Jared Longshore's Blog, page 9

Abundant εὐχαριστέω

If you want to be more thankful, then it is wise to start with the most thankful man in the world. You are something of the moon in this regard, with no gratitude of your own. You can reflect the gratefulness of the Son, but you cannot conjure up gratitude apart from the Son.

In Matthew 26:27, Jesus took wine, and giving thanks, He gave it to His disciples. The Greek behind giving thanks is εὐχαριστέω from which we get Eucharist. That εὐχαριστέω is a participle, which means that Jesus was giving thanks while doing other things. His thanksgiving was attending His wine giving.

While it is true that Jesus gratefully gave wine to His disciples 2,000 years ago, the striking thing is that His wine has not run out. If you think His miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee was impressive, you should see what He has been doing every Sunday for the last 2,000 years of Christendom. The same Christ who gratefully gave wine to His disciples then, gives wine to you now. This is an abundant εὐχαριστέω, an abundant thanksgiving. For 2,000 years, Christ’s ministers have been popping bottles and pouring out this gift with gratitude. And those ministers have only barely and vaguely represented the Good Shepherd who thankfully gives His very blood to His sheep.

This Christ not only died for you, He was thankful when doing so. And now He tells you to drink His grateful sacrifice with Him. Follow Him in εὐχαριστέω. And as He did, so you must also do. His thanksgiving attended abundant generosity. He has spread a table before you so spread a table before others. He has fed you so feed others. And all this you will certainly do. It could not be any other way for the abundant gratitude of the Lamb fuels you. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Black Hole Bessie

One of the facts of life is that those who think of themselves the most are the most miserable and those who think of themselves the least have the power of levity. Selfishness and grouchiness go together on one side of the ledger and selflessness and mirth go together on the other. Along these lines, Paul puts “lovers of selves” atop a list of vices in 2 Timothy, and that list sounds like a day in the life at Sodom and Gomorrah Elementary.

Pride is a nasty little monster, particularly when it comes in the wounded puppy position. It is easy enough to see pride when it puffs the chest. But it’s the mopey pride, the Black Hole Bessie pride that’s particularly sneaky. Bessie is that pouty cousin of yours who in childhood was surrounded by every possible enjoyment on vacation only to sulk, strategically positioned before watching eyes.

The central thing to keep in mind about Bessie is that she wants you to sulk with her. That’s why she has greased the landing all around her black hole with salty tears. She wants you to join her in her misery and you will ruin her and yourself if you do. She wants you to pay attention to her, ask her what’s wrong, and ask her what will make it better.

But the only thing that will make it better is for her to get turned inside out. Chesterton once said, “Oh how much bigger your world would be if you could become smaller in it.” What you must do then, in the face of her self-sorrow, is show her mirth. Show her what it is like to practice the sacred art of self-forgetfulness. And that counsel works just the same if Black Hole Bessie is looking back at you in the mirror. 

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The Table Fences Us

Throughout the history of the church there have been instances of ministers fencing this table in a fashion that would leave you thinking they were building prison walls. This has left several on the outside preferring not to enter and many on the inside secretly wishing they could exit. While there are boundaries to this meal, the only standard for participation is, “Believe and be baptized.” And it is a special glory of the Lord’s hospitality that he was a friend of sinners, welcoming the riff raff of the world to dine with Him.

It has been wisely said that we do not so much fence this table as this table fences us. And that fence around us is a fence of grace, as the bread and wine on the table is grace. Grace is before you and behind you, hounding you all the way to heaven. We have our faults but there are no faults in the bread and wine. We wobble, unstable citizens we are, but the lamb’s blood on the door post doesn’t stumble or falter. It is understandable that the saints grow anxious given our many shortcomings, shortcomings that are very much like those of the Egyptians who suffered the wrath of the angel of death.

The fundamental difference is not that their actions deserve judgment and our actions do not. The difference is the blood of the lamb. We are inside, feeding on that lamb who was slain. That lamb guards you like a lion. He fences you and yours and will until the end. To the world, the flesh, and the devil, He only roars. But to you He says, “Come and welcome.” So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Medication vs. Mortification

When sin rears its ugly head there are essentially two roads before you: medication or mortification. The former has been tried by every man under the sun and there is nothing distinctly Christian about it. By medication, I do not only mean prescription pills—though often such pills classify. I mean any attempt to deal with little tormenting transgressions apart from the person of the Spirit, any attempt to manage the miserableness of your errors apart from divine intervention. Such medications often include the impermissible: drunkenness, marijuana, pornography, fault-finding, and modern therapeutic goo.

But they can just as well include the permissible: Netflix, fine-dining, Instagram, YouTube, and shopping. So this problem of medicating is a tricky business. There is, after all, nothing wrong with a glass of wine, or a TV show, and you would no doubt look lovely in that new pair of shoes. But you have likely experienced a long scroll on the socials only to hear God wake you out of your stupor with, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” Or in the case of the shopping spree, “What spendest thou here, Elisha?” How do we avoid this medicating?

Scripture says that if through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13). And that “through the Spirit” makes all of the difference. The peculiarity of Christianity is that the remedy for sin must come from above the sun. Nothing on earth will do, just as nothing under the earth will do. Saul already tried that with the witch of Endor. But all the help you need, and much more for that matter, is readily available to you. Just enter the heavens, tell the Most High where it hurts and what you’ve done to make it so. The Spirit will do the rest.

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A Dance of Jitterbugs

The mind of contemporary man is likewise a dumping place of the most fantastic and diverse bits of the most fragmentary ideas, beliefs, tastes and scraps of information. From communism to Catholicism, from Beethoven or Bach to the most peppy jazz and the catcalls of crooning; from the fashion of the latest movie or best-seller to the most opposite fashion of another movie or best-seller—all coexist somehow in it, jumbled side by side, without any consistency of ideas, or beliefs, or tastes, or styles . . . our intellectual life is but an incessant dance of jitterbugs. Its spineless and disjoined syncretism pervades all our social and mental life. Our education consists mainly in pumping into the mind-area of students the most heterogeneous bits of information about everything.

Pitirim Sorokin, Crisis of Our Age, 1941

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Do This in Remembrance of Me

It is a common joke among Christians that the Sunday School answer is always Jesus. Many remember the middle school boy who came out of his day dream only to realize the teacher had asked him a question. So he says, “Jesus,” hoping the question was “Who is the Son of God” when in fact it was, “How many plagues came upon Egypt?” The best of these boys, in the circumstances, goes on to explain the intricate relationship between the number ten and Jesus.

This Sunday School answer trope has stayed with us because Jesus really is the answer to our fundamental problems. But it is one thing to remember Jesus in a daydream and another to remember Him on Tuesday morning when the anxiety fit is setting in. Remembering Christ can sound trite because we are so good at remembering Christ tritely. Calling to mind the Lord of the universe sounds like an abstract exercise becuase we so often call Him to mind abstractly.

But when our Lord inistituted this table, He said, “Do this in rememberance of me.” He no doubt understood our weakness. He was aware that we would easily forget Him. And He understood we would attempt to be think of Him like a Buddhist monk sits idlely thinking of his thoughts. 

So in order that we would learn the more excellent way, Jesus gave us real bread to eat and real wine to drink; and He told us to remember Him in the feasting. 

Learn to do this in rememberance of Christ and you will be freed from that pesky problem of trying to live in the past, or live in the future, or worst of all live in that daydream in your head. It is far better to live in the moment, eating real bread, drinking real wine, remembering the real Christ. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Lesson of Hezekiah

One of the themes that appears routinely in Scripture is that of God blessing His people only to have His people grow prideful and then suffer wrath. This was the case with King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a good king in Judah, who did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. God worked remarkably in his day. The Assyrian army encamped agaisnt Jerusalem, only to have God send the angel of the LORD upon them to slaughter one hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrian soldiers. God then extended Hezekiah’s life fifteen years. 

But after these remarkable works of God, Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up and in his pride he showed a Babylonian envoy all the treasures of his house. As a result there was wrath upon him, Judah, and Jerusalem. A sobering word comes in 2 Chronicles 32:31, “God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” Now God already knew all that was in Hezekiah’s heart, so I take that text to mean God left Hezekiah so Hezekiah would know all that was in his heart.

The import of this is not that we should attempt to know all of the gnarly inner workings of our hearts. But rather that we should humble ourselves and ask the Lord not to leave us to such a discovery. God has struck down thousands of your enemies. And He has saddled you with more blessings than that King of Judah had in his house. So ensure you have a solid answer to the question, “What would happen if God left you?” With that clear answer before you, make your prayer that wise and simple prayer of David, “LORD, take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” 

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The Church Now and Then

We must understand the kingdom of heaven in one sense as a kingdom in which both are included, the man who breaks what he teaches, and the man who practises it, though one is the least and the other is great in the kingdom, while in another sense it is a kingdom into which there enters only the man who practises what he teaches. Thus where both are to be found we have the Church as it now is; but where only the one kind will be found, there is the Church as it will be, when no evil person will be included. It follows that the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven.

Augustine, City of God

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Break Your Fast

The Christian life is marked by humility at every turn. And that is no more clearly seen than at this table. We come lowly to eat of this bread and drink of this cup.

Saul was struck down to their earth when his pride was in full stride and so it was with us. Saul lost his sight before he gained it and so it was with us. He also went hungry and thirsty for three days before he was filled with the Holy Ghost and baptized. So it was with us. The text goes on to say that afterward he received meat and was strengthened. So it is with us.

As you come to eat this bread and drink this cup do so renouncing all faith in yourself. You are poor, hungry, blind, and lame if left to yourself. All of your strength is found in the Lord of this table.

Paul said that we are the true circumcision, who worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence in the flesh has been cut away, leaving us with only one source of power.

You have abundant need for strength. The duties set before you are manifold and every one of those duties requires an energy that you do not have, a wisdom that you do not have, and a righteousness that you do not have inherently.

But all of the sustenance and more that is required is found in this body and this blood. Put no confidence in your flesh, but do make sure to put all of your confidence in His flesh. Come blind and receive sight here. Break your fast by partaking of this heavenly bread and wine. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Where Are Your Levites?

When Abijah, the son of Rehoboam came to the throne in Judah, the kingdom of Israel was only freshly torn in two. Jeroboam still ruled in the northern kingdom of Israel with his two golden calves in Dan and Bethel. This wicked king of the north prohibited the Levites from executing their priestly office in the north. So all of the Levites scattered throughout the northern kingdom had come back to Judah. 

Abijah, king of Judah, then set out in battle array against wicked Jeroboam only about 20 miles north of Jerusalem in the land of Ephraim. Abijah had four hundred thousand men to Jeroboam’s eight hundred thousand men. Facing an army double his size, Abijah had the high ground, as he and his army stood on Mount Zemaraim and looked down on Jeroboam and his army.

From that mountain, Abijah warned Jeroboam to lay down his weapons for it was impossible for him to win the battle, even if he did have more men. The Levites stood at the heart of Abijah’s confidence. Abijah yells to Jeroboam and his army, “Havae ye not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? . . . But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business” (2 Chronicles 13:9-10).

You must stand on Mount Zemaraim with Abijah, confident of victory because your High Priest waits upon his business. And, you must remember that worship stands at the heart of our warfare. You will win the battles laid out in front of you because you offer yourselves to God as living and holy sacrifices. Serve Him here and God will strike your enemies.

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