Tag: teaching

A Story of Liberal & Lavish Invitation

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(Matthew 22:1-14)

How can God possibly convince you? What illustration, what picture, would be enough for it to sink in how good it is to be in Christ’s kingdom? What does it take so that your view of Christianity and Christ’s church is so much more than just a social club or service to tap into when you need it, but so much more? Think about what it would take for that to sink in, because God wants you to know how really great it is to be in his kingdom.

So Jesus tells a story. This story shares some similarities with previous stories – parables – we’ve heard from Jesus, but also a few unique elements. One that stands out: the party! “Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son’” (v. 1-2).

Mind you, this is not just anyone in the neighborhood throwing a party – this is a king. This is someone with the resources to put together a spectacular party! Someone in that position, for an occasion like that – a wedding reception for his son – is able to spare no expense in spoiling all of the guests gathered to celebrate his son’s marriage.

The king even makes sure his servants are highlighting his extensive preparations when he sends them out to personally follow up on the invitations he had extended. “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet” (v.4). He was not throwing some party on the cheap, holding out and hoarding the best of the best for himself sometime down the road, but was planning to serve the best beverages, choicest cuts of meat, and every delectable treat one could ever hope to sample. It was all going to be there!

And it’s all right here – right here in Christ’s kingdom to which we believers belong. That – this – is the kingdom Jesus is portraying in his parable, and while it certainly includes the fullest measure of what is waiting for us in heaven, by no means are the blessings of the wedding banquet off limits to us until then! While the blessings of being in this kingdom are many, I want to highlight just a few that repeatedly seem to top the list for many believers: hope, peace, forgiveness, and love.

A familiar statement popped up again in a recent devotion. I’m not sure who is credited with coining it, but here’s the reminder of one of the great blessings of being in Christ’s kingdom: “Many people see only a hopeless end, but you have an endless hope.”

In a society that has more resources than it’s ever had at its disposal – in terms of stuff, support, treatment, etc. – it seems to take so little for people to slip into hopelessness. Yes, in recent decades we have done a poor job of teaching younger generations the value of resiliency and how to handle adversity, but there’s more to it than that.

If we don’t have the God of hope in our lives, then should it surprise us that so many are feeling hopeless? Let’s not make it more complicated than it needs to be! Paul captured the blessing of hope in the closing thoughts of his letter to the Christians in Rome. To those who had more than enough earthly reasons to feel hopeless, as persecution in the early church raged, he wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Without the “God of hope,” where else would we expect to be hopeful? But with him, hope overflows – a hope that is fueled by the certainty of the full-blown wedding banquet waiting for us in the future. And that hope is related to another blessing of being in this kingdom: peace. 

Will peace exist in the middle east when terrorists stop attacking Israel and Israel stops retaliating? Is peace merely a matter of putting down weapons? Of course not. Fear and terror of what could happen at any moment in the future would continue to exist on both sides.

That’s because peace isn’t found in the absence of war and aggression; it’s found in reconciliation. It is found only when two sides have completely hashed out their differences and restored and repaired their relationship. But as long as something – anything – stands in the way of that, there is no reconciliation, and therefore no peace. 

When we are riddled with guilt over what we’ve done wrong, we don’t need someone to merely brush it off and say that what we did was no big deal. No, we need something more. We need reconciliation. We need assurances that what we’ve done doesn’t stand between us and that person. We only have that in Jesus, who alone is able to assure us that because of his saving work, because of the forgiveness he came to secure for us, no sin or guilt remains between a Holy God and a sinner like me. The assurance Jesus gave to his disciples after his resurrection is also our assurance: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). You are at peace. Jesus says so, because Jesus made it so. And just as your peace is related to the hope we have, so is your peace the result of another blessing of being in the kingdom: forgiveness.

Notice how beautifully that forgiveness is depicted in Colossians: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14). We have been rescued! We were dominated by darkness, but having been brought into the King’s kingdom, a kingdom characterized by forgiveness.

It’s what sets this kingdom apart from all others. Other kingdoms are established by a show of might or political gamesmanship, but not this one. This one is far more powerful, for it is based on the authoritative pronouncement of God himself to the whole world, that his forgiveness through Christ means he doesn’t hold our sin against us. 

But what should prompt all of this? Why should the likes of any of us be able to rest in the hope, the peace, and the forgiveness that belong to us in this kingdom?

Simply because the God who is love loves you with a love that will never burn out or be bored of you. His is an eternal love, put into action before creation, carried out at Christ’s crucifixion, and continues to all in his kingdom.

Jesus’ disciple John, who preferred to be known not for his great sermons, his special privileges as being in Jesus’ inner circle, or any of his own accomplishments, but to be known simply as the disciple Jesus loved, wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

In Christ’s kingdom we have all of these blessings – hope, peace, and forgiveness – because God loves us. In light of these reminders, doesn’t Jesus’ description of the lavish wedding banquet seem like a gross understatement? How could any worldly illustration – even Jesus’ own parable – possibly come close to adequately describing the blessings God lavishes on his people?!?

Yes, Jesus’ story is one of a lavish invitation to a never-ending party that nothing else will ever come anywhere close to imitating. But Jesus’ story tells us even more: everyone is invited. All are welcome! No one is excluded from being invited to the banquet! How liberal is God with his invitation, to exclude no one and include everyone?!?

The details in the parable capture this quite well. The king had already sent out invitations, but he didn’t just sit back and wait for people to show up. Rather, in addition to sending out the invitations, he took the initiative to follow up with all of those who had been invited to remind them of the invitation and urge them to now come and join in the festivities, for everything was ready.

If you’ve ever planned a party or an event – whether it’s been for just a small group or a large one – you know this is no small thing. It’s a lot of effort to make sure all of the details on the invitation are correct. Then, how will the invitations get distributed? Will you mail them with a stamp, send out an email and hope it doesn’t go into their spam, or create an event on social media? Will you invite via a phone call or text message?

There are so many ways to get the word out, which also means so many more ways for the word to get lost, ironically making follow up as necessary as ever! And who of us hasn’t wanted to pull out their hair trying to do that (or from the other perspective, been the ones responsible for causing others to want to pull out their hair because of our lack of response!)? Getting a response from people at a time when ghosting has become acceptable behavior is no easy thing! So see and appreciate what great lengths the king went to in his invitations, sending his servants out multiple times to follow up.

When one goes to such great lengths to plan and prepare a party and thoroughly extend invitation upon invitation, it makes it all the more inexcusable that any should react as they did. Some simply ignored the invitation. Others were preoccupied with other priorities, heading off to work or tending to a project at home. Still others did the unthinkable and murdered the messengers.

Recall that we witnessed this same behavior in the last parable Jesus told of his vineyard. However, this time Jesus included what it looked like to “bring those wretches to a wretched end,” to use the words from the last story of Jesus. He describes it here. “The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city” (v.7).

Yes, there will be punishment for those who reject Jesus’ offer of free and full salvation. While some may conclude that such punishment is unnecessary and that God goes too far and way over the top in carrying out such punishment, they forget that consequence is simply what we brought on ourselves way back at the first sin.

We brought it on ourselves. What’s more, remember that’s the very thing God sent out the invitation to rescue us from! So if we refuse his rescue, then we have just chosen for things to be the way we always deserve – to be punished ourselves for our sin and cut off from God’s grace forever. To those who reject God’s gracious invitation, God will give them what they want instead. 

But for those who do by faith accept his invitation, we notice from this parable that there’s also only one way to get into the banquet: you have to be wearing the wedding clothes.

The king saw one guest who was not properly dressed and he was dismissed – thrown out of the party! He didn’t have on the right fit. The only appropriate dress wear in Christ’s kingdom is Christ’s perfection. His holiness. His righteousness. Anyone who insists on wearing his own good efforts, noble intentions, or positive thoughts and vibes, will end up on the outside looking in. 

So after the invitations went out, who are those left out? Only those who chose not to attend the banquet and those insisting on getting in on their own terms.

So it is with the kingdom of God. The invitations literally could not have been sent out more liberally! They went out to everyone! Not only that, but the appropriate attire – the credit of Christ’s perfect life through faith – is also offered to everyone in attendance. And don’t forget the rich blessings of being in attendance: hope, peace, and forgiveness, all driven by the King’s love for you. How lavish & liberal is the king’s invitation?!?

Who are you in this parable? Wherever you are in life, there is a role depicted in the parable. Are you rejecting the invitation and/or those messengers who bring it? Preoccupied with other things that you don’t have time of the party? You want to come to the party but you insist on getting in on your own terms? Feel like your guilty past means you didn’t make the guest list? All are invited! The servants were sent out repeatedly to others with the invitation? At times we fall into different roles in the parable, but as we wrap up Jesus’ stories, let us make sure we take him up on his invitation. Not only does our eternity depend on it, but we don’t want to miss out on the party – then or now! And it’s so easy for us to miss out if we take for granted what is included in Christ’s kingdom.

The story is told of a family who wanted to travel to America for the chance at a better life. After saving up, they spent all they had on tickets for the family to travel on an ocean liner to America. Friends and family provided bread and cheese for the family of four. Dad figured they could stretch that out to last the ten-day trip and then they’d be much better off after arriving in America.

After six days of cheese & bread sandwiches, their little boy couldn’t take it anymore. Dad mercifully scrounged together enough change for the boy to go to the ship’s store and buy an apple. After quite a bit of time had passed, the boy hadn’t returned and dad, being worried, set out to find him.

As he left the lowest tier of the ship and climbed each level, accommodations became increasingly luxurious. Eventually the father made it into the the grand dining room, where he discovered his son sitting at a table surrounded by an amazing spread of food. “What are you doing?”, dad lamented. “We can’t afford that! I’ll be arrested and we’ll be taken back home!”

As the son replied, he took out the change his dad had given him and returned it, explaining, “Dad, all of the food is included in the price of the ticket. We could have been eating all of this for the past six days instead of cheese bread sandwiches!”

So often that describes how we go through life. We settle for cheese sandwiches instead of tapping into the banquet that God provides for us. Realize how lavish the party is in Christ’s kingdom, and rejoice that you’ve been invited by taking advantage of all of the blessings he provides! Oh, and don’t forget to pass along to everyone else that they’ve been invited, too!

A Story of A Determined Harvester

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(Matthew 21:33-43)

They were a camping family. They knew the outdoors. Their experience level could be considered way above average in terms of handling different types of geography, weather, and wildlife. Being outdoors was almost as natural to them as the daily routine back home, even for the kids.

All of this explains why the parents didn’t bat an eye at giving the okay when their thirteen-year old asked if he could go for a hike, even though they were camping in bear country. When he returned from his hike, everyone was pretty excited when he shared that he saw a bear on his hike, from a safe distance, of course.

The following day his parents again granted him permission to go on the hike, as he was excited by the possibility of seeing a bear again. This time he came back even more thrilled, because not only did he see the bear again, but it had even chased him very briefly this time.

While the parents were certainly a bit more apprehensive about letting him hike the same trail for a third time the next morning, not only were they were both confident in his experience ability to take care of himself, but they also reasoned that after two days in a row, the probability of a third bear encounter a was extremely low.

They were understandably shaken up then, to say the least, when he stumbled back into camp with cuts and scrapes and his clothes all disheveled. Sure enough, once again he had come across the bear’s path, but this time it charged at him and attacked him. He couldn’t get out his bear spray in time to deter the bear, but once he fell to the ground and played dead, eventually the bear became disinterested, left him alone, and wandered off. He was extremely fortunate to get by with only very minor injuries.

What would you think of those parents if they were to let their son go on that same hike a fourth time (let alone the third time!)?

Now, as you consider your answer to that question, how does your view of those parents compare to your view of the landowner in Jesus’ parable from Matthew 21, verses 33-43? Both were knowingly putting others at risk! While the actions of the tenants in Jesus’ story are of course inexcusable, at what point does the landowner bear responsibility for knowingly putting others in harm’s way by sending additional servants – and eventually even his own son! – back to the vineyard? Surely in today’s world he’d be looking at a lawsuit from the other servants or the families of those injured or killed! What justification could there possibly be for such action?

Surely the most shocking element of Jesus’ story is the landowner’s insistence on continuing to send servants after seeing how the tenants treated the servants he sent previously! The landowner appear to be completely irresponsibly, negligent – reckless, even!

But is the “irresponsible landowner” the only view of the vineyard owner can have, or do the details of Jesus’ story possibly provide a different perspective? Consider all the measures the landowner took in the first place. He’s the one who planted the vineyard on his plot of land – it belonged to him, not the tenant farmers. In order to keep the vineyard protected, he built a wall around it, complete with a watchtower to monitor everything. He even had winepress built on-site to make it as easy as possible to press the grapes into wine, so that they wouldn’t first have to be transported somewhere else for that step.

One could say the landowner went to great lengths to set up his vineyard to be successful. And what was the purpose behind all of it? “When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit” (v.34). He simply wanted fruit. That was, after all, the goal. It’s why he got into the business in the first place, so that his vineyard would bear fruit. 

When we keep that in mind, is he so crazy after all for sending additional servants to collect what was his? He simply wanted his business effort to generate a profit. He wanted to see the results of the blood, sweat, and tears he had put into the vineyard.

Moreover, if we put the best construction on the landowner’s continued efforts at sending additional servants, he was giving the tenants multiple opportunities to do the right thing. Each group of servants was another chance for them to realize their mistake, change their ways, and treat the servants well while sending them back to the landowner with an abundant harvest. So not only did the landowner care about his fruit, but also the tenants tending his fruit. He wanted them to do the right thing and serve faithfully in his vineyard. 

What does this parable of Jesus teach us about God? God is a determined harvester. And from that truth, we can draw out two applications for today: 1) don’t belittle the fruit collectors and, 2) do bear fruit. 

Don’t Belittle the Fruit Collectors

“Belittle” is an understatement for how the tenants treated the fruit collectors! Jesus’ parable states, “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way” (v.35-36). The tenants didn’t just tell the fruit collectors to bug off or go fly a kite. They could have just refused to let them into the vineyard at all. But instead they went to the extreme in their treatment, beating, killing, and stoning them. To do so was not just an injustice against the servants who were merely acting on behalf of the landowner, but a direct assault against the landowner himself!

Jesus is clearly addressing his listening religious leaders through this story, as the parable calls out Israel’s past – and present – penchant for persecuting prophets. In that regard, the Old Testament isn’t just a history, it’s essentially a RAP sheet listing the crimes Israel was guilty of committing against the prophets God sent to collect fruit. Again and again God’s people incriminated themselves in their treatment of God’s prophets. In every season of Israel’s history, God patiently sent one prophet after another to speak messages of repentance and promises of comfort for those who turn back to God. And in every season of Israel’s history, God’s prophets were belittled, rarely listened to, but often attacked and even killed.

The culmination of this was unfolding in the present during Holy Week as the prophet Jesus spoke this parable to those who would yet again fulfill it when they would murder God’s only perfect prophet on Good Friday. And, in the verses immediately following this Matthew reading, Jesus’ listeners knew full well that he was accusing and convicting them. “When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet” (v.45-46). 

Do we realize how Jesus’ story accuses and convicts us as well? Or do we presume that since we’ve never been guilty of assaulting or murdering a man of God that this cannot apply to us?

But have we belittled those God has sent to serve us with his Word? Have we despised the preaching of his Word and reception of his body and blood by tending to other cares and concerns in this world as of much greater priority? Have we ignored attempts of elders to minister to us by not even responding to their efforts to do so? Have we downplayed when the pastor cares enough to call to our attention that we’ve been noticeably absent from regular worship? Have we ignored invitations to study his Word together and deepen our faith? Assuming you are a member of a congregation, have you forgotten that you were not forced into membership in that congregation, but willingly chose to be under its spiritual care?

Though we may convince ourselves otherwise, we have blood on our hands when we belittle God’s efforts at sending his servants to collect fruit and minister to us. It’s so easy for us to convince ourselves of how unlike those rebellious, stubborn OT Israelites we are, and that we’d never stoop to their level. But are we better or worse off if we learn nothing from their example and exhibit what is the same attitude of heart toward God, but refuse to admit it? 

What does that kind of attitude deserve? At the close of Jesus’ parable, even his enemies determined those tenants ought to get what they deserve: “‘Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?’ ‘He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,’ they replied’” (v.40-41a). They condemned themselves! And if we confess our guilt of the same sin, then we, too, are condemned. We, too, deserve to be brought to a wretched end! There is nothing more wretched than hell and being eternally separated from God and his love – and we’d have no one to blame but ourselves because we admit that’s the sentence that such actions deserve!

But there is more to Jesus’ story. As with other parables, there is a son. The landowner finally sent his own son, thinking his own flesh and blood would surely be respected. Instead he was rejected. Instead he was murdered.

That, thankfully, was by God’s design. Yes, someone had to get what those wicked tenants – what we – deserve! But the one paying that price was not at all the one who deserved it. The Son, Jesus, died for the tenants. They thought they’d kill him and get the inheritance, but the truth is, Jesus came to die to give them an even greater inheritance: heaven. The Son died to satisfy the Lord’s wrath against rebellious sinners. The Son died to satisfy the Lord’s wrath against you and me. 

So we will never bear it. We will never feel it. We will never experience what it’s like for wretches to be brought to a wretched end, even though it’s the wretched end our own actions deserve. Jesus did that for us. And what does he need from us in return?

Do Bear Fruit

Well, he doesn’t need anything, but we can’t but help give him everything. Our firstfruits. Our best. The harvest he longs to have from those that he took such care to bring into his vineyard. We have no fear of repercussion for our sin, as our punishment has already been carried out. Now we are free to bear fruit. 

And oh, there are so many ways for us to bear fruit, aren’t there? So many ways for us to express the depth of gratitude that God hasn’t cast us out of his vineyard, his kingdom, but lovingly keeps and protects and serves us here. Think of the fruit we can bear individually and together! Think of how God uses that fruit to invest back into his kingdom and build it up!

Rather than simply listing all the different ways we can bear fruit, let us consider how we can participate in one particular way: mission work. God bears so much fruit in and through us as we carry out his mission to make the good news about Jesus known everywhere. He does that through us individually and as we work together as Christians to carry this out (here’s an awesome example!). Your prayers will bear fruit in mission work. Your offerings will bear fruit in mission work. Your lips will bear fruit in mission work, as you tell others about Jesus, or consider full-time ministry to lead and equip others to do so.

However you can, in as many was as you can, bear fruit! God will take our fruit and build and bless his vineyard, his kingdom, through it!

A Story of Spiritual Insincerity

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(Matthew 21:23-32)

Can you imagine how hard it must have been for them? How excruciating to have had to utter the words! Surely it went against ever fiber of their being to have to give such a reply, but after having analyzed it from every angle, the best response the know-it-all religious leaders could give to Jesus’ question was, “We don’t know” (v.27).

How true it was, though! They didn’t know. Hardened hearts were not willing to accept the spiritual things that only the Holy Spirit can reveal, and so they truly didn’t know the answer to Jesus’ question. 

Nor did they wish to, which shows us how stubborn a thing unbelief is to overcome. Each possible response they considered showed them to be in the wrong. Either response would have taken them at least one step in the right direction closer to faith in Jesus.

But unbelief is a stubborn thing. It doesn’t wish to be overcome. It prefers to remain blind. It prefers to remain in the dark. It refuses to be humbled or corrected. So rather than acknowledge it is in the wrong, it offers uncertainty as a suitable middle ground.

We see it today. Nonbelievers are content to live in limbo, refusing to believe one thing or another on the basis of “How can we really know for sure?” Or, they deflect their responsibility in investigating Jesus’ claims or the veracity of the Bible by accusing Christians of believing themselves to be superior to everyone else because they’re so sure they’re right and everyone else is wrong. So they hang out in the middle, shrugging their shoulders like the chief priests and elders, while echoing their disinterested “we don’t know.”

And these are the same ones who want to point out how readily they would believe if they simply had any proof of God’s existence. To them, just as he did to the chief priests and elders who refused to acknowledge the proof right before their eyes speaking to them, Jesus says, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things” (v.27).  

Jesus is never one to waste words, not when he knew his time on earth – as well as theirs – was limited. For that reason he chose to steer the conversation in a different direction. Rather than trying to satisfy unbelieving ears with some sort of appeal that would legitimize his authority, Jesus instead focused on the greater issue that had to change before anything else: the unbelief in their hearts. To address that issue – the biggest issue by far in anyone’s heart, Jesus told a story. 

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go” (v.28-30). Jesus’ parable is short and to the point. It would seem to be rather straightforward, and especially relatable to anyone with their own kids, or who has ever been around kids, or who has ever been a kid – so yes, relatable to all of us. At the end of the day, a person may have good intentions, but good intentions by themselves don’t yield good results. 

Jesus’ listeners rightly guessed the answer to his follow-up question, “Which of the two did what his father wanted?” (v.31). They knew the son who ended up actually following through with the father’s request was the one who did what he wanted. While the father would have most certainly been irritated, by the son’s initial refusal to do what told him to do, in the end, the father would have been happy to see the son end up doing the work. Perhaps there would be some additional conversation about how out-of-line it was for the son to say “no” to his father in the first place (a conversation that seems to be far too infrequent in our society today), but ultimately the son did the work he was told to do, even if after initially bucking against it.

On the other hand, how disappointed must the father have been when the other son’s initial, “Okay, I will” resulted in nothing but further inactivity! At least if the other son had done nothing, his inactivity would have matched his initial response. But what a different thing it is when expectations are raised, only to be dashed again! What a different thing it is when someone agrees and then doesn’t follow through. 

What exactly was Jesus’ point for his listeners then? What message did he wish to get through the thick skulls of the chief priests and teachers of the law? They knew Jesus’ teachings. They knew Jesus’ claims. They knew that others, too, were aware of what Jesus was calling for from his disciples – to repent and believe in him.

But since their hearts were hard, they rejected Jesus’ invitation, convinced they were already carrying out what the father, what the LORD, had called them to do: obey and embrace the law along with its “do’s” and “don’ts” as a means of satisfying the Father. In essence, they thought their lives were already a reflection of the perfect son who knew what the father wanted and proceeded to carry it out. But they missed that they weren’t at all carrying out what the father had asked: to believe in the one he sent, the Savior, Jesus. 

It was a different story, however, for the tax collectors and the prostitutes. They were the other son. They looked at what the religious crowd was portraying as far as the father’s demands, and they didn’t even bother pretending to say “yes” to such high demands. They knew such expectations were impossible for the likes of them. They knew they had no chance in following through with such lofty expectations, so they just presumed they’d always be on the outside looking in when it came to meeting religious qualifications. 

But when Jesus comes along and shares the exact same message – “repent and believe in me,” there was a different result. The very same ones who in their own minds were the “No way” sons and daughters to the father’s request were quick to follow through with what Jesus called them to do: believe he was the Savior.

Jesus shared their outcome with the chief priests and teachers of the law: “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you” (v.31).

The chief priests and teachers of the law were doing what they thought the father – God – was asking of them, but in reality they were doing what they in their own self-righteous hearts wished would have been the way to satisfy the father. In that regard, it wasn’t at all the father they were really aiming to please, but their own sense of self-righteousness.  

What does this have to do with us today? After all, when was the last time you came into contact with a chief priest or teacher of the law? Well, actually, we see them anytime we look in the mirror. What do I mean?

In the simplest sense, who can keep track of the number of times we’ve been the son who says “I will” and then doesn’t? We take the time to comment under the prayer request post that we’re praying or we text back the praying hands emoji, but we don’t take the time to actually pray the prayer we promised. We ask someone in need to let us know if there’s anything we can do to help, and when they lay out the specifics of how we could actually help, we fail to follow through. We commit to serving or volunteering in this or that role with a full understanding of what is being expected of us, only to not do what we said we’d do, and instead make excuses or keep putting off what we agreed to get done. It’s not the son in the parable we want to be, but it’s the son we so often are.

We’re that same son even when we do the right things we should do… but for the wrong reasons. Remember, those confronting Jesus did actually focus on obedience and following the rules. They were concerned with doing the right things, and they were sincere about it. But their reasons were sincerely wrong. Their doings and obedience and rule-following were not Christ-compelled gestures of overwhelming appreciation and thanks that stemmed from a vibrant heart of faith overflowing with gratitude. No, their doings and obedience and rule-following were prompted by perfectionist tendencies that believed the lie that peace with God was earned – or even could be earned – by hard work and dutiful effort on their part. As far as they were concerned, the attitude behind that effort didn’t matter. As long as it got done, that’s what God was looking for. 

When instead of joyfully jumping in we resentfully allow ourselves to be “roped in” to service and ministry, we might as well have come clean right from the start and instead been the son who said, “I will not,” because God isn’t looking for a church built on begrudging acts of service. When worship becomes an appearance that must be made to be seen by others instead of an eager acceptance of the King’s banquet invitation to be fed the divine food that satisfies our souls, we are the son who says he will, but doesn’t. When the days sandwiched between Sundays are lived out as if they were our “time-off” from Christian living instead of the actual time to punch in and put in the work of living out our faith, we are the son who says he will, but doesn’t. In so many ways we are the wrong son in this parable!

How much we need a third Son – God’s Son! He alone is the Son who not only said, “I will,” but also carried out the Father’s will perfectly. What’s more, he knew his purpose so well and realized his mission that he invited others to test him as they followed him, listened to him, and watched him carry out his work. His invitation then is still extended to us today – “Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father” (John 10:37).

To those still claiming “we don’t know,” Jesus says, “Fine, put me to the test and see! But if you see me doing what my Father commanded – in a way no one else ever has or ever could, then you have all the reason you need to believe in me!” 

And near the last hours of his, as Satan was preparing to use Judas and Jesus’ enemies to carry out God’s plan and purpose on the cross, Jesus explained why it had to happen: “so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31).

This is the Son we need, the son we could never be, the Son who did all that the Father commanded – including the covering of our own failures as sons and daughters by giving up his very life on the cross! This is the Son in whom there is no insincerity or deceit, but only perfect obedience, carried out with a perfect heart, filled with perfect love for the Father. This is the Son through whom we have forgiveness and a place with our Father here and now, and home in heaven.  

Because he did, we are on the receiving end of that same perfect love, a love the Father has for us because of the perfectly sincere Son, our Savior, Jesus. There is no place for “I don’t know,” no place for “I’m not sure.” There is only absolute certainty in the perfect sincerity of Jesus, carried out in his perfect life, death, and resurrection, for you. 

A Story of Faultless Fairness

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(Matthew 20:1-16)

Kids love stories. Before they can even identify letters or read words, they are able to pick out their favorite books and have them read to them over and over and over again. As they are able to read on their own, they learn to like different characters and authors and get into book series and appreciate hearing how story lines play out over longer periods of time.

It isn’t just kids who love stories. Everyone likes stories – adults included. Whether they’re romance novels, gripping mysteries, tales of vigilante justice, or historical non-fiction, good stories will be appreciated. It’s also true of movies. While special effects and star power carry some weight, movies that have staying power are popular because of the story. Stories are powerful. Stories are moving. Stories can be life-changing. And so, stories and those who tell them will always have a measure of influence in the world.

Jesus knew the power of stories. Sometimes he referenced true stories from Old Testament history; other times he told another kind of story: a parable. In fact, parables were one of Jesus’ most popular teaching methods. Through parables, he used earthly stories to convey spiritual truths. In so doing, he helped his listeners grasp the important points he wanted them to learn – and in a much more powerful way than just bullet points. It would have been one thing for Jesus simply to tell his listeners to forgive. It was another thing to tell the parable of the unmerciful servant and showcase forgiveness (or the lack thereof!) in a memorable way. It was a story that left a powerful impact. Throughout this series of posts, Tell Us a Story, we’ll hear Jesus tell us a number of stories. May they not only capture our attention, but also our hearts, and may their truths be reflected in our lives.  

The story Jesus tells in Matthew 20 shows how different God’s idea of fairness is from ours. Our fallen world operates with a flawed sense of fairness. How could we really expect anything different? How could we expect two self-serving sides in any negotiation or arrangement to approach it with anything but a skewed sense of fairness? Each side is most concerned with making sure its own best interests are served. When each side has its own subjective idea of what is fair, achieving fairness will be nothing but a pipe dream. Just consider how many different labor strikes across various industries have happened, are happening right now, or are being threatened. Inevitably, employers and employees disagree as to what is fair.

That’s why the surprise of the workers in Jesus’ parable doesn’t surprise us. We’re not shocked to see their shock when the landowner distributes wages at the end of the day. The reason we’re not not surprised or shocked is because we’d likely respond exactly the same way!

No, the surprise comes not in the workers’ reaction, but in the landowner’s decision to pay everyone equally. The landowner determined that those who barely finished tying up the laces of their work boots were going to make exactly as much as those who put in a grueling day’s work. Ironic, isn’t it, that we scream “inequality!” when in reality he gave everyone exactly the same amount. By definition you can’t get more “fair” than that!

So what was the problem? Not with the payment, but with what the laborers felt they deserved. And that is why our sense of fairness will always be flawed. We simply do not apply the same standards to ourselves as we do others. We look differently at others than we do ourselves.

One explanation for this discrepancy between how we judge ourselves and how we judge others is that we draw our conclusions about others on the basis of their actions, while viewing ourselves on the basis of our intentions. So when someone else lies, we conclude that she is of course a liar. She probably lies all the time and hardly ever tells the truth. But if I lie, well, there’s a good reason behind it or I didn’t mean to lie, and I most often tell the truth.

When someone else cuts me off in traffic, they’re a bad driver and likely drive that way all the time. But when I do it, it was simply a very rare case, and I probably had a very good reason behind it. Do you see how hard it’s going to be to maintain any sense of fairness when we naturally tend to tip the scale in our own favor? 

How does that higher view of self on our part factor in to the relationship that matters most – our relationship with God? If we refuse to see how skewed our own sense of fairness is, we will always find it unsettling how a gracious, generous God deals with fallen mankind. Even though by definition, grace is God’s undeserved love for sinners, we nonetheless have our own personal ideas about those who are more deserving of that undeserved love than others. Do you see how nonsensical that is? 

It will always be that way to us as long as we insist on viewing man’s relationship with God being based – even the slightest, itty-bittiest bit – on what man is giving instead of entirely on what he is getting. We simply cannot base our relationship with God on what we give to him, even on our best days.

So although we might think that ideal family-man father or the dedicated single mom or the polite, respectable hard-working young adult all have so much going for them that God should take notice and factor that in to his final assessment of who’s in and who’s out, the Bible has plenty to say about thinking we could on our own give anything of worth to God or show ourselves to somehow be more deserving of grace. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

If you want to offer up your dirty, stinky laundry to God in hopes that it’s not as dirty or stinky as the next person’s, you are welcome to try. But at the end of the day, all you’re still offering is dirty, stinky laundry – nothing that would in any way endear God to you anymore, but would actually leave you worse off! So as much as we might try to polish it up or put on a fresh coat of paint or splash some perfume on it, the best we can offer up to God on our own is still nothing but condemning sin.

No, there is no place for our relationship with God being based on what we give. It can only be based on what we get. And in that sense, God’s fairness is faultless, because he treats everyone the same: his undeserved grace is for everyone – no matter when they show up in the work day. So yes, there is grace enough for the death-bed convert. There is grace enough for the death row inmate. There is grace enough for the top-ten list of all-time most wicked, wretched people in history. There is grace enough for your nasty neighbor. There is grace enough for your racist uncle. There is grace enough for the backsliding Christian. There is grace enough for all… so there is grace enough for you. 

If God wants all people to be saved – and he does, based on his own words repeated again and again in the Bible – then the only way that can happen is if he refuses to base salvation on what we pretend we can give him and insists on being the One who gives it to us. What he gives us – all of us – is unmerited, unwarranted, unconditional, unlimited grace. That’s the only way it can be fair. 

That also explains why God is so persistent and committed to making sure everyone is aware of his grace. Did you count how many times in Jesus’ parable the landowner went out to hire workers for his vineyard? Five times! While the number itself is not significant, the message it sends is clear – God continues to make sure his Word keeps spreading. God continues to make sure the good news reaches every ear. God continues to make sure no one misses out so that no one can say, “No one hired us,” that is, that they didn’t know about Jesus and the radical grace God extends through him.

Let us not forget, we are an important part of that. God gathers his church – believers – and uses us to keep sending out the message that God is hiring. There’s more room in his vineyard, his kingdom. There’s more than enough grace to go around. There is more than enough grace to forgive every sin. There is more work that needs to be done in his kingdom, so let us be about that hiring process and bringing others in so that he can lavish them with the grace he eagerly desires to give out. 

Then, let us rejoice – and not resent – when he does. We want to guard against displaying the attitude of the all-day workers in Jesus’ parable, no matter how long we’ve been in the kingdom. When they received their payment, “they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day’” (Mt. 20:11-12).

If their attitude sounds oddly familiar, it might call to mind the attitude of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. Just as he resented what he felt was the misdirected forgiveness and compassion of the father to his wayward brother, so those working all day long resented the short-shift workers receiving the same payment as the day-long laborers. If God wants all to experience the full measure of his grace, then let’s throw a celebration every time anyone receives it! 

Because there are still far too many who are outside of the vineyard. Some don’t know about the grace God has in store for them. Others are not interested in the grace God has in store for them. Still others are adamantly opposed to the grace God has in store for them or simply don’t think they need it to manage their way into the vineyard. Whatever the reason, there are still far too many on the outside looking in.

Let’s do what is in our power to do to get them into the vineyard. Let’s tell them the greatest story ever – the reality of the Savior they have in Jesus, a story for all people. Then, let us rejoice – not resent – every single victory that God generously grants through his grace.  

A Quick-to-Forgive Church

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(Genesis 50:15-21)

Joseph’s life has all the makings of an unforgettable revenge story. Jealous brothers plotted his murder. After having tempered their resentment a bit, however, they settled for selling him as a slave instead. Then, despite exceptional performance reviews and a very respectable reputation as a servant in his master’s house, Joseph’s world came crashing down again. He was the victim of vindictive lies and slander that not only ruined his reputation, but landed him in prison. Even in prison, despite his commendable behavior restoring his good name and the assistance he provided to others in his God-given interpretations of their dreams, he was still forgotten and overlooked for a time by those he helped.

Finally, though, the door opened up for him to ascend to the role of the most powerful man in Egypt next to Pharaoh himself! That’s when the opportunity for what surely could have been one of the most memorable stories of revenge presented itself. His brothers found themselves unknowingly in his presence, completely at his mercy while seeking aid for their starving families. Oh, how Joseph could have unleashed his wrath as a result of decades of pent-up spite, bitterness, and resentment! It would have been a story for the ages!

And it was. It still is. But not for the reason we might have expected; not for revenge. Instead, it’s a story for the ages because of something far more powerful than revenge: Joseph’s choice to forgive his brothers. 

As The Church God Wants series wraps up, it shouldn’t surprise us at that God desires that his Church – that believers – be quick to forgive. Forgiveness is both how and why the Church even exists in the first place! The Church is not just the beneficiary of forgiveness, but its executor as well. We receive it and we distribute it. We are filled up with it and we fill others up with it. If there is one thing the Church is to do and be known for, it must always be forgiveness.

Why is that? Because no other group or institution in society bears that responsibility. Your employer is not required to teach or model forgiveness to you. “Forgiveness 101” is not a required course of study in our public schools or higher education institutions. Your kid’s coach or piano teacher is not being paid or volunteering to help your child learn about forgiveness. The government has not established any rules or regulations to foster forgiveness by threat of fine or jail time (which would of course be a bit ironic). Finally, while in many cities you will have no problem finding community centers, homeless shelters, and food pantries, I have yet to hear of anything resembling a “forgiveness facility.” 

You won’t find such things elsewhere because even society – non-believers and believers alike – realizes that forgiveness is really the church’s business. Forgiveness has historically been understood to be the church’s responsibility.

For that reason, those outside the church tend to pay very close attention when those who belong to it – Christians – fail to forgive. Even they recognize that’s what the Church exists to do… even if they don’t fully recognize the how or why, which is of course one and the same: Jesus.

The Church forgives because the Church exists as a result of Jesus’ forgiveness. Remove his perfect life of obedience from the equation and his death on the cross would not have mattered. Take away his death on the cross and the empty tomb would not have been possible. Do away with the empty tomb, leaving a still-dead-today Jesus, and his payment would have been insufficient and death and hell would still reign. 

But, since we have all of those and everything else that we need in Jesus, we have forgiveness. As long as the church has Jesus, she has all she needs to continue as the source of freely-flowing forgiveness. That means we have something both to receive and to give. What is our part in that? Our role involves both hearing and speaking that forgiveness and each case, for various reasons, sometimes that is very difficult and sometimes it comes quite easily.

When it comes to hearing that forgiveness, it can at times be one of the hardest things of all to hear and at other times the sweetest music to our ears. What accounts for the difference? How could forgiveness ever be hard to hear?

When we don’t feel we need it. After all, when a person has “done nothing wrong,” then there’s nothing to forgive. And that would be true… if we could ever actually figure out how to avoid all wrongdoing. Our shortcoming, however, is our failure to see our wrong or identify it as such. If we spent as much time simply owning our sin and confessing it as we do denying it, excusing it, or blaming others for it, then there would be less kicking and screaming and insisting on our innocence and more reconciliation and healing. 

Those are the times when forgiveness is pure music to our ears – when our guilty ears long to hear it and our troubled hearts know we need it. When the law has done its job and exposed me as the fraud I am in so many ways, I am ready to receive the sweet freedom that only the gospel of forgiveness offers. When my stubbornness, my grudge-bearing, my refusal to forgive others, my selfishness, my stinging words, my neglect of God, my reckless spending – when all of this becomes clearly evident and our guilt won’t let go, then we crave the assurance that Jesus gives. Then we soak up his forgiveness. At those times we cannot hear it too much. 

Hearing forgiveness can be hard or easy, depending on how ready our hearts are to receive it. But speaking words of forgiveness can challenge us as well. Sometimes the words are difficult to speak and other times forgiveness seems to ease effortlessly from our lips. Why is that? How could forgiveness ever be hard to speak? When we feel the other person doesn’t deserve it.

But we must stop right there and be very clear about something before we go on. 

It’s only a worldly – and therefore rather limited and virtually impotent – version of forgiveness that attaches any sense of requirement to it. Only the world speaks of forgiveness in terms of the guilty party somehow being deserving enough or sorry enough or pitiful enough for forgiveness. In other words, it’s a limited forgiveness, a conditional one. 

But God’s forgiveness that extends through his Church is not at all like that. It isn’t limited. It isn’t conditional. It isn’t at all dependent on how deserving the recipient may or may not be, because it is entirely grace-based. That means it isn’t ever deserved and cannot ever be earned. So the kind of forgiveness that is withheld because someone has determined the guilty party doesn’t deserve it is not the kind of forgiveness found in the church. 

When we find it difficult to forgive others, it’s because we’re focused on the world’s “forgiveness” and not the Church’s. That happens when we focus on the wrong itself and how awful it was or the wrongdoer himself and how awful he is to have committed it. Where either the gravity of the wrong committed or the degree of wickedness of the wrongdoer himself is the determining factor, forgiveness will always be conditional.

That also means it will be subjective. One person who determines the wrong or the wrongdoer wasn’t really that bad may find it easy to forgive, while another person may struggle mightily with the same sin because of a different personal experience or perception of that sin. So the kind of forgiveness dependent on the gravity of the crime or the wickedness of the perpetrator – a forgiveness not sanctioned in the Bible, by the way – will always be hard to speak. 

Other times, though, words of forgiveness are come easily. When?

When we focus not on the wrongdoer, but on our forgiver, Jesus. Yes, you read that right – when we focus on our forgiver. That is always the best and necessary place to start. I need to put myself at the center of the investigation and lay bare my whole history, my whole track record of sin, remembering all the despicable stuff I’ve done.

Then, when I realize that God has not withheld his forgiveness for any one of my sins, but that Jesus’ blood has covered and washed away every last one, it seems downright laughable that I should stand before someone else and pretend that his wrong is the exception. How absurd that I could accept that my sin should be cancelled but that his sin could not possibly be. Those are the moments when it hits me why Jesus told the story of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18. He wanted to convict me of how ludicrous it is of me to ever withhold forgiveness from someone else until they _______________ (fill in the blank with any requirement you’d like to attach).

No, forgiveness comes so much more easily when I look first at who has forgiven me. When I see Jesus nailed to the cross, imagining a banner with the words, “Paid in full” over him, I see no ground to stand on where I can withhold Jesus’ same payment from someone else. No matter what they’ve done. No matter how much what they did hurt me. No matter how much ongoing damage it causes me. No matter how much I might still be processing it even years later.

When I let go of the burden of trying to pretend the heavy weight of dispensing forgiveness is mine to bear and instead remember that Jesus already carried that weight and earned my forgiveness, then I can freely and fully forgive others. 

That’s why Joseph wept. He had already forgiven his brothers. But he was finding out how hard it can be for that forgiveness to sink in. He had forgiven his brothers 17 years ago, and here they were still terrified that the real punishment they deserved was going to be be exacted upon them after their dad died and Joseph no longer had to “fake” forgiveness. 

But in place of the retribution his brothers expected, they received reassurance. Instead of demanding restitution from his brothers for all the harm they had done to him, he promised to provide for all their families’ needs. No revenge, just forgiveness in its place. Joseph didn’t dwell on the damage his brothers had done to him, but rather on the good God had worked through him. “But Joseph said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.’ And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them” (v.19-21). 

Notice something rather profound in Joseph’s words. He knew full well the responsibility of making sure justice was carried out perfectly was not his, but God’s. “Am I in the place of God,” he asked. Of course not!

However, we are, in a sense, in the place of God today. We are in the place of God when we apply his forgiveness to others who know they need it. We are in the place of God when we withhold that forgiveness from God for those who see no sin in themselves that needs forgiving. God has given that responsibility to his church to forgive, as he has forgiven us. Then alone do we stand in the place of God, as if God himself were the one pronouncing his forgiveness upon a penitent sinner. That is exactly what God wants in us. That is exactly the kind of church God wants – a quick-to-forgive church. May we always be just that, and may others always see that when they look at us. 

A Church Willing to Say Hard Things

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(Galatians 2:11-16)

Your doctor’s office. The boss’s office. Your child’s classroom with the teacher. We don’t typically look forward to being called into any of these places, and with good reason: difficult conversations often follow. Getting called for a consult with your doctor after a recent appointment can mean he has bad news. The boss probably isn’t calling you in to praise or commend you, but to correct or discipline you. Your child’s teacher is not likely in just meeting with you to tell you what a great job junior is doing, but probably to share some concerns. Those can be hard conversations.

Like it or not (most often not!), there is also a place for hard conversations within the church. In fact, that is the kind of church that God wants – one that is willing to say hard things. What exactly does that mean and how do we carry it out?

First of all, realize the reason the church will always need to say hard things, which is sometimes forgotten: every church has in common that it is made up of sinners. That seems like it should go without saying, but sometimes we either get the idea or give others the impression that belonging to a church means we’ve somehow figured out the secret sauce to sinlessness. All the “mostly-good” people gather at church while the “not-so-good” folks out there sin rather nonchalantly as they go about their daily business.

“Sure, we might commit a few minor whoopsies on occasion, but nothing like those major whoppers everyone out there is committing left and right.” But, deny it as much as you will, the hard truth is that the ugly sinful nature that is still a part of each one of us is just as capable of carrying out the ugly sinful stuff we see in the world. So what sets us apart is not primarily the absence of sin in our lives, but the presence of the Savior who forgives it. That is why we gather as the church. 

And it is that Savior and his gospel – the good news of what he’s done for sinners – that both requires us and inspires us to say hard things. When we are discussing hard matters with fellow Christians, we do so in a safe space, because we do so in a space saturated with the gospel. When the gospel as a safety-net beneath us, we have no reason to fear having difficult or even uncomfortable conversations. We have every right to assume that our faith family cares enough about our souls to prioritize those conversations. And we can both speak and hear these hard things because we know that they are gospel-driven and gospel-guided in an effort to be gospel-guarding. That means we can check individual agendas or bones to pick at the door and stay focused on how we can apply the gospel to help God’s church thrive. 

So what exactly are the kinds of hard things that the church needs to say? We see an example in Galatians. Paul was compelled to say a hard thing, and he didn’t shy away from explaining why it had to happen: “they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel” (v.14).

The very gospel was at stake! The message on which the church stands or falls was being compromised. When Paul saw that the gospel was in jeopardy, there was no question – he knew he had to speak up and say a hard thing.

While that reason alone (the gospel coming under attack) is sufficient for speaking up, Paul went a step further to explain what the collateral damage is when the truth of the gospel is at stake: souls are at stake, too.

As much as Paul and Peter (Cephas) were both pillars of the early church, Paul showed his personal care for his brother’s soul. “When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned” (v.11). Paul wasn’t mincing words – if he didn’t address the situation, Peter’s actions could very well have led to his spiritual downfall. 

Do we forget that sin has the potential for doing so much more damage than just a little wrong here or there? We need to think of sin not like that little bit of a beverage that spilled on the counter top and can so easily be wiped up, but more like a semi tanker toppling over and spilling toxic liquid everywhere. Sin doesn’t wish to be contained. It wants to expand its reach until it contaminates everything around it, eventually rendering even faith itself ineffective. Paul had to speak the hard truth to Peter, because he was more concerned about Peter’s salvation than about Peter’s reputation. 

As an example of sin extending its reach to others, Paul recognized how Peter’s sinful actions were influencing those around him. “The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray” (v13). Others viewed Peter’s actions as thumbs up to follow his example, and their collective example then carried enough weight to cause even Barnabas to stumble. See how large the radius of sin’s reach was becoming! Paul had to speak the hard truth to Peter, because he was concerned about the impact his actions were having on the salvation of others. 

How do Paul’s actions relate to us in 2023? Does the church today still need to say hard things? Absolutely. When? What does that look like? As the gospel itself compels us to say hard things, how do we know when those hard conversations need to happen? While there’s no guarantee that saying the hard things will ever be easy, there are a number of things we can consider to guide us in this process. 

First of all, we want to make sure the situation legitimately calls for the hard truth to be spoken. Not every difference or disagreement merits this kind of attention. If we are in the realm of Christian freedom and personal preference, while there certainly may be some discussion around those matters, those aren’t usually the kind that call for a rebuke or a call to repentance. Whether we should have tri-tip or hotdogs for the barbecue does not merit any sort of confrontation. Attending Christmas Eve or Christmas Day worship does not require a rebuke. 

So what sort of criteria does? We look for anyone or anything that might either gloss over the gospel or cast aside the cross by insisting that someone or something else be the central focus. When the gospel is at stake, the church has an obligation to say hard things, because where the gospel is compromised, so is the church. Where the gospel is lost, so is the church. 

Once we are certain of the gravity of the matter, that it is in fact that serious and does require the tough conversation, we do well do run another quick assessment. We want to check our own heart. We might have correctly spotted the need to say a hard word, but we also better make sure that our heart is in the right place to initiae the conversation.

That means it isn’t looking to relish the opportunity to lay into someone else who rubs me the wrong way. That means my heart isn’t approaching this conversation as a means to bump itself up another notch closer to heaven and come away looking more favorable. That means my heart isn’t seizing this as merely a distraction from some personal repair work that needs to be done on me. If any of those things are going on in your own heart, then you’re not the right person to be saying the hard thing.

Another thing to consider: if speaking about spiritual/faith matters and matters of the heart is not normal for you, consider how it might come across to someone else who is not use to hearing you speak about such things. It could possibly cause unecessary confusion if you appear to be bringing it up seemingly out of nowhere.

The wife who has never watched a down of the NFL in her life might leave her husband feeling a little skeptical when she starts making suggestions for his fantasy football draft. A husband who doesn’t realize that Versace isn’t the name of a new Italian restaurant in town is probably going to see a puzzled look from his wife when he starts discussing fashion trends.

So if spiritual matters are not a regular part of your conversation, it might unnecessarily catch someone off guard to hear you speak up with a hard saying. The solution to that is not just to write off ever discussing hard things, but rather to take some baby steps in the direction of making your faith in Jesus perhaps a more natural part of your conversations. 

Finally, Paul spells out in a lengthier description why it matters that we contend for the gospel. “[We] know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified” (v.16). Peter was confusing the good news of the gospel. He was combining a message that is believed for salvation with works that must also be achieved for salvation. To that message of being declared not guilty (“justified”), Peter was adding the need to make sure he stuck with the kosher diet and sat at the right table apart from the Gentiles.

Since he had known previously that his place in heaven had nothing to do with what he ate or where he sat here on earth, it was causing a stumbling block for those around him to suddenly see him revert back to his old Jewish customs. 

When a brother or sister in Christ confuses the gospel in any way at all to imply that any work or effort must accompany the saving work of Jesus’ perfect life, suffering, and death, we have to speak up. We have to have a hard conversation. Their soul depends on it. Other souls will likely also depend on it. The gospel must win, and that means guarding it at all cost.

That’s the church God wants. For that reason, it’s also the church we want to be.

A Self< Church

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(Matthew 16:21-26)

The boss just laid out the plan for the next project at work. The goal was clearly communicated and comprehended so that everyone knew what they were trying to accomplish. All departments understood their specific roles in the project. Each individual team member was provided with the direction needed to help their department succeed and contribute toward achieving success in the specific effort. So it came as a bit of a shock when, after the boss had finished his presentation, one particular employee stood up and simply said, “Yeah, we’re not going to be doing this. This isn’t going to happen. Not on my watch.”

How long do you suppose that employee would remain with the company? Not long at all!

Jesus could have done much more than just fire Peter for his defiant remark. In his Gospel account of the incident, Matthew records for us what had caused Peter to feel compelled to take Jesus to task: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (v.21).

Peter had only a short time ago confessed that he knew Jesus was the One, the Messiah that God had promised repeatedly throughout history. However, Jesus’ explanation of how he would be carrying out his work didn’t align with the political aspirations Peter had for the Messiah. As Peter saw it, Jesus’ suffering and death were not part of his plan, so he had to take drastic measures. “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’” (v.22). 

We’re quite used to Peter putting his foot in his mouth. It’s easy to understand why he wouldn’t want to stand by and approve of a plan that involved the suffering and death of his Jesus. He had a heart, after all. He cared about Jesus.

But his objection was actually much more selfish – sinister even. In fact, as Jesus’ response indicated, it was downright satanic. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’” (v.23).     

Whoa! Isn’t that going a bit farther than necessary? Is Jesus doing one of those hyperbole things where he uses an over-the-top extreme to make his point? You hear people joke about temptation from others (“C’mon, just have one more piece of dessert – it’s sooooooo good!”) with a, “Get behind me, Satan,” but Jesus was not at all joking. He was deadly serious. 

Because so is Satan. Peter’s rebuttal to Jesus’ teaching was not just a matter of misguided concern a guy had for his friend. It wasn’t because he had a better plan in mind (as if there could have been one!). Rather, it was an attempt on the part of Satan to thwart God’s plan of salvation. 

Jesus had made it clear that these things (his suffering, death, and resurrection) “must” (v.21) happen. They had to. This was the plan God had in mind to carry out the substitutionary work salvation required. The perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ, had to be offered up as the only sacrifice that could serve as payment for sin. Jesus had to suffer and die. “It must be this way,” he told his disciples. 

So also today, anything that opposes the good news of the gospel – anything at all – comes from the evil one. There is no harmless indifference to the gospel. There are no alternative plans or paths that might work out. There are no religions or false gods that could provide forgiveness and eternal life. There was and there is no other way to a right relationship with God than through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Anything else – anything at all – comes from the evil one.

The scariest part of all of this? Look what drove Peter’s objection: “human concerns.” It wasn’t some deep theological truth that Peter had uncovered that prompted him to rebuke Jesus; it was his own ideas about who Jesus was supposed to be and how he was supposed to proceed.

Peter wasn’t concerned about God’s plans. Peter wasn’t concerned about Jesus’ plans. Peter wasn’t concerned about the other disciples’ plans. No, Peter was concerned about Peter’s plans, and Peter’s plans only. 

Does that same selfish concern that each and every one of us is capable of help you grasp why Jesus explained discipleship the way he did? “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’” (v.24). “You want to be my disciple? You want to follow me? OK, first things, first, we have to get you out of the way. We have to get self out of the picture, or he’ll only serve to provide a platform for the devil to go to work. And the only way to do that is for you to deny the most difficult person on the planet to deny: yourself.” 

I was recently reminded of why this is the most challenging thing of all for us to do by a quote from a little book, What’s Big Starts Small. In it, the author warns about why pride can be so destructive to the growth of our faith. He writes, “But pride offers an objection that makes you the exception” (p.42). That is just another way of saying that self is an expert at pretending it has permission for whatever it wants. “What is wrong for you is clear as day, but here’s why it isn’t wrong when I do it.” 

“Yes, I got a little angry and lost control, but it was justifiable in light of what the other person did.” “Of course the stay-at-home mom shouldn’t be drinking excessively during the day and putting her kids at risk, but my job is 100 times more stressful and a few drinks every night help me relax.” “There is no reason for a guy to ever push a girl around, but our relationship is different and her level of disrespect is unacceptable.” “Blatantly walking a full cart out of the store without paying is one thing, but what I’m skimming from the register is just enough to get me by until things get better and of course I’ll pay it all back.”

Pride – self – makes me the exception. It does the same for you. That’s why Jesus says we must deny it and let it die. “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (v.25). 

But what about the risk of not looking out for ourselves? If we don’t, who else will? How can we be sure that this practice of denying self is going to work out in the end? If we don’t advocate for ourselves, who else will?

I think you know the answer, but let me try to state it a little bit differently than you’re probably used to hearing it. Here is the bottom line: You cannot care about yourself more than Jesus does.

You cannot care about yourself more than Jesus does.

Do you understand? No matter how much you want to buy into the world’s emphasis on the importance of self-care and self-image and self-love and self-esteem and self-discovery and self… etc. – all of that put together into perfect practice will never amount to caring about yourself more than Jesus does. 

If that were not true, it would have been you on the cross and not him.

If that were not true, it would have been you condemned for your sin instead of him.

If that were not true, he would have allowed you to be abandoned and forsaken by the Father and not him.

But since he bore all of that on himself for you, let there never be any doubt that no one ever has and no one ever will care more about you than Jesus. 

So let go of the lie and live free. Shut out the internal pleas to serve self first and everyone else second. Jesus has you covered and now he wants to use you to help make sure everyone else knows they’re covered by him, too.

When we deny self, when we set down self, instead of dragging that care and concern with us wherever we go, then we’ve got free hands. With those hands, we find it much easier to pick up the crosses that are all around us. 

The cross of patient sacrifice in your strained marriage to a demanding spouse is much lighter when you set down self. The cross that comes in the shape of the extra workload you carry at work for the demeaning co-worker who doesn’t miss the opportunity to poke fun at your faith here and there. The cross of confusion over why God continues to permit the chronic pain that you’ve dealt with for years. The cross of abuse and its long-term effects. The cross of addiction that lingers despite the overall progress. The cross of family members struggling with identity and sexuality.

These crosses are not light, to be sure, but we are able to bear them much more effectively when we aren’t also carrying around the weight of self. 

And, we are able to bear them much more effectively when we realize we never bear them alone. We can be confident of this because we know Jesus’ own answer to his rhetorical question at the close of these verses. Jesus asked, “Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” (v.26). Our answer, everyone’s answer, is of course, “Nothing.”

Jesus, though, has a different answer: “Everything.” He literally gave up everything for our souls. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Only One perfectly denied self. Only One perfectly lost his life. Only Jesus, and Jesus alone is our hope. 

Are you worried about what will happen if you cast off the perceived need to look out for yourself above all else? Worry not, for as much as your old self lies to you about looking out for number one, here is the truth we must remember: You cannot possibly care about yourself more than Jesus does. If that, dear friends, is true – and it absolutely is – then you are freed from yourself. Jesus has you covered. Go and be the church he wants, the self< church. 

The Church Clings to Christ

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(Exodus 34:5-9)

The sender’s name in your email inbox is someone you know, but the email itself sounds fishy. Something doesn’t feel right about it. You know the person well enough that you can’t imagine they’d be asking you to open the weird-sounding file that is attached, click on a link to a picture to confirm it’s you, or send them some money because they’re stranded somewhere while traveling. Then you look closer, not at the name of the sender, but at the actual email address from which it came, and realize it’s gibberish. That confirms it – someone using a spam email address was pretending to be someone you knew. 

And it isn’t just email – it’s voicemails that sound like urgent notifications requiring an immediate response. It’s texts from unknown numbers not in your contact list that are looking to strike up a random conversation. Some sound more legit than others, so how do you know which ones are real and which ones are fake? How do you know which ones you can trust and which ones are setting you up for fraud or something worse? Even if you know what signs or indicators give them away, it isn’t always easy to tell who’s the real deal and who isn’t.

Churches can be the same way. As we continue our series focusing on the church God wants, it’s one thing to know what God wants for his church, but it’s another to be able to determine which churches can be relied on to serve that God, the true God, and not some fraud or look-alike pretender. But what happens when a church serves a fraudulent version of God, an imposter, a pretender? That church may claim to worship the true God, but how can we know? 

We look first to where God has revealed himself to us so that we can know what he is like: his Word. “[The Lord] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (v.6-7). The next time someone says there’s no gospel in the Old Testament and that it’s all law, direct them to this description of the Lord! It is a flood of grace and love! It’s a picture of God that no other religion comes even remotely close to capturing. This is the true God and how the true God wishes to be known. 

While God revealing himself like this is amazing on its own, it stands out even more when we consider his timing in choosing when to reveal himself this way.

God was going to be giving Moses the Ten Commandments a second time. Stop and think about how the world typically operates when laws or rules are given. Authority is flexed. Punishments are threatened. Consequences are emphasized. The effectiveness of the law is based on one thing: fear. So to give it teeth, we make sure those on the receiving end of any laws are very clear on what they need to be afraid of happening to them if they break the rules. That’s how we operate. But not God.

In addition to knowing what God was about to do, also remember what had already happened. Why was God needing to give the Ten Commandments to Moses a second time? If you’re familiar with your history, then you remember what happened to the original set of tablets when Moses came down the mountain the first time: he smashed them to pieces at the sight he witnessed.

There, fresh off their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt by God’s hand, were the Israelites rallying around and revering a hunk of metal shaped like a cow. They were worshipping a golden calf rather than the true God who had just delivered them from a fanatical pharaoh and his army! Being on the receiving end of that level of disrespect, God would have been completely justified in instantly eliminating the Israelites. 

Instead, he revealed himself as “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (v.6-7). Compassionate. Gracious. Slow to anger. Abounding in love and faithfulness and maintaining it. Forgiving. These are the calling cards of the true God.

The police sketch artist might help out in a case by speaking with witnesses or officers to attempt to draw a likeness of an alleged criminal to help law enforcement or legal counsel know who to focus on. That sketch artist will take the various descriptions provided by others and use them to sketch out an image that reflects the suspect. In order to sketch an accurate likeness, however, he needs some sort of description on which to base it.

We have in these verses a description from the Lord himself of what to look for if we’re trying to identify the true God. This is what he looks like!

And boy does this description stand out! Compassion and grace are so often MIA in our world when it comes to the plight of those experiencing disaster or distress. “They should have known better. They should have been more careful. They should have made better choices.” We forget that all of those things could be true, but they still don’t relieve us of our responsibility to compassionately care for our neighbor in his need. 

Instead of our anger getting slower and slower, our fuse keeps getting shorter and shorter. Rather than a flood of love and faithfulness, there seems to be a drought of it. We struggle to maintain our loving commitment to one person – our spouse – let alone maintaining love to thousands. We don’t long to see more forgiveness for wickedness and rebellion, but rather more punishment.

How much all of these qualities of God stand out in a world that is without them!

And not just a world that is without them, but our own hearts. Not only do we see so few of these qualities around us; we also lack them within us. That’s when we realize how much the world needs a God who is all of these things that it is not. That’s when we realize how much we need a God who is all of these things that we are not. 

Moses realized that, too. “‘Lord,’ he said, ‘if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance’” (v.9). Moses didn’t ask God to forgive their sins, but our sin. He included himself among the stiff-necked and wicked. He pleaded for God’s people as well as himself. He appealed to all of the qualities that God had just revealed about himself and asked to be treated, not on the basis of his own behavior, but on the basis of God’s benevolence.

So it isn’t just “the church” that needs the true God; we do. It isn’t just the church that needs all of those qualities; we do. It isn’t just the church that can only stand if God’s forgiveness and faithfulness are its foundation; we can only stand with his forgiveness and faithfulness.

And we know that we have it, because we have Christ. We know what compassion looks like, because we know Jesus. We experience what grace means, because we experience Jesus. We know what forgiveness feels like, because we know Jesus. We know what abounding love looks like, because we know Jesus. The church that God wants is the church that clings to Christ. Therefore, the people that make up the church that God wants, are people who cling to Christ.

Do you know what that means? It means all Jesus, all the time. I don’t mean for you to go out and make it weird, but rather make it so regular that it isn’t weird at all.

Jesus is in my marriage. Jesus is at the forefront of parenting my children with patience and grace. Jesus is the filter in all my friendships. Jesus is how I see my enemy in a different light. Jesus is why I am drawn to those in need and want to help. Jesus is who I yearn for my unbelieving neighbor to know. Jesus’ kingdom and its significance is why I can temper my passions for worldly and political kingdoms. Jesus is why I can control my anger.

Jesus is… everything, all the time. Not just occasionally. Not just when we’re talking religion. Not just when I’m surrounded by other Christians. The church God wants – the people God wants – cling to Christ all the time. 

Of all the characteristics of God listed in this description, most are quite familiar, but I want to draw attention to one particular phrase that I think is hugely important for us to understand in the church God wants: it’s God’s “maintaining love to thousands” (v.7). When we think of many earthly infatuations or interests, they so often start off strong, but then fizzle or fade away. The things we thought we loved or couldn’t live without are forgotten. 

But not God’s love for us. He maintains that love. He keeps it going. It is sustained on an ongoing basis and will not die out or run out.

When we gather for worship on Sunday mornings, we see all the different ways. Our whole worship is centered on his Word, from the opening Invocation to the closing Blessing and everything in-between. That is Jesus maintaining his love for us.

When we have a baptism, there God’s love is so clearly on display that he graciously brings a helpless infant into his family through the loving promises of his Word poured out along with the water.

Then we have the Lord’s Supper, as we will celebrate shortly, where Jesus gives to us his very body and blood to remind us of his sacrifice, point us to the price he paid, and assure us that his love flows most freely through his limitless forgiveness. God maintains his love for thousands – for his church, for you – through the work that he does every time we gather together in his house. 

But… what about the part of these verses that describe a God who “does not leave the guilty unpunished…” (v.7)? Shouldn’t that terrify us? Shouldn’t that worry us?

No, not one little bit! For you, Christian, are not guilty. You are in Christ. Since Christ took our guilt on himself, along with the punishment it deserved, all who are in Christ are not guilty.

So how do we tell if the god of any given church is a fraud or a fake? We listen for Jesus. And when we hear him, we listen for more than just an example to follow or a model Christian that we should all strive to be more like. We listen for a Savior. And then we cling to him. That’s the kind of church God wants.

Church Is for Everyone

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(Matthew 15:21-28)

Church is for everyone. At my church we have a tagline that expresses that: Seeking the Lost, Serving the Found. Whether you’re a non-believer or a believer, you fit into one of those categories – lost or found. Either way, church is for you.

But is that really true? Is the church just towing the company line or is it really a church for everyone? Would literally anyone be welcome on a Sunday? I’m guessing that even as that question is lingering in your mind, you are envisioning a person or two – perhaps even a very specific individual – or maybe just a general type of person, that you’d really struggle to sit right next to in church. Would someone who has that kind of history be welcome? Would someone who voted for that candidate be welcome? Would someone struggling with that right now really be welcome?

Regardless of how much a person might struggle individually with certain people being in church, that doesn’t make it any less true: church is for everyone.

In that regard, Christianity is the most inclusive religion of all. No one needs to measure up or be good enough. There is no application. There are zero requirements. There is no vetting process. There is no referral needed. There is no exclusion on any basis. 

When Jesus did what he did, he did it for every single person. Jesus’ perfect life of obedience was carried out so that every single person could claim the righteousness necessary to be good with God. Jesus’ undeserving death on the cross was offered up so that his sacrifice would pay for every single sin of every single person. Jesus effectively rendered hell and condemnation powerless and death a thing of which to be unafraid. Jesus is for everyone, and because he is, so is his church. Church is for everyone.

But it isn’t really for everyone.

Some of you know what I mean more than others. You’ve probably even explained it that way to someone else before: “Church isn’t really for me. It’s not my thing. I’m not the church-going type.” You have your own reasons. Maybe going to church was forced on you as a child, and that insistence on attending church was never accompanied by any grace or compassion that was supposed to flow from church. Maybe going to church rubs you the wrong way because it’s filled with a bunch of hypocritical pretenders whose lifestyles as far as you’re concerned rarely match up with what they claim to believe. Maybe going to church seems antiquated and unenlightened in this advanced age of science and reason. Maybe… I could go on with reason after reason why church just isn’t for some people. 

And you know what? They’re usually right. It isn’t for them. It may not be for you.

But know the right reason why.

It isn’t because you aren’t welcome. It isn’t because you don’t fit some mold. It isn’t because all of the things Jesus did for all people don’t include you. It isn’t because you wouldn’t stand to be blessed by it – you absolutely would.

It isn’t any of those reasons or a host of others that might be offered. 

No, it isn’t for you because you don’t need it. And until you realize how much you need it, it will never be for you. 

The Canaanite woman hounding Jesus needed him. I mean, really needed him. How much? Well, she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, and she didn’t think twice about clapping back at Jesus after he seemed to dismiss her!

Jesus plainly told her, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs” (v.26). Jesus wasn’t insulting the woman, but rather laying out God’s game plan for him. He was to reach the Jewish people before the Gentiles (non-Jews).

To understand the point Jesus was making, imagine spending time in the kitchen getting dinner ready for the family. Once it’s all ready, the places are set at the table. Then the food is brought over. Then, as everyone sits down to eat, the first thing the family does is fill the puppy’s dog bowl with the food that was just prepared. Then, after he’s had his fill, the family eats whatever is left over.

That is, of course, not how it happens! The family eats, and the pet gets the leftovers. And the Canaanite woman was bold enough to point that out to Jesus. “‘Yes it is, Lord’ she said ‘Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.‘” (v.27).

What prompted such boldness? She was in need. She “came to [Jesus], crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly’” (v.22). The need was obvious: her daughter was enduring excruciating suffering as a result of possession. But it wasn’t the need alone; it was also what she was asking of Jesus: mercy. 

Realize what mercy is: undeserved help for the undeserving. She knew she didn’t have any business pestering Jesus. But she also knew Jesus, and she knew what right she had in asking him: none.

That’s what mercy is. It is the undeserving asking for the undeserved from the One who can serve it. It is humbly acknowledging, “I don’t ask this of you because I have it coming or because I am entitled to it; rather, just the opposite. I know that I don’t, but I know who you are, Jesus. Mercy is your middle name.” 

So then, church is not really for anyone who has no need of Jesus or his mercy. If we don’t need his mercy or help, then we don’t need his church where he dispenses these gifts. If we’ve got our life pretty much together and lack nothing, who needs Jesus? We’re good folks, good spouses, good parents, good family members, good workers, good friends, good neighbors. We don’t have struggles, no addictions, no weaknesses, no regrets, no guilt. None of those things. Therefore, we don’t need Jesus or his help or mercy. 

But let’s consider another question: what if Jesus needs you?

I know – rather absurd sounding, isn’t it? If God is truly God, what need could he possibly have that he couldn’t satisfy himself, right? Actually, it isn’t about what God is capable of doing, but how he has chosen to do it. And he chooses to use people like you and me to do his work. 

The way Jesus intends to dispense his help and mercy to those in need of it is through people like you. In the book of Isaiah, the Lord spoke of “foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants” (Isaiah 56:6).

How does one minister to the Lord or be his servant? We often confine such thoughts to religious activities, like going to church and giving offerings. We imagine monks and nuns dedicating their lives in service to the Lord. But serving the Lord is so much bigger than any of that!

We minister to and serve the Lord by ministering to and loving others. Loving and serving my neighbor is my love and service to the Lord. When we carry out that service to the Lord, others come to know about him because they experience his loving qualities and characteristics through his people, his church. 

Paul said it another way in the book of Ephesians (cf. chapter 2). What if Jesus is waiting to build you into his church so that through you he can bless and care for others as you speak of the peace and reconciliation they have through the cross? What if Jesus needs you to love and serve others on his behalf? Could that be possible? 

If you think that is a stretch, let’s go a step further and consider the possibility of having a great faith like that of the Canaanite woman! How so? When you realize that you are even less-deserving of Jesus than she was, and yet still relentlessly plead for his mercy, you have what Jesus said she had: great faith. 

Recall in my previous post how Peter demonstrated a similar faith. Right after his own strength left him sinking in the sea, he looked to Jesus for help and deliverance. That was great faith – faith that refocused on Jesus after self-destructing yet again. 

The Canaanite woman’s great faith had little to do with her and everything to do with Jesus. Great faith doesn’t toot its own horn or talk itself up. Great faith is revealed when Jesus is the focus, front and center. 

That reminds me of what is different about our church’s school, as it begins its 50th Anniversary this school year. It isn’t merely a private school. It’s way more than that. It’s a school that keeps Jesus as the focus, front and center. It’s a school with teachers who know something much more valuable than what any technology or textbook can teach: they know a Savior, a Jesus, whose middle name is mercy. And there is nothing more valuable.

Why? Because there we teach children where to turn when they are in need – and they will be in need for the rest of their lives. And the needs they have are not needs that can be met by even the most loving parents, caring friends, or professional practitioners. Sure, some of those needs can be met by some of those listed, but in other areas, only Jesus can meet their needs. 

Only Jesus will ever love them unconditionally. Only Jesus will forgive them without limit. Only Jesus will value and treasure them as priceless. Only Jesus will listen to, hear, and answer their every request at all times. Only Jesus has opened heaven and eternity to them. In our school, children will come to know Jesus better and better. They’ll come to know that Jesus is for them. 

Our teachers are committed to a ministry that consists of reminding their students on a daily basis that Jesus is for them. As they teach each subject and connect with each student, in so many different ways, they have opportunity after opportunity to instill in their students’ hearts and minds that Jesus is for them. Good grades and excellent test scores will serve to richly bless our students in many ways for this life, but Jesus will both enhance those blessings and add to them blessings that will last for eternal life. In our school, students will know that Jesus is for them.

Jesus is also for you, and for all those who need him. Therefore, his church – our church – is for you, and for everyone who needs him. 

Refocusing Faith

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(Matthew 14:22-33)

Regardless of the sport, even superior athletes all have something in common, statistically speaking: they will always miss. The best free-throw shooters still miss free throws. The best wide receivers still drop passes. The best hitters still strike out. 

I realize I am not stating anything that you didn’t already know. But, I want you to see that what is true in the world of sports and competition is also every bit as true when it comes to our faith.

We tend to think that a great faith is one that never misses, never stumbles or falls short, that never experiences weakness. As we wrap up our series that has focused on how we define what it means to be a Christian, I want us to replace the misguided idea that great faith is faith that never falters. Instead, let’s see a great faith as one that excels at refocusing on Jesus every time it does fall short.

If ever there was a disciple of Jesus who had multiple opportunities to put that kind of faith into practice, wasn’t it Peter? How many times do we see Peter’s faith waffle? And yet, how he responds is everything. He gets better and better at refocusing on Jesus.

We can’t help but chuckle a bit at Peter when Jesus meets the disciples on the water. What is Peter’s brilliant idea for confirming that the individual walking toward them was in fact, Jesus? “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water” (v.28).

Two things: First, Jesus’ response, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (v.27), really should have been sufficient. Had the disciples – or anyone else in history, for that matter – ever known anyone else who could possibly be doing what Jesus was doing as he stepped along the sea’s surface? Who else would have simply said, “It is I” and expected that to be explanation enough without providing a name?

Second, the proof Peter requests to assure the disciples that it was Jesus, is totally… well, totally Peter. Who else but Peter would have come up with such an over-the-top idea? Wouldn’t it have been enough to ask, “If it’s really you, Jesus, what did we have for lunch yesterday?” or “What was the name of the man you healed last Wednesday?” But no, flashy Peter wants to share the spotlight and be the one to walk on water with Jesus. 

What might be even more surprising than Peter’s audacious request was that Jesus complied! Jesus very well could have called Peter out right then and there. “The first words out of my mouth to you guys were ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid,’ and you follow up immediately with ‘Lord, if it’s you…?’” “If???” “If it’s me???” We could almost envision Jesus smacking Peter upside the back of his head after his response. Instead, though, Jesus grants Peter’s request and invites him to come out to him on the water.

A brief side note: there might be a place here for the reminder to be careful what we ask for. Peter made a bold request to walk on water – and Jesus granted it! However, given how this account played out, one might wonder if Peter initially had in mind the same outcome that Jesus did. We do well to remember that at certain times when God grants us the thing we asked for, he may very well be granting it for an entirely different purpose than what we had in mind. Granted, his purpose will always be for our good – it just might not be the same “good” that we had in mind!

Back to Peter’s faith. As we look at Peter’s actions in this account, I believe he actually showed remarkable faith not once, but twice.

First, he hopped out of the boat on Jesus’ word alone (yes, it did come after his “Lord, if…”, but still!). For all of the grief we give Peter – and much of it is justified! – his trust in Jesus at times stands out, especially when Scripture shows us plenty of interactions between God and men where faith wasn’t so firm (for example, think of Moses waffling at God’s call to lead the Israelites out of Egypt or Jonah making a beeline away from Ninevah instead of to at as God had commanded)! So to see Peter leap out of the boat without any need of extra coaxing is quite commendable – especially given that walking on water was not a very typical everyday practice or habit for most people! 

Could our own faith stand to do a little more of this? Is our faith at times too stifled or short-sighted that it doesn’t leave room for God to do the things that only God can do (like walk on water…)? Is our faith constrained by playing only the favorable percentages or probable outcomes? Do we live the better part of our lives by sight and not by faith, by what can be seen with our own eyes rather than what God has shown in the past and is more than capable of showing in the future?  Are there areas of your own life where your faith needs to get out of the boat a little more or are you just playing it safe, coasting and relaxing aboard your cruise ship through life?

Jumping out of the boat wasn’t the only demonstration of Peter’s great faith. The second time came when right after his own faith failed him. It had happened so quickly, too! Just like that, Peter’s confidence in Christ sank into uncertainty as the wind acted up. But rather than counting on his own abilities, flailing his arms about or kicking his legs harder or taking deeper breaths or any number of things to try and save himself, he looked to his Lord for rescue. He looked to Jesus immediately and cried out, “Lord, save me!” (v.30). And Jesus delivered him. 

Jesus will do the same for us, even after – especially after – our own faith fails us. Too often we get stuck wallowing in our own imperfect faith after we stumble. Of course it’s imperfect! What did you expect, sinner?!? Stop bemoaning your miserable faith and refocus on your merciful Savior. The solution is not to wallow in self-pity over your lackluster faith! Instead, refocus on the one who makes faith great in the first place: Jesus.

Yes, we need to redefine what great faith is. If we are carrying with us the idea that a great faith is one that never stumbles and that our faith will never be great until it gets to that point, we’re in for a world of disappointment in ourselves! Good luck with that idea of great faith! Your faith will stumble, guaranteed! That isn’t the question. The question is, what do you do when it does? Where do you turn? The better you get at refocusing on Jesus as soon as you stumble, the better off you’ll be.

Yes, Jesus did rebuke Peter after rescuing him from sinking, but don’t quickly gloss over the “after rescuing him” part! Jesus rescued Peter, and then he allowed Peter to look back and reflect on what had happened. Why? So that he could learn from his mistake. So that the next time when something much more threatening than wind or waves would arise, Peter would know not to be terrified by the distractions and would instead refocus on the one who delivers. 

To appreciate the confidence Jesus provides us with here, think of the child learning to walk or swim. Few little ones are brave enough or confident enough to attempt such feats by themselves (and often end up learning the hard way how unwise it is if they do!). But if dad or mom is there, holding out their hands, ready and willing to catch them, suddenly the child’s fears are alleviated and they take the first step or jump into the pool and attempt it. They know they’re in good hands. Instead of focusing on falling down or sinking, they are focused on the safety and security dad or mom provides. 

We have every reason to live in confident faith the same exact way. We don’t pretend our faith will never fail us or let us down – it will; it’s imperfect. But the object of our faith – Jesus – is perfect.

So rather than pretending we can somehow work more on our faith to get it to some point of never stumbling, we instead work on focusing more on Jesus, the perfecter of our faith, and the One who will never let us go. He allows us to take big, bold steps out of the boat, just like Peter. And if we sink or fall – or rather when we sink or fall – he will always be there to catch us. That’s what faith does. It doesn’t wait until it’s big enough or strong enough to act; rather, it acts because it knows Jesus is big and strong enough. 

Lest we miss it, there’s another detail in this account that can go a long way in helping us get better at refocusing our faith.

Before he even walked along the waves, pay attention to what Jesus did first. He and his disciples had just had a long day ministering to literally thousands of people. Jesus had been healing the sick and then at the end of the day, carried out one of his most well-known miracles in the feeding of the five thousand. And all of this, mind you, while he was still internally wrestling with the recent news that his cousin, John the Baptist, had just been beheaded by Herod. After all of that, Matthew explains, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd” (v.22). 

Having directed the disciples to get a head start in making their way to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus bid goodnight and farewell to the crowds, sending them on their way. Jesus had some downtime alone. How did he spend it?

Naturally, he poured himself a nightcap and settled in to catch up on a few episodes of his favorite show. Well, not really. “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray” (v.23). Now there is a way to unwind and recalibrate after a long day. Prayer. 

Now there isn’t anything wrong with a nightcap or a few episodes of your favorite show once in a while. Enjoy those gifts for what they are.

But let’s also grow to appreciate that Jesus found something in solitary prayer that may very well be missing from our lives to a greater extent: time with his Father. In prayer with his Father, where we so often find Jesus in the Gospels, he found not a surreal peace and calm, but a real peace and calm. Prayer – not just before or during his busy ministry activity, but after as well – restored and recalibrated our Redeemer to carry out his work on our behalf. 

Surely we could stand to follow his path of prayer more regularly. Doing so also results in our thoughts and attention being more frequently directed to the Lord, which would go a long way toward helping us grow in refocusing our faith on our perfect Savior and his grace and forgiveness.

Let that be a defining mark of your Christian faith – that you always work on refocusing on Jesus again and again. That is a great faith. Christian, strive to get better and better at looking to Christ.