can’t deny that I played a part.

I feel like I’m merely the victim on the wrong side of office politics, but it’s clear to others how tangled up in all of it I actually was, even if I don’t see it myself.

I wonder why my kids’ lives are turning out to be such a mess, and I’m faced with the realization that their childhoods were too often littered with my leftovers and the lost “laters” of my misplaced priorities.

So here we are, dealing with whatever is on our plate that wasn’t supposed to happen the way that it did. 

Come with me to a place where a number of events also took place that never should have happened. You know what else should not have happened the way it did? Any of what is recorded for us in the opening verses of John 20. That shouldn’t have happened, either.

Not just because Jesus shouldn’t have died in the first place, but Jesus’ tomb should have had zero visitors that first Sunday morning. There shouldn’t have been any women showing up with spices expecting to carry on Jewish burial rites. There need not have been any sprinting back and forth between the tomb and disciples expressing shock and confusion over a missing body.

None of that should have happened either, between the Old Testament’s teachings about the Messiah’s reign never ending and Job’s confession that his Redeemer lived, and Jesus’ own words that promised he would rise again. None of it should have happened – from Jesus’ suffering and death to the initial disciples’ dismay over his empty tomb!

Look at Mary. Mary could relate to the devastation of things that shouldn’t have happened the way they did. She just wanted her Jesus, but was distraught over not even being able to honor her Lord properly in his burial because she was convinced someone else had done something with the body.

But at her lowest low, Jesus appeared to her, and he didn’t do so to shame her. He didn’t show up to take her to task for not knowing that he was going to rise from the dead. He didn’t angrily scold her with a questioning rebuke, “What on earth are you doing here at the tomb? Why didn’t any of you listen when I told you I wouldn’t stay dead but would rise again in three days? How could you be so dumb?”

None of that from gentle Jesus. Instead, Jesus tenderly revealed himself to her as much more than the gardener; as her Savior God who had come back to life. He softly spoke her name and God’s divine hand removed whatever veil it was keeping Jesus’ identity a mystery and she suddenly saw him – not just with her eyes but with a heart exploding in faith that had just what was needed at that time: her risen Savior.

Alive. With her. Caring for her. Of all the people on the earth to show himself to, at that moment so soon after his Resurrection, he came to Mary. And despite everything that shouldn’t have happened, everything was suddenly right. 

Jesus lives to give you the same confident hope. Hear the blessings attached to faith in the risen Jesus: “righteousness” (Ro. 4:23), “new life” (Ro. 6:4), “bear[ing] fruit for God” (Ro. 7:4), “be saved” (Ro. 10:9), “he will raise us also” (1 Co. 6:14). Jesus holds out these blessings to you and to all who believe he has left death in his dust, destroying its stranglehold on us. 

Do you get why Mary was so elated to see her risen Jesus? Though she didn’t have these Scriptures we do to spell out these realities of the Resurrection, she knew them by faith. She knew that death had not permanently claimed her Christ, so neither could it – or Satan – permanently claim her either. Her risen Jesus meant that whatever shouldn’t have happened or should have happened no longer mattered. All that mattered was the present reality of a very much alive Jesus.

“Should have” and “shouldn’t have” too often cloud our lives. We let past regret cause present regression. We thought we were over it. We thought we had moved past it. But then Satan, never one to see the need for being innovative or cutting edge when it comes to nagging God’s people, resorts to the tried and true. He whispers in our ears ever-so-softly, “Remember how you mishandled that in a way you shouldn’t have? I bet things wouldn’t be the way they are right now if you would have handled that differently.” And seemingly out of nowhere, this thing that perhaps hadn’t bothered us for years suddenly sidetracks us and whatever positive path of trajectory we were on has been hijacked and we start to backslide. 

When those moments hit you, notice something about the account from John 20. Look where Mary and the others did not go to. They didn’t return go to the cross. Why not? Duh, you say, because Jesus had already been crucified on Friday. He was no longer on the cross anymore. That’s why they went to the tomb.

Exactly. Jesus was no longer on the cross. He had already been crucified. That means your sin has already been paid for. That means every should have and shouldn’t have has already been paid for. On Easter Sunday, they didn’t find Jesus still at Calvary on the cross continuing to pay for their sins. He had already completed that sacrificial work, emphasizing it with finality through his “It is finished,” spoken from the cross. There was no more need to return to the cross. Just as there is no more need to revisit every should have and shouldn’t have from your past. They’ve already been paid for. 

But it gets better. Not only was Jesus not on the cross still suffering for sin; he wasn’t in the tomb, either! John’s narrative of what happened on that first morning seems to gradually crescendo our confidence bit by bit. Mary arrives to see the stone rolled away, but there is not any initial further inspection. 

What exactly did the empty tomb mean? He lived and lives, yes, but don’t let it be lost on you what that means! It means that his payment for your sin and mine was accepted by the Father! It meant there was no need for do-overs or for you to somehow complete what Jesus started on Good Friday with your own piled-on penance or some other satisfaction that you imagine God still needing. As it turns out, Jesus’ payment was sufficient – he wasn’t on the cross or in the tomb! And having assured her of his resurrection by personally appearing to her, he then sent her to spread the word. And she did just that.

Let’s do the same. Our Conquering King Lives! It shouldn’t have come to this, but your eternity is secure because it did. 

Victorious Over Grief

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(John 16:16-24)

Agree or disagree? Christians are better off than non-Christians. You might presume that how a person answers that question depends on whether or he or she is a Christian. If you are not a Christian, you would likely disagree with the statement (otherwise you’d have become a Christian, right?). If you are a Christian, then you might either agree or disagree. One Christian might have a number of unbelieving friends who appear to have great lives, while another Christian might completely agree on the basis of God’s promises in Jesus, he is always better off. 

Either way, the point is not to nail down who is better off, but rather to nudge us to think about exactly what criteria we’d consider to determine our stance. If the criteria is based on circumstances or situations, then disappointment will always follow. At that same time, how is it that some Christians who have endured exhausting lives are some of the most joy-filled people you’ll ever meet?

That would seem to go against the flow of conventional thinking. We tend to think that joy and happiness exist in the absence of adversity, not in the presence of it. How then does one explain it? How can some who have had a very rough life still be so full of joy? Let Jesus explain for us this morning. 

Be ready, though, because his words might catch you off guard. “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve… A woman giving birth to a child has pain  because her time has come; So with you: Now is your time of grief…” (v.20-22a). Jesus plainly states that life right now will be painful and hard! So for those who aren’t Christians, after reading that, let me try to read your mind. I’m guessing you hear those words and say to yourself, “Where do I sign up??? This whole Christian thing sounds like a blast!”

Now you can be turned off by that, embittered by that, resentful of Jesus for that… or you can be comforted, because as it turns out, Jesus was a straight-shooter with us. He didn’t paint some pretend pollyanna promise for us, but gave it to us like it is.

If you’ve ever watched the WandaVision series, it’s based on a main super-hero character who has gone through some heavy trauma. In response, she fabricates an ideal “Leave it to Beaver”-type life. Her husband and family are perfect. Her neighbors are perfect and the neighborhood is perfect. Everything is perfect.

Jesus didn’t pretend. He said, “Life will stink. Life will be hard.” And he told us this not to embitter us, but to prepare us, so that when we encounter that reality, we aren’t shocked, we aren’t surprised or taken aback. Rather, we conclude, “Huh, it’s just like Jesus said it would be.” 

Now some may take issue with this because they’ve been sold on the idea that if there’s really something to this whole God thing, then nothing bad should ever happen in the world. However, that starts with a the false premise that the world could even come to an agreement on what is good (e.g., is the right to have an abortion good or not?)! All we have to do is ask opinions on hot-button issues and we see very quickly that no two people agree on what “good” is. Therefore, how could God possibly satisfy every individual’s idea of good in the face of so much contradiction?

Another thought presumes that if the world is good and bad things happen, then those bad things stand as evidence against God. But what if, on the basis of all-too-common atrocities like church and store shootings we flip that thought around: the world actually isn’t a good place – it’s a bad one! Then any good experience at all in such a bad world would be evidence of a good God!

Friends, if Jesus tells us what to expect now, and it plays out just like he said it would, doesn’t that grab our attention? If it’s just like Jesus said it would be now, doesn’t that give Jesus more credibility when he also tells us what it’s going to be like later? Doesn’t that make us think twice before dismissing what he says about our future as well?

If a year ago your financial advisor predicted accurately exactly where your tanking investments would be today, as tough a pill as it might be to swallow, wouldn’t you have more faith in him, not less, despite a plummeting portfolio? Wouldn’t you feel more confident with someone like that managing your retirement than an advisor who predicted earth-shattering gains, only to have to come up with some excuse or explanation for why he was so horribly mistaken? 

So let’s look at what else Jesus promises in these words, for they are far from all gloom and doom! “Your grief will turn to joy” (v.20)… “you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy” (v.22)… “your joy will be complete” (v.24). That’s Jesus repeating himself quite a bit in just these few verses – you think maybe there is a point he’s trying to get across? What was to be the source of all this joy?

In this case, it was Jesus promising his disciples that death wouldn’t have the last word, but that he would return to them from the grave. In his first words of this section, “Jesus went on to say, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’” (v.16). In a few days, Jesus would die and his disciples would not see him. Three days after that, however, they would see him again after he rose from the dead. He would vacate his tomb and through his victorious resurrection restore their joy. He would permanently rewrite the story so that death would not be the end. Gut-wrenching grief would give birth to the most jubilant joy!

For us that joy doubles, for not only do we have the benefit of looking back to see that Jesus made good on his promise to the disciples, but we also have the joy of looking ahead to his return on the last day when he ushers in eternal victory! Even before that, the assurance of Jesus’ resurrection and undoing of death makes a world of difference in the face of the ultimate grief of losing a loved one. 

It has not escaped my notice over the course of my life that there is a drastic difference in how people of other religions or no religion speak in the face of death compared to how Christians speak at the death of fellow Christians. I have observed others speak of a hope or an optimism that their loved one is in a better place, but noticeably lacking in that hope and optimism is any confidence. The Christian, though, even through countless tears, is able to confidently find peace not in hoping or being optimistic, but in knowing their loved one is in heaven. 

And before one writes off such confidence as misguided arrogance, realize that the difference comes from the founder himself. The best every other religion or religious figure or book ever promises is a chance at eternal life if the individual has been good enough.

Not so with Jesus! Jesus promises eternal life to all who are in him. So call him a liar, dismiss his promise, but at least acknowledge that the Christian’s confidence in the face of death is based on a very real and very clear promise, and not possibility, which is the best every other religion claims. And being fully confident of what the future holds is why many a Christian is so filled with joy in the present, right now. Yes, even in the face of grieving. Even in the face of adversity. 

We have an elementary school at my church, and in the morning I am there to greet kids an parents as they arrive at school. I think if you were to ask the students and parents how many times they’ve seen me in a bad or bitter mood, they wouldn’t likely recall any. But if you think that’s becuase I’ve never had a bad day or had anything go wrong on any of those mornings, you’d be wrong! Of course I have! We all have!

But still there is joy – every single day there is joy. Why? Jesus. My joy comes as a result of confidence of knowing exactly who I am in Jesus Christ, and the joy of knowing exactly what my future in Jesus Christ holds. In Jesus I am forgiven. In Jesus I am loved. In Jesus my reservation and home in heaven has already been secured. So there is joy. Always joy.

Yes, troubles will come. But Jesus overcomes trouble. In fact he said that very thing! At the end of this same chapter from John, Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (v.33).

Jesus’ words this morning are profound. They aren’t what we might expect. They’re profound in part, at least, because they’re… normal. Average. Real. He’s not the helicopter parent who pretends that nothing bad will ever happen to us in this world. It will, because it’s not the world he created, but a broken knock-off. Of course it will let us down! 

But that trouble won’t last. While I can’t personally relate to the comparison Jesus makes, the mothers gathered here this morning can. In referring to the temporary grief of this world that will be followed by the permanent joy of the next, Jesus compared it to a woman in childbirth. “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world” (v.21). That moment when a mother first holds in her arms the very baby that she has been holding in her womb for 9 months is a moment of elated joy that eclipses the pain of childbirth. Gone is the grief; it has been overshadowed by overwhelming joy!

Yet even that joy will eventually fade. All of this world’s joy is short-lived and fleeting. It is quickly countered by discouragement and disappointment. The quick expiration date on the world’s joy means that it has such a short shelf-life! It spoils so soon! 

But you know what joy will not fade? The joy of Jesus, a joy that can never be taken away. That joy will lack nothing, but will “complete” and “no one will take [it] away.” That joy permeates our school – students and teachers alike! That joy is evident in our church congregation and compels us to gather together in an often joyless world. Because we know that here, in this place, where Jesus is the center of all that we do, his resurrection promises us joy; it is the promise that in him we are victorious over grief!

Victory Over Lovelessness

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(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

You could write this post. Help me out here. It goes something like this. We read this description of love from 1 Corinthians 13 and are moved by it. These are the kinds of poetic verses young couples want to include in their marriage ceremony. These are the kinds of words we want bursting out of the greeting card we give to that special someone. We are drawn to the beautiful depiction of love in these verses.

We are also conflicted. Beautiful as they are, they serve a dual purpose. They do not only show us what ideal love looks like; they expose quite clearly what our love does not look like.

You’ve seen the side-by-side pictures comparing the frame-worthy picturesque Pinterest project right next to the real-life cringe-worthy attempts at those projects. It’s laughable how drastically different the ideal is from the real-life attempt. By comparison, the DIY attempt looks as if a toddler tried it (no offense, toddlers). That’s how we feel about this description of love. It is a breathtakingly beautiful, awe-inspiring ideal. But it also makes our attempts at love look like a disastrous DIY fail. 

Then we return back to these verses again to see the perfect love of Jesus. Thank goodness in his perfect love he forgives our lovelessness. Phew! The end.

Then what? What changes? Eventually, we’ll come across the same section of Scripture again, but what will have changed? Anything? Or have we become so accustomed to the same pattern that we haven’t even bothered to notice how little our love changes from one “love sermon” to the next?

As we consider these words yet again, let’s do so in light of Paul’s reasoning in verse 11. “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” While Paul is making the point that our Christian lives on this side of heaven will never measure up to our perfect knowledge and understanding on the other side, his words force us to deal with the question of whether we’re still babes in the faith. Are we children or are we maturing and developing into adult Christians? More specific to these verses from 1 Corinthians, how is that reflected in the way that we love others?

Let’s start with revisiting how instrumental love is to God. Consider where love ranks in God’s eyes, based on what the Holy Spirit led Paul to write in chapters 12 & 13 of 1 Corinthians. The chapter right before this one covers what is an extremely popular topic among Christians: spiritual gifts.

Read through it and you’ll see Paul mention all of these super cool gifts that the Holy Spirit poured out on all believers to serve each other and build up the early church. He refers to stuff like the ability to heal sick people and perform miracles and speak in tongues and prophesy – all kinds of awesome gifts, and all of them important! As Paul wraps up the section encouraging the believers to put their respective gifts to work, he writes something that catches our attention: “But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).

What? Does Paul mean to say that as amazing as stuff like the ability to heal sick people and perform miracles and speak in tongues and prophesy are, there is something greater??? An even more excellent way??? Something even more worthwhile to pursue???

You might understandably expect that Paul would be talking about faith. After all, it’s one of his favorite themes in so many of his letters in the New Testament of the Bible: righteousness by faith; faith, not works; saved by faith; the gift of faith, etc. Paul covers the topic of faith so much that it would be a relatively safe bet to presume that’s where he was going with this, that surely faith would be the greatest gift, the most excellent way. 

And indeed Paul does mention faith, but not to stress it in the way we might have expected. He writes, “and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (v.2).

Whoa. Is that a typo? Did Paul – the fanboy of faith – really just write that a person who has a mountain-moving faith but is devoid of love is nothing??? Yes, he did. Yikes!

And that’s not all! It isn’t just faith that love leaves in its dust, but hope as well. Check out the last verse of the whole love chapter and see what Paul says. “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (13:13). So love does not merely trump all of those outstanding spiritual gifts, but also tops even faith and hope! Is Paul being clear enough here for us? Love is apparently a big deal – like, the biggest deal of all! 

For that reason, this description of love in these verses ought to trouble us mightily, because if love is such a big deal to God, these verses clearly cry out against us that we’re a long way away from it!

There’s an exercise you can follow that really brings this point home. In verses 4 through the beginning of verse 8, replace the word “love” – or reference to it – with your name. So for me it would read like this: “Aaron is patient, Aaron is kind. Aaron does not envy, Aaron does not boast, Aaron is not proud. Aaron does not dishonor others, Aaron is not self-seeking, Aaron is not easily angered, Aaron keeps no record of wrongs. Aaron does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Aaron always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Aaron never fails.” Now that may have a nice ring to it, but if I actually rejoice with the truth, as the verses state, then the painful truth is that none of those statements is true! Not even close! Not for any one of us!

But that’s not the worst part. We all know our love falls short – that part’s plain as day. And we know that alone is more than enough for God to turn away from us. But it’s worse than that. I’m talking about the true barometer of our lovelessness in 12:31: “But eagerly desire the greater gifts.” It’s one thing to be willing to admit that our love falls short, to walk away confident in our forgiveness, then presume that all is good. 

But are we as willing to admit that we don’t eagerly desire to get better at it? Let’s be upfront and honest with each other: most of us really don’t want to change that much. We don’t mind admitting how loveless we often are, but it’s painful to admit the other reality of how little we desire to get any better at loving others. That might just be the hardest thing of all in the Christian faith. 

We can talk all day long about faith and hope – delightful spiritual topics, and topics that deal primarily with our personal relationship with God. And how convenient for us! After all, no one can really measure how much faith or hope I have in my heart in terms of my relationship with God. Those aren’t visible.

But love… that one can be seen. It can be felt. And so can the lack of it. And that stings us. 

We avoid becoming better at loving others because it involves real sacrifice. It involves inconvenience. It doesn’t just mean talk of putting others first, but actually loving them enough to do it. And we’d simply rather not. It’s much easier for us just to confess our love falls short, thank goodness we’re forgiven, and move on. So can’t we just confess we’re no good at it and be forgiven and call it good?

No. No, we cannot. The forgiven child of God is a changed child of God. We desire to get better at loving others. We take very seriously Paul’s charge in Romans: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law” (13:8). Loving others isn’t only a debt that we cannot pay off, but a debt that we don’t want to ever pay off.

Do you suppose Paul has any Spirit-inspired opinions on how best to put love into action? He does. Read what Paul writes after chapter 13 and it is quite clear that the highest expression of love is to speak God’s Word. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ by speaking the Word of God to them. Love those outside the church by speaking the Word of God to them. Love expresses itself best through lips that speak of God’s love for us in Christ and through his cross.  

There alone do we see the perfect expression of love. There we come to know what love is (1 John 3:16). There we come to appreciate how deep, how wide, and how high Christ’s love is for us (Ephesians 3:18). There we will come to see that our desire and ability to grow in loving others always flows from a deeper understanding of knowing Jesus’ love for us.

Let’s repeat that exercise from earlier and fill in the only name that works. “Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind. Jesus does not envy, Jesus does not boast, Jesus is not proud. Jesus does not dishonor others, Jesus is not self-seeking, Jesus is not easily angered, Jesus keeps no record of wrongs. Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Jesus never fails.”

Jesus is all of those things for us, and that is the driving force behind our desire to eagerly pursue great love, a radical love, a Christ-like love. That’s the kind of thing Paul was talking about when he wrote elsewhere, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Jesus’ love for us does not yield stagnant hearts, but servant hearts – hearts that are eager to get better at loving others. Jesus’ love for us begs to be displayed to others in a loveless world. When a loveless world sees how radical Jesus’ love is – radical enough to forgive and transform loveless you and me! – that’s how Jesus’ love changes the world, one soul at a time. 

Victorious Over Falling

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(John 10:22-30)

It’s an exciting time for parents when a child transitions from the crawling stage to starting to take those first steps. But that exciting time comes with a catch: the fear of falling. Once crawling gives way to walking, gravity suddenly becomes a much more significant concern. Parents are faced with the newfound fear of their child possibly being injured as a result of falling.

Fast-forward to the other end of life, the season of life that might find canes, walkers, or wheelchairs either welcome friends or necessary evils, depending on how one views them. Regardless, they serve a very important purpose: to help us keep our balance to avoid falling. A fall at that stage of life can result in critical injury or require surgery, and since our bodies don’t heal or recover as effectively or as quickly as they used to, falling is a legitimate fear.

But during the time in-between those two stages where, frankly, most of our lives takes place, falling isn’t as much on our radar. It’s during that time that we’re beyond the stage of those first shaky steps but not yet to the stage where our muscle strength and balance have deteriorated notably, increasing the risk of taking even the smallest steps. During that time in-between there just isn’t that much risk of falling. 

At least physically, anyway. But what about spiritually? If you think about it, the risk of falling spiritually is almost inversely proportionate to the risk of falling physically. We tend to give the most attention to spiritual things at both the early and the end stages of life, but not always as much in-between.

Look at what often happens when adults for whom spiritual matters have not been on the radar suddenly have children. Now they are thinking about baptism and what to teach their children when it comes to spirituality. We make a big deal about confirmation and are concerned about how our kids are doing spiritually in middle school and high school. Then, at some point, it becomes their responsibility and we carry on with life.

Then, as the reminder of our mortality sneaks up on us in the final stages of life, spiritual concerns bubble up to the surface once again. A family member is diagnosed with a terminal illness and we realize we don’t know what they believe. A friend of a friend asks for prayers for her elderly parents, and we don’t know where they stand spiritually. The health of a dear friend is slowly declining and, as it takes a turn for the worse, we regret not having talked more about Jesus and find ourselves worrying about what will happen when death arrives.

But in the middle, in-between those two stages, well, we get busy and life happens. So many things going on. So much to do. We have so many responsibilities and obligations for others that we shelf the spiritual stuff for ourselves for a time, promising we’ll get back to it later, when we have more time. And we know how that plays out. 

As we give our attention to where we stand spiritually, let’s be aware that perhaps the season of life that poses for us the greatest risk of falling away might just be the season of life during which we are least concerned about it. Nevertheless, it is one thing to be aware of it, and another to be worried by it. The Word of God does warn us frequently about being aware of it – no doubt about it. However, Jesus himself speaks to us words of safety and security in the face of uncertainty so that we are not unsettled or overwhwelmed by worry.

That’s the difference between believers and the unbelieving Jewish group crowding around Jesus in the Colonnade during Hannukah. Jesus couldn’t provide them with any hope.

If we were recreating the scene from John 10 today, there would be a van nearby with individuals monitoring the situation and recording the conversation. Those gathered around Jesus would have wire taps hidden on them to make sure they catch Jesus’ response. In other words, their inquiries were not coming from a place of curious, inquisitive exploration, as if they were genuinely seeking spiritual truth and yearning to know the way to salvation. No, those were things they were already convinced they knew. 

The real intent of their question was to hear Jesus make what they had already concluded were blasphemous claims that he was in fact God. In their minds, their question was an open door for Jesus to incriminate himself by his response. “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (v.24). If he had told them plainly what they wanted to hear they would have had enough witnesses to convict him of blasphemy. 

Instead of giving them the response they hoped for, Jesus called them out with a blunt, straightforward condemnation. “Jesus answered, ‘I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep’” (v. 25-26). Ouch. “You do not believe. You are not my sheep.” Jesus very pointedly stressed what was lacking in their spiritual lives, and the problem was not on his end; it was on theirs. It didn’t matter who he was if they refused to believe it. 

After Jesus called them out in their unbelief, he then offered some of the greatest comfort possible for believers. Jesus’ describes the relationship he has with his sheep. When the devil raises question marks in your mind over whether or not salvation or forgiveness are really yours, replace those doubts and that despair with the confidence that you are numbered among the sheep of Jesus’ flock. But how can you ever really be sure? Listen to – and believe – the words of Jesus, our Good Shepherd.

When you get into a car, there are a number of features that provide assurance that you’ll be safe while driving. You buckle your seat belt. Air bags will deploy in the case of an accident. Even before any of that happens, there are cameras and sensors and beeps and dings that alert you if you are too close to another vehicle or object.

Just as all of these safety features work together to help you feel secure while driving, so Jesus provides a number of descriptions that apply to believers that help you feel secure as sheep of his flock. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (v.27-28).

In contrast to those individuals challenging Jesus in the temple, the ones who don’t believe because they aren’t Jesus’ sheep (v.26), Jesus states, “My sheep listen to my voice… and they follow me” (v.27). Jesus is reassuring us by reminding us that doubts about whether or not we’re really his sheep can be put to rest by the fact that we long to hear his voice and follow him.

While no flawed sheep will ever demonstrate a round-the clock perfect desire to listen to Jesus’ voice at every moment, any desire whatsoever to listen to his voice is a reflection that we are his sheep. While sheep may from time to time ignore the voice of their shepherd and may wander off, that doesn’t discount that his is the only voice they will follow when they do listen.

Jesus even spells out why his sheep will listen and follow when he says, “I give them eternal life” (v.28a). The shepherd speaks words of life and forgiveness and his sheep listen and believe. As one of Jesus’ imperfect sheep, Peter explained why he listened to and followed Jesus: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Only Jesus gives away for free what every other religious teaching demands must be earned. So who else would we listen to? Who else would we follow?

Even more comforting is the flip-side of that relationship: the familiarity that Jesus has with his sheep. “I know them, ” he says (v.27b). Jesus does not know of you. Yours is not merely a name that has passed by his ears. He hasn’t simply heard your name come up here or there in conversation. You aren’t to him a friend of a friend of a friend.

He knows you.

He knows you better than you know you. He anticipates your needs before you express them. He plans to meet your needs even before you’ve worried about them. Even though our knowledge of him is so limited, his knowledge of us lacks nothing. Our knowledge of Jesus will always be lacking; his knowledge of us never will.

And speaking of “never,” there are two promises Jesus makes about his sheep that offer more security than anything else. Jesus promises that his sheep will “never perish” and that “no one will snatch them out of [his] hand” (v.28).

Do not allow the skeptic inside you spring up to cast doubt on these words of Jesus! They are words of rich gospel comfort for wandering and wondering sheep! If you are a sheep who has wandered, straying for a time, hear these words of Jesus and take them to heart! If you wonder if you have met the necessary requirements for being included as a sheep of Jesus’ flock, drop those doubts and believe these words of your Good Shepherd! There is no requirement you or I could ever meet – nor is there a need to, because our Good Shepherd has met them all.    

At the cross, we see the Good Shepherd double as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29). The price he paid is how we know we are his sheep – sheep who will never perish or be snatched away! These words of Jesus this morning are not a “how to” primer on what is required in order to be Jesus’ sheep; they are so much more! They are the blessed assurance that what the Good Shepherd has already done is what alone qualifies us to be his sheep. 

Notice that of all that Jesus says about his sheep, he only mentions two actions on the part of his sheep – listening and following (and even those are only to direct us to the source of eternal life!); the rest is all on the Good Shepherd, Jesus.

So he consoles concerned sheep not by emphasizing the need to act more like good sheep or behave more like sheep should so you can be sure, but by pointing out what he has done and who he is. It’s what the Good Shepherd has done – and not the sheep – that lets us know where we stand before him! Let these words of Jesus be what they are: comforting assurances for shy sheep unsure of where they stand before God. 

Don’t let Jesus’ promises here be stripped of their power and peace! Do not immediately ask yourself, “Well how can I be sure of this? How can I know that this promise applies to me, that I will never perish or that I will never be snatched out of his hand?” Stop the self-evaluation that insists on tying the confidence of our salvation to what good sheep we are! Stop evaluating whether or not this truly applies to other Christians on the basis of what good sheep they are (or aren’t)!

Jesus says nothing about the sheep being good enough or too bad to be his sheep; he is simply describing his sheep, the ones he redeemed, the sheep he brought into his flock by his grace – not because they were “good enough” sheep!

We rob ourselves of the comfort and peace that are so unique to Christianity when we insist on twisting Scripture into a metric or a gauge which has as its sole purpose to help us determine who’s in and who’s out! 

The Scriptures were not given for that purpose, but rather to point us to Christ, to the Good Shepherd, so that if we truly want to know if we are his sheep, then we don’t look in the mirror; we look to the cross and to the tomb. There alone will we see all the proof we need that Jesus’ promises are true: we – his sheep – will never perish or be snatched away. Thank God for our Good Shepherd! 

Victorious Over Failure

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(John 21:1-14)

Have you gotten used to it yet? Being a failure? Wait, am I not supposed to say that? Is it not OK for me to say that about you? Why not?

After all, you say it to yourself more than anyone else, don’t you? Where would you like to start? How about relationships? Single? You can try to convince yourself that it’s because you’re picky or have high standards or that there are too many jerks in the world, but the whole reason you try to convince yourself of that in the first place is to counter the much louder voice in the back of your mind contending that you’re single because you’re not good enough and you’re a failure when it comes to relationships. Married? The same voice calls you a failure as a spouse when compared to that other wife or husband. Would you prefer to talk about your job? Why are you still stuck at the same job or haven’t advanced at all? Try to convince yourself it’s because you like it or that it’s good enough to pay the bills, but the reason you have to convince yourself of that is to counter the louder voice inside your head that is constantly murmuring what a failure you are. Would you like to talk about how you rate as a Christian? That might be the loudest voice of all: “Failure.”

Failure, or more accurately, our fear of failure, is crippling. Have you ever stopped to think about how many absolutely amazing advancements, how much progress, and how many good things have never happened simply because people with great ideas and the ability to back them up were afraid of failure? How many times have we let past failures predetermine future failures and give up? And how many times have we legitimately been crushed by failure?

I don’t know that they were crushed by it. Perhaps they were used to it and realized it went hand-in-hand with the profession of fishing, but the disciples who made a living by it had just experienced it again. John tells us, “It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ‘I’m going out to fish,’ Simon Peter told them, and they said, ‘We’ll go with you.’ So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing” (v.1b-3). Again, it not an uncommon experience as fisherman to come up empty-handed. But any way you look at it, they failed at catching anything all night.  

While this definition of insanity has repeatedly been misattributed to Albert Einstein, you’ve likely heard someone share it: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results. The point of the expression is to state the foolishness of continuing to take the same actions or make the same choices that haven’t worked, but expecting that eventually, you’ll get different results. The intent is to encourage a person to stop wasting time doing what isn’t working and try something else. Change it up. If doing the same thing over isn’t netting you any result, then do something different.

So how do you suppose it sounded to the disciples to hear a voice from the shoreline engage them: “‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No,’ they answered. He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some’” (v.5-6). Basically then, what Jesus was saying to them was, “You know that thing you’ve been doing all night that hasn’t worked yet? Do it again and this time it will work.” Remember that they didn’t know this was Jesus speaking to them, so it would have made perfect sense for them to respond by saying, “Thanks for the advice, but we’ve been at it all night and haven’t caught anything, so we’re gonna call it a day.” 

But they didn’t. Perhaps they were compelled by the fact that they had nothing to lose – after all, what’s the worst that could happen? Their empty nets would remain empty? Or maybe they reasoned that the man from the shore had seen evidence of a school of fish on the other side of the boat. Or, maybe they recalled a previous miraculous experience when Jesus had told them to do something similar and the haul of fish nearly sunk not one, but two boats (cf. Luke 5)! 

Whatever it was that compelled them to follow the advice, the results were far different from the experience they had had all night: “When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish” (v.6). Where they had failed, Jesus blessed them with success. Throw out whatever definition of insanity you have – Jesus changed the rules. 

Doing the same things over and over, spiritually speaking, is not insanity at all. It is in fact the recipe for spiritual growth. And when we don’t tap into it, we don’t grow. Or, when we tap out of it too soon, we miss out on the benefits.

Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed illustrates this. The new believer who is overjoyed by the good news of the gospel suddenly shifts the focus to the cares and concerns of the world and away from the Word, and what happens? Shallow roots. Weeds. Growth is stunted because the new believer stopped doing the same thing – feeding that newfound faith with the Word. 

We pray… once. Twice. Nothing happens, so we stop praying for that thing. We commit to worship for a couple of weeks. Nothing happens, so we fall back into old routines of not worshipping. We give a little bit more in our offerings, but don’t see any return on my “investment,” so we resort to giving what we were previously. I do the devotional thing for a time, but it doesn’t immediately fix all of my problems, so I go back to neglecting it.

If there is one area of life in which that definition of insanity does not apply, it is in the realm of spiritual things. Our problem is not doing the same thing over and over and not getting any results; our problem is a lack of committing long-term to doing the same things over and over. Or, we give up doing the same thing before we ever see the results. We quit too soon. In that regard, in these spiritual applications, in our faith life, let’s fess up: we truly are failures. Yes, in that regard we are failures.

No, actually we’re not. The Resurrection changed that. We were failures, but Jesus’ victory over sin means our sin no longer counts against us as failures. But in order for that to all take place, Jesus had to first appear as a failure. 

There was not a single person witnessing the Crucifixion on Good Friday who would have come to any other conclusion than that Jesus had failed. Some, certainly his disciples and followers, must have put the best construction on it and concluded that his failure was no fault of his own, but the fault of a corrupt trial system and government that ensured Jesus would not get a fair shot. But still, there Jesus was, hanging on the cross, a failure.

To others, the cross was seen as the exclamation point of Jesus’ failure. Those harboring hatred and animosity toward Jesus, who had maliciously plotted his demise, were undoubtedly delighted to claim responsibility for Jesus’ failure – that was their goal all along! 

It was not only earthly opponents rejoicing in what appeared to be Jesus’ failure, but also the hoards of hell, the demons, the evil angels, collaborating to bring down the Son of Man and Son of God. They viewed Good Friday as their crowning achievement, their revenge on the God who had cast them out of heaven for their rebellion. The failure fixed to the cross was to them the view of victory.

How right they were! The cross was the symbol of victory! The death he died was the sacrifice necessary to cement certain victory! Yes, everything had gone according to Satan’s plan.

But remember that Satan is not omniscient. He had come up woefully short in his estimation of God’s almighty power and eternal plan. Satan did not even know that he and his plans were merely putty in the hands of the Designer of the universe and every living thing, and that just as he had shaped everything out of nothing, so also had the infinite God shaped his purposes out of the devil’s deplorably defiant act of rebellion.

Jesus hadn’t failed. Jesus wasn’t a failure. Not once during his lifetime, and not even in his death! Rather death meant victory! In crucifying Christ, in the ultimate act of irony, Satan was responsible for offering up the very thing sacrifice that would be his undoing. By hammering nails into Jesus on the cross, Satan effectively hammered the nails in his own coffin. 

This is all true because Jesus is gone from the grave. This is all true because the tomb is empty. This is all true because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead! For that reason, seemingly insignificant accounts like the one before us this morning are so significant. With each resurrection appearance, Jesus rubbed his victory in Satan’s face. He turned the tables on Satan and made it abundantly clear that it was not Jesus, but the father of lies who had failed. Satan had failed. Satan is a failure.

Do you remember to remind him of that when he whispers words of failure in your ears? Do you remind him of that in the thick of the battle when he presses his hardest against you in the heat of temptation? Do you remind him even then that he has failed, that he is a failure, and that in Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection you are a victor who refuses to be his victim? Do you remind him that even in the moments when your sin appears to hand the victory trophy over to him, he still has no right to it because grace and forgiveness flow from the tomb with such a force that not even his successful temptations can withstand it?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Easter Sunday means that grace wins! Forgiveness wins! Jesus has won – and his victory frees us to live in the supreme confidence that we are victorious over failure. Now then, dear friends, do just this one thing: live like it! 

This wasn’t the first miraculous catch of fish for the disciples. The disciples had previously had an experience with Jesus nearly swamping their boats with a huge haul of fish.

But the outcome this time was different. Peter previously was wrought with fear at his realization of who Jesus was in that former experience, pleading that the Lord depart from his presence, for he was a miserable sinner. Now we see Peter behave quite differently! He doesn’t shy away from the Savior in fear, but rather jumps out of the boat in an effort to get to him as quickly as he possibly can. “Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.” (v.7). He can’t get to his risen Savior soon enough! And notice, even though John is very specific about how abundant their catch of fish was, the disciples are hardly distracted by the fish because they’re so focused on Jesus!

What accounts for the totally different reactions from the disciples in these otherwise somewhat similar miraculous events? The Resurrection. Jesus lives, and the impact, the difference it makes, is shown in how changed their reactions and their lives are. 

The Resurrection has really changed your life, too. It turned failures into followers. It took us from failure to faithful. So be unafraid to do the same thing over and over and over – to put your faith into practice again and again, because the result will not be failure, but fruit – fruit in your own life and fruit that the living Jesus will use to build up his church. 

Victorious Over Suffering

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(Revelation 1:9-18)

What’s the most painful experience of suffering you’ve ever had? Was it physical or was it an emotionally draining experience? Some of us have sustained multiple significant injuries as a result of a devastating accident, possibly resulting in chronic pain. Severe sickness – or the treatment of it – can lead to pretty serious suffering, too. Maybe the worst bout of suffering came because of financial loss or a relational hardship. It’s a sobering reminder of the reality of this fallen world we call home that we could go on for quite some time sharing stories of personal suffering that we’ve experienced or even are currently in the midst of experiencing.

Then there is the kind of suffering we want to give our attention to in this post: spiritual suffering. What’s been the most painful experience of suffering you’ve had because of who you are in Jesus? I probably tend to diminish this area of suffering because it seems so unfair for us to complain of spiritual suffering when there are Christians in parts of the world who live in daily fear of physical injury or even death because of their faith. They worship Jesus where laws forbid it, resulting in their living under a cloud of constant suffering. 

But we, too, experience spiritual suffering because of Jesus. Relationships have ended or become extremely strained because of how others view our faith or have fallen from it themselves. Hostility or ridicule in the workplace, whether on a small or a large scale, is not uncommon for some of us. Some experience the suffering of spiritual isolation because they are not near any Christian congregations faithful enough to God’s Word with whom they can gather.

We suffer from the frustration of being a part of an increasingly godless society, seeing sin not just tolerated, but celebrated, and it weighs heavily on our hearts. And of course, we will endure seasons of self-inflicted spiritual suffering while we grapple with certain sins that may even threaten to sever our relationship with Jesus. Those times of real testing and struggle pummel us with guilt, even causing us to tiptoe dangerously close to Judas if we despair of our forgiveness and salvation. Yes, we experience very real spiritual suffering on a variety of levels.   

So as John reveals his visions in the book we call Revelation, right away we see that the one writing these words is relatable. He isn’t addressing us as the book-smart expert with no actual experience, but one who has been – and is, even as he writes – in the midst of spiritual suffering. “I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 1:9). 

He identifies himself as our “brother” and “companion” – and on what basis? On the basis of suffering as a Christian. He wrote these words while in exile, banished to isolation on an island, not because of insurrection, murder, or genocide, but because he was a Christian. It was “because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

John lived during the time of guys like Saul – not the first failed Old Testament king, but Saul the persecutor and public enemy number one of Christians before he was converted to that very same Christian faith and became the apostle Paul. There was persecution against Christians on multiple fronts, from both non-Christian religious zealots and the Roman government. John was experiencing real suffering and was writing to Christians in real congregations to uplift them with real hope in the face of real suffering. This hope springs from the Resurrection and the confidence it gives us that Jesus’ victory ensures that we, too, are victorious over suffering. 

What is John’s solution to suffering? “Look at the view!” My family just returned from Yosemite. As we made our way through all the twists and turns and started to come into the Yosemite valley, we suddenly noticed some pretty impressive waterfalls to our left and pulled over to check them out. We all escaped the van to get a closer look. After some “ooohhhing” and “aaahhhing,” eventually someone in our family redirected our view to the road right in front of us and our jaws dropped as we saw the first glimpse of a truly breathtaking view: Half Dome! We had been so singularly focused on a waterfall that we missed the bigger picture – the whole view that included the majestic Half Dome!

This picture of Jesus here in verses 12-15, as well as other portions of Revelation, can grab our attention with their vivid and detailed imagery. We can easily get caught up focusing on one specific descriptive element or another, like a smaller picturesque waterfall, and end up missing out on a far more spectacular view as we fail to see the big picture

Notice who we’re seeing in these verses! This is not the Good Friday Savior who in perfect humility allowed himself to be the ultimate picture of weakness and suffering. There is no groaning, no supposed helplessness; there are no cries of mockery or jeering nearby!

No, this is a picture of the Easter Sunday Jesus, the victorious Jesus, the One who overcame our every enemy and now stands as an imposing picture of power and authority. While the many details of this image of Jesus carry with them a symbolism and figurative meaning (most of which are rather easily discovered by using the rest of the Scriptures), don’t miss the big picture; look at the view! See our victorious Savior in his resurrected and returning glory. He won! We win!

We can miss that important faith builder and confidence booster if we focus painstakingly on the details. It can be like coming across a gigantic work of art in a gallery and being so caught up in the masterful detail and skill in just one small portion of the work of art that we forget to step back and take in the whole picture. See the whole picture John is sharing with us in his vision here. Look at the view! See our victorious Savior!

It certainly left an impact on John. He shared, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (v.17a). Remember this is a vision John is having. He is not yet in heaven, where there will be no fear. He is caught up in a vision from God that depicts in very colorful imagery the victory we have in Jesus Christ. We can hardly imagine our response being any different if viewing this in a vision ourselves!

Then notice something profound that solidifies for us that victory over Satan and our sin is certain. “Then he placed his right hand on me…” (v.17b). God is personal. God cares not just about the world, but about you. The power of personal touch in the face of dread fear is an expression of hope beyond hope! A simple gentle touch from Jesus calms John like no drink or pill or other earthly escape ever could. He is reassured by Jesus’ gentle touch, and even more so by the soothing words that follow.

“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last” (v.17c). It’s as if Jesus is saying, “John, you have no reason to fear, for the ‘I AM’ God stands before you, the eternal God who always has been and always will be, neither preceded nor succeeded by anyone.” If he is the First and the Last, then he shall also have the first and the last word. What he says goes. What God promises stands. What Jesus carried out is trustworthy and reliable. There is no one else who can speak with any greater authority. So listen to what he says and to how he reveals himself to John.

“I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (v.18). See how Jesus identifies himself! He calls himself “the Living One,” and not “I was the Living One,” but “I am the Living One.” Good Friday happened. Jesus died. But it is not his death that defines him, but rather that he overcame death, that he is now the living one. “I was dead, and now look (“Look at the view!”) I am alive for ever and ever!” Death has no more part in the storyline. His role has been played and his character killed off, never to return again. Now life rules the day, because of Jesus Christ, the Living One.

How can we be sure? Because he holds the keys! Keys mean control. Keys mean authority. Keys are the power to give or withhold, to open or close, to grant or deny access. And see what keys he holds – the keys over life and death, over heaven and hell!

Ever lose your keys and immediately experience that feeling of dread the instant you realize it? You’re overcome with anxiety over realizing they aren’t in the pocket or purse where you thought they were and immediately fear the worst? You scramble frantically to find them while every possible place they could be is still fresh on your mind. Only after doing so do you think to ask someone else. Then, just as quickly as you were filled with anxiety, you are calmed down by the assurance someone else has them. A flood of relief washes over us.

How much more so to realize the one standing victorious is the one who holds the keys – and not just any keys, but “the keys of death and Hades.” That is to say, Jesus holds the power of life and death!

Now then, with all of this in mind, let us speak again of our Christian suffering. This picture from Revelation changes the conversation just a bit, does it not? No, we will not walk away with the fairy-tale notion that our spiritual suffering will suddenly disappear, as with the waving of some magical wand. We will still suffer specifically because of our Christian faith. Jesus himself promised it.

But it is his greater promises that allow us to endure, to patiently bear up under such suffering. Not the promise that suffering in this life will go away, but the promise that the victory of the Living One outshines our suffering. We are victorious over suffering, and that makes a very real and noticeable impact when we get better at doing in our daily lives exactly what we have done throughout this post: Look at the view!

Stare at your suffering, focus on that, become consumed by it, and it will consume you. 

But when you shift your gaze away from your suffering and onto your Savior, the very one who holds the keys of death and Hades, your suffering seems so much smaller. Because it is. In the grand picture of eternity, the joy of Jesus’ victory of Satan, over sin, and yes, even over suffering, is forever. Your suffering, dear friends in Christ, is not. It is temporary. Let your focus on Jesus’ eternal victory allow you to see more clearly that he has also made you victorious over suffering.

Defeated

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(Luke 24:1-12)

While the Battle of Waterloo was being fought, the people of England were eagerly awaiting news of the outcome. England’s own Duke Wellington was a part of a coalition facing the mighty Napoleon. Finally, the news came. The result of the battle had been transmitted across the English Channel.  Though foggy, the gloomy message was received: “Wellington defeated.”  The devastating news spread rapidly across England, and its people were crushed.  

So the women and the disciples, unprepared as they were, initially understood the message that Easter morning to be, “Jesus defeated.” Just the emotional drain associated with experiencing their Savior’s crucifixion would have been heavy enough on its own. They were still reeling, grappling with the reality that only a week ago their beloved Jesus had entered Jerusalem accompanied by cheering crowds and “Hosannas.” Now there they were, expecting to care for a dead body that was the aftermath of a corrupt trial that resulted in an innocent man condemned to crucifixion. That would have been heavy enough on its own.

As if to add more unbearable weight to an already crushing burden, his body wasn’t there! They couldn’t even carry out the simple act of tender care and compassion, an act of respect and honor for the Jesus who had touched their lives in ways that no one else ever would. And instead of clearly understanding what was going on, Luke tells us the women were “wondering about this” (v.4). There was confusion. The women felt defeated. 

Is it safe to say that a good number of us can relate to that emotion in one way or another – feeling defeated? Over the course of your lifetime, has there ever been a span of time like the past couple of years where so many things have changed so much, whether we like it or not? Have you felt at times as if your own life is not yours to control? Has it felt like one thing after another happens just as soon as we thought we had adjusted, and now we are right back to adjusting yet again? It can – and has! – left many of us feeling helpless, feeling defeated. 

That feeling of defeat can be caused by any number of other emotions. We see two of them in the Resurrection account: fear and skepticism. There are many experiences and emotions that can leave us feeling defeated, but fear and skepticism are perhaps two of the most notable. 

We first see fear from the women. (As an aside, sometimes critics of Christianity or the Bible paint a pretty dismal picture of women and their role. The impression some have is yet another reason why I love the Easter morning account: it was not Jesus’ disciples, the ones we’d expect, the ones who were by his side for the three years of his ministry, who were the first arrivals; it was women. Women were the first to experience the most monumental event in history!)

Understandably, the women were frightened. They had arrived at the tomb to honor their Savior by properly caring for his deceased body. But to their surprise, the entryway to the tomb had already been opened, and when they stepped inside, there was no deceased body. Then, as they were trying to process everything and put all of the pieces together, two angels appeared! Luke describes their reaction: “In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground…” (v.5). Of course they did! What other reaction would one expect when in the midst of an emotional rollercoaster already, two supernatural beings beamed brightly before them? So the women did what any of us would do in the face of something similarly terrifying: they dropped facedown to the ground.

Now maybe you haven’t experienced that level of fear, the kind that left you on the ground, but you’ve experienced it recently. Fear of unrest and rioting in our own country. Fear of a virus or fear of a vaccine. Fear of political corruption. Economic fear. Fear for our children and the world into which they’re growing up and being influenced. International fear of war. Whatever our fears are, they end up feeding our feelings of defeat even more. 

Or maybe you can relate to the other reaction described in this morning’s account that can also leave us feeling defeated: skepticism. Look at how everyone reacted to the resurrection message the women delivered: “When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense” (v.9-11). The women – now named by name, mind you! – rushed back to report what they had not only experienced but also what they had been reminded of by the angels. 

On the one hand, we ought to find the reaction of the other believers to be shocking, because Jesus had on numerous occasions plainly said to them before all of this that he would die and then rise again. What Jesus had said would happen had happened, and it should have surprised no one.

Yet every one of us can relate to their reaction because dead people don’t rise from the dead! That’s the stuff of stories – fictional books and movies! So of course no one believed the women – who could blame them for being skeptical of what they determined was all “nonsense”???

Wherever you stand regarding politics or social justice or war or vaccinations or… the list goes on – we’re all in the same boat – skeptical of others. We’re skeptical of some of the information we’ve received. We’re skeptical of the source of that information, trying to determine who is following an agenda and who genuinely has my best interests in mind; we’re skeptical of other viewpoints on the topic. We’re all skeptical about everything, so a little skepticism on the part of some believers who had just been told that their crucified, dead Jesus was now very much alive, does not shock us at all!

So for those of us who can relate to the defeatism caused either by fear like the women experienced or by skepticism like the disciples, what is going to change? Are you happy to coexist with feeling defeated and allowing fear and skepticism to linger or is there another option? There are two, actually. 

One, take note of what the angels encouraged the fearful women to do: remember. “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered his words” (v. 5b-8).

Remember. Remember that Jesus said this would happen. Remember that the prophets said this would happen, just like Isaiah did when he prophesied 700 years beforehand this very event – Jesus’ resurrection: “he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth” (Isaiah 25:7-8).

Remember that God had repeatedly promised a solution for sin, and that solution was his Son – the same one nailed to the cross on Good Friday who forever turned the tables on death and overcame it for all. And Paul, the writer of 1 Corinthians, remembered the same picture, that by Jesus’ resurrection, “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (v.54c).

So in response to fear, remember; remember along with Isaiah, along with Paul, and along with the women, that Jesus was only doing everything that had been promised from the beginning – paying the price for our sin by his death, and promising us eternal life by his resurrection. He has risen, and fear and death have been defeated!

And what to do in the face of skepticism? Look at what Peter did. He investigated. He did not hunker down at home and hang on to his skepticism, reinforcing it further by gathering together with other skeptics who felt the same way. No, Peter challenged his skepticism. He didn’t just accept what others took as nonsense and rule it out; he looked into the matter more. He investigated it for himself. “Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened” (v.12). 

Follow in Peter’s footsteps and do what the skeptic did: investigate. Peter may not have gotten a clear answer right away when he arrived at the tomb that morning, but he would eventually. If you aren’t as familiar with the Bible, the book of Luke is right near the beginning of the part of the Bible we call the New Testament. If you continue on past Luke, though, you’ll come across a very different Peter.

Check in on him in the book of Acts. Read his own perspective from his own two letters, the books of the Bible that bear his name. You will see a different Peter! You will not see the skeptic, but a fearless follower of Jesus. His doubt and skepticism are replaced with unwavering conviction and rock-solid determination that everything in life that matters for every single soul hinges entirely upon the Resurrection, which he resolutely commits to spreading for the rest of his life. 

Investigate. Read the Bible for yourself. Study it with others. Ask questions. Explore. Look into these things to see if they’re true. It’s the absolute best next step to investigate and allow God the opportunity to convince you as he did Peter. Or, reach out to me and ask about upcoming opportunities to do so in person.

So if your feelings of defeat are the result of fear, remember; if they are the result of skepticism, investigate. When you do, you’ll find that God can turn feelings of defeat into victory.

That was what happened when the fog cleared. The message that had deflated a nation, the message, “Wellington defeated,” was incomplete. There was more, and it changed everything. As more of the signal became clear, the message brought hope to a crushed nation. That complete message was, “Wellington defeated the enemy!” Gloom had turned to glee.  Sorrow turned into song, for what at first appeared to be defeat was in reality victory after all. 

You know what? Defeat is a good thing. You just have to make sure you’re on the right side of it. And Jesus guarantees that we are because he was not the One defeated, but rather the One who brought about the defeat. He was the victor who defeated his enemy – check that – enemies! For it was not just Satan himself who was defeated, but his empty threats of death and sin as well. While we still experience those, we are not enslaved by them. Sin doesn’t master us. Death itself doesn’t need to terrify us if the One who himself defeated death promises the same outcome for all who are on the side of victory!

“Help Me See… that God Keeps His Promises”

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(Luke 24:13-35)

The most memorable movies almost always have a great ending. What makes for a great ending? While there are a lot of factors that contribute to a great ending, the one that I think stands out the most is when something completely unexpected happens. We recently had this experience in the Grand Canyon. One of the most spectacular hikes was because it was unexpected. While it was impressive to finish the first part of the hike that involved a significant descent, once we got to the first lower section, everything sort of started looking the same. It was as if the hike could have been in any number of other National Parks – it wasn’t too special or unique. But then when we shot off on another trail, almost out of nowhere, an unexpected view caught us by surprise: the steep walls that had surrounded us cracked open and revealed miles of canyon upon canyon, all splitting right from where we were. It was completely unexpected and breathtaking. A good movie ending is like that, leaving the viewer completely caught off guard by a twist that didn’t feel at all forced, leaving him almost speechless. We love those kinds of endings. They’re the ones that make for the most memorable movies. 

So one might expect that we’d also love those kinds of endings in real life, right? Wrong. A movie is one thing; our life is another. No, in life we prefer to know exactly what is happening next. We like to have control. We like to see how we’ll be getting from where we are right now to where we want to be or need to be. We don’t particularly care for the twists or the turns, but would rather see the road ahead of us maintain the straight trajectory that we’re currently on. Keep your twists and turns, thank you very much. 

The problem is, have you noticed by now that the twists and turns are often how God tends to keep his promises? We confuse the path of God’s promises for God passing on his promises. We conclude that God is overlooking his promises when he is in fact overseeing them. A recent devotion used the picture of a detour, which is really a great illustration of how God keeps his promises. We’ve driven a familiar route long enough and expect to get there a certain way. A detour throws everything off. It throws us off. It frustrates us. It leads us to conclude that God has checked out and is no longer interested in keeping his promises, when in reality the detour is God keeping his promise. Just not using the means, methods, or map that we had in mind! 

Wasn’t that how the disciples on the way to Emmaus were seeing things? They recounted all of the details that had happened. “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they didn’t see him” (v.19-24). They had just captured everything that had happened, just as it was supposed to happen – as Jesus had said it would happen – but they concluded that something was wrong. Something was out of place. Something hadn’t played out the way it was supposed to. In fact, everything had played out just as it was supposed to, but they didn’t see it that way. God was in fact doing just what he has always done – carrying out his promise. Yet they drew the entirely wrong conclusion – that it wasn’t happening the way it was supposed to. 

Since Jesus knew better, it doesn’t surprise us to hear the response that he gives – “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (v.25). As if Jesus was saying, “Guys, how are you missing that everything you just explained was like a movie that perfectly followed the script from beginning to end, not ad-libbing or changing things on the fly, but playing out according to the script God had revealed through his prophets from day 1? It’s happening just as it was written, yet you’re somehow befuddled by the reality of what it looks like. How can this be?”

Indeed, how can it be that we would ever conclude that the events in our life not playing out exactly as we expected must mean God isn’t keeping his promises? We can’t relate to that at all, can we… except on an almost daily basis! God is busy keeping his promises to his people day in and day out, yet as we track the way by which he chooses to do it, we conclude that God must be overlooking his promises instead of overseeing them, as he actually is. Take a brief waltz through the significant events in your life and make a mental list of how they played out. Did you get through school the way you planned to? Did you find your spouse the way you planned to? Did you come by your current job the way you planned to? Are you current living where you planned to? Not too much of our lives plays out the way we planned, but our altered plans are not God’s altered promises – they are rather the means by which he was carrying out his promises all along!

Now it’s one thing to look back and see this play out in hindsight, but it’s not so easy when we’re in the middle of it. It doesn’t look like God is keeping his promises to provide when I’m in a season of unemployment. It doesn’t feel like God is keeping his promise of peace and unity in the middle of so much division. God promises that he’s always with us, but that’s hard to experience when those closest to me have abandoned or forgotten me.

Sometimes the issue in these cases is because God has just begun the detour in keeping his promise; other times it’s simply my disobedience. What I mean by disobedience is that we fail to act on the direction he provides that allows us to see him carry out his promise. He promises peace when we place our trust in him. But we don’t have peace because we don’t trust. He promises relief from anxiety when we cast our cares on him. But we’re anxious because don’t cast our cares on him. He promises freedom from bitterness and anger when we forgive. But we’re bitter and angry because we refuse to forgive. So our disobedience doubles the damage – it is not only sin against God, which is wretched enough in its own right, but on top of that it is also debilitating to us! It’s not that God isn’t keeping his promise; it’s that we rob him of the opportunity to do so by our disobedience! When God says “Do this” and we don’t, is it reasonable for us to expect the promised blessings he attached to that act of obedience? Not really!

The good news is that whether our struggle to see God keeping his promises is due to our impatience with the detour he has chosen to take, or because of our disobedience, the solution to both is found in the same place. How did Jesus help the disciples see that God was simply carrying out his promises? He explained the Scriptures to them. “‘Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures” (v.26-27). Jesus, the incarnate God, the One who breathed everything into existence, who has no beginning and no end, is right there with the two disciples, and how does he open their eyes? He uses the Bible. Jesus used the Bible to unfold for the two exactly how God was overseeing – not overlooking – his promises. Jesus’ go-to was the Word of God. And that in-depth search of the Scriptures pointed them more clearly to Jesus. The Word was how they saw God keeping his promises.

So detour or disobedience – it doesn’t matter; the Word will always help us see that God keeps his promises. It will always be the necessary first step in reminding us of this because it is always the first step in finding forgiveness. Why do we begin every service with confession and absolution? Because that comes from the Word, where alone and more than anything else we find the forgiveness we need. Oh, the day we stop sinning we won’t need to hear that assurance of forgiveness again… but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. So forgiveness is the first aid we need most for our disobedience and our doubts about God keeping his promises. 

And it is the same Word that records for us promise after promise that God has made and delivered. Hang on to this worship folder just for the Lessons, if nothing else. Keep it accessible so that when you next question God’s promise-keeping, you can go back to these Scriptures and be reminded that the issue is NEVER going to be one of God’s failed promises. That will never happen. But we need to be reminded of that truth again and again. We need to hear the refrain in our heads. We need to meditate in our minds over they myriad ways God has always kept his promises. Promise-keeping is what he does. He’s the best in the business – no one else even comes close to delivering on promises the way God does! His Word is his diary of kept promises for you.

And is there greater proof of those kept promises than the vacant tomb? Talk about unexpected twists and great endings! It appeared as if the credits were ready to roll when he breathed his last on Good Friday, but in the greatest ending ever, he didn’t stay dead! Let Jesus’ resurrection help us see that God keeps his promises. And let it help us see that it really isn’t the end of the story, but our lives are a continuation of God’s perfect promise-keeping record. We hold on to that until this chapter of the story concludes and the final twist takes place: Jesus returns and fulfill his final promise. Come, Lord Jesus!