Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 80

Entering Into His Joy

Luke L: Lk. 15:1-32

Introduction

This famous chapter of Luke focuses on how God responds when sinners repent, and our temptations when that happens. God rejoices when sinners repent, but sinners are tempted to sin by not entering into His joy.

Summary of the Text: This chapter consists of three stories about things that have been lost and are found: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. All three are told in response to the Pharisees and scribes grumbling, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them” (Lk. 15:1-2). In the first parable, Jesus appeals to the Pharisees’ and scribes’ own sense of urgency to find even one lost sheep (Lk. 15:3-4). Jesus says when the one is found, the man comes home rejoicing and calls his friends together to rejoice with him (Lk. 15:5-6). Likewise, Jesus says, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over those who need no repentance (Lk. 15:7). In the second parable, Jesus again appeals to the common urgency of a woman to find a lost coin. Again, when the lost item is found, she calls her friends and invites them to rejoice with her (Lk. 15:8-9). Jesus says that God rejoices before the angels when one sinner repents (Lk. 15:10). Finally, Jesus tells the story of the two sons. The younger son despises his father and squanders his inheritance in reckless living (Lk. 15:11-16). When the son comes to himself, he repents and goes home (Lk. 15:17-21). And when the lost son was still a long way off, the father saw him, felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him (Lk. 15:20). While the son confesses his sin, the father calls for the celebration to begin, for his son who was dead is alive, he was lost and is found (Lk. 15:22-24). The climax of the parable is the response of the older son who is confused and angry at the rejoicing (Lk. 15:25-28). He protests that the father has never killed the fattened calf for him, but the father insists that all that he has already belongs to his son and that it is fitting to celebrate the return of his little brother (Lk. 15:29-32).

Rejoice or Resent?

The point of this chapter is God’s joy over repentant sinners and the particular temptation to respond to that joy with jealousy and resentment. Why are God’s people often tempted to be jealous and resentful? First, because God often uses repentant sinners in powerful ways. Paul knew that he was least of all the apostles, but God used him to accomplish more than the other apostles (1 Cor. 15:9-10). In fact, Paul understood that God actually intends to provoke older brothers to jealousy in order to drive them to zealous obedience (Rom. 11:11-15). Why does God do this? In order to magnify His grace. “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours” (Lk. 15:31). Second, people are tempted to resent God’s joy over the salvation of sinners because it’s disruptive. The inclusion of tax collectors, prostitutes, and gentiles was an enormous disruption and challenge in the early church (cf. Acts 6, 15). When God saves sinners, they come into the church not knowing how to discipline children, repenting of addictions, covered in tattoos and piercings, undisciplined with money, and full of misconceptions. But because they are made in the image of God and filled with the Spirit of God, they also bring gifts into the Church that the Body needs. Will you rejoice? Or will you resent the disruption?

Entering in to the Joy

It should not be missed that God rejoices over sinners repenting (Lk. 15:7, 10). Rejoicing is one of the results of confession of sin and repentance, both for the sinner and those around them (Ps. 32:3-11, Ps. 51:10-15). An unfortunate slander of Christ is that He merely ate and drank with sinners (Lk. 15:2). But the gospels make it clear that He was calling them to repentance (Lk. 5:30-32), forgiving their sins (Lk. 7:47-50), and asking about their sordid sexual history (Jn. 4:16-18). If there hasn’t been any repentance, it’s not older brother resentment to refuse to celebrate. So the question is always: what is God doing in heaven right now? Is He rejoicing? If He is rejoicing, then we must rejoice, but if the lost son comes back to grab a change of clothes before heading back down the road, we must not rejoice. Of course when sinners repent they come home smelling and looking like the world, and we embrace them gladly. But the celebration the father throws for the lost son is a feast that assumes ongoing faithfulness and growing maturity. Where did that fattened calf come from? Where did that robe come from? Where did that music come from? What about the dancing? All of that implies cultural maturity – hard work, industry, striving for excellence over generations, etc. What if the younger son had returned but refused to wear his father’s robe or ring? Or what if he sat in the back of the party, rolling his eyes at his father’s old-fashioned music and dancing? What if he kept up a pig feed habit on the side? It would indicate he wasn’t really repentant and that he had an older brother problem too. The older brother wants to be recognized and received by the father on the basis of his work (Lk. 15:29), not on the basis of the father’s free grace. Older brothers can resent younger brothers, and younger brothers can resent older brothers. The hard lesson to learn is that all of it is grace from beginning to end, from the seed to the full grown tree, from the hugs to the fine music. This is one of the goals we have at Trinity Reformed Church – to hold these two ends of the spectrum of grace together. Come as you are, but you may not stay that way. Grow up in Christ. “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7, cf. Eph. 2:8-10)

Sons Dead and Alive

While arguably the parable of the sons is aimed primarily at the older brother problem, the historic church has perhaps focused so much attention on the younger brother because of that repeated description: “my son was dead, and is alive again,” “for this your brother was dead, and is alive” (Lk. 15:24, 32). What might a younger brother dying and rising again remind us of? Of course the answer is Jesus. Jesus left His Father’s house to go into the far country in search of all the lost sheep, in search of all the lost sons. He was “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5). In Adam, all men have despised the Father and squandered their inheritance in the far country of sin and death, but God sent His Son into the world so that all who trust in Him might not merely be slaves, but reckoned as sons, and if sons, then heirs (Gal. 4:7). And if you are son, God rejoices over you. Are you rejoicing with Him?

Incarnation & F-Bombs

Words are powerful. The Bible opens with God speaking and creating the universe with His Word. Then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the only-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. This is the Word by Whom, God upholds the universe. And this same Word has now gone forth into all the earth in the power of His Spirit through the proclamation of the gospel. Thus, biblically speaking words have teleology, ends, aims, goals, and tend to incarnate. They are like seed that goes into the ground that tends to grow up into plants. And the Incarnation of God’s Word results in words going forth.

All of this is why the tongue of man is such a terrible glory. As God’s image bearers, men and women mimic God in His power with their words. Their words are flames of fire, able to set worlds ablaze. “The tongue is set among our members, straining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by Hell” (Js. 3:6). Words can be violent and blood-thirsty (Prov. 12:6). Words can be rash and reckless (Prov. 12:18). Words can be full of sweetness and carry healing power (Prov. 16:24). Words can persuade or break bones (Prov. 25:15).

All of this is why words matter:

“But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving… Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret” (Eph. 5:3-4).

Again:

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, palace, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col. 3:5-10).

Several things to note here: In both Ephesians and Colossians Paul connects lifestyle with language. People who live in darkness talk a certain way. The sexually immoral have filthy mouths. The impure and violent have obscene talk on their tongues. Words become flesh, but we know from Jesus that flesh also becomes words: “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Lk. 6:45). And this also underlines the power of the gospel: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? … So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:13-17).

So evil hearts have evil mouths, and they mutually re-enforce one another. But the Creative, Eternal Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us in order to re-make the world, and that work of re-creation is being accomplished through spoken, proclaimed words — the word of Life, the word of the gospel, the word of grace and gratitude. When that word goes forth, and men believe, they are saved, and their hearts become good and good treasure starts coming out of their mouths. And those good words incarnate into more goodness.

And all of this is just to point out the simple fact that Christians should not talk like they are still lost in the darkness. I pointed out on Sunday, preaching on the Prodigal Son narrative, that there would be no cause for rejoicing had the son returned but refused to participate in the father’s celebration because he wasn’t really into the music or kept cussing like he was still back in the pig pen. Christians are to take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but expose them. And this means that their mouths should not be full of cursing and swearing and f-bombs. Their mouths should be full of blessing, thanksgiving, and praise. And the stakes really are quite high — Jesus says that what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And with evil words you defile yourself (Mt. 15:18-20). You can’t talk like an angry man, a sexually immoral man, a covetous man, an impure man and not be doing something to yourself and those around you. Words are fire. Words are potent. You are a living image of the Eternal God. Your words are either giving life or defiling life. They are either giving health or doing violence.

You can’t say that when you use an “f-word” you’re just playing. You don’t mean what the world means. If that’s true, why not use the word “faggot” the next time you refer to a sodomite in public? Just explain to all the horrified faces what you mean by it. The fact that many Christians would readily offend their mothers in the church while assiduously minding their p’s and q’s for the godless speech-marms demonstrates who’s being discipled by whom. And the same thing goes for those who use filthy language in the name of gritty creative writing, acting, and art, as well as those who surround themselves with music and movies and television shows that do the same. You are becoming your words and the words around you.

In this sense, we might say that words always incarnate. Words always go on living and acting. Either they are doing good or working evil. And this is why confession of sin is also so potent. You may not really be able to take back your words. They have gone out in the air, in messages, in emails, but the good news is that you can send other words, even more powerful words out after them. You can send out the words of truth, the words of confession, and the words of the gospel — and those words can heal, restore, refresh, and raise up, even where our words have been destructive, bloody, violent, rash.

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Mt. 12:36-37) Every careless word. Every careless “WTF?” Every filthy word. Every obscene word. Every crude joke. Perhaps most significantly, the words we use demonstrate whether we fear God or not. The point isn’t that God has some kind of list of bad words in heaven, and He’s counting your infractions. The point is that God is in Heaven, and He will require an account. And it does absolutely no good to protest that you’re a deacon in your church, a Christian school teacher, lead a small group Bible study, or sing in the choir. That only underlines the point. What are you incarnating?

Entertainment as Friendship

[Note: This is the outline for a talk I gave this morning for the Logos School Secondary Assembly on Entertainment.]

 

“Hey, hey, hey

I got a condo in Manhattan

Baby girl, what’s hatnin’?

You and your ass invited

So gon’ and get to clappin’…”

-Bruno Mars, That’s What I Like

Introduction

Christians should think of entertainment as an extension of the biblical category of “friendship.” Entertainment is for relaxation, laughter, encouragement, good stories, to be challenged, for different perspectives, to discuss or argue with. These are all legitimate purposes for friends. So, who are your friends? The music you listen to, the movies you watch, the television shows you keep up with, the blogs and magazines you read are all circles of friendship, a sort of community you keep. And not only is entertainment a form of community, it forms community. And you become what entertains you.

Community & Entertainment

In the beginning God created Adam, and he was good but it wasn’t good for him to be alone. He needed a companion, a friend. So God created Eve. This isn’t just a statement about single guys. This is a statement about community and entertainment. God created Eve to talk to Adam, to accompany Adam, to see the world and enjoy the world with him but differently. God’s command to take dominion over the earth implies technology and art. Entertainment is the result of exploring the world and talking about it in creative ways. Entertainment is the result of digging into the world, rearranging parts of it, and then sitting back and enjoying it. When we do this, we are imitating the way God took good things, rearranged them, and made them better and enjoyed what He made. “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever” (WCF 1).

Entertainment and friendship are good things; they reflect the way God is. God has friends: Moses (Ex. 33:11), Israel (Judg. 5:31), Abraham (2 Chron. 20:7, Is. 41:8, Js. 2:23), and those who fear God (Ps. 25:14). God is entertained by the things He has made (e.g. Job 38-41). Like a father who is entertained by his children, God enjoys people and what they make and say and do. In this sense, salvation in Jesus is the great renovation project. God comes in human flesh to restore fellowship, arts, and entertainment. But what the gospel teaches us is that everything must be made new through the cross of Jesus. People are made new through dying with Christ and rising with Him. And if we are made new that way, so are all other good things. All good things must be crucified with Christ and raised in Him. Stories and music, art and poetry, dancing and games must all be nailed to the cross, buried, and raised.

Friendship with God & the World

“Friendship with the world is enmity with God” (Js. 4:4). James says that there is a certain way in which we must not be friends with the world. John says: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life – is not from the Father but is of the world” (1 Jn. 2:15-16). First off, we should note that this is not a blanket condemnation of everything in the world because God also loves the world and sent His Son to save the world (Jn. 3:16). Jesus said to love our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us because that’s what our Father in heaven is like (Mt. 5-6). Clearly, there is a right way to love the world and a wrong way to love the world. John actually makes this explicit – he’s talking about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. That’s the part of the world we must not love, we must not be friends with. Bruno Mars is a great example of lust and pride. If we are friends with lust and pride, we cannot be friends with God. Part of the reason God doesn’t want us to look to the lust and pride of the world for entertainment is because it doesn’t do what good entertainment is supposed to do.

What is Good Entertainment?

“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm” (Prov. 13:20). Good entertainment is like a good friend: It makes you a better person. Sometimes this can be laughter, sometimes thoughtfulness, sometimes rebuke, sometimes inspiration. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Prov. 17:17) Selfish entertainment isn’t loyal, and therefore it won’t be there for you when you need it. Bruno Mars makes all kinds of promises. He’s going to buy you diamonds and take you shopping in Paris. But he’s lying. He’s a lying creep. But a great book, a great movie, good music is like a true friend, and is still good when you come back to it next month, next year. It will be there for you like a brother. Good entertainment is good at all times. But bad entertainment is like day old french fries. “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). A lot of pop culture is a scam to get kids to scramble to stay cool, and no one will remember that movie or song or video game in three years. Poor entertainment is a snare: “Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare” (Prov. 22:24). You should choose your friends in order to honor your parents, and therefore, you should choose your entertainment the same way. “Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel. Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend…” (Prov. 27:9-10). If you wouldn’t bring Bruno Mars home with you, why would you download that song? Or watch that show or movie? “The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father” (Prov. 28:7). “He who loves wisdom makes his father glad, but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth” (Prov. 29:3). Gluttony settles for easy pleasures rather than pursuing the hard work of maturity, excellence, and beauty — the stuff of real friendship.

Friendship, Entertainment, and Gravity

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Prov. 27:6). Every friendship has a gravity, a current pulling in some direction. You should never step into a moving body of water without knowing which way the current is pulling, and in the same way, you should never be in a friendship without knowing which way the friendship is going. Either you are being led toward Jesus, or you are leading others toward Jesus. The same is true of entertainment. This is how Jesus is the friend of tax collectors and sinners (Mt. 11:19, Lk. 7:34). He forgives, heals, cleanses, and sets free. He doesn’t leave us in the dark like so many songs and shows do. Jesus raises us up to a new and glorious future. He calls us friends  and shows us true friendship, by laying His life down for us (Jn. 15:13-15). Jesus is the friend who sticks closer than a brother, and in Him the world is given back to us to enjoy.

Salt for the Feast: The Gift of Shame

Luke XLIX: Lk. 14:1-34

Introduction

What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you? What’s the most shameful thing you’ve ever thought or said or done? This passage is about the gift of shame.

Summary of the Text: Jesus dines with a ruler of the Pharisees on a Sabbath and heals a man with dropsy (an embarrassing looking disease), appealing to the same Sabbath laws recently cited (Lk. 14:1-6, cf. 13:15-16). At the same meal, Jesus tells a “parable” that is hardly a parable at all, directly confronting the jockeying for seats of honor at the table (Lk. 14:7-9). Jesus tells them to choose the lowest place in order to avoid shame and find true honor “for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk. 14:11). Next, Jesus moves on to the host of the feast, apparently criticizing his guest list, urging him to invite “the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Lk. 14:13-14). When a man attempts to cheer up the party with a blessing on everyone, Jesus presses home His point (Lk. 14:15-16). The story is about a host of a banquet who sent out many invitations, but when the time came for the feast, those invitations were refused with various excuses (Lk. 14:17-20). Hearing this, the master of the house became angry and sent his servant out to bring in “the poor and crippled and blind and lame,” and when there was still room after that, anyone the servant could find was compelled to come fill up the house (Lk. 14:21-23). Jesus concludes with a pointed warning: “For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet” (Lk. 14:24). While Jesus goes on His way, great crowds accompany Him, and He says that if anyone comes to Him and does not hate his own family and his own life and bear his own cross, he cannot be His disciple (Lk. 14:25-27). Jesus gives two images to illustrate the kind of commitment He requires: counting the cost to build a tower and counting the cost to go to war – failure to count the cost results in shame (Lk. 14:28-32). The point is that those who do not renounce everything cannot be His disciples (Lk. 14:33). Finally, Jesus says that salt is good, but if it loses its flavor it’s good for nothing and is thrown away (Lk. 14:34).

The Salt and the Feast

NT Wright points out in a typically understated sort of way that often Jesus’ “conduct seems calculated to cause embarrassment.” He’s right. Jesus was assertive, and He didn’t mind embarrassing people at all. The thing to note is that the salt and the assertiveness and the Sabbath healing all go together. Jesus is saying that you cannot really help the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind unless your loyalty to Him is absolute. The loyalty of Jesus to God spurns Sabbath traditions and dinner manners (Lk. 14:1-11). In fact, this loyalty to God is actually Christ’s humility. Jesus is taking the lowest seat by pointing out the honor-grabbing of the guests. But then Jesus goes even lower by pointing out how the host is playing the same game by inviting people over who will repay him (Lk. 14:14). When someone tries to change the subject, Jesus comes back to the point, insisting that this kind of back-scratching system of jockeying for honor and affirmation is precisely how the poor and crippled and blind will end up at the feast of the Kingdom while the Jews will end up ashamed and uninvited (Lk. 14:21-24).

Salty Ministry

There is a way of carrying out mercy ministry and outreach that actually re-enforces systems of honor-grabbing and jockeying. In the ancient world, and some cultures today, honor and shame generally match up with rich and poor, but our modern culture is in the process democratizing pride. In our culture, honor revolves around feelings: I affirm you and you affirm me. Thus, we have been inundated with language policing regarding hate speech, political incorrectness, and now we are at the point where simple disagreements or differences of opinion are considered oppressive and hateful. And Christians have too often played right along with the game. God does not call it “gay,” God calls it sodomy. God does not call it immanent domain; God calls it theft, likewise, the sins of adultery, fornication, laziness, lust, greed, envy, selfishness, and wrath. But we are at the point where if you identify sins out loud in public, you will be considered unkind, rude, and probably hateful. And even in conservative Christian circles where these words are allowed in hushed tones or during a church service, there is still pressure not to be this kind of assertive with the sinners we are reaching out to. But Jesus says that we cannot follow Him if we do not hate our families and friends and our own life for His sake (Lk. 14:26-27). Salt is good, but if it has lost its taste, it is no use (Lk. 14:34-35). The salty flavor of Jesus is His willingness and the willingness of His disciples to offend and embarrass sinners.

Good Shame

We live in a world that has run entirely from shame, such that those who do shameful things in secret now boast of them with pride (e.g. Phil. 3:19). But shame is a wonderful gift from God in a fallen world (e.g. Gen. 3:7). It is closely associated with nakedness, and it comes from the feelings of helplessness, exposure, and embarrassment for sin. Jesus died on the cross in order to embarrass every sinful power (Col. 2:15). God has chosen the foolish in the world to shame the wise and the weak to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). How? By saving shameful men and women. Why? So that no one may boast in the presence of God (1 Cor. 1:29). Shame is the realization of absolute and complete helplessness. God gives us shame in order that we may truly understand His grace – so that our only boast is in the cross, where the only perfect man who ever lived was hung up naked to die in front of mocking crowds. Shame is also the realization of complete isolation and exposure, but Jesus scorned His shame so that all who put their trust in Him might not be left in their shame alone. He embraced the shame of the cross in order to stand next to you. He meets you there and takes your shame.

The Good News for Shameful Sinners

After healing a blind man, Jesus said: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” And when they asked Him if He thought they are blind, He said, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say, ‘we see’, your guilt remains” (Jn. 9:41). The gospel always begins with judgment: you are a shameful sinner. But Jesus came for the shameful, poor, blind, and oppressed (Lk. 4:18-19). And the point is that wherever people know they have nothing to offer God – God loves to save. Shame frees us to be saved and in turn love shamelessly, not expecting anything in return.

Weight of Glory

In Memory of Eileen Lawyer

It was pitch dark when it all began, when an old man hobbled out into the blackness. The memory of light had all but nearly faded. And a voice like a storm spoke and said ‘I will make it light again’. And the old man asked, ‘How will you make it light when it is so dark? When I am so dark?’ And the voice said, ‘I will make you shine and I will make your descendants shine. And I will fill the darkness with light like billions of suns shining in glory.’ And the old man smiled, took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and said, ‘I’m in.’ And at that moment a small spark seemed to begin glowing somewhere inside the old man. The voice said, ‘Good. It will hurt, but when I am finished, you will understand and it will be more beautiful than you ever imagined.’ The voice showed the old man a vision of animals broken in pieces with fire passing between them. ‘It will be kind of like that with you and your children.’ And the old man swallowed and nodded and said, ‘Yeah, I kind of figured that.’

The old man had a wife, and when he told her the plan to walk into the unknown darkness and be broken open in order to make the world light again, she nodded and squeezed her husband’s hand and said, ‘I will go with you.’ Now the old man’s wife was also very old, and they had no children. But the voice said that he would show them a picture of how the world would become light again by bringing a child out of her darkness. The old woman laughed, but within a year she broke open and a child came into the world. ‘See?’ the voice asked, ‘Do you see how I can break you open and make life? It will be kind of like that until the end of the world, until the whole universe is filled with light, until all of the darkness is swallowed up in light.’ The old man and his wife both nodded.

A few years later the voice said, ‘Now take your son, your only son, up to a certain mountain that I will show you.’ And the old man knew what was coming. He took a deep breath, and nodded silently. And the next morning he left with his son. When they came to the place, the old man drew his knife to break open his son, but the voice called to him and said, ‘Good. I see that you understand. Now let this ram take his place. Your son will be broken open in his time, but you must understand one more thing. You must understand how my light comes to shine in dark hearts. It comes by another, like this ram. You must be all in.’ And the old man nodded and said, ‘I’m all in.’ And the voice said, ‘Very good. I have mountains for all of your children. They are all different, but designed with each in mind. At the top of each one, I will break them open so that they will shine and their brightness will begin to swallow up the darkness. And in a few years I will send another, my own beloved son, and he will be a ram, and by his light all of your descendants will shine.’

And so this man walked around in the dark for many years, but as his steps slowed and faltered, as the darkness struck him and tore at him, he glowed brighter and brighter. And likewise his wife. After many years, the old man buried his wife with tears running down his face, but she went off like a roman candle in the night sky. And he followed a few years later, and already, you could begin to make out your hand in front of your face. And now the old man’s children and grandchildren began to glow too. The voice called many of them to burn in the furnace of affliction for many years, but as the darkness came against them, it only made them glow hotter. And they left the dark grave of slavery behind for a new land that needed light more than ever. Some of the old man’s children refused to commit. It hurt to be lit on fire, to be torn open. They doubted that it would really work, and so the darkness swallowed them.

But down through the centuries, the descendants of the old man and the old woman grew in number. A dozen became millions: young children, old men and women, walking around in the darkness, glowing in the dark. And the voice called them to their mountains one by one, into battle, into childbirth, into slavery, to sit in dungeons, to sit beside kings, and as they listened to the voice, as they believed, their faces grew brighter and brighter. And one by one, they burst open in sparks and flames, thundering like cannons, and the first shades of dawn began etching the grey shapes of a world against the sky.

Then the voice came, his son came, a young man with eyes full of light, and there was no darkness in him at all. And the darkness hated him because he was full of light. And the darkness thought that if all the darkness in the world was gathered together and struck him and killed him — then it would put an end to the light once and for all. And so the darkness assembled: the anger, the lust, the lies, the treachery, the betrayals, the hatred, the bitterness, the adulteries, the murders, the perversions of every sort — it gathered together in the hearts of men and women and children, and the voice permitted it all to come crashing down upon his own beloved son. It paraded him through the streets. It mocked him and jeered him. It taunted him. It spat on him. And then the darkness hung him up shamefully on the top of a mountain.  It pounded with all its might with the stakes of greed and envy and blasphemy. It pounded like a hurricane, like an earthquake, like a cancer, like a stillborn child. And then it was finished. And there was nothing more the darkness could give. Nothing more the darkness could do. And the man who is the ram, the son, bore it all. He was struck. He was crushed. He was broken open on the mountain. And blood and water poured out. And they took his lifeless corpse and buried it in the ground and rolled a stone over him. And the children of that first old man all held their breath, waiting.

What seemed like forever was just three days, and early on the morning of that third day, the earth rumbled and shook and that side of the world exploded, launching fire into the sky, like a lightening bolt that wouldn’t quit, like fireworks of every color that do not fade but keep growing brighter and more brilliant, filling up the night sky. And somehow when people hear of that dark day and the explosion that followed, they are hearing that same ancient voice like a storm, and when they believe in the light of his son, their ram, the light of his son fills their hearts across all space and time and drives away all their darkness. And everyone filled with that magnificent light is destined to go off like him. They know how the voice breaks them open and makes them shine like the sun at high noon.

And sometimes as they lay in their beds at night you can see them grinning from ear to ear as they wonder what color they will be when they shoot into the sky. They wonder which mountain will be theirs and they hope it will be loud and bright and echo through the hills. It’s getting lighter every minute, as they go off one by one like rockets into the dying night. For the sun is on the rise, the day is fast approaching, and they are heralds of that dawn. Lives are filling up with that light so that whenever the voice calls, they will be ready to answer, ready to break open, ready to shine with the weight of his glory.

The Narrow Door of Faith

Luke XLVIII: Lk. 13:18-36

Introduction

Hebrews says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen (Heb. 11:1). Here, in these three scenes, Jesus challenges His followers to truly believe in Him.

Summary of the Text: Jesus begins by comparing the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows into a tree to be a home for birds and leaven that works its way into three measures of flour (Lk. 13:18-21). Both images underline the rather invisible and mysterious growth of the Kingdom, as well as its ultimate success and power.

As Jesus continues journeying toward Jerusalem, teaching in towns and villages, someone asks Him whether those who are saved will be few (Lk. 13:22-23). Jesus turns a rather theoretical question into a direct admonition: “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Lk. 13:24). In effect, Jesus introduces a third image of the kingdom: a feast in a house and at some point the master of the house shuts the door and refuses admission (Lk. 13:25). Jesus says that even though they claim to be friends with the master, having feasted with him previously and heard him teach, the master insists he doesn’t know where they came from and calls them workers of iniquity (Lk. 13:26-27). Clearly, Jesus is speaking to the Jews themselves about His own time with them, as He says very pointedly that there will be great weeping, “when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out” (Lk. 13:28). But the gentiles, and others the Jews think of as being “last,” will come from all the corners of the earth to be “first” to feast in the kingdom of God (Lk. 13:29-30).

Finally, some Pharisees come warning Jesus not to go to Jerusalem because Herod wants to kill Him, but Jesus tells them to tell Herod that He is coming anyway and plans to die (Lk. 13:31-33, cf. 9:22, 51). Jesus laments over Jerusalem’s violence to the prophets, God’s many attempts at gathering His children to Himself, and Jesus announces that for this reason the temple is empty. And it will remain empty of God’s presence until Jesus arrives on Palm Sunday (Lk. 13:34-35, cf. Lk. 19).

Conformity vs. Faith

Jesus is the mustard seed and the leaven, and He is going to Jerusalem to die in order inaugurate the Kingdom of God. On the surface, this doesn’t look like the way you establish a Kingdom, but if you look more closely at Scripture, God has always built His Kingdom with a bloody altar at the center (e.g. Abraham, Moses, David, etc.). So the question is whether the Jews will trust God’s way of Kingdom building or not. Jesus says that many will seek to enter but will not be able (Lk. 13:24). Why not? Because they are not willing enter the Kingdom through the narrow door of faith. Like the rich young ruler, who had a great deal of external conformity to the law, many Jews are unwilling to let go of the things that are actually giving them security apart from God (Mt. 19:16-30). If the young man’s obedience had been driven by true faith in God, selling everything to follow Jesus would have made sense. In other words, there is a world of difference between true obedience that is driven by faith and religious conformity driven by sight. Religious conformity calculates the trade offs and plays it safe; true faith rests in the promises of God. Religious conformity is offended by not seeing immediate results or offended by hardships, but true faith knows that wherever Jesus is the Kingdom is present and growing. If the seed of Christ is in the ground, the tree will grow. If the leaven of Christ is in the flour, the bread will rise.

A Liturgical Example

Jesus specifically warns the Jews about thinking that eating and drinking with Him and sitting under His teaching is sufficient to be saved (Lk. 13:23-27). We are a Reformed Church, and with the Protestant Reformers we gladly affirm the centrality of Word and Sacrament as means of grace. God ordinarily saves through the Word and Sacrament in the Church. Nevertheless, we are also an Evangelical church. That means in part that we believe in the absolute necessity of a personal relationship with Jesus. As Jesus told Nicodemus, an intelligent Jewish scholar, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God (Jn. 3:3). As Jesus tells the disciples about the rich: with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible (Mt. 19:26). In other words, this requires the gift of faith (Eph. 2:8-9). Not faith in the bread, wine, or teaching, but honest, humble faith in Jesus whom you cannot see.

A Cultural Example

The two images Jesus uses for the Kingdom include one with a man and one with a woman: a man in a garden, a woman making bread (Lk. 13:19-21), and they remind us of the Garden of Eden, where the first man and woman were commissioned to build God’s Kingdom in the world together (Gen. 1:26-28). Yet even in the new creation this requires great faith in trusting God’s Word about the respective glories of man and woman. For example, Tim Keller has argued that a husband’s role as “head” of his wife means that he has “tie-breaking authority” in the home and that “a head only exercises authority to over-rule when he believes his spouse is doing something destructive to her or the family.” It sounds so reasonable! But it is simply not true. Paul says, “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands” (Eph. 5:24, cf. 1 Pet. 3:1-6). Does Christ merely have “tie-breaking authority” over the church? Does Christ only over-rule when we are doing something destructive? No. Christ lovingly leads and overrules routinely and so do faithful husbands. This requires faith to say out loud, more faith to embrace enthusiastically, and even more faith to live out, because it is the way of sacrificial death (Eph. 5:25, 1 Pet. 2-3). The narrow door trusts and obeys God even when the Kingdom seems hidden.

Conclusion

We could multiply many more examples where Jesus calls us to “strive to enter through the narrow door” (Lk. 13:24), where He calls us to trust Him, when we can’t see the future, when it’s hard to see the Kingdom. People still come to the followers of Jesus offering ways to avoid Jerusalem, to avoid following Jesus to the cross and grave. But it is there and only there that Jesus spreads His wings to cover us.

Repent or Perish

Luke XLVII: Luke 13:1-17

Introduction

Jesus gives three teachings in this portion of the gospel, all centered around the glorious call to repentance.

Repentance & Calamities

Jesus has just finished charging his followers to read the signs of the times and warned them about petty disputes (Lk. 12:54-59). It’s at “that very time” when some folks told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices (Lk. 13:1). Jesus asks whether the people think those Galileans were worse sinners than all others, and says, No, but unless they repent they will all likewise perish (Lk. 13:2-3). Jesus expands this point to include natural/accidental disasters, and repeats the same claim: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:4). Is Jesus saying that truly repentant people aren’t persecuted and are protected from natural disasters? No, he doesn’t say that. Is Jesus teaching that bad things happen because people have been bad? Yes, sometimes. In one sense, we can say that all bad things are a result of sin and the fall (Gen. 3:15-19, Rom. 8:18-22). But we need to add to this the promises of the covenant: “You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you…” (Dt. 5:32-33, Mt. 5:1-11) But “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book… the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you…” (Dt. 28:58, 63, Mt. 23:13ff, Rom. 1:18ff). While Jesus clearly points out exceptions (Jn. 9:3), it is always a good rule to examine our lives in the face of calamity. Famines, droughts, and disasters are routinely sent from the Lord for our chastisement (Hos. 4:1-3, Amos 3:6, 4:6-9).

The Fig Tree in the Vineyard

Fig trees and vineyards are loaded symbols of Israel. In the days of Solomon, the peace and prosperity was described as “every man under his vine and under his fig tree” (1 Kgs. 4:25, cf. Zech. 3:10, Is. 5:1-7). When Jeremiah describes the unfaithfulness of Israel, he says, “there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree…” (Jer. 8:13, cf. Joel 1:7, 12). Here, the vineyard owner sees no figs and orders the fig tree cut down (Lk. 13:6-7), but the vinedresser asks for one more year while he can dig around it and put on manure (Lk. 13:8). If it still doesn’t bear fruit the following year, it would make sense to cut it down (Lk. 13:9). The fig tree in the vineyard is clearly Israel. The reference to the three years may be referring to the ministry of Jesus. The digging around and fertilizing represents the final stretch of the ministry of Jesus and the pouring out of the Spirit. Israel is the fig tree in the vineyard; if they do not accept Jesus as God’s Messiah, they will be cut down. Jesus seems to be the vineyard worker, interceding for the people like an Abraham or Moses. And Jesus is still interceding for us (Rom. 8:34). In another place, the image is slightly shifted to Jesus being the vine, but the warning is the same: if anyone does not abide in Him, that branch is thrown away (Jn. 15:1ff). This digging around can also be understood as pruning discipline: so that a branch that has borne fruit may bear more (Jn. 15:2, Heb. 12:11). Are you a fruitful branch?

A Disabling Spirit

There is an obvious numerical connection between the next story and the tower of Siloam in the number eighteen (Lk. 13:4, 11, 16). But there are thematic connections as well. In the same way that we wonder about the relationship between sin and calamities, Luke records this story illustrating the spiritual/Satanic influences in our suffering. The ailment is described as a “disabling spirit,” which manifested itself in causing this woman to be bent over and unable to stand up straight (Lk. 13:11). There is an actual medical condition known today as skoliasis hysterica, which is a muscular paralysis brought about by severe physical or emotional pain or neurological disorders. Regardless, Jesus “frees” her from her disability (Lk. 13:12-13), and he later reiterates the fact that he loosed this woman from being bound by Satan (Lk. 13:16). Clearly, this woman was afflicted by a truly physical and spiritual bondage. This is no ancient superstition. This is still a present reality in our world. People instinctively know that spiritual and emotional health is related, however mysteriously, to our physical health. This is why the elders of the church are charged with the task of anointing and praying for the healing of the sick in the church (Js. 5:14-15). This is also why Christians must confess their sins to one another that they may be healed (Js. 5:16). Satan is the Accuser, and his great weapon is accusation (Rev. 12:10). He accuses his victims of their sins, their guilt, their shame, their failures, and their weaknesses. He is also the father of lies, which means he distorts, twists, and fabricates falsehood while he accuses (Jn. 8:44). But Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives (Lk. 4:18-19) and was “appointed for the fall and rising up of many in Israel…” (Lk. 2:34).

Conclusion: Indignation & Rejoicing

The reaction to this healing in the synagogue on the Sabbath day is twofold: indignation and rejoicing. The woman glorifies God (Lk. 13:13). This is always the result of true repentance and freedom in Christ: more joy in God. The people watching also rejoice in all the glorious things done by Jesus (Lk. 13:17). But the leader of the synagogue is indignant. Apparently a number of others joined that indignation (“all his adversaries” 13:17). What are they indignant about? The Sabbath being broken (Lk. 13:14). But Jesus says that this is pure hypocrisy. The Sabbath explicitly commands caring for the basic needs of all (Lk. 13:15). How much more so this daughter of Abraham (Lk. 13:16)? In our day, because of the ministry of Jesus, the categories often shift while the roles remain the same. We have ministries to the sinful and the suffering that keep them in bondage. We “like” their foolish Facebook posts in the name of friendship. We refuse to confront sin in the name of mercy and kindness. And then we are tempted to get indignant when someone actually points out the noose around their neck. But Christ says: unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. The call to repentance is the call to true Sabbath freedom.

The key to understanding repentance is seeing Christ as the One who made the way. Christ’s blood has become our sacrifice under Pontius Pilate. Christ was hung on the fruitless and cursed tree. Christ was bent over and bound by Satan – all so that we might not perish, so that we might become fruitful, so that we might be raised up.

Pink Hair & the Love of Christ

Clearly this post on pink hair has struck a bit of a nerve, and as there have been a few questions, I wanted to follow up with a couple more thoughts.

First, the goal really must be compassion. The problem is that the God-haters have almost entirely hijacked the meaning of the word compassion. Compassion has come to mean not telling the truth, at least not very loudly or very publicly. Compassion has come to mean not hurting anyone’s feelings. But a compassionate doctor is not being compassionate if he fails to tell the truth about what ails someone. A compassionate doctor is being cruel if he smiles and pretends all is well. True compassion must be defined by God and His Word, not by our sensibilities or emotions. Likewise, the parents of a small child with a splinter in his foot must not believe the little boy’s protests or claims to be dying. No, you will not die. No, it will not hurt as much as you think. Love sacrifices for the good others. And love often sacrifices in the face of much resistance. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son…” (Rom. 5:8, 10) Never forget that Christ died for those who killed Him. Christ’s love was manifested in His death at the hands of those who most violently resisted His love. And never forget that when God calls a man, He bids him come and die (Bonhoeffer). This is true Christian compassion and love.

Second, it is not legalism or binding of consciences to point out sin. A father or mother needs to apply principles to every day life all the time. “Son, when you throw your peas off your high chair, you are in sin.” Now, there’s no Bible verse about throwing peas off high chairs. So is that parent a legalist? Is that parent binding the conscience of that two year old unbiblically? No. The parent is entrusted with caring for the soul of his child. An unbiblical form of legalism or binding of conscience happens when a Christian says that such and such application means that somebody can’t be or isn’t a Christian or is a second class Christian. This was the sin of the Judaizers. “You might believe in Jesus, but until you’re circumcised and keeping the kosher food laws, you’re not really in the inner circle of Jesus.” But that is antithetical to the gospel because the Church is God’s great refugee camp for all who look to Jesus in faith. All are welcome. Let me say that again, all are welcome. Sodomites, pedophiles, adulterers, porn-addicts, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, bitter, angry, blue hair, pink hair, tongue rings, lip rings, and tattoos — whatever. Christ died for all kinds of sins and all kinds of sinners, and nothing can separate you from the love of Christ if you have placed your trust in Him. His arms are open wide. Jesus welcomes all who truly seek refuge in Him.

Third, my words of warning about pink hair and its connection to the sins of gender confusion are no different than Peter’s words to believing Christian women with disobedient husbands in the first century: “Do not let your adorning be external — the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear…” (1 Pet. 3:3). Is Peter a legalist? Is he creating second-class Christians? Is he binding consciences? What about all the women in the churches of the diaspora that wore braided hair? What about all the sweet Christian women who wore gold jewelry? Did they feel ashamed and singled out? What about those women with braided hair whose husbands were notorious sinners? Peter knew about all of these possibilities, but he also knew, as all wise pastors know, that women frequently sin with their hair and their clothing and their jewelry. Men sin in some ways; women sin in other ways. We often try to soften Peter’s words here. I know I have sometimes found myself inserting the word merely… don’t let your adorning be merely external… But that word is not in the Greek! Peter doesn’t leave any room for exceptions! Is Peter saying that a woman who braids her hair is always, necessarily in sin? No. But he is a wise and loving pastor who sees how women are sinning with their hair in the churches of God in his day and tells them to stop doing that. Why? Because he loves them. Because he wants better for them. “Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (1 Pet. 3:4).

God knows I’m no Peter, but let the record show that I love the women in my church, the women in my family, and the women who read my blog. And I will not stand by idly and watch as I see some of them settling for something less than the glory God made them for. Do not let your adorning be with blue hair or lots of piercings or more tattoos or catalogue clothing or gym-sculpted abs or whatever the next fad is. Let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, because that is so precious in God’s sight. Imitate the holy women of old who hoped in God and adorned themselves by submitting to their own husbands, whose daughters you are if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening (1 Pet. 3:5-6). Who are you looking to for your fashion sense? Who is your model for beauty? Peter exhorts Christian women to look to the holy women of old for models of Christian beauty. Let your adornment be like that. If you’re studying catalogues and fashion websites full of people who hate God to find out what beauty is, you are disobeying God and your tastes are being warped.

And last, notice the promise: If your heart is quiet and gentle and it rests in the Lord, then you are fearless. You are not afraid of anything that is frightening. But if a blog post pointing out the connections between gender confusion and gaudy hair styles seems threatening to you, I sincerely doubt your heart is very quiet.

Sister, I want you to have that quiet in your heart. I want those lying, accusing voices to go away forever. I want that aching anxiety to completely melt away and never return. I want that deep sadness, that shame, that guilt, that constant, suffocating depression to die. I want you to feel your Father’s infinite love and joy in you because of the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. I want that for you. Do you have that?

His arms are open wide, and if you look closely you can see scars in his hands. Those scars were for you, and therefore you are most welcome.

Pink Hair & Boys Wearing Girls’ Underwear

Friends, we need to talk about this latest hair-dying fad. You know, the greens and the purples and oranges and pinks. And I’m not talking primarily about the obviously angry and bitter women out there in the world, I’m actually talking about otherwise sweet, gracious Christian women showing up with all manner of bright colors of the rainbow in their hair. But in order to talk about this in a helpful way, we really need to talk about something else first that may not appear to you to be related at all, but I assure you, it is. Let’s begin with Joseph Paul Shappley, the little boy being dressed as a girl by a professing Christian woman and celebrated in a recent article in Good Housekeeping. Go ahead and take a peek at the linked article and then come back.

There are multiple levels of wrong going on with this and of course it’s nothing particularly new or shocking, given the day and age we live in. But, the fact that this woman is claiming to be a “conservative Christian” and recounts wrestling with God and reading the gospels before finally going out and buying her little boy a pack of “princess panties” — all of that raises this problem from very troubling to heartbreaking. It’s one thing for some hard leftist lesbian to tell us that her little boy is actually a girl, but the radical God-haters know that isn’t nearly as potent as a sweet southern Christian woman giving her testimony on the subject. There are multiple levels of wrong, so let’s try to outline at least some of them.

First, let’s note the simple fact that this is an abomination to the Lord: “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God” (Dt. 22:5). Related is the fact that Paul says that an “effeminate” man will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9). An “effeminate” man is one who acts like a woman (cf. Dt. 20:8, Is. 19:16, Jer. 50:37). And given the fact that this woman is in authority over her son, she is in the process of causing this little one to stumble. Jesus has fierce words for people like this woman: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck an he were thrown into the sea” (Mk. 9:42). In modern parlance what this woman is doing to this little boy is abuse.

Second, just note that this testimony is coming relatively recently into the abuse. Her son is now six years old, and she began abusing him actively when he was around four, though likely it was happening in other ways before that. This is what folly always does. When fire doesn’t fall from heaven immediately, it shrugs and says, ‘See, it’s not as bad as you cranky, superstitious people thought.’ Folly always operates on immediacy. Folly demands food now, sex now, praise now, respect now, peace now — no matter what the cost. But wisdom counts the cost. Wisdom does the whole math problem. This woman is betting with an eternal human soul. She is gambling with a life that was entrusted to her to protect. And the sure end of this road is nothing but heartache, confusion, and death.

Third, and speaking of folly, the Bible says that folly is bound up in the heart of a child, and it is the duty of God-fearing parents to drive that folly away (Prov. 22:15). God does not give commands that are impossible to obey, just as He never allows a temptation to afflict us which does not simultaneously have a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13). Now, there’s much we could say here, but we don’t want to lose sight of the goal of talking about pink hair. So just a couple other points briefly: The woman claims that she disciplined faithfully, spanked regularly, prayed earnestly, but she is lying. She is probably lying to herself most of all, and so, I have no problem allowing that she is telling an “honest” lie, a lie she has come to truly believe. But unless there is some other medical problem that she has not disclosed in the article, she did not truly discipline her son faithfully as God commands. This may be because she was abused as a child, or her husband (where is he?) is absent or limp, or she was simply taught poorly, but none of these explanations may be used as excuses for disobeying God.

Frequently, this looks like half-hearted discipline, erratic discipline, which careens from extremes of indulgence to angry outbursts. This sinful parenting induces extreme guilt in parents and extreme exasperation on the part of the children, and that often causes the parents to give up and give in to the demands of their foolish children. But you can’t settle into a culture of “hostage parenting” without running into more and more extreme demands. On what basis will you refuse to let your little boy wear girls’ underwear? Turns out, this woman is like many other so-called “Christian” women, and the real reason she didn’t want to let her little boy wear girls’ underwear was because of what other people might think. In other words, her real god is not Jesus. Her god is popular opinion. But of course popular opinion is a fishwife. She will change her mind; her mood will swing. You can never be sure what the hormones will demand. But we need to be clear: The decision of these parents to give into the folly of this little boy is a decision to hate their son. Some women murder their sons in their own womb before they are born, some kill them softly refusing to discipline them with love (Prov. 13:24). And one of the most crucial elements of this faithful, loving discipline is the fact that the standard for discipline is the Word of God. It doesn’t depend on mom’s mood or whether dad had a bad day.

And this is because God is a faithful Father. He disciplines the sons that He receives and loves (Heb. 12:5-11). He does not careen between extremes. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Js. 1:17). He created man male and female. And this is the real issue. Sin twists and distorts. Satan lies. The flesh lusts. But God is not a capricious Father. He is not setting us up to fail. He has set up the world so that we might succeed. He writes the answers everywhere. He displays His glory every day and every night. God does not create boys that are actually girls or girls that are actually boys. This would be like God playing “red light green light” with humanity and every so often striking someone dead for going on green. Nope, it was actually red on the inside. How can a man be obedient as a man before God if he might actually be a woman? And how can a woman be obedient as a woman before God if she might actually be a man? And how can you really know what you are for sure? How can you know what is the truth and what is a lie? Are some lies actually the truth on the inside? And is some truth actually a lie on the inside? Perhaps this marriage is not really a marriage. Perhaps this adultery is not really adultery. Perhaps this murder is not really a murder. This is an impossible position.

Now the sweet Christian woman thinks she’s just being gracious to her son. She thinks he’s like a Downs Syndrome child, born with this handicap, albeit a perfectly normal male human body. But she doesn’t understand how she’s being gamed, how she’s being used. She doesn’t understand the forces at work in the world demanding that the world be whatever anyone wants it to be. This fundamental lust of the rebellious sinful heart is to be god, to be whatever I want, to do whatever I want. And this includes the demand to define the world. But this is rebellion. When God creates a man in His image, our fundamental response to that creative act must be gratitude. God is giving a glorious gift, and our naming and defining must gladly “Amen” what God has made. This is what Sabbath is all about: resting in the goodness of God, resting in the very good things He has made and given. If God creates a man, then our response must be gratitude for that male human being. Refusal to give thanks is a refusal to enter into the rest God offers. And this is no little offense, especially for those who ought to know better. God killed a generation of Israelites for refusing to enter His rest. And this “Christian” woman is defying the God of heaven.

Now I know that there is an enormous difference between hormone therapy and dying your hair green or orange or purple. Got it. But my plea is that Christian women would open their eyes to see the same play being run on them. You may not (yet) have completely sold out, but where are the brakes really? Could you articulate clearly to this horrifically confused woman why it’s fine and good for you to have pink hair or put multiple pieces of metal in your face or generally try to look ugly or wear scary exotic make up — why is that OK, but her little boy wearing girls’ underwear is not OK? Can you articulate that from the Bible? What’s the difference?

Please don’t misunderstand: I’m not arguing for Little House on the Prairie bonnets and jumpers. No, I’m merely arguing for true feminine glory. I’m arguing that women ought to receive the gift of being made female in God’s image, and receive that gift with gladness, recognizing that you were made to be lovely, that you are beautiful, and rest in that gift. Because a woman was made for glory, she is called to glorify the world around her, including herself. She is to adorn herself, starting on the inside with a gentle and quiet spirit, and allow that spirit to radiate outward into all that she does (1 Pet. 3:1-6). Clothing and makeup and jewelry that rejoice in God’s goodness, that rest in the death and resurrection of Jesus for your peace, that delight in the gift of womanhood — that is all good and glorious.

A Christian woman needs to realize that she is standing on a battlefield. There is a war raging all around you. An enormous part of the enemy’s attack is a constant barrage accusing you of being ugly and not good enough. The lies of the enemy say you are not skinny enough, not tall enough, not athletic enough, not smart enough, not sexy enough, whatever. And on the other side, the enemy is screaming that it doesn’t really matter. Men and women aren’t really all that different. And some of you are getting hit with the former missiles and some of you are getting hit with the latter. Most are getting hit with some of both. The pink and purple and green hair is mostly the latter. Since you can’t really be beautiful, you might as well be fun. Since you aren’t as lovely as all the other women, you might as well stand out for being brave, for being lighthearted, for being silly, for being eccentric. But something deep inside your soul aches to be treasured, to be cherished, and to be loved and protected as a woman. You are not a clown. You are not a goof. You are not something to gawk at. You are a glorious woman. In the ordinary course of things, God designed for much of this glory to be communicated through godly husbands, fathers, brothers, and other honorable men in appropriate ways. But unfortunately we live in a world of men that have abdicated this responsibility. Some have simply failed to be anything more than a bump on a log. Some have tried and given up. And still others have taken their own insecurities and frustrations out on the very women God entrusted to them to cherish and protect. This has left us with a world full of women starving for love, embittered with pain, and grasping for something, anything to fill that aching void.

I certainly grant you that the sin involved in dressing a boy up as a girl is far worse, but you need to see the fact that it’s in the same category as a woman wearing her hair short like a boy, dying her hair clownish colors, or otherwise trying to attract unnatural attention. But no hair color will soothe your pain. No haircut will fill that void. No piercing, no amount of cutting, no number of likes on your Facebook sob story diary entries will give your confusion meaning. But Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Friend, there is great freedom in Christ. But this freedom is built on the foundation of a peace that passes all understanding. It’s the rock solid peace of resting in Christ, of trusting Him with all that you are, resting in the fact that He has made you, that He loves you, that you are precious in His sight — so precious that Jesus bled and died to redeem you. And the freedom that grows out of that ground is glorious and beautiful and wonderfully wild.

Mary Magdalene and You: Resurrection Day 2017

Jn. 20:1-18

Introduction

It’s no accident that the very first eyewitness of the resurrection was Mary Magdalene. Her testimony has been remembered and celebrated since the earliest days of the Christian faith and remains a wonderful encouragement to us.

Who Was Mary Magdalene?

Tradition has suggested that Mary Magdalene may have been the unnamed sinful woman who knelt at the feet of Jesus weeping and anointing his feet at the Pharisee’s house (Lk. 7:36-50). Regardless, she is named immediately after that story as a woman who had been afflicted by seven demons before meeting Jesus (Lk. 8:2, cf. Mk. 16:9). Clearly, she had a terribly sordid past. It’s striking just how many times Mary Magdalene is mentioned in the gospels. Matthew, Mark, and John all note that she was at the cross when Jesus died: “There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee” (Mt. 27:55-56, Mk. 15:40-41). And Matthew notes that Mary Magdalene was one of the women who followed Joseph of Arimathea with the body of Jesus and watched as He was wrapped in a clean linen shroud and laid in a new tomb (Mt. 27:59). Mary Magdalene was there sitting and watching opposite the tomb (Mt. 27:61). All four gospels record the fact that Mary Magdalene was at the tomb that first Easter Sunday. Matthew highlights the earthquake and the angel announcing the resurrection (Mt. 28:1). Mark underlines the fact that Jesus appeared to her first (Mk. 16:9). Luke notes the fact that she and several other women were the first to announce the resurrection, but the disciples didn’t believe them (Lk. 24:10-11). And John lays out in perhaps the greatest detail both the angels’ announcement to Mary as well as her first encounter with the risen Jesus, whom she initially mistook for the gardener (Jn. 20:14-18).

Eyewitness Testimony

One of the crucial elements of the gospel accounts is the record of eyewitness testimony. Simon of Cyrene was ordered to carry the cross of Jesus (Mk. 15:21), and it is likely that Mark mentions his sons Alexander and Rufus because they were still living and well known to the first readers of his gospel (Mk. 15:21). When Paul recounts the gospel to the Corinthians he names three eyewitnesses: Peter, James, and himself (1 Cor. 15:5-8). John says that he saw the soldiers pierce the side of Jesus and saw the blood and water come out, “He who saw it has borne witness – his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth – that you may believe” (Jn. 19:34-35). Luke says that his gospel is also a record of careful reporting of eyewitness testimony (Lk. 1:2). And the names of all the women function in the same way: “… standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene” (Jn. 19:25). And after the resurrection, Luke writes, “Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles” (Lk. 24:10). Mark also mentions “Salome” as one of the women at the foot of the cross and again at the empty tomb (Mk. 15:40, 16:1). The point of these names is that they were all living eyewitnesses to these events who could be (and were) cross examined. They could be questioned, and their stories could be tested against one another.

Why Mary Magdalene?

Nevertheless, it is still striking that Mary Magdalene became the central witness. Of all of the women, why her? Of all the disciples, why her? In order to answer that question, we have to back up and zoom out to see the bigger picture. Remember, sin entered the world in a garden when a woman was deceived and betrayed her husband and her God (Gen. 3:1-6). But despite this failure, God promised that He would bring salvation through the woman (Gen. 3:15). Matthew highlights this story in his genealogy of Jesus, going out of his way to identify four disreputable women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba (Matt. 1). Remember Tamar was the wife of one of Judah’s sons. He was wicked and God killed him. His brother married Tamar, and he was wicked also so the Lord killed him too (Gen. 38:6-11). And when Judah failed to give Tamar another husband, Tamar dressed as a prostitute and seduced her father in law and bore twin sons by him, one named Perez (Gen. 38:12-26). Rahab hid the spies in Jericho, and she was a prostitute (Josh. 2:1). Rahab and her family were the lone survivors of Jericho, and she married a man named Salmon, the great-great grandson of Perez, and Rahab bore a son named Boaz (Mt. 1:5). Ruth was a Moabitess, a woman from a nation of idolatry and sexual immorality (cf. Gen. 19:30-38, Num. 22-25). And she married Boaz and became the mother of Obed, the grandfather of David, King of Israel (Ruth 4:18-22). Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah, and she betrayed her husband and committed adultery with King David before eventually becoming the mother of Solomon (2 Sam. 11-12, cf. Mt. 1:6). One of the other key elements in the overarching story is the story of Israel the harlot. Isaiah says that Jerusalem had become a whore (Is. 1:21). Jeremiah says that Israel was an unclean woman in heat (Jer. 2:20-25). Hosea is commanded to take a wife of whoredom, to marry an unfaithful woman because Israel has been unfaithful to Him (Hos. 1:2). But God promises to allure her back to Himself and speak tenderly to her (Hos. 1:14). And when John saw the vision of the new heavens and the new earth, he saw Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). How is this possible? “God will dwell with them, and they will be His people” (Rev. 21:3). In other words, Mary Magdalene is the central witness because the story of salvation is the story of an unfaithful woman loved by a faithful God. The first disciples understood that we are all Mary Magdalene.

Our Testimony

There is no other kind of Christian. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. The healthy do not need a physician, only the sick. Those whose sins are many are forgiven much and Jesus speaks tenderly to them: Mary. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace. This Easter Peace, this Resurrection life is not something you can get by decoration or singing and going to church. This Easter Life happens when the Risen Jesus takes up residence inside of you. We have the eyewitnesses of the gospels, but we also have millions more eyewitnesses in history – eyewitnesses who have seen the risen Christ in action, “even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him” (Eph. 2:4-6). And therefore, we who believe with Mary Magdalene, have become eyewitnesses of the resurrection. You know that Jesus lives because He lives in you.